Nasty Work

“In Nasty Work, Ericka Hart sheds light on how oppressive forces have shaped many of the ways in which we think about our bodies, sex, and sexuality, and how much harm that has done to us individually and collectively. But more importantly, Hart offers opportunities for us to discover what our authentic relationships to our bodies and sexuality may be, and what that can bring to our lives. This book doesn’t tell you how to be in your body or what your sexual relationships have to look like, it instead invites you to find your own personal and pleasurable relationship with yourself and with others in liberatory ways.”—Ijeoma Oluo, New York Times bestselling author of So You Want to Talk About Race and Be a Revolution

“Nasty Work undoes a deeply held convention, that our desires are of our own making. Hart clarifies how antiblackness, queerphobia, transphobia, ableism, and capitalism craft our bedrooms and relational experiences. Hart beautifully weaves together memoir, cultural criticism, and theory inviting the reader to deconstruct their desires as the necessary work towards radically unearthing new depths of pleasure.”—Patrice D. Douglass, author of Engendering Blackness: Slavery and the Ontology of Sexual Violence

“This isn’t just a sexuality guide, it’s an expose; a comprehensive takedown of how society has failed black, brown, and queer people in the most intimate way. It’s a celebration of the perseverance of those bodies, breaking centuries long chains that up to this point were largely regarded as invisible. The writing is not only provocative, the message is urgently needed.”—Chris Smalls, Co-Founder of the Amazon Labor Union, author of When the Revolution Comes

“Nasty Work unveils intimate and precarious labors so that we can personally and collectively experience our private and public lives to resist predatory violence. Elevating the agency of Black/femme/female/queer and child, this book courageously embraces the labor of love that guides resistance to cuts, bruises, violent denigration, and exploitation. Boldly revealing personal and political experiences and injuries, offering enlightenment that elevates our intimate knowledge, Ericka Hart’s book guides to mend body, mind, and spirit.”—Joy James, author of In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love and New Bones Abolition