New(ish) Nonfiction: February 2022 | Elmwood Park Public Library

1) The Black agenda: bold solutions for a broken system

Notes

Looking for a variety of Black experts' opinions on a variety of topics from healthcare to education to climate? Look no further than this collection of insightful essays, replete with supplemental reading options.

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"From ongoing reports of police brutality to the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on Black Americans, 2020 brought a renewed awareness to the deep-rootedness of racism and white supremacy in every facet of American life. Edited by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, The Black Agenda is the first book of its kind-a bold and urgent move towards social justice through a profound collection of essays featuring Black scholars and experts across economics,...

2) Black joy: stories of resistance, resilience, and restoration

Author

Lewis-Giggetts, Tracey M

Notes

Combat the "danger of a single story" (only defining Black experience through trauma) with this collection of poetic essays celebrating joy and self care.

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""Black joy is unique and deeply rooted in the cultural experiences and expressions of Black people. It's ever-present and yet often hidden... Black joy has a sound. It moves in a particular way.... Like great-grandmother's talcum powder and Jean Nate, it enters the room before you do and stays long after you leave.This is why we must tap into it. This is why this book is necessary." When writer, Tracey M. Lewis-Giggetts wrote a piece for The Washington...

3) Admissions: a memoir of surviving boarding school

Author

James, Kendra

Notes

A great choice for folks who enjoyed Lacey Lamar and Amber Ruffin's "You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey" for its combination of humor and social commentary.

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"Kendra James began her professional life selling a lie. As an admissions officer specializing in diversity recruitment for select prep schools, her job was persuading students and families to embark on the same perilous journey, attending cutthroat and largely white schools similar to The Taft School, an elite institution in Connecticut where she had been the first African-American legacy student only a few years earlier. Forced to reflect on her...

4) Breath better spent: living Black girlhood

Author

Hill, DaMaris B

Notes

Read this for a poetic peak into the interior lives of Black girls.

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"Through the eyes and stories of prominent Black female figures from Zora Neale Hurston to Riley Curry and Michelle Obama, and with an homage to Toni Morrison's Beloved, Breath Better Spent beautifully and trenchantly captures the culture of Black girlhood and its changing relationship to American culture, exploring the highly visible and invisible spaces that Black girls occupy, from school, to home, to others' imaginations, and proceeds to question...

5) Civil rights queen: Constance Baker Motley and the struggle for equality

Author

Brown-Nagin, Tomiko

Notes

It's time for Constance Baker Motley to take up more space in Civil Rights and Women's Rights history. This biography is a great start.

Formats:

Book, eBook

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"Born to an aspirational blue-collar family during the Great Depression, Constance Baker Motley was expected to find herself a good career as a hair dresser. Instead, she became the first black woman to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court, the first of ten she would eventually argue. The only black woman member in the legal team at the NAACP's Inc. Fund at the time, she defended Martin Luther King in Birmingham, helped to argue in Brown vs....

6) Didn't we almost have it all: in defense of Whitney Houston

Author

Kennedy, Gerrick

Notes

A candid exploration of the cult of celebrity that created and destroyed one of the greatest singers of all time.

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"A candid exploration of the genius, shame, and celebrity of Whitney Houston a decade after her passing. On February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston was found submerged in the bathtub of her suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. In the decade since, the world has mourned her death amid new revelations about her relationship to her Blackness, her sexuality, and her addictions. Didn't We Almost Have It All is author Gerrick Kennedy's exploration of the duality...

7) Just pursuit: a black prosecutor's fight for fairness

Author

Coates, Laura Gayle

Notes

Coates' exploration into the inequities of the justice system is both personal and polemic.

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD

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"A powerful true story and groundbreaking account of bias in the courtroom from CNN senior legal analyst Laura Coates, recounting her time as a Black female prosecutor for the US Department of Justice"--

8) Self-care for Black women: 150 ways to radically accept & prioritize your mind, body, & soul

Author

Adeeyo, Oludara

Notes

This practical guide includes specific exercises for prioritizing and practicing self-care.

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD

Description

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"Between micro- and macro-aggressions at school, at work, and everywhere in between, it's tough to prioritize physical and mental wellness as a Black woman, especially with a constant news cycle highlighting Black trauma. Now, with The Self-Care for Black Women you'll find more than 150 exercises that will help you radically choose to put yourself first. Whether you need a quick pick-me-up in the middle of the day, you're working through feelings...