Rebecca Walker

After graduating from Yale University, she and Shannon Liss (now Shannon Liss-Riordan) co-founded the Third Wave Fund, a non-profit organization aimed at encouraging young women to get involved in activism and leadership roles.[16] The organization's initial mission, based on Walker's article, was to "fill a void in young women's leadership and to mobilize young people to become more involved socially and politically in their communities."[17] In its first year, the organization initiated a campaign that registered more than 20,000 new voters across the United States. The organization now provides grants to individuals and projects that support young women. The fund was adapted as The Third Wave Foundation in 1997 and continues to support young activists. In the wake of the November 2016 presidential election in the United States, the organization received more than four times the normal number of requests for emergency grants.[18]

Walker views teaching as a way to give people the strength to speak the truth, to change perspectives, and to empower people with the ability to change the world.[5] She lectures on writing memoirs, multi-generational feminism, diversity in the media, multi-racial identity, contemporary visual arts and emerging cultures.[5]

Walker's first major work was the book To be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism (1996), which consisted of articles that she compiled and edited. The book reevaluated the feminist movement of the time. Reviewer Emilie Fale, an Assistant Professor of Communication at Ithaca College, described it: "The twenty-three contributors in To Be Real offer varied perspectives and experiences that challenge our stereotypes of feminist beliefs as they negotiate the troubled waters of gender roles, identity politics and "power feminism".[20] As a collection of "personal testimonies", this work shows how third-wave activists use personal narratives to describe their experiences with social and gender injustice.[21] Contributors include feminist writers such as bell hooks and Naomi Wolf. According to Walker's website, this book has been taught in Gender Studies programs around the world.[7]

In her memoir Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self (2000), Walker explores her early years in Mississippi as the child of parents who were active in the later years of the Civil Rights Movement. She also touches on living with two parents with very active careers, which she believes led to their separation. She discusses encountering racial prejudice and the difficulties of being mixed-race in a society with rigid cultural barriers. She also discusses developing her sexuality and identity as a bisexual woman.[22]

Her 2007 memoir Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After A Lifetime of Ambivalence explores her life with a stepson and biological son against a framework of feminism. She discusses traditional pregnancy topics, such as diet and preparing for labor. She encourages young women to understand that motherhood is possible even when they have a career or if they resist it because of having had a difficult childhood.[4] She says the book addresses the "work versus motherhood" trade-off that women of her generation and younger face after growing up in a social landscape that believes women must make a choice in order to have children.[4] She has said she was inspired to write the book by the birth of her son, Tenzin Walker. Her rearing of him has changed some of her views on motherhood and family bonds.[4] The book also revealed Walker's "tempestuous" relationship with her mother, Alice Walker; the two did not speak for a number of years as Rebecca was critical of how her mother viewed motherhood and treated her as a child.[23][24]

Walker was a contributing editor to Ms. magazine for many years. Her writing has been published in a range of magazines, such as Harper's, Essence, Glamour, Interview, Buddhadharma, Vibe, Child, and Mademoiselle magazines. She has appeared on CNN and MTV, and has been covered in The New York Times, Chicago Times, Esquire, Shambhala Sun, among other publications. Walker has taught workshops on writing at international conferences and MFA programs. She also works as a private publishing consultant.[7]

Her first novel, Adé: A Love Story, was published in 2013. It features a biracial college student, Farida, who falls in love with Adé, a black Kenyan man. The couple's plan to marry is interrupted when Farida gets malaria and the two must struggle through a civil war in Kenya. The novel was generally well received by critics and laypeople alike.[25]