• General Recommendations
  • Staff-Created List

Black Women to Read Now

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style." Maya Angelou

Johnson County Library

28 items

  • A Black Women's History of the United States is a critical survey of black women's complicated legacy in America, as it takes into account their exploitation and victimization as well as their undeniable and substantial contributions to the country…
    Book, 2020Boston : Beacon Press, [2020] — 305.4889 Berry 01/2020
  • This Bridge Called My Back

    Writings by Radical Women of Color

    Through personal essays, criticism, interviews, testimonials, poetry, and visual art, the collection explores, as coeditor Cherríe Moraga writes, "the complex confluence of identities--race, class, gender, and sexuality--systemic to women of color…
    Book, 2015Albany, NY : State University of New York (SUNY) Press, [2015] — 810.8092 This
  • Emergent Strategy

    Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

    brown, adrienne maree,
    Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live. Change is constant. The world is in a continual state…
    Book, 2017Chico, CA : AK Press, [2017] — 303.4 Brown
  • Sister Outsider

    Essays and Speeches

    Lorde, Audre,
    Sister Outsider presents essential writings of black poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, an influential voice in 20th century literature. In this varied collection of essays, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and…
    Book, 2007Berkeley : Crossing Press, [2007] — 814.54 Lorde
  • Inspired by the #SayHerName campaign launched by the African American Policy Forum, these poems pay tribute to victims of police brutality as well as the activists insisting that Black Lives Matter. Elliott engages poets from the past two centuries…
    Book, 2020Los Angeles : Disney, Jump at the Sun, 2020. — TEEN 811.6 Elliott 01/2020
  • Say Her Name

    the Life and Death of Sandra Bland

    An investigation into what happened to activist Sandra Bland, who died in police custody after a routine traffic stop.
    DVD, 2019Burbank, CA : HBO Home Entertainment, [2019] — DVD 363.2 Say
  • Drawing on both her roots in Kentucky and her adventures with Manhattan Coop boards, Where We Stand is a successful black woman's reflection--personal, straight forward, and rigorously honest--on how our dilemmas of class and race are intertwined,…
    Book, 2000New York : Routledge, 2000. — 305.5 Hooks
  • How We Get Free

    Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective

    In the last several years, Black feminism has reemerged as the analytical framework for the activist response to the oppression of trans women of color, the fight for reproductive rights, and, of course, the movement against police abuse and…
    Book, 2017Chicago, IL : Haymarket Books, [2017] — 305.4209 How
  • A memoir by the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement explains the movement's position of love, humanity, and justice, challenging perspectives that have negatively labeled the movement's activists while calling for essential political…
    Book, 2018New York : St. Martin's Press, 2018. — BIO KHAN-CUL P. Khan-Cul 01/2018
  • Freedom Is a Constant Struggle

    Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement

    Davis, Angela Y. (Angela Yvonne), 1944-
    In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world. Reflecting on…
    Book, 2016Chicago, Illinois : Haymarket Books, 2016. — 323 Davis 04/2016
  • Reclaiming Our Space

    How Black Feminists Are Changing the World From the Tweets to the Streets

    Jones, Feminista, 1979-
    With these important online conversations, not only are Black women influencing popular culture and creating sociopolitical movements; they are also galvanizing a new generation to learn and engage in Black feminist thought and theory, and inspiring…
    Book, 2019Boston : Beacon Press, [2019] — 305.48896 Jones 01/2019
  • The Fire This Time

    a New Generation Speaks About Race

    In response to recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, National Book Award-winning writer Jesmyn Ward looked to James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time for comfort and counsel. In the essay 'My dungeon shook,' Baldwin addresses his…
    Book, 2016New York : Scribner, 2016. — 305.896 Fire 08/2016
  • Unapologetic

    a Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements

    Carruthers, Charlene A., 1985-
    Unapologetic is a 21st century guide to building a Black liberation movement through a Black queer feminist lens.
    Book, 2018Boston, MA : Beacon Press, [2018] — 305.4889 Carruthe 08/2018
  • This Will Be My Undoing

    Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (white) America

    Jerkins, Morgan,
    Doubly disenfranchised by race and gender, often deprived of a place within the mostly white mainstream feminist movement, black women are objectified, silenced, and marginalized with devastating consequences, in ways both obvious and subtle, that…
    Book, 2018New York : HarperCollins Publishers , [2018] — BIO JERKINS M. Jerkins 01/2018
  • What is feminism? In this short, accessible primer, bell hooks explores the nature of feminism and its positive promise to eliminate sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression. With her characteristic clarity and directness, hooks encourages…
    Book, 2015New York : Routledge, 2015. — 305.4201 Hooks
  • Eloquent Rage

    a Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower

    Cooper, Brittney C., 1980-
    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 [in this memoir] that anger is a powerful source of energy that can give us the strength to…
    Book, 2018New York : St. Martin's Press, 2018. — 305.4889 Cooper 02/2018
  • Phoebe Robinson is a stand-up comic, which means that comedic fodder runs through her everyday life. And as a black woman in America, she asserts, sometimes you need to have a sense of humor to deal with the nonsense you are handed every day. And…
    Book, 2016New York : Plume, 2016. — BIO ROBINSON P. Robinson 09/2016
  • Black Is the Body

    Stories From My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and Mine

    Bernard, Emily, 1967-
    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…
    Book, 2019New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2019. — BIO BERNARD E. Bernard 01/2019
  • The Light We Carry

    Overcoming in Uncertain Times

    Obama, Michelle, 1964-
    Michelle Obama offers readers a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and potential of the world around us,…
    Book, 2022New York : Crown, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, [2022] — BIO OBAMA M. Obama 11/2022
  • Margo Jefferson constructs a nervous system with pieces of different lengths and tone, conjoining arts writing (poem, song, performance) with life writing (history, psychology). The book's structure is determined by signal moments of her life,…
    Book, 2022New York : Pantheon Books, [2022] — BIO JEFFERSO M. Jefferso 04/2022