BHM

February, as most of you know (at least I hope so), is Black History Month.

Every year a lot of controversy emerges about Black History Month, mainly about whether it's necessary or not.

• Do we need to be reminded of the history of Black People in North America?
• Doesn't it go against the efforts to properly integrate society?
• Wouldn't it be better for the country's history to not be reminded of this somewhat depressing history? (Although not really that much more depressing than the Aboriginals...)

Some years I see the argument but this year, my first year creating a thought-out display for Black History Month, I'm definitely on the side of the defence.

If you were creating a non-fiction display for Black History Month, what books would you chose to display? What would be the topics?

Here are some examples of books I have found for my display:

Jackie Robinson: biography
Black Like Me
Tant que je serai noire
Louis Armstrong's New Orleans

Do you see a common trend?

They're mostly from the USA.

And I need to insist that being black and growing up in the USA or Canada is different - at least I think it was for me, and I'm mixed race!



(That's me by the way!)

This year for your Black History Month display, try and see what canadian content there is in your library. You might find it hard to do, especially in movies since we haven't really done that much, but believe me that canadian black people will appreciate reading about people who've had experiences similar to theirs, in the same cities, with the same politicians.

Here are some of the titles I know with Canadian topics, maybe you can find some too:

Being Brown
Revival: an anthology of Black Canadian Writing
Drawing down a daughter
That Lonesome road
Beauty & Sadness
Black Loyalists
Black Berry, Sweet Juice

I'll also be trying to create a list in My Vision on this topic... and goodreads could benefit from a little canadian content as well!!

Happy Black History Month!

Ahhh... Twitter!

Twitter! My old friend we meet again!

The most obvious use for twitter I have found is to promote any official blogging or facebooking (is that a word?) that I might do.

Mainly because I don't have a smart phone and thus the ability to tweet or share my thoughts (LIVE... ON THE INTERNET!) right away! I have to go home for that...

And that's ok by me. One day I might consider the expense and necessity of the smart-phone and the instant sharing. But not today...

Themes

Although I know something about blogs, I have never used blog spot before. The main reason for that being that you need to have a google account to do so.

I thought I might take this opportunity to explore how one might discus cool non-fiction ideas for displays!

Some interesting themes I've seen or been inspired by include:

-Women at war (women's place in war times)

-Digging for evidence (archealogy/geology)
-The winter of death (this could involve a whole range of Russian themed books
-etc

The fun part of these displays is to combine the fiction with the non-fiction.

I hope you'll enjoy what I have to present.