And as these books go out of copyright and different editions become available, we are losing many important Introductions and Prefaces that created intellectual and historical genealogies.

(I'm a Harlem Renaissance scholar by inclination, despite circumstances.)

And, sure, despite the wealth of available work, some people still have to fight credentialing bodies—thanks, underread peer reviewers and committees—to demonstrate that Black women's intellectual genealogies are rich and *enough.* More than enough.

And, you know, I have zero interest in claiming that people who nourish me are the "black Simone de Beauvoir" or the "black Melanie Klein" or the "black [name your legible white intellectual]."

Such demands are violent and cruel.

A few things:

Why did I publish with a university press? Because I walked into my undergrad library and found shelves with works I could cite. Works that mapped genealogies that excited me. And I want to be part of *that* tradition.

Because maybe one day someone will run into my stuff in a used bookstore—I found so many treasures in such stores—and think to themselves, "hey, I, too, can write something that will one day be found in a used bookstore."

Used books *save* broke students.

Because even though I took a different intellectual path from the books and articles that inspired me—and we can talk about the shape of the academy that *demanded* that difference—I still locate myself in that genealogy-making tradition.

Also, it's amazing to see work published over the last decade or so that was nurtured in the same soil that nurtured me. It's such a treat to see the questions that animated my cohort of scholars assume new life in books and articles, all while creating new possibilities.

Who ever imagined that a book focusing on black gay cultural and intellectual production in the 1970s and 80s would exist, much less win a major award from the MLA? https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo29202972.html

And I hope that even as we pursue new and different intellectual passions, we continue to map and honor the work that has nurtured us.

*Publishers, a book on Introductions and Prefaces by Black women scholars is necessary.