Black History Month
The ABCs of Black history
Cortez, Rio, author.
2020
"B is for Beautiful, Brave, and Bright! And for a Book that takes a Bold journey through the alphabet of Black history and culture. Letter by letter, The ABCs of Black History celebrates a story that spans continents and centuries, triumph and heartbreak, creativity and joy. It's a story of big ideas--P is for Power, S is for Science and Soul. Of significant moments--G is for Great Migration. Of iconic figures--H is for Zora Neale Hurston, X is for Malcom X. It's an ABC book like no other, and a story of hope and love. In addition to rhyming text, the book includes back matter with information on the events, places, and people mentioned in the poem, from Mae Jemison to W. E. B. Du Bois, Fannie Lou Hamer to Sam Cooke, and the Little Rock Nine to DJ Kool Herc"-- Provided by publisher.
The hanging of Angelique : the untold story of Canadian slavery and the burning of old Montreal
Cooper, Afua, author
2006
In the Black
Jolly, B. Denham
2017
A remarkable memoir about achieving prosperity in the face of relentless prejudiceIn the Black traces B. Denham Jolly's personal and professional struggle for a place in a country where Black Canadians have faced systematic discrimination. He arrived from Jamaica to attend university in the mid-1950s and worked as a high school teacher before going into the nursing and retirement-home business. Though he was ultimately successful in his business ventures, Jolly faced both overt and covert discrimination, which led him into social activism. The need for a stronger voice for the Black community fuelled Jolly's 12-year battle to get a licence for a Black-owned radio station in Toronto. At its launch in 2001, Flow 93.5 became the model for urban music stations across the country, helping to launch the careers of artists like Drake.Jolly chronicles not only his own journey; he tells the story of a generation of activists who worked to reshape the country into a more open and just society. While celebrating these successes, In the Black also measures the distance Canada still has to travel before we reach our stated ideals of equality.
Out of the sun : on race and storytelling
Edugyan, Esi, author
2021
History is a construction. What happens when we begin to consider stories at the margins, when we grant them centrality? How does that complicate our certainties about who we are, as individuals, as nations, as human beings? Through the lens of visual art, literature, film, and the author's lived experience, Out of the Sun examines the depiction of Black histories in art, offering new perspectives to challenge the accepted narrative.
Policing Black lives : state violence in Canada from slavery to the present
Maynard, Robyn, 1987-, author
2017
Shame on me : an anatomy of race and belonging
McWatt, Tessa, author
2020
Tessa McWatt has been judged not black enough by people who assume she straightens her hair. Now, through a close examination of her own body - nose, lips, hair, skin, eyes, ass, bones and blood - which holds up a mirror to the way culture reads all bodies, she asks why we persist in thinking in terms of race today when racism is killing us. This is a personal and powerful exploration of history and identity, colour and desire from a writer who, having been plagued with confusion about her race all her life, has at last found kinship and solidarity in story.
The skin we're in : a year of Black resistance and power
Cole, Desmond, 1982- author
2020
Both Desmond Cole's activism and journalism find vibrant expression in his first book - puncturing once and for all the bubble of Canadian smugness and naìˆve assumptions of a post-racial nation. Cole chronicles just one year - 2017 - in the struggle against racism in this country. In a month-by-month chronicle, Cole locates the deep cultural, historical, and political roots of each event so that what emerges is a personal, painful, and comprehensive picture of entrenched, systemic inequality.
They said this would be fun : race, campus life, and growing up
Martis, Eternity, author
2020
Eternity Martis thought going away to university would help her discover who she really is. When she heads out to the predominantly white college town of London, Ontario, Eternity discovers an entitled culture of racism and sexism. What follows is a memoir of struggle about the difficulty of navigating through white spaces as a young woman of colour. Most of all, it's a story of perseverance and discovery. What we're left with is a portrait of the work students of colour must do to fight for themselves in spaces where they are supposed to be safe to learn and grow.
Viola Desmond's Canada : a history of Blacks and racial segregation in the promised land
Reynolds, Graham, 1944- author
2016