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Medicine Stories: Essays for Radicals
In this revised and expanded edition of Medicine Stories, Aurora Levins Morales weaves together insights and lessons learned over a lifetime of activism to offer a new theory of social justice. Calling for a politics of integrity that recognizes the complicated wholeness of individual and collective lives, Levins Morales delves among the interwoven roots of multiple oppressions, exposing connections, crafting strategies, and uncovering the wellsprings of resilience and joy. Throughout these twenty-eight essays—twenty-one of which are new or extensively revised—she exposes the structures and mechanisms that silence voices and divide movements. The result is a medicine bag full of techniques and perspectives to build a universal solidarity that is flexible, nuanced, and strong enough to fundamentally shift our world toward justice. Intimately personal and globally relevant, Medicine Stories brings clarity and hope to tangled, emotionally charged social issues in beautiful and accessible language.
230 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 14, 2019
33 people are currently reading
502 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 11, 2021
Two of the essays from this book in particular made me feel so seen, affirmed and held — “False Memories: Trauma and Liberation,” and “Raicism: Rootedness as Spiritual and Political Practice.” “The Historian as Curandera” was also such a beautiful essay and guide on how to write our own histories as colonized people when so much of our history has either not been documented in writing or has been erased/replaced by imperial history. I appreciated the reminders too that all of our survival — and the survival of our ancestors — came at the expense of others.
Some favorite lines:
- “Our movements need to incorporate safe ways of venting our rage, grief, and fear so that they don’t guide our strategic decisions, so that in their wake we find clarity and a will to resist our own narrowing of purpose.”
- “Our capacity as a society to think about traumatic events and their effect on people has been disrupted by both the silencing imposed on us by perpetrators and the effects of trauma itself.”
- “Trauma is not the opposite of joy; it’s the husk around its seed.”
- “Knowing, honestly examining, and taking full responsibility for what our ancestors left us is both a spiritual and a political practice of integrity and authenticity, empowering and radical and strategically essential.”
- “The liberation of children does not imply an end to parenting. The young of our species need care; support; teaching; membership in families, communities, and cultures; and access to our expertise. But they also need the former children around them to support their resistance to disempowerment, even when we are the ones inflicting it. They need us to listen deeply and with respect to the ways they experience the world, validate their sense of injustice, and help them understand the systemic nature of unfairness.”
Some favorite lines:
- “Our movements need to incorporate safe ways of venting our rage, grief, and fear so that they don’t guide our strategic decisions, so that in their wake we find clarity and a will to resist our own narrowing of purpose.”
- “Our capacity as a society to think about traumatic events and their effect on people has been disrupted by both the silencing imposed on us by perpetrators and the effects of trauma itself.”
- “Trauma is not the opposite of joy; it’s the husk around its seed.”
- “Knowing, honestly examining, and taking full responsibility for what our ancestors left us is both a spiritual and a political practice of integrity and authenticity, empowering and radical and strategically essential.”
- “The liberation of children does not imply an end to parenting. The young of our species need care; support; teaching; membership in families, communities, and cultures; and access to our expertise. But they also need the former children around them to support their resistance to disempowerment, even when we are the ones inflicting it. They need us to listen deeply and with respect to the ways they experience the world, validate their sense of injustice, and help them understand the systemic nature of unfairness.”
March 31, 2021
I LOVED reading this book! I really enjoyed the way that reading Morales felt like reading fiction although the subject was serious and fit for coalition-building discussions. Morales made me feel comfortable with thinking about radical activism at the same time that her text made me highly conscious of all the social and ecological issues we have to face.
When she writes, “When we think big, we fight for everyone” (10). She reminded me of my previous studies in ecofeminism; envisioning a better world in a big way that would hold women, men and nature all in its arms. Moreover, Morales makes us aware that while thinking big we need to think of what our fights include, “If the fight we take on, the models we create, are steps on the path toward biggest dreams, or Band-Aids meant to make oppression more tolerable” (11). One other aspect of Morales’s work is how she has been brought up by feminist ideas and that these have been influential parts of her life (not just theories she picked up on the way). She writes about learning from her mother, “She didn’t read feminist thinkers as an academic exercise. She wanted theory that could reshape the world that could be applied like a chisel to stone” (18).
In the above comments, I briefly pointed to the fact that Morales has been brought up by the values that she currently holds and has been so effortful in sharing her knowledge with others too. While I was writing my previous comments, I was thinking what if we don’t have that “soil” (209) to grow up in? Should we think that we are behind in coalition work in comparison to others who have been born in activist families? Reading the second part of the book, I realized she means that even if we haven’t had the chance to have a family who cares about social and natural causes, we could try and find communities of our own who care. This way we can build up on our knowledge and practice, and also help grow a bigger community of care. I’ll quote here the lines that made me think of this, “The lesson I take from this is that a rich and personal historical soil grows strong, stable roots. That soil needn’t be one’s biological family, but in a time of imposed amnesias, when it’s hard to hold onto the lessons of ten years ago, let alone two hundred, having a lineage of some kind, a way to access that long view, is a powerful source of resilience” (208).
When she writes, “When we think big, we fight for everyone” (10). She reminded me of my previous studies in ecofeminism; envisioning a better world in a big way that would hold women, men and nature all in its arms. Moreover, Morales makes us aware that while thinking big we need to think of what our fights include, “If the fight we take on, the models we create, are steps on the path toward biggest dreams, or Band-Aids meant to make oppression more tolerable” (11). One other aspect of Morales’s work is how she has been brought up by feminist ideas and that these have been influential parts of her life (not just theories she picked up on the way). She writes about learning from her mother, “She didn’t read feminist thinkers as an academic exercise. She wanted theory that could reshape the world that could be applied like a chisel to stone” (18).
In the above comments, I briefly pointed to the fact that Morales has been brought up by the values that she currently holds and has been so effortful in sharing her knowledge with others too. While I was writing my previous comments, I was thinking what if we don’t have that “soil” (209) to grow up in? Should we think that we are behind in coalition work in comparison to others who have been born in activist families? Reading the second part of the book, I realized she means that even if we haven’t had the chance to have a family who cares about social and natural causes, we could try and find communities of our own who care. This way we can build up on our knowledge and practice, and also help grow a bigger community of care. I’ll quote here the lines that made me think of this, “The lesson I take from this is that a rich and personal historical soil grows strong, stable roots. That soil needn’t be one’s biological family, but in a time of imposed amnesias, when it’s hard to hold onto the lessons of ten years ago, let alone two hundred, having a lineage of some kind, a way to access that long view, is a powerful source of resilience” (208).
May 11, 2023
After spending three years in a masters program training to become a therapist and wrestling with questions of how to address power and social justice concerns in individual therapy.... the best that was offered by instructors in conversation or in anything we read... in this book, the author reminds me what I had forgotten -- that these "best practices" mirrored the insights gleaned (without hourly fees) in the consciousness raising circles of the feminist movement 50+ years ago.
December 21, 2021
One of the best books I've read in a long time - nuanced, beautifully written and POWERFUL. REading this is like eating really good food, grown in rich soil, needs to be chewed slowly and savored. My copy has 42 sticky notes attached! Her discussion of intersectionality as an ecosystem is particularly brilliant
May 16, 2019
Grapples with big issues in a way that is hopeful and empowering.
July 23, 2019
Some of the best essays about organizing, trauma, strategy, justice and identity that I’ve ever read. Anyone who does social change work needs to definitely pick this up!
April 5, 2024
I first encountered Levins Morales through her stunning poem "V'ahavta" a few years back (which I was thrilled to find closes out this book!), and given the profound hope, wisdom, and moral clarity of that one poem, I was eager to spend time with a whole essay collection of her thoughts and ideas. She covers an impressive amount of ground here with essays focused on class, ecology, feminism, race (particularly her Puerto Rican and Jewish identities), Palestinian liberation, collective memory, and trauma -- however the throughline and heartbeat of her work is the theme of solidarity. Although most of these were originally published in the 90s, they continue to read with a striking freshness nearly 30 years later in contrast to a lot of the self-cannibalizing purity policing common amongst the contemporary (online) left. And yet, there is no dilution of the strength of her convictions or clearness of her vision for a more just and whole world. Although there was some redundancy across essays as she spiraled around some central concerns, that didn't detract much from this truly beautiful collection. Levins Morales' love for humanity, the planet, and life at large shines through so brightly here and offers a much needed balm of hope, strength, and guidance in dire times.
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August 30, 2019814.54 L6658m 2019
April 6, 2020
This is definitely a book that my mind and body needed during this chaotic time.
December 25, 2020
This is a collection of courageous and imaginative writing for a world and society as it could be. I treasured the words on every page!
June 1, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I was skeptical because it was a required reading for my class but I found myself unable to put it down.
December 25, 2025
Reading this book makes me feel alive. I have favorite essays but feel everyone should discover them on their own. Absolute recommend, Aurora Levins Morales is a genius.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews