Month: February 2022

This list from the Gathering will no doubt include works that have not yet made it to your bookshelf. Here you’ll discover film, non-fiction and fiction (even sci-fi) gems to enjoy far beyond February!

When Affirmative Action was White, by Ira Katznelson – “For Black History Month, I’m recommending a classic: No other book on the history of the welfare state (and it’s systematic exclusion of Blacks) is more illuminating to my students.” (Kathy Edin)

Black Feminist Thought, by Patricia Hill Collins – “I recommend Collins for her magisterial explanation of “interlocking systems of oppression/matrix of domination,” whereby she shows how race, class, and gender hierarchies reinforce each other to maintain White patriarchal capitalist control.” (Angie Simms)

Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi – “I love this novel, which toggles between two sisters lives–one who is forcibly removed from Africa during the Transatlantic Slave Trade and one who remains in west Africa.” (Angie Simms)

The Evangelicals, by Frances Fitzgerald – “I recommend this for a thorough social history of American racist conservative Christianity.” (Lindsay Thompson)

Four Hundred Souls, ed. by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain – “A valuable collection of essays exploring the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present…” (R.C. Bingham)

Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler – “Dystopian sci-fi through Butler’s lens is a fresh treasure, and you’ll discover her futurist powers especially in her sequel, Parable of the Talents. Warning: the narrative can be triggering for survivors of abuse.” (R.C. Bingham)

Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow, by Leon F. Litwack – “A searing portrayal of atrocities against African Americans during that period. Not for the faint-hearted…” (Tim Nelson)

(two books and two film recommendations from Jonathan Cox)

• Black Leopard, Red Wolf, by Marlon James – (the first novel in Marlon James’s Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child.)

• The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism, by Jemar Tisby – (Equal parts painful and inspirational, it details how the American church has helped create and maintain racist ideas and practices.)

• One Night in Miami – directed by Regina King (film)

• 13TH – by Ava DuVernay (film)

(and four recommendations from Keilah Jacques)

• My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, by Resmaa Menakem – (a call to recognize that racism is not only about the head, but about the body; introducing an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.)

• The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love, by Sonya Renee Taylor – (offers radical self-love as the balm to heal the wounds inflicted by these violent systems.)
  
  
• Relational Intelligence: The People Skills You Need for the Life of Purpose You Want, by Dharius Daniels – (considering Jesus’s relational model for choosing the twelve disciples…walks you through how to finally activate your relationships.)
  
  
• The Cross and the Lynching Tree, by James H. Cone – (theological work examining the intersection of the two most emotionally charged symbols in the history of the African American community.)