February Reading Challenge: Reading Black Authors
March 03, 2026
My colleague, English teacher Sarah Hancock, and I have been thinking about how we, as educators, can help our students and colleagues make space in our distracting world for reading. And so school break reading challenges have become a staple this year at TA.
February is Black History Month, and we could think of no better way to continue to help students and staff celebrate their reading lives than to celebrate Black joy by reading Black authors over break.
What is Black joy? Elaine Nichols writes on the National Museum of African American History & Culture website, that Black joy is what “many scholars, journalists, authors, and others are describing as resistance, resilience, and reclamation of Black Humanity. When people live in a world that… dismisses their contributions… Black Joy is and has been an effective tool that has… shift[ed] the impact of negative narratives and events in their favor.”
For educators, teaching Black joy can mean centering positive, safe, and healing experiences before teaching about the traumatic and life-altering realities that Black people continue to face. And what could be more joyful than reading the creative and literary works of Black authors?
Here are a few of the texts our students and staff read over break, and their takeaways:
“Her poem is music… utterly serious in its dignity, and rebellious with its message. It’s powerful, without uttering a single hint of threat. What she is talking about makes me feel unafraid.”
— TA staff member on Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou
“It’s a good combination of insightful and funny.”
— High school student on Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
“Although it was a little difficult to read, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to a friend.”
— High school student on Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
“Each time I read it, it means something different… with some books, especially autobiographies, it is best if you read them more than once throughout time.”
— High school student on The Autobiography of Malcolm X
“A powerful story of women, spirits and strength.”
— TA faculty member on Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward