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Biography and Memoir February 2020
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The Yellow House
by Sarah M. Broom
Describes the author’s upbringing in a New Orleans East shotgun house as the unruly 13th child of a widowed mother, tracing a century of family history and the impact of class, race and Hurricane Katrina on her sense of identity.
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| Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani PerryWhat it is: a revealing biography of acclaimed A Raisin in the Sun playwright and social activist Lorraine Hansberry.
Topics include: Hansberry's conflicted views on her privileged upbringing; career beginnings writing for Pan-Africanist newspaper Freedom; brushes with the FBI; her closeted sexuality.
Why you might like it: Library Journal calls this concise and engaging portrait "a must-read for fans of black and queer history." |
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| Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray by Rosalind RosenbergStarring: lawyer, activist, and first black woman Episcopal priest Pauli Murray, who, among other accomplishments, inspired Thurgood Marshall's arguments in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and co-founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966.
Read it for: a poignant portrait of a complicated figure grappling with identity -- though Murray used she/her pronouns throughout her life, she also unsuccessfully sought hormone therapy in the 1930s and is embraced today as a transgender icon.
Try this next: Readers looking for insights on Murray's life in her own words will want to check out her candid memoir Song in a Weary Throat. |
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| The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. StewartWhat it is: a sweeping and thought-provoking biography of Alain Locke, the first black Rhodes Scholar and father of the Harlem Renaissance.
Awards buzz: The New Negro won the National Book Award in 2018 and the Pulitzer Prize in 2019.
Is it for you? Weighing in at over 900 pages, Jeffrey C. Stewart's extensively researched work doesn't shy away from Locke's flaws, like his penchant for misogyny or his willingness to indulge his patrons' racism for his own financial gain. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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