Essential Labor is the book we need right now.” -Dani McClain, author of We Live For The We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood 'In Essential Labor, Angela Garbes challenges all of our preconceived notions about the value and visibility of mothering, and indeed, all caregiving work. Beyond laying out the challenges to raising whole and healthy children in a world shaped by capitalism, colonization, misogyny, and white supremacy, Garbes offers a warm, inviting vision of how we might ensure our own survival in a rapidly changing world. It’s become abundantly clear that no one is coming to save us so how do we save each other, beginning with our youngest? Through rigorous research, vulnerable reflections, and lush writing, Garbes explores that question in ways that will crack open your heart and mind. Essential Labor expands our understanding of what ‘mothering’ can and should look like it’s a book for anyone - including and especially people who aren’t parents - who wants to imagine what a more equitable and caring community could look like.” -Anne Helen Petersen, author of Out of Office and Can’t Even “ Essential Labor is for those of us who are exhausted and disoriented by these pandemic years but also eager to learn how to better care for our families, our communities, and ourselves.

Everyone should read this book.'” -Carvell Wallace, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Sixth Man “You might think this is a book for parents. This book is a bold and generous offering that brings us closer to a future in which the everyday labor of care is treated with the reverence and value it is truly worth. It’s an expansive and intimate testament to how and why we should care for others - and ourselves.” -Ligaya Mishan, New York Times writer and coauthor of Filipinx “In Essential Labor, Angela Garbes defines motherhood as a form of collective labor, contemplating love as a communal act and envisioning a society in which care work is no longer considered separate from or lesser than paid work. “Meditation, memoir, and manifesto in one, this book makes a case for the mother in all of us.

Like a Mother by Angela Garbes