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Limited-Edition Library Card Reading List

In celebration of Library Card Sign-up Month, we've put together these book recommendations based on the themes of the each new library card created from the 2023 library card art contest. The contest was inspired by the 2024 Black History Month theme of African Americans and the arts. It honors Black art and artists in and from Oakland as well as the influence of Black art on the cultural landscape of our city. Check these books out using your new limited-edition library card!

Oakland Public Library

13 items

  • Radiant Child

    the Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

    Steptoe, Javaka, 1971-
    "We Are All Rulers of Our Artistic Journey" by Carlo Barravino
    BookNew York ; Boston : Little, Brown and Company, 2016. — J BIO BASQUIAT
  • Black Achievements in Music

    Celebrating Louis Armstrong, Beyoncé, and More

    Smith, Elliott, 1976-
    "African American Musicians" by Lucas Oda
    BookMinneapolis : Lerner Publications, 2023. — J 780.8996 SMITH
  • Painting the Streets

    Oakland Uprising in the Time of Rebellion

    "Spray Painting Oakland" by Kiara Hunter
    BookOakland, Calif. : Nomadic Press, 2022. — 751.73097 PAINTING
  • Comrade Sisters

    Women of the Black Panther Party

    Shames, Stephen,
    "Women of the Black Panther Party" by Cora Vera Kieth
    BookWoodbridge, UK : ACC Art Books Ltd, [2022] — 779.24 SHAMES
  • "Blooming Knowledge" by Carmen Lieu
    BookBoston : Beacon Press, 2003. — SF BUTLER
  • "Blooming Knowledge" by Carmen Lieu
    BookNew York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2017] — YA FIC THOMAS
  • Black Panther

    the Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas

    "Emory Douglas: The Black Panther Minister of Culture" by Kelly To
    BookNew York, NY : Rizzoli, c2007. — 741.67 BLACK
  • Sister Outsider

    Essays and Speeches

    Lorde, Audre
    "The Transformation of Silence into Language" by Ajuan Mance
    BookBerkeley, Calif. : Crossing Press, 2007. — 814.54 LORDE 2007
  • Rap and Politics

    a Case Study of Panther, Gangster, and Hyphy Discourses in Oakland, CA (1965-2010)

    Pope, Lavar,
    "Hip Hop 50th Anniversary" by Shomari Smith
    BookBasingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, [2020] — 306.48424 POPE
  • "Hip Hop 50th Anniversary" by Shomari Smith
    BookNew York : Wednesday Books, 2021. — YA 306.48424 CHANG
  • "Hip Hop 50th Anniversary" by Shomari Smith
    Music CDWashington, DC : National Museum of African American History and Culture ; Smithsonian Folkways, [2020] — CD RAP SMITHSONI