Do you ever wonder why we need a Black History Month? Or a Women’s History Month? Isn’t it all American history? Indeed it is. Having one month of the year focused on Black American history (and, in my bookstore, literature) is not a denial of more inclusive American history but an acknowledgement that parts of American history have been swept under the rug for too long and that we don’t make a better future by pretending the past didn’t happen. As Isabel Wilkerson has written, those of us alive in America today did not build our national “house,” but we’re here now, living in it, all of us, and it’s up to us to do the necessary repairs and maintenance.
Besides, you wouldn’t want to miss some of these fantastic writers!!! Biography, fiction, poetry! The essay collection Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration, compiled by Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts, challenges the idea that all of Black life is just hardship and trauma, while Aaliyah Bilal’s Temple Folk, a National Book Award Finalist, brings us masterful and diverse stories about members of the Nation of Islam. And/or, have you read a novel by Jesmyn Ward or Colson Whitehead yet? If not, maybe now is the time.
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There’s more already here, and I’ll have additions to the front table next week, too. Come browse!
