2018 Black History month reading

In addition to the six picture books written about yesterday, there were two comic books, between one and three books of poetry (I will explain that), thirteen other books, and two documentaries. That may seem like a lot, but I am planning out next year and it is going to be much more intensive. Once again, this is why I never really finish during the month in question.

Poetry

I wanted to make my poet of focus Maya Angelou, and my library searches kept giving me things about her or things she was mentioned in. I did find one themed collection of poems - Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women - which I took as a good start, but also the biography in the book gave the names of her different other works. That led me to Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry, which is what I'd wanted all along. Keyword searches have their place, but sometimes knowing the exact title is much more helpful.

In addition, I read Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. This was another book to receive Coretta Scott King honors. It reads as a story, but the formatting is really more poetry, and pretty cleverly done without taking away from the emotional impact of the book.

So yeah, I read three books of poetry, but every poem in the first book was in the second book, and the third book was also kind of like a YA novel.

Comic books

Also looking back at the Coretta Scott King awards, I think I saw March Book Two  for last year, but this year I read March Book Three, by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, with art by Nate Powell. The whole series has been so good, but this particular segment made me think of some things that will lead to at least two additional blog posts. I cannot recommend the series highly enough.


Bingo Love by Tee Franklin, art by Jenn St-Onge, colors by Joy San, and letters by Cardinal Rae. I have been following Tee Franklin and her efforts to promote other writers and books for some time, and I was thrilled to be able to support her Kickstarter for her own work. I know there have been a lot of ups and downs, but I am glad she has done this, and I hope she has some idea of the inspiration she has been.

Other Books

Without meaning to find a children's book, I did anyway. Searching for a different book on Harriet Tubman I found Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent: How Daring Slaves and Free Blacks Spied For the Union During the Civil War by Thomas B. Allen. I checked it out from curiosity, and I think it's a pretty good treatment. It is meant for younger readers, clearly, but it gives a good introduction to the Black Dispatches and the Combahee River Raid, and maintains good excitement.

Three of the books were ones whose names had stuck out in my mind. They may follow a similar naming style, but also two of them are very old and have been referenced a lot, but then were kind of frustrating, with the newer one being really excellent. There will be more on that, but for now, know that I read The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward, Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery by Leon Litwick, and The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist.

Also a book referenced in other reading, it really felt like time for Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington. However, that also went with reading Maureen K. Lux's Separate Beds for my Native American Heritage reading, and God's Hotel by Victoria Sweet, and other books about healing, some read, and some still to be read.

Speaking of healing, that led to reading Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing  by Joy DeGruy. That made an interesting counterpoint to Debby Irving's Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race. I will write about the two of them in conjunction with So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo,

I finally got around to reading Bone Black by bell hooks, and The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. I had not meant to read more non-historical books really, but then so many things in Butler's book appeared so pertinent to our times, that I had to read its follow-up, The Parable of the Talents. Believe me, I will write more about that.

The first non-picture book I read was Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood by Jay McLeod. The last was Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow: an organizing guide by Daniel Hunter. Their order largely came from having copies of them - one physical, one electronic - and not having to get them from the library. In their own way they do kind of go together too, as one is looking at the problems and one is looking at the solutions. It's just a different perspective.

Documentaries

Believe it or not, I have previously never seen anything by Spike Lee. I had specific reasons for needing to watch 4 Little Girls, and then that made me think I should really watch When the Levees Broke, and they both inspired many thoughts as well.

Anyway, there will be lots of messy thoughts coming, so please enjoy the relative organization of this particular post. I would say I will start going through them Monday, but I may need to spend some time first on the garbage that is Lars Larson.