Check out ARC's Black History Month reading list!
1. Wake by Rebecca Hall. This graphic novel describes women-led slave revolts, primarily on the slave ships of the middle passage--as well as the process of uncovering this history. “The women used their relative mobility and access to weapons to plan and initiate revolt after revolt after revolt.“
2. Black on Both Sides by C. Riley Snorton. Black Trans history but also so much more--a a Black history of gender, a Trans history of race. Writing is dense, but so worth it. “My analysis here is invested in reviving and inventing strategies for inhabiting unlivable worlds.”
3. A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing by DaMaris B. Hill. Poetry, mixed with prose and photos, remembering incarcerated African American women from U.S. history.
“i say
you, a woman the color of wet sienna,
who wore the truth
as radiant as you? “
4. Everfair by Nisi Shawl. Alternate history of pluralist, queer, steampunk resistance to Belgium’s genocidal colonization of Congo. “Well then, do we truly need to discuss how I ought to present these offers? Peace or war? Freedom or bondage? Our answer is obvious.”
5. That the Blood Stay Pure by Arica Coleman. Painful history of African American / Native American relations in the context of Virginia’s effort to maintain “racial purity.” “By the dawn of the Jim Crow era, the colonial imposition of American Indian identity based on the absence of African ancestry would further exacerbate antagonism...”
6. Song in a Weary Throat by Pauli Murray. One of Murray’s memoirs, chronicling some of their brilliant efforts for racial and gender justice. “I was part of a tradition of continuous struggle, lasting nearly twenty years, to open the doors of the state university to Negroes.”
7. Miss Major Speaks by Toshio Meronek and Miss Major. An unforgettable series of interviews with Miss Major Griffin-Gracy about her life, work, communities, and vision. "The 99% of statues that celebrate one person, it’s bullshit. Those people didn’t get to do anything great without a damn crowd of people they worked with to get there.”
8. How Long ‘Til Black Future Month by NK Jemisin. Short story collection offering magical visions of Black pasts, futures, this world, and other worlds. "She understands why so many people hate her now. By existing, she reminds them of their smallness.”
9. The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe. Fierce collaboratively written sci fi offering visions of Black queer genderfuck musical resistance to colonization of our memories. “You were working to protect your own, but you decided everyone who didn’t fit your womanhood wasn’t worth protecting. Including me I guess, because I damn sure don't.”
10. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor. A Himba harmonizer travels to an intergalactic university, copes with trauma and transformation. ”We sat in my room and challenged each other to look out at the stars and imagine the most complex equation and then split it in half and then in half again and again.”
#BlackHistoryMonth #BlackFutureMonth
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ARC Gender Justice
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