ICYMI: The Last Week in Black Writing and Culture (6/10-6/16)

W. Camau Bell spoke on reading about Muhammad Ali in order to come to terms with his own blackness, as well as ending racism.

Rafia Zakari of The Guardian asked, "Is Gone with the Wind's nostalgia for slavery acceptable?" Zakari draws on an essay by New Yorker critic Hilton Als: "How must a woman who longs for a world of slavery be evaluated? It is not a question that bothers most readers. But it is in the details of cultural relics like Gone With the Wind, preserved here in the name of nostalgia, that the nubs and seeds of a resilient bigotry pass

from one era into another."

On September 24, President Obama will cut the ribbon for the opening of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

David Hajdu of The Nation reviewed James McBride's newest book on James brown, Kill 'Em and Leave. Hajdu praises McBride's break from oral history and conventional biographical nonfiction. He writes that McBride "is generally more concerned with the literary force of his writing than he is with the exactness of its details...When McBride breaks away from oral history and takes off on one of his writerly flights, the book is a joy."

Book Riot has created a list of 15 new books by black authors to read this summer.

Juneteenth is only a few days away! Read up on the history of Juneteenth.