And through Gay’s experience we learn one of lessons she eventually did, that “all of us have to be more considerate of the realities of the bodies of others,” and more accepting of our own. It’s a story not easily told, but the telling set her free. In her brutally honest and brave memoir Hunger, Gay recounts a childhood sexual assault that led her to purposely gain weight in order to be unseen and therefore “safe.” Gay warns at the beginning of the book that if you’re looking for a triumphant weight loss memoir, this is not it. The rest risk being in shadow, which is exactly where Roxane Gay wanted to be. For those that fit that (ever narrowing) bill, congratulations! Clothes are designed to fit you, kale growers love you, and so does society. We obsess over having too much, too little (to a lesser degree) we use terms like stealing a bite and guilty pleasure-things that evoke shame, and are meant to keep our bodies in line. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.Īn Amazon Best Book of June 2017: If you’re a woman in America, chances are, no matter your size, you probably have a somewhat fetishistic relationship with food. Hunger is a deeply personal memoir from one of our finest writers, and tells a story that hasn’t yet been told but needs to be. With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and authority that have made her one of the most admired voices of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to be overweight in a time when the bigger you are, the less you are seen.
In Hunger, she casts an insightful and critical eye on her childhood, teens, and twenties-including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life-and brings readers into the present and the realities, pains, and joys of her daily life. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care.
New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and bodies, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. Louis Post-Dispatch PopSugar BookRiot Library Journal Booklist Kirkus Reviews Shelf Awareness Gay is revered nationally and internationally her for deft eye on modern culture and social critique and criticism.National Book Critics Circle Award FinalistĪ best book of 2017: Time NPR People Elle The Washington Post The Los Angeles Times The Chicago Tribune Newsday St. “Courageous, humorous, smart – these are words frequently used to describe today’s speaker,” she said.
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In partnership with BHCC’s newly launched Center for Equity and Cultural Wealth, the series of speakers for 2018-2019 is intended to support meaningful and relevant discussion both inside and outside the classroom as part of the College’s ongoing exploration of power, privilege, equity and cultural wealth which served as the focus of the College’s first Equity and Cultural Wealth Institute in May 2018.Īrlene Vallie, Associate Dean, Academic Affairs, introduced Gay to the BHCC community. I found a different life that opened up a multitude of opportunities, and through time, your goals too will be accomplished.” I not only achieved my goal, but I also left confident in who I am and what I can be. “I came to Bunker Hill Community College as an adult learner, wanting to change my life not only for myself but for my children. Trustee and BHCC alumna Cathy Guild delivered the opening remarks to Thursday’s presentation. “If I think too much about audience, then I’m not going to have the courage to say the kinds of things that I most need to say, and I’m not going to be as honest as I need to be on the page.” “When I write, especially when I write something personal, I tell myself that no one is going to read my work,” said Gay when asked how she’s able to balance truth in storytelling with personal humility. At Thursday’s event, she read excerpts of Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, a book that explores what it means to be overweight in a world where body size and image is a focal point, and the struggle of overcoming trauma.įrom Hunger, Gay shared with the audience her distaste of exercise, her love for Ina Garten and The Barefoot Contessa and the joy that comes from enjoying the Haitian cuisine of her childhood, before opening the discussion to student questions. Gay’s work garners international acclaim for its reflective, no-holds barred exploration of feminism and social criticism. Named “America’s brightest new essayist” by The Guardian, Gay is the author of New York Times bestsellers Bad Feminist and Difficult Women. She recently became the first black woman to write for Marvel, penning a comic series in the Black Panther universe called World of Wakanda.