Will focus on Black authors

By Kelly Kandra Hughes

On Sunday, June 7, during the peace rally on Village Green to support Black Lives Matter, Rev. Erick Olsen asked the Norfolk community to make four commitments to the movement: 1.) Support black-owned businesses and black artists; 2) Respond in person to any racism, including jokes, comments, and social media; 3) Keep learning about black history and culture and the history of racism particularly in our closest circles; and 4) Do something no one else will know about. In response to these commitments, the Norfolk Library is celebrating and supporting black authors with a summer reading challenge.   

 The goal of the challenge is for library patrons to collectively read a total of 131 books by black authors this summer ─ one book for every year the library has been in existence. To help patrons reach this goal, the library has compiled a list of black authors on their website, www.norfolklibrary.org. Additional names will be added as recommendations are received. 

 The books include a variety of genres, including contemporary fiction, mystery, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, poetry and plays, and span all ages from picture book to adult. The library considers this challenge to be timely and relevant, but also a way to showcase the variety of stories available from black authors. 

The library staff wanted the books on the list to feature black characters who live and love and laugh throughout life. They solve mysteries or travel with readers back in time. Some of them go on grand adventures into fantastical new worlds with prophecies and desire for retribution or redemption. They feature all the reasons why readers can get lost in the pages of a book for hours on end. Yes, some do ask important questions about systemic oppression, racism, and inequality; and these books are important to have on our list, too. This summer’s reading program celebrates some of the reasons why readers love books so much – compelling stories with interesting characters where we can’t wait to see what happens next!

 The library will be featuring these books on Facebook and Instagram throughout the summer, and would like to hear recommendations from library patrons about authors and books that should be feature, as well as updates on the books they’re reading as part of the challenge. 

Participants can contact the library through email at thenorfolklibrary@gmail.com, by phone at 860-542-5075, through social media─@norfolklibraryct on Instagram and The Norfolk Library on Facebook. Regular updates of books read will be posted in our e-mail newsletter, The Night Owl, to which patrons can subscribe through the library’s website, as well as on our social media. Any questions about the summer reading challenge may be directed to library staff member Kelly Kandra Hughes at kkandrahughes@biblio.org.