Friday Favorites- Honoring Juneteenth

Posted June 19, 2020 by stuckint in Friday Favorites, Reading Challenges / 1 Comment

Hello all! As you hopefully already know, today is Juneteeth, a holiday on which we recognize the official end of slavery in our country. Note that this happened a full two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which is shameful, but par for the course.

Today we wanted to recommend some of our favorite Black Bookstagrammers that we think everyone should follow. There are tons of awesome events being hosted to honor Juneteenth over on Instagram, and we’ve highlighted some of them below as well.

Black Bookstagrammers We Love

Both Haley and I have been doing a LOT of listening and learning over the last few weeks/months, and we have been getting so much great information from Bookstagram! We especially love these five Bookstagrammers, and we KNOW this is leaving out a TON of other great content creators. Let us know who you love in the comments!

  • @thereadingchemist — One awesome thing that is going on over on Instagram today is #BlackStoriesStack, a hashtag that encourages people to share pictures of their stacks of books written by Black authors. That awesome hashtag is being cohosted by Toya from The Reading Chemist, and we LOVE IT. Check out Toya’s feed for amazing book recommendations and pictures that will make you want to buy all the things.
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It’s here!! Happy Juneteenth! ⁣ ⁣ Welcome to the stack challenge hosted by myself and @readingmama_reviews!⁣ ⁣ Today we celebrate the official abolishment of slavery. While US history tends to teach the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 as the end of slavery, but that’s just not true. ⁣ ⁣ Texas, being so far removed from the union, continued slavery until June 19, 1865. So it’s this day in history that is the official end of slavery in the US! While Black people are no longer enslaved, we still have a long way to go with racial equality. ⁣ ⁣ In celebration, we are spreading awareness and uplifting Black stories.⁣ ⁣ Here is my dedicated bookshelf to Black stories. I am always seeking out books by Black authors. It makes me so happy to finally have stories where I’m represented. I hope to have many shelves like this one day.⁣ ⁣ So whether you post one book or one hundred, physical or digital/audio, please join us in this celebration and use the hashtag #BlackStoriesStack. ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ???? ????? ??????? ??? ?? ???? ??????

A post shared by Toya ??‍?? (@thereadingchemist) on

  • @TheStacksPod — We ADORE Traci’s content, both her podcast and Instagram feed and know you will, too. She’s put out TONS of awesome book recommendations over the years, and has especially been doing a lot of labor over the last few months to give amazing book recommendations. We are Patreon subscribers of hers as well, and highly recommend you check out her stuff!
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READ BLACK STORIES • • You’ve been asking, so I finally put together a list of 52 fiction books by Black authors. This stack is just a sampling of all that’s on my list. • • The list has some titles and authors I’m sure you know and some names I hope that are new to you. All the books deal with the experiences of Black people in America or are by Black Americans. Many authors on this list have multiple books and they’re not all on the list, so please keep digging. • • I also hope this list serves as a reminder that Black people are not a monolith. We feel deeply. We write beautifully. We know joy. We know pain. We deserve to live freely and fully. Read our stories not just as a way to remind yourself that our lives matter, but also as a way to see the world more clearly and to experience incredible books. • • Please share your favorite fiction by Black authors. • • You can find my full list in the link in bio. • • Keep Reading. Do the work. #thestacks

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  • @melanatedreader — Crystal is a Ph.D. candidate, teacher, and overall amazing bookstagrammer. Her book recs are always on point, and I personally am a huge fan of her content. She actually is a co-host for a readalong of Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi. I had been a bit intimidated by this big book (my attention span for reading since COVID and BLM and EVERYTHING 2020 has had to bring has been basically nothing), but I’m excited to dig in with a bunch of my Insta-faves. It starts today, so check it out!
  • @diversespines - Created by Jamise Harper (whose personal Instagram @spinesvines is also excellent), this is an online, Instagram-driven diverse-reads bookclub. They have a diverse reads challenge, monthly book-talks, including live-author visits, and stacks on stacks of book pics that always make me excited to dig in. Check her out!
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Happy Friday Eve! Welcome to all of our new followers!! I’m thrilled to have everyone here. This is a community space where you can ???????? ???? ???? ??????? ????! ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ??????? ?????? highlights books by Black Women and Women of Color. Our mission is to amplify marginalized voices. We also highlight YOU when you tag your #diversespines by using our official hashtag. This stack features our past, current and future 2020 reads through the summer:⁣⁣ Jan - #GirlWomanOther⁣⁣ Feb - #TheStreet⁣⁣ Mar - #TheGirlWithTheLoudingVoice⁣⁣ Apr - #ABoundWomanIsADangerousThing⁣⁣ May - #TheMountainsSing⁣⁣ ☀️Summer Reading Series ☀️⁣⁣ Jun - #TheVanishingHalf - IG Live discussion with Brit Bennett on 6/27 3 PM ET⁣⁣ Jul - #Americanah⁣⁣ Aug - #TheseGhostsAreFamily⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ?????? ??? ??? ??:⁣⁣ ✦ Join our monthly read along & #bookchat at the end of the every month. Select the #bookchat highlight wheel to view past discussions.⁣⁣ ✦ Support Independent Bookstores when you shop our bookshop (link in bio above)⁣⁣ ✦ Take the #DiverseSpinesReadingChallenge! Select the challenge highlight wheel. ⁣⁣ ✦ Tell a friend about us!⁣ ⁣✦ FOLLOW the hashtag & TAG your #diversespines!!⁣ ⁣ Welcome to the #DiverseSpinesSquad & let’s diversify your shelves!! ????✨⁣⁣ ???⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ .⁣⁣ #blackstorieshavepower #readwithdiversespines #bookstack #bookspines #readmorewomen

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  • @bowtiesandbooks - One of our favorite LGBT Black Bookstagrammers, Jesse posts the most GORGEOUS photos, very often pairing a book pic and review with a freaking gorgeous complementary outfit. I’m such a fan. PLUS! Starting today, they are one of the hosts of a Queer-Black-Authors readathon in honor of Tony McDade and in honor of Pride Month. Haley and I are participating and hope you do, too!
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?️‍?✊? i was horrified by the recent murder of Tony McDade and in honor of his life, of black Lgbtq pride: myself @myonnareads @francinasimone and @thenovellush will be hosting a 48 hour rush to read as many black queer books as we can! But, feel free to just read at your own pace. It’s not a competition. (Quality over quantity) . . ?️‍?✊? You probably know I’m part of the LGBTQ community. I’m queer, Ace, AND non-binary, which is part of the transgender community. Basically, I don’t identify as a woman: identifying as gender neutral instead has always felt like home. Too many black queers are marginalized and erased in queer spaces and queer conversations. Queer justice rarely includes us despite that we are the most at risk for LGBTQ related hate crimes. Most of transgender women murdered in the USA have been black. A man once told me to kill myself when I told him I was non-binary. Black queer, especially black trans lives are special. And our BOOKS are special. There would be NO Pride without black queer revolutionaries and if your conversations about Black Lives Matter do NOT include black queer and TRANS lives, then you are NOT fighting for ALL black lives. . . ?️‍?✊? I will have a short recommendations video going up on my channel tomorrow to give you reading recommendations for the 48 hour blackathon! Use the hashtag #queerblackathon so we can see and share your posts. I’ll also be uploading a reading vlog for my ?️‍?Blackathon reads! Link to my YT is in the bio! . . ?️‍?finally, I’ve been so excited all year for pride month. But when June rolled around, I found myself not being able to celebrate my queerness and having to fight for my life instead. Reminder to nonblack queer ppl: black queers being forced to protest instead of getting to celebrate our queer identity is violence. This mini-blackathon is just as much about us as black queers celebrating our queer pride as it is us protesting the murder of Tony McDade. So excited to celebrate my pride w some black lgbt books! What queer black books will you be reading?

A post shared by Bowties & Books (@bowtiesandbooks) on

Books to Read

Clearly this is a book blog, so you didn’t think we were going to leave you without books to read, did you?! We have made a few posts on this topic before, so you can start with any of these, or check out any of the above Bookstagrammers for all the recs you could ever want/need! There is an event going on today to post some #BlackStoriesStacks in honor of Juneteenth, so there are just countless recommendations out there.

What About You?

How are you honoring Juneteenth today? Reading anything great? Searching for more awesome content creators to follow? Tell us everything we missed — we can’t wait to hear from you!

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