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Black Legacy Month at the Library - February 2023

Black Legacy Month at Buncombe County Libraries

Join us throughout February as we celebrate Black Legacy Month with programs and events for all ages! In addition to the programs listed below, we will have special story times and exhibits at most of our libraries.

  • Bright Star Touring Theatre: African Folktales – February 1 at 4pm at the Weaverville Library (for children ages 3 and up)
  • Book Club: Jazz by Toni Morrison - Thursday, February 2 a 3pm at the Weaverville Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - Tuesday, February 7 at 6pm at the Weaverville Library
  • Book Club: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict Tuesday, February 14 at 1pm at the Leicester Library
  • Book Club: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland - February 16 at 2:30pm at the Skyland/South Buncombe Library
  • Book Club: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - February 21 at 7pm at the Fairview Library
  • Black Experience Book Club: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell - February 23 at 6:30pm at the Noir Collective, co-sponsored by the East Asheville library

Drop by your local library and check us out. Email or call if you have any questions.

Our librarians have also put together a Black Legacy Month reading list for all ages.

Black Legacy Month Reading List 2023

Books for Adults

Adult Fiction

  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim
  • What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harries
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
  • The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers
  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison
  • Deacon King Kong by James McBride
  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  • Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall
  • The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
  • Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
  • Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
  • Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Adult nonfiction

  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho
  • Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black women in Popular Culture by Zeba Blay
  • The 1619 Project edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
  • Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby*
  • The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
  • All That She Carried by Tiya Miles
  • Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson*
  • You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin*
  • Counting Descent by Clint Smith
  • The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
  • Here For It by R. Eric Thomas*
  • Koshersoul: the faith and food journey of an African American Jew by Michael W. Twitty

*especially good on audio because the authors read their work!

Picture books for families to share

  • My Heart Flies Open by Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis
  • Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner
  • My N.C. From A to Z by Michelle Lanier
  • Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by JaNay Brown-Wood
  • Curls by Ruth Forman
  • Fly by Brittany J. Thurman
  • Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Faye Duncan
  • Build a House by Rhiannon Giddens
  • Bright Brown Baby, A Treasury by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

Chapter books for older kids

  • Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. BaptistBlended by Sharon Draper
  • Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
  • Tristan Strong Trilogy (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Tristan Strong Destroys the World, and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching) by Kwame Mbalia
  • From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
  • Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood edited by Kwame Mbalia
  • Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
  • Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
  • The Door of No Return by Alexander Kwame

Books for teens

  • Quincredible by Rodney Barnes
  • The Legendborn Cycle (Legendborn and Bloodmarked) by Tracy Deonn
  • All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
  • You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
  • Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
  • Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
  • Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds
  • Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
  • On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
  • Okoye to the People by Ibi Zoboi

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Updated Feb 10, 2023 02:21 PM
Published Jan 27, 2023 07:00 AM