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Black History Month is almost over, but that doesn't mean that anyone should stop learning about black history or what it means to be black in America. 

Prior to the start of Black History Month, I saw a meme on Facebook asking who was the reader's favorite black author, their favorite black filmmaker, poet, etc. and I realized how few of these answers had more than two people for me to choose from. Some of the categories only had one person for me to pick.

It also got me to realize that I often don't think too hard about who the author is of my favorite stories. Well, unless it's J K Rowling, Stephen King, or (ugh) Nicholas Sparks.

So I started going over the books I was hoping to read over the coming year. There are a lot, but that's beside the point. What I noticed is that, even thought here were a wide variety of books by genre (fantasy, classic, business, etc.) the author's I was picking up weren't the most diverse group of people. The authors were primarily white men.

Back in high school, I'd read a lot of great books by a wide variety of authors. I especially loved Chronicles of a Death Foretold  by Gabriel García Márquez, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet by Vikram Seth (I think I was the only one who liked this last one in my class, but I could be wrong).

So why wasn't I doing the same as an adult?

Heck, I love science fiction and I hadn't even read Octavia Butler (I know, take my science fiction fan membership away now).

For Black History month, I celebrated by reading and supporting black authors. I picked up a collection and of poetry by Morgan Parker. I found her poetry to be raw and incredibly emotional. I just started For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf a choreopoem by Ntozake Shange and have Don't Call us Dead a poetry collection by Danez Smith for right after.

Seriously read this amazing book.

I also picked up Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone. If you love fantasy, were a fan of Avatar the Last Airbender, or just need an all around amazing book, this is for you. I can barely put it down. When the TV show and/or movie is made, they had better give it the Harry Potter or Game of Thrones treatment. I've heard that there rumors that Rick Famuyiwa has been hired to direct.

Even more exciting, the sequel, Children of Virtue and Vengeance is coming out in June! Yes!

Until next week.

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