This African-American history month, let’s discover new literature, music and film together. Every week for the month of February I am going to actively search for new material by African-American writers, performers and musicians to share. I am doing this to help reinforce the idea that white people, myself included, need to listen to voices that don’t sound like our own. Let’s start strong. Here’s some heavy hitting literature.
Dawn – Octavia E. Butler (Science fiction)
“Your people contain incredible potential, but they die without using much of it.”
What would you do if you lost your husband and son in the last stage of Earth’s final war? Furthermore, what if you woke up deep in the hold of a massive spacecraft piloted by an alien race who arrived just in time to save humanity from extinction?
If you’re ready for a novel with a fusion of horror and science fiction that will leave you hungry for the next book, this is one for you.
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide – Ntozake Shange (Poetry)
Read the first three words of the title, “For colored girls…” and your first impression might be that the word “colored” pertains to skin color. However, as you wade deeper into the poetry, you will find that none of the characters are known by name, and each girl is labeled by a color.
Each color serves as a symbolic metaphor for each girl. For example, the poem that contains the lady in red is suffering from domestic violence.
After reading this one, Shange will be your new favorite poet. She’ll make you laugh and she’ll make you cry.
March – Andrew Aydin and John Lewis (Graphic novel/autobiography)
“Find a way to get in the way.”
In a time of world and nationwide protest, why not feed your brain with this autobiographical graphic novel on Civil Rights icon John Lewis? In his vivid first-hand account, Lewis brings perspective to new protesters by telling of his lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, while also meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation.
Another Country – James Baldwin (Literature)
“All for the first time, in the days when acts had no consequences and nothing was irrevocable, and love was simple and even pain had the dignity of enduring forever. It was unimaginable that time could do anything to diminish it.
But it was only love which could accomplish the miracle of making a life bearable – only love, and love itself mostly failed.”
This is an emotionally intense novel of love, hatred and race in America in the 1960s. Set in Greenwhich Village, Harlem and France, it tells the story of the suicide of jazz-musician Rufus Scott and his friends, who search for a better understanding of his short life and sudden death, all the while discovering truths about themselves along the way.
Another Country will penetrate you more deeply than any other of Baldwin’s vast collection of novels.
