Black Feminist Book Club Reads — Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness

The Black Feminist Book Club reads books written by Black transgender, gender expansive, and/or women writers, which center the liberation, struggle, and lived experiences of oppressed people/marginalized groups through a Black feminist perspective. The group celebrates classic and contemporary Black authors of fiction and nonfiction, all in the comfort of a historic feminist bookstore where many of these authors once read or shared their works! Our goal is for these texts to be welcoming and accessible regardless of your background or familiarity with the books.
Yemisi Combahee, a senior organizer with Black Feminist Future is the facilitator of this group. All community members are invited to attend with the acknowledgment that this is a space that centers Black women and gender expansive folks’ thoughts, creativity, and lived experiences. We encourage folks to read the months book before our gathering but it is not required – come as you are, regardless of how much you’ve read!
This group meets in-person at Charis on the first Sunday of each month at 3pm.
About our October book:
Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison
Exploring the intersections of Blackness, gender, fatness, health, and the violence of policing.
To live in a body both fat and Black is to exist at the margins of a society that creates the conditions for anti-fatness as anti-Blackness. Hyper-policed by state and society, passed over for housing and jobs, and derided and misdiagnosed by medical professionals, fat Black people in the United States are subject to sociopolitically sanctioned discrimination, abuse, condescension, and trauma.
Da’Shaun Harrison–a fat, Black, disabled, and nonbinary trans writer–offers an incisive, fresh, and precise exploration of anti-fatness as anti-Blackness, foregrounding the state-sanctioned murders of fat Black men and trans and nonbinary masculine people in historical analysis. Policing, disenfranchisement, and invisibilizing of fat Black men and trans and nonbinary masculine people are pervasive, insidious ways that anti-fat anti-Blackness shows up in everyday life. Fat people can be legally fired in 49 states for being fat; they’re more likely to be houseless. Fat people die at higher rates from misdiagnosis or nontreatment; fat women are more likely to be sexually assaulted. And at the intersections of fatness, Blackness, disability, and gender, these abuses are exacerbated.
Taking on desirability politics, the limitations of gender, the connection between anti-fatness and carcerality, and the incongruity of “health” and “healthiness” for the Black fat, Harrison viscerally and vividly illustrates the myriad harms of anti-fat anti-Blackness. They offer strategies for dismantling denial, unlearning the cultural programming that tells us “fat is bad,” and destroying the world as we know it, so the Black fat can inhabit a place not built on their subjugation.
2026 Books:
January: The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
February: A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry & Kali Nicole Gross
March: Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara
April: Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni
May: The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
June: The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde
July: The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
August: The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison, and Fighting for Those Left Behind by Safiya Bukhari
September: Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo by Ntozake Shange
October: Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison
November: Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
In-person event guidelines:
– All attendees must wear a face mask.
– We will begin seating people at 2:45 PM ET.
– As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event.
If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request specific accessibility accommodations, please contact info@charisbooksandmore.com or call the store at 404-524-0304
The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate online at www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person at the event.
By attending our event you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Unsolicited sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to info@chariscircle.org immediately.