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Civil rights activist Tamika Mallory<\/strong> became a national figure weeks after Donald Trump<\/strong>\u2019s first election, when she was tapped to co-chair the Women\u2019s March as the shock of Hillary Clinton<\/strong>\u2019s loss led to a feeling of feminist revolt. She had already made a name for herself as an organizer against gun violence in New York City, and when she spoke in Washington, DC, on January 21, 2017, she connected her past work to the moment in a few simple words: \u201cToday I am marching for Black and brown lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Those who have listened to Mallory speak have likely heard snippets of the painful moments that built her commitment to social justice. But in her new book, I Lived to Tell the Story: A Memoir of Love, Legacy, and Resilience<\/a>,<\/em> she weaves her experiences with school struggles, abuse, motherhood, and loss into a story full of reflection and sociological detail.<\/p>\n And yet she wanted her memoir to strike a balance. \u201cIt brings up night tremors, it brings up feeling sick in my stomach. There were moments that I definitely had to turn it off in order for me to be able to just get through life,\u201d Mallory tells Vanity Fair.<\/em> \u201cSo I would say, as with everything else, as with the actual story, there\u2019s the balance of the wonderful, exhilarating, special moments. And then the trauma, if you\u2019re being honest, is also real.\u201d<\/p>\n