Every year, February marks Black History Month – a time to celebrate Black achievements, history, people, and stories – something that is far too often neglected or pushed aside. However, this is something we can and should do EVERY day.
To give you some inspiration on how to value the voices of Black women through reading, the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP) team has gathered our favourite books, written by and for Black women. Accompanying this rich list are also some suggestions for places to buy your books, as opposed to Amazon. And finally, for those of you who are also (or more) into listening, we have included some of our favourite podcasts by and for Black women. Enjoy and happy reading (or listening)!
CFFP’s favourites
- AFRO, 2015, Rokhaya Diallo
- Bad Feminist, 2014, Roxanne Gay
- Beloved, 1987, Toni Morrison
- Blonde Roots, 2009, Bernardine Evaristo
- Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, 2018, Afua Hirsch
- Don’t touch my hair, 2019, Emma Dabiri
- Farbe Bekennen. Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte (German), 1986, May Ayim, Katharina Oguntoye and Dagmar Schultz
- Feminism, Interrupted, 2020, Lola Olufemi
- Freedom is a constant struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a
Movement, 2016, Angela Davis - GIRL: Essays on Black Womanhood, 2020, Kenya Hunt
- Girl, Woman, Other, 2019, Bernardine Evaristo
- Homegoing, 2016, Yaa Gyasi
- Hunger, 2017, Roxanne Gay
- I know why the caged bird sings, 1969, Maya Angelou
- Noughts and Crosses, 2001, Malorie Blackman
- Queenie, 2020, Candice Carty-Williams
- Sister Outsider, 1984, Audre Lorde
- Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution!: The Story of the Trans Women of Color Who Made LGBTQ+ History, 2020 Joy Michael Ellison and Teshika Silver
- So you want to talk about race, 2018, Ijeoma Oluo
- The Comet – 150 years W.E.B. Du Bois: Afrofuturism 2.0, 2020, Natasha A. Kelly
- The Good Ally, to be published in autumn 2021, Nova Reid
- The Woman Next Door, 2017, Yewande Omotoso
- Thick: And other essays, 2019, Tressie McMillan Cottom
- To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism, 2019, Akwugo Emejulu and Francesca Sobande
- Wash Day, 2018, Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith
- We should all be feminists, 2014, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- White Teeth, 2000, Zadie Smith
- Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race, 2018, Reni Eddo-Lodge
Places we can suggest people buy books as opposed to Amazon:
- https://thegentlebookshop.com/
- https://www.roundtablebooks.co.uk/online-shop
- https://www.noordinarybookshop.co.uk/
- https://www.newbeaconbooks.com/
- https://www.harriettsbookshop.com/
- https://www.semicolonchi.com/
- https://www.mahoganybooks.com/
- https://uk.bookshop.org/
- https://shesaid.buchhandlung.de/shop/
- http://schwarzerisse.de/
For those more into listening, here are some podcasts we like:
- Therapy for Black Girls
- The Sexually Liberated Woman
- H.E.R Space
- Black Girls Talking
- Intersectionality Matters
- Tupodcast (German)
- Slay in your lane
- Kiffe ta race (French)
- Friends like us
- Melanin Millenials