Black History Month

Narratives in Black British Dance

This book explores Black British dance from a number of previously-untold perspectives. Bringing together the voices of dance-artists, scholars, teachers and choreographers, it looks at a range of performing arts from dancehall to ballet, providing valuable insights into dance theory, performance, pedagogy, identity and culture.

Heart of the Race

Heart of the Race is a powerful corrective to a version of Britain's history from which black women have long been excluded. It reclaims and records black women's place in that history, documenting their day-to-day struggles, their experiences of education, work and health care, and the personal and political struggles they have waged to preserve a sense of identity and community. This new edition includes an introduction by Lola Okolosie and an interview with the authors focusing on the impact of their book since publication, and it’s continuing relevance today.

Border Nation: A Story of Migration

Borders are more than geographical lines - they impact all our lives, whether it’s the inhumanity of deportations, or a rise in racist attacks in the wake of the EU referendum. Border Nation shows how oppressive borders must be resisted.

Laying bare the web of media myths that vilify migrants, Leah Cowan dives into the murky waters of corporate profiteering from borders by companies like G4S, and the ramping up of everyday borders through legislation. She looks at their colonial origins, and explores how a draconian approach to border crossings damages our communities.

Algorithms of Oppression

Safiya Umoja Noble challenges the idea that search engines like Google offer an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. Data discrimination is a real social problem; Noble argues that the combination of private interests in promoting certain sites, along with the monopoly status of a relatively small number of Internet search engines, leads to a biased set of search algorithms that privilege whiteness and discriminate against people of colour, specifically women of colour.

Lorna Simpson Collages

Using advertising photographs of black women (and men) drawn from vintage issues of Ebony and Jet magazines, the exquisite and thought-provoking collages of world-renowned artist Lorna Simpson explore the richly nuanced language of hair. Surreal coiffures made from colourful ink washes, striking geological formations from old textbooks, and other unexpected forms and objects adorn the models to mesmerizingly beautiful effect.

Discrimination as Stigma: A Theory of Anti-discrimination Law 

This monograph reconceptualises discrimination law as fundamentally concerned with stigma. Using sociological and socio-psychological theories of stigma, the author presents an 'anti-stigma principle', promoting it as a method to determine the scope of legal protection from discrimination. The anti-stigma principle recognises the role of institutional and individual action in the perpetuation of discrimination. Setting discrimination law within the field of public health, it frames positive action and intersectional discrimination as the norm in this field of law rather than the exception. In developing and applying this new theory for anti-discrimination law, the book draws upon case law from jurisdictions including the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada, as well as European law.

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned psychology Professor, guides us through how racial identity develops, from very young children all the way to adulthood, in black families, white families, and mixed race families, and helps us understand what we can do to break the silence, have better conversations with our children and with each other about race, and build a better world. A mainstay on the bookshelves of American readers since 1998, and substantially revised and updated in 2017, this evergreen bestseller is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the dynamics of race

100 Great Black Britons

Patrick Vernon's landmark 100 Great Black Britons campaign of 2003 focused on the role of people of African and Caribbean descent in British history. Now, with this book, Vernon and Osborne have relaunched the campaign with an updated list of names and accompanying portraits -- including new role models and previously little-known historical figures. Each entry explores in depth the individual's contribution to British history - a contribution that too often has been either overlooked or dismissed.

Fences and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Two modern classic plays about race in 20th century America from the award-winning playwright August Wilson.