A selection of titles by and for Black women to celebrate Black Women's Wellness Day.
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Also check out the book lists African American Fiction and African American History & Culture; with Memoirs, Essays, and More.
Health and Self Care: Self-help, Spirituality, and Mental Health | Physical Health | Beauty and Haircare | Food and Nutrition
At Work & At Home: Career Guidance, Finance, and Leadership | Family, Parenting, and Relationships
Inspiring Black Women: Selected Memoirs, Essays, and Biographies: In History | Today
Self-help, Spirituality, and Mental Health
Prioritize your wellbeing with these 150 self-care exercises designed specifically to help Black women revitalize their outlook on life, improve their mental health, eliminate stress, and self-advocate.
This book is about navigating and embracing the challenges that many women, especially Black women, often experience in midlife. From 50 to Fabulous encourages women to take time to Reflect, Reconnect, and Redirect their energies into creating a life full of joy and purpose.
A groundbreaking exploration of how to harness concepts from group therapy and the safety (and joy) of sisterhood to heal yourself and your relationships, from the licensed clinical psychologist who founded the award-winning podcast Therapy for Black Girls.
Actress, vegan superstar, and "America's Mom" Tabitha Brown offers inspirational life lessons in her warm, charismatic voice.
A pioneering physician reveals how childhood stress leads to lifelong health problems and what we can do to break the cycle. For anyone who has faced a difficult childhood, or who cares about the millions of children who do, the innovative and acclaimed health interventions outlined in this book will represent vitally important hope for change.
A thoughtful, inclusive, and vividly illustrated guide to help Black people-and all people of color-heal from racial trauma using vital tools from an expert in mindfulness, meditation, and breathwork.
Disrupt and push back against capitalism and white supremacy. In this book, Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice. Ebook
A collection of lyrical essays about the way joy has evolved, even in the midst of trauma, in the author’s life.
Told through first-person narratives, essays, and poems, this uplifting collection celebrates the many ways that outdoor spaces offer Black people opportunities for personal empowerment, connection, and rejuvenation.
In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology. eBook, Downloadable audio
A leading advocate for racial reconciliation calls Christians to move toward deeper understanding in the midst of a divisive culture. Downloadable audio
Born on a former cotton plantation and having fled the terrors of the South, Pierce's grandmother raised her in the faith inherited from those who were enslaved. Now, in these pages, Pierce reckons with that tradition, building an everyday womanist theology rooted in liberating scriptures, experiences in the Black church, and truths from Black women's lives.
Forget the aesthetics of mainstream minimalism and discover a life of authenticity and intention with this practical guide to living with less...your way.
Looking at widowhood through the prism of race, mixed marriage and ageing, Black Widow redefines the stages of grief, from coffin shopping to day-drinking, to being a grown-ass woman crying for your mommy, to breaking up and making up with God, to facing the fact that life goes on even after the death of the person you were supposed to live it with. Tender, true, and endearingly hilarious, Black Widow is a story about the power of love and how the only guide book for recovery is the one you write yourself. Downloadable audio
This pioneering bestseller has become a rallying cry for a movement of radical self-love--the second edition shows readers how to grow the movement from self to systems and includes empowering stories from Sonya Renee Taylor's travels around the world. Downloadable audio
A groundbreaking exploration of grief and racial trauma through the eyes of a Black end-of-life caregiver.
An unapologetic exploration of the Black mental health crisis--and a comprehensive road map to getting the care you deserve in an unequal system.
Black women are strong. At least that's what everyone says and how they are constantly depicted. But what, exactly, does this strength entail? And what price do Black women pay for it? In this book, the author, a psychologist and pastoral theologian, examines the burdensome yoke that the ideology of the Strong Black Woman places upon African American women.
Part-manifesto, part-memoir, from the revolutionary editor who infused social consciousness into the pages of Teen Vogue, an exploration of what it means to come into your own--on your own terms. eBook, Downloadable audio
In her latest book, Oprah shares what she sees as a guide for activating your deepest vision of yourself, offering the framework for creating not just a life of success, but one of significance. The book's ten chapters are organized to help you recognize the important milestones along the road to self-discovery, laying out what you really need in order to achieve personal contentment, and what life's detours are there to teach us.
From the bestselling author comes a book of personal letters written by Black women to Black girls to nurture healthy womanhood and sisterhood, covering topics like identity, self-love, parents, violence, grief, mental health, sex, and sexuality.
This is the first book to define and explore Black fatigue, the intergenerational impact of systemic racism on the physical and psychological health of Black people--and explain why and how society needs to collectively do more to combat its pernicious effects.
Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organizers, artists, academics, and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience. Featuring contributions by Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Laverne Cox, Jason Reynolds, Austin Channing Brown, and more. eBook, Downloadable audio
Physical Health
Most pregnancy books are geared towards white culture in language and approach as well as health issues. While most of the development is the same regardless of race, there are health and cultural issues specific to women of color. Black, Pregnant and Loving It includes information on the specific health issues common to pregnant black women, from hyperventilating to dehydration, as well as skin and hair concerns. You'll learn how to select a doctor or midwife, which diet is best for you and your baby, how to identify your body's needs as well as a month-by-month view of what to expect. In addition, there are also flashbacks to older methods of childbirth and black folk myths and superstitions. Overall this is a complete pregnancy guide rooted in modern science for the health and well-being of the black community.
A birthing guide to help Black mothers-to-be navigate everything from what's happening in the body to planning the birth announcement to postpartum care.
Combatting fatphobia and racism to reclaim a space of belonging at the intersection of fat, Black, and female.
Running saved Alison Desir's life. At rock bottom and searching for meaning and structure, Desir started marathon training, finding that it vastly improved both her physical and mental health. Yet as she became involved in the community and learned its history, she realized that the sport was largely built with white people in mind. Running While Black draws on Desir's experience as an endurance athlete, activist, and mental health advocate to explore why the seemingly simple, human act of long distance running for exercise and health has never been truly open to Black people. Ebook
Moving between journal entry, memoir, and exposition, Audre Lorde fuses the personal and political as she reflects on her experience coping with breast cancer and a radical mastectomy.
For far too long, Black women have suffered worse health-care outcomes than other women, and a change is overdue. With Black Women's Wellness, award-winning obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Melody T. McCloud has written an indispensable and empowering guide to help Black women lead happier, healthier lives.
If you or anyone you know has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, this easy-to-understand guide will help you navigate the challenges of living with this disease. Full of helpful hints, motivation, and recommendations, as well as note pages, Dr. Eno's practical advice is helpful for those with type 2 diabetes, as well as their caregivers.
A tragedy is unfolding all around us and is receiving well overdue attention. Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy than their white peers. But Dr. Monique Rainford is working to better understand these disparities and do something about them.
Working with Vanity Fair contributing editor Michael Shnayerson, B. and her husband, Dan, share B.'s unfolding story on dealing with early-onset Alzheimer's. Crafted in short chapters that interweave their narrative with practical and helpful advice, readers learn in small bites about dealing with Alzheimer's disease's day-to-day challenges, the family tensions, and ways of coping, as well as gain tips on diet and exercise from a lifestyle maven using her decades of expertise in a new and unexpected way.
In this moving memoir, Shirley Smith, wife of NBA Champion and All-Star J. R. Smith, tells the story of giving birth to one of the youngest premature babies to survive--using her experience to heighten awareness of the crisis of Black maternal and infant health and pay tribute to Black women's resilience.
Jessamyn Stanley, a yogi who breaks all the stereotypes, has built a life as an internationally recognized yoga teacher and award-winning Instagram star by combining a deep understanding for yoga with a willingness to share her personal struggles in a way that touches everyone who comes to know her. Now she brings her body-positive, emotionally uplifting approach to yoga in a book that will help every reader discover the power of yoga and how to weave it seamlessly into his or her life. eBook
It's no secret that the Black community tops the list of groups afflicted by hypertension, stroke, diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure, and cancer. What the statistics do not show is the pain, misery, and despair that these conditions create--not only for the individual but also for family and friends. As an African-American doctor, Dr. Richard Walker has studied these conditions among his patients for many years. Now Dr. Walker offers a number of commonsense ways to prevent, manage, and possibly eliminate these killers, turning the tide of African-American health.
A dietitian, storyteller, and community organizer offers a cultural discussion of body image, food, health and wellness by focusing on the bodies of Black women and how our culture's obsession with thin, white women reinforces racist ideas and ideals.
Beauty and Haircare
In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, Kwame Brathwaite used his photography to popularize the political slogan "Black Is Beautiful." This monograph--the first ever dedicated to Brathwaite's remarkable career--tells the story of a key, but under-recognized, figure of the second Harlem Renaissance. Features photos of models from Braithwaie’s agency Grandassa Models, a modeling agency for black women, founded to challenge white beauty standards.
Despite increasingly liberal world views, Black hair continues to be erased, appropriated, and stigmatized to the point of taboo. Through her personal and historical journey, Dabiri gleans insights into the way racism is coded in society's perception of black hair--and how it is often used as an avenue for discrimination. eBook
A collection of empowering stories and captivating photos, My Beautiful Black Hair celebrates an aspect of Black femininity--natural hair--and embraces it as a central part of Black womanhood.
The idea for Palette came to British Vogue Contributing Beauty Editor Funmi Fetto after years of being asked by friends, family and strangers on the street for advice on products suitable for women of colour, who often find themselves excluded from mainstream beauty coverage. In Palette, Fetto covers all the hair, skincare, makeup and body products available today which really work for women of colour.
From sneakers to leather jackets, a bold, witty, and deeply personal dive into Black America's closet. In this highly engaging book, fashionista and pop culture expert Tanisha C. Ford investigates Afros and dashikis, go-go boots and hotpants of the sixties, hip hop's baggy jeans and bamboo earrings, and the #BlackLivesMatter-inspired hoodies of today.
A celebration of Black culture, hair, beauty, and identity for Black- and Brown-skinned people, and a gateway to understanding another world for non-blacks, Hairlooms comprehensively educates readers about the African-American experience by uncovering the complex issues surrounding Black women's hair and beauty.
Educating women on how to transition from relaxed to completely natural hair, a gifted "curl whisperer," combining her expansive knowledge with tips from other experts in the field, provides product recommendations, home haircare recipes, advice on how to maintain natural hair for children and more.
Black women continue to have a complex and convoluted relationship with their hair. From grammar and high schools to corporate boardrooms and military squadrons, Black and Afro Latina natural hair continues to confound, transfix, and enrage members of White American society. Why, in 2022, is this still the case? Particularly relevant during this time of emboldened White supremacy, racism, and provocative othering, this work explores how writing about one of the still-remaining systemic biases in schools, academia, and corporate America might lead to greater understanding and respect.
The author covers the Wright principles of hair styling, including the right hair products, the right hairstyling tools, and the right hairstyling techniques.
A powerful and inspired collection of essays and real-world advice on style, beauty, and motherhood from the popular blogger LaTonya Yvette.
Food and Nutrition
Jocelyn Delk Adams believes every day deserves to be celebrated, from seemingly mundane weekdays to exuberant weekends and holidays. Her approachable take on comfort food features Southern-steeped recipes that are jazzed-up, remixed classics, all sprinkled with the vibrant, colorful personality she's best known for.
Celebrating the Gullah/Geechee culinary traditions of her family and sharing family anecdotes, memories, and helpful tips, the breakout star of Food Network's top-rated show Delicious Miss Brown presents dishes combining West African herbs, spices, and grains with traditional Southern cooking.
Pursue a plant-based diet without sacrificing the dishes you love with these healthy, vegan comfort food recipes that are as delicious as they are nutrient dense. A passion project for long-time vegan and popular food blogger Emani Corcran, this recipe book pays homage to her favorite family dishes and her experiences growing up immersed in Black food culture. Ebook
Growing up sensitive and slightly awkward in a race-conscious space, Guy decided early on that good food is the most powerful way to connect, understand, and heal. She leads readers on a sensual baking journey, using the fives senses, as she retells food memories with ingredients that involve whole flours, less refined sugar, and vegan alternatives.
The beloved chef and television celebrity takes us back to her own Nashville roots to offer a fresh, lip-smackin look at America's favorite comfort cuisine and traces soul food’s history from Africa and the Caribbean to the American South. Carla shows us that soul food is more than barbecue and mac and cheese. Traditionally a plant-based cuisine, everyday soul food is full of veggie goodness that's just as delicious as cornbread and fried chicken.
Grandmothers from eight eastern African countries welcome you into their kitchens to share flavorful recipes and stories of family, love, and tradition in this transporting cookbook-meets-travelogue.
A must-have anthology of the leading Black women and femmes shaping today's food and hospitality landscape--from farm to table and beyond--chronicling their passions and motivations, lessons learned and hard-won wisdom, personal recipes, and more.
The very first cookbook to celebrate Juneteenth, from food writer and cookbook author Nicole A. Taylor--who draws on her decade of experiences observing the holiday.
Adapted from historical texts and rare African-American cookbooks, the 125 recipes of Jubilee paint a rich, varied picture of the true history of African-American cooking- a cuisine far beyond soul food.
Career Guidance, Finance, and Leadership
A ten-step plan for finding peace, safety, and harmony with your money-no matter how big or small your goals and no matter how rocky the market might be-by the inspiring and savvy "Budgetnista." eBook, Downloadable audio
A necessary guide to harnessing the strengths of being an outsider by Stacey Abrams, one of the most prominent Black female politicians in the U.S. Downloadable audio
Full of empowering wisdom from one of Silicon Valley's first female African American CEOs, this inspiring leadership book offers a blueprint for how to achieve your personal and professional goals.
The four most powerful African American women in politics share the story of their friendship and how it has changed politics in America.
The first Black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company looks back at her life and her career at Xerox, sharing unique insights on American business and corporate life, the workers she has always valued, racial and economic justice, how greed is threatening democracy, and the obstacles she's conquered being Black and a woman.
Embodying a new chapter in progressive politics that prioritizes the lives and stories of the most politically vulnerable, the first black woman to represent the state of Missouri in Congress presents a powerful and empowering memoir that is both a personal account and a fierce call to action.
Meet Tricia and Antoinette Clarke. Best friends. Black women. Hustlers. Boss Ladies. And, as Elle magazine called them- "Power Twins." Here, they inspire readers to hustle harder, shine brighter, and bank more.
A bold and inspiring memoir and manifesto from a renowned voice in the women's leadership movement that shows women how to cultivate the single skill they really need in order to thrive: the ability to let go.
From hustling lunch tickets in the Bronx to being a successful investor, Fabré tells how she became one of Wall Street’s youngest Black stockbrokers in the 1990s.
A guide for every woman who has found herself closing the cover on other leadership books that omit our true experiences and strengths. In these pages, trainer and activist Jennifer R. Farmer helps readers learn what is required for the long haul of liberation by providing a roadmap to on-the-job success, challenging systemic racism, and seeking inner healing through the sustaining power of faith.
Harts provides career advice for women of color specifically, rejecting the one-size-fits-all approach of business books that lump together women across races. She covers factors that keep women of color from getting the proverbial seat at the table in corporate America: microaggressions, systemic racism, white privilege, and so forth. Harts addresses these issues head on, and provides a roadmap to help women of color and their allies make real change to the system.
When Valerie Jarrett interviewed a promising young lawyer named Michelle Robinson in July 1991, neither knew that it was the first step on a path that would end in the White House. Jarrett joined the White House team on January 20, 2009 as the Obamas' personal adviser and departed with the First Family on January 20, 2017. In Finding My Voice, She shares her optimistic perspective on the importance of leadership and the responsibilities of citizenship in the twenty-first century, inspiring readers to lift their own voices.
A breakdown of the economic and social injustices facing Black people and other marginalized citizens inspired by political activist Kimberly Jones' viral video, "How Can We Win."
I'm Not Yelling is part strategy for savvy black business women navigating a predominantly white corporate America and part vessel empowering black women to find their voices in toxic work environments and be successful business women.
Lynn knows what it takes to smash barriers and succeed: well-defined goals, a plan, and hard you. Here she provides inspiration and guidance to help you develop success strategies and prepare for big opportunities and potential setbacks. Learn to transform into the agent of change you needed all along!
A relentlessly optimistic memoir by one of the most influential Black business leaders in America today, offering hope and practical guidance for navigating life's most difficult challenges.
Drawing on first-hand clinical insight and scientific research, Dr. Wilborn offers much-needed advice on how women of color can be high-performing and successful professionally, without sacrificing their physical, mental, and emotional wellness.
Journalist, attorney, and star of Bravo's The Real Housewives of New York reshapes the cultural landscape of achievement by showing why Black unity is crucial to individual and collective success.
Family, Parenting, and Relationships
A Washington Post culture writer chronicles the challenges she faces as a Black mother in a mostly white mommy group in a time of gentrification, racial reckoning, and a global pandemic.
A moving memoir about the legendary author's relationship with her own mother. eBook, Downloadable audio
Nefertiti Austin shares her story of starting a family through adoption as a single Black woman. In this unflinching account of her parenting journey, Nefertiti examines the history of adoption in the African American community, faces off against stereotypes of single Black moms, and confronts the reality of what it looks like to raise children of color and answer their questions about racism in modern-day America. eBook, Downloadable audio
In these twelve deeply personal, connected essays, Bernard details the experience of growing up black in the south with a family name inherited from a white man, surviving a random stabbing at a New Haven coffee shop, marrying a white man from the North and bringing him home to her family, adopting two children from Ethiopia, and living and teaching in a primarily white New England college town. Each of these essays sets out to discover a new way of talking about race and of telling the truth as the author has lived it.
An accessible blueprint to embolden our daughters to be critical thinkers, fearless doers, and joyful change agents for our future--from the proud mother of teen activist Marley Dias, founder of 1000BLACKGIRLBOOKS.
It's hard to balance protecting your child's innocence with preparing them for the realities of Black life. When--and how--do you approach racism with your children? How do you protect their physical and mental health while also preparing them for a country full of systemic racism? From the realities of living while Black to age-appropriate ways to discuss racism with your children, educator M.J. Fievre provides a much-needed resource for parents of Black kids everywhere.
Equal parts investigative and deeply introspective, The Wreck is a profound memoir about recognizing the echoes of history within ourselves, and the alchemy of turning inherited grief into renewal.
An acclaimed cultural critic presents the story of her journey to understand her northern and southern roots, the Great Migration, and the displacement of black people across America.
An intergenerational collection of personal narratives by women in the 21st century who mother from the margins of our society.
An unflinching reckoning with the impact of 40 years of racist public school policy on generations of Black lives.
A provocative manifesto that exposes the harms of helicopter parenting and sets forth an alternate philosophy for raising preteens and teens to self-sufficient young adulthood. Downloadable audio
A warm, wise, and urgent guide to parenting in uncertain times, from a longtime reporter on race, reproductive health, and politics.
A blueprint for Black moms on life, love and home. Single moms and married moms alike will find a set of parenting principles that will guide African-American moms on a journey to: Efficiently manifest your life's purpose on a timeline that is conducive to raising happy, healthy and well-rounded children.Engage in productive relationships from a place of self-love and abundance,rather than control and lack.View your home and the role of being a Brown Mama for what it really is: your own personal breeding ground for self-mastery.Rather than telling you how to be a mother, this book will help you understand that motherhood is not just about taking care of your children, it's about transforming into the woman that you are divinely destined to be.
A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft an extraordinary testament to people who are left out of the archives. eBook
Sing a Rhythm, Dance a Blues reimagines what education might look like if schools placed the thriving of Black and Brown girls at their center. Morris brings together research and real life in this chorus of interviews, case studies, and the testimonies of remarkable people who work successfully with girls of color. The result is this radiant manifesto -- a guide to moving away from punishment, trauma, and discrimination and toward safety, justice, and genuine community in our schools.
Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity.
An incisive, intersectional essay anthology that celebrates and examines romance and romantic media through the lens of Black readers, writers, and cultural commentators, edited by Book Riot columnist and librarian Jessica Pryde.
A professor of English literature presents a memoir of family, identity, and acceptance that examines the messiness and complexity of adoption and parenthood from a black, queer, and feminist perspective.
Only a fraction of what is known about Madison's earliest African American settlers and the vibrant and cohesive communities they formed has been preserved in traditional sources. The rest is contained in the hearts and minds of their descendants. Seeing a pressing need to preserve these experiences, lifelong Madison resident Muriel Simms collected the stories of twenty-five African Americans whose families arrived, survived, and thrived here in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While some struggled to find work, housing, and acceptance, they describe a supportive and enterprising community that formed churches, businesses, and social clubs--and frequently came together in the face of adversity and conflict. A brief history of African American settlement in Madison begins the book to set the stage for the oral histories.
Inspiring Black Women: In History
Madam C. J. Walker--reputed to be America's first self-made woman millionaire--has long been celebrated for her rags-to-riches story. Born to former slaves in the Louisiana Delta in the aftermath of the Civil War, married at fourteen, and widowed at twenty, Walker spent the first decades of her life as a laundress, laboring in conditions that paralleled the lives of countless poor and working-class African American women. By the time of her death in 1919, however, Walker had refashioned herself into one of the most famous African American figures in the nation: the owner and president of a hair-care empire and a philanthropist wealthy enough to own a country estate near the Rockefellers in the prestigious New York town of Irvington-on-Hudson. In this biography, Erica Ball places this remarkable and largely forgotten life story in the context of Walker's times.
No real account of black women physicians in the US exists, and what little mention is made of these women in existing histories is often insubstantial or altogether incorrect. In this work of extensive research, Jasmine Brown offers a rich new perspective, penning the long-erased stories of nine pioneering black women physicians beginning in 1860, when a black woman first entered medical school.
The first major biography of one of our most influential judges--an activist lawyer who became the first Black woman appointed to the federal judiciary--that provides an eye-opening account of the twin struggles for gender equality and civil rights in the 20th Century. Ebook
Angela Y. Davis has been a political activist at the cutting edge of the Black liberation, feminist, queer, and prison abolitionist movements. Fifty years after its original publication, the author revisits her life's story in print.
An homage to the author's mother relates how she cleverly played Detroit's illegal lottery in the 1970s to support the family while creating a loving, joyful home and mothering her children to the highest standards.
Written by her great-granddaughter, a historical portrait of the boundary-breaking civil rights pioneer covers Wells' early years as a slave, her famous acts of resistance, and her achievements as a journalist and anti-lynching activist.
Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth provides a historian's view of the country's long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured in the century since, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow and beyond.
"A captivating book that brilliantly reveals an American sports legend long overlooked. Sally Jacobs tells the riveting story of Althea Gibson, my personal shero, who overcame daunting odds - on the tennis court and off - to stand at the world pinnacle of her sport and became an inspiration to many." -- Billie Jean King
The remarkable woman at heart of the smash New York Times bestseller and Oscar-winning film Hidden Figures tells the full story of her life, including what it took to work at NASA, help land the first man on the moon, and live through a century of turmoil and change. eBook
The epic history of African American women's pursuit of political power -- and how it transformed America.
The life story of Coretta Scott King--wife of Martin Luther King Jr., founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center), and singular twentieth-century American civil and human rights activist--as told fully for the first time, toward the end of her life, to Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds. Downloadable audio
African American women have played a pivotal part in rock and roll--from laying its foundations and singing chart-topping hits to influencing some of the genre's most iconic acts. Despite this, black women's importance to the music's history has been diminished by narratives of rock as a mostly white male enterprise. In Black Diamond Queens, Maureen Mahon draws on recordings, press coverage, archival materials, and interviews to document the history of African American women in rock and roll between the 1950s and the 1980s.
Throughout her prodigious life, activist and lawyer Pauli Murray systematically fought against all arbitrary distinctions in society, channeling her outrage at the discrimination she faced to make America a more democratic country. In this definitive biography, Rosalind Rosenberg offers a
poignant portrait of a figure who played pivotal roles in both the modern civil rights and women's movements.
The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA at the leading edge of the feminist and civil rights movement, whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space. eBook, Downloadable audio
In the pre-antibiotic days when tuberculosis stirred people's darkest fears, killing one in seven, white nurses at Sea View, New York's largest municipal hospital, began quitting en masse. Desperate to avert a public health crisis, city officials summoned Black southern nurses, luring them with promises of good pay, a career, and an escape from the strictures of Jim Crow. Spanning the Great Depression and moving through World War II and beyond, this remarkable true story follows the intrepid young women known by their patients as the "Black Angels."
Much has been written about Berdis Baldwin's son James, about Alberta King's son Martin Luther, and Louise Little's son Malcolm. But virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary women who raised them. In her groundbreaking and essential debut, scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs celebrates Black motherhood by telling the story of the three women who raised and shaped some of America's most pivotal heroes. eBook, Downloadable audio
In 1968, Wyomia Tyus became the first person ever to win gold medals in the 100-meter sprint in two consecutive Olympic Games, a feat that would not be repeated for twenty years or exceeded for almost fifty. Tigerbelle chronicles Tyus's journey from her childhood as the daughter of a tenant dairy farmer through her Olympic triumphs to her post-competition struggles to make a way for herself and other female athletes.
Inspiring Black Women: Today
Acclaimed Cave Canem poet and essayist Remica Bingham-Risher interweaves personal essays and interviews she conducted over a decade with 10 distinguished Black poets, such as Lucille Clifton, Sonia Sanchez, and Patricia Smith, to explore the impact of identity, joy, love, and history on the artistic process.
From a leading voice on racial justice, an eye-opening account of growing up Black, Christian, and female that exposes how white America's love affair with "diversity" so often falls short of its ideals. Downloadable audio
From the disability rights advocate and creator of the #DisabledAndCute viral campaign, a thoughtful, inspiring, and charming collection of essays exploring what it means to be black and disabled in a mostly able-bodied white America.
From the founder and activist behind one of the largest movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the "me too" movement, Tarana Burke debuts a powerful memoir about her own journey to saying those two simple yet infinitely powerful words--me too--and how she brought empathy back to an entire generation in one of the largest cultural events in American history.
From a highly lauded modern voice in feminism and racial justice comes a deeply personal and insightful testament to the power of reimagining to dismantle the frameworks and systems that no longer serve us while building new ones that do.
So what if it's true that Black women are mad as hell? They have the right to be. In the Black feminist tradition of Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper reminds us that anger is a powerful source of energy that can give us the strength to keep on fighting. eBook, Downloadable audio
One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with an extraordinarily powerful memoir: the story of a childhood defined by the looming absence of her incarcerated father. eBook, Downloadable audio
An essential guide to building transformative movements to address the challenges of our time, from one of the country's leading organizers and a co-creator of Black Lives Matter.
A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay. eBook, Downloadable audio
Griffin's beloved father died when she was nine, bequeathing her an unparalleled inheritance in closets full of remarkable books and other records of Black genius. In Read Until You Understand-a line from a note he wrote to her-she shares a lifetime of discoveries: the ideas that framed the United States Constitution and that inspired Malcolm X's fervent speeches, the soulful music of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, the daring literature of Phillis Wheatley and Toni Morrison, the artistry of Romare Bearden, and many others.
A series of connected personal stories drawn from the author's life and work as an ER doctor that explores how we are all broken--physically, emotionally, and psychically--and what we can do to heal ourselves as we try to heal others. Downloadable audio
An empowering, unabashedly bold memoir by the Atlantic journalist and former ESPN SportsCenter coanchor about overcoming a legacy of pain and forging a new path, no matter how uphill life's battles might be.
A treatise of Black women's transformative influence in media, entertainment, and politics, and why this intersectional movement building, especially on Twitter, is essential to the resistance.
A poetic and powerful memoir about what it means to be a Black woman in America--and the co-founding of a movement that demands justice for all in the land of the free. eBook, Downloadable audio
Pop culture is the Pandora's Box of our lives. Racism, wealth, poverty, beauty, inclusion, exclusion, and hope -- all of these intractable and unavoidable features course through the media we consume. Examining pop culture's impact on her life, Nichole Perkins takes readers on a rollicking trip through the last twenty years of music, media and the internet from the perspective of one southern Black woman.
From a star theoretical physicist, a journey into the world of particle physics and the cosmos -- and a call for a more just practice of science.
From iconic leader Bozoma Saint John, comes a memoir of grief, and one woman's drive to thrive in the face of loss.
An inspiring, indelible memoir from the daughter of sharecroppers in East Texas who became the first Black president of an Ivy League university--an uplifting story of girlhood and the power of family, community, and the classroom to transform one young person's life
From one of the preeminent cultural critics of her generation, a radiant weave of memoir, criticism, and biography that tells the story of black women in music--from the Dixie Cups to Gladys Knight to Janet, Whitney, and Mariah-- as the foundational story of American pop.
The Academy, Tony, and Emmy Award-winning actor and trailblazer tells her stunning story, looking back at her life and six-decade career.