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Black Love Letters

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

As seen on ABC's The View

  • One of W magazine's Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2023
  • One of Bloomberg's Best Books of 2023

    "We reserve this space for our humanity in all of its fond, ironic, elated, grief-stricken, confused glory . . . When you find yourself alone and downtrodden, when the news is too much, return to these pages. This one is for you." —from the introduction by Cole Brown and Natalie Johnson

    "There's something particularly special about Black Love. When you consider the history of our people, the strife and adversity we've overcome, love seems an almost illogically ambitious act of resistance." —from the foreword by John Legend

    From celebrated Black writers, creators, and thinkers—and with a foreword by John Legend—comes a collection of letters and original illustrations on the subject of Black love, a powerful and heartfelt celebration of Blackness in all its many forms.

    In this exquisite anthology of letters and illustrations, Cole Brown and Natalie Johnson bring together a constellation of influential Black figures to write to the people, places, and moments that mean the most to them. With a foreword from John Legend and contributions from Brontez Purnell, Morgan Jerkins, Reverend Al Sharpton, and Dr. Imani Perry, among many others, Black Love Letters is an ode to a phenomenal community: a testament to the fact that where there has been pain and suffering, there has also always been immeasurable, irrepressible joy and love.
    With letters from: Akili King
  • Reverend Al Sharpton
  • Alexandra Elle
  • Allisa Charles-Findley
  • Barbara Edelin
  • Belinda Walker
  • Ben Crump
  • Bill Whitaker
  • Bilquisu Abdullah
  • Brianna Holt
  • Brontez Purnell
  • Cole Brown
  • Danez Smith
  • Dick Parsons
  • Deborah Willis
  • Doug Jones
  • Douglas Kearney
  • Imani Perry
  • Jamila Woods
  • Jan Menafee
  • Jayne Allen
  • Jeh Charles Johnson
  • Jenna Wortham
  • Jonathan Capehart
  • John Legend
  • Joel Castón
  • Joy-Ann Reid
  • Justus Cornelius Pugh
  • Kwame Dawes
  • Lynae Vanee Bogues
  • Mahogany Browne
  • Malachi Elijah
  • Michael Eric Dyson
  • Morgan Jerkins
  • Nadia Owusu
  • Natalie Johnson
  • Raka Reynolds
  • Rhianna Jones
  • Chef Rōze Traore
  • Sojourner Brown
  • Tarana Burke
  • Tembe Denton-Hurst
  • Topaz Jones
  • Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts
  • VJ Jenkins

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      • Kirkus

        August 1, 2023
        Black Americans declare their love. This anthology brings together dozens of love letters by prominent Black Americans. The entries, interspersed with illustrations, address an eclectic mix of topics arranged under five categories: Care, Awe, Loss, Ambivalence, and Transformation. In their introduction, editors Brown and Johnson note the book's inspiration in the witnessing of violence directed at Black America. Reckonings with outrage and grief, they explain, remain an urgent task and a precondition of creating and sustaining loving bonds. The editors seek to create "a site for our people to come together on the deepest, strongest emotion we share" and thus open "the possibility for shared deliverance" and "carve out a space for healing, together." This aim is powerfully realized in many of the letters, which offer often poignant portrayals of where redemptive love has and might yet be found. Among the most memorable are Joy Reid's "A Love Letter to My Hair," a sensitive articulation of a hard-won sense of self-love; Morgan Jerkins' "Dear Egypt," an exploration of a lifelong passion for an ancient world; and VJ Jenkins' "Pops and Dad," an affirmation that it "is beautiful to be Black, to be a man, and to be gay." Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts' "Home: A Reckoning" is particularly thoughtful and incisive in its examination of a profound attachment, "in the best and worst ways," to Louisville, Kentucky. Most of the pieces pair personal recollections with incisive cultural commentary. The cumulative effect of these letters is to set forth a panorama of opportunities for maintaining the ties that matter most, especially in the face of a cultural milieu that continues to produce virulent forms of love's opposite. Other contributors include Nadia Owusu, Jamila Woods, Ben Crump, Eric Michael Dyson, Kwame Dawes, Jenna Wortham, and Imani Perry. A wide-ranging collection of testaments to what moves the heart.

        COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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    Languages

    • English

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