If you want an opportunity to learn more about African-American culture, the African-American read-in is a chance to do that. It's a gathering to read and discuss books centered on Black authors and stories together.
"Participating in the African American Read-In gives me joy," said Tonya Perry, President of the National Council of Teachers of English. "Being able to share in the culture with other people who are like me, and people who are not, who come from different backgrounds."
In 1990, the National Council of Teachers of English started the National African American Read-In, with the goal of making literacy a significant part of Black History Month.
"We share together in the reading of the literature, the talking and discussion about the literature, and everyone brought to the table their own experience, and their own ability to understand and ask questions."
People recently noticed that Google amended its calendar to remove Black History Month in the middle of last year, along with celebrations like Pride Month and Indigenous People Month. Multiple federal agencies have stopped observing the celebration of Black History Month, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth following Trump's executive orders targeting DEI. The Department of Defense issued a memo titled "Identity Months Dead at DoD". There is a growing push to not celebrate or recognize the holidays set aside to celebrate the diversity and contributions of Black Americans.
"Even though I think there are pressures out there to erase or maybe lessen the importance of African-American regions or specialties, I think that it's important that we keep it the forefront, that it is our differences that make us so strong and that we must celebrate each other and what we all bring," said Tonya Perry, President of the National Council of Teachers of English.
AUTHORS ON READ-INS
As a college professor, award-winning children's book author Carole Boston Weatherford has her students participate in a service project where they go into the community or read books virtually as part of the African American read-in. She also sees the impact read-ins have on children. "Children gravitate towards books where characters look like them and are touched by books where the characters look like them," said Weatherford. "All children deserve to see themselves in books … seeing yourself in a book makes you want to read more."
PEN America is a writer advocacy group that tracks book bans across the United States. They say of the most commonly banned books in the 2023-2024 school year, 44% featured people and characters of color and 39% featured LGBTQ+ people and characters.
Weatherford said that at a time when efforts proliferate to ban Black books and bar Black history, grassroots initiatives like the African American read-in are needed now more than ever.
"Knowing your history is valuable, it's powerful. You can't take it to the bank, but you can't lose it in the stock market either. Once you know it, no one can ever take it away from you," said Weatherford.
Weatherford said she has written multiple books on Black history that have been banned or challenged throughout her career. One was "Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane," a children's book showing the childhood of the jazz legend. Another was her book "Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre," which won the Coretta Scott King Book Award.
Author Jacqueline Woodson told NPR her books have also been challenged and banned, including her book Brown Girl Dreaming, which won a National Book Award. She agrees with Weatherford that African American read-ins have more importance than ever.
"I think the attempted erasure of Black history and so many histories in this country is of course intentional," said Woodson. "Because if we don't know where we come from, we won't know where we're going. And we won't know how to not repeat the mistakes of the past."
Nationwide participation in African American read-in events has grown in the past few years, according to the National Council of Teachers of English. They told NPR that since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the expansion of virtual events has helped the initiative reach even more classrooms and communities. NCTE said the read-ins reach hundreds of thousands of students, educators, and community members annually.
"I know that no one can steal our stories. Trying to take our stories is not going to be the way to silence us, because it's just impossible. If we're not writing the stories down, we're going to be telling the stories. If we're not telling the stories, we're going to be singing the stories. We're going to be dancing the stories," said Woodson.
AUTHOR RECOMMENDATIONS
Jacqueline Woodson recommendations: "Anything by Kaitlyn Greenidge. Anything by Brit Bennett. I love the work of Nikki Giovanni and Nikky Finney. Honorée Jeffers. There are so many great writers that are telling stories that are really speaking to this moment, and speaking to history, and speaking to our individual lives."
Carole Boston Weatherford recommendations: "I'm going to go back to a writer that I enjoyed quite a bit in elementary school, and that was Langston Hughes, the poetry of Langston Hughes. And there is a children's poetry collection by Langston Hughes. "I'm the young people's poet laureate, so I'm going to recommend some names of Black poets: Nikki Grimes, Elizabeth Acevedo, Jason Reynolds, Lesa Cline-Ransome, Charles R. Smith Jr. Those are just a few."
The National Council of Teachers of English also has a list of recommended books on their website.
Ally Schweitzer edited the audio version of the story. Majd Al-Waheidi edited the digital version of the story.
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