This exhibition highlights selections from the Powell Community Collections by Black authors. It is intended to represent marginalized voices that exist in the Collections, and to reveal ways we can make them more inclusive still.
The Powell Library Community Collections are designed to support and promote student intellectual growth, health and well-being, and creativity. Reflecting the diversity of the student population, the collections aim to foster curiosity about the world and empathy for others, while nurturing lifelong reading habits.
Please note that while UCLA Library buildings remain closed, the print books featured in this exhibition may be available for checkout through the UCLA Library's Page and Pickup service. Go here for instructions on using this service.
Enigma: Science Fiction & Fantasy
From the Powell Library's print collections
- Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
- Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
- Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
From the UCLA Library online collections
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (ebook)
- The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (ebook)
- Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates (ebook)
Further exploration
- Black Sci-Fi (by Moonlight Films)
- Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements by Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown
.
Cookbooks and Food Culture
From the Powell print collections
- The taste of country cooking by Edna Lewis
- The cooking gene : a journey through African American culinary history in the Old South by Michael Twitty
- Vegan Soul kitchen : fresh, healthy, and creative African American cuisine by Bryant Terry
- The Jemima code : two centuries of African American cookbooks by Toni Tipton-Martin
From the UCLA Library online collections
- Soul food junkies : a film about family, food & tradition (video)
- Building houses out of chicken legs : Black women, food, and power (ebook)
- Edna Lewis : at the table with an American original (ebook)
- Bound to the fire : how Virginia's enslaved cooks helped invent American cuisine (ebook)
Further exploration
(image of Edna Lewis, via Kinfolk)
Travel Writing
From the UCLA print collections
- Trace: Memory, History, Race and the American Landscape by Lauret E. Savoy
- Mississippi Solo by Eddy Harris
- Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria by Noo Saro-Wiwa
From the UCLA Library online collections
- Autobiography: I Wonder as I Wander by Langston Hughes (In the Collected Works of Langston Hughes, v. 14)
- An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie (ebook)
Further exploration
Recent Fiction
From the Powell Print Collections
- Training school for Negro girls by Camille Acker
- Every day is for the thief by Teju Cole
- What we lose by Zinzi Clemmons
- Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse
- Sing, unburied, sing by Jesmyn Ward.
From the UCLA Library online collections
- Changeling by Victor LaValle (ebook)
- Witches, goddesses, and angry spirits : the politics of spiritual liberation in African diaspora women's fiction by Maha Marouan (ebook)
- Searching for Sycorax : black women's hauntings of contemporary horror by Kinitra Dechaun Brooks (ebook)
Further exploration
- Fiction By Contemporary Black Authors About Navigating White Supremacy from Electric Literature
- Interviews with African American authors from the Fresh Air archive
- LAPL Booklist: African American Fiction & Literature
(image of Camille Acker, via Brilliant Baltimore)
Video Games
From the Powell/UCLA print collections
- Woke gaming : digital challenges to oppression and social injustice by Gray, K.L. & Leonard, D.J. (Editors)
- Digital diaspora : a race for cyberspace by Everett, A.
From the UCLA online collections
- Race, gender, and deviance in xbox live : theoretical perspectives from the virtual margins (ebook)
- Intersectional tech: black users in digital gaming by Gray, K.L., Sarkeesian, A. (ebook)
- Gaming representation : race, gender, and sexuality in video games by Malkowski, J., & Russworm, T.A.M. (ebook)
- Replaying video game history as a mixtape of black feminist thought by Russworm, T.M., & Blackmon, S. (Article; Feminist Media Histories)
Further exploration
The Community Collections are housed in the Main Reading Room of the Powell Library. Print and online titles are selected by library staff through recommendations and requests from the UCLA community. Curated by the librarians at Powell, the digital exhibition rotates to a new theme quarterly to showcase titles at the UCLA Library and engage our user community.
This exhibition created by Simon Lee (simonlee83@library.ucla.edu) and Ashley Peterson (ashleypeterson@library.ucla.edu). Please contact us with questions, remarks, or collection suggestions!
Thank you to Katherine Kapsidelis, Salma Abumeeiz, and Sylvia Page for their help with this project. <3