African American Nonfiction (2023)Like this list

32 items

• A Little Devil in America

  Notes in Praise of Black Performance

  Abdurraqib, Hanif, 1983-

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  In this staggeringly intimate meditation, essayist and poet Abdurraqib chronicles Black performance in American culture. Filled with nuance and lyricism, Abdurraqib’s luminous survey is stunning. –Publishers Weekly

• My Pinup

  a Paean to Prince

  Als, Hilton

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  Pulitzer winner Als brings serpentine prose and acerbic wit to this slim, two-part take on Prince, desire, and loss. –Publishers Weekly

• Madam C.J. Walker

  the Making of An American Icon

  Ball, Erica

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  [A]n exhaustively detailed account of the life of Madam C.J. Walker, an early twentieth–century self-made entrepreneur who built an international conglomerate by selling beauty and hair-care products specifically designed for African…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• We Are Each Other's Harvest

  Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy

  Baszile, Natalie

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  Baszile has curated this anthology of essays, photographs, conversations, poetry, and more to explore Black farmers’ connections to the land in the U.S., from Emancipation to the present day. –Booklist

• Black Powerful

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  [Seattle-based Marin] explores the monumental resilience, joy, and triumph of Black People everywhere. –McSweeneys

• Wolf Hustle

  a Black Woman on Wall Street

  Fabré, Cin

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  Former stockbroker Fabré debuts with a rollicking account of joining Wall Street as a 19-year-old Black woman in the 1990s. –Publishers Weekly

• Four Hundred Souls

  a Community History of African America, 1619-2019

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  A compendium of essays and poems chronicling 400 years of Black American history. An impeccable, epic, essential vision of American history as a whole and a testament to the resilience of Black people. –Kirkus

• The Black Church

  This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song

  Gates, Henry Louis, Jr

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  A scholarly and intimate look at the Black Church’s prodigious history and potential future. Powerful, poignant, and ultimately celebratory. –Kirkus

• Inciting Joy

  Essays

  Gay, Ross, 1974-

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  Award-winning poet Gay ruminates on the concept and practice of bringing forth joy. Gay is a treasure, and his latest offering will delight his fans as well as those new to his work. –Library Journal

• Abolition Geography

  Essays Towards Liberation

  Gilmore, Ruth Wilson, 1950-

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  Gilmore is clear as a bell: potent and factual on injustice, filled with sharp intelligence and even wit, but also somehow continuously surprising and emotional. With every page, Gilmore forces us to think of race, class, prisons, and the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• You Gotta Be You

  How to Embrace This Messy Life and Step Into Who You Really Are

  Goodman, Brandon Kyle

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  [A]n ode to shaking off the expectations of others and tossing out the boxes that society nudges us all into. And above all, it asks every person to consider this question - who would I be if society never got its hands on me? – NPR

• Ghetto Gastro Black Power Kitchen

  Gray, Jon (Cofounder of Ghetto Gastro)

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  Black culinary traditions meet music, art, design, and fashion. The book's stories and recipes have been drawn from the Bronx's African American communities as well as the larger African diaspora. Alongside the deeply absorbing narratives…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Grimkes

  the Legacy of Slavery in An American Family

  Greenidge, Kerri K.

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  A multigenerational history of an American family that grappled with racism and reform. A sweeping, insightful, richly detailed family and American history. –Kirkus

• Rest Is Resistance

  a Manifesto

  Hersey, Tricia

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  Hersey, known as the Nap Bishop … emphasizes the importance of rest to racial- and social-justice work. –Booklist

• Constructing a Nervous System

  a Memoir

  Jefferson, Margo, 1947-

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  A fierce and fresh amalgamation of memoir and cultural criticism by one of the country's most compelling thinkers. –Library Journal

• All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End

  the Cartoons of Charles Johnson

  Johnson, Charles, 1948-

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  National Book Award--winning novelist Johnson[‘s] … comprehensive collection of his sharp and insightful political cartoons, published mostly in the 1960s and '70s. This provocative compendium shines a spotlight on Johnson's essential…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• We Do This 'til We Free Us

  Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice

  Kaba, Mariame

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  A collection of interviews and essays by one of the foremost organizers and writers in the abolitionist movement, We Do This 'Til We Free Us is a compelling introduction to a world without carceral systems -- and specifically, what futures…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Rehearsals for Living

  Maynard, Robyn

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  A correspondence between two writers (one Black, the other Indigenous) about the possibilities of liberatory futures in the face of climate catastrophe and the legacies of slavery and colonization.

• Illustrated Black History

  Honoring the Iconic and the Unseen

  McCalman, George

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  Inspiring profiles and portraits of pioneering figures in Black history. An enthusiastic, informative, and essential ode to Black American history. –Kirkus

• All That She Carried

  the Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

  Miles, Tiya, 1970-

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  Miles illuminates the lives of three generations of Black American women via a patched and embroidered cotton sack now displayed in the National Museum of African American History and Culture. –Publishers Weekly