Want to Learn More about Black Lives Matter? Villanova English Faculty Reading Recommendations

The Villanova English Department stands in solidarity with our Black students, staff, and faculty and their allies against anti-Black racism, police violence, and racial injustice.

The faculty intend to contact students with an action plan before the fall semester begins, and we will be asking for student input as we proceed. In the meantime, if you have specific suggestions or questions about our department response, please direct them to Dr. Jean Lutes, chair of our department Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee, at jean.lutes@villanova.edu.

As a first step in our response to the rising Black Lives Matter movement, we invite you to consider this reading list on white supremacy, policing, and racial justice:

• James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1963) [available online via Falvey Library], and Raoul Peck’s 2018 documentary I Am Not Your Negro [available for purchase on Youtube and Amazon prime video]

• Angela J. Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003) [also available online via Falvey]

• Claudia Rankine, Citizen (2014) -- Rankine read at Villanova during the 2019 Literary Festival

• Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation (2016) [available online via Falvey]

• Reginald Dwayne Betts, Felon: Poems (2019) -- Betts read at Villanova during the 2017 Literary Festival 

Online Resources

On prisons, policing and punishment:

https://medium.com/@micahherskind/resource-guide-prisons-policing-and-punishment-effb5e0f6620

Breaking down the Prison Industrial Complex Video Project by Critical Resistance: http://criticalresistance.org/videoproject/

Reading Towards Abolition: A Reading List on Policing, Rebellion, and the Criminalization of Blackness:

https://www.radicalhistoryreview.org/abusablepast/reading-towards-abolition-a-reading-list-on-policing-rebellion-and-the-criminalization-of-blackness/?fbclid=IwAR2uIRH37EyEILfH4VsxTytcSsxOPOu29wQ9JU-StnsJkXthgF8_mAHg1qA

Black Lives Matter resources available through Falvey Library. 

“Geographies of Racial Capitalism” video and “Intercepted” podcast episode featuring Ruth Wilson Gilmore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CS627aKrJI

https://theintercept.com/2020/06/10/ruth-wilson-gilmore-makes-the-case-for-abolition/

The #BlackCatholics Syllabus, curated by Dr. Tia Noelle Pratt: https://tiapratt.com/blackcatholicssyllabus-2/

And, to help make sense of all of this reading, a short essay, “What is an Anti-Racist Reading List For?” by Dr. Lauren Michele Jackson: https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/anti-racist-reading-lists-what-are-they-for.html