W. D. Herstun

Herstun is a group of people from diverse parts of life using writing and elements of multimodal design to come together and learn about one another. Our ultimate mission is to bring people together using art, words, and motion that would otherwise never meet. I operate as the curator and editor.  #LetsGrow #LoveAlways

[whitnei-writes]

Next up are craft books. These books have no story LOL. I read them bc I have to. And I consult them. They like consultant books. Lmao. I was recently in grad school for a hot semester and a half. (Another story). A good deal of those books come from that stint. These books are hard to put in practice. I usually get assigned one or another, recognize it’s value, then take ten years with it. I’m still learning the Elements of Playwriting and bout that book in 2010. 😩😳 I’m still working my way through Re-Writing, Don’t Make Me Think!, and Letting Go of Words. Still weeding thru A Rulebook for Arguments and Rhetorical Devices. Think I may share some of those writing exercises. I’m working on Doing Grammar but I do hatttteeeee it. I’ve read some of these a million times. Ethics in Tech Comm is another class my mom took that was brilliant. I really enjoyed the professor, she was really nice. Mom got that multimedia book in that class too. And I spent many years staring at and trying to make it make sense lol. I kept it when I understood even tho it was outdated by then because the methodology is solid. I learned to research in the Army. They also taught me step by step analysis, how to recognize decision points, build multiple courses of action, and mitigate risk. But my fave lesson was the framework for researching regions. I hold it close Something I learned: If u want to learn how to really research the web or any digital database, grab a book on Boolean Algebra. Writing New York is the BEST ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN WRITING. Lol. I’m hella biased because I’ve had it a while but everyone has a short story in there: Zora, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Wong Chin Foo, Stephen Crane, James Weldon Johnson. It’s glorious. Good anthologies are a life hack bc you get to compare lots of styles for one price. Even though this book cost a lot of money. 🙃😂😩 #WritingCommunity #WritingForTheWeb #AmWriting #WritersOfIG #WritersOfInstagram #IGWriters #WriteMore #WriteEveryDamnDay #WritersLife #WritesCommunity #ReadBooks (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQB1M-MLnZz/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

Another love of mine is medical history. It’s fascinating and grotesque. My mom went back to school when I was like 9 or 10 and she used to take me to class with her. She had an intro to biology class that was so good I STILL REMEMBER. Lol. I kept the book and still reference it when I’m reading articles and don’t understand stuff. The pictures are GREAT. I’ve read Yuval Noah Harari a lot. Lol. People’s Science is another amazing book by Ruha Benjamin but it’s moving to another stack. (Even tho I think I might find connections in this category. But the biggest take away from this is that European-Western medical history is a game of bodily torture and sawing shit off in ways that are questionable. 🙃😳😂 #VillageOfCannibals #MedicalHistory #HistoryNut #HistoryGeek #BookNerd #Bookstagram #MedicalColonialism #Biology #Science #BookStack #BookStacks #BookStackSaturday #ReadMore #BloodAndGuts #BlackBibliophile (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQByDzErh-d/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

More power and politics. One of my guilty pleasures is presidential biographies. The level of research that goes into these books is unrivaled. Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith is wonderful. So is After Camelot by J. Randy Taraborrelli. I’ve read them both multiple times. I’m hoping to add a Bush book similar to After Camelot since so many of them are politicians too. The volume on Obama was a gift and I haven’t tackled it yet. I love Condelezza Rice’s book too. She introduced me to St. Petersburg before I ever saw it. Russia and Eastern Europe are always of interest to me. I’m looking to add a well done book on Putin eventually. These books are expensive and visually daunting but not really hard to read. I think biographers feel the pressure to get everything “right” because the public lives of these people are so accessible. Good reads. #Bookstagram #BlackBibliophile #BlackBookstammer #PoliticalJunkie #HistoryBuff #48LawsOfPower #Russia #Stalin #LyndonBJohnson #Power #TheKennedys #PresidentialBiographies #Biography #AfterCamelot #HistoryGeek #PoliSciNerd (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQBtivDrv5Z/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

Power, Beauty, Art, Religion, and Business. These titles are kind of random but the layout makes sense to me. Art and art history are super hard to pick up and learn but it’s been worth it. It’s like paintings and sculptures speak a separate, wordless language and when you learn to understand style, time period, and context, you begin to understand what they are saying. Understanding art has gone hand in hand with religious and political studies. All faiths & politicians have used art and artists have used faith & political systems because art is akin to power in ways I am still learning. These are some of my fave things to study and I left out larger and nerdier volumes lol. The sad thing about this category is these books are expensive and could take years to finish 😩. Dan Jones and Barry Strauss can write-write. They not playing NO games. And their books are beautiful. I really like Alexander Lee but the Ugly Renaissance was tough. It took me a long time to work through because I was researching a lot of the names and artworks he referenced. (Which is what makes art history tedious. 🙃) Notable missing are Roger Scruton and Umberto Eco. The Road to Al-Qaeda doesn’t belong here. And I haven’t read The Red Deal yet because I’m doing an intimate indigenous study & fiction reading and writing session. Indigenous studies is a huge area of weakness in my library but I’ve got a little fund going that’s gonna change that. In the mean time and in between time it’s podcasts and newspapers. I also have some really cool Black art books that I’ve already packed up. Currently, I’m studying surrealism. All the business and religious books pictured are hand me downs lol. Every woman in my family has a small library of religious texts and devotionals that I gather and read from time to time. And my mom reads a lot of business books then passes them along which I appreciate. Most of em are packed up. 😬 (cataloging business & religion will suck on the other end 😩🙃). #BookStack #Bookstagrammer #ReadMore #Power #Beauty #Art #Business #Religion #Politics #IGBooks #ReadingCommunity #NeedMoreBooks (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQBqb0TLIqw/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

This stack is mostly modern warfare since these books cover the engagements of the 21st century with the exception of a few civil war books and some Soviet battle tactics. (And Ordinary Men is about a murderous police BN in WW2 Poland, should be with the Europe stack. But The End by Ian Kershaw, from, the same period, really talks about the combination of insider subversion and battle tactics that ended Germany.) The technologies and legalities of war change so quickly. It’s crazy what funding will do for your cause. Jared Diamond is one of my fave historians and Guns, Germs, and Steel might not belong here. I’d like more books in the category, but mainly because I have a friend that loves to talk war history. Lol. His genuine excitement makes me want to keep learning. Also, some of this shit is fascinating. I highly recommend The Siege: 68 Hours Inside the Taj Hotel. (Worth noting: America is a bully. And few things are more horrifying and grotesque then a well-written firsthand account of battle.) #HistoryLovers #WarHistory #Bookstagram #IGBooks #Bookstagrammar #BlackBibliophile #ReadMoreBooks #Amerikkka #EndWar #StopStateViolence #BookStack #BookStackChallenge #Decolonize #Peace #LetsGrow #HerstunReads (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQBg-cirb29/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

The last of some Black Fiction, and a lot of YA. Notably THE badass #BenildeLittle. Acting Out is always good with a glass of wine. 😌 and I plan to own every book #PearlCleage has ever written. I’m getting there lol. Important, if random: I’ll be starting a Caribbean fiction section when I get settled. Not pictured is one of my FAVE YA BOOKS EVER, Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. @thisbrownegirlreads, has opened my eyes to new textures in Blackness that I knew about but didn’t perceive well. Watching the group devour Caribbean fiction there are so many authors I have swallowed into the umbrella of “Black Fiction”. In this stack, there is #MaikaMouliteAndMaritzaMoultie, Haitian Americans. The rest of these are ode to my childhood mostly. I like to re/read them and practice writing digestibly. Mildred Taylor and Walter Sean Myers were some of the first people I tried to write like growing up. Also took hella heat from my entire family for reading all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Idk WHY I loved them. 😬😳🤷🏾‍♀️🤣🤣🤣 Turns out, I just like the country. Lol. Judy Blume, Beverly Clearly were also loved. But THE GIVER. By Lois Lowry. Read it til the wheels fell off. 😆🙃☺️ #LetsGrow #YA #YALovers #YABookstagram #YABooks #YAbookclub #YABookStack #ReadTheWorld #LauraIngallsWilder #YABookstagrammer #ThisBrowneGirlReads #YoungAdultBooks #YoungAdultFiction #YoungAdults (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP9I4eILunR/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

Africa. AND. Latin America. They are my fave topics because there is so much to learn. I started with the Yoruba and traced their people and faith systems all the way up through Mexico and into Texas/Louisiana. Tent of Miracles is one of my fave books because it gave me an inside look at Candomble. Every teacher of African history I’ve had assigned Exterminate All the Brutes. It’s an HBO special now. When I was 19/20 I took an African History class that effed me up. He assigned this book “Problems in African History”. To which I politely asked (after sitting in class for several weeks) when we would be discussing the triumphs of African History?... Apparently his PhD wasn’t in that part... Listening to his interpretation of what I’m sure are scared things, important matters... it made me realize that WHO you study with is just as important as WHAT you study. I vowed not to study African history without proper tutelage again. Whoever was in that class with me may be walking around Earth right now thinking they understand Africa’s problems... how sway? Beyond me. Nnedi Okorafor will move, but she’s writing African fantasy explicitly so I wanted to picture her here. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book features a MC that goes between Africa and America. Wonderful book. Two years ago I joined @thisbrownegirlreads and I’ve stepped my game up. I’ve been learning about African authors from all over the diaspora and on the motherland, the Daughters of New Africa is with that crew, so it’s getting pulled and set aside in the “don’t tape me shut and keep me on top book box” 😳 y’all have those when u moving? Lmao. I’m hype. New things. New scenes. And new booooks. Because I am going to go country by country or culture by culture and find me some Africans asking and answering questions around humanity. Lol. What I gotta do? Learn a new language? Bet. Why not. Hell, I’m alive. (The slightness of this book stack is why I always insist: “iono shit about Africa fam. We betta go find us some Africans 😬🤷🏾‍♀️🙃😆). #LetsGrow #LetsLearn #Africa #SouthAmerica #Mexico #AfricaMotherLand #VivaLaMexico #Bookstagram #BlackBibliophile #ReadTheWorld #ThisBrowneGirlReads (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP9Aihfrskp/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

Super general category of Asia, from the Middle East to Eurasia to America via immigration. Some fascinating stories here, completely different take on what it means to be human. Most of these are adult fiction. I’m moving Somaly Mam. And Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson is a great non-fiction read, even if it hints at saviorism. I need more Middle Eastern literature, and more variety & nuisance in my Asian literature. What are the Thai writing? The Vietnamese? It’s on my list of things to keep an eye out for, specifically in fantasy. I want to know what worlds and magic keep writers on the other side of the world awake. My faves are Khaled Hosseini’s books, the Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan and No-No Boy by John Okada. #BookStackChallenge #BookStack #JoknOkada #RuiyanXu #PearlSBuck #AmyTan #ValleyOfAmazement #KhaledHosseini #AmReading #Bookstagram #BlackBibliophile #ThisBrowneGirlReads #ReadTheWorld (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP887V7rCKu/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

Tech + Business + Nation-Building. Alludat. Moving Ruha. She belongs elsewhere methinks. How do these books and the entities they talk about consider humanity? There are going to be some fun reads on technology and machinery and where they meet humanity biologically and anatomically, shit, even genetically. Fascinating shit really. Also, Valley of Genius was a great book alongside Counterculture to Cyberculture because it reintroduces all the main characters in script form. It’s cool. After learning all about them, then meet them they Ruha Benjamin LOL. Who has has some pertinent questions about their power and what is at stake in Race After Technology. It also presents the idea that a web of things can’t be for everyone if accessibility doesn’t meet equity. Good shit to think about this stack. I love technology. (Also, moving Why Nations Fail.) Most of these books deserve a deeper re-reading for questions I’m considering. #BookStack #BookStackChallenge #Bookstagram #AmReading #RaceAfterTechnology #TechReads #RuhaBenjamin #Business #WebForEveryone #Accessibility (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP85mGQLWAx/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

Some of my favorite non-fiction by White folks. (I’m moving Sherman Alexie). I should reorganize these when I get where I’m going. Most are motivational. Some are terrible stories of abuse with little redemption. I love all of these books and most the writers which is why you see their names multiple times in many cases. ☺️ I’d like to look at the way these authors grapple with their humanity and the humanity of their assumed target audiences. Im going to skim most of them. The Law of Divine Compensation by Marianne Williamson is one of my all-time favorite books. So is everything Brene wrote lol. Even if it gets my ass busted up sometimes. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert was another great read. I plan to stare race in the face for this project: What does it mean to be human? And why is being human so important? Therefore, separating modern books with miscellaneous topics by race made the most sense to me. At the very least knowing what I have will tell me with more accuracy what I need. (Outside of some serious time with the academic studies already completed in the fields surrounding the topic.) #AmReading #BookStack #BookStackChallenge #BookLover #NonFiction #BreneBrown #ElizabethGilbert #BigMagic #MarianneWilliamson #ReadersOfIG #ReadingCommunity #Bookstagram #BookishPost #BookNerdigans #BlackBibliophile (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP82ogiLVlj/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

Super short stack of historical fiction. I usually read these for fun so I don’t buy them. Kindle or library if possible. Unless it’s by Philippa Gregory. I own a lot of her books but they are not naturally finding each other. 🙃😆🤷🏾‍♀️ I majored in history so these are fun ways to reimagine periods that I studied in school. I’m always really careful though. These books are usually odes to white power that didn’t exist in the actual time period. People of color have been strewn throughout these worlds, even in positions of royalty by marriage and for wealth, right up until 1400s when chattel slavery coincided with “discovery” and colonialism creating a global trade in humans based on SKIN color and not CONQUEST or RELIGIOUS differences or DEBT peonage. So, yes. Love historical fiction, but always weary of the worlds it reconstructs because our history curriculums are LACKING in America. 😩🤷🏾‍♀️ #LetsGrow #HistoricalFiction #PhilippaGregory #Novels #AmReading #Bookstagram #BlackBibliophile #Books #BookGeek #BookLover #ReadingCommunity #BookNerdigan #HistoryGeek #HistoryNerd (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP8YJr8L4A2/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

So. Much. Black. Fiction. #AmReading #LoveBooks #EricJeromeDickey #PearlCleage #Sapphire #BerniceLMcFadden #TimothyBMcCann #Zane #RosslynCarrington #RitaCoburnWhack #WahidaClark #ELynnHarris #SupportBlackWriters #ThisBrowneGirlReads #BookStack #BookStackChallenge I will never stop buying in this genre. I added American Marriage and a few more over the last years that aren’t pictured. Probably hiding or they’ve been re-homed. These are the books that my friends and fam borrow the most! ♥️✊🏾☺️ #ReadingIsFun #MovingIsNot (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP7O4HLrnww/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

Yeeeesssssss. These are some of my favorite stories. My quickies but goodies. Mostly Afro-American or Black American fiction by authors like Sandra Kitt, Eric Jerome Dickey and Marcus Major. (Judy Blume and Friday Night Lights are randomly chilling too lol.) I love me a good RnB novel!!! Books have ALWAYS been the love of my life but I’ve not always been able to afford them. My mom and aunts have passed down hundreds of titles, and their fave genre? Romance, drama, and all that schnazz. So. Here I am. The owner of a ton of lovely #BlackFiction and I’d have it no other way. I am gonna leave the Eric and Sandra out for my kid to steal early. Lol. Talented storytellers they are. 😌😂😍🥰 These books are home. I may not need them for my project, but if I did ask questions of them it oils be, how did these authors imagine humanity for their characters? How did they bring them to life? What environments did they come alive in? What do they have in common and what sets them apart from fiction by authors that are not Black? #ThisBrowneGirlReads #WellReadBlackGirl #BlackBibliophile #Bookstagram #BookLover #BookGeek #BookNerd #BookTok #BookGirlMagic #SupportBlackArt #SupportBlackAuthors #AmReading #BlackLiterature #LiteraryFiction #Romance #BookStack (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP7M_1ZrLu6/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

Yeeeesssssss. These are some of my favorite stories. My quickies but goodies. Mostly Afro-American or Black American fiction by authors like Sandra Kitt, Eric Jerome Dickey and Marcus Major. (Judy Blume and Friday Night Lights are randomly chilling too lol.) I love me a good RnB novel!!! Books have ALWAYS been the love of my life but I’ve not always been able to afford them. My mom and aunts have passed down hundreds of titles, and their fave genre? Romance, drama, and all that schnazz. So. Here I am. The owner of a ton of lovely #BlackFiction and I’d have it no other way. I am gonna leave the Eric and Sandra out for my kid to steal early. Lol. Talented storytellers they are. 😌😂😍🥰 These books are home. I may not need them for my project, but if I did ask questions of them it oils be, how did these authors imagine humanity for their characters? How did they bring them to life? What environments did they come alive in? What do they have in common and what sets them apart from fiction by authors that are not Black? #ThisBrowneGirlReads #WellReadBlackGirl #BlackBibliophile #Bookstagram #BookLover #BookGeek #BookNerd #BookTok #BookGirlMagic #SupportBlackArt #SupportBlackAuthors #AmReading #BlackLiterature #LiteraryFiction #Romance #BookStack (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP7M1nWrc3Y/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

Current collection of British/American classic authors, this is a category I may look to expand. (With Fydoor & some random plays of Sophocles work thrown in for good measure. 🙃🤷🏾‍♀️ lmao.) These are the books that were assigned to challenge us in middle and high school. Not much critical analysis on the subject matter, even after college English classes, but some beautiful writing nonetheless. Some I loved more than others, Crime and Punishment, The Crucible, Scarlett Letter, and Lord of Flies over Wuthering Heights & Sense and Sensibility please!! I guess I would re-read these looking for what these ‘canonical’ writers considered human by looking at their stories and the way they treat... humans. If I use them at all. They may just get skimmed for theme. 🤷🏾‍♀️🤨😬 Sometimes, I pretend that I haven’t read these books to see how the ppl suggesting them respond. At times the response is excitement to share something new, and sometimes the response is “well then u don’t know what good writing is”. Either way, there are many missing here. Lots of Hemingway and Steinbeck lost somewhere. Or already packed up. 🤷🏾‍♀️😳🙃 Moving sucks but re-working my books is always something I NEED to do when starting a new project or considering a new question. So. What’s it mean to be human? Guess we spend some years figuring it out. 😌😆 #LetsGrow #Bookstagram #BlackBibliophile #AmReading #AmericanLiterature #BritishLiterature #LiteraryFiction #BookStack #BookStackLove #BookStackChallenge #BookNerd #BookGeek #ReadTheWorld #LoveBooks #BookLoveersOfInstagram #IGBooks (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP6wpGtLSEh/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

My first introduction to the evils of humanity was the Holocaust. After learning about Anne Frank, I became fascinated by the conditions that called for a teenage girl to be locked up, hidden away, & ultimately murdered. And so I read. These are some of the books I’ve collected and kept over the years. They mean something to me individually, and many were collected when traveling to see the death camps. They all need to be re-read in the context of what it means to be human. And of course, I’ll need to find more... I’m always flummoxed when people deny the existence of an event with so much historical corroboration. So many people lived and continue to live with the realities of the Third Reich. IMO, it’s like denying the moon exists when we look at it damn near every night. (Or denying structural racism exists in America... How did you get to this conclusion sir/ma’am?) Look at it. I think we need to look at it. Even as we consider the battle against Critical Race Theory, we should LOOK at the Holocaust, and what led to it. There’s no excuse to repeat mistakes that are this well documented. Anyway, the Holocaust was my gate because I found out as I grew up that the horrors of humanity are much further reaching than Western Europe. And much closer to home. They are also happening right now, as I post this. That fact is something my 12-y-o brain wouldn’t have been able to comprehend... I thought I was reading history... it’s over, right? The Holocaust is over... and we have grown. Well. Maybe we have not. Maybe we have just reorganized our horror so it’s palatable. These are the things I wonder... But can’t really answer. Lol. Happy Wednesday #IGBookClub. #LetsGrow #BookStack #Holocaust #Humanity #Bookstagram #ElieWiesel #BlackBibliophile #AmReading #HistoryLovers #HistoryNerd #HistoryGeek #ReadTheWorld (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP6Fqv5L4uF/?utm_medium=tumblr

[whitnei-writes]

ATL’s brand of funk intentionally teetered on the line between the sacred & secular, un-afraid to blend the aesthetics of faith, trauma, and perseverance in vocal and instrumental performances. Therefore, ATL hip-hop artists had a multilayered challenge… the validation of what Imani Perry argues is a contemporary urban South, the creation of a ‘unique meeting ground of the traditional, the old and new, plus the ‘same old, same old.’ OutKast’s intentional disjuncture of their southerness from the space and time vacuums that often dictate how the South is understood shifts paradigms of modernity and urbanity to reflect the on-the-fringe narratives of southern blacks. OutKast pivots on the use of the South as a renewable source of cultural currency and agency for blacks. Still, it was not lost on them or their ATL-reared and -based producers Organized Noize, consisting of Rico Wade, Sleepy Brown, & Ray Murray, that they needed to demonstrate their awareness of hip-hop’s identity as an urban cultural expression that could be used to reflect their experiences in ATL. @redclayscholar Again, Dr. Gina Mae is telling it the best. OutKast brought a unique blend of the gospel to the funk to the verse and we were left with something uniquely southern. Something you can climb into your headphones and lay down with, all while feeling at home. If my series of posts on #ChroniclingStankonia has influenced you to do nothing else… Git up, git out, and #ReadReginaBradley. In due time there will be a full book review over on @dablackpositive, and I will share it here too. Also, I am looking forward to Dr. Bradley’s newest project, and I am sure I will feel just as seen as I did in the covers of Chronicling Stank. #LetsGrow #PositivelyBlackBooks #BlackAndSouthern #BlackBibliophile #ReadersAreLeaders #ReadMoreEveryday #Bookstagram #BlackBookstagrammer #AmReading #BlackLivesMatter #SupportBlackArt #HerstunReads #SouthernLiving #HipHop #RespectRap #OutKast #iRead #KaroSyrup #Karo #RedClayScholar #AlbanyStateUniversity Image description & credits in comments. (at Cairo, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CPJuRKrrT_Z/?utm_medium=tumblr