Library Services Blog

Black History Month 2023: Saluting Our Sisters

Black History Month 2023

Black History Month runs every October in the UK. It is a celebration of the history, achievements and contributions of people of African and Caribbean heritage. The theme for this year is Saluting Our Sisters highlighting the crucial role that black women have played in shaping history, inspiring change, and building communities. This year’s celebration will showcase pioneering black women who have made remarkable contributions to literature, music, fashion, sport, business, politics, academia, social and health care, and more.

Our Black History Month Reading List

In partnership with the Library and Sheffield Hallam Students’ Union, a new reading list has been curated. We have a range of books, articles, audio-visual content, and webpages that celebrate and explore themes related to Black History Month. All the resources listed are in the Hallam Library collections and are available to borrow for free by Sheffield Hallam University students and staff.

The list has been divided into different themes that will help you to explore narratives, social history, academic texts and fiction aimed at all age ranges.

Explore our reading list here

Key titles

Sisterhood Heals: The Transformative Power of Healing in Community by Joy Harden Bradford
Healing through community is Dr Joy's life's work. Now, she dives into the wisdom of group therapy and real-life friendship circles to help Black women strengthen and evolve within our sisterhoods. Drawing on her years of clinical experience, Dr Joy provides actionable tools we can use to foster friendships that are not only positive, but transformative. From the evolution of sisterhood to the exceptional powers of group therapy, the process of finding your people to advice on overcoming the barriers that get in the way, Sisterhood Heals is as much an actionable guide as it is a love letter to Black women everywhere.With warmth, wisdom and empathy, Dr Joy shows that even when the odds are against us, the strength of a sisterhood can transcend the most challenging day-to-day struggles and give us the power to reform our mental health and our lives.

And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou's poetry - lyrical and dramatic, exuberant and playful - speaks of love, longing, partings; of Saturday night partying, and the smell and sounds of Southern cities; of freedom and shattered dreams.

Manifesto: On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo
Bernardine Evaristo's 2019 Booker win - the first by a Black woman - was a revolutionary moment both for British culture and for her. After three decades as a trailblazing writer, teacher and activist, she moved from the margins to centre stage, taking her place in the spotlight at last. Her journey was a long one, but she made it, and she made history. 'Manifesto' is Bernardine Evaristo's intimate and inspirational, no-holds-barred account of how she did it, refusing to let any barriers stand in her way. She charts her creative rebellion against the mainstream and her life-long commitment to the imaginative exploration of 'untold' stories.

Taking Up Space: The Black Girl's Manifesto for Change by Chelsea Kwakye and Ọrẹ Ogunbiyi
As a minority in a predominantly white institution, taking up space is an act of resistance. And in higher education, feeling like you constantly have to justify your existence within institutions that weren't made for you is an ongoing struggle for many people. Chelsea Kwakye and Ore Ogunbiyi, two recent Cambridge graduates, wrote 'Taking Up Space' as a guide and a manifesto for change: tackling issues of access, unrepresentative curricula, discrimination in the classroom, the problems of activism and life before and after university.

Black History Month Website

The Black History Month website is an incredibly rich and extensive source. The site is continually updated with new articles, events and information.

This recent article written by Written by Cherron Inko-Tariah MBE, explores the current theme of Black History Month and how we can come together to make a change for the better.