TIGRESS OSBORN & DR. JONATHAN P. HIGGINS at Books Inc. Alameda

To celebrate Fat Liberation Month Books Inc. Alameda is proud to present Tigress Osborn the Executive Director of NAAFA, (National Association of Advance Fat Acceptance) and co-author of the book, Weight and Wisdom: Reflections on Decades of Working for Body Liberation.

Joining Tigress in conversation is Dr. Jonathan P. Higgins author of Black, Fat, Femme. Revealing the Power of Visibly Queer Voices in Media and Learning to Love Yourself.

Jonathan P. Higgins, Ed.D., is an award-winning educator, professor, national speaker, freelance journalist, and media critic who focuses on the intersections of identity, gender, and race in entertainment. They are the creator, executive producer, and host of the Black Fat Femme Podcast and have worked on inclusion projects with Fox, the NFL, Apple, Disney, Instagram, BuzzFeed, and GLAAD.

Tigress Osborn, B.A., MFA, is a fat rights advocate and executive director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. She is cofounder of and spokesperson for The Campaign for Size Freedom, which supports adding height and weight to protected classes under the law. Osborn is an intersectional feminist teacher and writer whose fat liberation work has been featured in USA Today and Newsweek, heard on BBC AntiSocial and ABC News, and seen on Everyday Feminism and NewsNation. She was named to the 2024 Time100 Health list of most influential leaders in recognition of her work to fight size discrimination.

In Black. Fat. Femme: Revealing the Power of Visibly Queer Voices (in Media) and Learning to Love Yourself, educator and media critic Dr. Jonathan P. Higgins--aka Doctor Jon Paul--delivers an honest and extraordinary new take on how the author, and other Black Fat Femmes like them, have come to find and understand their identity. You'll learn about how standing at the intersection of multiple identities, communities, and causes shapes people and how they see the world. You'll also discover how public figures like Andre Leon Talley and Latrice Royale have helped people learn who they are and what is possible in life

Over the last 50 years in the United States, the medical establishment, the beauty industry, and the mainstream media have relentlessly forwarded the belief that fat is unattractive and unhealthy. While many believe that anti-fat ideas went unchallenged until the rise of body positivity, there have always been resistors. In the worlds of eating disorders treatment, Health at Every Size(R) advocacy, and fat activism, challengers to our cultural narratives have championed another way for decades.

In Weight and Wisdom 34 trailblazing rebels against body oppression voice the history of challenging the status quo and working to create a world where all bodies are valued. The result is a multifaceted compilation of stories from researchers, legal experts, clinicians, scholars, and activists who pushed back against weight bias and all its various harmful practices and outcomes. Through interviews and personal essays, Weight and Wisdom documents untold stories, reflects on shortcomings and successes, and invites readers to continue cross-generational dialogues to ensure body liberation.

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