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February is Black History Month, as you probably know. In previous years, we’ve included a lot of Black historical information in this newsletter. This year I’d like to take a slightly different approach. While I certainly don’t want to lose focus on Black History, I think it’s also time to talk about how that history has shaped the present and try to look to the future. So…
I’m calling February “Black Culture Month.” I want to look at the Black experience through the eyes of writers, artists, politicians and other leaders. Today, I’ll suggest a few highly-acclaimed books by noted Black authors.
The Street by Ann Petrie, published in 1946, was the first novel by an African American woman that sold over 1 million copies. It looks at the impact of racial injustice in a fictional work of social commentary. For middle-school age readers, consider Petrie’s New York Times Outstanding Book Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad.
That Bird Has My Wings by Jarvis Jay Masters is the story that Oprah's review included “The story of a young boy victimized by addiction, poverty, violence, the foster care system, and later the justice system, profoundly touched me then, and still does today.”
Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman, a collection of poems by the inaugural Presidential Poet who has been called our voice for the future.
Finding Me by Viola Davis, a memoir by this award-winning performer who details her story from a sharecropper’s shack to her triumph as an actor, producer and philanthropist.
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, a remarkable novel about J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white in her quest to leave a lasting legacy that has enriched our nation.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about boys sentenced to the cruel horrors of The Nickel Academy, a reform school based on an actual school.
Now it’s your turn. Please send me an email with your favorite books by African American authors and I’ll list them in next week’s Feel Good Friday. And if you'd like to submit information on an artist, sculptor, painter – any visual artist – for next week, please email me that information, as well. Coming up: performing artists; scientists, inventors and innovators; politicians, change agents; and educators.
Would you like to be a guest author in this space? I’d love to hear from you. This is your space to share your knowledge and love of Black culture and its impact on the American fabric. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Michelle
Michelle A. Taylor, Ed.D.
President and CEO
United Way of Delaware
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