In this captivating documentary filmed in a single tiny room, viewers step inside an underground hair salon with its charismatic proprietor, a Cameroonian immigrant named Sabine. Here, she and her employees style extensions and glue on lashes while watching soaps, dishing romantic advice, sharing rumors about government programs to legalize migrants, and talking about life back home in Cameroon.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah. Anchor, 2013.
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland. The novel begins in a flashback when Ifemelu is having her hair braided—the imbued symbolism of hair is a key element in the book. And as a personal expression of identity it’s something every reader, and certainly every woman, can relate to personally.

Bulawayo, NoViolet. We Need New Names. Back Bay Books, 2014.
Darling is only ten years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo’s belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen, before the school closed, before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad. But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America. She travels to this new land in search of America’s famous abundance only to find that her options as an immigrant are perilously few.

Busby, Margaret (Editor). New Daughters of Africa: An international anthology of writing by women of African descent.Amistad Press, 2019.
This follow-up to the original landmark anthology brings together fresh and vibrant voices that have emerged from across the globe in the past two decades, from Antigua to Zimbabwe and Angola to the United States. Key figures, including Margo Jefferson, Nawal El Saadawi, Edwidge Danticat, and Zadie Smith, join popular contemporaries such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Imbolo Mbue, Yrsa Daley-Ward, Taiye Selasi, and Chinelo Okparanta in celebrating the heritage that unites them. Each of the pieces in this remarkable collection demonstrates an uplifting sense of sisterhood, honors the strong links that endure from generation to generation, and addresses the common obstacles female writers of color face as they negotiate issues of race, gender, and class and address vital matters of independence, freedom, and oppression.

Gyasi, Yaa. Homegoing. Vintage, 2017.
Ghana, eighteenth century: two half-sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery. Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. The novel casts light upon slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed—and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery.

Selasi,Taiye. Ghana Must Go by.Penguin, 2014.
This novel takes readers from Accra to Lagos to London to New York, it is at once a portrait of a modern family and an exploration of the importance of where we come from to who we are.
A renowned surgeon and failed husband, Kweku Sai dies suddenly at dawn outside his home in suburban Accra. The news of his death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he abandoned years before. Moving with great elegance through time and place, Ghana Must Go charts their circuitous journey to one another and, along the way, teaches us that the truths we speak can heal the wounds we hide.

Smith, Zadie. Swing Time: A NovelPenguin Books, 2017.
An ambitious, exuberant new novel moving from North West London to West Africa.
Two brown girls dream of being dancers—but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It’s a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early twenties, never to be revisited, but never quite forgotten, either. The story moves from London to West Africa, where diaspora tourists travel back in time to find their roots, young men risk their lives to escape into a different future, the women dance just like Tracey—the same twists, the same shakes—and the origins of a profound inequality are not a matter of distant history, but a present dance to the music of time.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. We Should All Be Feminists. Anchor, 2015.
In this personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from the much-admired TEDx talk (https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists?language=en) of the same name—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century, one rooted in inclusion and awareness. Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often-masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.

Gill, Tiffany M. Beauty Shop Politics: African American Women's Activism in the Beauty Industry. University of Illinois Press 2010.
A bold reassessment of black beauty salons as vital sites for social change.
Looking through the lens of black business history, Beauty Shop Politics shows how black beauticians in the Jim Crow era parlayed their economic independence and access to a public community space into platforms for activism. Tiffany M. Gill argues that the beauty industry played a crucial role in the creation of the modern black female identity and that the seemingly frivolous space of a beauty salon actually has stimulated social, political, and economic change.
Gill shows how African American beauty entrepreneurs built and sustained a vibrant culture of activism in beauty salons and schools. Enhanced by lucid portrayals of black beauticians and drawing on archival research and oral histories, Beauty Shop Politics conveys the everyday operations and rich culture of black beauty salons as well as their role in building community.

O'Donoghue-Lindy, Lisa. Women Creating Wealth: A Collection of Stories of Female Entrepreneurs from Africa.Marley Communications, 2017.
A collection of almost 60 stories of women entrepreneurs from across Africa from a variety of sectors, ranging from small to large business owners. These diverse profiles, offer lessons for other female entrepreneurs looking to start or grow enterprises, understand these business owners' motivations, the barriers they faced, how they overcame challenges, and the plans they have for the future. These portraits aim to paint a picture of what sets high growth entrepreneurs in a class of their own.

Oyewumi, Oyeronke. African Women and Feminism: Reflecting on the Politics of Sisterhood. Africa World Press, 2004.
The relationship between African women and feminism is a contentious one. Embedded in this connection is the question of whether sisterhood—a mantra assuming a common oppression of all women and signifying feminist international/cross-cultural relations—describes the symbolic and functional representation of African women. The contributors in this book are aware of the global discourse on women as articulated by Western feminists and interrogate the issues raised by the misinterpretation of African women of both black and white American feminists. The implications of the dominance of Western men and women in the production of knowledge about Africa are also explored.

Phillips, Layli (Editor). The womanist reader.Routledge Press, 2007.The Womanist Reader is the first volume to anthologize the major works of womanist scholarship. Charting the course of womanist theory from its genesis as Alice Walker's African-American feminism, through Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi's African womanism and Clenora Hudson-Weems' Africana womanism, to its present-day expression as a global, anti-oppressionist perspective rooted in the praxis of everyday women of color, this interdisciplinary reader traces the rich and diverse history of a quarter century of womanist thought.

Rodriguez, Cheryl R. (Editor, Contributor) and Tsikata, Dzodzi (Editor) et. al. Transatlantic Feminisms: Women and Gender Studies in Africa and the Diaspora. Lexington Books, 2016.
Transatlantic Feminisms is an interdisciplinary collection of original feminist research on women’s lives in Africa and the African diaspora. Demonstrating the power and value of transcontinental connections and exchanges between feminist thinkers, this unique collection of fifteen essays addresses the need for global perspectives on gender, ethnicity, race and class. Examining diverse topics and questions in contemporary feminist research, the authors describe and analyze women’s lives in a host of vibrant, compelling locations.

Steady, Filomina Chioma. Women and Collective Action in Africa: Development, Democratization, and Empowerment, with Special Focus on Sierra Leone. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
This book examines women's movements and women's collective action in Africa. Steady begins her examination in pre-colonial times, moving through the colonial period to the present. She looks at the various arenas which collective action has and can influence, comparing the impact on economic growth, education, democratizations, family formation, and women's rights.

Wamariya, Clemantine and Weil, Elizabeth. The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After.Crown, 2018.
Clemantine Wamariya was six years old when her mother and father began to speak in whispers, when neighbors began to disappear, and when she heard the loud, ugly sounds her brother said were thunder. In 1994, she and her fifteen-year-old sister, Claire, fled the Rwandan massacre and spent the next six years migrating through seven African countries, searching for safety—perpetually hungry, imprisoned and abused, enduring and escaping refugee camps, finding unexpected kindness, witnessing inhuman cruelty. They did not know whether their parents were dead or alive.
When Clemantine was twelve, she and her sister were granted refugee status in the United States; there, in Chicago, their lives diverged.
The book provokes the reader to look beyond the label of “victim” and recognize the power of the imagination to transcend even the most profound injuries and aftershocks. Devastating yet beautiful, and bracingly original, it is a powerful testament to her commitment to constructing a life on her own terms.

Wingfield, Adia Harvey. Doing Business With Beauty: Black Women, Hair Salons, and the Racial Enclave Economy. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2009.
In Doing Business with Beauty, sociologist Adia Harvey Wingfield examines this often-overlooked group and one of the most popular businesses run by these entrepreneurs: hair salons. Using in-depth interviews with hair salon owners, Doing Business with Beauty explores several facets of the business of owning a hair salon, including the process of becoming an owner, the dynamics of the owner-employee relationship, and the factors that steer black women to work in the hair industry. Through Harvey Wingfield's research we can understand the black female business owner's struggle for autonomy and her success in entrepreneurship.

Yancy, George. Black Bodies, White Gazes. Rl; 2016.
Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race understands Black embodiment within the context of white hegemony within the context of a racist, anti-Black world. Yancy demonstrates that the Black body is a historically lived text on which whites have inscribed their projections which speak equally forcefully to whites' own self-conceptualizations.
The 2008 text was updated in 2016 following the deaths of Trayvon Martin and other black youths in recent years, students on campuses across America have joined professors and activists in calling for justice and increased awareness that Black Lives Matter. In this second edition of his trenchant and provocative book, George Yancy offers students the theoretical framework they crave for understanding the violence perpetrated against the Black body. Drawing from the lives of Ossie Davis, Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, and W. E. B. Du Bois, as well as his own experience, and fully updated to account for what has transpired since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Yancy, George. Look, A White!: Philosophical Essays on Whiteness. Temple University Press, 2012.
Look, a White! returns the problem of whiteness to white people. Prompted by Eric Holder's charge, that as Americans, we are cowards when it comes to discussing the issue of race, noted philosopher George Yancy's essays map out a structure of whiteness.
He considers whiteness within the context of racial embodiment, film, pedagogy, colonialism, its "danger," and its position within the work of specific writers. Identifying the embedded and opaque ways white power and privilege operate, Yancy argues that the Black countergaze can function as a "gift" to whites in terms of seeing their own whiteness more effectively.

Shire, Warsan. Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth. flipped eye publishing limited, 2011.
A Kenyan-born Somali transplant living in London, Shire’s poetry is about identity, migration, trauma, love and womanhood. Her work touches on displacement, the search for love and belonging and identity through the lens of juggling opposing cultures as an outsider. Her poetry was incorporated into Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade.

Umebinyuo, Ijeoma. Questions for Ada. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.
So, here you are/ too foreign for home/ too foreign for here/ Never enough for both."

―Ijeoma Umebinyuo, Diaspora Blues, Questions for Ada

Questions for Ada defies words, embodying the pain, the passion, and the power of love rising from the depths of our souls. A bold celebration of womanhood.

Cherry, Matthew A. (author) and Harrison, Vashti (Illustrator). Hair Love. Kokila, 2019.
Zuri’s hair has a mind of its own. It kinks, coils, and curls every which way. Zuri knows it’s beautiful. When Daddy steps in to style it for an extra special occasion, he has a lot to learn. But he LOVES his Zuri, and he’ll do anything to make her — and her hair — happy.
Tender and empowering, Hair Love is an ode to loving natural hair — and a celebration of daddies and daughters everywhere.

Méndez, Yamile Saied (Author) and Jaime Kim (Illustrator). Where Are You From? HarperCollins. 2019.
In a world full of microaggressions, Argentine-American author Méndez and South Korean-American illustrator Kim team up to offer an affirming answer for a young brown-skinned girl constantly being asked "Where are you from?" After her reply, "I'm from here, from today, same as everyone else," is contested with a "No, where are you really from?," she takes her internalized confusion to her abuelo, because "he knows everything, and like me, he looks like he doesn't belong." He tells her that she comes from the pampas, the gaucho, mountains, blue oceans, hurricanes, and dark storms. He doesn't shy away from hard truths and tells her that she comes from "this land where our ancestors built a home for all, even when they were in chains because of the color of their skin." This title is also available in Spanish: ¿De dónde eres?.

Mills, Deborah (Author), Alva, Alfredo (Contributor) and Navarro, Claudia (Contributor). La Frontera: El Viaje Con Papa / My Journey with Papa(Spanish and English Edition). Barefoot Books, 2018.
Join a young boy and his father on an arduous journey from Mexico to the United States in the 1980s to find a new life. They’ll need all the courage they can muster to safely cross the border — la frontera — and to make a home for themselves in a new land. This book is based on a true story.

Munsch, Robert (Author), Askar, Saoussan (Author), and Green, Rebecca (Illustrator). From Far Away Annick Press, 2017.
When Saoussan immigrated with her family from war-torn Lebanon, she was only seven years old. This picture book tells the story of how she had to adjust to her new home in Canada. She describes the frustration of not understanding the teacher when she started school, not knowing how to ask to go to the bathroom and being terrified of a Halloween skeleton.

Nyong'o, Lupita (Author) and Harrison, Vashti (Illustrator). Sulwe. Simon & Schuster Books, 2019. Sulwe has skin the color of midnight. She is darker than everyone in her family. She is darker than anyone in her school. Sulwe just wants to be beautiful and bright, like her mother and sister. Then a magical journey in the night sky opens her eyes and changes everything.

Perry, LaTashia M. Hair Like Mine.G Publishing, 2015.
Hair Like Mine is a fun and easy read following a little girl who doesn't like that her naturally curly hair looks different from the other kids around her. On her quest to find someone with hair like hers, she soon realizes we are all unique and special in our own way.

Sanna, Francesca. The Journey Hardcover. Flying Eye Books, 2016.
“I look up to the birds that seem to be following us. They are migrating just like us. And their journey, like ours, is very long, but they don’t have to cross any borders.”
What is it like to have to leave everything behind and travel many miles to somewhere unfamiliar and strange? A mother and her two children set out on such a journey; one filled with fear of the unknown, but also great hope.

Ahmed, Samira. Internment. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2020.
Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens.
With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the camp’s Director and his guards.

Cisneros, Ernesto. Efrén Divided. Quill Tree Books, 2020.
Efrén Nava’s Amá is his Superwoman—or Soperwoman, named after the delicious Mexican sopes his mother often prepares. Both Amá and Apá work hard all day to provide for the family, making sure Efrén and his younger siblings Max and Mía feel safe and loved.
But Efrén worries about his parents; although he’s American-born, his parents are undocumented. His worst nightmare comes true one day when Amá doesn’t return from work and is deported across the border to Tijuana, México. Now more than ever, Efrén must channel his inner Soperboy to help take care of and try to reunite his family.

Warga, Jasmine. Other Words for Home. Balzer + Bray, 2019.
Jude never thought she'd be leaving her beloved older brother and father behind, all the way across the ocean in Syria. But when things in her hometown start becoming volatile, Jude and her mother are sent to live in Cincinnati with relatives.
At first, everything in America seems too fast and too loud. The American movies that Jude has always loved haven't quite prepared her for starting school in the US—and her new label of "Middle Eastern," an identity she's never known before.
But this life also brings unexpected surprises—there are new friends, a whole new family, and a school musical that Jude might just try out for. Maybe America, too, is a place where Jude can be seen as she really is.
This middle grade novel is about losing and finding home and, most importantly, finding yourself.

Yang, Gene Luen. American Born Chinese. Square Fish, 2008.
Jin Wang starts at a new school where he's the only Chinese-American student. When a boy from Taiwan joins his class, Jin doesn't want to be associated with an “FOB” like him. Jin just wants to be an all-American boy, because he's in love with an all-American girl. Danny is an all-American boy: great at basketball, popular with the girls. But his obnoxious Chinese cousin Chin-Kee's annual visit is such a disaster that it ruins Danny's reputation at school, leaving him with no choice but to transfer somewhere he can start all over again. Each of these characters cannot help himself alone, but how can they possibly help each other? They're going to have to find a way—if they want fix the disasters their lives have become.

Zoboi, Ibi. American Street, Balzer + Bray, 2018.
In this debut novel, Ibi Zoboi draws on her own experience as a young Haitian immigrant, infusing this lyrical exploration of America with magical realism and vodou culture. On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie—a good life. But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola’s mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate a new world all on her own .Just as she finds her footing in this strange new world, a dangerous proposition presents itself, and Fabiola soon realizes that freedom comes at a cost. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream?

Bausum, Ann. Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories from the Dark Side of American Immigration. National Geographic Children's Books, 2019.
The story of America has always been shaped by people from all corners of the Earth who came in search of a better life and a brighter future. Immigration remains one of the critical topics in 21st century America, and how our children learn the lessons of the past will shape all our futures.

Brown, Joanne. Immigration Narratives in Young Adult Literature: Crossing Borders. Scarecrow Press, 2010.
In Immigration Narrative in Young Adult Literature: Crossing Borders, Joanne Brown explores the experiences of adolescents as portrayed in young adult novels. Her study features protagonists from a wide variety of religious and ethnic backgrounds in order to provide a complete discussion of the immigration experience of young adults. With an appendix of additional novels for further reading, this book will be a useful resource for librarians and teachers of adolescent literature, as well as for students, both those born in the United States and those who are immigrants themselves.

Khan, Brooke. Home of the Brave: An American History Book for Kids: 15 Immigrants Who Shaped U.S. History. Rockridge Press, 2019.
The United States has always been a nation of immigrants--and this book shares the accomplishments of all the amazing people who've helped shape it. This history book is for kids age 9-12.

Osborne, Linda Barret. This Land Is Our Land: A History of American Immigration. Harry N. Abrams, 2016.
American attitudes toward immigrants are paradoxical. On the one hand, we see our country as a haven for the poor and oppressed; anyone, no matter his or her background, can find freedom here and achieve the “American Dream.” On the other hand, depending on prevailing economic conditions, fluctuating feelings about race and ethnicity, and fear of foreign political and labor agitation, we set boundaries and restrictions on who may come to this country and whether they may stay as citizens. This book explores the way government policy and popular responses to immigrant groups evolved throughout U.S. history, particularly between 1800 and 1965.