At this moment in history, my sincere hope is that 2020 will someday reflect a shift in our country toward recognizing what’s important: Life. Health. Family. Community. Sanity. There are three words that say more right now that any I can come up with:
For the time being, I am spending my time listening, reading, watching, talking to friends and family, and learning how I can deepen my understanding of what it’s like to be Black in America in order to be a better community member.
Fear of scrutiny, of messing up, of saying the wrong thing, of being part of the problem halt my words. Sometimes that’s okay. It’s not always my turn to talk. Right now, I am listening.
Here’s a partial list of books by Black authors I highly recommend:
- Tomi Adeyemi: Children of Blood and Bone, Children of Virtue and Venegance
- Crystal Allen: How Lamar’s Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy, The Laura Line, The Magnificent Mya Tibbs series, and more
- Lucille Clifton: Voices
- Ed Clayton: Martin Luther King, the Peaceful Warrior
- Ta-Nehisi Coates: Between the World and Me, Black Panther
- Marti Dumas: Jaden Toussaint the Greatest series, Jupiter Storm series, Seeds of Magic, and more
- Terrance Hayes: American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
- N.K. Jemisin: The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky, The City We Became
- John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell: March
- Toni Morrison: Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Sula, Jazz, Paradise, The Origin of Others
- Nnedi Okorafor: Akata Witch, Akata Warrior
- Jewell Parker Rhodes: Ninth Ward
- Clint Smith: Counting Descent
- Danez Smith: Don’t Call Us Dead
- Ronald L. Smith: Hoodoo
- Angie Thomas: The Hate U Give, On the Come Up
- Stephen Tulloch and Maria Dismondy: The Little Linebacker: A Story of Determination
- Derek Walcott: Collected Poems
- Alice Walker: You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down, In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens
- Linda William Jackson: Midnight Without a Moon, A Sky Full of Stars
- Rita Williams-Garcia: One Crazy Summer
- Jaqueline Woodson: Brown Girl Dreaming