GIRL. Kenya Hunt

      

Praise for Girl

      ‘Enlightening, relatable, warm and witty, Girl is a must-read.’ Sunday Times Style

      ‘Girl is an essential, vital and urgent exploration of Black womanhood that should be on everyone’s reading list. Every page is meaningful and a call for empathy, hope and change. There is such power in the stories that are told, from Kenya’s own experience – as a mother, as a journalist, as an American in London, to Ebele Okobi’s essay on the unspeakable loss of a brother to police brutality. If any book should enrich – and disrupt – your life, let it be this.’ Harper’s Bazaar UK

      ‘Powerful, intelligent and thought-provoking. A must read for our times and beyond.’ ELLE UK

      ‘Kenya Hunt provocatively threads cultural observations through relatable stories that illuminate our current cultural moment while transcending it.’ Refinery29

      ‘An essential book to help in becoming an anti-racist ally.’ Dazed

      ‘A provocative, heart-breaking and frequently hilarious collection of original essays on what it means to be Black, a woman, a mother and a global citizen in today’s ever-changing world.’ Glamour UK

      ‘Girl speaks to the Black woman of today.’ Bethann Hardison, model and activist

Copyright

      An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

      First Published in Great Britain by HQ in 2020

      Copyright © Kenya Hunt 2020

      Kenya Hunt asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Ebook Edition © November 2020 ISBN: 9780008371999

      Version 2020-10-06

Note to Readers

      This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:

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       Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008371975

      For Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland,

      Atatiana Jefferson, Aiyana Stanley-Jones,

      Tanisha Anderson, Oluwatoyin Salau,

      Gynnya McMillen, Korryn Gaines, Riah

      Milton, Joyce Curnell, Dominique Fells…

      Contents

       Cover

Praise

       Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

       Dedication

Introduction

1 Girl

2 Notes on Woke

3 Wakanda Forever

       4 An American in London

       5 In My Feelings

       6 Sally Hemings and Hidden Figures

       7 Upon Reflection

       Funmi Fetto

       8 Motherhood

       9 Skinfolk

       10 Make Yourself at Home, but Not Here

       11 I See Black People

       12 Loss

       Ebele Okobi

       13 So We Don’t Die Tomorrow

       Jessica Horn

       14 The Lord’s House, a Queen’s Soul

       15 Inferno

       16 On Hair