Charis Books and More/Charis Circle

DIWALI Kids Books! Shubh Diwali! by Chitra Soundar, illustrated by Charlene Chua Diwali: Festival of Lights by Rina Singh ... Prince of Fire: The Story of Diwali retold by Jatinder Nath Verma, illustrated by Nilesh Mistry Publisher: Barefoot Books Diwali by Hannah Eliot, illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan Publisher:SimonKIDS Diwali Lights by Rina Singh Publisher: Orca Book Publishers Binny’s Diwali by Thrity Umrigar, illustrated by Nidhi Chanani

Charis welcomes Dr. Joy Cox in conversation with Makia Green for a celebration of Cox's highly anticipated, Fat Girls in Black Bodies: Creating Communities of Our Own. This event is co-sponsored by the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History. To be a womxn living in a body at the intersection of fat and Black is to be on the margins. From concern-trolling--"I just want you to be healthy"--to outright attacks, fat Black bodies that fall outs...ide dominant constructs of beauty and wellness are subjected to healthism, racism, and misogynoir. The spaces carved out by third-wave feminism and the fat liberation movement fail at true inclusivity and intersectionality; fat Black womxn need to create their own safe spaces and community, instead of tirelessly laboring to educate and push back against dominant groups. Structured into three sections--"belonging," "resistance," and "acceptance"--and informed by personal history, community stories, and deep research, Fat Girls in Black Bodies breaks down the myths, stereotypes, tropes, and outright lies we've been sold about race, body size, belonging, and health. Dr. Joy Cox's razor-sharp cultural commentary exposes the racist roots of diet culture, healthism, and the ways we erroneously conflate body size with personal responsibility. She explores how to reclaim space and create belonging in a hostile world, pushing back against tired pressures of "going along just to get along," and dismantles the institutionally ingrained myths about race, size, gender, and worth that deny fat Black womxn their selfhood. Saturday, November 14th at 3 PM EST Register: Link in comments

NEW TITLE TUESDAY Adult! _______________________ 1. Dearly: New Poems by: Margaret Atwood @therealmargaretatwood Publisher: @eccobooks ... 2. Treacherous Seas (Provincetown Tales #8) by: Radclyffe (@radclyffebsb) Publisher: @boldstrokebooks 3. How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: Essays by: Kiese Laymon (@kieselaymon) Publisher: @scribnerbooks 4. The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella and Stories by: Danielle Evans (@daniedve) Publisher: @riverheadbooks 5. Inheritance by Taylor Johnson Publisher: @alicejamesbooks 6. Entering Sappho by Sarah Dowling Publisher: @coachhousebooks 7. The Living Is Easy by Dorothy West Publisher: @feministpress cover art by @hungermakesme 8. We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest and Possibility by: Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) Publisher: @haymarketbooks Kids/YA _______________________ 1. What We Believe by Laleña Garcia (@blm_in_kindergarten) Publisher: @leeandlow 2. The Girl Who Was Convinced Beyond All Reason That She Could Fly by: Sybil Lamb (@6ybillamb) Publisher: @arsenalpulp 3. Ironheart: Meant to Fly by: Eve L. Ewing (@eve.ewing) Publisher: @marvel 4. Here the Whole Time by: Vitor Martins (@vitormrtns) 5. Freedom Summer For Young People: The Violent Season that Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy by: Bruce Watson Publisher: @7storiespress 6. This Is Your Time by: Ruby Bridges (@rubybridgesofficial) Publisher: @delacortepresskids @randomhousekids

The Holiday Season Starts Early This Year + New Recommendations from Angela + New Title Tuesday Picks

Charis Books & More Holiday Gift Guide! It’s hard to believe but the holiday season is on its way and we want to help you get started a little early this year because we know it’s going to be a weird one! Since we can’t browse the store with you, handing you piles of books, we are going to do our best approximation with a virtual holiday gift guide. Be on the lookout, multiple times a week, in our email and on instagram, for our best recommendations! Can’t wait? Click the... Holiday Gift Guide link in our bio to see the whole list of books, calendars, and other gift ideas. Our store remains closed for indoor browsing because of rising COVID numbers in our area. BUT! Our store is staffed to receive your telephone orders from 12-6pm Monday-Sunday, and we would love for you to call or email us to help you find the perfect gift for everyone on your list. You can browse and purchase from the gift guide, booklists, staff picks, and more online at www.charisbooksandmore.com 24/7. You can pick up your orders safely from our front porch or we can ship them to you anywhere in the US. Because many more people than usual will be shopping online for the holidays, please order as early as possible! You also have opportunities to browse books in-person every weekend: Visit our booth on the Decatur Square during Fab Friday evenings and/or stop by the store every Saturday from 12-4pm for our porch pop-ups that are socially distant. Each week we will have a fresh mix of books and merchandise for you to browse and we are always happy to look inside the store for anything on your list. (Please wear a mask to both events). Thank you, our beloved Charis community, for your continued support during these challenging times. Thank you for buying your holiday gifts from your independent feminist bookstore. Thank you for all the ways you have already supported us throughout this year. Thank you to everyone who has sent us sweet notes in the mail or in the comment section of your orders--they really have kept us going. Thank you to every person who has made a donation to the Charis Circle. Finally, thanks to each and every one of you who we know is doing your part to keep fighting the good fight. We can’t wait to be elbow to elbow again at future Charis celebrations with all of you!

PRE-ORDERS!! New Kids and YA books!! ____________________________ 1. A Curse of Roses by Diana Pinguicha On Sale: December 1st, 2020 Save the date for event: December 6, 4:30pm 2. A Universe of Wishes: A We Need Diverse Books Anthology edited by Dhonielle Clayton On Sale: December 8th, 2020... 3. What You Don’t Know: A Story of Liberated Childhood by Anastasia Higginbotham On Sale: December 8th, 2020 4. One of the Good Ones by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite On Sale: January 5th, 2021 5. Root Magic by Eden Royce On Sale: January 5th, 2021 6. Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Browne On Sale: January 12th, 2021 7. Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas On Sale: January 12th, 2021 8. Ambitious Girl by Meena Harris, illustrated by Marissa Valdez On Sale: January 19th, 2021 9. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo On Sale: January 19th, 2021 10. Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids by Cynthia L. Smith On Sale: February 9th, 2021 11. Laxmi’s Mooch by Shelly Anand, illustrated by Nabi H. Ali On Sale: March 2nd, 2021 12. Your Mama by NoNieqa Ramos, illustrated by Jacqueline Alcántara On Sale: April 6th, 2021

Thank you to everyone who came out this weekend to celebrate 46 years of Charis Books and More! As we welcomed the first customers on Saturday morning we received news of the decision about our 46th president. Charis came into being just a few months after Nixon resigned in 1974, and we have witnessed many political highs and lows in the last 46 years. We know that the things we are fighting for, the things we have been fighting for since 1974--an end to white supremacy, true... gender liberation, housing, food, and safety for all--will still require just as much fight and strategy in a new administration, but the joy and relief so many of us felt yesterday--the honking, the dancing, the singing--was so important. We also know that history is made not by politicians but by movements and movements are made by each and every one of us. We feel so lucky to be in a community of movement builders, of change makers, of liberation dreamers. We feel lucky to be in a state that has always had a deep grassroots tradition, whether or not the rest of the country noticed until recently! We are proud to help serve as a gathering ground for all people who want to better themselves and their world. For 46 years you have come to us, in times of need, in times of joy, in times of fear, in times of triumph, and asked us for resources. We have always been honored to serve that role in this community. Even in the midst of this pandemic, where so much of how we relate to one another has shifted, you have adapted with us and helped us keep our feminist community safe and well-informed. You keep asking bigger and better questions and dreaming more audacious dreams and we will be here to meet you, books in hand, to help you find your way. These are just a few of the photos from our socially distanced porch pop-up birthday party on 11/7/2020.

Today at 4pm ET our 46th birthday celebration continues with a celebration of Innosanto Nagara 's new book, Oh, the Things We’re For! Innosanto Niagara is the beloved author of A Is For Activist, and his books remind us that people of all ages have a role to play in the fight for justice and freedom. Gather your children and join us at 4pm ET on crowdcast via the link below. It’s just the inspiration you need for what comes next. https://www.crowdcast.io/e/oh-the-things-were-for-

We are so happy to celebrate with all of our friends!!

Charis is fearlessly inquisitive, passionate, and loyal to her community members, like a true Scorpio. Charis was born in 1974, just one year after Toni Morrison’s novel, Sula, was published and Maynard Jackson was elected the first Black Mayor of Atlanta! That year, the first openly lesbian softball team in the Atlanta City League, the ALFA Omegas, played their first league game and the ALFA (Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Aliance) House had a housewarming to celebrate their secon...d location. Charis Books and More opened its doors at 419 Moreland Avenue in early November in Little Five Points, and was soon joined by our beloved favorite co-op, Sevananda. There was music in the air. Kids across the country were learning it’s alright to cry with Free to Be You and Me. Olivia Records was founded by a Washington D.C.-based women’s collective, becoming the most successful lesbian-feminist recording label ever. And Joni Mitchell released her enduring classic, Court and Spark, to mainstream acclaim at Asylum records. Linda Bryant and Barbara Borgman’s initial vision for Charis, which means gift or grace in Greek, was to create a community gathering space with multi-cultural and anti-racist children’s books, books by and for women, and books exploring radical theology. With a large population of lesbians and newly politicized feminists living and loving in Candler Park, the neighborhood next to Little FIve Points, Charis soon shifted its focus to include more lesbian and feminist issues. 46 years later, Charis Books and More is still here and still queer, still lesbian owned, still a bookish, sapphic gathering ground, still as radical as ever, and most of all, still feminist. No matter what our future holds, we know our strength is in the hundreds of thousands of people of all genders who have made Charis their political, social, and intellectual home since 1974. To you we are endlessly grateful. With you all things are possible. We invite you once again, to come home to Charis today and celebrate our 46th year as Your Independent Feminist Bookstore! Join us from 11am-4pm for our porch pop-up and birthday party.

In times of uncertainty and fear, as well in times of hope and promise, it is our practice at Charis to uplift the writers, leaders, and activists whose work helps us envision the future we want to live in, and which offers us a liberatory path to get there. Alexis Pauline Gumbs has always been one of those visionaries, which is why we are glad to have this video to share with you today to help us celebrate her. It was filmed as part of a larger interview in 2006 for Charis C...ircle. In response to the question, How has Charis changed your life? Alexis answers, Oh, one million ways! I think that Charis was the first place where I really saw myself as a writer and as a feminist. And where I learned what what I wanted from a community. Where I learned that saying something within a small group was really powerful. And hearing what people have to say could really really change everything. In response to the question, How has Alexis changed our lives at Charis? We answer: Alexis’ words and wisdom, her humor and grace, have shone through all of our encounters with her: from her looseleaf poems in our high school women’s writers group in the late 1990s, through her early books, including Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity, M Archive: After the End of the World, and Dub: Finding Ceremony, all the way to today, when we invite you to help us welcome Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals into the world with a very special event with series editor and sister visionary, Adrienne Maree Brown on Tuesday, November 18th at 7:30pm on crowdcast. (See event page on our FB homepage) With each and every book-length gift Alexis has offered the world, she has cracked open a different piece of a divine feminist puzzle and held it out to us in her open palms. We cannot imagine Charis today without the revolutionary literary love of Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Join us tomorrow, Saturday, November 7th for a socially distanced, porch celebration in honor of our 46th birthday, from 11 AM - 4 PM and reserve your copy of Undowned today! AK Press

Since Innosanto Nagara published A is for Activist in 2012, we have come to look to his regular offerings as beacons of light for children and families in uncertain times. Innosanto's books, from Counting on Community to My Night in the Planetarium to The Wedding Portrait, M is For Movement, and his newest title, Oh, The Things We're For!, continually help us feel gratitude for the gifts of this world while imagining the better world we are all fighting for and deserve. As ...Charis celebrates our 46th birthday in a season of deep uncertainty, we can think of no better author to honor the complexity of this moment than Innosanto. We know that we have survived as a feminist space, as a bookstore, as a people, because of our collective commitment to fighting for the health, liberation, and dignity of all people, especially the youngest among us. We honor the wisdom of children who so often point the way towards justice, and we honor the role Innosanto's books have played in helping parents and educators find the words we need to share our values with the young people in our lives. We invite you to join us for a very special all-ages storytime with Innosanto in conversation with local activist and parent Kavita Rajanna as we celebrate Oh, The Things We're For! and continue to talk as an intergenerational community about the vision of the world we are building together. As you can see here, our youngest Charis family member, Mackenzie ( Dartricia’s niece), is already getting into Oh, The Things We're For! and she thinks you should get into it too!

We have always bloomed in inhospitable terrain: a note from Charis on surviving and more: Dear Friends, Today we invite you to remember that you were born perfectly; who you are now is exactly who you need to be. Regardless of who the next occupant of the white house will be, or who will control the senate, our peoples’ needs and desires do not change. We have always deserved more than any party has dreamed of demanding for us, so we must continue to demand it and build it fo...r ourselves. For so many of us, the ways that we have loved, have taken care of our bodies, have moved on the land, and have educated ourselves and our children, have been illegal or extralegal for much longer than they have been legal. Legality does not confer legitimacy in a system that does not value the humanity of all of its people. What the government or even half the citizens of this country say with their votes and their laws cannot change who you are in your heart, in your absolute dignity as a human being. What we know as feminists, grounded in a Southern freedom legacy shaped and forged by Black women leaders like Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker, is that we will not accept strategies that leave people behind. Fannie Lou Hamer taught us that Nobody’s free til everybody’s free. That’s not an observation, that’s a mandate. Our invitation to you today is threefold1. Recommit to the long game, to honoring complexity, nuance, and rigor, and do not rush to create a narrative about this moment that has not yet come to pass. 2. Remember that laws do not legitimize us or give us dignity as people. They help, they are nice, but our inherent worthas women, as queer and trans people, as Black people, as people with disabilities, as immigrants, as indigenous people, as people of marginalized faiths, as people of color-- is not based on where we sit in proximity to straight, white, able-bodied, cisgender, Christian, male conceptions of power and justice. We are enough, we have always been enough, we can and will build power in new and better ways. 3. Recommit to a communal dream of freedom that leaves no one behind. If your strategy has you in a room of people that look like you and think like you, you aren’t building a movement, you are building a social club, and we don’t have time for that. Finally, what we hope for today and the days ahead is that you will be gentle with yourself. We need all of you to not just survive, but thrive. Even if this country was not made for our survival, we know that we possess an outlaw brilliance that will continue to bloom in inhospitable terrain, but we must take care of ourselves and each other. Please trust in the wisdom of your own body, of your own heart. It has taken you this far. It will see you to the other side. You are necessary for building the future we all deserve. In love, solidarity, and hope, Your friends at Charis