Reagan E. J. Jackson, Stanlie M. James

media release: A Room of One's Own is thrilled to welcome authors Reagan E J Jackson and her mother Stanlie M James for a discussion on their books Still True: The Evolution of an Unexpected Journalist and Practical Audacity: Black Women and International Human Rights, respectively. Join us for this personal and political conversation moderated by Craig Werner.

Special thanks to Lake Country Unitarian Universalist church and Prairie Unitarian Universalist Society for co-sponsoring this event!

This is an in person event at A Room of One's Own.

About the Books

Still True: Through this collection of essays, author and activist Reagan Jackson, chronicles her journey into the world of journalism. Art, cinema, social justice, feminism, Black reparations, health & reproductive rights, dance, education—while Jackson’s subjects range far and wide, her writing brings an intimacy & immediacy to all.

Equal parts personal testament, structural interrogation, and social criticism, Reagan Jackson’s Still True inspires in its singularity. Jackson writes with a powerful sense of history and a wide-ranging vision, capturing a Seattle in flux, where processes of inequality, gentrification, and police violence occur alongside community struggle, vivid resistance, and countless episodes of joy. We should all hope that voices like hers blossom throughout our communities. This book is a gift to all readers and writers—aspiring, established, or otherwise. ~Sonora Jha, author of The Laughter

Practical Audacity: Goler Teal Butcher (1925–93), a towering figure in international human rights law, was a scholar and advocate who advanced an intersectional approach to human empowerment influenced by Black women’s intellectual traditions. Practical Audacity follows the stories of fourteen women whose work honors and furthers Butcher’s legacy. Their multilayered and sophisticated contributions have critically reshaped human rights scholarship and activism—including their major role in developing critical race feminism, community-based applications, and expanding the boundaries of human rights discourse.

Stanlie M. James weaves narratives by and about these women throughout the history of the field, illustrating how they conceptualize, develop, and implement human rights. By centering the courage and innovative interventions of capable and visionary Black women, she places them rightfully alongside such figures as Thurgood Marshall and Charles Hamilton Houston. This volume fundamentally shifts the frame through which human rights struggles are understood, illuminating how those who witness and experience oppression have made some of the biggest contributions to building a better world.

Reagan Jackson (she/her) is a multi-genre writer, artist, podcast host and producer, facilitator, and international educator. Most days you can find her at Young Women Empowered where she serves as the Co-Executive Director. She is the author of Still True: The Evolution of an Unexpected Journalist (published March 2024 Hinton Publishing), Summoning Unicorns  (2014), Love and Guatemala (2013), God, Hair, Love, and America (2009), Coco LaSwish: When Rainbows go Blue (2014), Coco LaSwish: A Fish From a Different Rainbow (2013).

Stanlie M James worked as a tenured professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison for many years; where she served as chair of the Afro American Studies Department. In 2006 she was invited to Arizona State University to serve as Director of, and to (re)build, their African and African American Studies Program. Prior to her retirement in 2021, she served for four years as Vice Provost of Inclusion and Community Engagement. James’ most recent publication is Practical Audacity: Black Women and International Human Rights (2021)

A long-time faculty member at the Department of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Craig Werner is the author of Up Around the Bend: An Oral History of Creedence Clearwater Revival (1999), and We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War (2015), named Rolling Stone's “Best Book of the Year.”  He has recently completed work on Chimes of Freedom: The Sixties that Made Our World.