This year’s theme for Black History Month is ‘Reclaiming Narratives’.
As the BHM website explains:
In today’s world, stories are powerful tools that shape how we understand our past, present, and future. For too long, the history of Black communities has been told through lenses that often misrepresent, oversimplify, or entirely overlook the rich and diverse experiences of those who lived it.
This Black History Month make time to read the stories of remarkable Black people from history, who have been marginalised and deserve to be better known, but also read the inspirational stories of current Black people in all walks of life from sports to science, poetry to politics.
Reading Suggestions:
- The History of Mary Prince by Mary Prince
- My bondage and my freedom by Frederick Douglass
- The black Jacobins : Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo revolution by C.L.R James
- Black Spartacus : the epic life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudir Hazareesingh
- Black Tudors : the untold story by Miranda Kaufmann
- Black and British: A Short Essential History by David Olusoga
- Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
- Hidden figures : the untold story of the African-American women who helped win the space race by Margot Lee Shetterly
- Angela Y. Davis; an autobiography
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
- The March trilogy (graphic novel memoirs) by Congressman John Lewis, a lifelong civil rights activist.
- Born a Crime: Stories from a South African childhood by Trevor Noah
- The seven volume series of autobiographical books by Maya Angelou, starting with I know why the caged bird sings
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- A promised land by Barack Obama
- Just Sayin’ – My Life in Words by Malorie Blackman
- Brit(ish) : on race, identity and belonging by Afua Hirsch
- Natives : race and class in the ruins of empire by Akala
- Coming to England by Floella Benjamin
- Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay (a memoir)
Don’t miss the new books in the library:
-
Black History for Every Day of the Year by David Olusoga. A celebration of Black History from around the world and through history including the current day.
-
Black Arsenal: Club, culture, identity edited by Clive Chijioke Nwonka
Why not explore further reading on the visual reading lists on the library Padlets?
Featured author: Malorie Blackman
This year’s Black History Month theme is ‘Reclaiming Narratives’ and who better to exemplify this than award-winning, and much-loved author, Malorie Blackman. As a child growing up in London, Blackman was an avid and precocious reader, spending all the hours she could reading and borrowing books from her local public libraries. In her funny, candid and moving biography ‘Just Sayin’ she recounts that she didn’t see people like her in any of the novels and stories she read; Black people were not represented at all as protagonists. If she did encounter any Black characters they were not central to the plot or portrayed as stereotypes.Nought and Crosses
When ‘Noughts and Crosses’ was published in 2001 Malorie Blackman did something bold and unique in the world of young adult dystopian fiction.
As the Black History Month website writes:
Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses is a masterclass in reclaiming narratives. By centring Black voices and inverting power dynamics, she reclaims space for marginalised stories within a genre that has often excluded them. Her work challenges readers to reconsider their perceptions of race, power, and privilege while amplifying the voices of those who have been silenced by mainstream narratives.But Blackman’s reclamation of narrative goes beyond representation. It is a form of resistance against the dominant structures that have shaped our understanding of race and identity for so long. By reclaiming the right to define who holds power and whose stories matter, Blackman has redefined what dystopian fiction can be. Her work paves the way for future generations of writers and readers to continue the work of reclaiming and reshaping the stories that define our world.
