Cindy Milstein (they) on Nostr: Another anarcha-nonbinary author once told me that it takes at least a year before a ...

Another anarcha-nonbinary author once told me that it takes at least a year before a book really starts circulating—meaning read, shared, and so on. In the case of my edited anthology “Constellations of Care: Anarcha-Feminism in Practice” (@plutopress, with gorgeous cover design by Crisis, bycrisis.com), or at least this book review of it by Clare Maxwell for @allegralaboratory, I need to double that estimate, given that the collection came out in 2024. Maybe it takes time for celestial brilliance of queer anarchist feminists to shine through the “night” of patriarchy, *even* within anarchist spheres.

There are multitudes of “stars” in this anthology, often clustered together in collective patterns that supply points of light in these fascist times, and each is worth savoring, slowly, as a way to fortify our hearts. I’m humbled that Clare took such careful note of the many contributors, who I continue to be grateful to for sharing their stories, and what those stories might tell us. As Clare writes,

“‘Constellations of Care’ is based on the idea that theory is created, interpreted, and used not by researchers, but by the everyday stakeholders in the political processes that it analyzes. The book emphasizes alternatives to academic style in some of its editorial choices. For example, each section’s author biography veers away from listing degrees or institutional affiliations, and rather briefly chronicles the author’s skill sets and political positions, as well as their close relationships to both communities and geographies, often defined by a city or an Indigenous land designation, rather than a nationality. However, the main contribution of the book is to showcase/underscore/reveal both the vastness of anarcha-feminism’s theoretical considerations and approaches, as well as highlight the difficulties of living out radical politics on a day-to-day basis. The reader is constantly invited not only to explore the deep-seated reasonings that drive the book’s storytellers, but are also challenged to forget clean, academic theory and engage with the messy process of extending a hand to the people around them.”

https://allegralaboratory.net/constellations-of-care/

https://www.plutobooks.com/product/constellations-of-care/