It’s Lit
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PageTurners: Manifesting Black Joy Across All Genres
Black literature is something to be celebrated year-round but during this month of socially distanced debauchery, Black authors have set us bookworms up for success. On only the second day of February, many authors pulled out all of the stops and have given us memoirs, short stories, debut novels and untold stories. Journal prompts and…
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So…President Obama Showed Up to the Latest Very Smart Brothas x MahoganyBooks Book Club Meeting. Here's What Happened
Way back yonder—in late 2018—I co-founded a book club with the owners of MahoganyBooks, Derrick and Ramunda Young. This was a no-brainer of a collaboration. For one, all of us are avid readers and they own a physical book store that focuses on books by and for Black people. It was an opportunity to bring…
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'That Ideology of Colorism Affects All of Us': The Root Presents It's Lit! Talks Prose, Passing and the Power of Black Women With Brit Bennett
There’s a reason Black women call each other “sister.” Even if we bear no blood relation or resemblance—and despite our broad variances in color, economic and educational access and life experience—there is an innate knowing between Black women—of what it is to be a Black woman. Writer Brit Bennett has a deep understanding of this…
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John Ridley Talks Reshaping Both the Past and Future of DC Comics With The Next Batman and The Other History of the DC Universe
As a part of DC’s ongoing Future State event, The Next Batman depicts a near-future where Bruce Wayne/Batman is believed to have been murdered by a private, hyper militarized police force called The Magistrate. With caped crusading becoming a crime punishable by death, Tim Fox—son of tech genius Lucius Fox—dons the cape and cowl to…
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PageTurners: Historic Black Women and the Literary Legacies They've Paved
It has already been a historic year for Black women, and this week we can reflect on the legacies of history-making women who paved the way for our successes today. The long-awaited biography Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells; Cicely Tyson’s, Just as I Am: A Memoir; and…
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Capping Off a Winning Week, Amanda Gorman's First 3 Books Have Preemptively Garnered a Million First Prints
Ask any author or publisher, and they’ll tell you that garnering enough demand for reprints of any book is a very good sign. With that in mind, a million prints ordered prior to publication is a very rare indication of a predicted hit. After her performance at last Wednesday’s inauguration, Amanda Gorman’s publisher Penguin Random…
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All Boys Aren't Blue: George M. Johnson's Bestselling Memoir-Manifesto Becomes a Star-Studded Filmed Reading
Last year may not have brought an abundance of pleasures, but one of its standouts was George M. Johnson’s literary debut, All Boys Aren’t Blue. The Root 100 honoree’s “memoir-manifesto” not only became an instant bestseller and Amazon Best Book of the Year honoree but garnered a development deal with Gabrielle Union’s production company, soon…
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Four Hundred Souls: A Landmark Anthology Announces a Star-Studded Audiobook Cast
When The 1619 Project debuted in 2019, it shed much-needed perspective on the history of African descendants in America—and our birthright to a country founded upon the labor of our ancestors. In February, that history will be explored in even more depth with the publication of Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America,…
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'I’m the Whole Damn Aisle': The Root Presents: It’s Lit! Gets Into the Thick of It With Michelle Buteau
To say that Michelle Buteau keeps it real would be an understatement. The comedian, actress and now author of Survival of the Thickest: Plus-Sized Essays in a Small-Minded World, published in December by “Simon and Schu-Schu,” as she affectionately calls it, is proudly unfiltered—and hilariously so on this week’s episode of The Root Presents: It’s…
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PageTurners: In With the Old and In With the New
Today has been really emotional. My own moods swung from pure delight to pure anxiety as I woke up this morning and realized that #45 had left the White House as President for the last time—then pessimistically waited for something bad to happen during the Inauguration—but then tearing up the moment Vice-President Kamala Harris was…