10 Must-Read Books: A Black History Month Exhibition
How the words that have been screamed at the great-grandfather are heard by the ancestors of today?
February marks Black History Month in the United States.
Should it be confined to just one month? No, but it is a starting point.
Should it be confined to just one place? No, but it is a starting point.
10 books may seem like a tragically insignificant amount, or maybe an overwhelming one, but starting with just one can make a difference.
Alice Walker, The Color Purple
Sniff the hardcover, paperback, listen or Kindle it.
In one of the chambers of my heart, you can find this book.
Written as a series of letters, exchanged by two sisters - African American women in the early 20th century South, The Color Purple shows oppression and abuse, resilience and self-discovery.
Alice Walker’s portrayal of the two women’s psychological growth and resilience in the face of adversity offers insights into the human capacity for healing, empowerment, and the importance of interpersonal connections in overcoming trauma.
Literally anything by Maya Angelou, but let’s start with I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Sniff the hardcover, paperback, listen or Kindle it.
It is Maya’s autobiographical masterpiece - her childhood, her coming-of-age, her identity, her trauma, her resilience.
It chronicles the transformation from a young girl grappling with racism and trauma to a confident woman finding her voice and strength.
It chronicles the power of storytelling in healing and empowerment.
Also literally anything by Toni Morrison, let’s start with Beloved.
Sniff the hardcover, paperback, listen or Kindle it.
Beloved is the literary definition of “haunted by the past”.
It is the aftermath of slavery on individuals and communities, but it is also an insightful account of complex trauma, of the complexities of memory, identity and the human psyche, of the way the unhealed past stays with us.
If you'd like to take the exploration of these matters further, please get your hands on The Bluest Eye, where a young African American girl, longs for blue eyes, believing that they would make her beautiful and valued in a society that idolizes whiteness.
It is a novel on internalized feelings - internalized racism and oppression, the destructive effects of societal standards and what happens to our self-worth.
Go read James Baldwin - Go Tell It On The Mountain.
Sniff the hardcover, paperback, listen or Kindle it.
Go Tell It On The Mountain narrates the religious and psychological struggle of a young African American boy growing up in 1930s Harlem whose story is close to that of Baldwin himself.
The internal conflicts of the character, and possibly Baldwin himself, are earth-shattering explorations of internal conflicts, identity, religion, race and sexuality.
And self-acceptance.
Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Women, Other
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Thankfully, there is 21st-century literature that explores human psychology, identity and race.
If we want to access generational healing, we cannot stop speaking about the atrocities of the past and generational trauma.
This is where Girl, Woman, Other is a beginning - it is a multi-narrative novel that interconnects the lives of 12 characters: predominantly black British women, of different generations, and different backgrounds.
Each character brings insights into the intersectionality in understanding individual experience, in the importance of representation.
Evaristo craftily intersects identities and provokes us to think about the complexities of human psychology.
Brit Bennet, The Vanishing Half
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If Girl, Women, Other ends up being right up your alley, The Vanishing Half will be of interest, too.
This time, the background is the same - we meet the twin sisters Desiree and Stella.
However, one “passes” as white, while the other - doesn’t.
Bennett proceeds to explore identity and the psychological implications on racial identity formation and the internal conflict of concealing one’s true self.
Last but not least, she loudly discusses the impact of societal norms on individual self-perception.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
Sniff the hardcover, paperback, listen or Kindle it.
Nigeria and the United States. Cultural identity, immigration, and race.
Love and the American Dream.
As an immigrant myself, I felt the healing touch of reading about the psychological impact of migration and the polarities of cultural adaptation.
Americanah is a sincere exploration of the complexities of racial identity in different socio-cultural contexts.
A must-read non-fiction: Clint Smith, How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
Sniff the hardcover, paperback, listen or Kindle it.
How the Word is Passed is the real Pandora’s box of the legacy of slavery in America.
Although it does focus profoundly on the historical roots (that branch out until today), Smith further explores the psychological dimensions of collective memory and historical trauma. He looks into the construction, remembrance and transmission of the ‘slavery (self-)narratives’ across generations.
In a nutshell, he looks at how the words that have been screamed at the great-grandfather are heard by the ancestors of today. And this is profound.
History likes to omit the general trauma it has caused. That is why it repeats itself. So do the narratives we tell ourselves.
Isabel Wilkerson, CASTE: The Origins of Our Discontents
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In CASTE, you can take this exploration further as Isabel Wilkerson looks at the enduring impact of the unspoken caste systems on society (on the territory of the US, India and Nazi Germany).
“As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theatre, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality.
It is about power—
which groups have it and which do not.”
Similarly to Smith, she walks hand-in-hand with the historical - how caste shapes social hierarchies and perpetuates systemic inequalities, as well as the psychological - how the said hierarchies are internalized and reinforced.
How they shape individual identity, behaviours and opportunities.
How they are a barrier between us and social justice and equality.
Isabel Wilkerson is the first woman of African-American heritage to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism.
(By the way, this happened in 1994 which says a lot about equality. 1994 is too late to be the year a woman of African-American heritage wins for the FIRST time EVER.)
Anna Malaika Tubbs, THE THREE MOTHERS: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation
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It is about the woman before the man.
The women that came before Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X and James Baldwin.
It is about the women, the mothers, Alberta King, Louise Little and Berdis Baldwin.
It is about the mothers behind the sons who shaped the civil rights movements.
The mothers who planted the activist roots to help their children survive.
It is about the maternal within the identity, values and social activism, the maternal behind the nurture and guidance that fosters resilience, resistance and social consciousness.
February is drawing to a close.
Continue this journey beyond Black History Month.
Treat the end of the month as the beginning of your exploration.
Pick one. That’s a start.
Your bookworm,
Katrin
Thank you for sharing these powerful works 🙏🏾