Pioneers of African American Cinema
Uncle Yanco; Black Panthers by
Uncle Yanco: In her first California film, Agnes Varda delves into her own history. She tracks down a relative she's never met, discovering Jean Varda, an artist and kindred soul leading a bohemian life in Sausalito.
Black Panthers: Documents an Oakland demonstration, organized by the Black Panthers, against the imprisonment of Huey P. Newton.
Adam Clayton Powell by
A look at the most influential and flamboyant civil rights leader in America from the 1930s through the 1950s. From his emergence as a pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, to his riotous political climb and eventual ruin. He had an illustrious but controversial career. He had multiple marriages, taunted the white establishment, his desegregation of Congress, and his shameful smearing of Martin Luther King Jr.
Note
Originally produced as a motion picture in 1989.
Special features include filmmaker interview, filmmaker biography.
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975: a Documentary in 9 Chapters by
"THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975 mobilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to the US drawn by stories of urban unrest and revolution. Gaining access to many of the leaders of the Black Power Movement Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and Eldridge Cleaver among them the filmmakers captured them in intimate moments and remarkably unguarded interviews. Thirty years later, this lush collection was found languishing in the basement of Swedish Television"
The murder of Fred Hampton by
Mike Gray started out to make a film about the Black Panther Party, but on Dec. 4, 1969, the Chicago police raided a Panther apartment and his film became a documentary about the murder of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. The film footage of the raid directly contradicted the State Attorney's version of the raid and so filmmakers and Panthers came together to prove that Hampton had been the designated target of the violent, punitive raid. The film's inquiry pursues official spokesmen and traps them in their attempts at covering up an orchestrated assassination.
The Black Agenda : bold solutions for a broken system by 
Bisa Butler: Portraits by 
Africobra : Experimental Art Toward a School of Thought by 
How the Word Is Passed : a reckoning with the history of slavery across America by 
Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World by 
Woke Racism: How a New Religion has Betrayed Black America by 
Craft : an American History by 
Visualizing Empire : Africa, Europe, and the Politics of Representation by 
Begin Again : James Baldwin's America and its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by 
The Fire This Time : a New Generation Speaks about Race by 
The Lonely Letters by 
How We Fight White Supremacy : a Field Guide to Black Resistance by 
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (LOA #333) by 
The African Lookbook : a Visual History of 100 Years of African Women by 
Harlem nocturne : women artists & progressive politics during World War II by 
Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women That a Movement Forgot by 
Working together : Louis Draper and the Kamoinge Workshop by
"Inspired by the archive of Richmond native Louis Draper, VMFA has organized an unprecedented exhibition that chronicles the first twenty years of the Kamoinge Workshop, a group of African American photographers he helped to found in 1963. More than 180 photographs by fifteen of the early members--Anthony Barboza, Adger Cowans, Danny Dawson, Roy DeCarava, Louis Draper, Al Fennar, Ray Francis, Herman Howard, Jimmie Mannas Jr., Herb Randall, Herb Robinson, Beuford Smith, Ming Smith, Shawn Walker, and Calvin Wilson--reveal the vision and commitment of this remarkable group of artists. When the collective began in New York City, they selected the name Kamoinge, which means "a group of people acting and working together" in Gikuyu, the language of the Kikuyu people of Kenya." -- Publisher's website
Farming while Black : Soul Fire Farm's practical guide to liberation on the land by 
Zapantera Negra: an Artistic Encounter Between Black Panthers and Zapatistas by 
The Black Arts Movement and the Black Panther Party in American Visual Culture by 
The Color of Law : a Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by 
When They Call You a Terrorist : a Black Lives Matter Memoir by 
Boston's Apollo : Thomas McKeller and John Singer Sargent by 
Stay Woke: a People's Guide to Making all Black Lives Matter by 
Black Skin, White Masks by
First published in 1952, this study of the black psyche in a white world continues to influence critical race theory. Fanon is an important theorist in colonialism, revolutionary struggle, and racial difference.
On Account of Race : the Supreme Court, White Supremacy, and the Ravaging of African American Voting Rights by 
Between the World and Me by 
Kara Walker : My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love by 
The Bluest Eye by 
William Pope. L : the Friendliest Black artist in America by
"Although he frequently deals with racial issues, his work confounds preconceptions of what "black art" should be.This book, which accompanies a nationally touring exhibition of Pope.L's work, explores his impact on American art and culture." (Excerpted from Syndetics summary.)
Richard Wright by 
How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness by 
Biased: uncovering the hidden prejudice that shapes what we see, think, and do by 
Signifying Monkey: a Theory of African-American Literary Criticism by
Exploring the relationship between the African and African-American vernacular traditions and black literature, Gates defines a distinctive African-American literary tradition.
Black Futures by
"Black Futures is a collection of work--art, photos, essays, memes, dialogues, recipes, tweets, poetry, and more--that tells the story of the radical, imaginative, bold, and beautiful world that black artists, high and low, are producing today. The book presents a succession of brilliant and provocative pieces--from both emerging and renowned creators of all kinds--that generates an entrancing rhythm: Readers will go from conversations with hackers and street artists to memes and Instagram posts, from powerful prose to dazzling paintings and insightful infographics. A generational document that captures this fast-moving generation in its own dynamic and exspansive language. While shaped in the tradition of other generational statements, from The New Negro to Black Fire to Toni Morrison's landmark The Black Book, Black Futures does not have a retrospective air. It showcases the present, but points to the future. We live at a time when black culture--whether it's created by Ava DuVernay or Donald Glover, Kendrick Lamar or Cardi B, meme-makers or YouTubers--is opening our imaginations and offering new paths forward, a multi-voiced, utopian alternative to a world of walls and white nationalism. Black Futures captures this expansive vision and energy and makes it available to any reader, of any color, who wants to explore this exciting cultural moment and see the next one coming"-- Provided by publisher.
An African American and Latinx History of the United States by
"Spanning more than two hundred years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history, arguing that the "Global South" was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Scholar and activist Paul Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress as exalted by widely taught formulations such as "manifest destiny" and "Jacksonian democracy," and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms US history into one of the working class organizing against imperialism." - from jacket
#HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice by
""The beginning of the 21st century brought forth a number of social media platforms that have allowed activists to increase their audience exponentially and with relative ease. Under hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo to the Arab Spring and the Occupy movements, digital social activision mobilized people and movements like almost never before. In #HashtagActivism: Networked Counterpublics in the Digital Age the authors examine how and why Twitter hashtags have become an important platform for historically disenfranchised populations to advance counter narratives and advocate for social change."
Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development, Second Edition: The Kansas City Experience, 1900-2010 by
"Updated second edition examining how the real estate industry and federal housing policy have facilitated the development of racial residential segregation." --Provided by publisher.
Contemporary Black American Cinema by
Contemporary Black American Cinema offers a fresh collection of essays on African American film, media, and visual culture in the era of global multiculturalism. Integrating theory, history, and criticism, the contributing authors deftly connect interdisciplinary perspectives from American studies, cinema studies, cultural studies, political science, media studies, and Queer theory. This multidisciplinary methodology expands the discursive and interpretive registers of film analysis. From Paul Robeson's and Sidney Poitier's star vehicles to Lee Daniels's directorial forays, these essays address the career legacies of film stars, examine various iterations of Blaxploitation and animation, question the comedic politics of "fat suit" films, and celebrate the innovation of avant-garde and experimental cinema.
The Warmth of Other Suns by
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
Outlaw Culture: resisting representations by
bell hooks, one of America's leading black intellectuals, is also one of our most clear-eyed and penetrating analysts of culture. Outlaw culture--the culture of the margin, of women, of the disenfranchised, of racial and other minorities--lies at the heart of bell hooks' America. Raising her powerful voice against racism and other forms of oppression in the United States, hooks unlocks the politics of representation and the meaning of that politics for and in our time. Outlaw Culture gives us hooks on many of the most important subjects of the contemporary scene, from date rape, censorship, and ideas of race and beauty, to gangsta rap, the dilemmas of feminism, and the rise of black intellectuals.
The New Jim Crow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness by
Book jacket: "As the United States celebrates the nation's "triumph over race" with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status, much like their grandparents before them, who lived under an explicit system of control."
In Struggle: SNCC and the Black awakening of the 1960s by
Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of California, 1975.
Originally published: 1981.
March: Book One by
This autobiography in graphic novel format tells the story of John Lewis, "a major figure in the civil rights movement. In this first of a projected trilogy, Lewis, one of the original Freedom Riders and currently in his 13th term as a U.S. Representative, recalls his early years--from raising (and preaching to) chickens on an Alabama farm to meeting Martin Luther King Jr. and joining lunch-counter sit-ins in Nashville in 1960. The account flashes back and forth between a conversation with two young visitors in Lewis' congressional office just prior to Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration and events five or more decades ago."-- from Kirkus Reviews 2013 July.
Black Skin, White Masks by
A major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial, and black consciousness movements around the world, Black Skin, White Masks is the unsurpassed study of the black psyche in a white world. Hailed for its scientific analysis and poetic grace when it was first published in 1952, the book remains a vital force today. "[Fanon] demonstrates how insidiously the problem of race, of color, connects with a whole range of words and images." - Robert Coles, The New York Times Book Review
