Celebrate with us! Check out our recommended reads and views for Black History Month below and join us February 13th for a program in partnership with the Hotel Metropolitan. This program will be at the Library on Thursday February 13th at 5:30 pm. We hope to see you there! The Program Songbird of the South will tell the story about the life of Rhythm and Blues singer Mary Ann Fisher. This one-woman performance experience chronicles Fisher's life from her tragic and traumatic childhood beginning in Henderson, Kentucky.
Fisher's legendary voice landed her gigs with legends like Marvin Gaye, B.B. King, James Brown, Hank Crawford, Jackie Wilson, Percy Mayfield, and Bobby Bland. She also performed with Dinah Washington at Carnegie Hall and Billie Holiday before her death in 1959. This performance tells the compelling story about Mary Ann Fisher's journey.
Fiction to Read:
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
James by Percival Everett
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Fraud by Zadie Smith
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
Nonfiction to read:
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Thick and Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom
They Call Me Goose; My life in Kentucky Basketball & Beyond by Jack “Goose” Givens
Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing by DaMaris Hill
Bending Toward Justice: the Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights by Doug Jones
March by John Lewis
A Promised Land Barack Obama
The Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth
Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson
Things to watch:
Hidden Colors: the Untold History
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
