Category: Activism

Meet Mercury Stardust—Trans TikToker and Author—at Helianthus Books

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By Nicole Mitchell

Over two years ago, Mercury Stardust—aka the Trans Handy Ma’am on TikTok—responded to a comment that went viral. Since then, she’s been giving out her expert DIY and other home maintenance advice to renters on TikTok, began her podcast “Handy Ma’am Hotline,” and wrote her first book, titled Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair.

Safe and Sound gives readers tips on over 50 home projects from her perspective as a maintenance technician of over 16 years. Chapters cover a wide variety of maintenance, such as plumbing, electrical, carpentry, and safety needs—plus QR code links to videos to help you along the way.

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How to Have Antiracist Conversations with Dr. Manning

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By Sophia-Joelle McDowell
Art by Kelcie McKenney

As a Black Caribbean immigrant to the United States, Dr. Roxy Manning experienced racism early in life—both at school and out in the community. These experiences fueled her passion to tackle the topic of racism in her book, How to Have Antiracist Conversations: Embracing Our Full Humanity to Challenge White Supremacy. She also co-authored with Sarah Peyton the companion text, The Antiracist Heart: A Self-Compassion and Activism Handbook.

Roxy Manning, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and certified Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) trainer. 

She has worked closely with businesses, non-profits, and government organizations throughout the United States to help them make progress in equitable and diverse workplace cultures. Additionally, Dr. Manning has worked with people in many other countries focusing on social change. She even works as a psychologist in San Francisco, serving the houseless and disenfranchised mentally ill population.  

We spoke with Dr. Manning about the creation of this book and the possibilities of what it could mean to others. 

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Lisa Cornwell and Her New Memoir on Sexism, Retaliation, and the Fight They Didn’t See Coming

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By Sophia-Joelle McDowell
Collage by Kelcie McKenney

Lisa Cornwell is a four-time Arkansas Women’s State Golf champion, a two-time AJGA first-team All-American, and a two-time All-State basketball player. In 1992 she was named the Arkansas Female Athlete of the Year and has been inducted into the Arkansas Golf and Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. 

After her strong athletic career, Cornwell found herself on the path of journalism. Before Cornwell was an on-air host for Golf Channel, she worked for the Big Ten Networks and local affiliates in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Ohio. Over the years, she earned a reputation for delivering excellent interviews and was genuinely great at her job. 

As described in her book, Troublemaker: a Memoir of Sexism, Retaliation, and the Fight They Didn’t See Coming, Cornwell has never had a problem standing up to bullies. 

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Community Accountability in the Wake of Gender-Based Violence

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By Max Sheffield-Baird

CW: discussion of domestic abuse, sexual assault, incest, victim blaming

Trauma is both a personal journey and a community reckoning. Survivors understand better than most that the abusers lurk amongst the illustrious, the trusted, and those who are seen as leaders in their community circles. This bears out in headline after headline, but even deeper and closer to home for so many of us.

Dr. Judith Herman’s book  Truth and Repair gives us a roadmap for truth, accountability, and healing as a community that does more than pay lip service to survivors. How many of us have been made to feel that it was our speaking our truth that was the problem instead of those who would use and abuse their authority against us? I wanted to know how survivors can navigate the personal and political, and Dr. Herman brings a lifetime of insights and experiences to this work.

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A Look into Clara Baldwin’s domestic violence non-profit Peace Over Pieces 

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By Sophia-Joelle Oswald 

CW: Brief mentions of abuse

Clara Baldwin, chief executive officer of Peace Over Pieces, is the daughter of an immigrant from Thailand. Her mother raised her and her siblings while facing abuse from Clara’s father. And while Clara was stuck—forced to witness her mother’s abuse for the first 18 years of her life—Her dad also relayed that abuse towards Clara and the rest of her family. Nothing changed until Clara, her mother, and her brother were able to leave, and never go back.

Clara’s past experiences inspired the launch of Peace Over Pieces, a non-profit for domestic abuse survivors. 

Through this non-profit, Clara is able to talk one-on-one with survivors and share their stories through the Peace Over Pieces Domestic Abuse Survivor Podcast. The Peace Over Pieces website also provides resources and collects donations, with the option of either selecting a specific individual that they’ve watched or a general donation to the Peace Over Pieces Fund designed to cover a range of needs. 

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