Black History Month – Reading and Watching List

This list is in no way exhaustive but it should provide you with some inspiration. I know students have little time to read recreationally during the semester, so I challenge you to choose a month this year, or go the entire year reading books written by Black authors. 

*Some additions have been made since the publication of the print copy

Non-Fiction, Essays and Academic

1. Caste by Isabel Wilkerson 
2. Policing Black Lives by Robyn Marnard 
3. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric and Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
4. Whatever Happened To Interracial Love by Kathleen Collins 
5. You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson
6. The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae
7. Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison
8. The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell by W. Kamau Bell
9. Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace by Alana Raybon and Patricia Raybon
10. Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper
11. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
12. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo 
13. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo 
14. Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? By Beverly Tatum 

Memoirs 

1. Hunger by Roxane Gay
2. Becoming by Michelle Obama 
3. I Can’t Date Jesus by Michael Arceneaux
4. Fire Shut Up In My Bones by Charles M. Blow
5. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
6. No Ashes in the Fire by Darnell L. Moore
7. Black Man in a White Coat by Damon Tweedy

Poetry 

1. Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith 
2. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
3. Hum by Jamaal May
4. I’ll Fly Away by Rudy Francisco 
5. Mannish Tongues by jayy dodd

Fiction 

1. The Great Cities Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin
2. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet 
3. Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid 
4. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
5. It’s Not All Downhill From Here by Terry McMillan
6. Real Life by Brandon Taylor
7. The Travelers by Regina Porter
8. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
9. Memorial by Bryan Washington
10. The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
11. Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Browne 
12. Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
13. Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
14. Raybearer by Jordon Ifueko 
15. A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown 
16. A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow 
17. Swing Time by Zadie Smith 
18. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emez
19. Children Of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
20. The Changeling by Victor Lavalle
21. The Abduction of Smith and Smith by Rashad Harrison

Comics – Writers and Artists 

1. Farmhand by Rob Guillory
2. The Banks by Roxanne Gay
3. Excellence by Khary Randolph & Brandon Thomas
4. The Iron Circus Comics of Spike Trotman
5. The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage The Works of Denys Cowan
6. Bitter Root by David F. Walker, Chuck Brown and artist Sanford Greene
7. Black Panther/Captain America by Ta-Nehisi Coates
8. Deathstroke by Christopher Priest
9. Excellence by Brandon Thomas and artist Khary Randolph
10.  Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin and artist: Jamal Campbell

Documentaries 

1. The Skin We’re In – Desmond Cole 
2. Racial Wealth Gap Explained 
3. Chicago Seven 
4. Cultural Appropriation: Hair 

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