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Past featured works

Children's and Young Adult Titles
Adult Titles

Children's and Young Adult Titles

The Blacker the Berry: Poems by Joyce Carol Thomas: New York : HarperCollins, 2008.

In The Blacker the Berry, Joyce Carol Thomas presents a collection of 12 poems celebrating and affirming the variations in skin color and individuality of African American children. Resisting rigid, polarized constructions of racial identity, these poems and accompanying images reveal the often ignored varieties and complexities of African American ethnic heritage. By encouraging African American children to embrace their unique selves, this collection leads all children toward embracing whatever their heritage has made them.
Chosen by the Association for Library Services to Children as a Notable Book for middle readers, The Blacker the Berry also earned a 2009 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for Floyd Cooper.
Yo, Little Brother: Volume II: Basic Rules of Survival for Young African American Males by Anthony C. Davis and Jeffrey W. Jackson: Chicago : African American Images, 2006.

Aiming to improve the prospects of today's young African American male by helping him overcome obstacles such as racial profiling and incarceration, this book provides 100 new helpful techniques and strategies for adolescents. Advice on a variety of topics — including street smarts, driving, friends, education, emotional development, cultural differences, money, and health — will guide teachers and parents in leading youth to safety and success.
Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom by Charles A. Taylor: Greensboro, N.C. : Open Hand Publishing, 2002.

This book by Charles A. Taylor offers a detailed explanation of the holiday commemorating General Order No. 3 of June 19, 1865, formally emancipating Texans of African descent. A frank history of slavery in the U.S. facilitates a fuller appreciation of Juneteenth, and Taylor clearly illustrates the day's meaning and gives examples of celebrations from 1866 to the present. The well-designed pages and enthusiastic writing are accompanied by informative images and additional material, such as the Emancipation Proclamation.
Say a Little Prayer by Dionne Warwick: Philadelphia : Running Press Kids, 2008.

American icon and international superstar Dionne Warwick presents an inspiring and entertaining children's picture book that encourages kids to find their best talent in life and embrace it. "Little D" is ambling through childhood like any other little kid — enjoying her family and neighbors, her pet dog, her hobbies, and school — when one day she discovers that she has a special talent. In her first-ever singing performance in front of an audience, Little D brings the house down! And she discovers, with her grandfather's encouragement, that everyone has a special talent and it's up to each person to find it, embrace it, perfect it, and enjoy it. The book includes an audio CD featuring an exclusive recording of the gospel song "Jesus Loves Me" (the first song young Dionne performed before an audience, as told in the book), as well as a reading of the book by Ms. Warwick.
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis: New York : Scholastic Press, 2007.

It's 1859, and 11-year-old Elijah Freeman is the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, a haven for slaves fleeing the American south. He must use his wits and skills to set things right and foil the lying preacher who has stolen money that was meant to be used to buy a family's freedom.
Celebrate Kwanzaa by Linda Jacobs Altman: Berkeley Heights, NJ : Enslow Publishers, 2008.

Did you know Kwanzaa was started in 1966? Dr. Maulana Karenga created the holiday to offer African Americans an alternative for the Christmas and New Year season. Kwanzaa is based on seven principles, that over seven days, are discussed and celebrated. Learn about the seven principles and seven symbols of Kwanzaa and more. Join author Linda Jacobs Altman and learn about the history behind Kwanzaa, the symbols associated with the holiday, and how it is celebrated today.
Game by Walter Dean Myers: New York : Harper Teen, 2008.

In this story of a teen who dreams of making it big in the NBA, Myers returns to the theme that has dominated much of his serious fiction: How can young black urban males negotiate the often-harsh landscape of their lives to establish a sense of identity and self-worth? Drew Lawson is a very good high school player who is staking his future on the wildly improbable chance that he will achieve professional stardom. He is not an outstanding student, and he feels that basketball is the only thing that lifts him above the ranks of the ordinary. As he surveys his Harlem neighborhood, he worries that if he does not succeed in sports, he will become like so many other young men he sees around him who continue to talk tough, but have stopped believing in themselves, and are betrayed by "the weakness in their eyes." Harlem itself is a looming presence in the novel: vibrant, exciting, dirty, dangerous, it is the only home that Drew has ever known and to a large extent it both defines and limits his outlook. Being no more or less insightful or articulate (or self-absorbed) than most 17-year-olds, he fails to connect with those adults who have overcome racism, bad luck, and their own missteps to find alternative ways to succeed. As always, Myers eschews easy answers, and readers are left with the question of whether or not Drew is prepared to deal with the challenges that life will inevitably hand him. (© 2008 School Library Journal, Reed Business Information.)
Myers's novels for teenage readers have won high praise and several awards. Aside from telling good stories, Myers strives to convey what he learned while young. His message to black youth is that although growing up is not easy and reality can be harsh, young African Americans can succeed despite the odds against them. As he has said in an autobiographical essay, "I feel the need to show [black youngsters] the possibilities that exist for them that were never revealed to me as a youngster; possibilities that did not even exist for me then."
Kwanzaa by Trudi Strain Trueit: New York : Children's Press, 2007.

Through simple text and abundant color photographs, this recently published book provides a balanced introduction to Kwanzaa and gives children a sense of the holiday's purpose and traditions.
Indigo Summer by Monica McKayhan: New York : Kimani Tru, 2007.

Fifteen-year-old Indigo Summer's world finally seems to be going in the right direction: she starts dating the star forward of the basketball team and makes the high school dance squad all in the same week. But sometimes things are just too good to be true. After the basketball star abruptly dumps her for a girl who will put out, Indigo's popularity and self-esteem plummet. With her perfect world falling apart, she turns to the one person who seems to have his head on straight — her next door neighbor, Marcus. The trouble is, now that Indigo realizes what a great guy Marcus is, so does someone else.
Indigo Summer is the first book published this year by Kimani Tru, a new imprint focusing on high-interest books for African American teens. Click here to find more Kimani Tru books in the library's catalog.
Black Cat Bone by J. Patrick Lewis: North Mankato, Minn. : Creative Editions, 2006.

The story of blues guitarist Robert Johnson — both the legend and the facts — hardly seems the stuff of a picture book. Johnson died young — in 1938, at 27, most likely poisoned in a dispute over a woman, or, as legend has it, the victim of a deal with the devil, who claimed Johnson's soul in exchange for mastery of the guitar. His influence on generations of blues, jazz, and rock musicians is unquestioned, however, and Lewis tells the story in evocative poems that use Johnson's lyrics to evoke the spirit of the blues and the hard times Johnson endured growing up in the Mississippi Delta. Although Lewis' imagery is probably too subtle for even middle-graders to grasp without help, older readers with an interest in Johnson and the blues will feel the rhythm and understand the message of living for the moment and the music. Illustrator Gary Kelley's striking paintings, heavy with multiple shades of blue and brown, capture all the emotions that swirl around the Johnson myth: loneliness, obsession, and melancholy, of course, but also the up-tempo electricity generated by a bluesman in full cry.
From BookList, January 1, 2007, Copyright © American Library Association.
The Dear One by Jacqueline Woodson: New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2004.

Feni has had her mother to herself for a long time. So when her mother takes in Rebecca, the pregnant fifteen-year-old daughter of an old friend, Feni is furious. Rebecca's just as unhappy; she feels like a charity case. But as much as they resist it, Feni and Rebecca might just become friends. After all, Rebecca needs someone to confide in, and Feni might discover she has room in her life for one more person--or even two. This is a touching story about families of all sorts, even the unrelated kinds, and the love that holds them together.
Juneteenth by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and Drew Nelson: Minneapolis, MN : Millbrook Press, 2006.

As Juneteenth celebrations gain footing across much of the country, books on this grassroots holiday, which celebrates the belated arrival of emancipation news to Texas slaves on June 19, 1865, are sure to become increasingly popular. This book's understated narrative draws children in with a dramatization of Galveston slaves receiving the long-delayed news, followed by powerful accounts of the history of slavery, the Civil War, and the incremental emancipation process. Information about Juneteenth traditions — such as red velvet cake and red soda pop as symbols of bloodshed in the battle for freedom — will help young readers plan jubilees of their own.
I lost my tooth in Africa by Penda Diakité: New York : Scholastic Press, 2006.

Local artist Baba Wagué Diakité illustrates this book written by his teenage daughter, Penda Diakité. The author's younger sister actually did lose a tooth in Mali, while visiting their father's family. After she hides it under a gourd, she waits for the African Tooth Fairy to replace it with a chicken. With often whimsical touches, Baba Wagué Diakité illustrates a vibrant life among banana palms, birds and brightly dressed relatives and friends. Young readers will be intrigued by how universal a milestone it is to lose a tooth, while learning about the unique lifestyle of this warm and welcoming West African family. The book includes a recipe for African Onion Sauce and a glossary of Bambara words.

Adult Titles

Mama Dearest: A Novel by E. Lynn Harris: New York : Pocket Books : Karen Hunter Publishing, 2009.

The late Harris' final novel brings back femme fatale Yancey Harrington Braxton (Any Way the Wind Blows), who is determined to get back on top of her game after suffering setbacks in her acting career. She reminds herself that she had been taught by the best diva of them all, Ms. Ava Middlebrook, Yancey's show biz mother and longtime rival. It looks as if Yancey has hit pay dirt when she meets the handsome and successful S. Marcus, who shows a genuine interest in her career. But then her narcissistic mother comes back into her life, seeking payback for Ava's role in getting her locked down for seven years. At the same time, a younger, more beautiful starlet appears on the scene: Miss Maddison B., the daughter that Yancey gave up for adoption when she was in college — or so she thought. Harris offers something for everyone: mystery, romance, betrayal, intrigue, and revenge. He also brings back some old characters and introduces a few new ones to make this a great read.
From Library Journal, Copyright © 2009 Reed Business Information
Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment by Steve Harvey: New York : Amistad, 2009.

From the host of the popular Steve Harvey Morning Show comes a funny, honest, and foolproof guide for all women that takes them inside the heads of men and shows how men think about love, sex, and commitment.
Jet: Chicago : Johnson Publishing Co.

Jet is the leading weekly African American newsmagazine. A sister publication to Ebony, Jet provides a cover story; national and international news items pertaining to black people living in the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean; sports and entertainment news; regular columns on health, education, labor, parenting, and fashion; "This Week in Black History"; the "Week's Best Photos"; obituaries and wedding announcements; and the "Jet Beauty of the Week." It also includes film and music reviews, top music sales, and a television schedule.
Shotgun Seamstress [No. 1] by Osa Atoe: Portland, OR : O. Atoe, [2006].

A zine by and for black punks, Shotgun Seamstress presents interviews, reviews, articles, and essays about African Americans in punk rock music and culture locally, nationally, and internationally. It presents unique information and points of view that are not well covered by materials in other parts of the library's collection. Readers may also be interested in Afro-punk, a documentary film exploring race identity within the punk rock scene.
A Mercy by Toni Morrison: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison's A Mercy is a powerful tragedy distilled into a jewel of a masterpiece. In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. In the Americas, virulent religious and class divisions, prejudice and oppression were rife, providing the fertile soil in which slavery and race hatred were planted and took root. Jacob, an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, reluctantly takes a small slave girl in payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner. The young girl, Florens, looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, but later from a handsome free African blacksmith. A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery, but at its heart it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and of a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.
New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance by Charlayne Hunter-Gault: Oxford; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.

For twenty years, Charlayne Hunter-Gault was an acclaimed correspondent on PBS's The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and more recently she has been the Johannesburg Bureau Chief for CNN. Her work has garnered numerous awards, including two Peabody Awards for her coverage of Africa. In New News Out of Africa, this eminent reporter offers a fresh and surprisingly optimistic assessment of modern Africa, revealing that there is more to the continent than the bad news of disease, disaster, and despair.
Blending personal memoir with sterling reportage and astute analysis, Hunter-Gault presents an Africa we rarely see. She looks first at South Africa, contrasting the country she first encountered as a young reporter — when she personally witnessed the brutality of apartheid — with the black-led, multiracial society of today, a nation undergoing one of the most radical social and economic experiments in modern times. She acknowledges the great imbalance in income in modern South Africa (where upwards of 30 to 40 percent of blacks are unemployed) and describes the ravaging effect of AIDS on the nation, but she also underscores the nation's commitment to affirmative action, describes how South African universities have opened their doors to black students, and debunks many of the myths about the violence of South African society. Likewise, Hunter-Gault looks at the continent-wide efforts to promote "an African Renaissance," illuminating the political and economic conditions in Rwanda, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Angola, and Sierra Leone. Finally, the book describes the challenges of reporting on the much-maligned continent and the efforts of African ists to tell their own story.
A compelling book on a topic of vital importance, New News Out of Africa promises to re-define what is news about this vast and complex continent.
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama: New York : Crown Publishers, 2006.

In July 2004, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners' minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future — what he called "the audacity of hope." In this book, President Obama calls for a different brand of politics, one rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of "our improbable experiment in democracy." He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment. At the heart of this book is Obama's vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems and a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, he says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans.
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama: New York : Three Rivers Press, 2004.

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father — a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man — has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey: first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.
Pathfinders Travel: The Travel Magazine for People of Color: Philadelphia : Pathfinders Inc., [1997-

For those planning their winter getaway, we offer Pathfinders Travel, developed especially for black travelers. The magazine's reviews and recommendations are from an African American cultural perspective. Features have included black Paris and the original black diva, Josephine Baker, and a firsthand look at life in South Africa after apartheid. The magazine has covered the openings of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (Detroit), the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Cincinnati), and the Reginald H. Lewis Museum of African American History (Baltimore). Published six times a year, the magazine offers special features, such as the Black List and the annual Year in Black America. The Black List is similar to Condé Nast's annual Gold List, which features the best destinations selected by its readers. The Year in Black America is an annual guide that highlights heritage sites and cultural experiences of special interest to black Americans.
Published since 1997, Pathfinders has introduced readers to unforgettable stories such as the sailing of the Amistad, the Gullah culture along the Sea Islands, black jockeys of the Kentucky Derby, photographers of the Civil Rights Movement, and black golfing pioneers, to name a few.
The Message: 100 Life Lessons from Hip-Hop's Greatest Songs by Felicia Pride: New York : Thunder's Mouth Press, 2007.

Inspired by their positive influences in her own life, the author uses lyrics found in one hundred hip-hop songs to show how the tactics described by noted artists can be applied for greater creativity, professional success, and positive relationships.
Passing for Black by Linda Villarosa: New York : Kensington Publishing Corp., 2008.

Being black, the right kind of black, was difficult. It was like being in a cult, a secret society with rules as fluid as waves. In the six years that Angela Wright has been with her fiancé Keith Redfield, her life has settled neatly into place. Keith, a professor of African-American history, has helped her become comfortable in her own skin, and Angela's career is thriving. She's got nothing to worry about — or so she thinks. Angela's best friend Mae is always there to ground her, whether they're joking about the importance of good hair or gossiping about their rival. Mae reminds Angela how lucky she is to have found a successful, single brother. But when a chance meeting leaves Angela consumed with desire for an intriguing stranger, she impulsively decides to follow wherever it may lead — from outrageous underground sex parties to intimate encounters that are both torrid and tender. Now everything Angela has come to believe about sex, love, identity, and race is called into question as this explosive new passion blows her world wide open.
Blood Colony by Tananarive Due: New York : Atria Books, 2008.

This profoundly moving third Blood book (after 2001's The Living Blood), set in 2015, finds that beneath the seemingly endless conflict in the Middle East is another, secret war waged over the drug Glow, made from magical blood that can heal any illness and even bestow eternal life. Psychic teen Fana Wolde, the daughter of 500-year-old assassin Dawit Wolde, was born with this living blood running through her veins. The Life Brothers, Ethiopian immortals who believe the living blood first came from Christ, think Fana is a deity. When she escapes their American compound, wanting to control her destiny and dispense her healing blood via a complex underground railroad, the Life Brothers and her parents race to protect her from the Italian immortals of the Sanctus Cruor, false priests who want Fana to fulfill a terrible prophecy. Due brings Fana's complex and passionate story to life with her trademark flair.
Starred review in Publishers Weekly, April 28, 2008. Copyright © Reed Business Information.
When the Church Becomes Your Party: Contemporary Gospel Music by Deborah Smith Pollard: Detroit : Wayne State University Press, 2008.

In When the Church Becomes Your Party, author Deborah Smith Pollard assesses contemporary gospel music as the genre enters the 21st century. Pollard uses her academic training and insider's knowledge to examine some of contemporary gospel's most popular and controversial elements, including praise and worship in the urban church, the gospel musical stage play, the changing dress code, women gospel announcers, and holy hip hop. She argues that although the flashy clothing, informal language, and elaborate stage presentation found in some of the newest gospel music might not be what some worshippers expect, this new aesthetic rests on the same Christian principles as more traditional forms and actually extends its message to a wider and younger audience.
Black Pain: it just looks like we're not hurting: real talk for when there's nowhere to go but up by Terrie M. Williams: New York : Scribner, 2008.

Terrie Williams is a trained social worker turned high-powered publicist who has represented everyone from Eddie Murphy and Miles Davis to Johnnie Cochran and Janet Jackson. In Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting, she outlines her battle with depression. Further, she shares the stories of the famous and the ordinary who have battled mental illness.
Black people, especially, says Williams, have a specific historical context that makes our relationship with mental illness unique:
"Can you imagine how heavy the weight of all that trauma must have been in the hearts, minds, and souls of our ancestors?" she asks. "They had no outlet in which to express it and no proper means of processing it. Instead of airing our dirty laundry and getting help for our issues, we engage in behaviors that are harmful to ourselves or others such as crime, violence, promiscuous sex, eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, workaholism, shopaholism, gambling, in order to cope, and it's killing us."
More than a book of testimonials, Black Pain offers solutions — suggestions from mental health professionals and a resource list of books, articles, websites, films, inspirational art, and even "cards with a stay-strong feel."
Risks of Faith: the emergence of a Black theology of liberation, 1968-1998 by James H. Cone: Boston, Mass. : Beacon Press, 1999.

In a series of essays, Cone, a black theologian, evaluates the gospel of Jesus Christ and the black liberation struggle over a 30-year period. He reflects on the shortcomings of white theologians and their theoretical focus at the expense of engaging real-world concerns and on the black church for conceding too much in hopes of garnering white acceptance. Nonetheless, the black church provides the foundation for what he calls black theology, from which he draws. He also notes the black church's long history of supporting activists. In one essay, he critiques the activist theology of Martin Luther King Jr. and assesses King's use of Christian gospel in addressing the needs of the poor and the oppressed, placing King as an important, if not the most important, theologian in the U.S. Cone further asserts that no critique of King and black theology is complete without examining Malcolm X, who provided a sharper critique of white America. In this absorbing book, Cone also examines the deeper spiritual side of black theology, which allows practitioners to stand against innumerable odds.
From BookList, November, 1999. Copyright © American Library Association.
Heart and Head: black theology, past, present, and future by Dwight N. Hopkins: New York : Palgrave, 2002.

Ordained Baptist minister, prolific writer, and University of Chicago theology instructor Dwight N. Hopkins presents black theology of the liberation of the poor as a vision, and a way of life, growing out of the best that African American communities of faith have to offer. It emerges from the parables and lessons of the Jesus story that call out the sacred parts of the human condition, judging a community not by the fortunes of its wealthiest but by the well-being of the most broken and vulnerable.
Annotation copyright © Book News Inc., Portland, Ore.
Song Yet Sung by James McBride: New York : Riverhead Books, 2008.

Adventure and danger abound when escaped slaves, free blacks, slave-catchers and plantation owners clash in this complex and challenging novel by bestselling memoirist James McBride. After a serious head injury, a beautiful young runaway slave awakes to find that she can see the future — from the near-future to Martin Luther King to hip-hop — in her dreams. The visions help her and fellow slaves escape, but trouble is never far behind. Meanwhile, her visions also lead the reader to explore the meaning of freedom and question the values of contemporary American society.
Them by Nathan McCall: New York : Atria Books, 2007.

Nathan McCall's debut novel, Them, tells a story set in a downtown Atlanta neighborhood just a stone's throw from the historic birth home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The story centers around Barlowe Reed, a single, forty-something African American who rents a ramshackle house, works as a printer, and otherwise passes the time reading and hanging out with other men at the corner store. He shares his home and loner existence with a streetwise, twenty-something nephew who is struggling to get his troubled life back on track. When Sean and Sandy Gilmore, a young white couple, move in next door, Barlowe and Sandy develop a reluctant, complex friendship as they hold probing — often frustrating — conversations over the backyard fence. Members of both households, and their neighbors as well, try to go about their business, tending to their homes and jobs. Fear and suspicion build, however, and clashes ensue as more and more new whites move in and once-familiar people and places disappear.
Life on the Color Line: the True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black by Gregory Howard Williams: New York : Dutton, 1995.

A stunning journey to the heart of the racial dilemma in this country. Everyone will be enriched by reading the unforgettable tale.
Native Guard by Natasha D. Trethewey: Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Trethewey won a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for her third volume of poetry, Native Guard, a collection that pays homage to the Louisiana Native Guards, a regiment of black Civil War soldiers who served at a Union prison housing Confederate captives on Ship Island, near the author's hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi. The title poem imagines the life of a former slave who is charged with writing letters home for the illiterate or invalid POWs and his fellow soldiers. Just as he becomes the guard of Ship Island's memory, so Trethewey recalls her own childhood as the daughter of a black woman and a white man whose marriage was still illegal in 1966 Mississippi. The racial legacy of the Civil War echoes through elegiac poems that honor her own mother and the forgotten history of the South. Native Guard is haunted by the intersection of national and personal experience.
On Beauty by Zadie Smith: New York : Penguin Press, 2005.

Howard Belsey is an Englishman abroad, an academic teaching in a college town in New England. Married young, 30 years later he is struggling to revive his love for his African American wife Kiki. After Howard has a disastrous affair with a colleague, his sensitive older son escapes to England for the holidays, and defies everything the Belseys represent by going to work for a right-wing academic.
Joy by Victoria Christopher Murray: New York : Walk Worthy Press/Warner Books, 2001.

On the surface, Anya Mitchell has it all. She owns and operates a successful financial services company, has a handsomely-packaged, successful author as a fiance, and an unshakeable faith in God. One scratch of the veneer, however, and readers see a very different Anya — one who was orphaned by her parents in a car accident and raised by a color-conscious grandmother. Joy touches on contentious issues such as color conflicts in the African American community, traditional versus contemporary familial roles, and sexuality.
Sanctified Blues by Mable John and David Ritz: New York : Harlem Moon/Broadway Books, 2006.

Albertina Merci, 70-year-old R&B singer turned minister, has a level head, a love of God, and a way of bringing out the best in the people around her. In Sanctified Blues, Albertina meets Maggie Clay, queen of daytime television, in the midst of a nervous breakdown. As the tabloids are abuzz with the star's escapades and eagerly awaiting her self-destruction, it is only with infinite patience that Albertina can navigate her rocky relationship with Maggie in hopes of helping her get back on the right path.
We Gotta Have It: Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies by Esther Iverem: New York : Thunder's Mouth Press, 2007.

Esther Iverem, an admired journalist, poet, and visual arts critic for BET.com and SeeingBlack.com, has collected her many movie reviews, film festival summations, and interviews with black actors and filmmakers of the past 20 years into an entertaining and enlightening reference book. The entries are arranged in chronological order across what Iverem refers to as the third black arts renaissance (after Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s and the resurgence of pride and artistic expression of the 1960s). From her thought-provoking lead-in chapter to her final review of 2006, Iverem takes a no-apologies approach on the behalf of the African American community as treated by Hollywood, representing a gifted, socially conscious mind. Her analyses of the performances and character choices of contemporary actors like Wesley Snipes and Eddie Murphy are tenacious yet fair. Iverem's reviews express real concern about how African American images are being stripped, reprocessed, and sold back to Americans and the global audience.
From Library Journal, April 1, 2007, Copyright © Reed Business Information
Do You: 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success by Russell Simmons: New York : Gotham, 2007.

Powerful and inspired, Do You! is a rare blend of business acumen, fierce spiritual faith, and priceless advice. Since rising out of the New York City streets over 25 years ago, Russell Simmons has helped create such ground breaking ventures as Def Jam Records, Phat Farm and Def Comedy Jam, in the process becoming known the world over as the "CEO of Hip Hop." He credits his success to his belief in a strong set of principles, which he shares for the first time in this book. In 12 straightforward steps, Simmons reveals a path toward success that can be followed not only by those looking to duplicate his professional success, but by anyone struggling to realize his or her dreams.
The Women Who Raised Me: A Memoir by Victoria Rowell: New York : William Morrow & Company, 2007.

The story of a remarkable woman's rise out of the foster-care system to attain the American dream, and of the unlikely series of women who lifted her up in marvelous and distinctive ways.
Born as a ward of the state of Maine — the child of an unmarried Yankee blueblood mother and an unknown black father — Victoria Rowell beat the odds. Unlike so many other children who fall through the cracks of our overburdened foster-care system, her experience was nothing short of miraculous, thanks to several extraordinary women who stepped forward to love, nurture, guide, teach, and challenge her to become the accomplished actress, philanthropist, and mother that she is today.
The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry edited by Arnold Rampersad: Oxford; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.

For over two centuries, black poets have created verse that reflects the sorrows, joys, and triumphs of the African-American experience. Reflecting their variety of visions and styles, The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry aims to offer nothing less than a definitive literary portrait of a people.
Here are poems by writers as different as Paul Laurence Dunbar and W.E.B. Du Bois; Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes; Gwendolyn Brooks and Amiri Baraka; Rita Dove and Harryette Mullen; Yusef Komunyakaa and Nathaniel Mackey. Acclaimed as a biographer and editor, Arnold Rampersad groups these poems as meditations on key issues in black culture, including the idea of Africa; the South; slavery; protest, and resistance; the black man, woman, and child; sexuality and love; music and religion; spirituality; death, and transcendence.
With their often starkly contrasting visions and styles, these poets illuminate some of the more controversial and intimate aspects of the black American experience. Poetry here is not only or mainly a vehicle of protest but also an exploration of the more complex and tender subtleties of black culture. One section offers tributes to celebrated leaders such as Sojourner Truth and Malcolm X, but many more reflect the heroism compelled by everyday black life. The variety of poetic forms and language captures the brilliant essence of English as mastered by black Americans dedicated to the art of poetry.
Loving and yet also honest and unsparing, The Oxford Book of African-American Poetry is for readers who treasure both poetry and the genius of black America.
Baby Love by Rebecca Walker: New York : Riverhead Books, 2007.

In this memoir, the author of Black, White and Jewish chronicles her physical and emotional journey toward motherhood, reflecting on the ambivalence about partnership and parenthood that is characteristic of many in her generation. Navigating through conflicts with her mother (well-known author and activist Alice Walker), through difficult medical decisions as well as mundane, practial choices, the author experiences personal transformation in this complex, accessible, and witty narrative.
Exodus: Journey to the Promise Land: African American Migration, Settlement, and Activity in Clark County and Vancouver, Washington, 1825-2000 by Joseph Franklin: Fairfield, Wash. : Ye Galleon Press, 2004.

Several years ago, the Clark County Historical Museum accepted a grant from American Association of Retired Persons to stage a Black History exhibit. Someone said to me that it would be a very small exhibit as there was not Black history in Clark County.
They were most definitely proved wrong. Members of the community stepped forward to help, and stories were gathered. Although the exhibit turned out to be extensive, I realized that we had only touched the surface of the wealth of knowledge that was to be uncovered.
Joe Franklin has devoted himself to that task. Over the last several years I have worked with Mr. Franklin as he doggedly tracked down leads and conducted interviews with many who had lived the history of our community.
From the days of the earliest explorers to the high-tech world of today, citizens of African heritage have contributed to the tapestry of our lives in Clark County. That history could easily be lost. Without the dedication of people like Joe Franklin, future generations would grow up oblivious to the contributions of their forebears. Never before have all of the stories been gathered together in one book.
This book opens the vista of the years of African American experience in Clark County, which gives us a clearer view of all of our experience.
From the foreword by Pat Jollota, Curator, Clark County Historical Museum.
How to Rent a Negro by Damali Ayo: Chicago, Ill. : Lawrence Hill Books, 2005.

A hilarious and satirical look at race relations that is almost too close for comfort, this pseudo-guidebook gives both renters and rentals "much-needed" advice and tips on technique. This text shocks and amuses, presenting a strikingly stark mirror of human relationships.
What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers: San Francisco : McSweeney's Books, 2006.

Valentino Achak Deng, real-life hero of this engrossing epic, was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war — the bloodbath before the current Darfur bloodbath — of the 1980s and '90s. In this fictionalized memoir, author Dave Eggers makes him an icon of globalization. Separated from his family when Arab militia destroy his village, Valentino joins thousands of other "Lost Boys," beset by starvation, thirst and man-eating lions on their march to squalid refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, where Valentino pieces together a new life. He eventually reaches America, but finds his quest for safety, community and fulfillment in many ways even more difficult there than in the camps: he recalls, for instance, being robbed, beaten and held captive in his Atlanta apartment. Eggers's limpid prose gives Valentino an unaffected, compelling voice and makes his narrative by turns harrowing, funny, bleak and lyrical. The result is a horrific account of the Sudanese tragedy, but also an emblematic saga of modernity — of the search for home and self in a world of unending upheaval.
From Publisher's Weekly, © Reed Business Information.
The Covenant with Black America introduction by Tavis Smiley: Chicago : Third World Press, 2006.

Established publishing house Third World Press joins noted author and broadcaster Tavis Smiley to create The Covenant with Black America, a step-by-step how-to manual for taking action against the political, economical, physiological and medical issues threatening black society. The Covenant addresses 10 of the most pressing issues facing black America, providing provocative breakdowns of each issue, as well as specific directions on how politicians, corporations and individuals can make important changes necessary for the survival of black people.
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Joyce DeGruy Leary: Milwaukie, Oregon : Uptone Press, 2005.

While African Americans managed to emerge from chattel slavery and the oppressive decades that followed with great strength and resiliency, they did not emerge unscathed. Slavery produced centuries of physical, psychological and spiritual injury. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing lays the groundwork for understanding how the past has influenced the present, and opens up the discussion of how we can use the strengths we have gained to heal.
Blake; or, The huts of America, a novel by Martin Robison Delany: Boston : Beacon Press, 1970.

Born in 1812 to a free mother and slave father, Martin Robison Delany was a man of many interests and talents. He co-edited The North Star with Frederick Douglass for several years; advocated the migration of blacks to Central or South America; practiced medicine in Pittsburgh; attacked the concept of Liberia in 1859, and in 1860 urged the establishment of a state by black Americans in the Niger Valley; and was the first black major in the United States Army. After the Civil War he lived in the South, supported black political participation, and made one last unsuccessful effort with a plan for emigration to Africa.
Perhaps the most important black novel of its period, Blake focuses sharply on the political and social issues of the 1850s: slavery as an institution, Cuba as the prime interest of Southern expansionists, the practicality of militant slave revolution, and the psychological liberation possible through collective action. Although he never claimed Blake to be an answer to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Delany's hero — a pure black West Indian slave who advocates revolution in the United States and later becomes the general of a black revolutionary force in Cuba — is in many ways the antithesis to her protagonist.
We speak your names: a celebration by Pearl Cleage with Zaron W. Burnett, Jr.: New York : One World/Ballantine Books, 2005.

For three days — from May 13 to 15, 2005 — a distinguished group of women was invited to celebrate the enduring achievements of twenty-five of their mentors and role models — and in the process pay tribute to the long, glorious tradition of African American accomplishment. The centerpiece of the weekend was the reading aloud of Pearl Cleage's poem "We Speak Your Names," written especially for the occasion and appearing here for the first time in this keepsake book. The poem names each of the women honored: Dr. Maya Angelou, Coretta Scott King, Diahann Carroll, Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, Rosa Parks, Katherine Dunham, and other legends of the brightest magnitude. Pearl Cleage celebrates her distinguished elders' strength, their magic, their sensuality, their loving kindness, their faith in themselves, and the priceless example of their lives.
Kaiso! : writings by and about Katherine Dunham edited by VèVè A. Clark and Sara E. Johnson: Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, 2005.

Trained as an anthropologist at the University of Chicago, Katherine Dunham combined her interest in dance and anthropology by linking the form and function of Caribbean dance and ritual to their African sources. This collection of Dunham's essays on dance and anthropology, press reviews, interviews and chapters from her unpublished memoir has been revised and expanded with recent scholarly articles.
From Book News, Inc., Portland, OR ©2006.
Marley legend: an illustrated life of Bob Marley by James Henke: New York : Scholastic Press, 2006.

Henke, curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, has put together a true collector's item: an illustrated and interactive biography with rare photographs and a 50-minute CD of Bob Marley interviews.
On Michael Jackson by Margo Jefferson: New York : Pantheon Books, 2006.

Prize-winning journalist and culture critic Margo Jefferson's first book explores the life, and the larger-than-life myth, of the King of Pop — and, in the process, exposes the public's obsession with celebrity.
Rise up singing: Black women writers on motherhood edited by Cecelie S. Berry: New York : Doubleday, 2004.

In short fiction, poems, and personal essays, a dazzling array of well-known African-American women describe with warmth and humor their experiences as mothers and as daughters. Includes contributions from Alice Walker, Faith Ringgold, Marita Golden, Martha Southgate, Tananarive Due, Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, Rita Dove, and others.
African American vernacular photography: selections from the Daniel Cowin Collection essays by Brian Wallis and Deborah Willis: New York : International Center of Photography ; Gottingen : Steidl, 2005.

This exhibition catalogue explores the International Center of Photography's Daniel Cowin Collection of African American History, a trove of more than two thousand postcards, stereographs, cartes-de-visite, tintypes, albumen prints, and gelatin silver prints. Taken together, these ephemeral images provide an important window into African American cultural life from 1860 to about 1930.
Apex hides the hurt by Colson Whitehead: New York : Doubleday, 2006.

When the citizens of Winthrop needed a new name for their town, they did what anyone would do — they hired a consultant. The protagonist of Apex Hides the Hurt is a nomenclature consultant. If you want just the right name for your new product, whether it be automobile or antidepressant, sneaker or spoon, he's the man to get the job done. Wardrobe lack pizzazz? Come to the Outfit Outlet. Always the wallflower at social gatherings? Try Loquacia. And of course, whenever you take a fall, reach for Apex, because Apex Hides the Hurt. Apex is his crowning achievement, the multicultural bandage that has revolutionized the adhesive bandage industry. "Flesh-colored" be damned — no matter what your skin tone is — Apex will match it, or your money back. After leaving his job (following a mysterious misfortune), his expertise is called upon by the town of Winthrop. Once there, he meets the town council, who will try to sway his opinion over the coming days. Lucky Aberdeen, the millionaire software pioneer and hometown-boy-made-good, wants the name changed to something that will reflect the town's capitalist aspirations, attracting new businesses and revitalizing the community. Who could argue with that? Albie Winthrop, beloved son of the town's aristocracy, thinks Winthrop is a perfectly good name, and can't imagine what the fuss is about. Regina Goode, the mayor, is a descendent of the black settlers who founded the town, and has her own secret agenda for what the name should be. Our expert must decide the outcome, with all its implications for the town's future. Which name will he choose? Or perhaps he will devise his own? And what's with his limp, anyway? Apex Hides the Hurt satirizes our contemporary culture, where memory and history are subsumed by the tides of marketing.
I woke up and put my crown on : the project of 76 voices by Rochell (Ro-deezy) Hart: Baltimore : PublishAmerica, 2005.

Through direct interviews, Rochell D. (Ro Deezy) Hart explores life for today's African-American woman. For three years, Hart talked to an extraordinary group of women from around the United States about their realities, their struggles and their methods of survival. The conclusion is a remarkable novel of biographies that empowers, enlightens and positively redefines the perception of the black woman. Maria Dowd, author of Journey to Empowerment (BET Books), the author's mother, Vickie D. Hart, Tracy Price-Thompson (Essence best-selling author) and Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney, whose work has appeared on Oprah, are included within the '76 voices'. Author Shellie R. Warren, whose novel Inside of Me has a foreword written by Grammy-nominated artist India Arie, Stacey R. Tolbert, Darlene Solomon-Rogers and more are also celebrated within this significant collection.
Giovanni's Room: a novel by James Baldwin: New York : Dial Press, 1956.

Set in the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin's now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a moving, highly controversial story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.
Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster by Michael Eric Dyson: New York : Three Rivers Press, 2004.

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, the "hip-hop intellectual," champions the issues plaguing the disenfranchised of America in Come Hell or High Water. In this book, Dr. Dyson examines what happened to the black poor in New Orleans following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Readers will discover what Hurricane Katrina revealed about the fault lines of race and poverty in America. If you like this book, check out other titles by Michael Eric Dyson.
The Good House: a novel by Tananarive Due: Chicago : Agate, 2005.

After her 15-year-old son Corey's suicide, Angela Toussaint spent several months in a mental hospital. Now, divorced and focused on her work, she receives word of potential buyers of her grandmother's house in Sacajawea, Washington, in which Corey died. Realizing that she must put the tragedy to rest, Angela decides to go to the house to try to understand exactly what happened. Sacajawea is, however, a town beset by evil, in which stomachaches lead to suicide in apparently healthy, well-balanced persons. Indeed, it seems that a ravenous spirit there is hell-bent on killing everything in its path. Further, that spirit seems somehow connected with the history of Angela's family. Flashbacks explore the events leading up to Corey's death, and Angela's learning about her son's experiences enables her to connect with the spirit of her beloved, long-dead grandmother, who then exerts a fiercely protective and positive influence on her. Angela's relationship with her ancestry ultimately affords her true healing and redemption from the wound of Corey's suicide, and also an unexpected miracle.
Freshwater road by Denise Nicholas.: Chicago : Agate, 2005.

Freshwater Road is the story of one young woman's journey into adulthood via the political and social upheavals of the civil rights movement. A young black collegian, Celeste Tyree, leaves Ann Arbor to go to Pineyville, Mississippi, in the summer of 1964 to help found a Freedom School and a voter registration project as part of Freedom Summer. As the summer unfolds, she confronts not only the political realities of race and poverty in this tiny town, but also truths about herself and her own family.
I Got Somebody in Staunton by William Henry Lewis: New York : Amistad, 2005.

I Got Somebody in Staunton presents 10 finely honed tales that maintain a delicate balance between politics and art. It is a slim volume, but one with deep roots in America, each story reflecting a specific time and place and capturing a unique vernacular voice from a cross section of experience: a young boy, a nurse, a cleaning woman, an insurance agent, a cabbie, a social worker, a history professor, an NAACP executive and a restless college graduate washing dishes in a tourist restaurant in the Bahamas. What surprises in these stories is the changing face of resistance in turn-of-century America, the subtle shifts in behavior that reflect the African American community's resilience and dignity.
From The Oregonian, Sunday, May 25, 2005.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe: New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1992.
First novel by Chinua Achebe, written in English and published in 1958. The novel chronicles the life of Okonkwo, the leader of an Igbo (Ibo) community, from the events leading up to his banishment from the community for accidentally killing a clansman, through the seven years of his exile, to his return. The novel addresses the problem of the intrusion in the 1890s of white missionaries and colonial government into tribal Igbo society. It describes the simultaneous disintegration of its protagonist Okonkwo and of his village. The novel was praised for its intelligent and realistic treatment of tribal beliefs and of psychological disintegration coincident with social unraveling. Things Fall Apart helped create the Nigerian literary renaissance of the 1960s.
From The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature.
On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of WWII by Jack Hamann: Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005.

On American Soil is the first comprehensive book about one of the most compelling events in the military and civil rights history of the United States. In 1944, forty-three soldiers, all of them African American, were accused of rioting; three of them faced the death penalty, charged with the murder of an Italian prisoner of war three months earlier at Fort Lawton, a military installation north of Seattle.
The Journal of Negro History by Woodson, Carter G., editor., Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1916-2000.: [PERIODICAL] and [R-050 J86n fiche v.55-74]

Author, editor, publisher and historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson wrote: "Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history." Dr. Woodson's belief that African Americans should know their past in order to participate intelligently in the affairs in our country led to the creation of The Journal of Negro History in 1916 and the inauguration of Negro History Week (precursor of Black History Month) in 1926. Woodson's beliefs also fueled his numerous other contributions to the organization, education and historical awareness of the African American community. Commonly considered the primogenitor of black scholarly publications, Woodson's periodical still exists today as the Journal of African American History. North Portland Library's Black Resource Collection includes bound copies of the journal for most years from 1917 to 1970 and microfiche covering the years 1970 to 1989.
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.

From the author of A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittmancomes a deep and compassionate novel. A young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to teach visits a black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting.
My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up With the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Christine King Farris: New York : Simon & Schuster, 2003.

Farris's stirring memoir of her younger brother "M.L." focuses on a pivotal moment in their childhood in Atlanta. The conversational narrative easily and convincingly draws readers into the daily life of Christine and her two brothers, M.L. and A.D., as they listen to their grandmother's stories, stage pranks and romp in the backyard with two white brothers from across the street. The adults in the King family — Daddy, a minister; Mother Dear, a musician; maternal grandparents (the grandfather is also a minister) and a great-aunt — try to shield the children from the overt racism of the times; the family rarely took streetcars, for example, because of "those laws [segregation], and the indignity that went with them." When the white boys announce one day that they cannot play with M.L. and A.D. because they are "Negroes," the young Kings are hurt and baffled. Mother Dear explains, "[Whites] just don't understand that everyone is the same, but someday, it will be better." M.L. replies, "Mother Dear, one day I'm going to turn this world upside down." Soentpiet (Dear Santa, Please Come to the 19th Floor) illustrates this exchange with a powerful watercolor portrait of mother and son that encapsulates many emotions, including hope, pain and love. Unfortunately, in other paintings, the characters often seem frozen in exaggerated poses, or minor figures are rendered with less skill than demonstrated elsewhere. These inconsistencies detract from an otherwise gripping volume that makes the audience aware that heroes were once children, too.
From Publishers Weekly, © 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter: New York : Alfred A. Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 2002.

A complex, smart mystery filled with intrigue, drama, and more than a little danger, awaits in Stephen L. Carter's engaging debut novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park. After the funeral of his powerful father (a federal judge whose nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court became a public scandal), Talcott Garland, an African-American law professor at an Ivy League university, is left to unravel the meaning of a cryptic note and carry out "the arrangements" his father left behind. Armed with fortitude and familial devotion (though paranoid of his wife's fidelity), Talcott soon finds himself in an investigation that entangles him with a number of questionable Washington, D.C., denizens, including attorneys and government officials, law professors, the FBI, shady underworld figures, chess masters, and friends and family. All the while, Talcott tries not to hurt his attorney-wife's chance for a judicial nomination, and their fragile arriage, but the closer he comes to unraveling his father's dark secrets, the more dangerous things become.
From Amazon.com
Bad Boy Brawly Brown by Walter Mosley: Boston : Little, Brown, and Co., 2002.

Here is an excerpt from Black Issues Book Reviews:
In Los Angles in the early sixties, Easy Rawlins is asked by a friend to find his stepson. Easy, who is depressed because his close friend, Mouse, mysteriously died, eventually decides to take the case. His one caveat, as always, is that it's not a case. In Easy Rawlin's world, he only does favors for people in return for other favors. In fact, his whole livelihood has been based on exchanging favors. Mosley does an excellent job of capturing the day-to-day life of a black man growing up in inner city Los Angeles in the 1960s. As expected, Mosley gives readers more than one mystery to solve. Aside from the main plot, there are several subplots as well.

For more information about any of these titles, contact North Portland Librarian Patricia Welch at 503.988.5394.