“Sometimes a single story can change the world. Unbound
is one of those stories. Tarana’s words are a testimony to
liberation and love.” —Brené Brown
From the founder and activist behind one of the largest movements of
the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the "me too"
movement, Tarana Burke debuts a powerful memoir about her own journey
to saying those two simple yet infinitely powerful words—me too—and
how she brought empathy back to an entire generation in one of the
largest cultural events in American history.
Tarana didn’t always have the courage to say "me too." As
a child, she reeled from her sexual assault, believing she was
responsible. Unable to confess what she thought of as her own sins
for fear of shattering her family, her soul split in two. One side
was the bright, intellectually curious third generation Bronxite
steeped in Black literature and power, and the other was the bad,
shame ridden girl who thought of herself as a vile rule breaker, not
as a victim. She tucked one away, hidden behind a wall of pain and
anger, which seemed to work...until it didn’t.
Tarana fought to reunite her fractured self, through organizing,
pursuing justice, and finding community. In her debut memoir she
shares her extensive work supporting and empowering Black and brown
girls, and the devastating realization that to truly help these girls
she needed to help that scared, ashamed child still in her soul. She
needed to stop running and confront what had happened to her, for
Heaven and Diamond and the countless other young Black women for whom
she cared. They gave her the courage to embrace her power. A power
which in turn she shared with the entire world. Through these young
Black and brown women, Tarana found that we can only offer empathy to
others if we first offer it to ourselves.
Unbound is the story of an inimitable woman’s inner strength
and perseverance, all in pursuit of bringing healing to her community
and the world around her, but it is also a story of possibility, of
empathy, of power, and of the leader we all have inside ourselves. In
sharing her path toward healing and saying "me too," Tarana
reaches out a hand to help us all on our own journeys.