I'm ready to talk about Charlie Kirk and the fall out of his death.

Before we dive in, I want to be clear that I am not interested in arguing about the political affiliation of his shooter or whether I think Charlie Kirk was a bad person. Y'all will not find any of my thoughts there surprising. And if you DON'T know what I think already, what the hell are you even doing here? Ya know?

What I want to talk about is the outpouring of racism America has allowed since and what it means for the work we do here.

It has been fifteen days since a white man took it upon himself to shoot another white man and then a country full of white men decided that Black people needed to die in response. Within days, HBCUs around the country had to shut their doors in order to navigate the volume of threats they were receiving. Not even a week after that, a Black man was lynched and then denied any type of real investigation or justice. And since, white men have made it their mission to fight back against the growing "plague" of Black consciousness in the name of this generation's greatest "revival."

Why am I sharing all of this?

Because this is a pivotal moment. We already knew that white western Christian evangelicalism and its evil spawn, Christian nationalism, were a massive threat to human rights and the future of our democracy. But now we are facing them under the unfortunate circumstance of its practitioners falsely believing that we are violently resisting some movement of God.

Yes, that is where we are.

White evangelicals believe that God is sweeping the country, fighting for the soul of America and that "the left", who they largely associate with Black people and Black liberation causes, is persecuting them violently in order to stop it.

Yes, I know that is insane. You know that is insane. But somehow, they think it is actually happening. And we are going to have to accept that this belief is going to come with very real mobilization.

This is not about the right and the left. This is about the very dangerous and real threat of Christian nationalism and the fact that any movement toward liberation is a direct threat to the bondage that comes with that type of ideology.

I am not having this conversation because I want to fear monger or try to convince you that the world is burning down. It's been burning down. At this point, if you don't see that, I don't really get why you're here. No, my goal is to point out that our resistance has to go deeper than just protesting the legislative moves this administration is making.

Yes, we have to keep protesting. Yes, we have to keep boycotting. Yes, we have to keep fighting back and protecting our neighbors. All of that matters. But underneath all of it lies a deeply rooted ideology of hatred and intolerance that has to be rooted out and challenged. Because at the end of the day, when this fight is over, if we have left these white supremacist ideologies unchecked in the western church, we will be here again in a few administrations.

So what do we do?

Exactly what we have been doing.

We fight to platform the voices of marginalized people who are fighting back.

When I partnered with Bindery, I already knew the fight we were in. I knew that I wanted to use this opportunity to platform authors who I trusted would use those new amplified voices to push back the narratives that are radicalizing American young people. I immediately went in search of Black and brown voices that were calling for change. That were exposing and challenging systemic oppression. That is how I ended up choosing Elaine Ho as our first author. Her book, Cry, Voidbringer directly challenges the descendants of colonized people to look at the weapons they hold and the way they have been shaped and prodded into weapons themselves. It questions the foundation of colonialism and begs us to be honest about the impact that colonialism has had on us, so that we can put down our weapons and fight for REAL freedom.

And then I chose Falencia Jean-Francois's Devil of the Deep, a beautiful Haitian fantasy that takes the fight directly to Christian nationalist's door. It exposes the nefarious intentions of colonial religion and its effort to not only replace the spiritual and cultural practices of its victims, but to completely erase them and then reshape the world around us. This book is a call to marginalized people to remember where we came from and to fight like hell to get back there.

Or let's talk about Buzzard by Inez Ray. A near-future dystopian that calls America out on its insistence that big corporations and billionaires have our best interest at heart. It paints a clear picture of where this country is headed by holding up a mirror and showing us a world where women's bodies are owned by the state and their lives are nothing more than toys to be played with. This is a devastating look at the loss of reproductive rights and the actual evil intentions of everyone who is currently working to unravel them.

And lastly (for now), From our Blood by Shardai Smith. A dark acadamia horror about a Black woman who is forced to fight for her life at an institution known for excluding our people, and killing us whenever we make our way through the doors. This is a scathing rebuke on white institutions and the way that they have built their power by building upon the bodies of Black people.

Guys, from day one, my intention has been to create a community that is ready to throw our weight behind voices that matter. And that is exactly what we are doing. We are putting out books that dont just challenge the status quo, but actually challenge the way our world has been designed and operated. Elaine, Falencia, Inez and Shardai have taken massive risks by writing stories that force YOU to reconsider your role in the world and to inspire you to fight for the world you want your children to grow up in. And I intend to use every single ounce of influence and power that I have to make sure that their voices are as loud as humanly possible as they fight for us all.

That is what is at stake here.

There is so much that we can do to fight back against this wave of white supremacy that is threatening and actively trying to kill us all. But in the midst of it all, don't forget that one of the most powerful weapons we have against oppressive ideologies is the VOICES OF ITS VICTIMS.

That is what we are amplifying here.

And that is why I come to you over and over and over again and beg you to get involved. To throw yourself into this work. Because it is about more than selling books and making money for me. I am in this fight because I truly believe that literature plays a CRUCIAL role in pushing the world toward progress and I will be damned if I sit idly by while our generation is brought to its knees when there were women of color in the fight that I could have used my platform to empower.

And there are even more voices out there that I am desperate to amplify. Books I want to champion. Authors I want to fight for as hard as I have been fighting for these four. But to get there, we need this community to grow and to throw itself into the work. So here are some practical things you can do TODAY to help us push this mission forward:

1. Make sure you are a paid subscriber if you have the freedom to do so. If $5 or $12 a month is going to tax your family, please do not upgrade. But if it won't, please do. It helps us so much more than you will ever know. Publishing is expensive. Every single person pouring into these projects is helping to get the work done and to further our efforts to not only fight for Black and brown authors, but to empower those authors to fight for us all. So if you can upgrade, please do so.

2. Pre-Order our upcoming books: Right now, our first two books are available for pre-order. It is important that those campaigns do well. It not only sets those individual books up for greater early success, but it strengthens those author's positions in future negotiations and amplifies their message and voice. Which matters. So, pre-order today:

   • Cry, Voidbringer: https://bookshop.org/a/87137/9781964721521

   • Devil of the Deep: https://bookshop.org/a/87137/9781967967049

3. Invite your friends, family, bookclub and audience to subscribe to our community. Even our free tier makes a huge difference in the amount we can get done. So please, invite the people you have influence over to come be a part of this work and to subscribe. The larger this community grows, the more aggressive we can get with our publishing schedule, and the stronger our overall message becomes. The goal here is to force real change. It is going to take real power. And this is how we get it.

Thank you all for being here. I love and appreciate you more than you will ever know. Let's go change the world!