Dr. Jessica Clemons, MD, Board-Certified Psychiatrist based in New York City.

Brown Girl Self-Care's mission is to provide revolutionary self-care resources and community to support Black women as they center their health and healing.

An affirmation movement for Black women by Black women--includes affirmations, resources, therapist connection, and events.

Our vision is of a society that focuses on ensuring all young African American females receive the resources and support necessarily to lead mentally healthy lives.

Limited and selective free mental health service opportunities for Black men.

This website contains resources to therapists and hotlines for Black African Americans struggling with mental health, during this uncertain and challenging time in our black community.

An online directory of licensed Black therapists who are certified to provide telemental health services.

BLHF has launched the COVID-19 Free Virtual Therapy Support Campaign to raise money for mental health services provided by licensed clinicians in our network. Individuals with life-changing stressors and anxiety related to the coronavirus will have the cost for up to five (5) individual sessions defrayed on a first-come, first-served basis until all funds are committed or exhausted.

An initiative launched by Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and NIMHD to raise awareness of the mental health challenges associated with depression and stress that affect Black men and families. The website offers an online toolkit that provides Omega Psi Phi Fraternity chapters with the materials needed to educate fellow fraternity brothers and community members on depression and stress in Black men.

Dr. Rheeda Walker is a psychologist, professor and researcher dedicated to advancing psychological health awareness and emotional well-being for African Americans and other ethnic groups.

A blog that lists a number of self-care tools.

Melanin & Mental Health was born out of a desire to connect individuals with culturally competent clinicians committed to serving the mental health needs of Black & Latinx/Hispanic communities.

Mental Health First Aid is a course that teaches you how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. The training gives you the skills you need to reach out and provide initial help and support to someone who may be developing a mental health or substance use problem or experiencing a crisis.

National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network(NQTTCN) is a healing justice organization committed to transforming mental health for queer and trans people of color (QTPoC). We work at the intersection of movements for social justice and the field of mental health to integrate healing justice into both of these spaces. Our overall goal is to increase access to healing justice resources for QTPoC.

QTPOC Mental Health is a grassroots trans-led organization with the stated mission of “creating online and offline spaces for trans & queer people of color to practice being their whole selves” founded by Dom Chatterjee. QTPOC Mental Health exists to “connect trans and queer people of color to resources, including each other, and create online and in real life support.”

An organization that provides mental wellness education, resource connection, and community support for Black women.

A holistic toolkit for coping with racial trauma.

The Loveland Foundation is the brainchild of writer, lecturer, and activist Rachel Cargle and stems from her 2018 birthday fundraiser Therapy for Black Women and Girls. Includes a therapy fund to assist Black women and girls seeking therapy nationally.

The Safe Place is a minority mental health app that educates and raises more awareness on mental illness in the black community.

Therapy for Black Girls is an online space dedicated to encouraging the mental wellness of Black Women and girls.

An online directory of licensed Black therapists for men.

To connect and build with affirming anti-oppression wellness professionals. Our network is passionate about reducing mental health stigma and barriers to access. With a focus on individuals who exist at the margins of society, we aspire to empower LGBTQ+ communities of color to engage in wellness practices that promote healing. We believe in accountability, the eternal nature of growth, and the power of community. we do our best to sprinkle a bit of mental health magic wherever we go, understanding that the magic is who we are!

Uphold 31:8, LLC is a consulting agency that focuses on the mental wellbeing of employees and their workplace.

This document is intended to serve as a resource to non-Black people and parents to deepen their anti-racism work.

A conversation on Black Feminism & The Movement for Black Lives: Barbara Smith, Reina Gossett, Charlene Carruthers.

A TEDxTimberlane Schools talk by Peggy McIntosh on how studying privilege systems can strengthen compassion.

A database with tools for parents to teach their children about Black history.

Provides legal assistance wherever civil liberties are at risk.

The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color community organizing center, focusing on the New York City area.

The Bail Project, Inc. is a non-profit organization designed to combat mass incarceration by disrupting the money bail system—one person at a time.

Transforming institutions of higher education through unity, coalition building, direct action and political education.

Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc. is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.

Covid-19 Community Response Grant

Black Trans Futures is a mutual aid fund that helps Black trans and gender nonconforming people get their material needs met.

Black Trans Travel Fund is a mutual aid fund providing financial resources for travel for Black trans women in New Jersey and New York.

Minnesota-based black, trans, and queer-led organization committed to dismantling systems of oppression and violence.

Organization that utilizes research-based policy solutions to end police brutality in the U.S.

Color Of Change is the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. We help people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by 1.7 million members, we move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America.

Dignity and Power Now (DPN) is a Los Angeles based grassroots organization founded in 2012 that fights for the dignity and power of all incarcerated people, their families, and communities.

Database of a comprehensive list of bail funds and legal help.

Pays bail for trans people in New York City.

Ensures fair elections and combats voter suppression.

Homeless Black Trans Woman Fund is a direct support for Black trans women in Atlanta, many of whom are sex workers and/or homeless to buy food and necessities.

Provide resources for black/Brown communities, including hiring defense attorneys for anyone arrested protesting police brutality.

The Freedom Fund posts bail to secure the safety and liberty of people in jail and immigration detention.

Provides direct relief to black trans people affected by Covid-19.

Community-based fund set up to pay criminal bail and immigration bonds for individuals who have been arrested while protesting police brutality. This has become one of the most prominent bail funds, providing relief to protesters in Minneapolis seeking justice for George Floyd.

Donating through this secure platform is an easy way to support protestors nationwide. The site equally divides your donation between 38 community bail funds or allows you to allocate a desired amount to each fund.

A legal organization fighting for racial injustice.

A legal organization fighting for racial injustice.

The National Bail Fund Network is made up of over sixty community bail and bond funds across the country.

Peoples City Council Freedom Fund is a crowd funded initiative that will directly support legal and court fees, bail fines, medical bills, medical supplies etc.. for people of color affected by the pandemic and current unjust killings taking place in USA.

Coalition that advocates for and invests in community-led safety initiatives in Minneapolis neighborhoods.

The SPLC is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society Founded in 1971.

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project works to guarantee that all people are a free to self-determine gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination or violence.

The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them.

The Trans Justice Funding Project is a Black, community-ed funding initiative founded in 2012 to support trans justice groups.

Transgender Law Center (TLC) is the largest national trans-led organization advocating for a world in which all people are free to define themselves and their futures.

Trans Lifeline is a peer support and crisis hotline for trans people, that provides small grants for name change fees and incarcerated trans people.

Non-profit organization that is dedicated to exposing root causes of dynamic social and environmental issues.

White People 4 Black Lives (WP4BL) is a white anti-racist collective and activist project.

This fund is for US-based BIPOC artists and administrators. This is a ONE-TIME micro grant of $200.

To support artists during the COVID-19 crisis, a coalition of national arts grantmakers have come together to create an emergency initiative to offer financial and informational resources to artists across the United States.

The fund will distribute unrestricted grants of up to $2000 to support personal financial needs during the COVID19 pandemic to freelancers who have experienced hardship from loss of income or opportunity.

This program will award $1,000 project grants to support artists in Western New York, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, Central New York, North Country, Mohawk Valley, Capital District, Hudson Valley, and Long Island who previously applied for NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships in 2018, 2019, and/or 2020.

This grant will distribute 152 unrestricted cash awards of $500 each directly to US-based playwrights, of any employment and/or immigration status.

Mumia Abu-Jamal, Have Black Lives Ever Mattered?
For anyone interested in social justice and inequalities, social movements, the criminal justice system, and African American history.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
Americanah tells the story of a young Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, who immigrated to the United States to attend university.)

Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow
This game-changing work makes the compelling and provocative case that the so-called “War on Drugs” functions as nothing less than a new racial caste system in America.

Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali, Angry Queer Somali Boy: A Complicated Memoir
A story of a young man's queer coming of age amidst displacement, violence, and alienation…

Jervis Anderson, This Was Harlem: A Cultural Portrait, 1900-1950
A gossipy primer on the Harlem Renaissance; a fun read.

Maya Angelou, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
The first in a seven-volume series, it is a coming-of-age story that illustrates how strength of character and a love of literature can help overcome racism and trauma.

Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise
Maya Angelou’s third volume of poetry.

Bryonn Bain, The Ugly Side of Beautiful: Rethinking Race and Prison in America
Racially profiled and wrongfully imprisoned during his second year at Harvard Law School, hip-hop activist Bryonn Bain successfully sued the New York City Police Department and wrote the Village Voice cover story "Walking While Black."

James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son
The essays mostly tackle issues of race in America and Europe.

James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
The book consists of two “letters,” written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism.

James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room
The book focuses nn the events in the life of an American man living in Paris and his feelings and frustrations with his relationships with other men in his life, particularly an Italian bartender named Giovanni whom he meets at a Parisian gay bar.

James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk
His fifth novel, it is a love story set in Harlem in the early 1970s.

Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?

Reyna Biddy, A Psalm for Us
A soulful collection of prose, self-affirmations, spoken word poems, and short stories exploring questions of faith and self.

Jocelyn Bioh, School girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (play)
But the arrival of Erika, a new student with undeniable talent and beauty, captures the attention of the pageant recruiter--and Paulina's hive-minded friends.

Douglas Blackmon, Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
An eye-opening account of how the convict leasing system extended slavery until after the Second World War.

W.E.B Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk
It is a seminal work in the history of sociology and a cornerstone of African-American literature. The book contains several essays on race, some of which the magazine Atlantic Monthly had previously published.

Julian Bond, Race Man: Selected Works, 1960-2015
A staggering collection that offers a genealogy of Bond's freedom-oriented politics and soul work as captured in his written words.

Taylor Branch, Parting The Waters, Pillar of Fire, and At Canaan’s Edge
The exhaustive trilogy on the Civil Rights Movement.

Daphne Brooks, Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race, and Freedom, 1850-1910
In Bodies in Dissent Daphne A. Brooks argues that from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth, black transatlantic activists, actors, singers, and other entertainers frequently transformed the alienating conditions of social and political marginalization into modes of self-actualization through performance.

Michael Broski, A Queer History of the United States for Young People
A Queer History of the United States is a concise history of LGBT people in US society. It describes ways in which queer people have influenced the evolution of the United States, and how the culture of the United States has affected them.

Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, here is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want.

Claude Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land
Manchild in the Promised Land is a 1965 autobiographical novel written by Claude Brown. It chronicles the author's coming-of-age story amidst poverty and violence in Harlem during the 1940s and 1950s.

Stephen Budiansky, The Bloody Shirt: Terror after Appomattox
A riveting revisiting of the lawless reign of terror that gripped the South immediately after the Civil War.

Octavia E. Butler, Kindred
Incorporates time travel and is modeled on slave narratives.

Octavia E. Butler, Fledgling
A science fiction vampire novel.

Tina Campt, Listening to Images
In Listening to Images Tina M. Campt explores a way of listening closely to photography, engaging with lost archives of historically dismissed photographs of black subjects taken throughout the black diaspora.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between The World And Me
It is written as a letter to the author's teenage son about the feelings, symbolism, and realities associated with being Black in the United States.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, We Were Eight Years in Power
A collection of essays by Ta-Nehisi Coates originally from The Atlantic magazine between 2008 and 2016 over the course of the American Barack Obama administration.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Water Dancer
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power.

Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece they’ll the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to risk he’s far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined.

Trish Cooke, Full, full, full of love (children's book)
For the youngest member of an exuberant extended family, Sunday dinner at Grannie’s can be full indeed—full of hugs and kisses, full of tasty dishes, full to the brim with happy faces, and full, full, full of love.

Ashon T. Crawley, Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility
Ashon T. Craley engages a wide range of critical paradigms from black studies, queer theory, and sound studies to theology, continental philosophy, and performance...

Michael Eric Dyson, “Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America”
A provocative and deeply personal call for change. Dyson argues that if we are to make real reachable progress we must face difficult truths, including being honest about how black grievances have been ignored, dismissed, or discounted.

Denise Ferreira da Silva, "Toward a Global Idea of Race"
In this far-ranging and penetrating work, Denise Ferreira da Silva asks why, after more than five hundred years of violence perpetrated by Europeans against people of color, is there no ethical outrage?

Angela Davis, Women, Race and Class
A powerful study of the women's liberation movement in the U.S., from abolitionist days to the present, that demonstrates how it has always been hampered by the racist and classist biases of its leaders. From the widely revered and legendary political activist and scholar Angela Davis.

Matt de la Peña, Last Stop on Market Street (children's book)
Every Sunday after church, CJ and his grandma ride the bus across town. But today, CJ wonders why they don't own a car like his friend Colby. Why doesn’t he have an iPod like the boys on the bus? How come they always have to get off in the dirty part of town? Each question is met with an encouraging answer from grandma, who helps him see the beauty—and fun—in their routine.

Thomas F. Defrantz and Anita Gonzales, Black Performance Theory
A rich interdisciplinary area of study and critical method.

Thomas F. DeFrantz, Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance
Explores that influence through a groundbreaking collection of essays on African American dance history, theory, and practice. In so doing, it reevaluates "black" and "African American " as both racial and dance categories.)

Thomas F. DeFrantz, Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey’s Embodiment of African American Culture
In the early 1960s, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was a small, multi-racial company of dancers that performed the works of its founding choreographer and other emerging artists. By the late 1960s, the company had become a well-known African American artistic group closely tied to the Civil Rights struggle.

Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility: Why Is It So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism
Exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.

Taye Diggs, Mixed Me! (children's book)
Mike has awesome hair. He has LOTS of energy! His parents love him. And Mike is a PERFECT blend of the two of them. Still, Mike has to answer LOTS of questions about being mixed. And he does, with LOTS of energy and joy in this charming story about a day in the life of a mixed-race child.

Reni Eddo-Lodge, Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race
The book explores the links between gender, class and race in Britain and other countries.

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
As he journeys from the Deep South to the streets and basements of Harlem, from a horrifying "battle royal" where black men are reduced to fighting animals, to a Communist rally where they are elevated to the status of trophies, Ralph Ellison's nameless protagonist ushers readers into a parallel universe that throws our own into harsh and even hilarious relief.

Akwaeke Emezi, Fresh Water
Tells the story of Ada, an unusual child who is a source of deep concern to her southern Nigerian family. Young Ada is troubled, prone to violent fits/ Born “with one foot on the other side,” she begins to develop separate selves within her as she grows into adulthood. And when she travels to America for college, a traumatic event on campus crystallizes the selves into something powerful and potentially dangerous, making Ada fade into the background of her own mind as these alters—now protective, now hedonistic—move into control.

Rebecca Epstein, Jamilia J. Blake, and Thalia González Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Girls’ Childhood
This groundbreaking study by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality provides—for the first time—data showing that adults view Black Girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers, especially in the age range of 5-14.)

John Hope Franklin, From Slavery To Freedom: A History of Negro American
All who are interested in the current quest for equality of African Americans will find a wealth of information based on recent findings and from many scholars.

Juan González and Joseph Torres, News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media
A landmark narrative history of American media that puts race at the center of the story.

Ed Gordon, Conversations in Black: On Power, Politics, and Leadership
Hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and inspiring, Conversations in Black offers sage wisdom for navigating race in a radically divisive America.)

Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts
Dixon Gottschild argues that the Africanist aesthetic has been invisibilized by the pervasive force of racism. This book provides evidence to correct and balance the record, investigating the Africanist presence as a conditioning factor in shaping American performance, onstage and in everyday life.

Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Joan Myers Brown and the Audacious Hope of the Black Ballerina: A Biohistory of American Performance
Founder of the Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO) and the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts, Joan Myers Brown's personal and professional histories reflect both the hardships and the accomplishments.)

Brenda Dixon Gottschild, The Black Dancing Body
What is the essence of black dance in America? To answer that question, Brenda Dixon Gottschild maps an unorthodox 'geography', the geography of the black dancing body, to show the central place black dance has in American culture.)

John Howard Griffin, Black Like Me
The true story of a white man who makes himself into a black man to see what it’s like to live inside that skin in the South of the late 1950s.

Yaa Gyasi, Transcendent Kingdom
Gifty is a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief--a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.

Katori Hall, The Mountaintop (play)
It is a fictinal depiction of Martin Luther Jr's last night on earth set entirely in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel on the eve oh his assassination in 1968.

Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun (play)
The story tells of a black family's experiences in South Chicago, as they attempt to improve their financial circumstances with an insurance payout following the death of the father.

Jeremy O. Harris, Slave Play (play)
The play is about race, sex, power relations, trauma, and interracial relationships.

Jessica B. Harris, My Soul Looks Back: A Memoir
My Soul Looks Back: A Memoir is a memoir by cookbook author and food historian Jessica B. Harris, particularly describing on her life and friendships with major black writers like James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, and Toni Morrison in New York City in the 1970s.

bell hooks, Killing Rage: Ending Racism
These twenty-three essays are written from a black and feminist perspective, and they tackle the bitter difficulties of racism by envisioning a world without it.

bell hooks, All about Love: New Visions
Discusses aspects of love in modern society. Hooks combines personal anecdotes as well as psychological and philosophical ideas to develop and strengthen her argument.

bell hooks, Art on My Mind: Visual Politics
Responds to ongoing dialogues about producing, exhibiting, and criticizing art and aesthetics in an art world increasingly concerned with identity politics.

bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
hooks shares her philosophy of the classroom, offering ideas about teaching that fundamentally rethink democratic participation.

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
The story of Janie Crawford, whose life is a quest to find true love. Janie narrates the story of her three marriages and her search for love to her friend Phoeby.

Nancy Isenberg, White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America
A ground-breaking history of the class system in America, which challenges popular myths about equality in the land of opportunity.

Tiffany Jewell, This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on how to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work
This book is written for the young person who doesn't know how to speak up to the racist adults in their life.

Tayari Jones, An American Marriage
Newlyweds, Celestial and Roy, are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive and she is artist on the brink of an exciting career. They are settling into the routine of their life together, when they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit.

Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir
Haunted and haunting, Jones’s memoir tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears.

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South
A bold and searing investigation into the role of white women in the American slave economy Bridging women’s history, the history of the South, and African American history, this book makes a bold argument about the role of white women in American slavery.

Ezra Jack Keats, The Snowy Day (children's book)
The Snowy Day is a 1962 children's picture book by American author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats. It features Peter, an African American boy, who explores his neighborhood after the season’s first snowfall.

Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women That a Movement Forgot
Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women.

Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist
Ibram X. Kendi's concept of antiracism re-energizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America—but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other.)

Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped From The Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Americans like to insist that they are living in a post-racial, color-blind society. In fact, racist thought is alive and well; it has simply become more sophisticated and more insidious. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, racist ideas in America have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit.)

Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, Please, Baby, Please (children's book)
From moments fussy to fond, Academy Award nominated filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, producer Tonya Lewis Lee, present a behind-the-scenes look at the chills, spills, and unequivocal thrills of bringing up baby!

Raven Leilani, Luster
Edie is stumbling her way through her twenties—sharing a subpar apartment in Bushwick, clocking in and out of her admin job, making a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She is also haltingly, fitfully giving heat and air to the art that simmers inside her. And then she meets Eric, a digital archivist with a family in New Jersey, including an autopsist wife who has agreed to an open marriage—with rules. As if navigating the constantly shifting landscapes of contemporary sexual manners and racial politics weren't enough, Edie finds herself unemployed and invited into Eric's home—though not by Eric. She becomes a hesitant ally to his wife and a de facto role model to his adopted daughter. Edie may be the only Black woman young Akila knows.

Leon F. Litwack, Been In The Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery
An excellent book on the slaves during and immediately after the Civil War.

Leon F. Litwack, Trouble In Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow
A powerful account of the violent construction of Jim Crow America.

Tarell Alvin McCraney, Choir Boy (play)
For half a century, The Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys has been dedicated to the education of strong, ethical black men.

Katherine McKittrick, Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle
In a long overdue contribution to geography and social theory, Katherine McKittrick offers a new and powerful interpretation of black women’s geographic thought.

Katherine McKittrick, Sylvia Wynter: On Being human as Praxis
The Jamaican writer and cultural theorist Sylvia Wynter is best known for her diverse writings that pull together insights from theories in history, literature, science, and black studies, to explore race, the legacy of colonialism, and representations of humanness.

Trinh T. Minh-ha, Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism (Text and Performance Quarterly)
Woman, Native, Other is located at the juncture of a number of different fields and disciplines, and it genuinely succeeds in pushing the boundaries of these disciplines further.

Janet Mock, Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More
The Memoir Follows Mock's journey as a transgender girl and young woman in Hawaii.

Janet Mock, Surpassing Certainty: What My Twenties Taught Me
A portrait of a young woman searching for her purpose and place in the world—without a road map to guide her.

Darnell L. Moore, No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America
It explore Moore's experiences growing up in poverty in New Jersey, and his struggles with his personal identity as both black and queer.

Dominique Morisseau, Pipeline (play)
Morisseau brings us a powerful play that delves into the urgent issue of the "school-to-prison" pipeline that ensnares people of color.

Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart.

Toni Morrison, Sula
This Rich and moving novel traces the lives of two black heroines from their close-knit childhood in a small Ohio town, through their sharply divergent paths of womanhood, to their ultimate confrontation and reconciliation.

Toni Morrison, Beloved
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free, She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened.

Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study
In this series of essays Fred Moten and Stefano Harney draw on the theory and practice of the black radical tradition as it supports, inspires, and extends contemporary social and political thought and aesthetic critique.

José Esteban Muñoz, Disidentifications: Queers Of Colors And The Performance Of Politics
There is more to identity than identifying with one’s culture or standing solidly against it. José Esteban Muñoz looks at how those outside the racial and sexual mainstream negotiate majority culture.

Innosanto Nagara, A is for Activist (children's book)
This bestselling ABC book is written and illustrated for the next generation of progressives: families who want their kids to grow up in a space that is unapologetic about activism, environmental justice, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and everything else that activists believe in and fight for.

Lynn Nottage, Intimate Apparel (play)
She has saved enough money to allow her to dream of one day opening a beauty salon for black women, and at thirty-five years old, longs for a husband and a future.)

Lynn Nottage, Ruined (play)
The play involves the plight of women in the civil war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.)

Lynn Nottage, Crumbs from the Table of Joy (play)
The play takes place in Brooklyn 1950. An African-American man, Godfrey Crump, grieving over his wife's death, finds new meaning in religion.

Paul Oritz, An African American and Latinx History of the United States
An intersectional history of the shared struggle for African American and Latinx civil rights spanning more than two hundred years.

Michelle Obama, Becoming
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address.

Nell Irvin Painter, The History of White People
The author explores the idea of whiteness throughout history, beginning with ancient Greece and continuing through the beginning of scientific racism in early modern Europe to 19th- through 21st-century America.

Kenrya Rankin, Anti-Racism (Words of Change Series): Powerful Voices, Inspiring Ideas
More than 100 incisive, thought-provoking passages will enlighten and inspire in this must-have collection for everyone who cares about promoting racial equity. Kenrya Rankin celebrates resistance by centering and honoring anti-racist voices, past and present.

Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age
It tells the story of a young black woman who is wrongly accused of kidnapping while babysitting a child, and the events that follow it.

Dorothy Roberts, Killing The Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty
A powerful and authoritative account of the on-going assault - both figurative and literal - waged by the American government and our society on the reproductive rights of Black women.

Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
In this groundbreaking history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein, a leading authority on housing policy, explodes the myth that America’s cities came to be racially divided through de facto segregation—that is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies.

Adam Rutherford, How to Argue With a Racist: What Our Genes do (and Don’t) Say about Human Difference
A vital manifesto for a twenty-first century understanding of human evolution and variation, and a timely weapon against the misuse of science to justify bigotry.

Layla F. Saad, Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor
Me and White Supremacy takes readers on a 28-day journey of how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.

Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography
Assata: An Autobiography is a 1988 autobiographical book by Assata Shakur. The book was written in Cuba where Shakur currently has political asylum.

Ntozake Shange, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (musical)
Tells the stories of seven women who have suffered oppression in a racist and sexist society.

Christina Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being
Christina Sharpe interrogates literary, visual, cinematic, and quotidian representations of Black life that comprise what she calls the "orthography of the wake."

Mychel Denze Smith, Invisible Man, Got The Whole World Watching
How do you learn to be a black man in America? For young black men today, it means coming of age during the presidency of Barack Obama. It means witnessing the deaths of Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Akai Gurley, and too many more. It means celebrating Chappelle, and Frank Ocean. In Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching, Mychal Denzel Smith chronicles his own personal and political education during these tumultuous years, describing his efforts to come into his own in a world that denied his humanity. Smith unapologetically upends reigning assumptions about black masculinity, rewriting the script for black manhood so that depression and anxiety aren't considered taboo, and feminism and LGBT rights become part of the fight. The questions Smith asks in this book are urgent--for him, for the martyrs and the tokens, and for Trayvons that could have been and are still waiting.

Zadie Smith, Intimations
Suffused with a profound intimacy and tenderness in response to these extraordinary times, Intimations is a slim, suggestive volume with a wide scope, in which Zadie Smith clears a generous space for thought, open enough for each reader to reflect on what has happened–and what should come next.

Zadie Smith, White Teeth
At the center of this invigorating novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. Hapless veterans of World War II, Archie and Samad and their families become agents of England’s irrevocable transformation. A second marriage to Clara Bowden, a beautiful, albeit tooth-challenged, Jamaican half his age, quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life, and produces Irie, a knowing child whose personality doesn’t quite match her name (Jamaican for “no problem”). Samad’s late-in-life arranged marriage (he had to wait for his bride to be born), produces twin sons whose separate paths confound Iqbal’s every effort to direct them, and a renewed, if selective, submission to his Islamic faith. Set against London’s racial and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire and into the past as it barrels toward the future, White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.)

Zadie Smith, Swing Time
Two brown girls dream of being dancers—but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, about what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early twenties, never to be revisited, but never quite forgotten, either.)

Zadie Smith, On Beauty
Howard Belsey, a Rembrandt scholar who doesn't like Rembrandt, is an Englishman abroad and a long-suffering professor at Wellington, a liberal New England arts college. He has been married for thirty years to Kiki, an American woman who no longer resembles the sexy activist she once was. Their three children passionately pursue their own paths: Levi quests after authentic blackness, Zora believes that intellectuals can redeem everybody, and Jerome struggles to be a believer in a family of strict atheists. Faced with the oppressive enthusiasms of his children, Howard feels that the first two acts of his life are over and he has no clear plans for the finale. Or the encore.

Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy
A story of Justice and Redemption.

Brandon Taylor, Real Life
Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behing his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community.

Heather Ann Thompson, Blood In The Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy
The first definitive account of the infamous 1971 Attica prison uprising, the state’s violent response, and the victims' decades-long quest for justice including information never released to the public published to coincide with the forty-fifth anniversary of this historic event.

Matt Tomlinson, Ritual Textuality: Pattern and Motion in Performance
A classic question in studies of ritual is how ritual performances achieve or fail to achieve-their effect.

Alice Walker, The Color Purple
Set in the deep American South between wars, it is the tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation.

Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
The novel explores the plight of a working-class African-American family in Mississippi as they prepare for Hurricane Katrina and follows them through the aftermath of the storm.

Bryan Washington, Lot: Stories
In the city of Houston—a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America—the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He's working at his family's restaurant, weathering his brother's blows, resenting his older sister's absence. And discovering he likes boys.

Carrie Mae Weems, Carrie Mae Weems: The Kitchen Table Series
Kitchen Table Series is the first publication dedicated solely to this early and important body of work by the American artist Carrie Mae Weems. The 20 photographs and 14 text panels that make up Kitchen Table Series tell a story of one woman's life, as conducted in the intimate setting of her kitchen.)

Carrie Mae Weems, Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspect
This exhibition catalogue features recent works by artist Carrie Mae Weems included in LSU Museum of Art’s exhibition, Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects. The exhibition focuses on the humanity denied in recent killings of black men, women, and children by police.

Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape.

Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
The untold story of how the Great Migration of African-Americans from the South reshaped America.

August Wilson, King Hedley II (play)
The mournful sound of what might have been, a blues-tinged tale about a driven, almost demonic man. He's a petty thief named King who will stop at nothing for a better life.

Jaqueline Woodson, Red At the Bone
Moving forward and backward in time, Jacqueline Woodson's taut and powerful new novel uncovers the role that history and community have played in the experiences, decisions, and relationships of these families, and in the life of the new child.)

Jaqueline Woodson, The Day You Begin (children's book)
Jacqueline Woodson's lyrical text and Rafael Lopez's dazzling art reminds us that we all feel like outsiders sometimes-and how brave it is that we go forth anyway. And that sometimes, when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway.

Richard Wright, Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth
A classic of American autobiography, a subtly crafted narrative of Richard Wright's journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South.

12 Years A Slave
In the years before the Civil War, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York, is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. Subjected to the cruelty of one malevolent owner (Michael Fassbender), he also finds unexpected kindness from another, as he struggles continually to survive and maintain some of his dignity. Then in the 12th year of the disheartening ordeal, a chance meeting with an abolitionist from Canada changes Solomon's life forever.

13th
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans.

Angels in America
Focuses on the stories of two troubled couples, one gay, one straight: "word processor" Louis Ironson and his lover Prior Walter, and Mormon lawyer Joe Pitt and his wife Harper. After the funeral of Louis's grandmother, Prior tells him that he has contracted AIDS, and Louis panics.

Becoming
Join former first lady Michele Obama in an intimate documentary looking at her life, hopes, and connections with others as she tours with “Becoming.”

Black America since MLK: And Still I Rise, “Touch the Sky”
Looks at the last five decades of African American history since the major civil rights victories through the eyes of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., exploring the tremendous gains and persistent challenges of these years.

Black and White: Uptight
Documentary on white fragility

Black-ish
A sitcom about an upper-middle-class black family--an advertising executive patriarch, his doctor wife, and their four children.

Blackkklansman
Ron Stallworth is the first African-American detective to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Determined to make a name for himself, Stallworth bravely sets out on a dangerous mission: infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan. The detective soon recruits a more seasoned colleague, Flip Zimmerman, into the undercover investigation of a lifetime. Together, they team up to take down the extremist hate group as the organization aims to sanitize its rhetoric to appeal to the mainstream.

Brown Sugar
Sidney (Sanaa Lathan) and Dre (Taye Diggs) can attribute their friendship and the launch of their careers to one single childhood instant ... witnessing the birth of hip-hop on a New York street corner. Now some 15 years later, she is a revered music critic and he is a successful, though unfulfilled, music executive. Both come to realize that their true life passions will only be fulfilled by remembering what they learned that day on the corner.

Dark Girls
Filmmakers Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry explore a deep-seated bias within black culture against women with darker skin.

Daughters of The Dust
At the dawn of the 20th century, a multi-generational family in the Gullah community on the Sea Islands off of South Carolina - former West African slaves who adopted many of their ancestors’ Yoruba traditions - struggles to maintain their cultural heritage and folklore while contemplating a migration to the mainland, even further from their roots.

Dear White People
Students of color navigate the daily slights and slippery politics of life at an Ivy League college that’s not nearly as “post-racial” as it thinks.

Do the Right Thing
Salvatore "Sal" Fragione (Danny Aiello) is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.

Ethnic Notations
A documentary on the deep-rooted stereotypes that fuel anti-black prejudice.

Freedom Riders
Renowned director Stanley Nelson chronicles the inspirational story of American civil rights activists' peaceful fight against racial segregation on buses and trains in the 1960s.

Fruitvale Station
Though he once spent time in San Quentin, 22-year-old black man Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan) is now trying hard to live a clean life and support his girlfriend (Melonie Diaz) and young daughter (Ariana Neal). Flashbacks reveal the last day in Oscar's life, in which he accompanied his family and friends to San Francisco to watch fireworks on New Year's Eve, and, on the way back home, became swept up in an altercation with police that ended in tragedy. Based on a true story.

Get Out
Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy and Dean. At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.

I Am Not Your Negro
In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, "Remember This House." The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and assassinations of three of his close friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin's death in 1987, he left behind only 30 completed pages of this manuscript. Filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished.

If Beale Street Could Talk
In early 1970s Harlem, daughter and wife-to-be Tish vividly recalls the passion, respect and trust that have connected her and her artist fiancé Alonzo Hunt, who goes by the nickname Fonny. Friends since childhood, the devoted couple dream of a future together, but their plans are derailed when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit.

I May Destroy You
Where does liberation end and exploitation begin? Set in London, this fearless, frank, and provocative series centers on Arabella (Michaela Coel), a carefree, self-assured Londoner with a group of great friends, a boyfriend in Italy, and a burgeoning writing career, But when she is spiked with a date-rape drug, Arabella must question and rebuild every element of her life.

(In)Visible Portraits
The feature documentary directorial debut from Oge Egbuonu, shatters the too-often invisible otherizing of Black women in America and reclaims the true narrative as told in their own worlds. The film illuminates the history of how we got here, dismantles the false framework of the present-day reality, celebrates the extraordinary heritage of exceptional Black Women, and ignites hope for the next generation.

Jewel’s Catch One
Filmmakers explore the history of the oldest black-owned disco in America and of its owner Jewel Thais-Williams, who defied discrimination and hate for 42 years.

Kiki
In New York City, LGBTQ youth-of-color gather on the Christopher Street Pier to practice the performance-based art form Ballroom, which was made famous in the early 1990s by Madonna's music video "Vogue" and the documentary "Paris Is Burning."

Liberty & Slavery
The Paradox of America”s Founding Fathers: reveals the story of America's Founding Fathers as young men who were yearning for a nation of individual liberty and unprecedented independence.

Malcolm X
A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.

Moonlight
A look at three defining chapters in the life of Chiron, a young black man growing up in Miami. His epic journey to manhood is guided by the kindness, support and love of the community that helps raise him.

Paris is Burning
This documentary focuses on drag queens living in New York City and their "house" culture, which provides a sense of community and support for the flamboyant and often socially shunned performers. Groups from each house compete in elaborate balls that take cues from the world of fashion. Also touching on issues of racism and poverty, the film features interviews with a number of renowned drag queens, including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija and Dorian Corey.

Philadelphia
Fearing it would compromise his career, lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) hides his homosexuality and HIV status at a powerful Philadelphia law firm. But his secret is exposed when a colleague spots the illness's telltale lesions. Fired shortly afterwards, Beckett resolves to sue for discrimination, teaming up with Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), the only lawyer willing to help. In court, they face one of his ex-employer's top litigators, Belinda Conine (Mary Steenburgen).

Pose
Pose is set in the world of the late-1980s to early-1990s and "looks at the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in New York: the rise of the luxury universe, the downtown social and literary scene and the ball culture world

Residue
A young screenwriter returns to his hometown to write a script based on his childhood and discovers his neighborhood has been gentrified.

Self Made
Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker

Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
A precise and eloquent work that examines a deliberate system of racial suppression and that rescues a multitude of atrocities from virtual obscurity.

Sorry to Bother You
In an alternate reality of present-day Oakland, Calif., telemarketer Cassius Green finds himself in a macabre universe after he discovers a magical key that leads to material glory. As Green's career begins to take off, his friends and co-workers organize a protest against corporate oppression. Cassius soon falls under the spell of Steve Lift, a cocaine-snorting CEO who offers him a salary beyond his wildest dreams.

Stranger Fruit
On Aug. 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo., Officer Darren Wilson kills 18-year-old Michael Brown. Now, Michael Brown's family discusses the events of that day.

Tangerine
After hearing that her boyfriend/pimp cheated on her while she was in jail, a hooker and her best friend set out to find him and teach him and his new lover a lesson.

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates Jr.
The six-hour series explores the evolution of the African-American people, as well as the multiplicity of cultural institutions, political strategies, and religious and social perspectives they developed—forging their own history, culture and society against unimaginable odds

The Black Godfather
This documentary follows the life of Clarence Avant, the ultimate, uncensored mentor and behind-the-scenes rainmaker in music, film, TV, and politics.

The Color of Friendship
In 1977, two girls from opposite sides of the world came together and changed each other's lives. Young, white Mahree Bok (Lindsey Haun) lives in apartheid South Africa with her wealthy family. Piper Dellums (Shadia Simmons), the daughter of a black U.S. congressman in Washington, D.C., prepares to welcome Mahree to the U.S. for a semester abroad. Mahree is surprised to find her host family is black, and Piper is stunned that Mahree is white. Each will have to question the assumptions she had.

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
Filmmakers re-examine the 1992 death of transgender legend Marsha P. Johnson, who was found floating in the Hudson River. Originally ruled a suicide, many in the community believe she was murdered.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air; Season 4,Episode 24
Will’s father comes back into this life.

The Hate You Give
Starr Carter is constantly switching between two worlds—the poor, mostly black neighborhood where she lives and the wealthy, mostly white prep school that she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is soon shattered when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend at the hands of a police officer. Facing pressure from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and decide to stand up for what's right.

The School for Temporary Liveness—Tina Campt and Simone White: Slowness and Hesitation
Tina Campt presents a talk on slowness, focusing on the work of artists Okwui Okpokwasili and Dawoud Bey. White reads recent writing that considers hesitation, emotional observation, and the ready availability of words to fit situations. Together, they find the bridges, resonances, and counterpoints between their works. Recorded 10, 2020.

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till
This documentary presents a sobering reminder of the racial tensions that gripped America not so long ago. In Mississippi during the '50s, a black teenager named Emmett Louis Till, who is from Chicago and visiting his great-uncle, whistles at a white woman in public. Not too long afterward, he is kidnapped and murdered. The filmmakers revisit the public outrage that follows, revealing Till's family as being particularly brave for standing up to white racism when it was clearly unsafe to do so.

Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man
The African leader initiates revolutionary changes in Burkina Faso.

They’ve Gotta Have Us
Filmmaker Simon Federick brings together well-known voices in cinema, including John Singleton, John Boyega, Whoopi Goldberg, Barry Jenkins, and Jesse Williams, for this series about Black cinema. The in-depth interviews cover critical topics, like the history of white directors telling Black stories, and delve into the cycle of filmmakers having to convince studios that projects by and featuring people of color are good for business.

The Wiz
When Harlem schoolteacher Dorothy (Diana Ross) tries to save her dog from a storm, she’s miraculously whisked away to an urban fantasy land called Oz. After accidentally killing the Wicked Witch of the East upon her arrival, Dorothy is told about the Wiz (Richard Pryor), a wizard who can help her get back to Manhattan. As Dorothy goes in search of the Wiz, she’s joined by the Scarecrow (Michael Jackson), the Tin Man (Nipsey Russell) and the Cowardly Lion (Ted Ross).

Unforgivable Blackness, Part 1
Follows Jack Johnson's remarkable journey from his humble beginnings in Galveston, Texas, as the son of former slaves, to his entry into the brutal world of professional boxing, where, in turn-of-the-century Jim Crow America, the heavyweight champion was an exclusively "white title." Johnson lived his life out…

Unforgivable Blackness, Part 2
Tells the story of Jack Johnson, the first African-American boxer to win the most coveted title in all of sports, and his struggle to live his life as a free man.

When They See Us
When They See Us is based on events of the April 19, 1989, Central Park jogger case and explores the lives of the five suspects who were prosecuted on charges related to the sexual assault of a female victim, and of their families.

Black Businesses and Brands

Black Nation App
Black Nation is a thorough database that lists black-owned businesses free of charge.

Restaurants

A Dozen Cousins
Packaged bean option from Cuban, Mexican and Caribbean roots

A Little Brown Bakery
Pastries and Desserts (Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn) and

Ali's Roti Shop
Caribbean Restaurant (Brooklyn, New York)

Amy Ruth's Harlem
Home style Southern Cuisine (Harlem, New York)

BAD GYAL Vegan
Home of the world famous Voxtail.

Basquiat's Bottle
Restaurant, Bar, Event Space, Gallery.

Berber Street Food
African Cafe (West Village, Manhattan)

Blk & Bold
Offering speciality coffee and tea. Can be found at Target and Whole Foods

Blossom
Vegan Restaurant (Chelsea, New York)

BLVD Bistro
Crafted American Soul (Harlem, New York)

Brooklyn Beso
Pan-Latin Food

Brooklyn Tea
Loose-leaf tea brand (Brooklyn, New York)

Bunna Cafe
Ethiopian Restaurant (Brooklyn New York)

Cafe Ezrulie
Flower/Cafe by day and Cocktail bar by night (Brooklyn, New York)

Creole Fusion
Haitian Food (Queens, New York)

Cheryl's Global Soul
Melting Pot of cuisine (Brooklyn, New York)

Honey Pot
The first complete plant based feminine care system

Ital Kitchen
100 % authentic organic food (Brooklyn, New York)

Ivy's Teas
Bringing hip-hop culture to herbal tea

Juices for Life
Health conscious juice store (Bronx, New York)

Negril Village NYC
Caribbean restaurant (Village, New York)

Next Stop Vegan
Vegan Meal Delivery in New York

Partake Foods
Sells an assortment of cookies

Peppa's Jerk Chicken
#1 Jerk Chicken in New York City (Brooklyn, New York)

Queen of Sheba
Vegan Restaurant (Midtown, New York)

Seasoned Vegan
Vegan Soul Food Restaurant (Harlem, New York)

Secret Garden
Restaurant and Juice Bar

Soco
Southern Fusion Restaurant (Brooklyn, New York)

Sol Sips
Vegan Cafe

TERANGA
African Restaurant (Harlem, New York)

The Edge of Harlem
Southern and Caribbean infused cuisine (Harlem, New York)

The Suya Guy
Sells Suya Spice rub to marinate beef and other meats. Visit Website

Uptown Juice & Veg
Juice Bar (Harlem, New York)

Urban Dessert Lab
Innovative spins on classic desserts (Manhattan, New York)

Urban Vegan Kitchen
(Manhattan, New York)

Bookstores

Cafe con Libros
Owner Kalima DeSuze's first recommendation is "about our own definition of love. I think as an organizer, you can take those same premises and apply it to community."

For Keeps Books
For Keeps Books is an Atlanta-based bookstore that carries rare and classic black literature, as well as records and t-shirts. —Hilary Reid

Frugal Bookstore
A community bookstore located in Roxbury with a passion for promoting literacy within our children, teens and adults. (Roxbury, MA)

Frugal Bookstore
A community bookstore located in Roxbury with a passion for promoting literacy within our children, teens and adults.

Harriet's Bookshop
Names for historical heroine Harriet Tubman, their mission celebrates women authors, women artists, and women activists. (Philadelphia)

Loving Me Books
Loving Me Books offers an array of books for children with more diverse characters and storylines. (Online)

Mahogany Books
“Mahogany Books started as an online bookstore a decade ago, specializing in books “written for, by, or about people of the African Diaspora.” They opened a storefront in Washington, D.C., in 2017, and are still committed to making books accessible to all.

Semicolon Bookstore
Semicolon is Chicago’s only black woman-owned bookstore.

Sisters Uptown Bookstore
Sisters Uptown offers a lengthy consciousness reading list. (Harlem, New York)

Source of Knowledge
Newark’s only African-American-owned bookstore Source of Knowledge had to close because of coronavirus. They are running a GoFundMe to help keep their family business alive, continue to serve their community, and feed their employees. —Liza Corsillo

The Lit. Bar
Owner Noelle Santos says her first recommendation "is not just for white people. It gives POCs the language to deal with white people.” (Bronx, New York)

The Schomburg Shop
Founded in 1925, Schomburg is an emporium for the best in black related products. (Harlem, New York)

Word Up Books
Word Up has a healthy list of antiracist books. (Harlem, New York)

Wordeee
Marva Allen, the CEO of Wordeee—a book publisher and former co-owner of the Hue-Man bookstore in Harlem—focused her picks on contemporary literature.

Clothing and Accessories

Anya Lust
Anya Lust is a luxury lingerie e-commerce business

Bedstuy Fly
BedStuyFly offers graphic tees, hats, jackets, and sweats for men and women and has stores in Bed-Stuy and Williamsburg.

BLK MKT Vintage
BLM MKT Vintage is a curated love story. Their collection consists of black curiosities and collectibles.

Brother Vellies
Brother Vellies was founded in 2013 with the goal of keeping traditional African design practices, and technique alive while also creating and sustaining artisanal jobs.

Cameron Tea
Los Angeles–based designer Cameron Tea uses wood beads to make bucket hats, rectangular mini-purses, and bags that are shaped like hearts.

Castamira
A swimsuit line founded by former model Chantel Davis, Castamira’s bathing suits are designed to support women with curves and come in sleek one-shouldered cuts, as well as ruched designs with lace-up details.

Christopher John Rogers
Christopher John Rogers makes stunning womenswear pieces in voluminous silhouettes, including iridescent pink taffeta skirts and a red feather-trimmed bustier.

Come Back As A Flower
Los Angeles–based CBAAF’s clothes are hand-dyed and made of 100 percent recycled cotton. Their current collection includes oatmeal and black tie-dyed T-shirt, long-sleeve, and shorts sets.

Cool and Casual Studios
Cool and Casual Studios, is a Los Angeles–based shop that offers a mix of vintage and independent designers. You’ll find breezy striped linen shirts and ideal pairs of stonewashed vintage jeans.

Cushnie
Carly Cushnie started her eponymous brand in 2008, and offers clothes that are minimalist and elegant, as well as a bridal line of sculptural gowns, jumpsuits, and suits for women.

DIOP
Detroit-based clothing label Diop makes diaspora inspired streetwear, including fabric face masks inspired by mud cloth from Mali.

EDASSTORE
New York City line Edas — which sells spiral earrings, hand-rolled jewelry dishes, and miniature leather bags — was started by Sade Mims, who is also the head designer for the brand.

Reformed School
ReformedSchool creates wearable art using recycled/repurposed materials. Using fashion as an educational tool.

Fitness

Ailey Extension
Ailey Extension offers an array of dance and fitness classes.

Black Girls Run
Founded in 2009 to promote fitness and end the obesity epidemic among black women, this running group now has chapters in dozens of cities and offers training and community to both beginner and experienced runners.

Body Space Fitness
At Body Space Fitness, our expert NYC coaches offer safe and effective training methods for everyone, no matter your level of fitness.

Gizmo Vintage Honey
Bed-Stuy’s Gizmo Vintage Honey is where you’ll find retro patchwork tops, perfectly broken-in jeans, and utility jumpsuits.

Grillz and Granola
GrillzandGranola was created for underrepresented women of color to have more access to inclusive and culturally-attuned fitness experiences.

House of AAMA
Mother-daughter duo Rebecca Henry and Akua Shabaka started House of Aama in 2015.

Iconoclast Fitness
At New York’s Iconoclast Fitness, personal trainer Ngo Okafor and a team of fitness pros help clients transform their bodies through a mix of cardio and strength exercises.

Kai Collective
Founded by fashion and travel blogger Fisayo Longe, KAI offers glamorous ruched burnt orange and purple skirts and patterned mesh going-out turtlenecks.

Kenneth Ize
Kenneth Ize works with a small group of weavers and Nigerian artist and design groups to create their pieces.

Label By Three
Label by Three’s clothes are designed and handmade in Phoenix, Arizona. The brand’s focus is on sustainability, and their designs are made in limited runs from deadstock fabrics sourced from independent sellers in the United States.

Laquan Smith
Designer LaQuan Smith started his namesake brand when he was 21. Since its formal debut in 2013, the brand has gained acclaim for its endless archive of distinctive garments and details. Smith has cultivated an equally dynamic private order clientele which spans the globe from Lagos to London.

Madame Matovu Vintage
Rosemary Matovu opened her closet-size store on West 10th Street in 2007, and stocks it with truly fabulous vintage pieces picked up on her world travels.

Nude Barre
Nude Barre was founded by professional dancer Erin Carpenter to offer undergarments and tights in twelve different shades of nude.

The Brooklyn Circus
A menswear store located in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Circus was featured in Black-Owned Brooklyn, where owner Ouigi Theodore cited “Cooley High, sports, Jay-Z Brooklyn, Spike Lee Brooklyn” as the reference points for styles carried in the store.

The Underbelly
At-home yoga videos hosted by Jessamyn Stanley, who’s also an advocate for body positivity and the decriminalization of marijuana.

Yam
Yam is a handcrafted, Astoria-based jewelry line founded by Morgan Thomas.

Zou Xou
Zou Xou is a shoe line founded in New York City by Katherine Theobalds, and one of the brands included in Alyssa Coscarelli’s roundup.

Floral Businesses

Brooklyn Blooms NYC

Floral Symbiosis

Glorimer Flower & Co

les’Blooms

1619
In August of 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. America was not yet America, but this was the moment it began. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the 250 years of slavery that followed, On the 400th anniversary of this fateful moment, it is time to tell the story. “1619” is a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones.

About Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge
From the author behind the bestselling Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race (http://renieddolodge.co.uk/books/) comes a podcast that takes the conversation a step further. Featuring key voices from the last few decades of anti-racist activism, About Race with Reni Eddo-Lodgelooks at the recent history that lead to the politics of today.

AfroQueer
AfroQueer is a podcast from None On Record telling the stories of Queer Africans from across the continent and diaspora. Our podcast celebrates queer love and explores the laws affecting our live, migration, media, race, class, censorship, family, and sex (obviously). Along the way, we also share some bitter truths of what it means to be Queer and African, but also spotlight individuals shifting the landscape of African queerness. Hosted bySelly Thiam.

Black Girl In Om
Welcome to your go-to conversation on all things wellness, self-care and self-love for women of color, hosted by Black Girl In Om Founder Lauren Ash. This show uplifts, affirms, and informs and features a refreshing line-up of guests—including shakers, and innovators within the wellness and beauty industries. This buzzworthy show speaks directly from women of color to women of color and strives to inspire women around the world.

Burn It All Down
Despite the fact that 40% of all sports participants are female, women’s sports receive only 4% of all sports media coverage. Burn it All Down was created to counter the lack of coverage about women in sport. Providing one-of-a-kind, feminist commentary on sports and culture, join the hosts as they celebrate the achievements of women and non-binary people in sport. Hosted byShireen Ahmed, Amira Rose Davis, Brenda Elsey, Linday Gibbs, and Jessica Luther.

Code Switch
What’s CODE SWITCH? It;d the fearless conversation about race that you’ve been waiting for! Hosted by journalists of color, our podcast tackles the subject of race head-on. We explore how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and everything in between. This podcast makes All OF US part of the conversation — because we’re all part of this story. Shereen Marisol Merajiand Gene Demby.

Ground Control Parenting with Carol Sutton Lewis
Ground Control Parenting--because we’re not trying to be helicopter parents, but we do need to be on tarmac, that ground control crew making sure our children have what they need for a successful takeoff. I’m the creator and your host, Carol Sutton Lewis. I’ll be talking with some really interesting people about the job and the joy of parenting.

H.E.R Space
The H.E.R. in H.E.R space stands for healing, empowerment, and resilience. In this podcast hosts Terri Lomax and Dr. Dominique Broussard are the catalysts for meaningful conversations, discussing everything from “fibroids to fake friends.”

Hey Aunty!
The Hey Aunty! Podcast creates a space to reflect, learn, and share stories of black and indigenous culture. Honoring the proud tradition of the ‘Aunty’, this podcast connects listeners across cultures and generations, giving them pause to reflect on the power of being a proud black woman.

hey, girl.
hey, girl. is a podcast that unites the voices of phenomenal women near and far. Created with sisterhood and storytelling in mind, author Alex Elle sits down with people who inspire her. From friends to family members and strangers, the hey, girl. guests give us a peek into their stories through candid and intimate conversations.

Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay
Van Lathanand Rachel Lindsay dissect the biggest topics in black culture, politics, and sports. Two times per week, they will wade into the most important and timely conversations, frequently inviting guests on the podcast and occasionally debating each other.

Intersectionality Matters with Kimberlé Crenshaw
Intersectionality Matter! Is a podcast hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a teaching scholar of critical race theory.

It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders
Each week, Sam Sanders interviews people in the culture who deserve your attention. Plus weekly wraps of the news with other journalists. Join Sam as he makes sense of the world through conversation.

Money Power Freedom
Hosted by comedian Cal Wilson and journalist Santilla Chingaipe, Money Power Freedom is a must-listen for anyone who wants to learn more about the intersections of gender and money. Through interviews with experts and real-life stories, this podcast takes a startling look at the many financial hurdles women face.

NATAL: You Had Me at Black, The Woodshaw
NATAL is a podcast docuseries about having a baby while Black in the United States. We pass the mic to Black parents, to tell their own words, about their pregnancy, birthing, and postpartum care, in their own words. The docuseries also highlights the birthworkers, medical professionals, researchers, and advocates fighting daily for better care for Black birthing parents. Hosted by Martina Abrahams Ilungaand Gabrielle Horton.

Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations
Awaken, discover and connect to the deeper meaning of the world around you with SuperSoul. Hear Oprah’s personal selection of her interviews with thought-leaders, best-selling authors, spiritual luminaries, as well as health and wellness experts. All designed to light you up, guide you through life’s big questions and help bring you one step closer to your best self.

Pro Hoe
Unveil stigmas and taboos in this confessional series with Pro hoe host, Penda N’diaye to explore topics on sexual desire, please, and using sex and taboo as social equity. Break down social, religious and racial constructs that some of us have been taught to uphold and how they have stifled sexual liberation in communities of color.

Ratchet & Respectable
Demetria L. Lucas, cultural critic and author of A Belle in Brooklyn and Don’t Waste Your Pretty, muses on pop culture shenanigans, dating and relationships, and everything worth watching on any size screen. #ratchetandrespectful

Small Doses with Amanda Seales
Your favorite truth teller, comedian, Amanda Seales, is dropping gems with, “Small Doses,” a weekly podcast that brings you potent truths for everyday use.

The Brown Girls Guide to Politics
Welcome to The Brown Girls Guide to Politics - - the one stop shop for women of color who wants to hear and talk about the world of politics. Host A’shanti Gholarleads conversations with women changing the face of politics. Episodes include interviews with politicians, candidates, and influencers. Get ready for round tables, analyzing current events, and more!

The Clever Girls Know
Hosted by Bola Sokunbi, this podcast is a platform for financial education that assists women to get out of debt, save, and build their wealth. If you’re looking to improve, maintain or build upon your wealth, this one is for you.

The Cutting Room Floor
A fashion podcast hosted by designer Recho Omondi discussing current events and interviews with industry insiders.

The Daily Show With Trevor Noah: Ears Edition
Listen to highlights and extended interviews in the “Ears Edition” of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. From Comedy Central’s Podcast Network.

The Nod
The Nod tells the stories of Black life that don’t get told anywhere else, from an explanation of how purple drink became associated with Black culture to the story of how an interracial drag troupe traveled the nation in the 1940’s. We celebrate the genius, the innovation, and the resilience that is so particular to being Black—in American, and around the world. Hosted by Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings.

Therapy for Black Girls
So often the stigma surrounding mental health issues and therapy prevents Black women from taking the step of seeing a therapist. This space was developed to present mental health topics in a way that feels more accessible and relevant. Therapy for Black Girls is an online space dedicated to encouraging the mental wellness of Black women and girls. Hosted byDr. Joy Harden Bradford.

The Read
Join Bloggers Kid Fury and Crissle for their weekly podcast covering hip-hop and pop culture’s cultures most rising stars. Throwing shade and spilling tea with a flippant and humorous attitude, no star is safe from Fury and Crissle unless their name is Beyoncé. (Or Blue ivy.)

The Stoop
The Stoop Podcast digs into stories that are not always shared out in the open. Host Leila Day and Hana Babastart conversations and provide professionally-reported stories about what it means to be black and how we talk about blackness. Come hang out on The Stoop as we dialog about the diaspora.

Unlocking Us with Brené Brown
I’ve spent over 20 years studying the emotions and experiences that bring meaning and purpose to our lives, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s this: We are hardwired for connection, and connecting requires courage, vulnerability, and conversation. I want this to be a podcast that’s real, unpolished, honest, and reflects both the magic and the messiness of what it means to be human. Episodes will include conversations with the people who are teaching me, challenging me, confusing me, or maybe even ticking me off a little. I’ll also have direct conversations with you about what I’m learning from new research, and we’ll do some episodes dedicated to answering your questions. We don’t have to do life alone. We were never meant to. Hosted by Brené Brown.

Waiting on Reparations
Waiting on Reparations is a show about Hip Hop and politics. Hosts Dope Knife, a rapper and visual artist, and Linqua Franqa, hip hop artist and politician, explore the history of public policy and its impact on Hip Hop life; what Hip Hop culture tells us about our political reality; and the role of Hip Hop in shaping our political future.

You Had Me at Black
You Had ME at Black is where Black Millennials tell the true-life stories you won’t see on TV.