And to make life even more complicated: She’s pregnant by her unreliable boyfriend. She’s a 16-year-old Native American, desperate to escape her Colorado town where violence, poverty, and drugs render her life bleak. Whether it’s a battle of words between the highly accomplished mothers of the only two Black girls at an elite private school an ill-fated cosplayer dressed as his favorite anime character or the subversive actions of a Black man married to a white woman fruitarian who is angling to be America’s next top reality TV star, the stories in this smart, fresh collection take on issues of race and identity with poignancy, satire, and dark humor.ĥ. Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires She is a masterful storyteller, and her journey toward healing and hope is anything but ordinary.Ĥ. Growing up in housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Díaz dealt with mental illness and violence-her own and others’-as well as poverty and coming to terms with her sexual identity. Díaz’s lyrical writing is just that raw, and her story just that profound. You might find yourself holding your breath while reading this memoir.

Feminist, fierce, personal and scholarly, Breathe elucidates the fear that comes with raising Black children in America, while also imagining Black futures firmly rooted in our pride and our history. Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani PerryĪt a time when Black children’s lives are not valued, and when Black resilience and resistance are so necessary, Perry shares this love letter to her children and ours, encouraging them toward freedom and possibility in a racist society. It is at once scholarly and literary, imaginative and the hardest truths.Ģ. Hartman spins painstaking research into gold that reads like fiction. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartmanĭid you know that at the beginning of the twentieth century, young Black women in New York and Philly sparked a radical cultural movement defined by free love, queer relations, and alternative forms of cohabitation, intimacy, and kinship bonds? Neither did I, until I read this aching, gorgeous, brilliant book. So, as a firm believer in the transformative power of a good book, I invite you to roar your way through the ’20s, starting with these deep, daring, delicious reads.ġ. Given the sad state of our democracy, extrajudicial police killings, and the reinvigoration of fascism and white supremacy, never before have I wished so hard for peace on Earth and goodwill toward humanity. Let’s face it: The ’10s have been quite the shitshow of a decade.

Saidiya hartman books