February Is Black History Month on Incessant Scribble

Black History Month is an annual celebration of black history and accomplishments. It's a tradition that originated from the fact that the contributions of blacks to the United States of America were being omitted in history books. It was a disturbing trend that many African Americans noted and spoke out against. Carter G. Woodson was one of those frustrated by the omissions and so with the help of Jesse E. Moorland he founded the Association for the Study of the Negro Life and History (now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History [ASALH]). That association led to the launching of a "Negro History Week" which later expanded into Black History Month and got officially recognized by U.S. President Gerald R. Ford in 1976. You can read a summarized version of this history at TIME Magazine and also on the History website.

Incessant Scribble has always been dedicated to celebrating the literary works of African authors. Over the past few years I've considered reviewing the works of other black authors on this blog but it wasn't until last year that I became immensely inspired to do so by Read Diverse Books, a literary blog I've been following for over a year. It's a gorgeous blog with great literary content and it's run by the very energetic and smart Nazahet Hernandez, a resident of Texas here in the U.S.A. For a whole month beginning from September 15th, 2016 and on till October 15th, 2016, Naz featured reviews, author interviews, guest posts from latin authors and author spotlights on his blog for the Hispanic Heritage Month. It was an entire month dedicated to celebrating and uplifting latin literary voices. I was mind blown and completely impressed with the quality of work he blogged and in awe because I know the amount of effort that goes into blogging. I was so impressed that I swore I'd pay tribute to African American authors in whatever tiny way I could come February 2017. Beginning this year and continuing every year henceforth, I will devote the entire month of February to promoting black literature that isn't from the continent of Africa. It's my goal to review at least four novels for Black History Month every year.

From the minute I became inspired by Nazahet last year, I began to compile a list of novels by African American authors that I wanted to read. My shortlist included:

1. Sula by Toni Morrison
2. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
3. Going to See the Man by James Baldwin
4. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
5. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
6. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
7. Between the World and Me by Ta Nehisi Coates

After much consideration (I used Amazon's "Look Inside" feature a lot to preview the novels) I dropped #1, #6 and  #7 from my shortlist. I already owned #2 and so I bought #3, #4 and #5. I began to read #5 but I dropped it because I found it unabsorbing. I'll give it another shot sometime in the future. On January 6th of this year one of my friends, Thank-God Eboh, shared the ELLE Magazine article My Year of Reading Books by Black Women written by Alisha Acquaye on Facebook. I loved it. It was in that article that I discovered and quickly purchased The Mothers by Brit Bennett and Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn. I had been contemplating buying Ruby by Cynthia Bond for some time so once I saw it in the ELLE article I bought it. I finished reading The Twelve Tribes of Hattie in early January. I'm currently in the middle of The Mothers and I hope to get to Here Comes the Sun right after that. I'm not yet sure what my 4th book pick will be or if I'll be able to meet my goal of four novels this month. I'll do my best. Keep an eye out for my book reviews 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th of this month. Have an amazing month!

[Image via Cal Alumni Association UC Berkerley]