One of my favourite reads so far this year. Every essay is insightful, necessary and thought-provoking.

While I’m definitely not the target audience as a Latinx woman, I’d recommend this to anyone to understand what it’s like to live as a Black woman in the UK in 2020.

Thank you Netgalley and Fourth Estate - I’ll definitely be purchasing a copy of my own.

Loud Black Girls Review

Thank you to @netgalley for providing me with the opportunity to read this informative non-fiction read. I always find non-fiction reads difficult to review. I felt so privileged to read so many well written essays by a range of people who had such an insightful and important message to bring forward. I found the read so inspirational for women but of course black women.

There’s so many different perspectives and experiences but all have the same message of how the women have overcome barriers to get where they are now. I think in the current climate, it is such an important read.

I reviewed this book as part of my November reading wrap up https://youtu.be/jC3waSJjw9o and it was also featured in a To Be Read video for Non-Fiction November https://youtu.be/Oept0l4qDfk

This is the follow-up to “Slay in Your Lane”, which I bought to read first, just showing once more that being given free books via NetGalley doesn’t undermine book-buying activities, and is a set of 20 essays by young Black woman writers asking “What next?” Who could resist asking to read this one?

Where "Slay in Your Lane" memorably and excellently laid out the societal position of young Black women and the barriers and hurdles they face, as well as the ways in which they have banded together for support and to build each other up, most notably as social media has come to the fore, this takes a wide range of women writers, activists, poets, journalists, etc., to talk about their view on the state of the nation or various topics that are most important to them. From people 'returning' from the UK to live in a Nigeria they weren't born in to portrayals of women in Black Panther via descriptions of initiatives to deal with violence and the fear of violence in Black urban communities to thoughts on turning 30, there's something here for everyone. Writers include people involved with the gal-dem collective and other collective activists as well as those writing more in isolation.

The introduction by Bernadine Evaristo highlights that the days of young Black women being silenced are hopefully now over and that they can be loud and proud without being shushed and squashed. She talks about other books that have come out and been important (most of which I was glad to see I have read, such as "Don't Touch my Hair" by Emma Dabiri and "Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race" by Reni Eddo Lodge as well as "Brit(ish)" by Afua Hirsch..  Elizabeth and Yomi then talk about how the book came about, and pushing forward the idea that it's not about helping people find their voice so much as empowering them to use it. So this book is both a celebration and an honest assessment of the state of things, but it's a move forward into the future where "Slay" was about the present.

Read my full review here: https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2021/01/01/book-review-yomi-adegoke-and-elizabeth-uviebinene-eds-loud-black-girls-4thestatebooks-wmcollinsbooks/

A fascinating collection of essays written by Black Women detailing life in modern Britain. I have only started reading anthologies this year and this was one of the strongest and most thought provoking one I have picked up.

I have to admit I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second, but every essay brought something to the book in its own right. My particular favourites were “Eating Britain’s Racism”, “The ‘Shuri’ Effect” and “How I learnt to be a Shy Loud Black Girl”

Really a brilliant piece of work.

"Being a loud black girl isn't about the volume of your voice; and using your voice doesn't always mean speaking the loudest or dominating the room. Most of the time it’s simply existing as your authentic self in a world that is constantly trying to tell you to minimise who you are. Now that we’ve learnt how to Slay in our Lanes, what’s next?"

It's been a while since I read an anthology - I was feeling a bit of anthology fatigue - but this is a wonderful and insightful collection.

I loved having a chance to read this anthology of personal essays from Black British women. Like many people over the last few years, I have been working to learn more about racism and colonial history, trying to fill in the gaps that history and social sciences lessons left in my education.

Often, however, books are either US-focused, looking at history, or quite academic. Loud Black Girls steps in to help fill the niche left for personal stories and experiences, more casual personal narratives and life writing. Beyond that, it is also fantastically written and covers so many topics.

Standouts for me were "A crocus ruminates" by Selina Thompson and Homecoming by Yemisi Adegoke, though there isn't a piece I didn't think was beautifully written.

As a white woman, with the inherent privilege that entails, there is a noticeable difference in reading something that isn't centring white experience, and it's humbling to realise that the women writing in this anthology have put so much of themselves into the page, and yet so often are denied the opportunities that mediocre white writers will take for granted. It was an honour to be able to read this and to spend some time with these writers.

‘Loud Black Girls’ is an excellent collection compiling essays from black women about what it’s like being black in Britain. From the workplace to dating, how the media treats ‘gang culture’, health and much more. Each essay was so interesting and - as a white woman - offered me perspectives I had not considered or was aware of. Some essays were quite to the point while others were a little more meandering, so sometimes it took a moment to adjust between essays (I think I’d have liked if essays were grouped by theme, but the variety was obviously great!).

I’m definitely going to keep returning to this collection over time, and I really recommend this for everyone to read!

Loud Black Girls is a brilliant essay collection by those girls/woman always seen as to loud and brash. It features over 20 Black British female writers, and allows them to show case their voices and opinions on where we are and where the future is headed!

a fascinating group of women talking about their experiences of growing up black in britain, i thoroughly enjoyed this!! it covers topics such as shuri in black panther, jamaican cooking, and looking to the future

would recommend to anyone who has loved girl woman other as well as those who want to be more aware of what's happening in britain and what needs to be done in the future

This was a good set of essays from some notable black writers. Unpredictable, coming off Black Lives Matters and COVID-19, it felt that some of the stories were less relevant in the call to what's next, as we have seen the surge and uprising of some of the work being done. I have a copy of Slay in your lane but yet to read, so interested to see how these compare!

Having previously read the brilliant “Slay In Your Lane” by the same authors, I already knew this book was going to be brilliant.

Loud Black Girls is a compilation of short essays by several Black women, including authors, influencers, and those who are just starting out in their writing careers. It looks at so much that impacts Black women - including racism, stereotypes, our upbringing, history, work, our relationship with money (and talking about it more openly), microaggressions, dating, and more. Inspiring, powerful, brilliant.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley.

What a well curated collection of essays! I enjoyed each one, Yomi and Elizabeth give introductions to each essay which are so thoughtful and spot on. My favourite has to be Candice Brathwaite's essay on parenting, even though I am not a parent myself and probably never will be, it resonated and I am still thinking about it, Thant's the power of good writing.

Loud Black Girls is an anthology of essays written by some truly inspiring Black Women. I've never read a book like this, a series of essays based on a singular topic but in different environments.

I'm going to add my disclaimer in here, as a white woman there is no way I can understand the experiences of these amazing women who have written these essays. But it is my job to educate myself on their experiences and points of view to be a better person and to stand with all people.

I loved reading this book, it is incredibly insightful, thought-provoking and very relevant. The book is based on the experiences of being a Black Woman in Britain. The writers in this book all express their experiences or thoughts on this topic in different areas of life that are meaningful for them. As you read you can truly feel their passion, their emotions and it is impossible not to connect with these women.

The title of this book "Loud Black Girls" is about the stereotype forced on Black women today, that they are louder than other women. This is essentially not true and a bias representation but the authors use this as their podium to tell us their stories. The written voices are loud and clear, telling us their experiences and thoughts, inviting us into their worlds.

As a non-fiction book and a book of essays personal to their writer, there is nothing I can say that is bad on this content. I won't be telling you anything specific on the essays either because it could spoil them. I will tell you that there was not a single essay I did not enjoy reading, that each essay made me reflect on myself and how I can improve myself to support these incredible women. To stand shoulder to shoulder with them. This book will remind every reader regardless of colour or sex that Black women are here and they are succeeding.

Coming out of this book, reading some of these women's history, Black History, I realised that my own education as a child and even as a grown adult is missing Black British History. Their History is our History and we should be sharing it, teaching it at every level. Britain isn't just the White rich people and what they've done. There are more layers to British History than that and we need to take the blinkers off and truly look around.

Overall, this is one of the most educating reads of 2020 for me. Reading the lessons these women are giving me through their stories. These stories provoked several emotions in me. Laughter, Anger, Sorrow and Embarrassment. The latter based on my own missing education and appreciation for these women. This anthology is so valuable to all and full of engaging topics and opinions.

If you enjoy other peoples perspectives, their stories. If you're prepared to educate yourself on the experiences of others. If you want to understand more about the thoughts and experiences of Black British Women and open your eyes to what they bring to our society then you have to read this book.

'Black women will always be too loud for a world that never intended on listening to them.'

At school, we're "disruptive" and "overconfident" if we show up as ourselves; at work, we're "aggressive" and "intimidating" when we challenge the status quo and "sassy" if deemed palatable to our colleagues; our laughter is inappropriate on public transport and in restaurants. Slay In Your Lane's LOUD BLACK GIRLS anthology takes the label foisted upon Black girls as a means to silence us, and turns it on its head, creating a space for readers to listen to the voices of Black British women, instead of those who seek to define them.

In LOUD BLACK GIRLS, Yomi and Elizabeth have gathered 20 Black British women - from activists to authors to actors - to write about a range of topics important to them. From Kuchenga's 'I Love Us For Real', a mediation on loving Black men and a radical reconfiguration of Black love from a black trans woman’s perspective, to Elisabeth Fapuro's 'The Shuri Effect' which wrestles with the maxim and effect of "Black excellence"; from Paula Akpan's 'The Quandary of Securing the Bag' a rumination on maintaining integrity while producing paid content, to Sophia Thakur's beautiful 'A Poem For Baby Girl' - this collection demonstrates what we already knew: we have THEE RANGE.

In the ways these essays combine the personal, lyrical and academic, there's something that will speak to everyone. Get the audiobook if you want to hear the writers read their own work / feel like you're having a deeply needed catch-up with a friend.

(4.8/5 stars) I loved how many different perspectives this anthology collects, and the multivocality it makes space for on the experience of being a Black woman, today, in the past, looking to the future. This anthology perfectly illustrates the complex danger of stereotypes and how it puts undue pressure on people to act a certain way - especially when you don't want to play into a stereotype but also want to be true to your natural personality. Some essays were 'tighter' with a clear theme while others were more meandering, but all were fascinating. While all are thoughtful essays, I did tend to find the former category easier to follow.

Many anecdotes, ideas and experiences in these essays really resonated, and I definitely became aware of points I'd not previously considered, for example the racism in the Western media's reporting of the apparent negative health effects of an Afro-Caribbean diet as opposed to analysing systemic health inequalities (as discussed in Kuba Shand-Baptiste's essay).

Taking my time with this anthology helped me absorb the essays better than if I'd binged the whole book, so personally I'd recommend reading a couple essays at a time, letting them sink in (maybe ruminate on the ideas a little) before beginning the next.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This has been a hard review write and don't think it will do the book justice regardless. However I will try to convey my thoughts the best I can. This book is not only wanted but is also needed in today's world. As with all anthologies, some contributions resonated more with me that others and I wanted more - both from the essays themselves and in the form of more essays, but this is a never ending discussion that right now continues to remain incomplete and unresolved so this is by no means a criticism of this book and in fact, I see this book as the start of the continuation of a long over due conversation. The voice of Back British Women must no longer be silenced.

I think this is an important and timely book although maybe publication should have been pushed back to allow for the events of 2020 to be given additional consideration, but I hope there will be updates and continuation of this is the form of additional editions with more generations of Black British Woman contributing,

I have already purchased the book and I'm proud to have it on my bookshelf.

This is a great book, which amplifies the voices of black women who refuse to stay quiet about the things they're passionate about. I'd recommend this to anyone wanting to know more about life in modern Britain for black women.

Powerful, timely and relevant collection of essays about the black female experience in the UK. Written for young black women, it’s also an important read for white people, to help understand the truths of other people’s experiences in the UK.

Like many people, Sophie has been making a concerted effort to both learn more about racism and to read more from Black authors this year. One thing she has found however is that the majority of books she sees making waves focus on racism in the USA. Being British, she went out looking for a book that explores the issues closer to her home in the UK, which is why she found herself picking up Slay in Your Lane Presents: Loud Black Girls, Edited by Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené.

Loud Black Girls is a collection of essays from 20 Black, British women writers that look at countless aspects of what it means to be Black and British in 2020. The subjects covered are wide, Brexit obviously plays a key role as it currently casts its shadow over everything but the authors cover education, finance, politics, the impact of the Black Panther movie, food, gender, and almost any other subject you could care to name, all recalled and analyzed through the voices of those who have traditionally been silenced. These women have been given the opportunity to be loud and they have seized it, even if they feel personally shy.

The voices here represent the diversity within that collective, there are voices here that are lesbian and trans, mothers and daughters, voices of those born in the UK, those who emigrated to it, and those who have moved away. This diversity helps reflect that there is no single Black experience, no single way that Black women can be represented, but also that there are shared struggles that need to be discussed in order to make way for change.

Sophie learned a lot from these essays and plans to use them as a stepping off point to discover and follow more Black voices in order that she can better understand both the problems facing Black people in her country and what she as a white woman can do to fight them.