Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot is a potent and electrifying critique of today’s feminist movement, announcing a fresh new voice in black feminism. In her searing collection of essays, Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women.

Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Kendall. Issues such as food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few.

Moreover, prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their own myopia with regard to how things like race, class, sexual orientation, and ability intersect with gender. Kendall asks, How can we stand in solidarity as a movement when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others?

Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with incisive commentary on reproductive rights, politics, pop culture, and the stigma of mental health, Hood Feminism delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux. An unforgettable debut, Kendall has written a ferocious clarion call to all would-be feminists to live out the true mandate of the movement in thought and in deed.