King’s has a world-class collection of both printed and electronic material comprising around 900,000 books, more than 60,000 journal titles and nearly 700 databases – and anyone with a King’s ID automatically has a library card which means they can borrow items.
So, this Black History Month, whether interested in enjoying a play, immersing themselves in poetry, revisiting a classic, learning about dance, reading insightful essays, discovering a modern classic, or delving into science fiction, visitors will find something to inspire and engage in the King's Libraries. Here are a few suggestions as a starting point.
History
- The Black Jacobins : Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R. James (1938)
- African Europeans -An Untold History by Olivette Otele (2020)
- Voices from the Harlem Renaissance (1976) by Nathan Irvin Huggins
- The Travels of Ibn Batuta Asia and Africa 1325-1354 by Ibn Batuta
- Black and British – A Forgotten History by David Olusoga
Classics & Modern Classics:
- Invisible Manby Ralph Ellison
- Native Son by Richard Wright
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
- The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola
- Eugene Onegin by Aleksandr Pushkin
- The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
- Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta
- Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon
- If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
- Season of Migration to the North by Salih Al-Tayyib
- Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
- A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
- The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
- Their Eyes were watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
Poetry
- The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes
- Omeros by Derek Walcott
- The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry
- Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde
- And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
- Kumukanda by Kayo Chingonyi
- Propa Propaganda by Benjamin Zephaniah
- Mi Revalueshanry Fren by Linton Kwesi Johnson
- Notebook of a Return to My Native Land by Aimé Cesaire
Drama
- Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy by Lemn Sissay
- Toussaint Louverture : the story of the only successful slave revolt in history : a play in three acts by C.L.R. James
- The Amen Corner by James Baldwin
Memoir and biography
- Ake: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka
- Looking for Lorraine: the radiant and radical life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry
- I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Tales from the Heart: True Stories of My Childhood by Maryse Condé
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X
- Angela Davis – An Autobiography
Award Winners
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- The Famished Road by Ben Okri
- Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman
- Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Science Fiction/Speculative Fiction
- The motion of light in water : sex and science fiction writing in the East Village, 1957-1965 by Samuel Delany
- The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
- Lilith’s Blood by Octavia Butler
Essays/Politics
- Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Dubois
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
- Black Skin White Masks (1952) by Franz Fanon
- Natives by Akala
- New Daughters of Africa by Margaret Busby (ed.)
- Ain’t I a Woman by bell hooks
Film
- Pressure by Horace Ove
- Killer of Sheep by Charles Burnett
- Devil in a Blue Dress by Carl Franklin
- Malcolm X by Spike Lee
- Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 by Göran Olsson
- A Raisin in the Sun by Daniel Petrie
- Daughters of the Dust by Julie Dash
- Watermelon Woman by Cheryl Dunye
- Mo’ Better Blues by Spike Lee
- Bush Mama by Haile Gerima
- Xala by Ousmane Sembène
- Waiting for Happiness by Abderrahmane Sissako
Liberal Arts
- Visual Culture: The Reader Stuart Hall
- Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday by Angela Y. Davis
- Josephine Baker in art and life : the icon and the image by Bennetta Jules-Rosette
- National Rhythms, African Roots: The deep history of Latin American Popular Dance by John C. Chesteen.
- As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution, 1957–1977 by Val Wilmer
Copies of all these works are held in the King's Libraries and Collections.
To find out more about Libraries and Collections, visit their webpage or explore Libby, a digital platform that offers access to the some of the latest popular fiction e-books and audiobooks.