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Black History Month

Black History Month

Book Selection 2024

The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire

The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire

In a sweeping narrative, David Olusoga describes how Europe's Great War became the World's War - a multi-racial, multi-national struggle, fought in Africa and Asia as well as in Europe, which pulled in men and resources from across the globe.

The Heart of the Race

The Heart of the Race

The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain was a 1985 book by Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie and Suzanne Scafe. A socio-historical study, it looked at the realities of life for Black women in the United Kingdom after the Second World War.

Small island

Small island

'Small Island', published in 2004, tells the story of post-war Caribbean migration through four narrators – Hortense and Gilbert, who migrate from Jamaica to London in 1948, and the English couple, Queenie and Bernard, in whose house in London Hortense and Gilbert find lodgings.

Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging

Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging

You're British. Your parents are British. Your partner, your children and most of your friends are British. So why do people keep asking where you're from? We are a nation in denial about our imperial past and the racism that plagues our present. Brit(ish) is Afua Hirsch's personal and provocative exploration of how this came to be - and an urgent call for change. 

High Price

High Price

A pioneering neuroscientist shares his story of growing up in one of Miami's toughest neighborhoods and how it led him to his groundbreaking work in drug addiction.

As a youth, Carl Hart didn't realize the value of school; he studied just enough to stay on the basketball team. At the same time, he was immersed in street life. Today he is a cutting-edge neuroscientist—Columbia University's first tenured African American professor in the sciences—whose landmark, controversial research is redefining our understanding of addiction.

Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves

Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves

In this timely anthology, Glory Edim, founder of the online community, Well-Read Black Girl, brings together original essays by some of America's best black women writers to shine a light on how important it is that we all - regardless of gender, race, religion, or ability - have the opportunity to find ourselves in literature.

Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures

This beautifully illustrated picture book edition, explores the story of four female African American mathematicians at NASA and how they overcame gender and racial barriers to succeed in a highly challenging STEM-based career.

Book Selection Authors 2024

David Olusoga

David Olusoga

David Adetayo Olusoga OBE is a British historian, writer, broadcaster, presenter and filmmaker. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. He has presented historical documentaries on the BBC and contributed to The One Show and The Guardian.

Beverly Bryan

Beverly Bryan

Beverley Bryan is a Jamaican educationist and retired academic who was a professor of language education at the University of the West Indies in Mona. Settling in Britain with her parents in the late 1950s, she went on to become a founding member of the Brixton Black Women's Group and co-authored the 1985 book The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain.

Stella Dadzie

Stella Dadzie

Stella Dadzie is a British educationalist, activist, writer and historian. She is best known for her involvement in the UK's Black Women's Movement, being a founding member of the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD) in the 1970s, and co-authoring with Suzanne Scafe and Beverley Bryan in 1985 the book The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain. In 2020, Verso published a new book by Dadzie, A Kick in the Belly: Women, Slavery & Resistance.

Andrea Levy

Andrea Levy

Andrea Levy FRSL was an English author best known for the novels Small Island (2004) and The Long Song (2010). She was born in London to Jamaican parents, and her work explores topics related to British Jamaicans and how they negotiate racial, cultural and national identities.

Afua Hirsch

Afua Hirsch

Afua Hirsch FRSL is a British writer and broadcaster. She has worked as a journalist for The Guardian newspaper, and was the Social Affairs and Education Editor for Sky News from 2014 until 2017. She is the author of the 2018 book Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, receiving a Jerwood Award while writing it. Hirsch was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2024.

Carl Hart

Carl Hart

Carl L. Hart is an American psychologist and neuroscientist, working as the Mamie Phipps Clark Professor of Psychology (in Psychiatry) at Columbia University. Hart is known for his research on drug abuse and drug addiction, his advocacy for the legalization of recreational drugs, and his recreational use of drugs. Hart became the first tenured African-American professor of sciences at Columbia University.

Glory Edim

Glory Edim

Glory Edim is the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, a Brooklyn-based book club and online community that celebrates the uniqueness of Black literature and sisterhood. In fall 2017, she organized the first-ever Well-Read Black Girl Literary Festival.

Margot Lee Shetterly

Margot Lee Shetterly

Margot Lee Shetterly is an American non-fiction writer who has also worked in investment banking and media startups. Hidden Figures is her first book. She sold the movie rights while still working on the book and it was adapted as a feature film of the same name.