Valarie Kaur, Sikh activist and bestselling author of See No Stranger
We are an America obsessed with self-seeking and self-perfection, driving a wellness industry that reaches more than 80 million people and fuels a market worth more than 650 billion dollars. An industry that promises to make you better, stronger, healthier and whole and meets an ever-increasing demand amongst Americans to “feel good” and find meaning in a cruel and confusing world. But while wellness soars so does inequality, insecurity and isolation. We don’t need more juice fasts and yoga fads--we need to detox from the ideologies of separation, supremacy and scarcity that are holding us back from our best selves.
The myth of wellness isn’t making us well. And until we confront the toxicity of our culture and systems, we won’t ever truly heal.
In American Detox, Kerri Kelly—community organizer and wellness activist—sounds a wake-up call. The wellness that we are so relentlessly seeking is only possible when we embody a mutual responsibility that goes beyond self care towards collective wellbeing. Through powerful storytelling, critical analysis and new/old wisdom, Kerri tackles America’s toxic culture rooted in perfectionism, white supremacy and individualism and explores a new paradigm for personal and societal wellness that is radical, relational and resilient. Along the way, she offers tangible practices and strategies for how to detox from the culture of separation, supremacy and scarcity and show up for the wellbeing of the whole. It is a timely book that disrupts the status quo and provokes radical responsibility, while also nourishing and sustaining our resistance and resilience. American Detox is a “personal reckoning meets citizen handbook” about waking up, reclaiming our wholeness and transforming our country from the inside-out.
"In American Detox, Kerri Kelly casts a vital, beautiful light into the dark corners of spirituality and wellness culture, helping illuminate the true meaning of wellness."
Spiritual revolutionary and best-selling author of 5-Minute Daily Meditations and Spiritually Sassy
"This book offers the reframe that is needed in a culture desperately seeking wellness and perfection while being bankrupt of the remembrance of our inherent wholeness."
Bestselling Author Radiant Rest
"Kerri Kelly is radically committed to our wellbeing by teaching us how to 'be well': within ourselves and with one another."
New York Times bestselling author of Me and White Supremacy
"Kerri Kelly has written us an intimate, honest, accountable, and thorough invitation into healing with American Detox."
adrienne maree brown is the writer-in-residence at the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute. adrienne’s work as a writer and podcaster focuses on pleasure activism, emergent strategy, visionary fiction and abolition.
"American Detox is the medicine this country needs right now. Urgent and unflinching, it exposes the structural and interpersonal practices that prevent us all from being well. Whether we’re looking to change our systems or change ourselves, Kelly’s words acts guides and rallies us towards the future we deserve."
Founder of Reclamation Ventures, author and magician
"This book is a power house. For anyone who cares deeply and yearns to live a meaningful life, one that yokes your most private moments with public actions and values, this book is a graceful and practical map. Full of research as well as intimate narrative, American Detox shows that how we do something is how we do everything.."
American actress and political activist
"We won’t change the system by who we hold back but by supporting those we trust and can get through the gates to go forth and throw wrenches in the gears of the system until they will cease to turn. Kerri walks with a pocket full of wrenches."
Author of Radical Dharma
"American Detox disrupts the myth of who gets to be well, exposes the constructs that benefit from people being ill, and provides insights into what needs to be done, individually and collectively, so that ALL beings have access to all that they need in order to thrive."
Author of Revolution of the Soul
"Kerri is not afraid to ask the hard questions or face difficult truths! American Detox challenges us to examine and confront the systems of injustice that cut us off from our belonging to each other and from our wholeness of spirit. A brilliant call for the reimagining of what it means to be well in our world."
Author of Trusting the Gold and Radical Compassion
"In American Detox Kerri Kelly boldly asks us to get curious and look into personal and collective dark spaces in order to more clearly see how deeply unwell we are. American Detox is a valiant, brave, and timely compass and tool that we need right now as so many navigate the often wild, predatory, and ailing space of the so called wellness industry."
Founder of Starshine & Clay Meditation and Yoga for Black Women and Women of Color, author of Pause, Rest Be and Gather
"We have built a culture of wellness from the master's tools of American capitalism, white supremacist delusion and disconnection, and yet, we continue to wonder why so many of us are deeply unwell. Late poet Audre Lorde told us "the master's tools will not dismantle the master's house". American Detox carries on in this tradition reminding us that we cannot purchase our way into well being. It is built of the materials of interconnectedness and belonging and without them we can't manifest the highest form of wellness which is humanity's wholeness."
Author of the New York Times Bestseller The Body is Not An Apology