Superb Black Artists for Black History Month (Ft. Authors AND Singers – Two For One)

Posted February 20, 2020 by Sammie in #ownvoices, chat with me, discussions / 12 Comments

Boy have I got a deal for you … because I’m frugal (read: cheap) and who doesn’t love a little two for the price of one?

I actually debated whether or not to even do this post, because I don’t generally specifically seek out black artists. I mean, I do attempt to read diverse authors in general, but there are so many times when I’m surprised, after the fact, to find out a book was written by an author of color.

Sooo … I had mixed feelings about this post. In the end, I decided to make it. Obviously. Because we’re all here. *bangs gavel* Let the meeting of the minds begin.

What tipped the scales? I realized there are some fantastic lesser known artists that I hope people will fall in love with and look more into. This brilliant idea struck me while I was listening to YouTube and Sam Cooke came on (don’t worry, you’ll meet him later) and I went waaaait a minute.

I’ve decided to highlight both authors AND singers, because what is music except poetry set to music and infused with emotions, anyway?

I’m going to confess that some of these songs were written by white authors, but they’re sung by black singers, who absolutely slay it, so it’s obviously the perfect symbiosis. I’m also going to admit that I tried to find lesser-known artists, not necessarily super hyped, that span from a hundred years ago to more recent, so there’s a little bit of a sampling. I may not have succeeded in that, but … hey, I tried. That counts for something, right?

I’m not going to add much commentary in this post, like I normally would.

Partly because this post is so long as it is, but also because the whole point is that you should check these artists out. So my opinion of them doesn’t matter. Go form your own opinions. I can’t do everything around here, now can I?

Dragon Divider

Black Authors



✦ Langston Hughes ✦

Notable Works:
Let American Be America Again
Theme for English B
I, Too

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

✦ Zora Neale Hurston ✦

Notable Works:
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”

She knew things that nobody had ever told her… She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pastor of ether. She knew that God tore down the old world every evening and built a new one every sun-up. It was wonderful to see it take form with the sun and emerge from the gray dust of its making.

✦ Maya Angelou ✦

Notable Works:
Caged Bird
Still I Rise
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

✦ Jamaal May ✦

Notable Works:
A Brief History of Hostility
There Are Birds Here
Respiration

Now make tomorrow a gate shaped like a man.
I can’t promise, when it’s time, I won’t hesitate,
cannot say I won’t forget to return in fall and
guess the names of the leaves before they change.

✦ Tochi Onyebuchi ✦

Notable Works:
Beasts Made of Night
War Girls
Riot Baby

They build places like this with ceilings high overhead and walls very far apart to make a person feel small. They build places like this to make it seem like human beings don’t live here. People don’t live here. Things bigger than people do. Out there, you’re angry at the royal family that governs Kos and dictates everyone’s lives. In here, you’re scared of them.

✦ Nnedi Okorafor ✦

Notable Works:
Binti
Akata Witch

Prejudice begets prejudice, you see. Knowledge does not always evolve into wisdom.

✦ Jacqueline Woodson ✦

Notable Works:
Brown Girl Dreaming
Another Brooklyn

But on paper, things can live forever.
On paper, a butterfly
never dies

✦ Kwame Alexander ✦

Notable Works:
The Crossover
Solo
Swing

Basketball Rule #1

In this game of life
your family is the court
and the ball is your heart.
No matter how good you are,
no matter how down you get,
always leave
your heart
on the court.

✦ Victor LaValle ✦

Notable Works:
The Changeling
The Ballad of Black Tom
Destroyer

“People call us witches,” Cal said quickly. She grabbed Apollo’s hand. “But maybe what they’re really saying is that we were women who did things that seemed impossible. You remember those old stories about mothers who could lift cars when their kids were trapped underneath? I think of it like that. When you have to save the one you love, you will become someone else, something else. You will transform. The only real magic is the things we’ll do for the ones we love.”

✦ Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani ✦

Notable Works:
Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree
I Do Not Come to You By Chance

He often referred to the female gender in plural form, as if they did not exist except in batches.


Dragon Divider

Black Singers



I’ve included embedded videos in this section of one of my favorite songs for each artist, so you can get an easy feel for them without having to do too much leg work. Trust me, I’m as opposed to leg work as the next person.

✦ Sam Cooke ✦

Watch Video

✦ Bill Withers ✦

Watch Video

✦ Billie Holiday ✦

Watch Video

✦ Louis Armstrong ✦

Watch Video

✦ Ladysmith Black Mambazo ✦

Watch Video

✦ Alex Boye ✦

Watch Video

✦ Todrick Hall ✦

Watch Video

✦ Ella Jenkins ✦

Watch Video

✦ Wayne Brady ✦

Watch Video

✦ Cab Calloway
(and the Nicholas Brothers) ✦

Watch Video


Chat With Me

Who are some of your favorite black artists?

12 responses to “Superb Black Artists for Black History Month (Ft. Authors AND Singers – Two For One)

  1. I love listening to Maya Angelou read her own works. Something about hearing it in her own voice adds to the impact. I just hate that I missed opportunities to hear her in person when she was the Artist in Residence at Wake Forest Univ.

    • She has such a lovely reading voice, too! I’m a bit sad that I never had the chance to see her live, either, but I was never as close to an opportunity as it sounds like you were.

  2. Wonderful post. I’ve read some Angelou and I love Okorafor. I still need to finish the Akata Witch series. Like you, I don’t seek out authors or singers just because of a specific race . However, I will add that I love Seal and Darius Rucker and my all-time-favorite-we-would-have-married-but-he-died PRINCE! Well, and I was already married so that might have been a problem.

    • I still need to START the Akata Witch series, because I apparently bought it and then just … didn’t read it? xD I’m a professional at that. Oh my, Darius Rucker has such a lovely voice! Pffft, I’m sure your husband would’ve understood. I mean, it’s Prince!

    • Oooh, I haven’t read P. Djeli Clark, but his short stories are on my TBR, and I really want to read them! They sound fantastic.

      I thought about adding Leslie Odom Jr and Daveed Diggs, but … I felt like they were a given. Who doesn’t love them? Pffft. No one I trust. xD

    • I hope you enjoy them! I had a lot of fun putting the post together, because I got to listen to all the songs again. I may have gotten lost in the YouTube rabbit hole just a teensy bit. 😉 But I eventually found my way back out.

  3. So you have just reminded me of a bunch of stuff I need to read- namely, Binti and War Girls. And my son would LOVE The Crossover, I am definitely putting that one on his wishlist. Have you read Riot Baby? It was phenomenal! I saw him talking about it on Trevor Noah too and I felt like every single thing he was trying to say with the book comes through so clearly, which is kind of incredible. And ALL the singers are basically incredible! I want to talk about Wayne Brady in… something, but just saying it is a spoiler if you don’t know what it is hah. So I will refrain! This is such a great idea for a post, because I agree that so often music and books evoke the same kind of feelings, so it’s a perfect pairing!
    Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight recently posted…Reevaluating FantasyMy Profile

    • I’m gonna go ahead and confess that I still need to read Binti and War Girls, too. xD So we can be behind together.

      I think Kwame Alexander’s books are one of our more popular sports books, and he’s got several, if your son is into that. 🙂

      Our library *just* got Riot Baby in the other day, and I immediately jumped on that, ha. I can’t wait to read it!

      Oh nooo, now I’m curious what Wayne Brady’s in that I may or may not know. xD

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