We look forward to seeing you on your next visit to the library. Find a location near you.

Noname Book Club Selections 2021

Launched in the summer of 2019 by Chicago rapper Noname, the book club picks two titles a month to discuss both online and in-person in discussion groups around the country. Described as “reading material for the homies”, Noname Book Club highlights books that speak on human conditions in critical and original ways while encouraging members to support the works of authors of color.

Showing 1 - 9 of 9  There are a total of 23 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Black slaves, Indian masters"
Star rating for Black slaves, Indian masters
Description:
In this beautifully illustrated study of intellectual and art history, Johnson explores the representation of classical myths by renowned French artists in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, demonstrating the extraordinary influence of the natural sciences and psychology on artistic depiction of myth.
Book cover for "The end of policing"
Star rating for The end of policing
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"How the police endanger us and why we need to find an alternative Recent years have seen an explosion of protest and concern about police brutality and repression--especially after long-held grievances in Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in months of violent protest following the police killing of Brown. Much of the conversation has focused on calls for enhancing police accountability, increasing police diversity, improving police training, and emphasizing...
Book cover for "Facing the rising sun"
Star rating for Facing the rising sun
Description:
The surprising alliance between Japan and pro-Tokyo African Americans during World War II In November 1942 in East St. Louis, Illinois a group of African Americans engaged in military drills were eagerly awaiting a Japanese invasion of the U.S.-- an invasion that they planned to join. Since the rise of Japan as a superpower less than a century earlier, African Americans across class and ideological lines had saluted the Asian nation, not least because...
Book cover for "The hip hop wars"
Star rating for The hip hop wars
Author:
Description:
How hip hop shapes our conversations about race, and how race influences our consideration of hip hop. Hip hop is a distinctive form of black art in America, from Tupac to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Kendrick Lamar, hip hop has long given voice to the African American experience. As scholar and cultural critic Tricia Rose argues, hip hop, in fact, has become one of the primary ways we talk about race in the United States. But hip hop is in crisis....
Book cover for "How we get free"
Star rating for How we get free
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"In the last several years, Black feminism has reemerged as the analytical framework for the activist response to the oppression of trans women of color, the fight for reproductive rights, and, of course, the movement against police abuse and violence. The most visible organizations and activists connected to the Black Lives Matter movement speak openly about how Black feminism shapes their politics and strategies today. The interviews I have compiled...
Book cover for "I can't date Jesus"
Star rating for I can't date Jesus
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"In the style of New York Times bestsellers You Can't Touch My Hair, Bad Feminist, and I'm Judging You, a timely collection of alternately hysterical and soul-searching essays about what it is like to grow up as a creative, sensitive black man in a world that constantly tries to deride and diminish your humanity. It hasn't been easy being Michael Arceneaux. Equality for LGBT people has come a long way and all, but voices of persons of color within...
Book cover for "Monster"
Star rating for Monster
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.
Book cover for "The spook who sat by the door"
Star rating for The spook who sat by the door
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"The spook who sat by the door is a hard-hitting shocker that depicts a world in which the long suppressed black man fights back with a vengeance."--Page 4 of cover.
Book cover for "The three mothers"
Star rating for The three mothers
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"In her groundbreaking and essential debut The Three Mothers, scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs celebrates Black motherhood by telling the story of the three women who raised and shaped some of America's most pivotal heroes: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin. Much has been written about Berdis Baldwin's son James, about Alberta King's son Martin Luther, and Louise Little's son Malcolm. But virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary...