Shining a Spotlight on African-American Authors

Inspired by last summer's #BlackoutBestsellerList challenge, we wanted to do something that would continue to highlight Black writers and their works. This has led us to hosting the first BlackOut Read-in, where participants are invited to drop by as long as they can and sit and read books by Black authors.

We want people to reach out of their normal reading and try works by authors that are new to them. Doing this as a group shows solidarity of our community toward support of Black authors and also opens the opportunity for dialogue. And, great discourse can lead to great learning.

"Black lives are not a problem to be solved or an academic text that can be studied," best-selling author Jasmine Guillory wrote in TIME (July 20, 2020). "To recognize Black lives as ones to celebrate, empathize with and care about, here’s your antiracism work: read more fiction by and about Black people...I want the world to know not just about our pain, but the whole of our lives, and especially our joy."

The original challenge, begun by Harber Collins' Amistad Press, encouraged all readers to purchase at least two books written by Black Authors in June of 2020. The hashtag was an effort to amplify the visibility of authors and their work.

The #BlackoutBestsellerList Challenge

"I wanted to lift the voices of Black writers and lift the visibility of the few Black editors and publicists and literary agents of color," Harper Collins' Amistad Press imprint editorial director, Tracy Sherrod, told OprahMag.com. "I wanted to showcase the variety of titles and give authors a platform to promote their books, because the marketing budgets are usually quite tight."

We want participating in the read-in to be simple. Bring a book -- any genre, for any age -- as long as it was written by a Black author. Sit with us at the Winyah Auditorium for as long as you would like. Aside from a quick welcome, we will be reading quietly by ourselves.

Need a good recommendation for the read-in? Here are some of book recs of works I have loved by authors of color and a few from my "To Be Read" list.

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One I've Read:

Kindred by Octavia Butler

In 1976, Dana dreams of being a writer. In 1815, she is assumed a slave.

When Dana first meets Rufus on a Maryland plantation, he's drowning. She saves his life - and it will happen again and again.

Neither of them understands his power to summon her whenever his life is threatened, nor the significance of the ties that bind them.

And each time Dana saves him, the more aware she is that her own life might be over before it's even begun.

This is the extraordinary story of two people bound by blood, separated by so much more than time.

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One I Haven't:

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu

When ghosts talk, she will listen . . .

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker – and she now speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl’s gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone’s bewitching children – leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It’s on Ropa’s patch, so she feels honour bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.

She’ll dice with death (not part of her life plan . . .) as she calls on Zimbabwean magic and Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets. And in the process, she discovers an occult library and some unexpected allies. Yet as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?

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One I've Read:

Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

Conjure Women is a sweeping story that brings the world of the South before and after the Civil War vividly to life. Spanning eras and generations, it tells of the lives of three unforgettable women: Miss May Belle, a wise healing woman; her precocious and observant daughter Rue, who is reluctant to follow in her mother’s footsteps as a midwife; and their master’s daughter, Varina. The secrets and bonds among these women and their community come to a head at the beginning of a war and at the birth of an accursed child, who sets the townspeople alight with fear and a spreading superstition that threatens their newly won, tenuous freedom.

Conjure Women moves back and forth in time to tell the haunting story of Rue, Varina, and May Belle, their passions and friendships, and the lengths they will go to save themselves and those they love.

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One I Haven't:

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones

In Baxter’s Beach, Barbados, Lala’s grandmother Wilma tells the story of the one-armed sister. It’s a cautionary tale, about what happens to girls who disobey their mothers and go into the Baxter’s Tunnels.

When she’s grown, Lala lives on the beach with her husband, Adan, a petty criminal with endless charisma whose thwarted burglary of one of the beach mansions sets off a chain of events with terrible consequences. A gunshot no one was meant to witness. A new mother whose baby is found lifeless on the beach. A woman torn between two worlds and incapacitated by grief. And two men driven into the Tunnels by desperation and greed who attempt a crime that will risk their freedom – and their lives.

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One I've Read:

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

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One I Haven't:

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

If there’s one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it’s that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad’s in prison.

Life’s not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav’s got everything under control.

Until, that is, Maverick finds out he’s a father.

Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. But it’s not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world where he’s expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he’s different.

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One I've Read:

12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup

Twelve Years a Slave is a memoir and slave narrative by Solomon Northup as told to and edited by David Wilson.

Northup, a black man who was born free in New York, details his kidnapping in Washington, D.C., and subsequent sale into slavery. After having been kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana by various masters, Northup was able to write to friends and family in New York, who were in turn able to secure his release.

Northup's account provides extensive details on the slave markets in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans and describes at length cotton and sugar cultivation on major plantations in Louisiana.

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One I Haven't:

Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink

Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Wilson is, on the surface, a town troublemaker, but is hiding that he is an avid reader and secret poet, never leaving home without his journal. A passionate follower of WEB. Du Bois, he believes that black people should rise up to claim their place as equals.

Sixteen-year-old Angel Hill is a loner, mostly disregarded by her peers as a goody-goody. Her father is dying, and her family’s financial situation is in turmoil. Also, as a loyal follower of Booker T. Washington, she believes, through education and tolerance, that black people should rise slowly and without forced conflict.

Though they’ve attended the same schools, Isaiah never noticed Angel as anything but a dorky, Bible toting church girl. Then their English teacher offers them a job on her mobile library, a three-wheel, two-seater bike. Angel can’t turn down the money and Isaiah is soon eager to be in such close quarters with Angel every afternoon.

But life changes on May 31, 1921 when a vicious white mob storms the community of Greenwood, leaving the town destroyed and thousands of residents displaced. Only then, Isaiah, Angel, and their peers realize who their real enemies are.

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The BlackOut Read-In will take place in the Winyah Auditorium to allow for safe social distancing and masks are required. The read-in is Friday, February 17, 2021, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. All are welcome and the event is free.

To view or purchase any of the books we've talked about here, visit our Bookshop.org shop.

Have you read any of these recommended titles? What books would you recommend?