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It is imperative that we educate and illuminate ourselves to deepen our commitment to justice and equality for Black people and all people of color, and pave the way for radical systemic change. Here is an Antiracist reading list intended to inform and inspire, curated by our booksellers at City Lights.
New at City Lights Bookstore
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For Now
Eileen Myles
In this raucous meditation, Eileen Myles offers an intimate glimpse into creativity's immediacy.
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Just Us
An American Conversation
Claudia Rankine
As everyday white supremacy becomes increasingly vocalized with no clear answers at hand, how best might we approach one another? Claudia Rankine, without telling us what to do, urges us to begin the discussions that might open pathways through this divisive and stuck moment in American history.
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His Truth Marching On
John Lewis and the Power of Hope
Jon Meacham
An intimate and revealing portrait of civil rights icon and longtime U.S. congressman John Lewis, linking his life to the painful quest for justice in America from the 1950s to the present—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Soul of America
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A Girl Is a Body of Water
A Novel
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
International-award-winning author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi's novel is a sweeping and powerful portrait of a young girl and her family: who they are, what history has taken from them, and―most importantly―how they find their way back to each other.
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Out of Mesopotamia
A Novel
Salar Abdoh
Informed by firsthand experience on the battlefronts of Iraq and Syria, Abdoh captures the horror, confusion, and absurdity of combat from a seldom-glimpsed perspective that expands our understanding of the war novel.
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INVENTING LATINOS
A New Story of American Racism
A timely and groundbreaking argument that all Americans must grapple with Latinos' dynamic racial identity—because it impacts everything we think we know about race in America
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Time of the Magicians
Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade That Reinvented Philosophy
Wolfram Eilenberger
A grand narrative of the intertwining lives of Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Ernst Cassirer, major philosophers whose ideas shaped the twentieth century
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Finna
Poems
Nate Marshall
Sharp, lyrical poems celebrating the Black vernacular—its influence on pop culture, its necessity for familial survival, its rite in storytelling and in creating the safety found only within its intimacy
--recommended by Paul
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Caste
The Origins of Our Discontents
Isabel Wilkerson
In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
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New and Forthcoming from City Lights Publishers
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Funeral Diva
Pamela Sneed
A poetic memoir about coming-of-age in the AIDS era, and its effects on life and art. "She is a writer for the future, in that she defies genre."—Hilton Als
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Every Day We Get More Illegal
Juan Felipe Herrera
A State of the Union from the nation's first Latino Poet Laureate. Trenchant, compassionate, and filled with hope.
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A Short History of Presidential Election Crises
(And How to Prevent the Next One)
Alan Hirsch
Will Trump try to delay the November election? Does the Constitution prevent him from doing so? We present an urgent primer on what can be done to combat emerging threats to the core of U.S. Democracy––presidential elections.
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Under the Dome
Walks with Paul Celan
Jean Daive
An arresting memoir of the final years and tragic suicide of one of twentieth-century Europe's greatest poets, published on the centenary of his birth.
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Eat the Mouth That Feeds You
Carribean Fragoza
In gritty, sometimes fantastical stories about Latinx life, women challenge feminine stereotypes and make sense of fractured family histories.
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ReTargeting Iran
David Barsamian
A timely primer on the conflict between the United States and Iran by scholars of Middle Eastern politics who advocate diplomacy and de-escalation.
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ELADATL
A History of the East Los Angeles Dirigible Air Transport Lines
Sesshu Foster
A breathtaking free fall into the long-buried (and fictional) history of a utopian era in American lighter-than-air travel, as told by its death-defying, aero-acrobatic heroes.
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Natch
City Lights Spotlight Series No. 20
Sophia Dahlin
Queer pastoral lyrics take on the romantic sublime in a stunningly assured debut collection.
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Facing You
City Lights Spotlight Series No. 19
Uche Nduka
From acclaimed Nigeria-born, Brooklyn-based poet Uche Nduka, a book of love poems written with compact elegance and vivid eroticism.
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We the Resistance
Documenting a History of Nonviolent Protest in the United States
Michael G. Long
A first-person history of nonviolent resistance in the U.S., from pre-Revolutionary America to the Trump years.
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Have Black Lives Ever Mattered?
Mumia Abu-Jamal
"A must-read for anyone interested in social justice and inequalities, social movements, the criminal justice system, and African American history. An excellent companion to Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow and Ava DuVernay's documentary '13th'."—Library Journal, Starred Review
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No Fascist USA!
The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and Lessons for Today's Movements
Hilary Moore, James Tracy
"Smash fascism! Read this book!"––Tom Morello, songwriter and guitarist with Rage Against the Machine
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The Green New Deal and Beyond
Ending the Climate Emergency While We Still Can
Stan Cox
Honoring the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a clear and urgent call for the national, social, and individual changes required to prevent catastrophic climate change.
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Little Hill
Alli Warren
Despite the dystopian now, Alli Warren finds promise in the smallest human instances of tenderness, ecological connection, and political solidarity. Little Hill is about learning to live and love in the 21st century while not shying away from all there is to struggle against.
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Forgotten Journey
Silvina Ocampo
Delicately crafted, intensely visual, deeply personal stories explore the nature of memory, family ties, and the difficult imbalances of love.
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