Juliet Takes a Breath

Last updated

Juliet Takes a Breath is a young adult novel by Gabby Rivera. It was published on January 27, 2016, by Riverdale Avenue Books. [1] [2] The book's main character begins identifying as a lesbian. The book has won awards and has been met with attempts to have it removed from school libraries. [3] NPR described the book as a coming-of-age story about a college student from the Bronx establishing her identity. [4] The story takes place in 2003. [4] [5] A review in the Los Angeles Times Book Review notes it became an "instant classic" after its debut from a small publisher. [6] It has been adapted into a graphic novel. [7]

Contents

Rivera went on to write the first-ever queer Latina super hero for Marvel. [8] [9]

Plot

The main character, Juliet Milagros, is a 19-year-old Latina who has recently started identifying as a lesbian. She has just finished her first year of college and living away from home for the first time. During this year she quietly came out to some of her peers and started dating a white girl who Juliet doesn't feel tries to really understand her. Juliet is from the Bronx in New York City. For the summer while when the book takes place Juliet has traveled to Portland, Oregon to intern with a white, feminist author, Harlow Brisbane, who wrote a book about vaginas that inspired Juliet. In Portland, Juliet gets to know other queer people of color for the first time. Her new experiences open her up to the idea of having a community that she shares more than one identity with. She also discovers the racism in Harlow's feminism, forcing her to create her own understanding of feminism as the queer, brown, person she is trying hard to be proud of being. [1] [10] [11] [12]

Awards

Juliet Takes A Breath was selected by the Amelia Bloomer Project Committee of the American Library Association (ALA) for the 2017 Amelia Bloomer List. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian feminism</span> Feminist movement

Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and critical perspective that encourages women to focus their efforts, attentions, relationships, and activities towards their fellow women rather than men, and often advocates lesbianism as the logical result of feminism. Lesbian feminism was most influential in the 1970s and early 1980s, primarily in North America and Western Europe, but began in the late 1960s and arose out of dissatisfaction with the New Left, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, sexism within the gay liberation movement, and homophobia within popular women's movements at the time. Many of the supporters of Lesbianism were actually women involved in gay liberation who were tired of the sexism and centering of gay men within the community and lesbian women in the mainstream women's movement who were tired of the homophobia involved in it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherríe Moraga</span> American writer and activist (born 1952)

Cherríe Moraga is a Xicana feminist, writer, activist, poet, essayist, and playwright. She is part of the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the Department of English since 2017, and in 2022 became a distinguished professor. Moraga is also a founding member of the social justice activist group La Red Xicana Indígena, which is network fighting for education, culture rights, and Indigenous Rights. In 2017, she co-founded, with Celia Herrera Rodríguez, Las Maestras Center for Xicana Indigenous Thought, Art, and Social Practice, located on the campus of UC Santa Barbara.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gloria Anzaldúa</span> American feminist scholar (1942–2004)

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa was an American scholar of Chicana feminism, cultural theory, and queer theory. She loosely based her best-known book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987), on her life growing up on the Mexico–Texas border and incorporated her lifelong experiences of social and cultural marginalization into her work. She also developed theories about the marginal, in-between, and mixed cultures that develop along borders, including on the concepts of Nepantla, Coyoxaulqui imperative, new tribalism, and spiritual activism. Her other notable publications include This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981), co-edited with Cherríe Moraga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicana feminism</span> Sociopolitical movement

Chicana feminism is a sociopolitical movement, theory, and praxis that scrutinizes the historical, cultural, spiritual, educational, and economic intersections impacting Chicanas and the Chicana/o community in the United States. Chicana feminism empowers women to challenge institutionalized social norms and regards anyone a feminist who fights for the end of women's oppression in the community.

Sue-Ellen Case is Professor and Chair of Critical Studies in the Theatre Department in the School of Theater Film and Television at the University of California, Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicano poetry</span> Subgenre of Mexica-American literature

Chicano poetry is a subgenre of Chicano literature that stems from the cultural consciousness developed in the Chicano Movement. Chicano poetry has its roots in the reclamation of Chicana/o as an identity of empowerment rather than denigration. As a literary field, Chicano poetry emerged in the 1960s and formed its own independent literary current and voice.

Luz María "Luzma" Umpierre-Herrera is a Puerto Rican advocate for human rights, a New-Humanist educator, poet, and scholar. Her work addresses a range of critical social issues including activism and social equality, the immigrant experience, bilingualism in the United States, and LGBT matters. Luzma authored six poetry collections and two books on literary criticism, in addition to having essays featured in academic journals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sara Ahmed</span> English-Australian scholar (born 1969)

Sara Ahmed is a British-Australian writer and scholar whose area of study includes the intersection of feminist theory, lesbian feminism, queer theory, affect theory, critical race theory and postcolonialism. Her foundational work, The Cultural Politics of Emotion, in which she explores the social dimension and circulation of emotions, is recognized as a foundational text in the nascent field of affect theory.

Amber L. Hollibaugh was an American writer, filmmaker, activist and organizer concerned with working class, lesbian and feminist politics, especially around sexuality. She was a former Executive Director of Queers for Economic Justice and was Senior Activist Fellow Emerita at the Barnard Center for Research on Women. Hollibaugh proudly identified as a "lesbian sex radical, ex-hooker, incest survivor, gypsy child, poor-white-trash, high femme dyke."

Racism is a concern for many in the Western lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) communities, with members of racial, ethnic, and national minorities reporting having faced discrimination from other LGBT people.

Laura Aguilar was an American photographer. She was born with auditory dyslexia and attributed her start in photography to her brother, who showed her how to develop in dark rooms. She was mostly self-taught, although she took some photography courses at East Los Angeles College, where her second solo exhibition, Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, was held. Aguilar used visual art to bring forth marginalized identities, especially within the LA Queer scene and Latinx communities. Before the term Intersectionality was used commonly, Aguilar captured the largely invisible identities of large bodied, queer, working-class, brown people in the form of portraits. Often using her naked body as a subject, she used photography to empower herself and her inner struggles to reclaim her own identity as "Laura" – a lesbian, fat, disabled, and brown person. Although work on Chicana/os is limited, Aguilar has become an essential figure in Chicano art history and is often regarded as an early "pioneer of intersectional feminism" for her outright and uncensored work. Some of her most well-known works are Three Eagles Flying, The Plush Pony Series, and Nature Self Portraits. Aguilar has been noted for her collaboration with cultural scholars such as Yvonne Yarbo-Berjano and receiving inspiration from other artists like Judy Dater. She was well known for her portraits, mostly of herself, and also focused upon people in marginalized communities, including LGBT and Latino subjects, self-love, and social stigma of obesity.

Lori Perkins is an American literary agent, book publisher and author. In 2012, she founded Riverdale Avenue Books, an e-book publishing company, in Riverdale, Bronx.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">America Chavez</span> Superhero appearing in Marvel Comics

America Chavez is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Joe Casey and artist Nick Dragotta, the character first appeared in Vengeance #1. America Chavez is a lesbian superhero of Latin-American origin. She has assumed the mantle of Miss America from the superheroine Madeline Joyce. She has also been a member of the A-Force, the Ultimates, and the Young Avengers at various points in her history.

Third Woman Press (TWP) is a Queer and Feminist of Color publisher forum committed to feminist and queer of color decolonial politics and projects. It was founded in 1979 by Norma Alarcón in Bloomington, Indiana. She aimed to create a new political class surrounding sexuality, race, and gender. Alarcón wrote that "Third Woman is one forum, for the self-definition and the self-invention which is more than reformism, more than revolt. The title Third Woman refers to that pre-ordained reality that we have been born to and continues to live and experience and be a witness to, despite efforts toward change ..."

Riverdale Avenue Books, located in Riverdale, Bronx, New York, is a publisher of e-books, print books on demand and audiobooks founded in 2012 by Lori Perkins. Riverdale is a member of the American Association of Publishers and publishes between 50 and 75 books a year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guadalupe Garcia McCall</span> Mexican author, poet, and educator

Guadalupe Garcia McCall is an author, poet, and educator. She was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. She is the recipient of the 2012 Pura Belpré Medal for narrative.

Monica Palacios is a Chicana lesbian American playwright and performer, specialising in Chicana, queer, feminist, and lesbian themes. She has charted the intersection of queer and Latina identities in Latinx communities, with their mutually marginalising impact. A trailblazer stand-up comedian in the 1980s and 1990s, Palacios is now better known for her work as an award winning playwright and activist. Her works are taught in many schools and colleges, where she has served frequently as a director of student theatre.

Gabby Rivera is an American writer and storyteller. She is the author of the 2016 young adult novel Juliet Takes a Breath, and wrote the 2017–2018 Marvel comic book America, about superhero America Chavez. Her work often addresses issues of identity and representation for people of color and the queer community, within American popular culture. Rivera is Puerto Rican and from the Bronx.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Pérez</span> American author and professor (born 1954)

Emma Pérez is an American author and professor, known for her work in queer Chicana feminist studies.

<i>The Girls in 3-B</i> 1959 lesbian pulp fiction novel by Valerie Taylor

The Girls in 3-B is a classic work of lesbian pulp fiction by Valerie Taylor which was published in 1959 by Fawcett. Its happy ending for a lesbian character was unusual for the time period. It was one of the first three novels of any pulp fiction genre to be reprinted in 2003 by Feminist Press.

References

  1. 1 2 Rivera, Gaby (January 27, 2016). Juliet Takes a Breath (First ed.). Riverdale, NY: Riverdale Avenue Books. p. 274.
  2. ↑ Rivera, Gabby (2016). Juliet Takes a Breath. Riverdale Avenue Books. ISBN   978-1-62601-251-6.
  3. ↑ "10 Great Recently Banned Books to Check Out". Teen Vogue. March 3, 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Life, Love, Coming Out And Culture Shock In 'Juliet Takes A Breath'". NPR . Archived from the original on 2023-04-20.
  5. ↑ "JULIET TAKES A BREATH | Kirkus Reviews" – via www.kirkusreviews.com.
  6. ↑ "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. October 27, 2019.
  7. ↑ Gabby, Rivera. "Juliet Takes a Breath". School Library Journal.
  8. ↑ Preciado, Mireya. ""Juliet Takes a Breath" Author Gabby Rivera On Inspiration, Queer Representation and Racism In Publishing".
  9. ↑ "Portrait Of: Gabby Rivera". NPR . Archived from the original on 2023-04-20.
  10. ↑ Martínez-Reyes, Consuelo (2018-07-01). "Lesbian 'Growth' and Epistemic Disobedience: Placing Gabby Rivera's Juliet Takes a Breath within Puerto Rican Literature and Queer Theory". Centro Journal. 30 (2): 324.
  11. ↑ Gore, Ariel (2016-02-18). "The Power of Seeing Ourselves in Literature". Psychology Today. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  12. ↑ Moreno, Carolina (2018-06-07). "Gabby Rivera On The Importance Of Being (And Creating) A Queer Latinx Superheroine". HuffPost. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  13. ↑ Rivera, Gabby. "About the Book". Gabby Rivera. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.