Writers of Color 50 Books Challenge

Evidence of Being: The Black, Gay Cultural Renaissance and the Politics of Violence by Darius Bost
An account of Black, gay artistic communities in the 80s and 90s and their activism and art. Introduced me to several writers I hadn't heard of before and made me see the ones I had heard of in their community context. A great counter to often white-specific narratives of AIDS, plus some excellent discussion of how AIDS wasn't the only thing these communities were facing at the time.

Something to Declare by Julia Alvarez
Essays on a variety of subjects including race, family, language, writing, etc. An interesting autobiographical perspective on a writer I've heard about, but whose fiction I haven't actually read. Most of the immigration narratives I've read have been either from earlier or later, whereas Alvarez' family immigrated from the Dominican to the States in 1960, so that was very interesting to me.

Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop by Imani Perry
In depth music criticism of various hip-hop artists. Excellently argued. I don't personally know a lot about music, let alone hip-hop, but she definitely makes the case that hip-hop is as sprawling as any other genre and deserves the same level of critical analysis. I think needing to make that point is slightly dated, but it wasn't as much in 2004, and it's useful to know where to look for a concise expression of her argument.

My Soul Looks Back by Jessica B. Harris
A memoir of (mostly) the author's time on the fringes of the Black artistic circle in NYC that included Baldwin, Angelou, Morrison, etc. in the 70s. A slightly awkward book because the author's primary connection to this circle was as the much younger girlfriend of Samuel Floyd, so her perspective is at once overwhelmed by how cool and famous all these people are, and curiously detached from the actual things going on within that circle except for the surface interactions (i.e. X and Y were besties, Y and Z were frenemies level stuff). It's odd because Harris is a moderately famous food writer in her own right, but the entire arc of her career is narratively subsumed by how excited she is to tell you about the people she knew in the 70s. She appears to go from being a girl with a BA working on the edges of publishing to a writer with many books under her belt without doing much other than hanging around these famous people and I know that's not true, it's just that she elides so much in this book. She does write great descriptions of food, and some of the best parts of the book are about her various culinary triumphs and disasters as she tries to entertain her new friends to the degree she thinks they deserve, but I'm not sure it's worth reading just for that. Also, Floyd may have been artistically and politically important in his own right, but he also sounds like a fucking terrible boyfriend and I'm so over reading about bad heterosexual relationships, especially ones with a significant age gap that the older person seems to have done little to mitigate.

Everything's Trash, But It's Okay by Phoebe Robinson
Humorous essays on every topic that pops into Robinson's head. Whether or not you enjoy this one depends on whether or not you enjoy Robinson's super casual tone and the awkward amount of personal detail she likes to give you. I think she's very funny, but sometimes it was a little too much information about exactly which actors she'd like to bone.

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee
Essays on writing, being Korean-American, trauma, and a bunch of other things. Beautiful lyrical writing that lulls you in and then smacks you in the face with something heavy. On the strength of this collection, I suspect his novels of being amazing and also too dark for me, but I would happily read any further essays he'd like to write.