Quick Facts
ScorpioBiography
Mikki Kendall (b. October 23, 1976) is an author, activist, and cultural critic. Her work often focuses on current events, media representation, the politics of food, and the history of the feminist movement. Penguin Random House published her graphic novel Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists in 2019, while her political-nonfiction book Hood Feminism will be released in early 2020.
Early life and education
Kendall was born in Chicago, Illinois, on October 23, 1976, and was raised in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. A 2005 graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and of DePaul University, Kendall holds degrees in history and writing.
Career
A veteran of the United States Army, Kendall worked in government service until 2013 when she left her job at the Department of Veterans Affairs to pursue her writing career full-time.
Kendall is currently an essayist and cultural critic. She has written for The Guardian, The Boston Globe, NBC News, The Washington Post, Bustle, Essence and Eater (with her essay in Eater “Hot Sauce in Her Bag” named a Best Food Essay by the Association of Food Journalists). She has appeared as a cultural commentator on NPR, Al Jazeera English, and the BBC.
She is recognizable as a member of Black Twitter. Kendall is also the creator of the viral Twitter hashtags #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, which criticized racism in the feminist movement, as well as #FastTailedGirls, a reference to the hypersexualization of Black girls, and #FoodGentrification, about the marginalization of traditional foods by commercial interest.
Kendall edited the science-fiction anthology Hidden Youth for Crossed Genres Press in 2016. Kendall's graphic novel history Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women's Fight for Their Rights was released in November 2019 by Ten Speed Press and her political-nonfiction book Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women a Movement Forgot was released in February 2020 by Viking Books.
Books
- Hidden Youth (ed). ISBN 978-0-9913921-0-0
- Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists: A Graphic History of Women's Fight for Their Rights ISBN 9780399581793
- Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women a Movement Forgot ISBN 9780525560548
