In celebration of Black History Month, we’ll be highlighting a diverse range of books – poetry, novels, memoirs and more – all written by Black American authors. Each of these works moved, engaged, delighted, enraged, and excited Island Free Library readers’ this past year, and we’ll be featuring one title every day through the month of February.
Today’s work is Aja Monet’s My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter, a revelatory and textured collection of poems that celebrate motherhood, Black girlhood, freedom, and “daughters of a new day.” Monet is a writer, activist and lyricist whose first full-length book of poems (mentioned above) was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. She is currently writing a work of science fiction and living in Paris. Stay tuned for a new book tomorrow!