Self-possession is justice work

“I love my work. And I am tired,” writes Austin Channing Brown in the introduction to her newest book. For anyone working at the intersections of organizing, justice movements, and faith, this phrase probably rings true. Black women, Brown notes, take on these burdens disproportionately. She describes an experience she calls “an emptying”: bearing the spiritual and emotional weight of justice work while battling feelings of overwhelm, exhaustion, and isolation. Full of Myself, which is part memoir, part declaration, and all heart, is a cry to claim a new vision of a fuller humanity “that exists not to save the world but to save ourselves.”

Those familiar with Brown’s 2018 bestseller I’m Still Here will recognize her unflinching articulation of the ways structures like White supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism make the personal and political two sides of the same coin. But Full of Myself goes even deeper, as Brown writes about her encounters with these systems of marginalization in the most intimate of spaces. Taking readers from megachurch offices to the pharmacy hair care aisle, Brown expertly weaves together poignant social commentary and personal reflection, opening a window into the deeply vulnerable places of her life. She shares the painful, the mundane, and the joyful—all in celebration of the complexity of being human.

Fittingly, each section of the book begins with the phrase “I love myself when.” This mantra serves as a kind of armor against a world that demands so much from Black women while often offering little, and sometimes causing harm, in return. By framing the book in this way, Brown showcases her own life story as an example of what radical self-love can look like through challenging times (“I love myself when I am falling apart”), joyful times (“I love myself when I am laughing”), and times that fall somewhere in between (“I love myself when I am healing”).