We at the Transatlantic Agency are proud to honor and recognize Juneteenth today, and share a list of recommended reads from our clients that will help readers better understand the tumultuous history that still permeates African American and African Canadian communities today.
Juneteenth (a combination of “June” and “nineteenth”) celebrations mark the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally learned that the Emancipation Proclamation had declared them free more than two years earlier. Annual celebrations of the occasion—parades, fireworks, cookouts, community gatherings, dances—spread beyond Texas as African Americans migrated across the country and traditions were passed on from family to family and community to community.
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” – Frederick Douglass
– BLACK AND WHITE by Stephen Dorsey (Nimbus Publishing)
As a bilingual, biracial man, straddling Black and white, English and French Canada, Stephen Dorsey lives in a world of dualities. In his deeply personal and insightful debut, he offers readers intimate and unfiltered access to his lived experience of anti-Black racism around the world, including Canada, the United States, and Europe, focusing on his formative years growing up in 1970s Montreal as a Black child in a white family headed by a racist stepfather, and details his personal awakening inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.
A powerful blend of autobiography and social analysis, Black & White is an intimate excavation of systemic racism in North America — from our health-care and education systems, to policing and law, to a deep analysis of the uniquely intersectional discrimination faced by minorities in Dorsey’s home province of Quebec. With an inclusive and accessible approach, aimed at community connection and education, Dorsey delves deep into Canada’s history of racial discrimination and, by contrasting it with that of our American neighbours, debunks our nation’s mythological narrative, providing necessary context on white privilege, which he calls “white advantage”, and offers concrete pathways to lasting societal change.
Stephen is represented by Samantha Haywood, as well as Rob Firing for the Speakers Division.
– IN THE UPPER COUNTRY by Kai Thomas (Penguin Canada)
The fates of two unforgettable women—one just beginning a journey of reckoning and self-discovery and the other completing her life’s last vital act—intertwine in this sweeping, deeply researched debut set in the Black communities of Ontario that were the last stop on the Underground Railroad.
Young Lensinda Martin is a protegee of a crusading Black journalist in mid-18th century southwestern Ontario, finding a home in a community founded by refugees from the slave-owning states of the American south—whose agents do not always stay on their side of the border.
One night, a neighbouring farmer summons Lensinda after a slave hunter is shot dead on his land by an old woman recently arrived via the Underground Railroad. When the old woman, whose name is Cash, refuses to flee before the authorities arrive, the farmer urges Lensinda to gather testimony from her before Cash is condemned.
But Cash doesn’t want to confess. Instead she proposes a barter: a story for a story. And so begins an extraordinary exchange of tales that reveal the interwoven history of Canada and the United States; of Indigenous peoples from a wide swath of what is called North America and of the Black men and women brought here into slavery and their free descendents on both sides of the border.
As Cash’s time runs out, Lensinda realizes she knows far less than she believed not only about the complicated tapestry of her nation, but also of her own family history. And it seems that Cash may carry a secret that could shape Lensinda’s destiny.
Sweeping along the path of the Underground Railroad from the southern States to Canada, through the lands of Indigenous nations around the Great Lakes, to the Black communities of southern Ontario, In the Upper Country weaves together unlikely stories of love, survival, and familial upheaval that map the interconnected history of the peoples of North America in an entirely new and resonant way.
Kai is represented by Samantha Haywood.
– CODE NOIR by Canisia Lubrin (Knopf Canada)
Canisia Lubrin’s debut fiction is that rare work of art—a brilliant, startlingly original book that combines immense literary and political force. Its structure is deceptively simple: it departs from the infamous real-life “Code Noir,” a set of historical decrees originally passed in 1685 by King Louis XIV of France defining the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire. The original Code had fifty-nine articles; Code Noir has fifty-nine linked fictions—vivid, unforgettable, multi-layered fragments filled with globe-wise characters who desire to live beyond the ruins of the past.
Ranging in style from contemporary realism to dystopia, from futuristic fantasy to historical fiction, this inventive, shape-shifting braid of stories exists far beyond the enclosures of official decrees. This is a timely, daring, virtuosic book by a young literary star. The stories are accompanied by black-and-white drawings—one at the start of each fiction—by acclaimed visual artist Torkwase Dyson.
Canisia is represented by Samantha Haywood.
– HAIR TO SHARE by Sylvia Walker (Crown Books For Young Readers)
A joyful exploration of friendship, generosity, and confidence that comes from within.
A fresh take on celebrating the beauty of natural textured hair, HAIR TO SHARE tackles the difficulty of childhood medical hair loss and the impact empathy and generosity can have on one’s self-esteem.
Suri was born with more hair than anyone had ever seen on a baby. As she grew, so did her hair until it eventually reached all the way down to her knees! But when she makes a new friend a girl who has no hair, Suri wants to find a way to help her feel comfortable and confident.
Complete with backmatter addressing the many causes of medical hairloss, how to support kids managing hair loss, and how to donate or receive natural hair wigs, this sweet story is the embodiment of generosity and self love.
Sylvia is represented by Elizabeth Bennett.
– THE GROVER SCHOOL PLEDGE by Wanda Taylor (HarperCollins Canada)
A true-to-life story about the pains and triumphs of growing up, perfect for readers of Renée Watson and Lisa Moore Ramée
Arlaina Jefferson is eager to prove herself. Tasked with caring for her cousin’s rabbit, Obeena, Arlaina knows all that stands between her and the grown-up world of middle school is one year of staying out of trouble and making sure to clean up Obeena’s turds. It would be easy—if growing up didn’t also mean growing wiser.
Having faced thoughtless comments from fellow students, Arlaina is already struggling to explain the hurt she feels to her best friend, Tina. But when their teacher, Mr. Matthews, asks an ignorant question about classmate Nadia’s headscarf, Arlaina has the confirmation she needs: Mr. Matthews is part of a larger problem that plagues Grover School. All those comments that Arlaina—and several other students—once brushed off suddenly seethe under the light of truth. Some things just can’t be fixed by Obeena’s warm and fuzzy charms.
Bolstered by her father’s childhood experience in the Million Man March, Arlaina teams up with no-nonsense Nadia and a host of other Grover School students to right a systemic wrong. After all, proving you’re grown up doesn’t always mean staying out of trouble!
Wanda is represented by Léonicka Valcius.
For further reading, you can also check out this list compiled by the New York Public Library: https://www.nypl.org/blog/2021/06/09/juneteenth-reads-all-ages