Books, Articles, Films, & Shows by Black and Black Queer Folks

* indicates that the book or movie is not free. I have linked these to the book’s original publisher; however, consider buying from the list of Black-owned bookstores included at the bottom of this guide.

Books and Essays by Black and Queer Authors and Scholars

• Audre Lorde:

  • Sister Outsider — a book of essays and speeches

    • Key chapters:

      • The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House

      • Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference

      • The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action

      • Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power

  • Zami: A New Spelling of My Name — Lorde’s autobiography as a Black lesbian

• James Baldwin

  • The Fire Next Time — book of two essays

  • Notes of a Native Son — book of essays

  • Giovanni’s Room — gay novel, can be conflated to intersection of race + sexuality

  • How to Cool It — a 1968 Esquire interview

• bell hooks

  • Feminism is for Everybody — a collection of political essays

  • Black Looks: Race and Representation — a collection of essays on Black representation

    • Key chapters:

      • Eating the Other

      • Selling Hot Pussy

      • Reconstructing Black Masculinity

• Nikki Giovanni 

  • Black feeling, Black talk, Black judgement

• Barbara Smith

  • Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology

• Alice Walker

  • The Color Purple — Black lesbian novel

• Randall Kenan

  • A Visitation of Spirits* — Magic realist novel on being Black and gay in a southern community

• Roxane Gay

  • Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body* — a memoir of body, sexuality, and race

  • Bad Feminist: Essays* —  a collection of political essays

• Danez Smith

  • Don’t Call Us Dead: Poems* — collection of poems on institutional racism, black queer sexuality, HIV/AIDS, and more

• Lorraine Hansbery

  • A Raisin in the Sun — a play about a Black family’s experiences in south Chicago

• Staceyann Chin

  • The Other Side of Paradise* — a lesbian memoir

• Saeed Jones

  • How We Fight for Our Lives* — a gay, coming-of-age memoir

• Janet Mock

  • Redefining Realness* — a trans memoir

• Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology — collection of essays on the emergence of black queer studies

  • Key chapters:

    • Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?, by Cathy J. Cohen

    • Race-ing Homonormativity: Citizenship, Sociology, and Gay Identity, by Roderick A. Ferguson

    • Beyond the Closet as Raceless Paradigm, by Marlon B. Ross

    • “Joining the Lesbians”: Cinematic Regimes of Black Lesbian Visibility, by Kara Keeling

    • But Some of Us are Brave Lesbians: The Absence of Black Lesbian Fiction, by Jewelle Gomez

Black Queer Films, Documentaries, and Series by Black Filmmakers

• Black is… Black Ain’t — a Marlon Riggs documentary about intersection of Blackness, queerness, and HIV/AIDS; watch on Kanopy (university login) or rent on Vimeo*

• Tongues Untied — a Marlon Riggs documentary about marginalization of Black gay men; watch on Kanopy (university login) or rent on Vimeo*

• I Am Not Your Negro* — a documentary on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript Remember This House

• Pariah* — a lesbian coming-of-age film by Dee Rees

• Rafiki* — a lesbian film by Wanuri Kahiu that takes place in Kenya

• Bessie — a film about Bessie Smith by Dee Rees

• The Watermelon Woman — a lesbian film by Cheryl Dunye

• Moonlight — a gay film by Barry Jenkins

• Dear White People — a 2014 film (linked here*) and current TV series (linked here) centering a Black community in a prestigious university; the series features two Black and queer characters

Other Essential Resources to Read and Watch to Get Educated

• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander — a must read on institutional racism and mass incarceration

• 13th by Ava Duvernay — a must watch on institutional racism and mass incarceration

• Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins — collection of political and feminist essays

• Making All Black Lives Matter* by Barbara Ransby — a book on the BLM movement and its connection to Black feminist ideology, both accessible and thorough

• Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis — collection of essays on intersection of race with the women’s liberation movement

• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison — a must read novel on a Black girl’s life in Ohio

• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates — a non-fiction book on contemporary American racism

• Citizen* by Claudia Rankine — a book-length poem on racial microaggressions and language

• The Hate U Give — young adult novel by Angie Thomas inspired by the police shooting of Oscar Grant; 2018 film by George Tillman Jr. 

• How to Be an Antiracist* by Ibram X. Kendi — non-fiction novel on how to be actively anti-racist

• How We Get Free by Keenga-Yamahtta Taylor, a text on Black Feminism & the Combahee River Collective

Black-owned Bookstores to Buy From

Sourced from this Instagram post and this Instagram post

• Semicolon (Chicago, IL)

• Lushena Books (Chicago, IL)

• Brain Lair Books (South Bend, IN)

• Afriware Books (Maywood, IL)

• Detroit Book City (Detroit, MI)

• Source Booksellers (Detroit, MI)

• Mahogany Books (Washington, DC)

• Loyalty Bookstore (Washington, DC and Silver Spring, MD)

• Everyone’s Place (Baltimore, MD)

• Harambee Books and Artworks (Alexandria, VA)

• Uncle Bobbies (Philadelphia, PA)

• Hakim’s Bookstore (Philadelphia, PA)

• Harriett’s Bookshop (Philadelphia, PA)

• The Black Reserve Bookstore (Lansdale, PA)

• Eso Won Books (Los Angeles, CA)

• The Lit Bar (Bronx, NY)

• Cafe con Libros (Brooklyn, NY)

• Revolution Books (New York, NY)

• Sisters Uptown Bookstore (New York, NY)

• Frugal Bookstore (Roxbury, MA)

• Underground Books (Carrollton, GA)

• Medu Bookstore (Atlanta, GA)

• For Keeps (Atlanta GA)

• Turning Page Bookshop (Goose Greek, SC)

• Dare Books (Longwood, FL)

• Willa’s Books (Kansas City, MO)

• MeJah Books and Crafts (Claymont, DE)

• Smith and Hannon Bookstore (Cincinnati, OH)

• Mocha Books (Tulsa, OK)

• The Dock Bookshop (Fort Worth, TX)