The activist and memoirist gives EW her pop culture favorites.
My favorite book as a child
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cryby Mildred Taylor.
This book got my little rebel heart riled up as a kid.
Credit: Dougal MacArthur; Flatiron Books
It helped me understand better how and why injustice played out the way it did for Black folks.
Tears of joy and pain and familiarity and catharsis.
The first album I bought with my own money
Tender Loverby Babyface.
I LOVE this album to this day.
The movie I watch over and over
The Color Purple.
I know every word, every movement, every song, every ad lib of this movie.
It is a balm for me.
Also,Atlantamakes me belly laugh always.
The fictional world I’d most like to live in
Ashridge, the enchanted forest fromMaleficent.
The writer I wish more people knew about
Gayl Jones.
She was an inspiration for the great Toni Morrison.
Not much more to say.
She has a new book [Palmyres] releasing the same day as mine.
Everyone should get it.
The movie I think everyone should watch
Exterminate All the Brutes.
This film can help with that understanding.
