Black by Popular Demand
Here we are in the 3rd week of the year with a full list!
We are pumped with books by Black authors this week! Check them out at Community Book Center of New Orleans.
Happy Reading!
Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds
What dreams do you carry? Myra Viola Wilds dreamed of opportunity.
She left her home in rural Kentucky for the city, learned to read and to write, and became a dressmaker. She hand-stitched gorgeous gowns. She worked so hard she lost her eyesight, and her world went dark. But those well-loved stitches turned into words, and one night Myra woke in the middle of the night and wrote a poem she called "Sunshine."
She kept writing. She wrote the lush green, sweet-corn yellow, cerulean blue, sunshine-y world from memory, collecting her poems into a book called Thoughts of Idle Hours, published in 1915.
This lyrical, gorgeously illustrated picture book biography celebrates this little-known poet and includes a biography that provides context to her life--the Great Migration, Jim Crow segregation--as well a photograph and a small selection of her poems.
(Children’s)
Greatness
When Nasir and Imani step into their Grandma's studio, she opens their minds to the power of a photograph. From Bessie Smith to Basquiat to Beyoncé, Grandma introduces them to famous figures and what makes them special. And before long, Nasir and Imani find themselves in the images and stepping into greatness, too.
True to their iconic photographic style, this picture book from Kahran and Regis Bethencourt reimagines powerful moments from Black history through the eyes of the youngest readers. With child-friendly recreations of famous figures from the past and present, this book reminds children of their own potential for greatness.
(Children’s)
How Sweet the Sound
Listen to the sound of survival, courage, and democracy--the soundtrack of America. Hear Billie Holiday's raspy, mournful voice, and tap your foot to Louis Armstrong's trumpet. Scream with James Brown and bop your head to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Can you spot the 80+ references to artists like Robert Johnson, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimi Hendrix, Whitney Houston, Lauryn Hill, and Beyonce?
Come dance to Kwame Alexander's melodious narrative of the history of Black music in America, accompanied by the vibrant illustrations of Charly Palmer.
(Children’s)
Death of the Author
The future of storytelling is here.
Disabled, disinclined to marry, and more interested in writing than a lucrative career in medicine or law, Zelu has always felt like the outcast of her large Nigerian family. Then her life is upended when, in the middle of her sister's lavish Caribbean wedding, she's unceremoniously fired from her university job and, to add insult to injury, her novel is rejected by yet another publisher. With her career and dreams crushed in one fell swoop, she decides to write something just for herself. What comes out is nothing like the quiet, literary novels that have so far peppered her unremarkable career. It's a far-future epic where androids and AI wage war in the grown-over ruins of human civilization. She calls it Rusted Robots.
When Zelu finds the courage to share her strange novel, she does not realize she is about to embark on a life-altering journey--one that will catapult her into literary stardom, but also perhaps obliterate everything her book was meant to be. From Chicago to Lagos to the far reaches of space, Zelu's novel will change the future not only for humanity, but for the robots who come next.
A book-within-a-book that blends the line between writing and being written, Death of the Author is a masterpiece of metafiction that manages to combine the razor-sharp commentary of Yellowface with the heartfelt humanity of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Surprisingly funny, deeply poignant, and endlessly discussable, this is at once the tale of a woman on the margins risking everything to be heard and a testament to the power of storytelling to shape the world as we know it.
(Literary)
Will's Race for Home
It's 1889, barely twenty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and a young Black family is tired of working on land they don't get to own.
So when Will and his father hear about an upcoming land rush, they set out on a journey from Texas to Oklahoma, racing thousands of others to the place where land is free--if they can get to it fast enough. But the journey isn't easy--the terrain is rough, the bandits are brutal, and every interaction carries a heavy undercurrent of danger.
And then there's the stranger they encounter and befriend: a mysterious soldier named Caesar, whose Union emblem brings more attention--and more trouble--than any of them need.
All three are propelled by the promise of something long denied to them: freedom, land ownership, and a place to call home--but is a strong will enough to get them there?
(Middle Grade)
I Am Nobody's Slave: How Uncovering My Family's History Set Me Free
I Am Nobody's Slave tells the story of one Black family's pursuit of the American Dream through the impacts of systemic racism and racial violence. This book examines how trauma from enslavement and Jim Crow shaped their outlook on thriving in America, influenced each generation, and how they succeeded despite these challenges.
To their suburban Minnesotan neighbors, the Hawkinses were an ideal American family, embodying strength and success. However, behind closed doors, they faced the legacy of enslavement and apartheid. Lee Hawkins, Sr. often exhibited rage, leaving his children anxious and curious about his protective view of the world. Thirty years later, his son uncovered the reasons for his father's anxiety and occasional violence. Through research, he discovered violent deaths in his family for every generation since slavery, mostly due to white-on-Black murders, and how white enslavers impacted the family's customs.
Hawkins explores the role of racism-triggered childhood trauma and chronic stress in shortening his ancestors' lives, using genetic testing, reporting, and historical data to craft a moving family portrait. This book shows how genealogical research can educate and heal Americans of all races, revealing through their story the story of America--a journey of struggle, resilience, and the heavy cost of ultimate success.
(Nonfiction)
