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Black Literature Matters
Read our June 2020 statement of Commitment to the Black Community
Black Literature Matters Exhibition
Open to the public with limited capacity in The Assunta, Ignazio, Ada and Romano Peluso Exhibition Gallery
April 28, 2021 - May 22, 2022
In a consequential moment in American history, the New York Society Library presents a not-to-be-missed exhibition of its remarkable collection of books by African American, Caribbean, and African writers. The Library showcases our remarkable holdings of books by Black writers dating from the late eighteenth century to the present day.
General Recommended Reading on Black History and Literature:
- An Overview of Further Reading
- Black History Month book list: 2019
- Black History Month book list: 2020
- Black History Month book list: 2021
- Black History Month book list: 2022
- Books for Understanding, Books for Change - June 2020
- From Emancipation to Juneteenth, with research suggestions for books about slavery, abolition, emancipation, and liberation
- The Children’s & YA Library highlights selections by Black authors celebrating Black joy
The Black Literature Matters Event Series
This original series of live online events brings to life the voices of Black writers through history, re-examined to inspire understanding of race in our country today, with dramatic readings, historical context, and images. As New York City's oldest cultural institution, we are honored to do our part to highlight the thousands of stories by African American writers contained within our building and acquired since the eighteenth century.
From left: Authors Olaudah Equiano, Frances E.W. Harper, Zora Neale Hurston, and Octavia Butler
Black Literature Matters: The 1700s
live event November 19, 2020
Black Literature Matters celebrates Black writers in four extraordinary evenings, beginning with works from the 1700s. The writers include Olaudah Equiano (above left), Venture Smith, and Phillis Wheatley. Head Librarian Carolyn Waters and Columbia University's Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin introduce the writers, their worlds, and the impact they had on readers of their time, with dramatic readings by actors Shontelle Thrash and Geoffrey D. Williams.
- Full details about this event and a list of the authors included
- View the event video
- View the slide deck
- Learn more about Black writers of the 1700s
Black Literature Matters: the 1800s
live event January 28, 2021
This second event of the series features writers from the 1800s including William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, Frances E.W. Harper (above, second from left), Harriet Jacobs, David Walker, and Ida B. Wells. Head Librarian Carolyn Waters and Columbia University's Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin introduce the writers, their worlds, and the impact they had on readers of their time, with dramatic readings by actors Shontelle Thrash and Geoffrey D. Williams.
- Full details about this event and a list of the authors included
- View the event video
- View the slide deck
- Read more Black writers of the 1800s
From left: presenters Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin, Carolyn Waters, Shontelle Thrash, Geoffrey D. Williams
Black Literature Matters: 1900-1959
live event March 25, 2021
This third event of the series features writers from 1900 through 1959 including James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Anna Julia Cooper, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph Ellison, Lorraine Hansberry, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston (above, third from left), LeRoi Jones, Paule Marshall, and Richard Wright. Head Librarian Carolyn Waters and Columbia University's Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin introduce the writers, their worlds, and the impact they had on readers of their time, with samples of their own speech and dramatic readings by actors Shontelle Thrash and Geoffrey D. Williams.
- Full details about this event and a list of the authors included
- View the event video
- View the slide deck
Black Literature Matters: 1960-Now
live event May 20, 2021
In this original series of live online events, Black writers from the 1700s to the present are re-examined to inspire understanding of race in our country today. Black Literature Matters celebrates Black writers in four extraordinary evenings. This final event of the series showcases brief excerpts from the work of writers from 1960 to the present including Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Octavia Butler (on right above), Ta-Nehisi Coates, Angela Davis, Ernest Gaines, Alex Haley, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Haki Madhubuti, Terry McMillan, Toni Morrison, Malcolm X, Sonia Sanchez, Gil Scott-Heron, Ntozake Shange, Danez Smith, Derek Walcott, and Alice Walker.
Farah Jasmine Griffin, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature
This live event took place September 30, 2021, celebrating the publication of the new book Read Until You Understand. The brilliant scholar who served as guest curator for the Library's Black Literature Matters exhibition imparts the lessons bequeathed by the Black community and its remarkable artists and thinkers.
The Black Literature Matters events were presented with generous support from the Florence Gould Foundation.
Frances E.W. Harper image courtesy of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. (1893).
Zora Neale Hurston portrait by Carl Van Vechten, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection, LC-DIG-van-5a52142.
Photograph of Langston Hughes. Copyright © Van Vechten Trust; Gravure and Compilation copyright © Eakins Press Foundation.
Photo of Octavia E. Butler by Leslie Howle.
