Menah Pratt sets new precedents in her writing of memoir, creative nonfiction, and testimonial writing. Blackwildgirl is filled with hope, professional advice, and familiar struggle that most Women of Color endure in their professional and personal lives. All would benefit from reading this almost sacred and critical text. The author’s spirituality knows no bounds: Africana philosophy, Womanism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam salt and pepper the pages of this book. A pure heart is enveloped in front of our eyes, with deep reflection. She reminds us of Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and Oprah Winfrey. Her visionary and spiritual voice meld into one, going from a Moonlight Sonata to hip-hop and the Psalms. In her feminist hands the act of crying becomes an act of transparency and empowerment, it rises to healing and refurbishing the spirit on the table of our consciousness, not in the closet. Her writings do hold ‘the power of the divine,’ which is brought to us through the spiritual talent of her writing voice. This writing relays to us the life of a disciplined athlete, scholar, wife, mother, leader, daughter of an immigrant, breaking stereotypes about Africans, African Americans, womanhood, motherhood, and social class. I could hardly put it down. There is so much beauty, so much hope, so much resilience, and knowledge in a beautiful but challenging life.

Black feminist scholar Menah Pratt’s Blackwildgirl is a candid, courageous, provocative memoir that makes effective use of her journal entries, which began when she was only eight years old. Making visible the complexities of her unusual family saga during childhood and adulthood, she navigates an uncertain spiritual journey that is instructive and moving. A gift to ‘wild women’ everywhere, the book makes an important contribution as well to the evolving field of Black Girlhood Studies, as well as Women’s Studies, Black Studies, and Womanist Theology.

Menah Pratt has written a book that offers the chance to cry, to be empowered, to be educated, to be healed, to be liberated. This book opens a path for Black women, especially, to claim their place and voice in a world that has diminished them and their contributions. As an academic, senior administrator, Black woman, Black mother, and Black wife, Pratt’s story is an example of how we must demand that our stories and contributions are a valid and important part of any and all discourses. Blackwildgirl might seem to be a book directed to Black women. It is, in the sense that Black women all over the world will be able to identify with the struggles and the victories. However, it is also a book that offers any who cares about justice, about faith, about humanity, and about opportunity to hear and learn from a first-hand account of how racism and sexism impact Black women, their communities, and in fact the larger world. Be ready to cry, to laugh, to mourn, and to celebrate. Most of all, be ready to have your eyes, heart, and mind opened.

Part spellbinding memoir and part luminous teaching, this book shattered my complacency and opened my heart. Sensual and smart, dignified and vulnerable, Menah Pratt manages to simultaneously deconstruct white supremacy and celebrate the Divine Feminine as Black Woman. I haven’t been this excited by an emerging voice in a long time. Blackwildgirl ought to be required reading for anyone longing to reclaim their own deepest, fullest humanity.

Captivating, awe-inspiring, and deeply spiritual, this book takes you by the hand and leads you into a world of intrigue, drama, resilience, and perseverance. Empowering for all, it affirms the important and necessary role of women and girls in society. Blackwildgirl encourages all of us to reclaim our superpowers and be change-agents in life.

Blackwildgirl takes the reader from revolution to revelation, and through various emotions—from pain, to grief, to moments of shock and surprise, to disappointment and betrayal, but ultimately, to feelings of happiness and joy. All the narrative elements that Pratt offers here, from letters, to poetry, coupled with thick descriptive storytelling, provides an abundance of riches for the reader: it intimately brings the reader into the life of a lonely and depressed black girl who ultimately burgeons into a confident and formidable Blackwildgirl. This book is a cause for celebration, not only because it captures the nuances and subtleties of the black girl experience, but also because it breathes life into the bones of Black women and girls everywhere.

Blackwildgirl takes its readers on a mythic, iconic, revelatory journey. Pratt writes with honesty, passion, and compassion, opening the pathway for other would-be wildwomen and their allies to step up, speak up, and stand up. This poignant, multi-layered, mixed genre story is a must read for those interested in what it means to be a father, a mother, a daughter, a professional, a human being.

At a time when centering Black narratives is more important than ever (indeed, there is no time when they haven’t been crucial), Dr. Pratt’s memoir is a beautiful, raw, and honest tale of the author’s journey from a Blackwildgirl to a Blackwildwoman who has acquired a lifetime’s worth of ‘wild woman wisdom.’ Dr. Pratt tells her tale through the various components of a theater play, complete with acts, stages, and scenes, with original journal entries and poems. Each section will engage you furtheras if you were sitting in the front row as both an audience member and, at times, a character yourself. An invaluable book that authentically honors the true power of storytelling told from the impactful voice of a mighty Blackwild woman herself, full of life, spirit, and strength. Thank you for this gift, Dr. Pratt.

Blackwildgirl is a love letter to Black feminism and Blackwildgirls across the diaspora. Through an elegant infusion of poetry, letters, autobiography, and Black feminist praxis, Pratt makes clear that work that centers Black women and Black womanhood is necessary when it comes to the exploration of race, gender, and spirituality. A natural storyteller, Pratt provokes you to think deeper and to feel deeper. A truly satisfying read, Blackwildgirl will leave readers breathless, while simultaneously providing space for critical reflection. Pratt is truly touched by the grace of the ancestors as she draws us into her world, wraps readers in her spiritual journey, and leads them toward a clearer understanding of the complexity and beauty of this world and those beyond comprehension. This is one memoir you will want to read time and time again.

Menah Pratt poignantly and creatively peels back the layers of her life and takes the readers on a candid and honest journey toward her personal Utopia she calls “Blackwildgirl.” This heartfelt yet heart-wrenching work, which is rich in spiritual reflections, highlights decades of narratives from Pratt’s childhood diaries to her adult memoirs showing her evolution of conquering true superpower as a Black woman in a world that is not always equitable and certain. This work is a beautiful and perfect mirror for young girls and women, especially those from diverse backgrounds, as they explore their own positionality in becoming bold and powerful humans in our rapidly transforming society.

Blackwildgirl by Menah Adeola Eyaside Pratt is the righteous telling of a Black feminist search for self through reflection and self-validation and through decades of journaling, prose, and poetry. This searing, visceral, vulnerable self-exploration is also an invitation to Black women to find our soft, vulnerable, Blackwildgirl selves, to excavate her from the hidden, neglected, and forgotten places, and to reunite her with our Blackwildwoman. Pratt demonstrates remarkable vulnerability in detailing the trauma, disappointments, and pain she has experienced throughout her life and offers her deep reflections as a Black feminist/womanist gift. She generously allows us to join her journey using her own experiences as an invitation for us to grapple with the thoughtful reflection questions she offers us to keep working on our Blackwildwomen selves. This Black feminist/womanist gift will no doubt have a profound impact on the lives of all the Black women who engage this love offering: a wake and an awakening, a sunrise and a libation. It is a gift to Black women in this realm and the next who have and continue to mourn, celebrate, reckon with, imagine, and heal.

This honest and timely book illuminates necessary burials and rebirths that occur following the many and varied ‘setups’ Black girls navigate. It asks readers to consider the spirit and psychic costs of taming Black girls and interrogates what resides at the nexus of Black girlhood, spirit, and education. A revelatory story about migration, Black women’s audacity, and family affirms this book as a must-read for those committed to Black girls’ and women’s non-negotiable liberation and for Black women journeying to reclaim their wildness and freedom.

Through a flow of journal entries that include poems and meditations, we experience oppression, racism, and disrespect viscerally as the author takes us inside her heart and her head through autoethnography that relates the personal to the public. Combining the work of Black literary figures such as Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni with Black feminists like Audre Lorde and bell hooks, she interrogates the raw, the painful, and the truthful aspects of growing up in America. This is a story of resilience and resonance, a story that causes readers to understand the role of Whiteness in racism in a meaningful way. This is a great way for professors and students to understand the role of institutional and individual racism from the inside out.

In “Blackwildgirl,” Pratt describes a libation as “an act of pouring out gratitude to ancestral energy.” Her writing here is then a libation to her own wildgirl and an intimate offering of sharing her personal reflections, challenges, and triumphs. In an innovative memoir weaved from lifelong writings of poetry, personal journal entries, and letters, Pratt shares a powerful journey of self (re)discovery. Her path explores complicated dynamics of a loving family, key moments of personal growth and transition, and individual healing. In a generous act, Pratt invites the reader to join her in a personal journey through the inclusion of reflection questions that serve as a guide toward one’s own (re)discovery.

A searing memoir with unexpected twists and turns. A testament to the human spirit.

Every now and again a poet comes along and allows her reader a peak beyond the veil. Blackwildgirl takes us on a journey across time and geographies through the eyes of a determined spirit. The book is in conversation with every precarious daughter who dared to live free. Pratt boldly, yet delicately, reveals the warrior spirit within!

In this beautifully written and moving book, Menah Pratt combines autobiography, womanist theology, and Jungian psychology to trace the loss and recovery of her girlhood self. As a middle-aged mother, tenured professor, and writer, Pratt set out to discover what had happened to the creative, audacious, wise, and beautiful child she had been at five years old, the “Blackwildgirl” whom she had suppressed to please her parents, work hard, and succeed at everything she tried. Through a journey of grief, learning, love, and connection, Pratt eventually exhumed and honored the Blackwildgirl that was also the spirit of her ancestors and the “force of creation.” Pratt reveals her own personal experience in the light of archetypal struggles. She includes probing questions that prompt readers to reckon with what they may have lost and what they could regain. Dedicated to wildgirls and wildwomen, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to live in the fullness of creativity, wisdom, and joy.

Menah Pratt gives us deep insight into how she has become a powerful Black woman scholar-activist, despite facing what to others might seem insurmountable odds. She does this by weaving poetry, journal entries, letters, photos, and in-depth reflections into an insightful tapestry. By unashamedly revealing a complex mix of fragility and vulnerability with strength and resilience, she is a vivid example of what Maya Angelou describes in her poem, Still I Rise.

Blackwildgirl starts like a strike of thunder a few hundred miles away, like a storm catching up to you. I was left gasping for air on several occasions. And at the same time, I felt enveloped with a warm hug. This is the type of book you curl up and read with tissues in hand. Once I got started, I could not stop. Be prepared to be moved!

Blackwildgirl unfolds from the bits and pieces of one woman’s perilous journey from Black girlhood to Black womanhood in America. Through insights gleaned from her journal entries, poems, and letters, Menah Pratt paints a powerful portrait of the anguish, struggle, pains, hopes, beauty, strengths, and joys of a Black woman who, through navigating, persevering, and overcoming the impact of conditions of injustice, comes to discovers the Blackwildwoman wisdom that was always within. Truly a triumph of the spirit!

Beautifully and painfully intimate. Pratt writes a journey of black girl and womanhood that makes clear there is no singular black girl story, rather they are all interconnected. So even when you look away from the page the black girls and women that you see and don’t see are connected to this journey. This work creates new entry points to hear, see, and love on black girls.

Blackwildgirl offers a deeply intimate and empowering experience, providing Black girls and women with the potential for reconciliation, reclamation, and a deeper awareness of their inherent goddess wisdom. The author’s exceptional capacity to establish connections and provide lucidity regarding the interplay between Black women, identity, faith, and existence serves as a source of empowerment for Black girls and women.

Thank you. Dr. Menah Pratt, for deciding to write your life. You are a shining example of the message we both are passionate about spreading, especially among our sisters of color, which is that our story matters. We need each other’s stories like we need food and water. They sustain us; remind us that we are not alone; not crazy; loved; cherished; and understood. If your mission is helping women who find their lives reflected in your story, then, my Sister, Blackwildgirl: A Writer’s Journey to Take Back Her Superpower hits the mark.

The latest work from scholar and activist Pratt is part autobiography, part allegory, and part guidebook for … women and girls navigating an oppressive world. … She’s created a multifaceted epic that aims to offer validation and encouragement to those who may be struggling under similar systems of oppression. … An engaging remembrance and a useful study of race and gender in America.

If there is one book every black woman needs to read in her life, it’s Menah Pratt’s Blackwildgirl. She puts into words the emotions and frustrations many of us struggle to verbalize, even to ourselves. She offers her book as an extension of her Doutorando [journals] for us – for those who have no safe space to pour out their hearts and souls, who need to take the weight of the world off their shoulders for even a moment. Pratt invites us to find ourselves and our inherent power as she found hers. She shows how her journey from childhood to adulthood is also our journey and other women’s journeys from bearing the world to being the world.