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Black History Month 2020: Home

So Many Books!

Celebrate Black History Month with these #OwnVoices books by writers from across the African diaspora. Several of these titles were suggested by your peers!

Looking for more? These are just a selection of the books we have--and there are even more available through iShare and your local public library. And don't forget to check out the films on display, too!

Art & Music

Gather Out of Star-Dust: A Harlem Renaissance Album by Melissa Barton et al

Southern Exposure: The Overlooked Architecture of Chicago's South Side by Lee Bey with Amanda Williams

The Black Skyscraper: Architecture and the Perception of Race by Adrienne R. Brown

Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work by Edwidge Danticat

Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman by Jeffreen Hayes

The Chicago Black Renaissance edited by Darlene Clark Hine & John McClusky, Jr.

She Begat This: Twenty Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by Joan Morgan

Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths edited by Allen F. Roberts, Tom Joyce, Marla Berns, William Joseph Dewey, Henry John Drewel, & Candice Lee Goucher 

Beyoncé in Formation: Remixing Black Feminism by Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley

Literature: Novels, Poetry, & Stories

Poetry

The January Children by Safia Elhillo

1919 by Eve L. Ewing

Electric Arches by Eve L. Ewing

The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon by Willie Perdomo

Indecency by Justin Phillip Reed

Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith

Graphic Novels

Ironheart: Those With Courage by Eve L. Ewing, Matt Milla, & Clayton Cowles, et al

Hot Comb by Ebony Flowers

March series by John Lewis, Nate Powell, & Andrew Aydin, et al

Angola Janga: Kingdom of Runaway Slaves by Marcelo d'Salete & translated by Andrea Rosenberg

Novels & Novels in Verse

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Later Novels by James Baldwin

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

Pet by Awkwaeke Emezi 

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (co-winner of the 2019 Man Book Prize)

Knots by Nuruddin Farah

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

Selected Poems by Claude McKay

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor 

The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, & Jonathan Snipes

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

The Underground Railroad: A Novel by Colson Whitehead

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

American Street by Ibi Zoboi

Essays, Short Stories, & Collections

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs

New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent edited by Margaret Busby

Kirk? Krak! by Ediwidge Danticat

Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves edited by Glory Edim

Books for Young Folks

Picture Books

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander & Kadir Nelson

Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick D. Brown & Gordon C. James

Parker Looks Up by Parker Curry, Jessica Parker, & Brittany Jackson 

Talkin' About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman by Nikki Grimes & Earl B. Lewis

Auntie Luce's Talking Paintings by Francie LaTour

The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth, & Harlem's Greatest Bookstore by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson & R. Gregory Christie

Thunder Rose by Jerdine Nolan

Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o & Vashti Harrison

Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold

Another by Christian Robinson

Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford & Eric Velasquez

Works for Middle-Grade Folks

Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets written by Kwame Alexander with Chris Colderley & Marjory Wentworth & illustrated by Ekua Holmes

Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood written by James Baldwin & illustrated by Yoran Cazac

As Brave As You by Jason Reynolds

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

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