With #BlackHistoryMonth officially here, it is always a reminder for us to read and celebrate Black history and Black and Afro-Latine voices by amplifying the stories all year long.
From books that touch on diversity and how to make movements more inclusive to Black and Brown voices, to stories from the lived experience of Black women, to history itself, we have compiled a list of books to add to your reading list this Black History Month. Check out the list below!
Hood Feminism | By Mikki Kendall
In her searing collection of essays, Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with incisive commentary on reproductive rights, politics, pop culture, the stigma of mental health, and more, Hood Feminism delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux. An unforgettable debut, Kendall has written a ferocious clarion call to all would-be feminists to live out the true mandate of the movement in thought and in deed. (Penguin Random House)
Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed | Edited by Saraciea J. Fennell
Edited by The Bronx Is Reading founder Saraciea J. Fennell and featuring an all-star cast of Latinx contributors, Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed is a ground-breaking anthology that will spark dialogue and inspire hope.
In Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed, bestselling and award-winning authors, as well as up-and-coming voices interrogate the different myths and stereotypes about the Latinx diaspora. These fifteen original pieces delve into everything from ghost stories and superheroes, to memories in the kitchen and travels around the world, to addiction and grief, to identity and anti-Blackness, to finding love and speaking your truth. Full of both sorrow and joy, Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed is an essential celebration of this rich and diverse community. (Macmillan)
Ni De Aquí Ni De Allá | By Ángela Abréu
Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá is a fresh collection of diverse voices from the Dominican community that offers a balance of contemporary writers of multiple generations of the Dominican diaspora. The world of Dominican literature we grew up in taught us how stories become a fierce tool that serves to amplify the realities of some while muting and many times erasing the experiences of many. This anthology includes stories that are a product of those generations. In them, you will find people who navigate homesickness, nostalgia, assimilation, identity, immigration, and so many other societal factors created by the systems of both the United States and the Dominican Republic. While these individuals grapple with full acceptance or a sense of home in both societies, the contributors put words on paper so that we can find our own full selves in the spaces created by their words. Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá attests to the vibrancy, power, and force of the sentimientos encontrados within the balance of both the here and the there. (Google Books)
An African American and Latinx History of the United States | By Paul Ortiz
An intersectional history of the shared struggle for human rights from 1776 to present, Paul Ortiz’s new book, An African American and Latinx History of the United States, places Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa at the center of the development of democracy in the United States. Recovering the internationalist perspectives of the anti-slavery and Reconstruction-era movements for global emancipation, ordinary people sought to build bridges of solidarity between the nations—not walls. An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a recasting of American history which explores the power of the people to organize and triumph over corrupt institutions. (People’s Forum)
Inclusion Revolution: the essential guide to dismantling racial inequity in the workplace | By Daisy Auger-Domínguez
We are in the midst of a global reckoning on race, and corporations are on high alert. But conventional approaches have fallen short, leaving nagging questions about next steps. Why do diversity trainings fail? What’s so wrong with a company’s “colorblind” workplace culture?
In Inclusion Revolution, Daisy Auger-Domínguez provides frank answers to why popular efforts fail. She then presents the definitive roadmap for revolution through her dynamic step-by-step process: Reflect, Visualize, Act, and Persist. She offers proven, research-based strategies for racially inclusive management. Racial inequality in the workplace is a problem we can solve. Inclusion Revolution offers the necessary tools for managers to address issues of race, power, and exclusion to build change that lasts. Because through the best teams, companies can finally create a stronger future. (Barnes & Noble)
Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design & Race | by Kelly Walters
Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators centers the unique narratives of Black, Brown, and Latinx design educators, from their childhood experiences to their navigation of undergraduate and graduate studies and their career paths in academia and practice. The interviewees represent a cross-section of ethnic and multiracial backgrounds–African American, Jamaican, Indian, Pakistani, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, and Brazilian. Their impactful stories offer invaluable perspectives for students and emerging designers of color, creating an entry point to address the complexities of race in design and bring to light the challenges of teaching graphic design at different types of public and private institutions. Interwoven throughout the book are images that maintain cultural significance, from family heirlooms to design works that highlight aspects of their cultural identities. Readers will gain insight into the multitude of experiences of Black, Brown, and Latinx design educators who teach and work in the field today. (Reparations Club)
So You Want to Talk About Race? | By Ijeoma Oluo
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to “model minorities” in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism and how they infect almost every aspect of American life. (Reparations Club)
Black Women Writers At Work | Various Authors
Through candid interviews with Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Gwendolyn Brooks, Alexis De Veaux, Nikki Giovanni, Kristin Hunter, Gayl Jones, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Margaret Walker, and Sherley Anne Williams, the book highlights the practices and critical linkages between the work and lived experiences of Black women writers whose contributions to the literary world laid the foundation for many who have come after.
Responding to questions about why and for whom they write, and how they perceive their responsibility to their work, to others, and to society, the featured playwrights, poets, novelists, and essayists provide a window into the connections between their lives and their art. (Reparations Club)
The Poet X | By Elizabeth Acevedo
Winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award.
Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth. (Reparations Club)
Chula | By Amanda Alcántara
Amanda Alcántara is a gorgeous collection of bilingual poems, short stories, and vignettes, centered around her experiences as a woman from the Dominican Republic and what her life was like before and after she moved from her country to the United States. It’s a deep self-exploration from Alcántara that spans from her early childhood until well into her very different life as an adult. (Pop Sugar)
We Are Owed | By Ariana Brown
A book of poetry by Black Mexican-American poet Ariana Brown, “We Are Owed” is a collection of poems that focus on Blackness in relation to Mexican and Mexican-American cultures, largely based on her experiences both during her upbringing in Texas and during visits to Mexico. The poems discuss anti-Black sentiments, Black erasure, the implications of slavery in Texas and Mexico, and many other topics that are unique to people with her experience as a Black person with Mexican ancestry. (Pop Sugar)
About the Author
Priscilla Castro
Priscilla Castro is #WeAllGrow’s Director of Digital Content & Partnerships. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and follow her at @kodeofkondukt. Read more of Priscilla’s pieces here.
