Black History Month 2025

WPL Resources

Black History Month Reading list - A selection of fiction and nonfiction titles highlighting Black authors and books on Black history.

Black Women Poets - A collection of classic and contemporary poetry by Black women poets.

How to Be an Antiracist Booklist - Titles to help you understand and respond to racism.

Cookbooks & Cooking Memoirs for Black History Month - A selection of cookbooks written by Black authors to celebrate their culinary heritage.

Langston Hughes: Poet of the Harlem Renaissance - Read about one of the most talented and prolific writers to emerge during the Harlem Renaissance.

Mysteries and Crime Fiction by Black Authors - A selection of Black-authored mystery novels featuring Black detectives, private investigators, and amateur sleuths.

Sci Fi & Fantasy by Black Authors - Want to read more Black authors but don't know where to start? Check out these recent sci fi & fantasy reads.

Worcester Public Library Events

True Crime Book Club: A Devil Went Down to Georgia by Deb Miller Landau

Virtual Program, Wednesday, February 5, 7 - 8 pm

Registration required

Get Up, Stand Up

Worcester Public Library, Thursday, February 6, 6:30 - 9:30 pm

Join us in celebrating one of Jamaica's finest - Robert Nesta Marley for his 80th birthday. This is an all ages celebration of Bob's music and message with vendors, art, local performances, and more!

Presented by Ourstory Edutainment & The Village Worcester

National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day hosted by AIDS Project Worcester: Understanding Intersectionality & Inclusivity Within The Black Community 

Saxe Room, Worcester Public Library, Friday, February 7, 11 am - 2 pm

This event is free and open to all. Food will be provided. HIV resources will be available. 

Each year, AIDS Project Worcester hosts National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day to raise awareness and highlight the disproportionate impact of HIV in the Black communities, to increase access to HIV education, prevention, testing and treatment, to mobilize community involvement and to combat HIV, recommit to sharpen efforts to focus on research, highlight the progress made from then (40 years ago) and now, consider challenges around prevention of HIV transmission among Black people and to promote prevention, screening, testing, and treatment for individuals living with HIV and for those at risk for HIV. 

Worcester History Deep Dive: 290 and Laurel/Clayton

Banx Room, Worcester Public Library. Saturday, February 22, 4:15 - 5:15 pm

The destruction of the Laurel/Clayton neighborhood in the name of "urban renewal" was a major and traumatic milestone in the history of the city. Join Local History librarian Alex as we trace the history of both Laurel/Clayton and its dissolution as well as the major players in what happened.

Popular Fiction Book Club: Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

First Floor Meeting Room, Worcester Public Library, Wednesday, February 26, 7 - 8 pm

Registration required

Book displays throughout the Main Library:

1st Floor

Fiction by Black Authors

2nd Floor

Notable Black American Biographies 

Cookbooks by Black Authors 

The Fight for Civil Rights

3rd Floor

Black Artists

Honoring Black Veterans in American History

Book Display at the Worcester Senior Center:

Throughout the month of February, WPL will host a Black History book display at the Worcester Senior Center. These books are not part of our collection and are yours to keep — they do not need to be returned to the library. A special thanks to the Friends of the Worcester Public Library for their generous donation of these books.

Worcester Community Events

Opening Reception: "I've Known Rivers: African Americans and Labor" Exhibit, 2/1-2/28

Saturday, February 1, 4 - 6pm

Worcester Center for Crafts, Krikorian Gallery 25 Sagamore Road, Worcester, MA

The Worcester Black History Project and the Black Arts Collective of New England in collaboration with the Worcester Center for Crafts explore the history, resilience, and contributions of African American labor through diverse artistic expressions.

Courage to Dream: A Black History Month Celebration

Saturday, February 8, 5:30 - 9:00 pm

Mechanics Hall, 321 Main St, Worcester, MA 

“Courage to Dream” will tell the courageous faith stories of Black and Brown immigrants who have journeyed to Worcester County in search of a better life. Through performances by local artists, actors, choirs, and culinary creatives, we will celebrate their resilience and contributions.

Black History Month Celebration: A Day of Frederick Douglass

Thursday, February 13, 12 - 2 pm

Major Taylor Museum, 2 Main Street Worcester, MA 

This in-person event will feature engaging presentations, interactive activities, and discussions about the impact of Douglass's work on American history. Come celebrate and learn about this influential figure in the fight for equality and justice. Don't miss out on this opportunity to commemorate **Black History Month** in a meaningful way. We look forward to seeing you there!

Layon Gray’s Black Angels Over Tuskegee

Wednesday, February 26, 7 - 9 pm

The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, 2 Southbridge St., Worcester, MA 

Black Angels Over Tuskegee is an incredibly energetic and emotionally gripping drama that documents the journey of six brave men who defied all odds to succeed. The play follows the struggles of the first African American aviators in the US Army Air Forces, also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, as they fought against injustices during the Jim Crow era. With determination, patriotism and brotherhood, they pushed towards their dreams of a fair and inclusive society.

This event is FREE to the public. RSVP’s requested.

Learn More

National Museum of African American History & Culture: African Americans and the Arts

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)  is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by an Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans, throughout the year. The museum’s Black History Month online resources are available to explore, including a dedicated Black History Month webpage. 

Black History Month

The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.

Kanopy

Kanopy is a dedicated video streaming service featuring movies from a wide variety of genres, including independent and world cinema, documentaries, instructional films and TV series. Over 30,000 films without advertisements plus selected content from prominent producers such as Criterion Collection, Great Courses, BBC and PBS are all conveniently available in one place.

Kanopy is brought to you by the Worcester Public Library and is easily accessible via free apps on TV, phone, tablet, and computer. Check out is through a ticket system and each WPL cardholder receives 9 tickets per month for viewing. Tickets do not carry over from month to month. Most titles cost 2 tickets while major studio titles might cost 4 tickets. Tickets for titles published as series, including Great Courses, vary based on total running time. 

Many titles considered as ticket-free are also available and these are labeled as 0 tickets. Users can conveniently view the number of tickets required for a specific title, and the duration of their access on the title's details page before hitting the play button. 

There is a separate section for kids on the site called Kanopy Kids. Unlike adults, no tickets are required and the entire content is available for unlimited viewing. Geared to be both educational and entertaining, this curated collection is for kids aged 2-8. Only age-appropriate content is visible while you are here and parental controls can be set up to ensure kids safely stay in this section. A WPL card is required to access both the adults and kids sections of Kanopy.

New Releases - January Edition

Check out these highly anticipated new releases featuring fiction and nonfiction titles. Click on the title to request a copy or get your name on the waitlist. Don’t forget to watch for more featured releases next month!

FICTION

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall.  This captivating postapocalyptic novel is set in and around New York City's American Museum of Natural History. Global warming has resulted in a sea level rise of unforeseen proportions. When the floodgates that keep the city dry are breached during a massive hurricane, the museum is inundated with water. The story is told from the perspective of Nonie, an adolescent insect enthusiast and the child of museum staffers who have taken flood refuge at their workplace. . . The survivors flee the museum using a birchbark canoe taken from one of the exhibits and carefully make their way through the flooded city to the Hudson River. They then face a series of challenges and nearly lose everything before overcoming adversity in an epic finale. Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

Homeseeking by Karissa Chen. In this sweeping and heart-rending debut, Chen brings to life more than 60 years of Chinese history through the tale of childhood sweethearts separated by war and reunited decades later in America. . . In the historical timeline, Haiwen enlists in the Nationalist army in a misguided effort to help his family, a decision that will tragically reverberate through succeeding generations. Suchi, meanwhile, is sent to Hong Kong with her older sister to escape the war. Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.

Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson. The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake, a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick. When ten-year-old Ebby Freeman heard the gunshot, time stopped. And when she saw her brother, Baz, lying on the floor surrounded by the shattered pieces of a centuries-old jar, life as Ebby knew it shattered as well. The crime was never solved—and because the Freemans were one of the only Black families in a particularly well-to-do enclave of New England—the case has had an enduring, voyeuristic pull for the public. . . In this sweeping, evocative novel, Charmaine Wilkerson brings to life a multi-generational epic that examines how the past informs our present. - from the publisher.

NONFICTION

The Survivor: How I Made It Through Six Concentration Camps and Became a Nazi Hunter by Josef Lewkowicz and Michael Calvin.  Lewkowicz, a survivor of six concentration camps during the Holocaust, later became a Nazi hunter who captured SS commander Amon Goeth (a key figure in Schindler's List). Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

You'll Never Believe Me: A Life of Lies, Second Tries, and Things I Should Only Tell My Therapist by Kari Ferrell.  Ferrell debuts with a raw and riveting account of how she became infamous for scamming New York City’s hipsters… The New YorkObserver nicknamed Ferrell “the Hipster Grifter,” and, while serving nearly a year in jail for her crimes, she began to drop her hard-edged persona as she met and bonded with her fellow inmates. After her release, Ferrell became a prisoners’ rights advocate and developed a production company that focuses on work from women of color. With a combination of bruising vulnerability and self-deprecating humor (“I was like a law-breaking Martha Stewart. Oh, wait”), Ferrell’s audacious coming-of-age tale pairs the thrill of true crime with the redemptive arc of a good memoir. It’s a deliciously edgy testament to reinvention. Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.

How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty by Bonny Reichert.  Winner of the Dave Greber Book Award for social justice writing, Reichert pens a culinary memoir about her childhood, early adulthood, and midlife as she reflects on her father's survival of the Holocaust, her family's foodways, and all that she has come to know about food, history, and inheritance. Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

New Releases - December Edition

Check out these highly anticipated new releases featuring fiction and nonfiction titles. Click on the title to request a copy or get your name on the waitlist. Don’t forget to watch for more featured releases next month!

NONFICTION

Good Nature: Why Seeing, Smelling, Hearing, and Touching Plants Is Good for Our Health by Kathy Willis.  Exposure to nature, and plants in particular, can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and boost the immune system, among other benefits, according to this eye-opening survey. Examining the rewards of smelling plants, Willis (Botanicum), a biodiversity professor at Oxford University, notes research that found inhaling the fragrance of cypress and juniper trees raises the number of lymphocytes (cells that destroy infected or cancer-causing cells) in the blood. Even brief glimpses of nature confer advantages, Willis contends, describing how university students who viewed a “flowering green roof” from their classroom window for 40 seconds before a test performed better than peers who instead saw a “bare concrete roof.” Willis is refreshingly candid about the limits of the scientific literature, contending, for instance, that though a few studies have shown that touching wood bestows calming effects, “a lot more work is clearly needed” before drawing definitive conclusions. Additionally, Willis offers pragmatic recommendations on how to take advantage of the research findings, suggesting that while “incorporating real elements of nature such as wood and plants into our homes” provides the strongest boost to physical and mental well-being, images or recordings of natural settings can be used when that’s not practical. This fascinates. Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.

Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman by Callum Robinson.  In his first book, woodworker Robinson blends memoir and nature writing to tell the story of how he learned his craft. He grew up in rural Scotland and learned from his father, whom Robinson helped create exquisite objects; he eventually established his own workshop. Contemplating the trees that provide his medium and the art of handcrafting heirloom pieces, he reflects on his journey. Copyright 2024 Library Journal

Matchmaker Matchmaker: Find Me a Love That Lasts by Aleeza Ben Shalom.  Matchmaker and dating coach Ben Shalom (Get Real Get Married), who starred in the Netflix series Jewish Matchmaking, shares the secrets of her trade in this pragmatic guide. Rejecting the idea that “meeting someone should be effortless,” she advises readers to go on at least five dates with a potential partner before judging the relationship’s viability or having sex. Other tips include ensuring that one’s core values align with a partner’s, and pursuing one’s own professional and personal goals because “the best, most whole, and most alive version of yourself” is most likely to attract the right partner. Ben Shalom details client case studies date-by-date, providing insight on how to perceive the lack of an initial spark (“not feeling butterflies in the beginning” doesn’t mean the relationship is doomed) and cautioning against seeking validation from another person (readers should be more concerned with how they feel about potential partners than vice versa). While the advice is aimed at heterosexual couples, and recommendations that men should always pay for the first date or “pursue” women can feel antiquated, readers will glean confidence from Ben Shalom’s concrete guidance and methodical, no-nonsense approach. It’s a solid manual for singles seeking a no-frills approach to finding the one. Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.

FICTION

Rental House by Weike Wang.  Award-winning Wang (author of the multi-best-booked Joan Is Okay) examines the challenges of family and marriage. Keru is the daughter of strict, well-educated Chinese immigrant parents, while Nate comes from a white, working-class family. Keru and Nate marry, but when their families join them on vacation, the couple's strained relationships with their in-laws force them to confront their own hidden truths. Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

North is the Night by Emily Rath.  Inspired by Finnish folklore, bestselling Rath ("Jacksonville Rays" and "Second Sons" series) starts a new duology. When Aina is dragged into the underworld, a pawn to the Witch Queen and of interest to the king, Siiri travels to the far north, hoping to gather the aid of a legendary shaman to enter the world of death and save her.  Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd. Boyd’s latest (after The Romantic) is an electric espionage thriller that calls to mind the best of John le Carré and Len Deighton. As a child, Gabriel Dax was caught in a house fire that killed his mother, and insomnia-inducing nightmares of the tragedy have followed him into adulthood. By 1960, Gabriel has become a travel writer who, through a stroke of good luck, is assigned to interview Patrice Lumumba, the prime minister of the newly independent Republic of the Congo. Shortly after their conversation, Lumumba is overthrown by a Congolese colonel, and though Gabriel’s editor tells him the tapes are “yesterday’s news,” unknown parties are bent on acquiring them. . . First, a mysterious woman bumps into Gabriel at a pub and inquires about the tapes before introducing herself as MI6 agent Faith Green. Then she asks him to deliver a drawing to someone in Spain as a “small favour” for the agency. Though Gabriel is reluctant to court trouble, he’s smitten with Faith, so he eventually agrees. Soon, he’s taking on ever-more-intricate missions for Faith, unaware he’s been tapped to work for MI6 full-time - in part because of his valuable interview with Lumumba, and in part because of slow-to-emerge secrets from his family’s past. Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.

Black Friday Sales: How to Shop Strategically Using Consumer Reports

 

How do you know if a Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal is good or too good to be true? Do your research beforehand by accessing our Consumer Reports database for free with your WPL library card! You can read articles and topical sections (such as their The Ultimate Guide to Black Friday Deals and Sales), check out product reviews, and find out about recalls on a variety of products. Just go to mywpl.org - Resources - Online Databases and click on Home where Consumer Reports is listed. Enter your WPL library card number and password on the following page and you are in!

We also have print issues of Consumer Reports available from our Newspapers & Magazines Department. Ask our library staff if you need assistance locating a current issue or a back issue. Of course, you can also put print copies of Consumer Reports on hold for yourself to pick up at the main library or one of the branches.  

1. First go to account login at mywpl.org.  Enter your library card number and password. This will bring you to the online catalog.
2. Enter "Consumer Reports" in the search bar and select "title" in the format drop down menu.  Click "search."
3. Click on the "Place Hold" button.  You can then choose a specific issue of the magazine by clicking "Specific Volume," and selecting the specific volume from the drop-down menu.
4. Select which issue you want, choose how you want the library to notify you when it's ready for pick up, and which library you want to pick up the magazine.  Click "place hold."

One last deal that is the best deal ever: a library card from your local library! You can borrow so many things (not just books!) for free with your library card! We no longer have overdue fines on our materials so as long as you return any borrowed materials in a relatively timely fashion, you wouldn't owe anything. Visit any of our branches anytime we're open to get a Worcester Public Library. During this holiday season, that is something for which we can all be thankful!