black books matter
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28 Days of Literary Blackness with VSB | Day 23: Cane by Jean Toomer
Publisher Synopsis: Jean Toomer’s Cane is one of the most significant works to come out of the Harlem Renaissance, and is considered to be a masterpiece in American modernist literature because of its distinct structure and style. First published in 1923 and told through a series of vignettes, Cane uses poetry, prose, and play-like dialogue…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 22: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Publisher’s Synopsis: A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for 16 weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 21: Blended by Sharon M. Draper
Publisher Synopsis: Eleven-year-old Isabella’s parents are divorced, so she has to switch lives every week: One week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighborhood. The next week she’s Izzy with her mom and…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 20: The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman
Publisher Synopsis: The groundbreaking Harlem Renaissance novel about prejudice within the black community Emma Lou Morgan’s skin is black. So black that it’s a source of shame to her, not only among the largely white community of her hometown of Boise, Idaho, but also among her lighter-skinned family and friends. Seeking a community where she…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 19: We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. by Samantha Irby
Publisher Synopsis: Sometimes you just have to laugh, even when life is a dumpster fire. With We Are Never Meeting in Real Life., “bitches gotta eat” blogger and comedian Samantha Irby turns the serio-comic essay into an art form. Whether talking about how her difficult childhood has led to a problem in making “adult” budgets,…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 17: Heavy by Kiese Laymon
Publisher Synopsis: In Heavy, (Kiese) Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to his trek to New York as a young college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness with VSB | Day 16: The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
Publisher Synopsis: The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in effecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of post-independence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 15: Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
Publisher Synopsis: On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local, state and federal police attempted to question her about the shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that had claimed the life of a white state trooper. Long a target…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 14: all about love: new visions by bell hooks
Publisher Synopsis: “The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet … we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, the renowned scholar, cultural critic, and…