“With unflinching honesty and vulnerability, Kaudo documents her journey to becoming her bolder self. … Kaudo is a highly self-aware work in progress who doesn’t have all the answers, but she has chosen the most interesting questions to grapple with. The result is a deeply intimate meditation on millennial Black womanhood and a righteous indictment of how this country treats Black girls and women. Timely, unapologetic, and intense, in all the best ways.” —Kirkus (starred review)
“Ripe is a testament to the expansiveness of Black life—a very specific expansiveness that offers generous glimpses into Black womanhood, Black Midwesternness, Black place, and placelessness. This is a memorable book, an exploration written by a thoughtful and curious tour guide in the museum of her own life.” —Hanif Abdurraqib
“A debut essay collection from an exciting new voice … joins the ranks of other recent collections on intersectionality such as Hood Feminism and Against White Feminism, a must-read contemporary canon.” —Eliza Smith, Lit Hub