Welcome to Litsy!

Forever behind and making up for lost time (or points lol), here are some spooky covers.

#HauntedShelf Cover #ScavengerHunt for #Eyes
Also felt appropriate for #HauntsAndHexes #Blood

#BlackCatCrew

Beautiful, heartbreaking, and inspiring poems set to gorgeous illustrations. There‘s pain here, but also strength and hope. I haven‘t read the adult version of the 1619 Project, yet, but it‘s on my TBR.

This is a special book. Filled with stunning art, it is a history told by a grandmother to her granddaughter. Black History did not begin on the shores of America; it began long before. It continued on The White Lion, and it continues today. As books are banned, history whitewashed and erased, it is now more vital than ever that we continue to tell these stories. A must read.

#CharacterCharm Day 30: Augusta Baker educated herself and became the first Black person to earn a degree from SUNY Albany in library sciences and information studies. As the first Black #Librarian, she curated the James Weldon Johnson Memorial collection in 1944 to find uplifting stories about people of color. More here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-r3d

Book list from the African American National History Museum https://nmaahc.si.edu/visit/museum-store/juneteenth-reading-list

The Whitney Plantation is also offering 19% off all books online today

We need diverse books also has a good list of books

This was recommended to me by myTBR, and I liked it. It‘s historical fiction, loosely based on a true story. Jacqoutte was a queer female pirate with her own strong code of ethics. There are many bloody battles and a love story I was there for.

I originally checked this out from the library, got 2 chapters in and ran to my bookstore and bought a copy. This book is amazing. It is written with such care and tons of research. The 5 women it focuses on each have small chapters woven into the narrative. Their struggles are glaring on the page, the way they controlled their bodies while struggling with so much racism and socioeconomic challenges.
4.5/5 this is wonderful.

“She wanted to be like her childhood heroes Ginger Rogers and Natalie Wood, emerging from limousines onto red carpets to snapping bulbs, the plot of her life playing out like one of the feel-good Million Dollar Movie films she loved to watch on her family‘s black-and-white television.”

Photo of the 5 beautiful ballerinas featured in the book

The man behind the company.
The first Black dancer at the NYC Ballet.
Arthur Mitchell started the Dance Theater of Harlem. He is both a monster (yelling at the women for eating or not being loyal enough to him and the company) but also seen as a father figure. The women talk about how his death in 2018 crushed them. A complex and interesting look at a teacher relationship.

While this book is about the women of Dance Theatre of Harlem, there is tragedy in how the men of the company were abandoned by government. They died of AIDS
“'I witnessed and entire male ensemble pass away.' Sheila Rohan says of the epidemic. She was working at Alavin Ailey in those years. 'These were our Black gods. Prima donnas of the dance world. And then you had to see them decline. At least 25, 30 of them, 1 right after another dropped.“