WHAT SHAPES BLACK LIVES – NONFICTION

In Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings (Harper), Honorée Fanonne Jeffers reflects on the historical and personal tensions shaping Black women’s lives. From girlhood to womanhood, she explores ancestry, adultification, respectability politics, and womanism, while confronting white supremacy and patriarchy. With empathy and brilliance, she illuminates the journeys, resilience and possibilities of Black women throughout American history and in contemporary times. Throughout history, the concept of Blackness has been remarkably intertwined with the color blue. But while blue skies and blue water offer hope, blue is also the color of deep melancholy. In Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People, Imani Perry uses blue as a springboard for an examination of race and Blackness that transcends politics or ideology.

Buy Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings – Jeffers

Buy Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People – Perry