Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic

" Valerie Boyd's Bigger Than Bravery isn't just an anthology; it is a survival guide."
--Courtney B. Vance, Tony- and Emmy-winning actor 

An anthology of Black resilience and reclamation, with contributions by Pearl Cleage, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Tayari Jones, Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Deesha Philyaw, Khadijah Queen, Jason Reynolds, Alice Walker, and more

Born of a desire to bring together the voices of those most harshly affected by the intersecting pandemics of Covid-19 and systemic racism, Bigger Than Bravery explores comfort and compromise, challenge and resilience, throughout the Great Pause that became the Great Call. Award-winning author and scholar of the Black archive Valerie Boyd curates this anthology of original essays and poems, alongside some of the most influential nonfiction published on the subject, inviting readers into a conversation of restorative joy and enduring wisdom.

Bigger Than Bravery captures what Boyd calls the "first draft of history," with poems serving as deep breaths between narrative essays to form a loose chronology of this unprecedented time. Karen Good Marable cranks "Whip My Hair" from the car windows during quarantine joyrides with her daughter. Deesha Philyaw ponders loneliness as she sorts Zoom meetings into those that require a bra and those that don't. Writing in the moment though not of it, Pearl Cleage reflects on what has and hasn't changed since the AIDS epidemic. Jason Reynolds harnesses heat and flavor to carry on his father's legacy.  

Sorrow and outrage have their say, but the stories in these pages are bright with family, music, food, and home, teaching us how to nourish ourselves and our communities. Looking ahead as much as it looks back, Bigger Than Bravery offers a window into a hopeful, complex present, establishing an essential record of how Black people in America insist on joy as an act of resistance.

Table of Contents:
Bigger Than Bravery  

Edited with an Introduction by Valerie Boyd: Profit and Loss

Epigraph Jericho Brown: Crossing (reprint)

Jason Reynolds: Char (original) 

Deesha Philyaw: The Quarantine Album: Liner Notes (original) 

Kamilah Aisha Moon: Haircut, May 2020 in Decatur, GA (original)

Pearl Cleage: Just Like Now (original) 

Tayari Jones: Not Allowed (reprint) 

Sharan Strange: Poem Beginning in the Market as a Meditation on Hope and Fear (original)

Destiny O. Birdsong: Build Back a Body (reprint) 

Shay Youngblood: Feasting on Bread and Bones (original)

Opal Moore: Spring Mix & Memorial Day (original)

Daniel B. Coleman: Pandemics and Portals: Listening That Breaks Us Open (original) 

Ida Harris: Who to Tell (original)  

E. Ethelbert Miller: Haikus & Evidence (original)

Khadijah Queen: False Dawn (reprint)  

Karen Good Marable: Joyride (reprint) 

L. Lamar Wilson: How to Make a Tea Cake & Carrie Bell Prepares Stinging Nettle Tea (original) 

Emily Bernard: The Purpose of a House (reprint) 

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers: Lockdown Prayer (original) 

Latria Graham: Out There, Nobody Can Hear You Scream (reprint) 

Imani Perry: Racism Is Terrible. Blackness Is Not. (reprint) 

B. Brian Foster: Mine (original)    

Alice Walker: There Is a Daughter & I May Not Get There with You (original) 

Kamille D. Whittaker: Hello, Goodnight (original)

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor: The Women Who Clean (original)

Alexis Pauline Gumbs: Sky Study (original) 

Lolis Eric Elie: A Survivor Looks Back (original) 

Rosalind Bentley: Iron and Brass (original) 

Jasmin Pittman Morrell: To Brim with Wholeness (original)

Samaa Abdurraqib: November 7, 2020 (original) 

Kiese Laymon: What We Owe and Are Owed (reprint) 

Josina Guess: Get Well Slow (original) 

Imani e Wilson: Whosoever Will, Come on in (original)

Kamilah Aisha Moon: Another Quarantine Blues (original)