African American Nonfiction
Enjoy these recent African American nonfiction titles published within the last two years and recommended by our librarians. Annotations from review sources, as cited. (February 2023)
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A Little Devil in America
In this staggeringly intimate meditation, essayist and poet Abdurraqib chronicles Black performance in American culture. Filled with nuance and lyricism, Abdurraqib’s luminous survey is stunning. –Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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My Pinup
Pulitzer winner Als brings serpentine prose and acerbic wit to this slim, two-part take on Prince, desire, and loss. –Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Madam C.J. Walker
[A]n exhaustively detailed account of the life of Madam C.J. Walker, an early twentieth–century self-made entrepreneur who built an international conglomerate by selling beauty and hair-care products specifically designed for African American women. –Booklist
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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We Are Each Other's Harvest
Baszile has curated this anthology of essays, photographs, conversations, poetry, and more to explore Black farmers’ connections to the land in the U.S., from Emancipation to the present day. –Booklist
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Black Powerful
[Seattle-based Marin] explores the monumental resilience, joy, and triumph of Black People everywhere. –McSweeneys
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Wolf Hustle
Former stockbroker Fabré debuts with a rollicking account of joining Wall Street as a 19-year-old Black woman in the 1990s. –Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Four Hundred Souls
A compendium of essays and poems chronicling 400 years of Black American history. An impeccable, epic, essential vision of American history as a whole and a testament to the resilience of Black people. –Kirkus
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Black Church
A scholarly and intimate look at the Black Church’s prodigious history and potential future. Powerful, poignant, and ultimately celebratory. –Kirkus
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Inciting Joy
Award-winning poet Gay ruminates on the concept and practice of bringing forth joy. Gay is a treasure, and his latest offering will delight his fans as well as those new to his work. –Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Abolition Geography
Gilmore is clear as a bell: potent and factual on injustice, filled with sharp intelligence and even wit, but also somehow continuously surprising and emotional. With every page, Gilmore forces us to think of race, class, prisons, and the world in entirely new ways. –NPR
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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