1. Angelou, Maya.
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water “fore I Diie
. New York, N.Y. Random House. 1971. This collection of Ms. Angelou’s poetry is divided into two (2) sections: Part I labeled “Where Love Is a Screaming Anguish” contains “poems of love and nostalgic memory”. The second section “Just Before the World Ends” depicts “confrontations inherent in a racial society—some scathing and even bitter in their language, some sardonic or satiric.
2. Brant, Beth, ed.
A Gathering of Spirits: Writing and Art of North American Indian Women
. Sinister Wisdom Books. 1984. Collection of writing and art by North American Indian Women who “were dark seers of the future. . .who do not allow anyone to speak for [them] but [them]”.
3. Boyd, Herb & Robert L. Allen, eds.
Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America
. New York, N.Y. Ballantine Books. 1995. “Brotherman! is a special greeting among Black men. With that single word a bloodline is invoked, a gender proclaimed. It is a verbal handshake, a shared mantra that expresses much more than a mere hello. . . It proclaims: Our bloodlines and soulforce are the same and we have a common fate—what happens to one happens to all. . . More than a charting of the Black man’s travails and triumphs . . .the central purpose of this collection is to create a living mosaic of essays and stories in which Black men an view themselves, and be viewed without distortion.”
4. Cisneros, Sandra.
The House on Mango Street
. New York, N.Y. Vintage Books. 1984. The story of Esperanza Cordero, a young girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago, told through a series of vignettes.
5. Giovanni, Nikki.
Grand Mothers
. New York, N.Y. Holt Publishing. 1994. A collage of short stories and poems by various writers both renown (i.e. Zora Neale Hurston, Gwendolyn Brooks and Gloria Naylor) and new (Ethel Morgan Smith, Susan Power and Yolande Giovanni) about their grandmothers. The book is edited by Nikki Giovanni who says of it: “this isn’t a balanced book nor a sociological book nor a look at grandmothers through the ages. It is just a book that makes me miss the one person I know for sure whose love I did not have to earn.”
6. Giovanni, Nikki.
The Women and The Men
. New York, N.Y. William Morrow & Co, Inc. 1975. The third book of poems by Nikki Giovanni. It covers a large period in her life and contains work that “is sometimes gentle, some times angry. . . always moving.”
7. Goings, Russell L. Jr. & Evelyn N Boulware Executive Producers Griots of Imagery: A Comment on the Art of Romare Bearden and Charles White. New York, N.Y. Praise Song on a Shoe String, Inc. 1993. 27 min. Videotape. Based on the 1993 exhibition of the art of Charles White and Romare Bearden at the Manhattan East Gallery in New York City, Julia Hotton, Director.
8. Gonzalez, Ray, ed.
Currents from the Dancing River: Contemporary Latino Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry
. New York, N.Y. Harcourt Brace & Co. 1994. Contains the work of some outstanding Latino writers living in the U.S. As a contemporary anthology it represents some of the “most vibrant cultures in the emergence of multicultural literature. . . Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans.
9. Sims, Lowery Stokes.
Romare Bearden
. New York, N.Y. Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. 1993. “This edition of the Rizzoli Art series celebrates Bearden’s elevation of traditional African-American themes to the inspiring levels of the great masters.”
10. Wilentz, Ted Tom Weatherly, eds.
Natural Process: An Anthology of New Black Poetry
. New York, N.Y. Hill and Wang. 1970. “Black poetry today has it’s own quality, which is distinct . . . .There are differences in the themes, attitudes, and in the language used by young Black poets. This anthology introduces some of these new poets and shows the energy and talent that is flourishing among Blacks.”