tell me something good

I spent a lot of time writing a post about Black History Month and my goals after thinking about this month, but in the end I just deleted all of it. Really the gist of what I want to say is that I can't be a good advocate for or ally to the black community if I'm not informed or listening. So I've spent the bulk of February informing myself and listening, and it's been transformative. I'm still getting back into the idea of my blog as a platform to talk about WHATEVER I WANT, WHENEVER I WANT and I have so many thoughts about the state of race and racism in America and it really is on my mind all day. But I don't know how to talk about it coherently yet, so we'll start here.

I have never purposefully excluded black authors or stories about black people in my reading but I've never actively sought it out, so my goal for 2019 was to read one book per month by an author of color. February's not even over yet, I've read five books already (I think I read five books in all of 2018, yikes), and I'm excited to keep the momentum going.

I wanted to share some of what I've been reading/listening to/consuming—maybe you'll find something in here that will help change your perspective too.

READ (ed. note: these are the books I've read so far this year so it's not at all an exhaustive list; for more POC titles I've read/want to read you can see my Goodreads list here):

• Becoming by Michelle Obama (I didn't think this one would be as impactful for me as it was but it really set a good tone for my goal)
• The Origins of Others by Toni Morrison
• Mama Day by Gloria Naylor
• Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
• The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
• The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton (this is a folktale illustrated for kids but oh man I cried when I was reading it to Rhoda)

LISTEN:

• these episodes from The Nod: The Fugitive; Nobody Looks Like Me; Kunta Thinks You're Funny (LaVar Burton!!!); The Hairstons; and for fun, because this episode made me laugh out loud multiple times, YouTube Conspiracy Theories (Mom, you probably won't think it's funny :)
• these episodes from On Being: Let's Talk About Whiteness with Eula Biss; Civic Spiritual Evolution with Cory Booker; The Spirituals with Joe Carter (this one was... So Good)
• this episode from TED Radio Hour: Comfort Zone (especially the segments with Luvvie Ajayi and Ann Morgan, the latter is what inspired me to set an actual goal to read books by non-white authors)

FOLLOW:

• Black Coffee with White Friends on Instagram for well-curated tidbits, musings and insights about black culture. Can't recommend this one enough—if you don't read/listen to anything else on this list at least follow this account!

Tell me what you're reading/listening to/consuming, and let's talk about it.