Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs - Paul's REVIEW

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Title: Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals
Author: Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Release Date: November 27, 2020


Synopsis: Undrowned is a book-length meditation for social movements and our whole species based on the subversive and transformative guidance of marine mammals. Our aquatic cousins are queer, fierce, protective of each other, complex, shaped by conflict, and struggling to survive the extractive and militarized conditions our species has imposed on the ocean. Gumbs employs a brilliant mix of poetic sensibility and naturalist observation to show what they might teach us, producing not a specific agenda but an unfolding space for wondering and questioning. From the relationship between the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale and Gumbs’s Shinnecock and enslaved ancestors to the ways echolocation changes our understandings of “vision” and visionary action, this is a masterful use of metaphor and natural models in the service of social justice.

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Review: This book was not written for me. I am not the audience. I am a white cis gay man. So many books have been written for me, though. I recommend picking up a book focusing on a different perspective than your own. I learned so much from this book. It was recommended by a co-worker of mine who is using the framing of this book in their own program development.

I am a marine science nerd. I am also a feminist. Gumbs brings those two worlds together in such thought-provoking ways as well as the Black experience. I have a new lens to approach scientific facts about animals. They most often come from an old white man's view of the world. There are so many biases in these "scientific facts" found in guides. I hadn't taken that into consideration before. So many marine mammals have only been seen very few times by Western scientists. Western scientists often don't take into account how much their presence may create change in those they are observing. The empathy Gumbs uses in this book allows the reader to imagine the way these marine mammals move through this world that we cohabitate. 

There is inspiration and hope in this book, but Gumbs also acknowledges the very true reality of the world that we live in and the systemic oppression and toxicity present. There are activities for reflection at the end of the book, both for groups and for individuals. I did not complete them all, but this book will remain on my work desk (when it's safe to go back into the office that is) for me to peruse and reflect on. 

I give this book a 5/5. I now have a new way to think about marine mammals and how their lives can inspire us to live better for ourselves and those around us.


--PAUL