May AOC Never Know Her Place
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“May she never know her place. Encourage young people; they know the way forward.” When I typed these words into my introduction of The ABCs of AOC, the picture book I authored with illustrator Krystal Quiles, I remembered an elder who said them about my outspoken tweenaged self at a dinner party.
As usual, I had disrupted the equilibrium at the adult table, racing over to speak up about the political discussions the kids’ corner was designed to conceal from us. When I read Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s words “I don’t want to be a savior, I want to be a mirror” in Take Up Space: The Unprecedented AOC, I immediately recalled the elder’s vision for the next generation.
In the pages of Take Up Space, the editors of New York Magazine eloquently explore AOC’s ascension within our public imagination, driving readers of all ages to discern whether we’re championing progress or blocking change. Through a mix of narrative and graphic essays and photos, this polychromatic biography outlines how Representative Ocasio-Cortez made an enduring mark on the political discourse and our cultural conversation since she defeated a long-standing male incumbent with her “Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office” campaign in the Democratic Party’s primary for New York’s 14th congressional district in 2018.
One through line I noted from the intentionally curated selection of pieces tracing AOC’s personal history and impact is her earnest pursuit of truth to herself, her moral compass, and her community. She serves as a powerful exemplar for both young and marginalized people, demonstrating that underdogs don’t have to wait their turn to be leaders; in fact, she encourages them to turn the tables and change the face of power. Although AOC’s politics and vision are usually framed as being synonymous with the future of the left, this robust four-part book makes a compelling case for why AOC is the type of leader the nation needs here and now.
Exceptional among those who have walked the halls of Congress for centuries, AOC embodies and enlivens authentic leadership and vulnerable audacity, paving new terrain instead of trying to fit into a narrow political field. The vibrant cover of Take Up Space features an illustration of AOC’s iconic, red-lipped visage, inviting readers to learn about the youngest woman to serve in Congress’s outsider origins and how she developed her widely discussed and often debated values and virtues that gained her political insider status.
In the vein of the Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Take Up Space’s authors recount AOC’s life while celebrating her “unprecedented” and transformative influence on American politics and culture. In the book’s gripping introduction, “Before AOC, After AOC,” New York Magazine writer-at-large Rebecca Traister opines, “To point confidently at AOC as someone likely to shape our future does not mean that she will, necessarily, be governing us through that future. Her path, like the Democratic Party’s itself, is far from fixed. It’s fraught, perilous, electric, and ultimately unknowable. There’s so much combustible energy poured into this one figure. Her learning curve has been as steep and fast as her ascent. But if the nation is to grow—to learn better how to elect new kinds of leaders who want a new kind of politics—its own learning curve must keep pace.”
Traister’s precis conveys one of the most memorable statements in this comprehensive but addictively accessible tome. Through the lens and voices of about a dozen writers and even AOC herself (via articles, testimony, and even snapshots of her “Hello Vogue, Buenos Dias!” makeup tutorial), Take Up Space invites us to discover why AOC is both renowned and reviled depending on whom you’re asking, but never anything neutral or in between.
I raced to get a copy of Take Up Space because I have often wondered why some people see AOC as a polarizing figure when others of us regard her as a unifying force, especially for underdogs. As the recipient of appreciative notes from parents about how children of color see themselves in AOC and hate mail due to right-wing articles condemning my book on AOC, Take Up Space helped me to explore my own relationship with people’s reactions to the “science nerd” and climate justice movement policymaker.
AOC’s ability to reflect spoken and sometimes unspoken gulfs between us makes her unique.
“Breathing Fire,” otherwise known as chapter 10, helped me better examine and process the perspectives of some of the more moderate loved ones in my life who expressed their confusion and disappointment with what they deemed as my contribution to her “extreme” and “outsize” platform. When I read this line by Lisa Miller, I understood why I remain magnetized by the bold elected official and her steadfast clarity. Miller and the other writers of this triumphant, definitive work deftly illuminate that AOC understands power and skillfully wields it to make a difference in how legislators organize, engage next-generation voters, and connect with constituents through their personal stories of adversity and transcendence.
During the rise of authoritarianism in the United States and worldwide, her relentless penchant for speaking truth to power has given me hope amid political discord and darkness. Although I’m not always 100 percent in concert with each of AOC's views, I’m appreciative of her contagious commitment to truth-telling no matter the cost. Take Up Space reminds us that AOC is a powerful figure who brings with her the multitudes, past, and present, as gorgeously written by Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez in the chapter “A Child of Borinquen,” about the complexities of her identity as a bilingual Puerto Rican woman who grew up with one foot in the Bronx and the other in Westchester. Of both the roots and possibilities of the young legislator’s indelible impact on a rapidly shifting political landscape and bench, Gonzalez-Ramirez writes, “Ocasio-Cortez has more than tapped into the outspokenness of the mujeres before her, firing back at her critics on Twitter and at times calling out her congressional colleagues for everything from negligence to cowardice. And she’s not alone.”
Take Up Space expertly chronicles the life and work of an emergent political giant whose meaningful work is just getting started. Moreover, it issues an invitation to readers to ignite their own power without asking for permission to change a game that may not be designed for them to win it.
Jamia Wilson is the author of The ABCs of AOC, illustrated by Krystal Quiles.
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