dvds

Resources for Black History Month

February 21, 2019 by Amanda VerMeulen

February is Black History Month, and we have many library resources to honor the achievements and experiences of African-Americans.

Learn about the figures that loom large in history like Malcolm X and James Baldwin, as well as the unsung heroes sending astronauts to the moon and fighting for the empowerment of gay black men. The library collection can help you learn about contemporary perspectives on #BlackLivesMatter and reflections on being a black woman in the U.S.

Maybe you prefer a story? Read tales of the spider trickster Anansi, Haitian immigrants encountering culture shock, or a novel by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar about Sherlock Holmes’s brother Mycroft.

Keep reading for Black History Month recommendations from the library collection.

Non-fiction

The Annotated African American Folktales edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar
Stacks; Call number: GR111.A47 A55 2018
A treasury of dozens of African-American folktales discusses their role in a broader cultural heritage, sharing such classics as the Brer Rabbit stories, the African trickster Anansi, and tales from the late nineteenth-century’s “Southern Workman.”

Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X by J. R. Roberts and Johnny Smith
Stacks; Call number: GV1132.A44 R64 2016
In 1962, no one believed that the obnoxious Cassius Clay would ever become the heavyweight champion of the world. But Malcolm X saw the potential in Clay, not just for boxing greatness, but as a means of spreading the Nation of Islam’s radical message. Malcolm secretly molded Clay into Muhammad Ali–a patriotic boxing star in public, and a radical reformer behind the scenes. Soon, however, their friendship would sour, with disastrous and far-reaching consequences.

Not Straight, Not White: Black Gay Men from the March on Washington to the AIDS Crisis by Kevin J. Mumford
Ebook; read it here
This compelling book recounts the history of black gay men from the 1950s to the 1990s, tracing how the major movements of the times–from civil rights to black power to gay liberation to AIDS activism–helped shape the cultural stigmas that surrounded race and homosexuality. Drawing on an extensive archive of newspapers, pornography, and film, as well as government documents, organizational records, and personal papers, Mumford sheds new light on four volatile decades in the protracted battle of black gay men for affirmation and empowerment in the face of pervasive racism and homophobia.

This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America by Morgan Jerkins
New Books Collection; Call number: PS3610.E693 A6 2018
In her collection of linked essays, Jerkins takes on perhaps one of the most provocative contemporary topics: What does it mean to “be”– to live as, to exist as– a black woman today? Doubly disenfranchised by race and gender, often deprived of a place within the mostly white mainstream feminist movement, black women are objectified, silenced, and marginalized with devastating consequences, in ways both obvious and subtle, that are rarely acknowledged in our country’s larger discussion about inequality. Jerkins exposes the social, cultural, and historical story of black female oppression that influences the black community as well as the white, male-dominated world at large.

Fiction

All the Right Stuff by Walter Dean Myers
Stacks; Call number: PZ7.M992 Al 2012
The summer after his absentee father is killed in a random shooting, Paul works at a Harlem soup kitchen, where he listens to lessons about “the social contract” from an elderly African American man and mentors a seventeen-year-old unwed mother who wants to make it to college on a basketball scholarship.

American Street by Ibi Zoboi
New Books Collection; Call number: PZ7.1.Z64 Am 2017
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 her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroit’s West Side; a new school; and a surprising romance, 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?

Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse
Popular Reading; Call number: F Abdul-Jabbar
Fresh out of university, the young Mycroft Holmes is already making a name for himself in government. Yet this most British of civil servants has strong ties to Trinidad, the birthplace of his best friend, Cyrus Douglas, and where his fiancee Georgiana Sutton was raised. Mycroft’s comfortable existence is overturned when Douglas receives troubling reports from home, rumors of spirits enticing children to their deaths. Upon hearing the news, Georgiana abruptly departs for the island. Mycroft convinces Douglas that they should follow her, drawing the two men into a web of dark secrets that grows more treacherous with each step they take.

Oreo by Fran Ross
Popular Reading; Call number: F Ross
Oreo, a biracial black girl from Philadelphia, searches for her Jewish father in New York City, navigating the labyrinth of sound studios, brothels, and subway tunnels of Manhattan in a journey of self-discovery.

Film

I Am Not Your Negro
DVD Collection; Call number: E185.61 .I266 2017
I Am Not Your Negro is an examination of racism in America through the lens of James Baldwin’s unfinished book, Remember This House. Intended as an account of the lives of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr., each of whom James Baldwin personally knew, only a 30-page manuscript of the book was ever completed. Combining Baldwin’s manuscript with footage of depictions of African-Americans throughout American history, I Am Not Your Negro uses Baldwin’s words to illuminate the pervasiveness of American racism and the efforts to curtail it, from the civil rights movement to #BlackLivesMatter.

Whose Streets?
DVD Collection; Call number: HV6483.F47 W467 2017
Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. As the national guard descends on Ferguson with military grade weaponry, young community members become the torchbearers of a new resistance. For this generation, the battle is not for civil rights, but for the right to live.

Dear White People
DVD Collection; Call number: PN1997 .D437 2015
A sharp and funny comedy about a group of African-American students as they navigate campus life and racial boundaries at a predominantly white college. A sly, provocative satire about being a black face in a white place. (Also adapted into a great series on Netflix.)

Hidden Figures
DVD Collection; Call number: PN1997 .H522 2017
As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented them in U.S. history as true American heroes.

Need help finding these or other titles about African-American experiences? We’re here for you at the 1st floor reference desk Monday-Thursday, 10:00am-12:00pm & 1:00-5:00pm.

Featured image (raised fist) in the public domain from Wikimedia

Honoring the Legacy of Dr. King: Suggested Books and Films

January 17, 2019 by Amanda VerMeulen

black and white image of Martin Luther King Jr waves to a crowd assembled on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Public domain image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USMC-09611.jpg

On Monday, January 21, classes will be cancelled to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The holiday recognizes King’s birthday on January 15, 1929; had King lived, he would be 90 years old.

Several events on campus commemorate King’s legacy as a Civil Rights activist, minister, and crusader against racial injustice, socioeconomic inequality, and violence of the Vietnam War. Consider attending the MLK Prayer Breakfast or lending a hand for a Day of Service on Monday. Or attend the screening and discussion of an episode from the documentary series “Eyes on the Prize” on Tuesday.

You can also honor the importance of King’s work by learning more about him and the lives of other Civil Rights activists. Did you know Martin Luther King Jr. posthumously won a Grammy in 1971? Or that Rosa Parks served on the Board of Advocates of Planned Parenthood? Check out a film, biography, or novel from the Library to dive deeper into the Civil Rights movement and its legacy.

Film

4 Little Girls

DVD Collection; Call number: F334.B69 N45 2010

When a bomb tears through the basement of a black Baptist church on a peaceful fall morning, it takes the lives of four young girls; Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins. This racially motivated crime, taking place at a time when the civil rights movement is burning with a new flame, could have doused that flame forever. Instead it fuels a nation’s outrage and brings Birmingham, Alabama to the forefront of America’s concern.

Citizen King

DVD Collection; Call number: E185.97.K5 C585 2004

In exploring the last few years of his life, this American Experience production traces King’s efforts to recast himself by embracing causes beyond the civil rights movement, by becoming a champion of the poor and an outspoken opponent of the war in Vietnam. Tapping into a rich archive of photographs and film footage and using diaries, letters, and eyewitness accounts of fellow activists, friends, journalists, political leaders and law enforcement officials, this film brings fresh insights to King’s impossible journey, his charismatic leadership and his truly remarkable impact.

Ely Landau’s King

DVD Collection; Call number: E185.97.K5 K564 2013

The life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama, and culminating with his assassination in Memphis in 1968. Including archival footage, this film is an indispensable primary resource of a pivotal moment in American and world history. Originally screened in theaters for only a single night in 1970.

Non-fiction

Becoming King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Making of a National Leader by Troy Jackson

Call number: E185.97.K5 J343 2008

Author Troy Jackson chronicles King’s emergence and effectiveness as a civil rights leader by examining his relationship with the people of Montgomery, Alabama. Using the sharp lens of Montgomery’s struggle for racial equality to investigate King’s burgeoning leadership, Jackson explores King’s ability to connect with the educated and the unlettered, professionals and the working class.

March by John Lewis

Call number: E840.8.L43 A3 2013 book 1

This graphic novel is a first-hand account of Congressman John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement. Book one spans Lewis’ youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall.

Power to the Poor: Black-Brown Coalition and the Fight for Economic Justice by Gordon K. Mantler

Ebook; read it here

In a major reinterpretation of civil rights and Chicano movement history, Gordon K. Mantler demonstrates how King’s unfinished crusade became the era’s most high-profile attempt at multiracial collaboration and sheds light on the interdependent relationship between racial identity and political coalition among African Americans and Mexican Americans. Mantler argues that while the fight against poverty held great potential for black-brown cooperation, such efforts also exposed the complex dynamics between the nation’s two largest minority groups.

Origins of the Dream: Hughes’ Poetry and King’s Rhetoric by W. Jason Miller

Call number: PS3515.U274 Z6844 2015

For years, some scholars have privately suspected Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech was connected to Langston Hughes’s poetry, and the link between the two was purposefully veiled through careful allusions in King’s orations. In Origins of the Dream, W. Jason Miller lifts that veil to demonstrate how Hughes’s revolutionary poetry became a measurable inflection in King’s voice, and that the influence can be found in more than just the one famous speech.

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis

Call number: F334.M753 P3883 2013

The definitive political biography of Rosa Parks examines her six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement and presenting a corrective to the popular notion of Rosa Parks.

Fiction and Poetry

Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell

Popular Reading; Call number: Fiction Campbell

Moving quickly and believably from the eve of integration in rural Mississippi to the present-day street gangs in Chicago’s housing projects, Campbell captures the gulf between pre-and post-civil rights America; her story, starting with the murder of a young black man whose trial–argued before an all-white jury–captures national attention, shows us how far we have come and yet suggests we have not come so far after all.

Words of Protest, Words of Freedom: Poetry of the American Civil Rights Movement and Era edited by Jeffrey Lamar Coleman

Call number: PS595.R32 W549 2012

Words of Protest, Words of Freedom is the first comprehensive collection of poems written during and in response to the American civil rights struggle of 1955–75. Featuring some of the most celebrated writers of the twentieth century—including Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, and Derek Walcott—alongside lesser-known poets, activists, and ordinary citizens, this anthology presents a varied and vibrant set of voices, highlighting the tremendous symbolic reach of the civil rights movement within and beyond the United States.

Dreamer: A Novel by Charles Johnson

Call number: PS3560.O3735 D7 1998

Set against the tensions of Civil Rights era America, Dreamer is a remarkable fictional excursion into the last two years of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, when the political and personal pressures on this country’s most preeminent moral leader were the greatest. While in Chicago for his first northern campaign against poverty and inequality, King encounters Chaym Smith, whose startling physical resemblance to King wins him the job of official stand-in. Matthew Bishop, a civil rights worker and loyal follower of King, is given the task of training the smart and deeply cynical Smith for the job.

While we have many books in the Library about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement, we don’t have them all. Are we missing a great book or film about King? Let us know!

Hispanic Heritage Month: Film & Literature

October 2, 2015 by Amanda VerMeulen

September 15 to October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month. Throughout the month we will be featuring resources available from the SMCM Library. For more info check out hispanicheritagemonth.gov

For the final post in our National Hispanic Heritage Month series, we’re featuring a few great books and films available from the SMCM Library. You can always find more excellent books and films by Hispanic writers and filmmakers by searching the SMCM Library Catalog.

Books

This Is How You Lose Her, Dominican-American writer Junot Díaz’s collection of short stories focusing on love in it’s myriad forms was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. This Is How You Lose Her comes preloaded on library Kindles, available for 2 week check-outs at the circulation desk.

If you enjoy Díaz’s short stories, check out his Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, available in a glorious, physical print copy in the SMCM Library Popular Reading section.

Films

Looking for an interesting look at the lives of everyday people? Americano As Apple Pie is a two-part documentary series looking at Latino culture in the United States, from big cities to small towns. The series looks at the Latino influence on American culture from entertainment to politics.

If you prefer fantasy, check out Pan’s Labyrinth, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 dark Spanish-language fairy tale. Set in Spain after the Spanish Civil War, Pan’s Labyrinth uses stunning visual effects to tell a story of loss, rebellion, and empowerment that blurs the lines between what is real and what is imagined.

Both Americano As Apple Pie and Pan’s Labyrinth are available in the SMCM Library DVD collection for three-day check outs.

Criterion Collection DVDs

May 18, 2015 by Amanda VerMeulen

If you’re a film lover, you’re likely familiar with The Criterion Collection, a highly selective continuing series of important classic and contemporary films loaded with in-depth special features. The collection is based on filmmaker legends like Fellini, Bergman, and Hitchcock, but also includes modern favorites like Wes Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, and Guillermo del Toro. In short, if it’s a meaningful film, you’ll likely find it in the Criterion Collection…

And in the St. Mary’s Library DVD collection! We have a range of Criterion Collection DVDs such as:

It’s an eclectic collection, and it’s fantastic.

You can browse all of the Criterion films in the library’s DVD collection online, or search for your favorite.

Makers: Women Who Make America

March 2, 2015 by Amanda VerMeulen

from the Makers website, a 1970 protest march in downtown St. Louis (Copyright Bettmann/Corbis / AP Images)

Looking for something to watch to kick off Women’s History Month? Try the first season of the excellent PBS documentary series, Makers: Women Who Make America. The focus of this three-episode series is on the birth, struggles, and advances of the modern Women’s Movement, from the 1950s to the present time.

You can learn more about this documentary series by visiting the PBS Makers website, which has more information about the film’s creators, as well as discussion guides for teachers and others.

Watch Makers: Women Who Make America, located in our DVD collection on the first floor of the library, call number HQ 1391.U5 M35 2013.

Black in Latin America

February 23, 2015 by Amanda VerMeulen

For the last in our series of “In the Collection” features related to Black History Month, the Library brings you Black in Latin America, a 2-disc, 4-episode series on DVD that explores the intersections of race, identity, and Latin American history. Narrated by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., this series examines the legacy of slavery and colonialism in Latin America by specifically looking at Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. I first caught Black in Latin America on PBS a few years ago and was hooked. It’s a fascinating glimpse of racial politics and identity in the larger “America.”

You’ll find this engaging series in our open DVD collection on the first floor of the library, call number F1419.N4 B533 2011. There is also a book to accompany the DVD, which is located on the 2nd floor of our library in the stacks (call number: F1419.N4 G38 2011) You can find out more about Black in Latin America by checking out the accompanying PBS website and the preview video below.

The Oscars and the DVD Collection at the SMCM Library

February 25, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

Last night I stayed up wayyy past my bedtime to watch the 85th Academy Awards show with Emek Köse (Mathematics), Anna Han (Psychology), Shan Sappleton (Political Science), & Colby Caldwell (Art & Art History). It got me thinking about the outstanding DVD collection that we have here at the SMCM Library – almost 3,000 strong!

First, some background information. DVD’s circulate for three days and may be renewed up to three times – so you can keep them for almost two weeks. Like so many of our other items here, they are NOT subject to daily overdue fines. The collection is behind the circulation desk so you can’t browse the titles yourself, but we have some options if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for.

Binder: we have a binder at the circulation desk that lists our films (DVD & VHS) in alphabetical order. We’re adding DVD’s to the collection all the time so this list isn’t 100% complete, but it is very accurate – we update the binder once or twice a year.
Catalog: our online catalog can be used to search for films in many different ways – title, language, genre, actors/director/producer, etc etc. I recommend using the advanced search screen as it has many more options.

For example, let us say you want to watch something from the Criterion Collection (we have well over 200). Set the format to “DVD” and search for the series “criterion collection” – like so:

This will bring up the list of Criterion Collection films that we own. Say you click on The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, but discover that it is checked out. However, you still want to watch a documentary although you’re not sure which one. Scroll down the page a bit and find the “subjects” listing. This is all the different subjects that the film might fit into. Click on “documentary films” and the catalog will bring up all the documentary films owned by the SMCM Library.

These are just a few of the tools available to search for films in the SMCM Library catalog. You can search for actors, directors, or producers; academy award nominees/winners; foreign-language films; and almost any other bibliographic information you can think of. So if you’re in the mood to relax on the couch and take in a movie, stop by the SMCM Library. We’ve got thousands to choose from in all genres – documentaries, educational films, dramas, comedies, etc etc. Whether an Oscar winner or researching the biodiversity of the Florida Everglades, the SMCM Library has what you’re looking for – and we’ll be glad to help you out in the search process as well, either in-person at the reference desk or virtually via the Ask Us feature embedded throughout our website.

Thanks, and happy librarying!