news | Saturday February 8, 2025

Black History and Black Futures Month

February is Black History and Black Futures Month! To mark the occasion, we want to suggest some outstanding titles by Black authors to add to your to-be-read pile. Whether it’s a new release, a classic from the vault, or a soon-to-land title, we’re excited to spotlight these remarkable talents.

First up is Redbone Coonhound by Amy Lee Lavoie and Omari Newton. This scorching satire published in 2024 won six METAs (Montréal English Theatre Awards) and was named one of the Toronto Star’s “Ten Best Theatre Shows in 2023.” Out for a walk in their Vancouver neighbourhood, interracial couple Mike and Marissa meet a dog with an unfortunate breed name: Redbone coonhound. This detail unleashes a cascading debate between them about race and their relationship that manifests as a series of micro-plays, each satirizing contemporary perspectives on modern culture. Through hard-hitting comedic elements, Redbone Coonhound explores the intricacies of race, systemic power, and privilege in remarkable and surprising ways.

Here’s an excerpt from the play:

“MIKE: …“Redbone coonhound.” Really? Looking me straight in the
eyes when they said it, too … Like, really? Really?

MARISSA: Should they have not looked at you when they said it?
I think that would have been weird.

MIKE: They shouldn’t have said it at all.

MARISSA: Well, you did ask them. And it’s not like they came up
with it. They’re not nineteenth-century Quaker folk.

MIKE: They chose it.

MARISSA: If a Dalmatian was called a honky cracker, I’d
still want one.

MIKE: Disney would not have made One Hundred and One Honky Crackers.”

Pick up your copy of Redbone Coonhound here.

Have you read Je me souviens by the late, great Lorena Gale? A finalist for the 2002 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, Je me souviens is a striking dramatic monologue that reconstructs the author’s childhood in Montréal. Her autobiographical protagonist is unabashedly one of those spoil-sport “ethniques” who, for political factions led by the likes of Parizeau, undermined and destroyed the separatist “pur-laine” vision of a new Quebec nation, sparkling and clean in its coat of only three colours—the seamless snow-white of the landscape, the royal blue of the sky, and the golden yellow of the sun (king), all allusions to the symbology of the imperialists who founded this “new nation,” this “new France.”

An excerpt from Je me souviens:

“Don’t talk back.
Don’t raise your voice.
Don’t wear loud colours.
Don’t do anything to draw attention to yourself.
Smile even when it hurts.
Just try to fit in.
And don’t rock the boat.
If anyone stops to speak to you, answer them politely and only if you have to. Otherwise
keep on moving.
Walk like you know where you’re going.
Keep focused on what’s ahead of you.
If you run into some commotion, don’t stand
around gawking.
Don’t try to help.
Just keep on moving.
If it looks like trouble is coming towards you,
then cross the street.
If it looks like trouble is sneaking up behind
you, then run.”

Order your copy of Je me souviens here.

Coming this spring is allostatic load, the much-anticipated second poetry collection by Junie Désil. allostatic load navigates the racialized interplay of chronic wear and tear during tumultuous years marked by global racial tensions, an ongoing pandemic, the commodification of care, and the burden of systemic injustice. Moving between diaristic intimacy and the remove of news reportage, this collection invites readers to hold the vulnerability and resilience required to navigate deep healing in a world that does not wish you well, in a world that is inflamed and consequently inflames us, in a world where true restoration and health must co-occur with the planet and with each other. Watch this space for more news, and pre-order your copy here.

Also forthcoming is a brand new poetry collection by the University of California Berkeley’s current Holloway Lecturer in the Practice of Poetry, Cecily Nicholson! Crowd Source parallels the daily migration of the crows who, aside from fledgling season, fly across metro Vancouver every day at dawn and dusk. This durational study echoes their flight, occasionally touching down to reflect on human-crow interactions. Continuing Nicholson’s engagement with the contemporary climate crisis, social movements, and Black diasporic relations, this is a text for all concerned about practising ecological futurities befitting corvid sensibilities, caw. Pre-order a copy of Crowd Source here.

We hope your Black History and Black Futures Month is full of the kind of books that stick with you long after you’ve finished reading them. Good reading, all!