• Live
    • Audio Only
  • google plus
  • facebook
  • twitter
News > World

'Me Too' Movement Founder Tarana Burke to Pen Book About Her 'Journey From Victim to Survivor'

  • “What the viral campaign did is, it creates hope. It creates inspiration,” Tarana Burke told the Washington Post.

    “What the viral campaign did is, it creates hope. It creates inspiration,” Tarana Burke told the Washington Post. | Photo: Twitter / Tarana Burke

Published 5 February 2018
Opinion

Tarana Burke has been using the phrase "Me Too" for over a decade for initiatives to aid sexual assault survivors in underprivileged communities. 

Tarana Burke, the 44-year-old Harlem native and founder of the #MeToo movement, has signed a book deal with Simon & Schuster titled, "Where the Light Enters," which she will be co-writing with fellow activist and journalist Asha Bandele. 

RELATED:
Meet the Black Activist Behind the Viral "Me Too" Movement

Burke's book will entail her "ordinary, extraordinary journey from victim to survivor to thriver" along with the emergence of the iconic #MeToo movement, which resonated with millions of women worldwide. The movement exploded in 2017, evoking a range of responses from people, connecting them to issues of trauma, exhaustion, empathy and communal solidarity against the violence endured by women.

Burke has been using the phrase "Me Too" for over a decade for grassroots initiatives to aid sexual assault survivors in underprivileged communities, "where rape crisis centers and sexual assault workers weren’t going," she told Ebony magazine. She added that the motto of the movement is "Empowerment through empathy."  

“People need hope and inspiration desperately. But hope and inspiration are only sustained by work," she told the Washington Post.

"What the viral campaign did is, it creates hope. It creates inspiration." 

With the help of Black Twitter, Burke raised awareness about her campaign. She started the movement in 2006 and dedicated a majority of her time working with young girls coping with issues of sexual violence. 

The book is expected to come out in early 2018. 

"The book will also help readers understand the often overlooked historical connections of the role sexual violence plays in communities of color, specifically Black communities, even today while exploring ways the same communities have been both complicit and resilient," Burke said in a statement, AP reported. 

"More than anything, this memoir will provide survivors across the spectrum of sexual abuse a roadmap for healing that helps them understand that the ‘me too’ movement is more about triumph than trauma and that our wounds, though they may never fully heal, can also be the key to our survival."

Comment
0
Comments
Post with no comments.