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Wednesday, August 4, 2021 | View in browser
Reset is the official monthly newsletter of Evanston Public Library's Collection Advisory Committee of Black Evanstonians. This committee is dedicated to advising EPL on purchases, selection, displays, and all aspects of collection development. Click here to subscribe to this newsletter.
The first day of school for younger kids in Evanston is August 25th while at ETHS they'll be back on August 16th. While kids try to soak in the last few weeks of summer, we have loads of books ready to get them exciting about going/going back. Whether they're starting Kindergarten for the first time (like in Derrick Barnes's KING OF KINDERGARTEN) or are just about to finish their Senior year at ETHS, we've something for everyone in our library!
Last month we announced our new partnership with Semicolon Books. Located in Chicago, this Black-owned business will start to provide the library with some of its books by Black authors. Since August is National Black Business Month, we sat down with proprietor DL (Danielle) Mullen to ask her some questions.
Reset: First and foremost could you tell us a little bit about yourself and a little bit about how Semicolon got started?
DL Mullen: I am and have always been an avid reader. I loved being able to escape via words and that’s what drew me into becoming a bookseller. I wanted to cater to people like me! Semicolon was the culmination of two things that I love most-books and street art.
Reset: Tell us why it's important to have a strong Black bookstore presence in the Chicagoland area?
DL Mullen: It’s important to have a strong Black bookstore presence in the Chicagoland area because the upcoming generations need to experience the value of literature firsthand. In a world where social media rules all, it has become increasingly important to avoid dangerous race-based stereotypes by introducing people to nuances of Black people in every industry
Reset: Finally, what's the book you're most excited to sell to your customers right now?
DL Mullen: The book I’m most excited to sell to my customers right now is Long Division by Kiese Laymon. It is riveting, beautifully written, entertaining, and emotionally effective without being too heavy
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Black August is a month dedicated to paying homage to fallen Black revolutionaries, incarcerated freedom fighters, and Black resistance, historical and ongoing. Here are some books that honor those that gave their all:
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall, illustrated by Hugo Martinez
Women warriors planned and led slave revolts on slave ships during the Middle Passage. They fought their enslavers throughout the Americas. And then they were erased from history.
Wake tells the story of Dr. Rebecca Hall, a historian, granddaughter of slaves, and a woman haunted by the legacy of slavery. The accepted history of slave revolts has always told her that enslaved women took a back seat. But Rebecca decides to look deeper, and her journey takes her through old court records, slave ship captain's logs, crumbling correspondence, and even the forensic evidence from the bones of enslaved women from the "negro burying ground" uncovered in Manhattan. She finds women warriors everywhere. (book)
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Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton
Tracing the birth of a revolutionary, Huey P. Newton's famous and oft-quoted autobiography is as much a manifesto as a portrait of the inner circle of America's Black Panther Party. From Newton's impoverished childhood on the streets of Oakland to his adolescence and struggles with the system, from his role in the Black Panthers to his solitary confinement in the Alameda County Jail, Revolutionary Suicide is unrepentant and thought-provoking in its portrayal of inspired radicalism. (book)
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Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local, state, and federal police attempted to question her about the shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that had claimed the life of a white state trooper. Long a target of J. Edgar Hoover's campaign to defame, infiltrate, and criminalize Black nationalist organizations and their leaders, Shakur was incarcerated for four years prior to her conviction on flimsy evidence in 1977 as an accomplice to murder. This intensely personal and political autobiography belies the fearsome image of JoAnne Chesimard long projected by the media and the state. With wit and candor, Assata Shakur recounts the experiences that led her to a life of activism and portrays the strengths, weaknesses, and eventual demise of Black and White revolutionary groups at the hand of government officials. The result is a signal contribution to the literature about growing up Black in America that has already taken its place alongside The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the works of Maya Angelou. (book, ebook)
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Fine tune your craft — or start a new one!
Craftsy is the leader in step-by-step video instruction on a variety of creative crafts. hoopla’s Instant collection now includes more than 140 hours of how-to instructional content from Craftsy courses in baking, cake decorating, knitting, quilting, and sewing.
Click here to view the Craftsy collection!
 Larry and Jean Murphy of YoFresh
August is National Black Business Month! Starting Monday, August 9, join Evanston Public Library as we highlight and support local Black owned businesses in the community! Visit a minimum of five participating Black-owned businesses with our punch card and make a purchase or answer a trivia question to enter the raffle. Raffle winners select a $50 gift certificate to one of the businesses! Punch cards available at the Main Library (847-448-8630) or the Robert Crown Branch library (847-448-8101).
You've seen them in the parks, in front of homes, and all around town. Little Free Libraries operate with a simple concept: Take a book, leave a book. Have too many good books in your home? Visit a Little Free Library to see if someone else would like them! Need something new to read? Stop by and check out what's available. Here are some local Libraries in the 5th Ward:
 At the Fleetwood-Jourdain Center
 Outside the First Church of God on Simpson and Ashland
 On the corner of Wesley and Foster
Are there Little Free Libraries in your neighborhood? Tell us and we'll include them in future newsletters.
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Viola Davis will write a memoir, Finding Me about her rise to fame, due out in April 2022 from Harper One. OprahDaily has the news.
- Balzer + Bray will publish Stacey Abrams's first children's book in December. Former Georgia House minority leader, bestselling author, and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams is set to publish her first picture book, 'Stacey's Extraordinary Words,' on December 28 with HarperCollins Children's Books imprint Balzer + Bray
- President Barack Obama and the spiritual president of both New Jersey and America's heartland, Bruce Springsteen, will publish a book together in October.
- The Young Adult title This Is My America by Kim Johnson, an amazing writer, is about to become a series on HBO very soon. Variety has the story.
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A new Zora Neale Hurston essay collection You Don’t Know Us Negroes (Amistad: HarperCollins) will be coming out in 2022. Lit Hub has the scoop.
New to Kanopy: The Must See Films You Shouldn't Miss
Remember that you can stream all of these films through the library's Kanopy subscription, absolutely for free. View this tutorial to show you how. Try it today!
A Band Called Death
Playing punk before punk existed, three teenage brothers formed a band but this was the era of Motown & they weren't given a shot. A BAND CALLED DEATH is the journey of what happened three decades later, when a '74 demo found success.
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Before They Were Kings
Classic performances from America's top comics....before any of us knew who they were. With nothing more than a punch line and a dream, these (then) struggling young artists transformed themselves into comedy legends. Here is a rare opportunity to see some of the world's greatest Black stars perform the routines that would someday make them Kings of Comedy..
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Binti
Binti, a 12-year-old vlogger, plots a scheme with her new friend Elias. She wants to bring their parents together in order to save her future.
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Floyd Cooper, an award-winning illustrator and author of children’s books whose mission to offer candid and positive images of Black history included subjects ranging from Frederick Douglass and the civil rights movement to Venus and Serena Williams, has died. He was 65. Author Carole Boston Weatherford, whose Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre was illustrated by Cooper, told The Associated Press, “His cinematic illustrations brought stories to life and held readers close. A devoted family man and genuine friend, Floyd was a gifted illustrator and truth-teller. His legacy will continue to enlighten and to inspire for generations to come.”
Check out a full list of books illustrated by Mr. Cooper here.
What Is Our Committee Reading Now? Betsy Bird Recommends
Evanston Public Library's Collection Advisory Group's Collection Development Specialist Betsy Bird suggests new books out this month that you don't want to miss:
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Sisters in Arms: A Novel of the Daring Black Women Who Served During World War II by Kaia Alderson
Grace Steele and Eliza Jones may be from completely different backgrounds, but when it comes to the army, specifically the Women&;s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), they are both starting from the same level. Not only will they be among the first class of female officers the army has even seen, they are also the first Black women allowed to serve. Based on the true story of the 6888th Postal Battalion (the Six Triple Eight), Sisters in Arms explores the untold story of what life was like for the only all-Black, female U.S. battalion to be deployed overseas during World War II. (book, ebook, e-audiobook)
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Kevin Belton's Cookin' Louisiana: Flavors from the Parishes of the Pelican State
Enjoy 78 recipes (3 from each episode of the coordinating TV series) along with a generous helping of Kevin's captivating stories and humor. Recipes include Smoked Meat Loaf with Sweet Glaze, Louisiana Fish on the Half Shell, Cane Syrup Cake, Pumpkin Soup, Fried Alligator Bites, and Shrimp Scampi Risotto. (book)
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A Black Gaze: Artists Changing What We See by Tina M. Campt
In A Black Gaze, Tina Campt examines Black contemporary artists who are shifting the very nature of our interactions with the visual through their creation and curation of a distinctively Black gaze. Their work--from Deana Lawson's disarmingly intimate portraits to Arthur Jafa's videos of the everyday beauty and grit of the Black experience, from Khalil Joseph's films and Dawoud Bey's photographs to the embodied and multimedia artistic practice of Okwui Okpakwasili, Simone Leigh, and Luke Willis Thompson--requires viewers to do more than simply look (book)
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