• We Are Satellites
  by Sarah Pinsker
• Hummingbirds in the Trenches
  by Kondwani Fidel
• The Black Butterfly
  by Lawrence T. Brown
• World as Family: A Journey of Multi-Rooted Belongings
  by Vishakha N. Desai
• Inheritance: An Autobiography of Whiteness
  by Baynard Woods
• Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change
  by Stacey Abrams

Tuesday, April 11, 2023 · 5 - 6 PM

Please submit a nomination for the AY22-23 Community Read. You can access the nominations form here:

UMBC Community Read Book Nomination form

The criteria are fairly flexible--no more than 300 pages, something that has been published within the past five years, and it can be of any genre. Nominations close May 31^st and we will announce the AY22-23 Community Read in early August

Please share this request widely with your colleagues and students. Thank you!

We Speak For Ourselves

by D. Watkins

This spring semester we will be featuring two categories in our bi-annual creative contest: our traditional essay contest and a new media (or multimedia) creative contest. It’s time to get creative; write an essay, shoot a video, write a poem, write a song. etc… express your experience based upon the book.

Deadline for the Spring: May 2nd

From the row houses of Baltimore to the stoops of Brooklyn, the New York Times bestselling author of The Cook Up lays bare the voices of the most vulnerable and allows their stories to uncover the systematic injustice threaded within our society. Honest and eye-opening, the pages of We Speak for Ourselves “are abundant with wisdom and wit; integrity and love, not to mention enough laughs for a stand-up comedy routine” (Mitchell S. Jackson, author of Survival Math).

Watkins introduces you to Down Bottom, the storied community of East Baltimore that holds a mirror to America’s poor black neighborhoods—“hoods” that could just as easily be in Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, or Atlanta. As Watkins sees it, the perspective of people who live in economically disadvantaged black communities is largely absent from the commentary of many top intellectuals who speak and write about race.

Unapologetic and sharp-witted, D. Watkins is here to tell the truth as he has seen it. We Speak for Ourselves offers an in-depth analysis of inner-city hurdles and honors the stories therein. We sit in underfunded schools, walk the blocks burdened with police corruption, stand within an audience of Make America Great Again hats, journey from trap house to university lecture, and rally in neglected streets. And we listen.

“Watkins has come to remind us, everyone deserves the opportunity to speak for themselves” (Jason Reynolds, New York Times bestselling author) and serves hope to fellow Americans who are too often ignored and calling on others to examine what it means to be a model activist in today’s world. We Speak for Ourselves is a must-read for all who are committed to social change.

From Amazon.com