Black by Popular Demand
Summer is not yet over and you still have time to fit in another book, I promise! Check out L.E.M.S. Bookstore of Seattle while you’re at it.
Keep reading!
A Place of Our Own
In summertime, intrepid eight-year-old journalist Ava Murray and her best friend, Marisol, love to play hopscotch and double Dutch. But the hot asphalt of the sidewalk in their neighborhood makes them sweaty and burns their feet through their sneakers. When Ava's mother, Kim, tells her that the New York City Parks Department is building a new park in her neighborhood, she wants to make her voice and opinions heard.
Her mother takes her to a city council planning meeting, and Ava is given the chance to present her impassioned plea for shady trees, cool grass, and safe spaces for her and her friends to enjoy. And she's not going to stop there: Ava wants to write a story about the neighborhood children's needs for her local newspaper. She wants to talk about it on television and on the radio. She wants to gather the kids to make signs for a demonstration. And more!
Ava shows that being a journalist means not only reporting on her world, but also advocating for what she believes is right. In A Place of Our Own, Ava helps reveal to children the power of their own voices.
I Have a Dream - 60th Anniversary Edition
On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood before thousands of Americans who had gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. in the name of civil rights. Including the immortal words, "I have a dream," Dr. King's keynote speech would energize a movement and change the course of history.
With references to the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, Shakespeare, and the Bible, Dr. King's March on Washington address has long been hailed as one of the greatest pieces of writing and oration in history. Profound and deeply moving, it is as relevant today as it was sixty years earlier.
Plantains and Our Becoming: Poems
Poet and musician Melania Luisa Marte opens PLAINTAINS AND OUR BECOMING by pointing out that Afro-Latina is not a word recognized by the dictionary. But the dictionary is far from a record of the truth. What does it mean, then, to tend to your own words and your own record--to build upon the legacies of your ancestors?
In this imaginative, blistering poetry collection, Marte looks at the identities and histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to celebrate and center the Black diasporic experience. Through the exploration of themes like self-love, nationalism, displacement, generational trauma, and ancestral knowledge, this collection uproots stereotypes while creating a new joyous vision for Black identity and personhood.
