Ibram X. Kendi

Victoria Chang, author of the acclaimed and incredible poetry collection Obit (Copper Canyon), shares her to-read pile with us this month. She writes: “I usually have stacks and stacks of books lying around for a few juries I serve on. This year is different because many books are coming in via email in PDF form. But here are a few books that I’m in the midst of reading or have started. I look forward to reading so many more this year and am just beginning to get my bearings. I think it’s going to be an exciting year in literature.”

Ruth Stone, The Essential Ruth Stone
Robert Hass, Summer Snow
Traci Brimball, Come the Slumberless to the Land of Nod
Danez Smith, Homie
Natalie Diaz, Postcolonial Love Poem
Marianne Chan, All Heathens
Natasha Trethewey, Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir
Carolyn Forché, In the Lateness of the World
Jim Harrison, Collected Ghazals
Tess Taylor, Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange
Stephanie Burt, After Callimachus
Sejal Shah, This Is One Way to Dance
E.J. Koh, The Magical Language of Others

TIMELY/TIMELESS TITLES

Doing a business-as-usual post isn’t how I want to approach the beginning of a month, considering the protests and uprisings around the country. So, in lieu of my own to-read pile, I’ve amassed a list of anti-racists reading lists for people who are interested in educating themselves further about what is at the heart of the unrest and mobilizing action across the United States right now. You can likely find a majority of these at your local library (which, if it’s closed because of COVID, may offer a digital copy). If you want to buy a copy, I recommend BookShop.org as an ethical alternative the bookseller than shall not be named. I’ve also included a handful of PDFs/links to powerful and important literature/media that directly impacted my comprehension of how Black people are forced to live and move within the United States, as well as pieces that illuminate elements of whiteness and white mobility.

PDFS/LINKS

James Baldwin – “On Being White…and Other Lies”

James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston – “Hollywood Roundtable” (30-minute video)

Gwendolyn Brooks – Riot

Ta-Nehisi Coates – “The Case for Reparations”

Kimberlé Crenshaw – “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color” (where the term “intersectionality” comes from)
Angela Davis – “Rape, Racism and the Myth of the Black Rapist”

Angela Davis – Interview in Black Power Mixed Tape (4-minute excerpt)

Peggy McIntosh – “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” (where the term “white privilege” comes from)

The End of Policing is available as a free e-book (have not read, yet)

ANTI-RACIST READING LIST ROUNDUP
EDIT: First, a really compelling and urgent essay on what, exactly, these lists do, are about, promise, but potentially fail to do by Lauren Michele Jackson: “What Is an Anti-Racist Reading List For?”
Ibram X. Kendi via New York Times(and his book How to Be an Anti-Racist is on many of the lists below)
Harper’s
LitHub
Litquake
Loyalty Bookstores
Readings
Town&Country
Vogue
Vroman’s Bookstore
40+ Books for Anti-Racist Teachers