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  • General Recommendations
  • Staff-Created List

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!

User from 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
    Book, 2016New 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
    Book, 2023Minneapolis : Lerner Publications, 2023. — J 780.8996 SMITH
  • Painting the Streets

    Oakland Uprising in the Time of Rebellion

    "Spray Painting Oakland" by Kiara Hunter
    Book, 2022Oakland, 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
    Book, 2022Woodbridge, UK : ACC Art Books Ltd, [2022] — 779.24 SHAMES
  • "Blooming Knowledge" by Carmen Lieu
    Book, 1970New York : Random House [1970, c1969] — BIO ANGELOU
  • "Blooming Knowledge" by Carmen Lieu
    Book, 2003Boston : Beacon Press, 2003. — SF BUTLER
  • "Blooming Knowledge" by Carmen Lieu
    Book, 2017New 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
    Book, 2007New York, NY : Rizzoli, c2007. — 741.67 BLACK
  • Sister Outsider

    Essays and Speeches

    Lorde, Audre
    "The Transformation of Silence into Language" by Ajuan Mance
    Book, 2007Berkeley, 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
    Book, 2020Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, [2020] — 306.48424 POPE
  • "Hip Hop 50th Anniversary" by Shomari Smith
    Book, 2021New York : Wednesday Books, 2021. — YA 306.48424 CHANG
  • "Hip Hop 50th Anniversary" by Shomari Smith
    Music CD, 2020Washington, DC : National Museum of African American History and Culture ; Smithsonian Folkways, [2020] — CD RAP SMITHSONI