Monica A. Coleman

I came across Monica A. Coleman exploring process theology and was thrilled to find a black woman among So. Many. White. Men. Bipolar Faith is her story of growth and evolution through significant trauma as well as learning about herself and her ancestors with her diagnosis of bipolar II disorder.

Part of me wants to talk about what an inspiring and remarkable woman Coleman is, not because of what she has survived, but because of her capacity to feel and enter her body and then share her story without resistance to making the reader uncomfortable. Simply take my word for it and get to know her through this book.

Bipolar Faith is an autobiography of Coleman's early years from childhood through graduate school. While it is organized in a linear way, she takes the reader back and forth and through conversations with her family and their history as she learns about the thread of mental illness and resilience that connects her to her family and her ancestors.

CW: brief reference to sexual assault

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Coleman's story is also a story about rape. But this is not a recovery story. Through her Christian faith and the faith and traditions handed down from her African ancestors, Coleman learns how to live a life that contains rape, but is not lead by it.
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In my own journey with depression, I found so much resonance and wisdom in this book. It is not a self-help book. Coleman is not telling you how to integrate your trauma and mental illness. She is telling her truth. In her truth, I recognized common experiences, and uncovered resilience I didn't know I had. I believe anyone with depression will have a similar experience. Here, you will find an ally.

Just released in paperback, this will be a book I keep on my shelf to loan to others.… (lisätietoja)

As womanist thought flourishes under the hands of its caretakers it expands in its meanings and its application for persons reading, writing and utilizing it. In ‘Ain’t I a Womanist, Too?’ Coleman ponders what it meant to be a womanist through the question ‘ain’t I a Womanist, Too?’ and how the meaning is changing. She then brings in various thinkers and writers who expand on what womanism means to them, their communities and the wider world.

The books holds within it an eclectic variety of essays that discuss, deconstruct and reconstruct topics from modern Muslim plural marriage to being a bitch (what it means and reclamation within black Christian spaces) to rap and house music.

This book took a little longer to read than I thought it would as some essays were easier to understand or read than others but I enjoyed the variety of contemplation that I saw within the book and the contemplations it has fostered within me. It was interesting to note the similarities between ‘queering’ theory and thought, and womanist thought as well as their differences in handling subjects and advancing discourse.

Highly recommend so long as you have prior understanding of or knowledge within womanism in particular.… (lisätietoja)