Brittney Cooper
Author, Black Feminist Thought Leader


Dr. Brittney Cooper is a writer, teacher, and public speaker. She thinks Black feminism can change the world for the better.

Dr. Brittney Cooper is Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers University.  She is a Black feminist theorist who specializes in the study of Black women’s intellectual history, Hip Hop generation feminism, and race and gender representation in popular culture. She is co-founder of the popular Crunk Feminist Collective blog.

Dr. Brittney Cooper is also a sought after public speaker and commentator. In addition to a former weekly column on race and gender politics at Salon.com, her work and words have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, TV Guide, the Los Angeles Times, Ebony.com, The Root.com, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry Show, All In With Chris Hayes, Disrupt with Karen Finney, and Third Rail on Al-Jazeera America, among many others. She is also a co-founder of the Crunk Feminist Collective, a popular feminist blog and currently a monthly contributor at Cosmopolitan.com. In 2013 and 2014, she was named to the Root.com’s Root 100, an annual list of Top Black Influencers. Dr. Brittney Cooper is a proud alumna of Howard University (class of 2002) and a proud native of North Louisiana.

Dr. Brittney Cooper is co-editor of The Crunk Feminist Collection (The Feminist Press 2017)She is author of Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women, which examines the long history of Black women’s thought leadership in the U.S., with a view toward reinvigorating contemporary scholarly and popular conversations about Black feminism. She is also the author of Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower.

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Hardcover
Eloquent RageA Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
St. Martin's Press

So what if it’s true that Black women are mad as hell? They have the right to be. In the Black feminist tradition of Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper reminds us that anger is a powerful source of energy that can give us the strength to keep on fighting.

Eloquent Rage Brittney Cooper draws from the themes in her book, Eloquent Rage, discussing the power in being an 'Angry Black Woman.' Cooper discusses the stereotype and breaks it down, highlighting the success of black women like Michelle Obama and Serena Williams. With grace and charm Brittney Cooper celebrates the power of rage.


The Racial Politics of Time Brittney Cooper uniquely examines racial politics through the lens of time. Speaking on the black history history, storytelling, and feminism, Brittney Cooper assigns time a race and explains why.







Eloquent Rage included in New York Times piece on women writers. Read this interview with Brittney Cooper on NPR discussing calling out hate. Learn about how Brittney finds “The Power In Being an Angry Black Woman” in this interview on cosmopolitan.com Check out Brittney Cooper’s work on crunkfeministcollective.com Visit Brittney Cooper’s website Follow Brittney Cooper on Twitter 

Praise for Brittney Cooper "I also appreciate the energy [Brittney] brought to every event today. It was remarkable to see how [she] conveyed [her] empathy and sincerity through a Zoom screen, and I think that meant a lot to students, too. And [Brittney] did so while communicating sophisticated and complicated intellectual insights to them, in ways that they could comprehend but also be challenged by.
- Lacey Wootton, Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer, Director, Writing Studies Program, American University

"I, and the A&T community, absolutely enjoyed and appreciated her presence, her thought, her love for Black people, and apparent aim toward social justice. She is intellectually uh-amazing, and she kept our students at the edge of their seats, focused on her word. And the faculty who attended the kitchen table talk were goo goo gah gah about her offerings; they felt seen and heard and wisely instructed."
- Kendra N. Bryant, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, North Carolina A&T State University

Praise for Eloquent Rage "Cooper's Eloquent Rage is a fearless, phenomenal memoir of finding her voice as a black woman."
The Root

"A breakthrough... this force of nature is becoming one of our fiercest voices in the new generation of African-American thinkers." —Essence

"With straight-up vulnerability and humor sprinkled in, Cooper reminds readers that feminism, in essence, is about loving women...a for-us-by-us handbook tailor made to obliterate the idea of post-racialism in the Trump era."
Bust Magazine

"[Cooper's] ardent book reminds us that what you build is infinitely more important than what you tear down—and that rage makes great mortar."
Ms. Magazine

"Cooper says there's power in being mad as hell."
Cosmopolitan

“An ambitious, electrifying memoir. Recommended for readers seeking contemporary social commentary that’s unrelenting yet humorous.”
Library Journal (Starred Review)

“Sharp and always humane, Cooper's book suggests important ways in which feminism needs to evolve for the betterment not just of black women, but society as a whole. A timely and provocative book that shows ‘what you build is infinitely more important than what you tear down.’”
Kirkus Reviews