This tag obviously wasn’t one I was tagged in, since I’m not on YouTube, but I loved this video and decided I really wanted to offer my answers to the questions, even if I am crashing the party! It was originally created by Books By Leynes here, but I’m sharing the video above because it is introduced with a great overview of how Black history was (or glaringly was NOT) dealt with in Canadian schools and culture.
Now let’s get into my answers to the prompts!
1) What is a book everyone should be reading during Black History Month? (Give one fiction and one non-fiction.)
This is a tough one, but I think for non-fiction I’d go with The Skin We’re In, particularly for Canadian readers (though I also think The Fire Next Time is essential) and for fiction I’d probably say either The Hate You Give (it’s YA so it’s accessible, but I think there’s a lot here) or a book I just finished, Transcendent Kingdom.
2) Which Black BookTuber would you recommend watching and why?
I haven’t been watching as much YouTube lately, so I’m behind on every channel I subscribe to and haven’t found any new ones recently. But I definitely do have some to recommend, and while I’m supposed to pick one I couldn’t so here are a few. I’d say my favourites are probably Ashley at Bookish Realm, Dee at Brown Girl Reading, Francina Simone and Jesse at Bowties and Books, though there are so many more!
3) What is your favourite book written by a Black author from an African country?
I have to admit that I haven’t read enough to have a reliable favourite yet. But I did enjoy My Sister the Serial Killer, mostly because I found it to be fresh and surprising. Though there has been some recent drama surrounding Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, I did love her smaller books We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele.
4) What is your favourite Black classic?
So far The Fire Next Time and The Autobiography of Malcolm X have had the biggest impact on me, but I’m currently reading Twelve Years a Slave and it is definitely having a big impact!!
5) Which movie/book-to-movie adaptation/documentary would you recommend watching during Black History Month?
13th and Black Panthers (used to be on Netflix but I can’t find it anymore, it’s great though if you can track it down!) I watched last year and they were brilliant. I recently watched Samuel L. Jackson’s series called Enslaved which I learned a lot from, and found had a big impact on me. I’m planning to watch Marshall and Who Killed Malcolm X? soon as well.
6) What’s on your TBR for Black History Month?
This is never-ending. Literally, I’m adding to it all the time. You can check out my list of books by Black authors I’ve read and (mostly) want to read here for a (much) longer list, but I’m hoping to actually finish Twelve Years a Slave, The Souls of Black Folk, She Came to Slay, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man and possibly Concrete Rose or Born a Crime if I have time. So far I have finished How to Be an Antiracist and Transcendent Kingdom.
7) Which new releases by Black authors are you looking forward to the most this year?
I’d love to hear from those of you who are also participating in reading for Black History Month (or who read books by Black authors all the time and want to share which ones you’re reading lately) – which books have you read so far? Which are you planning to read? Have you read any of these? Do you have any great recommendations?
(Post featured image is from the City of Vancouver’s page here, in case you’d like to check out the Interactive Photomap they launched, Give Them Their Flowers, which “centres the experiences, hopes, and wishes of 10 Black residents who have made impactful contributions to life in Vancouver.”)