This February, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH®) is recognizing “African Americans and Labor” as the theme for Black History Month. These 16 new and noteworthy titles recognize the profound ways that work — “free and unfree, skilled and unskilled, vocational and voluntary” — and its tangible outcomes have influenced Black culture and creative fields.
While architecture and design in particular remain primarily white-dominated industries, February is the perfect time to examine this history and acknowledge Black experiences in these trades.
Join us in adding them to your reading lists this Black History Month.
Available This Month:
GREATNESS: Diverse Designers of Architecture by Pascale Sablan | ORO Editions
GREATNESS is a compelling exploration of the contributions of diverse architects to the field of architecture. This book delves into the essence of various architectural typologies, including residential, institutional, and master planning, through the lens of designers from varied backgrounds.
BLK MKT Vintage: Reclaiming Objects and Curiosities That Tell Black Stories by Jannah Handy and Kiyanna Stewart | Black Dog & Leventhal
This one-of-a-kind treasure trove of Black cultural ephemera, from the entrepreneurs behind the vintage shop BLK MKT Vintage, expands on their mission to curate vintage objects that tell Black stories and celebrate the contributions Black people have made to our American consciousness.
A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects by Robell Awake | Chronicle Books
Black artisans have long been central to American art and design, creating innovative and highly desired work against immense odds. Atlanta-based chairmaker and scholar Robell Awake explores the stories behind ten cornerstones of Black craft.
HERE: Where the Black Designers Are by Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller | Chronicle Books
Celebrated designer, writer, activist, and educator Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller’s memoir of a life in advocacy and her journey to answer the question “Where are the Black designers?”
David Hammons edited by Kellie Jones | The MIT Press
David Hammons is a collection of essays on one of the most important living Black artists of our time. Documenting five decades of visual practice from 1982 to the present, the book features contributions from scholars, artists, and cultural workers, and includes numerous images of the artist and his work that are not widely available.
Black Flora: Inspiring Profiles of Floriculture’s New Vanguard by Teresa J. Speight | Timber Press
Black Flora is the first book to feature profiles of contemporary Black experts innovating in the world of flowers. Author and longtime gardener, Teresa Speight, offers a beautiful intersection of flowers and community.
Picturing Black History: Photographs and Stories that Changed the World by Daniela Edmeier, Damarius Johnson, Nicholas B. Breyfogle and Steven Conn | Abrams Books
Picturing Black History uncovers untold stories and rarely seen images of the Black experience, providing new context around culturally significant moments. This beautiful collectible volume makes a thoughtful gift and is full of rousing, vibrant essays paired with rarely seen photographs that expand our understanding of Black history.
Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practices of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers by Malene Barnett | Artisan
A visual journey of Caribbean art profiling more than 60 contemporary Caribbean artists, curated by award-winning multidisciplinary artist and textile surface designer, Malene Barnett.
Rammellzee: Racing for Thunder edited by Maxwell Wolf and Jeff Mao | Rizzoli Electa
The late hip-hop pioneer, seminal graffiti writer, and iconoclast contemporary artist Rammellzee—a legend in his own time to his peers—was a profoundly transformative and influential figure across the art, graffiti, and music worlds.
Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience. by Michelle D. Commander | Rizzoli Electa
Explores the powerful ways in which visual art has long provided its own rich outlet for protest, commentary, escape, and perspective for African Americans.
Coming later this year:
Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California by Elaine Y. Yau | DelMonico Books
The first publication dedicated to historical African American quilts in California, Routed West traces the flow and flourishing of quilts in the context of the Second Great Migration from 1940 to 1970.
Publish date: June, 2025
Paula Wilson: Toward the Sky’s Back Door by Rebecca McNamara | DelMonico Books
This first major monograph features nearly two decades of work by American artist Paula Wilson (born 1975), who frequently intermixes her identity as a Black biracial artist, living in a rural desert town in New Mexico, with narratives and motifs across time and place.
Publish date: March 11, 2025
In the Studio: Jack Whitten by Yinka Elujoba | Hauser & Wirth Publishers
Born in Bessemer, Alabama, Jack Whitten (1939–2018) developed a revolutionary approach to painting as a medium that arguably reconfigured the discipline as a whole. His practice was defined by an intense, ceaseless experimentation with process and technique, drawing in unconventional tools and materials to create a profoundly original body of work.
Publish date: March 18, 2025
Gimme Some Sugar by Genesis Tramaine | Monacelli
Gimme Some Sugar is the much-anticipated first monograph from Genesis Tramaine, the renowned American artist whose star continues to rise in the international art world. In her gestural style, she seeks, at once, to represent and universalize the humanness of the American Black face by obscuring the specificity of individual features, choosing instead to portray the inner turmoil and inner joy of one’s mind and being.
Publish date: May 21, 2025
LaToya M. Hobbs: Carving Out Time by Elizabeth M Rudy | Yale University Press
Carving Out Time is a monumental print series by LaToya M. Hobbs (b. 1983), a painter and printmaker based in Baltimore. This publication—the first of its kind on the artist—presents the series in full, with commentary on both Hobbs’s practice and broader themes pertinent to her work and to the field of contemporary printmaking.
Publish date: July 1, 2025
Ornamental Blackness: The Black Figure in European Decorative Arts by Adrienne L. Childs | Yale University Press
This revelatory look at European decorative arts addresses the long-ignored implications of the depiction of Black bodies on luxury objects from the Baroque period through the nineteenth century. Adrienne L. Childs traces the complex history of the vogue for representing the Black body as an ornamental motif throughout spaces of wealth and refinement.
Publish date: May 13, 2025
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