In celebration of the 2026 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecturer, Tressie McMillan Cottom, we have assembled a collection of her publications on the first floor of the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library. We invite you to come browse!
Cottom’s lecture will take place in Studzinski Recital Hall, Kanbar Auditorium on Saturday, January 31, 2026 from 5:00pm to 6:00pm EST. The event is open to the public.
A time capsule of imagination. This display explores how writers from the mid-20th century to today have dreamt of AI and the wonders and dangers it may engender. These books wrestle with power and labor, surveillance and climate. They probe what makes a person a person, and how care, consent, and accountability might stretch to include nonhuman minds.
Explore the collection across genres, from literary and speculative fiction to graphic narratives. Taken together, these works invite us to reflect on how technology entwines with ethics, inequality, and everyday life.
Written with assistance from LibreChat
My initial goal for this exhibition was to celebrate the culture that multiracial people have made for themselves. Multiple racial identities often include intimate access to multiple traditions of cooking, clothing, and community. Often, mixed people exist at a unique intersection, able to build their own practices by merging existing traditions. Other times, mixed people are at risk of being rejected by one parent culture, the other, or both. In each of these cases, something new and very beautiful can be born. As I’ve worked on this curation, I’ve honed in on certain themes that are important to me. One is the multiracial childhood – I remember being six years old and my parents explaining to me what I was. I remember learning about interracial mixing in schools where I was the only version of me. The multiracial childhood is interesting to me because it is the beginning. The first moments where a child realizes they might be different. From here comes the academic writing on how nonsensical the idea of “pure” race is, the memoirs where mixed people navigate their parental relationships, the portraits and films attempting to tackle the expansive subject of ambiguous race, the constant and creative attempts at understanding. I’ve included such works in the collection, in addition to the children’s picture books that didn’t exist when I was in kindergarten. The simple gesture of drawing two parents of different colors on a page, and what that means for kids today. In reality, most people are mixed at some level of their ancestry. Race is a social construct and racial mixing is too, one that has tangible consequences. Sometimes these consequences are never on the same page with parents you try to emulate, or when trying to resolve in yourself the friction between your cultures of origin. Most of the time, though, it means unique forms of music, of storytelling, and of being. It’s the creation of a community greater than the sum of its parts. It’s me, Kanene Ellen Nwokeji, working on the present collection with the help of the friends I’ve found and the culture that we’ve built together. It’s the unstoppable flow of social change to make a moment like this possible, the sun gleaming through broken branches, and the new hope waiting for you in the morning.
Kanene’s collection, “Multiracialism”, launched on October 3rd, 2025, and will be on display in H-L Collection Highlights for the 2025-26 academic year, or can be browsed digitally here.
October is LGBTQ History Month. Neiman Mocombe, ’26, curator of last year’s Student Voices Collection, “The Black Artist”, has selected titles that investigate cultural views on queerness throughout history, in addition to celebrating the tenacity and creativity of queer individuals. Scientists, athletes, celebrities, and artists have courageously spoken out about their identities in the midst of ongoing stigmatization.
Nieman hopes that “by exploring this collection, you will notice the intersectionality within these genres and how, regardless of their situation, queer people continue to shape and pioneer transformative creations and ideas that positively impact society.”
Bowdoin Library commemorates Banned Books Week (October 5-11) with a selection of well-loved banned books from the collection, on display on H-L first floor.
Banned Books Week was established in 1982 in response to a sudden increase in attempts to censor books. This year’s theme, “Censorship Is So 1984. Read for Your Rights,” reminds us that censorship efforts are escalating in the United States, and increasingly come from organized movements.
Each year the Banned Books Week Coalition appoints an Honorary Chair. George Takei, a Civil-Rights activist, author, and actor is Honorary Chair for 2025. He writes, “[o]ur ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’ depends on a public that is informed and empathetic, and books teach us both information and empathy.”
The 2024-25 BIPOC Book Display, “The Black Artist,” curated by Neiman Mocombe ’26, opened with a kickoff event on Friday, September 27 at Hawthorne-Longfellow.
This exhibition aims to exemplify, appreciate, and celebrate the individual accomplishments of black artists from the precolonial period to the present. Similar to how Edison, Beethoven, and Da Vinci are archetypes ingrained in our societal consciousness for what it means to be an inventor, artist, or icon – black people around the world have created invaluable objects, genres, and methods, which we commonly overlook, intentionally or passively.
The collection of books I have curated exemplifies the extraordinary tenacity, intellect, and resilience of black artists. The collection also tackles (broadly) what it means to be an artist. Since art as we know it is usually constricted into painting, sculpture, and drawing, I wanted to expand the possibilities of who could be considered an artist. For this reason, I have included works that showcase athletes, orators, academics, scientists, business tycoons, etc.
The achievements of these (black) individuals become even more remarkable when we consider that these artists accomplished them while enduring unimaginable levels of bigotry, violence, and animosity solely due to the color of their skin.
Through this exhibition, I hope you can learn that the world around you, the words you hear, and the things you see resulted from black creativity and, by extension, the black artist.
The 2023-24 BIPOC Book Display, “Asian America and Asian Diasporas,” curated by Hannah Kim, ’24, opened with a kickoff event on Friday, October 13 at Hawthorne-Longfellow. You can watch a recording on Facebook of Hannah’s conversation with Carmen Greenlee, our Humanities and Media Librarian.
The display will be in place through the 2023-24 academic year.
This display also coincides with this year’s Asian American Reckonings.
This display aims to share the vibrancy of newly released literatures by Asian American and Asian diasporic authors. It features a multi-genre range of creative expressions and focuses on marginalized groups within Asian American and Asian diasporic communities, including working class, queer, multiracial/multicultural, and adoptee narratives. Through their fiction, nonfiction, poetry, visual art, and hybrid/interdisciplinary works, the authors in this collection demonstrate unique modes of inquiry, investigation, and self-representation. Together, these titles touch upon a wide array of topics, such as personal and collective grief, climate and the natural world, mental health and racial justice, arts and entertainment, language and translation, immigration and labor, coming-of-age and intergenerational dialogue, social media and digital technology, and COVID-19 and communal repair.
The Library’s 2022-23 BIPOC Collection, curated by Karla Lainez, ‘24, opened with a discussion with Karla on November 17. The video is on Facebook.
The display remained in place through the 2022-23 academic year.
Hi! I am so happy you are here, browsing through the 2022 Fall BIPOC Collection focused on Latinidad, identity, and queer love at the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library.
My name is Karla Lainez, and I am a junior at Bowdoin College. When beginning to think about this collection and what to include within it, I knew I wanted it to have a variety of stories, experiences, and voices that celebrate and show our strength and humanity: the love, the struggles, the family, the humor, the joy, the care, and the empowerment. Often, the narrative is one of lack of power and autonomy, but we are strong, le echamos ganas, continually show up, and are here. Our experiences matter, and finding a character or person to relate to is so crucial. I also wanted to have books in the collection I wished I had growing up, as seeing parts of my identity, and that of my friends represented and honored in school didn’t occur. My identities as a queer Mexcian and Salvadoran American daughter of immigrants have had an impact on how connected I’ve been able to feel. Books on queer love and joy were never on the shelves, much less by Latine/a/o authors, which is why I can’t wait to read these. The younger version of me would have loved seeing these books in the library or recommended by a professor. I probably would have read more. So, I am so glad they can be added here, and I hope you can enjoy them too.
I’ve tried to include an author from each part of Latin America, recognizing that while we have many shared experiences that unite us as a community, our cultures and countries are unique. Additionally, these works will increase the number of books Bowdoin has by Latine/a/o authors within the library, which must continue and expand even after the display of this collection ends. This collection contains a variety of formats, from essays, poems, children’s books, fiction, and anthologies, to even films. It includes stories that aren’t highlighted enough, and experiences that deserve to be shared and heard. Finding a space where you feel seen, welcomed, and understood at a predominantly white institution like Bowdoin is hard. So, I hope that within these works, you find a piece that resonates with you, even if just a line.
Thank you 🙂
| Title | Author |
|---|---|
| La Señora Varsovia | Abend van Dalen, Raquel |
| The Poet X | Acevedo, Elizabeth |
| Inheritance: A Visual Poem | Acevedo, Elizabeth |
| Performing the US Latina and Latino borderlands | Aldama, Artuo . |
| Violeta: A novel | Allende, Isabel |
| The Woman I kept to myself | Alvarez, Julia |
| In the time of the butterflies | Alvarez, Julia |
| mala mala | Antonio Santini, Dan Sickles |
| Borderlands: the new mestiza = la frontera | Anzaldúa, Gloria |
| This bridge called my back: writings by radical women of color | Anzaldúa, Gloria and Moraga, Cherrie |
| Tía Fortuna’s New Home: A Jewish Cuban Journey | Behar, Ruth |
| Fire from the Andes: Short Fiction by Women from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru | Benner, Susan and Leonard, Kathy |
| We Are Owed | Brown, Ariana |
| Tengo una tía que no es monjita | Cardoza, Melissa |
| 13 Colors of the Honduran Resitance | Cardoza, Melissa |
| So Far From God | Castillo, Ana |
| The House on Mango Street | Cisneros, Sandra |
| Caramelo | Cisneros, Sandra |
| Reclaim the stars: 17 tales across realms & space | Córdova, Zoraida |
| Latina Lesbian Writers and Authors | Costa, María Colores |
| Halsey Street | Coster, Naima |
| Homecoming queers : desire and difference in Chicana Latina cultural production | Danielson, Marivel |
| Mango Moon | de Anda, Diane |
| Kiwi | de Posadas, Carmen |
| Cantoras | De Robertis, Carolina |
| Vindictas: Cuentistas Latinoamericanas | Delgado, Susy |
| Here Comes the Sun | Dennis-Benn, Nicole |
| Ordinary Girls: A memoir | Díaz, Jaquira |
| Islandborn | Diaz, Junot |
| Boogie, Boogie, Yall | Esperanza, C. G. |
| “Sabrina & Corina” | Fajardo-Anstine, Kali |
| Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer | Figueroa, Jamie |
| Empanada: A Lesbiana Story en Probaditas | Flores, Anel |
| Antonio’s card | Gonzalaez, rigoberto |
| Calling the doves | gonzales, grace cornell |
| All Around Us | Gonzalez, Xelena |
| Olga Dies Dreaming | Gonzalez, Xochitl |
| Catrachos | Guzmán, Roy |
| The book of Unknown Americans | Henriquez, Cristina |
| Mucha Muchacha, Too Much Girl | Hernández Linares, Leticia |
| A Cup of Water Under My Bed | Hernandez, Daisy |
| A Child Grows Up and Wonders | Hernandez, Felicia O |
| American Dreamer | Herrera, Adriana |
| Cafe con Lychee | Lee, Emery |
| Fiebre Tropical | Lopera, Julián Delgado |
| Cuentamelo | Lopera, Julián Delgado |
| Peluda | Lozada-Olivia, Melissa |
| Killing Marías: A Poem for Multiple Voices | Luna, Claudia Catro |
| No Filter and Oher Lies | Maldonado, Crystal |
| Our Shadows Have Claws | Many |
| Wild Tounges Can’t Be Tamed: 15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora | many |
| Ophelia After All | Marie, Racquel |
| Alma and How She Got Her Name | Martinez-Neal, Juana |
| Here the Whole Time | Martins, Vitor |
| One of a kind like me | Mayeno, Laurin |
| Lake Lore | McLemore, Anna-Marie |
| Furia | Mendez, Yamile |
| Mexican Gothic | Moreno-Garcia, Silvia |
| Alicia and the Hurricane | Newman, Leslea |
| What’s Coming To Me | Padilla, Francesca |
| 500 years | Pamela Yates |
| Funeral for Flaca | Prado, Emily |
| The Five Wounds | Quade, Kirstin Valdez |
| Beauty Woke | Ramos, NoNieqa |
| The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School | Reyes, Sonora |
| A Girl’s Guide to Love & Magic | Rigaud, Debbie |
| They Call Me Mix/Me Llaman Maestre | Rivas, Lourdes |
| Juliet Takes a Breath | Rivera, Gabby |
| America Vol. 1: The Life And Times Of America Chavez | Rivera, Gabby |
| For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts: A Love Letter to Women of Color | Rodríguez, Prisca Dorcas Mojica |
| Aristotle and Dante Discover the secrets of the Universe | Sáenz, Benjamin Alire |
| Hermosa | Salgado, Yesika |
| I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter | Sanchez, Erika |
| With Lots of Love | Sanchez, Jenny Toress |
| Una Mujer Fantastica | Sebastián Lelio |
| Nameless Woman: An Anthology of Fiction by Trans Women of Color | Selenite, Venus |
| Cemetery Boys | Thomas, Aiden |
| Lotería | Valenti, Karla |
| Lulu and Milagro’s Search for Clarity | Velez, Angela |
| Fifteen Hunded Miles From The Sun | Villa, Jonny Garza |
| Las Malas | Villada, Camila Sosa |
| The Grief Keeper | Villasante, Alexandra |
| The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina | Zoraida Córdova |
The BIPOC Book Display, curated by Shandiin Largo ’23, was on display on the first floor of H-L Library through the 2021-22 academic year. The display highlighted materials held at the Bowdoin Library.
The recording of Shandiin Largo’s conversation with Carmen Greenlee is on Facebook.
I would like to recognize that Bowdoin College is located on the traditional homelands of the Abenaki People. The Abenaki are members of the Wabanaki Confederacy, or “People of the Dawn,” which include five member nations: the Abenaki, Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, and the Penobscot. I pay my respects to the Wabanaki Confederacy who have been and continue to be on this land as the original inhabitants and caretakers of what is now known as the State of Maine. I also want to recognize their enduring stewardship over their homelands, their resistance to ongoing forms of settler colonialism, and their resilience in preserving ancestral knowledge and practices for future generations.
Yá’át’ééh, shí eí Shandiin Largo yiniishye. ’Ádóone’é nishłínígíí ‘éí ‘Áshįįhi nishłį́, Kinyaa’áanii bashishchiin, Tódich’ii’nii dashicheii, dóó Ts’ah yisk’idnii dashinalí. Ákót’éego diné asdzáán nishłį́. Tséta’ tó’alk’olí dee naasha adoo Bowdoin College dee’ ííníshta.’
My name is Shandiin Largo, I am Salt clan, born for Towering House clan. My maternal grandfather is Bitter Water clan, and my paternal grandfather is Sagebrush Hill clan. In this way, I am a Diné woman. I am from the Eastern Agency of the Navajo Reservation—Casamero Lake, New Mexico. I am currently in my third year at Bowdoin College.
In honor of Native American Heritage Month, and as part of an ongoing BIPOC series at the Bowdoin College Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, I present to you a snapshot of Indigenous literature, with special focus on contemporary Indigenous authors who have published works within the past year. This collection showcases the complicated history between Indigenous populations and settler colonial powers in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Hawai’i, Russia, and Australia, and includes works from the late 1960s to today. Additionally, I have included a variety of genres, from children’s books, graphic novels, and poetry books to memoirs, horror fiction novels, and academic history books that center Indigenous identities and experiences. The main purpose of this book display is to dispel racist and harmful stereotypes made about Indigenous peoples that still exist in the media and in our classrooms.
As a member of an institution and a society that have been the perpetrators of the dehumanization, exoticization, and erasure of Indigenous peoples, you should let this book display and its contents remind you that Indigenous peoples still exist and are thriving. I hope this book display also reminds you that the work to achieve racial equality and justice does not stop with representation but continues with you and me.
Axhee’ee, Thank you.
| Author | Title | Call Number | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| Akiwenzie-Damm, Katerie | This Place: 150 Years Retold | PN6732 .T48 2019 | Graphic Novel |
| Alexie, Sherman | Blasphemy | PS3551.L35774 B53 2012 | Fiction |
| Alexie, Sherman | Ten Little Indians | PS3551.L35774 T46 2003 | Fiction |
| Álvarez, Noé | Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land | GV1065.23.N67 A48 2020 | Biography |
| Anderson, Kim | A Recognition of Being: Reconstructing Native Womanhood | E98.W8 A53 2000b | Nonfiction |
| Barnaby, Jeff | Blood Quantum | DVD PN1997.2 .B5826 2020 | Horror |
| Barnaby, Jeff | Rhymes for Young Ghouls | Online streaming access | Horror |
| Beardslee, Louis | Words Like Thunder: New and Used Anishinaabe Prayers | PS3602.E255 W67 2020 | Poetry |
| Bearhead, Charlene | Siha Tooskin Knows the Strength of His Hair | PS8603.E3527 S63 | Children’s Fiction |
| Belcourt, Billy-Ray | NDN Coping Mechanisms | PR9199.4.B448 N39 2019 | Poetry |
| Bellecourt, Clyde H. | The Thunder Before the Storm: the Autobiography of Clyde Bellecourt | E99.C6 B425 2016 | Autobiography |
| Belin, Esther G. | The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature | PS508.I5 D56 2021 | Anthology |
| Benaway, Gwen | Day/ Break | PR9199.4.B45945 D39 2020 | Poetry |
| Boivin, Lisa | I Will See You Again | E99.T56 B63 2020 | Young Adult Fiction |
| Charles, Mark | Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery | E93 .C428 2019 | History |
| Cunningham, Francine | On/Me | PR9199.4.C8645 O6 2019 | Poetry |
| Curtice, Kaitlin B. | Native Identity: Belonging & Rediscovering God | E99.P8 C87 2020 | Autobiography |
| Deloria, Philip Joseph | Playing Indian | E98.P99 D45 1998 | Nonfiction |
| Deloria, Vine | Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties: An Indian Declaration of Independence | E93 .D35 | Political Nonfiction |
| Deloria, Vine | Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto | E93 .D36 1988 | Political Nonfiction |
| Diaz, Natalie | Postcolonial Love Poem | PS3604.I186 A6 2020 | Poetry |
| Diaz, Natalie | When My Brother Was An Aztec | PS3604.I186 W47 2012 | Poetry |
| Dillon, Grace | Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction | PN6120.95.S33 W35 2012 | Anthology |
| Dimaline, Cherie | Empire of Wild | PR9199.4.D56 E47 2021 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
| Dimaline, Cherie | The Marrow Thieves | PR9199.4.D56 M37 2017 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
| Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne | An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States | E76.8 .D86 2014 | History |
| Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne | Not “A Nation of Immigrants”: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion | E175 .D86 2021 | History |
| Earling, Debra Magpie | Perma Red | PS3605.A765 P47 2003 | Historical Fiction |
| Elliott, Alicia | A Mind Spread Out on the Ground | E78.C2 E487 2020 | Autobiography |
| Emezi, Akwaeke | Pet | PZ7.1.E474 Pet 2019 | Horror |
| Erdrich, Heid E. | Little Big Bully | PS3555.R418 L58 2020 | Poetry |
| Erdrich, Louise | Future Home of the Living God | PS3555.R42 F88 2017 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
| Erdrich, Louise | Love Medicine | PS3555.R42 L6 1993 | Fiction |
| Erdrich, Louise | The Night Watchman | PS3555.R42 N54 2020 | Historical Fiction |
| Fajardo-Anstine, Kali | Sabrina & Corina | PS3606.A396 S23 2019 | Fiction |
| Febos, Melissa | Abandon Me | PS3606.E26 Z44 2018 | Autobiography |
| Ford, Kelli Jo | Crooked Hallelujah | PS3606.O7393 C76 2021 | Historical Fiction |
| Gansworth, Eric | Apple: (Skin to the Core) | PS3557.A5196 A66 2020 | Memoir |
| George, Bridget | It’s a Mitig! | PZ8.3.G292 It 2020 | Children’s Fiction |
| Gill, Marie-Andrée | Spawn | PQ3919.3.G53 A2 2020 | Poetry |
| GoldenEagle, Carol Rose | Bone Black | PR9199.4.G634 B66 2019 | Sci-Fi/ Fantasy |
| Good, Michelle | Five Little Indians | PR9199.4.G6645 F58 2020 | Fiction |
| Grace, Patricia | Dogside Story | PR9619.3.W67 C37 2009 | Fiction |
| Grover, Linda LeGarde | The Road Back to Sweetgrass | PS3607.R6777 R63 2014 | Fiction |
| Harjo, Joy | Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings | PS3558.A62423 C6 2015 | Poetry |
| Harjo, Joy | How We Became Human | PS3558.A62423 H69 2004 | Poetry |
| Harjo, Joy | When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry | PS591.I55 W47 2020 | Anthology |
| Hausman, Blake M. | Riding the Trail of Tears | PS3608.A8765 R53 2011 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
| Hilton, Carol Anne | Indigenomics: Taking a Seat At the Economic Table | E98.B87 H55 2021 | Nonfiction |
| Hobson, Brandon | Where the Dead Sit Talking | PS3608.O248 W48 2018 | Young Adult Fiction |
| Howe, LeAnne | Choctalking On Other Realities | PS3608.O95 C46 2013 | Biography |
| Howe, LeAnne | Savage Conversations | PS3608.O95 S28 2019 | Historical Fiction |
| Howe, LeAnne | Shell Shaker | PS3608.O95 S48 2001 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
| Hulme, Keri | The Bone People | PR9639.3.H75 B6 1986 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
| Ittusardjuat, Serapio | How I Survived: Four Nights On the Ice | G606 .I8813 2020 | Graphic Novel |
| Johnson, Harold | Peace and Good Order: The Case of Indigenous Justice in Canada | KE7709 .J64 2019 | Biography |
| Jones, Stephen Graham | Ledfeather | PS3560.O5395 L43 2008 | Historical Fiction |
| Jones, Stephen Graham | The Only Good Indians | PS3560.O5395 O55 2020 | Horror |
| Jonnie, Brianna | If I Go Missing | PN6733.J66 I35 2019 | Graphic Novel |
| Kahakauwila, Kristiana | This is Paradise | PS3611.A3455 T48 2013 | Fiction |
| Kimmerer, Robin Wall | Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants | E98.P5 K56 2013 | Autobiography |
| King, Thomas | 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin | PR9199.3.K4422 A16 2019 | Poetry |
| King, Thomas | The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America | E77 .K566 | History |
| Knott, Helen | In My Own Moccasins: A Memoir of Resilience | E78.B9 K56 2020 | Memoir |
| Kwaymullina, Ambelin | The Things She’s Seen | PR9619.4.K929 T454 2021 | Sci-Fi/ Fantasy |
| Lavell-Harvard, Memee | Forever Loved: Exposing the Hidden Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada | HV6250.4.W65 F674 2016 | Nonfiction |
| Lindstrom, Carole | We Are Water Protectors | PZ7.L6613 We 2020 | Children’s Fiction |
| Little Badger, Darcie | Elatsoe | PZ7.1.L57812 El 2020 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
| Long Soldier, Layli | Whereas | PS3612.O5248 A6 2017 | Poetry |
| Lundy, Randy | Field Notes for the Self | PR9199.3.L864 F54 2020 | Poetry |
| Mailhot, Terese Marie | Heart Berries | RC552.P67 M3555 2018 | Autobiography |
| Mankiller, Wilma | Every Day Is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women | Online Book Access | Biography |
| Maracle, Lee | Hope Matters | PR9199.3.M3497 H67 2019 | Poetry |
| McBride, Karen | Crow Winter | PR9199.4.M3945 C76 2019 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
| McCue, Duncan | The Shoe Boy: A Trapline Memoir | E99.C88 M34 2020 | Memoir |
| McLeod, Darrel J. | Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age | E99.C88 M34 2019 | Autobiography |
| Momaday, N. Scott | Earth Keeper | PS3563.O47 E278 2020 | Poetry |
| Momaday, N. Scott | House Made of Dawn | PS3563.O47 H6 2018 | Historical Fiction |
| Naponse, Darlene | Before the Usual Time: A Collection of Indigenous Stories and Poems | PR9194.5.I5 B44 2020 | Anthology |
| Noodin, Margaret | What the Chickadee Knows | PS3614.O63 W46 2020 | Poetry |
| Orange, Tommy | There, There | PS3615.R32 T48 2018 | Fiction |
| Ortiz, Simon J. | Woven Stone | PS3565.R77 W6 1992 | Poetry |
| Pennock, Tyler | Bones | PR9199.4.P4635 B66 2020 | Poetry |
| Pico, Tommy | Feed | PS3616.I288 F44 2019 | Poetry |
| Rice, Waubgeshig | Moon of the Crusted Snow: A Novel | PR9199.4.R487 M66 2018 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
| Robertson, David | Breakdown | PN6733.R63 B74 2020 | Graphic Novel |
| Robertson, David | Black Water: Family, Legacy, and Blood Memory | PR9199.4.R582 Z46 2020 | Autobiography |
| Robertson, David | The Barren Grounds | PR9199.4.R582 B37 2021 | Children’s Fiction |
| Robinson, Eden | Monkey Beach | PR9199.3.R5334 M6 2000 | Sci-Fi/ Fantasy |
| Ruffo, Armand Garnet | Treaty # | PR9199.3.R77 T74 2019 | Poetry |
| Rytkheu, Yuri | A Dream in Polar Fog | PG3476.R965 S613 2005 | Fiction |
| Rytkheu, Yuri | The Chukchi Bible | PG3476.R965 P6713 2011 | Fiction |
| Rytkheu, Yuri | When the Whales Leave | PG3476.R965 K613 2019 | Fiction |
| Scott, Kim | That Deadman Dance | PR9619.3.S373 T43 2012 | Historical Fiction |
| Seesequasis, Paul | Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun | E78.C2 S384 2019 | Biography |
| Silko, Leslie Marmon | Ceremony | PS3569.I44 C4 | Fiction |
| Skeets, Jake | Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers | PS3619.K46 A6 2019 | Poetry |
| Smith, Cynthia Leitich | Hearts Unbroken | PS3568.M57 H43 2018 | Young Adult Fiction |
| Spillett-Sumner, Tasha | Surviving the City | PN6733.S65 S87 v.1 2018 | Graphic Novel |
| Spillett-Sumner, Tasha | Surviving the City Vol.2, From the Roots Up | PN6733.S65 S87 v.2 2020 | Graphic Novel |
| Staples, Dennis E. | This Town Sleeps | PS3619.T3675 T55 2020 | Fiction |
| Tagaq, Tanya | Split Tooth | PR9199.4.T343 S655 2018 | Fiction |
| Talaga, Tanya | Seven Fallen Feathers | E78.O5 T35 2017 | Biography |
| Taylor, Drew | Chasing Painted Horses | PR9199.3.T35 C37 2019 | Fiction |
| Thistle, Jesse | From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way | E99.M47 T55 2019 | Autobiography |
| Treuer, David | The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present | E77 .T797 2019 | History |
| Twist, Arielle | Disintegrate/ Dissociate | PR9199.4.T94 D57 2019 | Poetry |
| Van Camp, Richard | Moccasin Square Gardens | PS8593 .A5376 M63 2019 | Fiction |
| Vermette, Katherena | A Girl Called Echo | PN6733.V47 P46 v.1 2017 | Graphic Novel |
| Vizenor, Gerald Robert | Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles | PS3572.I9 D37 1990 | Sci-Fi/Fantasy |
| Wagamese, Richard | A Quality of Light | PR9199.3.W316 Q35 1997 | Fiction |
| Wagamese, Richard | For Joshua: An Ojibwe Father Teaches His Son | PR9199.3.W316 Z466 2020 | Autobiography |
| Wagamese, Richard | Indian Horse | PR9199.3.W316 I63 2012 | Fiction |
| Walbourne-Gough, Douglas | Crow Gulch | PR9199.4.W3243 C76 2019 | Poetry |
| Washuta, Elissa | My Body is a Book of Rules | CT275.W316 A3 2014 | Memoir |
| Washuta, Elissa | White Magic: Essays | BF1598.W37 W5 2021 | Memoir |
| Weiden, David, Heska Wanbli | Winter Counts | PS3623.E4246 W56 2020 | Sci-Fi/ Fantasy |
| Welch, James | Winter in the Blood | PS3573.E44 W5 2008 | Historical Fiction |
| Whitehead, Joshua | Full-Metal Indigiqueer: Poems | PR9199.4.W4745 F8 2017 | Poetry |
| Whitehead, Joshua | Jonny Appleseed | PR9199.4.W4745 J64 2018 | Fiction |
| Whitehead, Joshua | Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction | PN6120.92.G39 L68 2020 | Anthology |
| Wright, Alexis | Carpentaria | PR9619.3.W67 C37 2009 | Fiction |
| Yahgulanaas, Michael Nicoll | Carpe Fin: A Haida Manga | folio PN6733.Y34 C37 2019 | Graphic Novel |
The spring 2021 BIPOC book display highlighted materials held at the Bowdoin Library and represented an opportunity to increase the inclusivity of Library collections from a student perspective. Thando curated this inaugural display, which focused on themes of motherhood and spoke to her childhood disappointment in not finding someone like herself among the literary characters she most admired.
Through conceiving of and curating the display, Thando hoped to “increase representation and show children of color everywhere that they can see themselves slaying dragons and saving the world in a way I never could have dreamed.” In conversation with Carmen Greenlee, Humanities and Media Librarian, Thando spoke about the theme of the display and her selection of books included in it and read selected passages. The recording is up on Facebook.
Growing up, the majority of the characters in the books I read did not match my pigmentation: they were white. I wanted to be like the Hermione Grangers of the world; however, by middle school, I realized that, because of the color of my skin, I would never be able to properly see myself in the characters I loved so much. Consequently, a hate for my black skin began to grow in my heart. I would cry myself to sleep and ask God why he had forsaken me with this skin. Now that I have grown in confidence and love for my melanin, I would like to save young black children across the country from the same destruction of self that I endured. This list is meant to increase representation and show black children everywhere that they can see themselves slaying dragons and saving the world in a way I never could have dreamed. Also, increased inclusivity on the shelves will help white and other non-black patrons gain access to black experiences that they might not be exposed to otherwise.
– Thando Khumalo
Thando created this list of books (Google doc), of which 70 titles went on to become part of the display