This list of books is organized by genre, such as biography and poetry. It is not a list of all the available books that explore diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism, but rather a list of representative books available through the UNC Libraries. To find books and eBooks related to your interests, search the Libraries Catalog by keyword, author, or title.
Borders by
A boy and his mother refuse to identify themselves as American or Canadian at the border and become caught in the limbo between nations when they claim their citizenship as Blackfoot.
Brooms by
Mississippi, 1930s. Magic simmering beneath the surface, kept in check by unjust laws and societal expectations. But for six extraordinary women, the roar of enchanted engines and the thrill of the forbidden broom race offer a chance to rewrite their destinies. Brooms is a heart-pounding graphic novel soaring with magic, friendship, and rebellion. It's a Fast and the Furious with broomsticks instead of cars, a historical spotlight on struggles silenced by time, and a celebration of the indomitable spirit that dares to defy the odds. Buckle up, witches and dreamers, for this ride is about to take flight.
Che: A Revolutionary Life by
The graphic novel adaptation of the groundbreaking and definitive biography of Che Guevara. The Argentine revolutionary has become an internationally recognized icon, as revered as he is controversial. In Che: A Revolutionary Life, Jon Lee Anderson and José Hernández present the man behind the myth, creating a complex and human portrait of this passionate idealist. Adapted from Jon Lee Anderson's definitive masterwork, and with renowned Mexican artist José Hernández's drawings.
Huda F Cares? by
This summer's exercise in Fahmy family sisterly bonding involves a trip to Disney World--which seems like it is headed for disaster when Huda gets into a fight with a boy making fun of her hijab.
Our Work Is Everywhere: An Illustrated Oral History of Queer & Trans Resistance by
A visually stunning graphic non-fiction book on queer and trans resistance. Over the past ten years, we have witnessed the rise of queer and trans communities that have defied and challenged those who have historically opposed them. Through bold, symbolic imagery and surrealist, overlapping landscapes, queer illustrator and curator Syan Rose shines a light on the faces and voices of these diverse, amorphous, messy, real, and imagined queer and trans communities. In their own words, queer and trans organizers, artists, healers, comrades, and leaders speak honestly and authentically about their own experiences with power, love, pain, and magic to create a textured and nuanced portrait of queer and trans realities in America. The many themes include Black femme mental health, Pacific Islander authorship, fat queer performance art, disability and health care practice, sex worker activism, and much more. Accompanying the narratives are Rose's startling and sinuous images that brings these leaders' words to visual life.
Parachute Kids: A Graphic Novel by
After their two-week family tour of Los Angeles, ten-year-old Feng Li Lin and her older brother and sister learn they will remain in California while their parents return to Taiwan, forcing them to navigate a new school, a new language, bullies, racism, and the pressures of running a household.
A Quick and Easy Guide to Sex and Disability by
All different kinds of bods want to connect with other bods, but lots of them get left out of the conversation when it comes to S-E-X. As explained by disabled cartoonist A. Andrews, this easy-to-read guide covers the basics of disability sexuality, common myths about disabled bodies, communication tips, and practical suggestions for having the best sexual experience possible. Whether you yourself are disabled, you love someone who is, or you just want to know more, consider this your handy starter kit to understanding disability sexuality, and your path to achieving accessible (and fulfilling) sex.
Rizos by
Marlene ama tres cosas: el arte, a su adorada tía Ruby y pasar el tiempo con Camilla, su mejor amiga. Pero su mamá piensa que se debería enfocar solamente en sus estudios y en madurar; y esto último implica alisarse el pelo todos los fines de semana para que se vea "presentable" y "bueno". Pero Marlene odia ir al salón y no entiende por qué nadie a su alrededor piensa que sus rizos naturales son bonitos. Después de algunos desafíos y momentos vergonzosos, además de la ayuda imprescindible de Camilla y tía Ruby, poco a poco Marlene emprende el camino de aprender a apreciar su pelo rizo y llevarlo con orgullo.
Souls of Black Folk: A Graphic Interpretation by
No greater figure exists in African-American thought, the shaping of modern narratives, than W.E.B. Du Bois, even after the nearly six decades following his 1963 death. DuBois not only influenced institutions so greatly as to be credited with reshaping them, he rewrote Black history (with Black Reconstruction, slow to be accepted as one of the classics of all U.S. history). He also arguably supplied what might be described as the "poetics" of African American life. With Souls of Black Folk (first published in 1903), he famously set forth his analysis of the folk culture, including religious folk culture, that would be the basis for future progress. In doing so, he pleaded for education and a new sensibility. But he made clear that the promise of these would not come "from the outside." A graphic novel based on The Souls of Black Folk will be a dramatic entry to a field growing rapidly within schools and beyond in popular culture. No "W.E.B. Du Bois" comic proper yet exists, a rather amazing absence, perhaps because the complexity of his story has not been taken up. It may also be that Du Bois, whose political life became so controversial from the onset of the Cold War to the end of his life, has seemed a daunting subject. This graphic novel will be less ambitious than a comprehensive biographical treatment. Beginning with a chapter on Du Bois's life before the writing of The Souls of Black Folk, it will utilize that book itself as the chief text from which to narrate its message, and close with a postscript chapter on Du Bois's life and work after its publication.
The Talk by
This graphic memoir by a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning offers a deeply personal meditation on the "the talk" parents must have with Black children about racism and the brutality that often accompanies it, a ritual attempt to keep kids safe and prepare them for a world that--to paraphrase Toni Morrison--does not love them. Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told him he couldn't play with a white friend's realistic water gun. "She told me I'm a lot more likely to be shot by police than my friend was if they saw me with it, because police tend to think little Black boys--even light-skinned ones--are older than they really are, and less innocent than they really are." Bell examines how "the talk" has shaped nearly every moment of his life into adulthood and fatherhood. Through evocative original illustrations, The Talk is a meditation on this coming-of-age-as Bell becomes painfully aware of being regarded as dangerous by white teachers, neighbors, and strangers, and thus of his mortality. Drawing attention to the brutal murders of African Americans like Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, and showcasing his award-winning cartoons along the way, Bell takes us up to the very moment of reckoning when people took to the streets protesting the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and when he must have "the talk" with a six-year-old son of his own.
American Negra: A Memoir by
Natasha S. Alford--an award-winning journalist, TV political analyst, and creator of TheGrio documentary, Afro-Latinx Revolution: Puerto Rico--recounts her experiences as an African American and Puerto Rican woman, reflecting on her improbable journey from Syracuse to Harvard, hedge fund boardrooms to newsrooms, and beyond in pursuit of America's infinite opportunities. Part inspiring memoir, part cultural analysis, with remarkable self-determination, Natasha S. Alford shows why the movement to recognize Afro-Latin identity illuminates shared struggles across the Black diaspora and often overlooked history
Angela Davis: An Autobiography by
From a childhood on Dynamite Hill in Birmingham, Alabama, to one of the most significant political trials of the century, Angela Davis describes in full the story of her life: from Carrie A. Tuggle Elementary School to the U.S. Communist Party; from her political activity in a New York high school to the Soledad Brothers; from the faculty of the Philosophy Department at UCLA to the FBI's list of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. This book tells not only what happened, but more important, how she felt about the events, the people, and herself. A powerful and commanding story told with warmth, brilliance, humor, and conviction.
Anna May Wong: Performing the Modern by
This critical cultural biography of Anna May Wong--a Chinese American actress who made close to sixty films, headlined theater and vaudeville productions, and had her own television show in 1951--examines Wong's life in order to gain an understanding of racial modernity and twentieth-century Western fantasies of China.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by
In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream and the inherent racism in a society that denies its non-White citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.
Fearlessly Different: An Autistic Actor's Journey to Broadway's Biggest Stage by
Fearlessly Different is the moving, inspirational memoir of autistic actor Mickey Rowe, who pushed beyond the stereotypes and obstacles so many disabled individuals face to shine on Broadway's biggest stage. Fearlessly Different opens up the world of autism to those who feel locked out and helps those with autism feel seen and understood.
¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons by
The first time someone called Brammer "Papi" was on the gay hookup app Grindr. At first he took this as white-guy speak for "hey, handsome." What started as a racialized moniker given to him on the hookup app soon became the inspiration for his now wildly popular advice column. Here Brammer shares his story of growing up biracial and in the closet in America's heartland, while attempting to answer some of life's toughest questions. This book is for anyone-- gay, straight, and everything in between-- who has ever taken stock of their unique place in the world.
I Have Always Been Me: A Memoir by
Born into traumatic circumstances, Brady-Davis was brought up in the Omaha foster care system and the Pentecostal faith. As a biracial, gender-nonconforming kid, she felt displaced, but has come to realize that she had a purpose all along. Here Brady-Davis reflects on a childhood of neglect, instability, and abandonment. She reveals her determination to dream through it and shares her profound journey as a trans woman now fully actualized, absolutely confident, and precious. In relating her sojourn as a song of self-reliance and pride, she offers an invitation to join in the chorus.
They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom by
One of Ahed Tamimi’s earliest memories is visiting her father in prison, poking her three-year-old fingers through the fence to touch his hand. The ubiquitous security checkpoints and armed guards even found their way into her childhood fairytales and playdates. Her grandmother regaled her not with nursery rhymes, but with the sage of her family and its tragedies. Instead of cops and robbers, there was Jaysh o 'Arab, or "Army and Arabs," where children roleplayed as Israeli soldiers opposing a community of Palestinians. She recounts all of this and more in her vivid and riveting memoir, one of the first to deal directly with what life in occupation actually means for the people in it, beyond geography or policy.
Wilma Mankiller: How One Woman United the Cherokee Nation and Helped Change the Face of America by
Wilma Pearl Mankiller’s great-grandfather survived the deadly forced westward march of Native Americans known as the Trail of Tears. She rose to lead the Cherokee Nation more than 150 years later as principal chief, the first elected female chief of a Native nation in modern times. Throughout her reign from 1985-1995, cut short only by her own severe health challenges, she advocated for extensive community development, self-help, and education and healthcare programs that revitalized the Nation of 300,000 citizens.
Chain-Gang All-Stars by
Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own. Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.
The Light of Seven Days by
Living with her Babby after her parents' death, 10-year-old Dinah Ash is invited to train at Leningrad's legendary Vaganova Ballet School. In the world of elite dance, she works hard, falls in love, and weathers the Soviet Union's ubiquitous antisemitism, but despite an impressive talent, she quickly learns that dancers of her "profile" don't make prima ballerinas. Love of Leningrad, ballet, friends, family, and books sustain Dinah until history intervenes. The Soviet war in Afghanistan, the rise of perestroika, and a re-emergence of Nazism leave her vulnerable and exposed. Realizing escape is her only option, she applies for refugee status in America. Dinah's adjustment to life in the US is a test as much of her identity as of her perseverance. Is who she is something Dinah can forge on her own? Or is identity imposed by upbringing, public opinion, and the myths of our cultures? As Dinah struggles with the questions of religion, race, and worth, her choices and the people she encounters will determine whether the dream of a better life can survive the weight of the past.
Mongolian Horse: Stories by
Mongolian Horse is a collection of stories about Asian American experience, about Maryland, about youth and music. Each story delves into the place where love meets estrangement. These are the narratives each character worries over, and in that anxiety, their person is defined.
My Government Means to Kill Me by
A fierce and riveting queer coming-of-age story, following the personal and political awakening of a young gay Black man in 1980s NYC, from the television drama writer and producer of The Chi, Narcos, and Bel-Air. Born into a wealthy Black Indianapolis family, Earl 'Trey' Singleton III leaves his overbearing parents and their expectations behind by running away to New York City with only a few dollars in his pocket. In the City, Trey meets up with a cast of characters that change his life forever--from civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, who he meets in a Harlem bathhouse, to his landlord, Fred Trump, who he clashes with and outfoxes. He volunteers at a renegade home hospice for AIDS patients, and after being put to the test by gay rights activist Larry Kramer and civil rights leader Dorothy Cotton, becomes a founding member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Along the way Trey attempts to navigate past traumas and searches for ways to maintain familial relationships--all while seeking the meaning of life in the midst of so much death. Vibrant, humorous, and fraught with entanglements, Rasheed Newson's My Government Means to Kill Me is an exhilarating, fast-paced, coming-of-age story that lends itself to a larger discussion about what it means for a young, gay, Black man in the mid-1980s to come to terms with his role in the midst of a political and social reckoning.
Nevada by
Nevada is the darkly comedic story of Maria Griffiths a young trans woman living in New York City and trying to stay true to her punk values while working retail. When she finds out her girlfriend has lied to her, the world she thought she'd carefully built for herself begins to unravel, and Maria sets out on a road trip to Star City, Nevada. Here, she meets James, who's probably trans. What happens next is either their salvation or downfall.
Olga Dies Dreaming by
A blazing talent debuts with the tale of a status-driven wedding planner grappling with her social ambitions, absent mother, and Puerto Rican roots, all in the wake of Hurricane María. It's 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro "Prieto" Acevedo, are bold-faced names in their hometown of New York. Prieto is a popular congressman representing their gentrifying Latinx neighborhood in Brooklyn while Olga is the tony wedding planner for Manhattan's powerbrokers. Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the 1%, but she can't seem to find her own...until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets... Twenty-seven years ago, their mother, Blanca, a Young Lord-turned-radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives. Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico's history, Xochitl Gonzalez's Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream--all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.
The Reformatory: A Novel by
Gracetown, Florida. June 1950. Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie's journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory. Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it's too late.
Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology by
Spanning diverse forms, settings, perspectives, and styles, but unified by their drive to imagine new Latinx futures, these stories address the breadth of contemporary Latinx experiences and identities while exuberantly embracing the genre’s ability to entertain and surprise. With new work for new audiences in their teens and up, and especially for Latinx people navigating their identities in the ever-shifting, sometimes perilous, but always promising cultural landscape of the US, this book is for dreamers—and DREAMers—everywhere.
True Biz: A Novel by
True biz? The students at the River Valley School for the Deaf just want to hook up, pass their history final, and have doctors, politicians, and their parents stop telling them what to do with their bodies. This revelatory novel plunges readers into the halls of a residential school for the deaf, where they'll meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who's never met another deaf person before; Austin, the school's golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing; and February, the headmistress, who is fighting to keep her school open and her marriage intact, but might not be able to do both at the same time. As a series of crises both personal and political threaten to unravel each of them, Charlie, Austin, and February find their lives inextricable from one another-and changed forever. This is a story of sign language and lip-reading, cochlear implants and civil rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great persistence, daring, and joy. Absorbing and assured, idiosyncratic and relatable, this is an unforgettable journey into the Deaf community and a universal celebration of human connection.
Woman of Light: A Novel by
1890: When Desiderya Lopez, The Sleepy Prophet, finds an abandoned infant on the banks of an arroyo, she recognizes something in his spirit and brings him home. Pidre will go on to become a famous showman in the Anglo West whose main act, Simodecea, is Pidre's fearless, sharpshooting wife, who wrangles bears as part of his show. 1935: Luz 'Little Light' Lopez and her brother Diego work the carnival circuit in downtown Denver. Luz, is a tea leaf reader, and Diego is a snake charmer. One day, a pale-faced woman in white fur asks Luz for a reading, calling her by a name that only her brother knows. Later that night at a party downtown, Luz sees Diego dancing with this pale-faced woman, which results in a brawl with the local white supremacist group. Diego leaves town for cover and Luz is left trying to get justice for her brother and family. Merging two multi-generational storylines in Colorado, this is a novel of family love, secrets, and survival.
The Anti-Racist Organization: Dismantling Systemic Racism in the Workplace by
In The Anti-Racist Organization: Dismantling Systemic Racism in the Workplace, HR strategist Shereen Daniels delivers an incisive and honest discussion of how business leaders can change workplace practices to create a more anti-racist and equitable environment. The author draws on her personal and client-facing experience, historical fact, legal proceedings, HR insights, and quantitative analysis to equip readers with the knowledge and tools they need to transform their companies.
Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration by
With deeply personal and uplifting essays in the vein of Black Girls Rock, You Are Your Best Thing, and I Really Needed This Today, this is "a necessary testimony on the magic and beauty of our capacity to live and love fully and out loud" (Kerry Washington). When Tracey M. Lewis-Giggetts wrote an essay on Black joy for The Washington Post, she had no idea just how deeply it would resonate. But the outpouring of positive responses affirmed her own lived experience: that Black joy is not just a weapon of resistance, it is a tool for resilience. With this book, Tracey aims to gift her community with a collection of lyrical essays about the way joy has evolved, even in the midst of trauma, in her own life. Detailing these instances of joy in the context of Black culture allows us to recognize the power of Black joy as a resource to draw upon, and to challenge the one-note narratives of Black life as solely comprised of trauma and hardship. "Lewis-Giggetts etches a stunning personal map that follows in her ancestors' footsteps and highlights their ability to take control of situational heartbreak and tragedy and make something better out of it....A simultaneously gorgeous and heartbreaking read" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
Borderlands = La frontera: The New Mestiza by
This critical edition of Borderlands/La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldúa's foundational work for Chicanx/Latinx studies, gender and sexuality studies, and border studies, includes a preface by Norma Elia Cantú, a critical introduction by Ricardo F. Vivancos-Pérez, the complete text of the original editon of Borderlands, including extensive critical notes, and a comprehensive bibliography of scholarship on Borderlands and history of reprints. In addition, it contains never-before printed facsimiles of draft versions of the both the prose and poetry sections of Borderlands from The Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa Papers from the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at UT Austin and an Afterword about the Anzaldúa Papers from AnaLouise Keating.
Disability and the Superhero: Essays on Ableism and Representation in Comic Media by
This is a collection of essays that analyze the presence of ableism in superhero narratives from television shows, films, and comics. Contributors use critical disability studies, media studies, cultural studies, and other interdisciplinary fields to unveil the misinformation, stigma, and exclusion caused by ableist representations of disability or disability-related experiences. Ableism is unmasked in media franchises such as DC Comics, Marvel, Sesame Street, and more. These essays go beyond what is currently available in critical disability superhero studies, and explore both the well-known and lesser-known characters including Iron Man, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Thor, Nick Fury, Jessica Jones, War Machine, Wonder Woman, Dr. Poison, the Joker, Bucky Barnes, Punisher, Rocket and Groot, Luke Cage, Captain America, and Sesame Street's Super Grover. They also offer insightful intersectional analyses of entire series, films, and shows such as Arrowverse and The Ables.
Just Shelter: Gentrification, Integration, Race, and Reconstruction by
Just Shelter: Gentrification, Integration, Race, and Reconstruction is a work of political philosophy that examines the core injustices of the contemporary U.S. housing crisis and its relation to enduring racial injustices. It posits that what is required to achieve justice in social-spatial arrangements - what is otherwise called "spatial justice" - is to prioritize, in the crafting and enforcement of housing policy: individual moral equality and liberty, distributive justice; equal citizenship; and, due to history and continuing practice and effects of racial discrimination in housing policy and the housing market in the United States, corrective justice in the form of rectification programs to address the history of racism in housing policy should be implemented by local, state, and federal governments. To arrive at and illustrate this conclusion, it investigates aspects of the housing crisis closely related to the history of American racial injustice, such as gentrification, segregation, desegregation, integration, and, to a lesser extent, homelessness, and offers liberal reforms gestures toward a view broad view of justice that is reconstructive.
Mapping Abundance for a Planetary Future: Kanaka Maoli and Critical Settler Cartography in Hawai'i by
Candace Fujikane draws upon Hawaiian legends about the land and water and their impact upon Native Hawai'ian struggles to argue that Native economies of abundance provide a foundation for collective work against climate change.
Palestine in the World: International Solidarity with the Palestinian Liberation Movement by
The Palestinian national liberation movement or the Palestinian revolution as it is known in Arabic emerged during the 1960s as an iconic cause of the global Left. This volume highlights the different practices of international solidarity that characterised this period, and how they shaped and were shaped by the global trajectory of the Palestinian movement. Bringing together scholars with versatile linguistic and interdisciplinary skills, Palestine in the World puts the Palestinian movement into conversation with the models of transnational politics that emerged through the revolutionary period. From participation in a vibrant sphere of intellectual and cultural production, the work of travelling revolutionaries as delegates, volunteers, and militants, and the connected mobilisations that took place in different corners of the world, international solidarity with and from the Palestinian movement was integral to its ascendance on the global stage. By treating the Palestinian revolution as a world phenomenon - with cases from Cuba, France, the US, the GDR, Japan and more - this volume reveals the forms of solidarity that shaped the rise of the movement and their afterlives today. It illuminates the rich connected histories of international solidarity that positioned the Palestinian movement as an iconic anticolonial struggle.
Queer and Trans Migrations: Dynamics of Illegalization, Detention, and Deportation by
More than a quarter of a million LGBTQ-identified migrants in the United States lack documentation and constantly risk detention and deportation. LGBTQ migrants around the world endure similarly precarious situations. Eithne Luibhéid's and Karma R. Chávez's edited collection provides a first-of-its-kind look at LGBTQ migrants and communities. The academics, activists, and artists in the volume center illegalization, detention, and deportation in national and transnational contexts, and examine how migrants and allies negotiate, resist, refuse, and critique these processes. The works contribute to the fields of gender and sexuality studies, critical race and ethnic studies, borders and migration studies, and decolonial studies. Bridging voices and works from inside and outside of the academy, and international in scope, Queer and Trans Migrations illuminates new perspectives in the field of queer and trans migration studies.
Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now by
When the Hart-Celler Act passed in 1965, opening up U.S. immigration to non-Europeans, it ushered in a whole new era of Asian American socio-political shifts. Yang, Yu, and Wang have created a love letter to and for Asian Americans, providing a vivid scrapbook of voices, emotions, and memories from an era in which their culture was forged and transformed. They include interviews and contributions from major Asian American cultural icons and artists, creating a celebration of shared experiences highlighting the different ways in which we have chosen to come together.
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by
Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in twentieth-century literature. In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope.
ʻĀina hānau = Birth Land by
Āina Hānau / Birth Lands is a powerful collection of new poems by Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) poet Brandy Nālani McDougall. These poems cycle through sacred and personal narratives while exposing and fighting ongoing American imperialism, settler colonialism, militarism, and social and environmental injustice to protect the ʻāina and its people.
American Inmate by
Monson's work challenges his readers with uncomfortable but essential, urgent, and necessary questions: What does it mean to be in the world and yet live apart from it? What happens to the minds and bodies of those locked away? What happens to the minds and bodies of their loved ones? How can America get free? Braiding personal narrative with contemporary rap lyrics and institutional language, Monson deepens the nuances and dimensions of and within Asian American poetics, prison poetics, and hip-hop poetics with his deft and experimental writing style. American Inmate speaks through cages, bars, walls, and borders, collapsing widespread misconceptions and stereotypes regarding incarceration, and shrinking the distance between readers on the outside and the complex interiority of an incarcerated human being.
Cenizas: Poems by
Cenizas is centered around one Salvadoran family's experiences with grief and identity as it relates to a homeland that only exists in the "in-between"- the place where all the diaspora people exist. The book argues that the Salvadoran Civil War permanently altered the Salvadoran people's reality by forcing them to become refugees that continue to leave their homeland even decades after the war.
Fraternal Light: On Painting While Black: Poems for Beauford Delaney by
Fraternal Light: On Painting While Black is a lyric evocation of the life and work of the great African American artist Beauford Delaney. These poems pay homage to Delaney's resilience and ingenuity in the face of profound adversity. Although his work never garnered the acclaim it deserves-but is finally receiving-Delaney was well known and highly respected in African American cultural circles, among bohemian writers and artists based in Greenwich Village from the 1930s to the early 1950s, and in Parisian avant-garde and expatriate enclaves from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. Delaney's paintings and personal history elicited a powerful emotional response from Arlene Keizer, who has crafted a diasporic ceremony of remembrance for this Black, gay male visionary. Fraternal Light offers back an answering complexity to Delaney's life and work. One form of art calls out; another answers. Keizer's poems make the contours and challenges of Delaney's life visible, which is especially urgent in a world still frequently hostile or indifferent to Black creative brilliance.
Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing: Poems by
In this affecting poetry debut, Charif Shanahan explores what it means to be fully human in our wounded and divided world. In poised yet unrelenting lyric poems, Shanahan—queer and mixed-race—confronts the challenges of a complex cultural inheritance, informed by colonialism and his mother’s immigration to the United States from Morocco, navigating racial constructs, sexuality, family, and the globe in search of “who we are to each other . . . who we are to ourselves.”
A Prayer for a Non-Religious Autistic: Poems by
A family history book for those who (in various ways) choose their own, a Jewish conversion story, disability advocacy, a literary supply of special interests as palate cleansers, and a behind-the-scenes feature on the effects of misdiagnosis, mental illness, and addiction. The repetition used throughout is both cyclical (a reminder that healing is not linear) and, as described at the start of the book, autistic literature. Accompanying Scheelk's third poetry book includes image descriptors, a trigger warning list, and a Disability Resources section to encourage self-education.
Sacred Spells: Collected Works by
In this timely collection of poetry, plays, fiction, and performance texts, Assotto Saint draws upon music and incantation, his Haitian heritage, and a politics of liberation to weaves together a tapestry of literature that celebrates life in the face of death. Influential to contemporary writers such as Essex Hemphill, Marlon Riggs, and Melvin Dixon, Sacred Spells is Saint's crucial legacy-five hundred incandescent pages of painful, lyric writing that exemplifies the visceral, spiritual dimensions of an artistic practice that's integral to Black and LGBTQ activist movements worldwide, both historic and present.
Selena Didn't Know Spanish Either: Poems by
Selena Didn't Know Spanish Either is a debut poetry collection which seeks Tejano pop star Selena Quintanilla as a means of reconnecting to the speaker's cultural identity. As Spanish language and culture becomes more accessible to non-Latinx populations, the speaker grapples with her own complex story of assimilation. Modern marginalization, appropriation, tokenizing, and fetishizing are examined in this multi-generational memoir tracking a Latinx family's journey to assimilation. This dynamic collection is far-reaching, exploring BIPOC experiences in predominantly white cultures.
Tender Headed by
The irony of transformation often is that we mistake it to have occurred long before it does. Tender Headed takes its time in asserting the realization that growth remains ever ahead of you. Examining the themes of Black identity, accountability, and narration, we encounter a series of revealing snapshots into the role language plays in chiseling possibility and its rigid command of depiction. Olatunde Osinaike's startling debut sorts through the many-minded masks behind Black masculinity. At its center lies an inquiry about the puzzling nature of relationship, how ceaseless wonder can be in its challenge of a truth. In the name of music and self-identity, the speaker weaves their way through fault and how it amends Black life in America. This is demonstrated best in how the demanding, yet vulnerable tone for the collection is set in 'Men Like Me,' its restless opening poem. Here, we find the speaker reciting a chronicle of generational neglect from men that became him also. Earnest and sharp, there is a beauty in seeing a poet not shy away from both the melancholy and resolve of rescripting their path while cherishing their steps and missteps along the way. This collection is a panel aching of fathers, sons, uncles, grandfathers, all of whom would do well to join in and confront shared privileges that are typically curtailed or altogether avoided in conversation. Tender Headed entrusts the heart to be a compass, insisting on a journey unto itself and a melodic detour toward tenderness precise with its own footing.
Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years by
A magnificent selection of fifty poems to celebrate three-term US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo's fifty years as a poet.
In this selection of poems Harjo, a three-term US Poet Laureate, celebrates her fifty years as a poet. While musical, intimate, political and wise, they intertwine ancestral memory and tribal histories with resilience and love. From her early discoveries for her own voice to moving reflections of our contemporary movement, she offers poems on birth, death, love, and resistance-- and everything they encompass.
Antiracist Baby by
Illustrations and rhyming text present nine steps Antiracist Baby can take to improve equity, such as opening our eyes to all skin colors and celebrating all our differences.
Calvin by
A transgender boy prepares for the first day of school and introduces himself to his family and friends for the first time.
Come over to My House by
Come Over To My House is a delightful picture book that explores the home lives of children and parents who are Deaf or disabled. Co-written by disability advocate Eliza Hull and bestselling author Sally Rippin, the inclusive rhyming text authentically explores the characters' various disabilities. A cast of friendly characters invite friends over for a play - there's fun to be had, food to eat and families to meet! Come over to my house. Come over and play! I'll show you around, you can stay the whole day. We'll swing on the swing-set and splash in the pool. Then I'll race you inside where my bedroom is cool.
Go Show the World: A Celebration of Indigenous Heroes by
Using rhyming lyrics from a previously written rap song, Midewin author, Manitoba politician, and creator Kinew tells the stories of diverse Indigenous heroes both historical and contemporary from the U.S. and Canada.
Ho'onani: Hula Warrior by
An empowering celebration of identity, acceptance and Hawaiian culture based on the true story of a young girl in Hawai'i who dreams of leading the boys-only hula troupe at her school. Ho'onani feels in-between. She doesn't see herself as wahine (girl) OR kane (boy). She's happy to be in the middle. But not everyone sees it that way. When Ho'onani finds out that there will be a school performance of a traditional kane hula chant, she wants to be part of it. But can a girl really lead the all-male troupe? Ho'onani has to try...
How to Speak in Spanglish by
Mexican American boy Sami loves combining Spanish and English to make Spanglish and is eager to share his language and joy with his skeptical Abuela and his vibrant community.
The Life of Salazar = La vida de Salazar: A Bilingual Picture Book Biography by
Born March 3, 1928, Ruben Salazar was the first Mexican American columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Salazar devoted his career to bringing Chicano issues to mainstream media. He became a leading figure in the success of the Chicano movement in the '60s, as the only one to shed light on the problems while other outlets refused. To this day, Ruben Salazar's words have helped alter perspectives on the Chicano and Latinx community and have brought positive attention to east Los Angeles cities.
Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free by
Black activist Opal Lee had a vision of Juneteenth as a holiday for everyone. This true story celebrates Black joy and inspires children to see their dreams blossom. Growing up in Texas, Opal knew the history of Juneteenth, but she soon discovered that many Americans had never heard of the holiday. Join Opal on her historic journey to recognize and celebrate "freedom for all."
Twas the Night Before Pride by
A glittering celebration of queer families puts Pride gently in perspective--honoring those in the LBGTQ+ community who fought against injustice and inequality. Pride Day is a day that means "Together, we are strong!" With bright, buoyant illustrations and lyrical, age-appropriate rhyme modeled on "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," it tackles difficult content such as the Stonewall Riots and the AIDS marches.
Yes We Will: Asian Americans Who Shaped This Country by
A lyrical nonfiction picture book featuring eighteen Asian American changemakers and two pivotal moments in Asian American history, illustrated by fifteen renowned Asian and Asian American artists.
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