Black History Month

Beloved by Toni Morrison; A. S. Byatt (Introduction by) Abstract: Sethe, an escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio with her daughter and mother-in-law, is persistently haunted by the ghost of her dead baby girl.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison In Morrison’s bestselling first novel, Pecola Breedlove—an 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment. Here, Morrison’s writing is “so precise, so faithful to speech and so charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry” (The New York Times).

Sula by Toni Morrison Abstract: Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. In this novel, Toni Morrison tells the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio. Their devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal--or does it end?--From publisher description.

The Best of Simple by Langston Hughes Contents: Foreword : Who is Simple? -- Feet live their own life -- Landladies -- Simple prays a prayer -- Conversation on the corner -- Simple on Indian blood -- A toast to Harlem -- Simple and his sins -- Temptation -- Wooing the muse -- Vacation -- Letting off steam -- Jealousy -- Banquet in honor -- A veteran falls -- High bed -- Final fear -- There ought to be a law -- Income tax -- No alternative -- Springtime -- Last whipping -- Seeing double -- Simple on military integration -- Blue evening -- A letter from Baltimore -- Seven rings -- What can a man say? -- Empty room -- Picture for her dresser -- Cocktail sip -- Apple strudel -- Bop -- Formals and funerals -- Fancy free -- Midsummer madness -- Morals is her middle name -- They come and they go -- A million : and one -- Two loving arms -- Kick for punt -- Subway to Jamaica -- No tea for the fever -- Boys, birds, and bees -- On the warpath -- A hearty amen -- Must have a seal -- Shadow of the blues -- Once in a wife-time -- Present for Joyce -- Christmas song -- Tied in a bow -- Sometimes I wonder -- Four rings -- Simply love -- Bang-up big end -- Duty is not snooty -- Bones, bombs, chicken necks -- A dog named Trilby -- Enter Cousin Minnie -- Radioactive red caps -- Two sides not enough -- Puerto Ricans -- Minnie again -- Vicious circle -- Again Cousin Minnie -- Name in print -- Minnie one more time -- An auto-obituary -- Jazz, jive, and jam.

The Return of Simple by Langston Hughes; Akiba S. Harper (Editor); Arnold Rampersad (Introduction by) Contents: Part one: Women in Simple's life : Remembrances -- Wigs, women, and falsies -- On women who drink you up -- Better than a pillow -- Explain that to me -- Baltimore womens -- Less than a damn -- Never no more -- Simply heavenly -- Staggering figures -- The moon -- Domesticated -- Hairdos -- Cousin Minnie wins -- Self-protection -- Ladyhood -- Lynn Clarisse -- Riddles -- Part two: Race, riots, police, prices, and politics : Ways and means -- The law -- American dilemma -- Color of the law -- After hours -- When a man sees red -- Simple and the high prices -- Nickel for the phone -- Possum, race, and face -- Everybody's difference -- Coffee break -- Intermarriage -- Joyce objects -- Liberals need a mascot -- Serious talk about the atom bomb -- Adventure -- Brainwashed -- Wigs for freedom -- Help, Mayor, help! -- Soul food -- Little Klanny -- Simple's psychosis -- Part three: Africa and black pride : The necessaries -- That word black -- Colleges and color -- Whiter than snow -- Big round world -- Roots and trees -- Pictures -- Simple arithmetic -- Africa's daughters -- African names -- Harems and robes -- Part four: Parting lines : Nothing but roomers -- Simple Santa -- Empty houses -- God's other side -- Dog days -- Weight in gold -- Sympathy -- Money and mice -- Population explosion -- Youthhood -- Hail and farewell.

Langston Hughes by Harold Bloom (Editor)

Looking for Lorraine by Imani Perry Abstract: "A revealing portrait of one of the most gifted and charismatic, yet least understood, Black artists and intellectuals of the twentieth century"-- Amazon.com. Best-known for her work A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry had an unflinching commitment to social justice which brought her under FBI surveillance when she was barely in her twenties. Hansberry associated with many activists, writers, and musicians; though she married a man, she identified as a lesbian. Perry provides insights into Hansberry's life and writings, and shows how her political activism is reflected in her works. -- adapted from jacket. "Lorraine Hansberry, who died in 1965 at age thirty-four, was, by all accounts, a force of nature. She was also one of the most radical, courageous, and prescient artist-intellectuals of the twentieth century--and one of the least understood. Defined largely by her groundbreaking play A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry has been hidden in plain sight for decades. Little of her manifold contributions, her associations, her other writing, or her transgressive nature is known. A prolific and probing artist, she also committed herself passionately to political activism. Hansberry's unflinching dedication to social justice brought her under FBI surveillance in the midst of McCarthyism, when she was barely in her twenties. Looking for Lorraine is the first biography of Hansberry in decades, and it shows her multi-dimensional and miraculous complexity. Hansberry was a child of Chicago's striving Black middle class but cast her lot with the working classes; she married a man--Jewish communist songwriter Robert Nemiroff--but described herself as a lesbian. Risking public censure and the prospect of being outed, she joined one of the nation's First lesbian organizations. Hansberry was a Black nationalist and an internationalist. She was befriended and beloved by many of the most important Black figures of her era, including James Baldwin, Nina Simone, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Paul Robeson. After the success of A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry used her stature in myriad ways: challenging President Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy to take bolder stances on civil rights, supporting African anticolonial leaders, and confronting the romantic racism of the Beat poets and Greenwich Village hipsters. In this watershed biography, Imani Perry takes us deep into Hansberry's relationships, explores her rich interior life and her influences, and, as Hansberry's papers were finally made available in 2010, unearths revealing themes from her unpublished writing. Looking for Lorraine gives us the ultimate gift of imagining Hansberry as a complete person--and of seeing her prodigious intellect, emotions, activism, and varied relationships at work together in her short but extraordinarily luminous life."--Jacket.

A Raisin in the Sun and the Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window by Lorraine Hansberry This groundbreaking play starred Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeill, Ruby Dee and Diana Sands in the Broadway production which opened in 1959. Set on Chicago's South Side, the plot revolves around the divergent dreams and conflicts within three generations of the Younger family: son Walter Lee, his wife Ruth, his sister Beneatha, his son Travis and matriarch Lena, called Mama. When her deceased husband's insurance money comes through, Mama dreams of moving to a new home and a better neighborhood in Chicago. Walter Lee, a chauffeur, has other plans, however: buying a liquor store and being his own man. Beneatha dreams of medical school. The tensions and prejudice they face form this seminal American drama. Sacrifice, trust and love among the Younger family and their heroic struggle to retain dignity in a harsh and changing world is a searing and timeless document of hope and inspiration. Winner of the NY Drama Critic's Award as Best Play of the Year, it has been hailed as a "pivotal play in the history of the American Black theatre." by Newsweek and "a milestone in the American Theatre." by Ebony. -- Amazon

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou by Maya Angelou Contents: They Went Home -- The Gamut -- A Zorro Man -- To a Man -- Late October -- No Loser, No Weeper -- When You Come to Me -- Remembering -- In a Time -- Tears -- The Detached -- To a Husband -- Accident -- Let's Majeste -- After -- The Mothering Blackness -- On Diverse Deviations -- Mourning Grace -- How I Can Lie to You -- Sounds Like Pearls -- When I Think About Myself -- On a Bright Day, Next Week -- Letter to an Aspiring Junkie -- Miss Scarlett, Mr. Rhett and Other Latter-Day Saints -- Times-Square-Shoeshine-Composition -- Faces -- To a Freedom Fighter -- Riot: 60's -- We Saw Beyond Our Seeming -- Black Ode -- No No No No -- My Guilt -- The Calling of Names -- On Working White Liberals -- Sepia Fashion Show -- The Thirteens (Black) -- The Thirteens (White) -- Harlem Hopscotch -- Pickin Em Up and Layin Em Down -- Here's to Adhering -- On Reaching Forty -- The Telephone -- Passing Time -- Now Long Ago -- Greyday -- Poor Girl -- Come, And Be My Baby -- Senses of Insecurity -- Alone -- Communication I. Communication II -- Wonder -- A Conceit -- Request -- Africa -- America -- For Us, Who Dare Not Dare -- Lord, in My Heart -- Artful Pose -- The Couple -- The Pusher -- Chicken-Licken -- I Almost Remember -- Prisoner -- Woman Me -- John J. -- Southeast Arkanasia -- Song for the Old Ones -- Child Dead in Old Seas -- Take Time Out -- Elegy -- Reverses -- Little Girl Speakings -- This Winter Day -- A Kind of Love, Some Say -- Country Lover -- Remembrance -- Where We Belong, A Duet -- Phenomenal Woman -- Men -- Refusal -- Just for a Time -- Junkie Monkey Reel -- The Lesson -- California Prodigal -- My Arkansas -- Through the Inner City to the Suburbs -- Lady Luncheon Club -- Momma Welfare Roll -- The Singer Will Not Sing -- Willie -- To Beat the Child Was Bad Enough -- Woman Work -- One More Round -- The Traveler -- Kin -- The Memory -- Still I Rise -- Ain't That Bad? -- Life Doesn't Frighten Me -- Bump d'Bump -- On Aging -- In Retrospect -- Just Like Job -- Call Letters: Mrs. V.B. -- Thank You, Lord. Awaking in New York -- A Good Woman Feeling Bad -- The Health-Food Diner -- A Georgia Song -- Unmeasured Tempo -- Amoebacan for Daddy -- Recovery -- Impeccable Conception -- Caged Bird -- Avec Merci, Mother -- Arrival -- A Plagued Journey -- Starvation -- Contemporary Announcement -- Prelude to a Parting -- Martial Choreograph -- To a Suitor -- Insomniac -- Weekend Glory -- The Lie -- Prescience -- Family Affairs -- Changes -- Brief Innocence -- The Last Decision -- Slave Coffle -- Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? -- My Life Has Turned to Blue -- Worker's Song -- Human Family -- Man Bigot -- Old Folks Laugh -- Is Love -- Forgive -- Insignificant -- Love Letter -- Equality -- Coleridge Jackson -- Why Are They Happy People? -- Son to Mother -- Known to Eve and Me -- These Yet to Be United States -- Me and My Work -- Changing -- Born That Way -- Televised -- Nothing Much -- Glory Falls -- London -- Savior -- Many and More -- The New House -- Our Grandmothers -- Preacher, Don't Send Me -- Fightin' Was Natural. Loss of Love -- Seven Women's Blessed Assurance -- In My Missouri -- They Ask Why -- Ailey, Baldwin, Floyd, Killens, and Mayfield -- On the Pulse of Morning.

Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou Abstract: Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter reveals Maya Angelou's path to living well and living a life with meaning. Whether she is recalling such lost friends as Coretta Scott King and Ossie Davis, extolling honesty, decrying vulgarity, explaining why becoming a Christian is a "lifelong endeavor," or simply singing the praises of a meal of red rice--Maya Angelou writes from the heart to millions of women she considers her extended family.

Dictionary of Literary Biography by Trudier Harris-Lopez (Editor); Thadious M. Davis (Editor) Contents: Samuel W. Allen -- Johari M. Amini (Jewel Christine McLawler Latimore ; Johari M. Kunjufu) -- Russell Atkins -- Alvin Aubert -- Gerald William Barrax -- Joanne M. Braxton -- Margaret T. G. Burroughs -- Lucille Clifton -- Charles E. Cobb, Jr. -- Sam Cornish -- Jayne Cortez -- Victor Hernandez Cruz -- Margaret Esse Danner -- Henry Dumas -- Ebon (Leo Thomas Hale ; Ebon Doley) -- James Andrew Emanuel -- Mari Evans -- Julia Fields -- Calvin Forbes -- Nikki Giovanni -- Michael S. Harper -- David Henderson -- Everett H. Hoagland III -- Angela Jackson -- Lance Jeffers -- Ted Joans -- Bob Kaufman -- Etheridge Knight -- Pinkie Gordon Lane -- Audre Lorde -- Haki R. Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) -- E. Ethelbert Miller -- May Miller -- Pauli Murray -- Eugene Perkins -- Sterling D. Plumpp -- Dudley Randall -- Eugene B. Redmond -- Conrad Kent Rivers -- Carolyn M. Rodgers -- Sonia Sanchez -- Gil Scott-Heron -- A. B. Spellman -- Lorenzo Thomas -- Askia Muhammad Toure (Rolland Snellings) -- Quincy Thomas Troupe, Jr. -- Tom Weatherly -- Sherley Anne Williams -- Jay Wright -- Ahmos Zu-Bolton II.

African American Women Writers by Brenda Wilkinson; James Haskins (Editor); Jim Haskins (General Editor) Contents: Phillis Wheatley -- Sojourner Truth -- Harriet Jacobs -- Frances E.W. Harper -- Ida B. Wells-Barnett -- Jessie Redmon Fauset -- Zora Neale Hurston -- Dorothy West -- Ann Petry -- Margaret Walker Alexander -- Gwendolyn Brooks -- Maya Ange;ou -- Paule Marshall -- Lorraine Hansberry -- Toni Morrison -- Audre Lorde -- Lucille Clifton -- Toni Cade Bambara -- Nikki Giovanni -- Alice Walker -- Octavia Butler -- Ntozake Shange -- Terry McMillan.

African American Literature by Stephen Currie Contents: Oral tradition and the first Black writers: 1600-1820 -- Slave and free : 1800-1865 -- After the Civil War : 1865-1915 -- The Harlem Renaissance : 1918-1940 -- Through the civil rights struggle? 1940-1969 -- Into a new century : 1970-present.