Between us: a reckoning with my mother / Jason Reynolds -- This joy I have / Austin Channing Brown -- Dirty business: the messy affair of rejecting shame / Tanya Denise Fields -- My head is a part of my body and other notes on crazy / Kiese Makeba Laymon -- The wisdom of process / Prentis Hemphill -- Love lifted me: subverting shame narratives and legitimizing vulnerability as a mechanism for healing women in the black church / Tracey Michae'l Lewis Giggetts -- Never too much / Marc Lamont Hill -- We are human too: on blackness, vulnerability, disability, and the work ahead / Keah Brown -- What's in a name? / Lovvie Ajayi Jones -- The blues of vulnerability: love and healing black youth / Shawn A. Ginwright -- Filling every page with joy: rewriting trauma and shame / Kaia Naadira -- Honoring our stories, transforming our pain / Deran Young -- Running out of gas / Sonya Renee Taylor -- My journey: vulnerability, rage, and being black in the art world / Irene Antonia Diane Reece -- Unlearning shame and remembering love / Yolo Akili Robinson -- Hurt people hurt people / Laverne Cox -- Black surrender within the ivory tower / Jessica J. Williams -- Steps to being whole, on your terms / Akido D. Bethea -- To you: Vulnerable mother, a choreo-essay / Imani Perry -- Where the truth rests / Tarana Burke.

This stark, potent collection of essays on Black shame and healing present a space to be vulnerable and affirm the fullness of Black love and Black life. They allow readers to recognize and process the trauma of sexual assault, and white supremacy and sexual assault, in order to work toward healing. Through lived experiences, we can work to dismantle oppressive systems-- of all types-- in this country. -- adapted from jacket and Introduction.