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Biography and Memoir July 2024
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How the Boogeyman Became a Poet
by Tony. Keith
In this powerful YA memoir, the poet, writer and hip-hop educator traces his journey from being a closeted gay Black teen battling poverty, racism, homophobia and his own personal Boogeyman to becoming an openly gay first-generation college student who finds freedom in poetry.
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American Negra
by Natasha S. Alford
An award-winning journalist, host and media executive recalls growing up as the daughter of an African American father and Puerto Rican mother in Upstate New York and the challenges she faced as a multiracial woman.
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Between Two Trailers
by J. Dana Trent
This compelling memoir recounts the story of a girl who escapes her childhood as a preschool drug dealer in rural Indiana, emphasizing the realization that true liberation is achieved only by making peace with the place called home.
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| Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People by Tiya MilesNational Book Award-winning author Tiya Miles' (All That She Carried) nuanced and demythologizing biography of abolitionist Harriet Tubman offers fresh insights on her life, particularly how her religious faith and ecological knowledge informed her work as an Underground Railroad conductor. Try this next: Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War by Edda L. Fields-Black. |
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| Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann PowersNPR music critic Ann Powers plumbs the life and career of legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in this thoughtful and lyrical portrait named one of Observer's Best New Biographies of 2024. Further reading: Joni: The Anthology edited by Barney Hoskyns. |
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Books You Might Have Missed
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| Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir by Ai Weiwei; illustrated by Gianluca CostantiniChinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei's debut graphic memoir offers autobiographical sketches and folktales centered around the 12 animal signs of the Chinese zodiac. Italian cartoonist Gianluca Costantini's expressive black-and-white illustrations complement Weiwei's intimate prose. For more insights on the author's life, check out his 2021 memoir 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows. |
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| Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad GoochBrad Gooch's engaging biography of pop art pioneer and activist Keith Haring (1958-1990) draws upon hundreds of interviews with Haring's loved ones and colleagues to present a "thorough, intricately detailed, and enthralling portrait of a singular artist" (Booklist Reviews). Try this next: I've Seen the Future and I'm Not Going: The Art Scene and Downtown New York in the 1980s by Peter McGough. |
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| How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir by Shayla LawsonPoet and journalist Shayla Lawson follows up their National Book Critics Circle finalist This Is Major with a lyrical memoir-in-essays exploring how travel shaped their worldview and quest for liberation. For fans of: The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation by Raquel Willis. |
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| The Other Fab Four: The Remarkable True Story of the Liverbirds, Britain's First Female Rock Band by Mary McGlory and Sylvia SaundersMary McGlory and Sylvia Saunders co-wrote this upbeat chronicle of their life as members of the Liverbirds, one of the first all-women rock bands in the world, which they co-founded alongside Valerie Gell and Pamela Birch in 1963. The quartet's working-class Liverpudlian origins earned them comparisons to the Beatles, with whom they were briefly acquainted. Try this next: Parachute Women: Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and the Women Behind the Rolling Stones by Elizabeth Winder. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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