LibGuides: Women's History Month March 2023: RECOMMENDED MATERIALS

FICTION

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
Call Number: FIC SCHWARTZ
"The first thing we did was change our names. We were going to be Sappho," so begins this intrepid debut novel, centuries after the Greek poet penned her lyric verse. Ignited by the same muse, a myriad of women break from their small, predetermined lives for seemingly disparate paths: in 1892, Rina Faccio trades her needlepoint for a pen; in 1902, Romaine Brooks sails for Capri with nothing but her clotted paintbrushes; and in 1923, Virginia Woolf writes: "I want to make life fuller and fuller." Writing in cascading vignettes, Selby Wynn Schwartz spins an invigorating tale of women whose narratives converge and splinter as they forge queer identities and claim the right to their own lives. A luminous meditation on creativity, education, and identity,
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge
Call Number: FIC GREENIDGE
Coming of age in a free Black community in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson is all too aware that her purposeful mother, a practicing physician, has a vision for their future together: Libertie is to go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie, drawn more to music than science, feels stifled by her mother's choices and is hungry for something else--is there really only one way to have an autonomous life? And she is constantly reminded that, unlike her light-skinned mother, Libertie will not be able to pass for white. When a young man from Haiti proposes to Libertie and promises she will be his equal on the island, she accepts, only to discover that she is still subordinate to him and all men. As she tries to parse what freedom actually means for a Black woman, Libertie struggles with where she might find it--for herself and for generations to come.
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
Call Number: FIC MOTTLEY
A dazzling novel about a young Black woman who walks the streets of Oakland and stumbles headlong into the failure of its justice system. Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent--which has more than doubled--and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.

NON-FICTION

A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry; Kali Nicole Gross
Call Number: 305.488 BERRY
An empowering and intersectional history that centers the stories of African American women across 400+ years, showing how they are--and have always been--instrumental in shaping our country. In centering Black women's stories, two award-winning historians seek both to empower African American women and to show their allies that Black women's unique ability to make their own communities while combatting centuries of oppression is an essential component in our continued resistance to systemic racism and sexism.
The Correspondents by Judith Mackrell
Call Number: 070.449 MACKRELL
The riveting, untold history of a group of heroic women reporters who revolutionized the narrative of World War II--from Martha Gellhorn, who out-scooped her husband, Ernest Hemingway, to Lee Miller, a Vogue cover model turned war correspondent.

On the front lines of the Second World War, a contingent of female journalists were bravely waging their own battle. Barred from combat zones and faced with entrenched prejudice and bureaucratic restrictions, these women were forced to fight for the right to work on equal terms with men.
What Would Frida Do? by Arianna Davis
Call Number: 759.972 DAVIS
Revered as much for her fierce spirit as she is for her art, Frida Kahlo stands today as a feminist symbol of daring creativity. Her paintings have earned her admirers around the world, but perhaps her greatest work of art was her own life. What Would Frida Do? celebrates this icon's signature style, outspoken politics, and boldness in love and art--even in the face of hardship and heartbreak. We see her tumultuous marriage with the famous muralist Diego Rivera and rumored flings with Leon Trotsky and Josephine Baker. In this irresistible read, writer Arianna Davis conjures Frida's brave spirit, encouraging women to create fearlessly and stand by their own truths.
Ida: a Sword among Lions by Paula J. Giddings
Call Number: 921 WELLS-BARNETT, I.
From a thinker who Maya Angelou has praised for shining "a brilliant light on the lives of women left in the shadow of history," comes the definitive biography of Ida B. Wells--crusading journalist and pioneer in the fight for women's suffrage and against segregation and lynchings Ida B. Wells was born into slavery and raised in the Victorian age yet emerged--through her fierce political battles and progressive thinking--as the first "modern" black women in the nation's history. Wells began her activist career when she tried to segregate a first-class railway car in Memphis. After being thrown bodily off the car, she wrote about the incident for black Baptist newspapers, thus beginning her career as a journalist. But her most abiding fight would be the one against lynching, a crime in which she saw all the themes she held most dear coalesce: sexuality, race, and the law.
Bodies on the Line by Lauren Rankin
Call Number: 362.198 RANKIN
Incisive and eye-opening, Bodies on the Line makes a clear case that the right to an abortion is a fundamental part of human dignity. And now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v Wade, the stakes facing us all if that right disappears have never been higher. Clinic escorts--everyday volunteers who shepherd patients safely inside to receive care--are fighting on the front lines by replacing hostility with humanity. Prepared to stand up and protect abortion access as they have for decades, even in the face of terrorism and violence, clinic escorts live--and have even died--to ensure that abortion remains not only accessible but a basic human right. Their stories have never been told--until now. With precision and passion, Lauren Rankin traces the history and evolution of this movement to tell a broader story of the persistent threats to safe and legal abortion access, and the power of individuals to stand up and fight back. Deeply researched, featuring interviews with clinic staff, patients, experts, and activists--plus the author's own experience as a clinic escort--Bodies on the Line reframes the "abortion wars," highlighting the power of people to effect change amid unimaginable obstacles, and the unprecedented urgency of channeling that power.
Art of Feminism by Helena Reckitt (Editor); Lucinda Gosling (Text by); Hilary Robinson (Text by)
Call Number: 704.042 ART
Discover a rich showcase of the vibrant feminist aesthetic over the last 150 years: Once again, women are on the march. And since its inception in the 19th century, the Women's Movement has harnessed the power of images to transmit messages of social change and equality to the world. * Features more than 350 works of art, illustration, photography, performance, and graphic design along with essays examining the legacy of the radical canon
Burn It Down! by Breanne Fahs
Call Number: 305.4209 BURN
A comprehensive collection of feminist manifestos, chronicling rage and dreams from the nineteenth century to the present day A landmark collection spanning two centuries and four waves of feminist activism and writing, Burn It Down! is a testament to what is possible when women are driven to the edge. The manifesto--raging, demanding, quarreling and provocative--has always been central to feminism, and it's the angry, brash feminism we need now. Collecting over seventy-five manifestos from around the world, Burn It Down! is a rallying cry and a call to action. Among this confrontational sisterhood, you'll find the Dyke Manifesto by the Lesbian Avengers, The Ax Tampax Poem Feministo by the Bloodsisters Project, The Manifesto of Apocalyptic Witchcraft by Peter Grey, Simone de Beauvoir's pro-abortion Manifesto of the 343, Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female by Frances M. Beal, and many more.
The Women's House of Detention by Hugh Ryan
Call Number: LGBTQ+ 365 RYAN
This singular history of a prison, and the queer women and trans people held there, is a window into the policing of queerness and radical politics in the twentieth century. The Women's House of Detention, a landmark that ushered in the modern era of women's imprisonment, is now largely forgotten. But when it stood in New York City's Greenwich Village, from 1929 to 1974, it was a nexus for the tens of thousands of women, transgender men, and gender-nonconforming people who inhabited its crowded cells. Some of these inmates--Angela Davis, Andrea Dworkin, Afeni Shakur--were famous, but the vast majority were incarcerated for the crimes of being poor and improperly feminine. Today, approximately 40 percent of the people in women's prisons identify as queer; in earlier decades, that percentage was almost certainly higher. Historian Hugh Ryan explores the roots of this crisis and reconstructs the little-known lives of incarcerated New Yorkers, making a uniquely queer case for prison abolition--and demonstrating that by queering the Village, the House of D helped defined queerness for the rest of America. From the lesbian communities forged through the Women's House of Detention to the turbulent prison riots that presaged Stonewall, this is the story of one building and much more: the people it caged, the neighborhood it changed, and the resistance it inspired.
American Women by Susan Ware
Call Number: 305.40973 WARE
Susan Ware's concise and lively American Women presents "woman as force in history." Paying homage to historian Mary Ritter Beard's pathbreaking scholarship from the 1930s and 1940s, this conceptual framework highlights the contributions, recognized and unrecognized, that women have made tothe American experience. Without downplaying the historical constraints and barriers blocking women's advancement, Ware's narrative emphasizes women as active agents rather than passive victims in a variety of contexts throughout U.S. history.The goal of American Women is to give the reader familiarity with the main currents and themes of American history through engagement with the specific history of its women. This dual focus is necessary because it is impossible to write about women in isolation from men or unaffected by broader events and trends. And yet women's stories link to larger themes at the same time they often challenge them. With women's stories fully integrated into the broader national story, the end result is a richer understanding of American history in all its complexity, including its transnational and global dimensions.
#MeToo and Beyond by M. Cristina Alcalde (Editor); Paula-Irene Villa (Editor)
Call Number: 305.42 #METOO
Before #MeToo became the massive global movement we know today, these were the hashtags that represented mobilisations from Ukraine to Latin America that demanded accountability for the intersecting experiences of sexual violence and racism, xenophobia, and misogyny inflicted on women, transgender people, and girls. Lead by activists such as Tarana Burke, who coined the phrase "me too," the movement provided a call to action for survivors across the world to speak out about their experiences. In #MeToo and Beyond, M. Cristina Alcalde and Paula-Irene Villa bring together scholars and activists from various backgrounds to approach #MeToo from multiple spaces, positionalities, and areas of expertise, many from regions and contexts often overlooked and understudied in the mediascapes of the Global North. This volume includes perspectives from around the world and covers research spanning masculinity, to trans issues, to Jewish communities. The editors and contributors heed Tarana Burke's call to center marginalised voices and experiences so that instead of becoming a footnote, these experiences guide activists to frame polyphony as central to understanding past, current, and future forms of gendered violence and resistance. The goal of #MeToo and Beyond is to examine both the profoundly universal and familiar experiences of sexual violence, and the specificity of these forms of violence and mobilisation against them across place, space, and experiences of participants. Activists and scholars will find this an important and necessary contribution to current and future discussions on sexual violence and global movements.
Women in World History by Bonnie G. Smith
Call Number: 305.409 SMITH
Women in World History brings together the most recent scholarship in women's and world history in a single volume covering the period from 1450 to the present, enabling readers to understand women's relationship to world developments over the past five hundred years. Women have served the world as unfree people, often forced to migrate as slaves, trafficked sex workers, and indentured laborers working off debts. Diseases have migrated through women's bodies and women themselves have deliberately spread religious belief and fervor as well as ideas. They have been global authors, soldiers, and astronauts encircling the globe and moving far beyond it. They have written classics in political and social thought and crafted literary and artistic works alongside others who were revolutionaries and reform-minded activists.Historical scholarship has shown that there is virtually no part of the world where women's presence is not manifest, whether in archives, oral testimonials, personal papers, the material record, evidence of disease and famine, myth and religious teachings, and myriad other forms of documentation. As these studies mount, the idea of surveying women's past on a global basis becomes daunting. This book aims to redress this situation and offer a synthetic world history of women in modern times.

FILM

Films available on Kanopy and Hoopla:

Cleo from 5 to 7 - Kanopy

Agnes Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer (Corinne Marchand) set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman's life, CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 is a spirited mix of vivid verite and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

Waru - Hoopla

Following the death of a child, eight Māori women are confronted by guilt, pride and defeat but will ultimately risk everything for the greater good of their community.

Young Lakota - Kanopy

In this award-winning documentary, Cecilia Fire Thunder- the first female President of the Oglala Sioux tribe, defies a proposed South Dakota law criminalizing all abortions, with no exceptions for rape or incest, by threatening to build a women's clinic on the sovereign territory of the reservation. She ignites a political firestorm that sets off a chain reaction in the lives of three young Lakotas on the Pine Ridge Reservation, forcing each of them to make choices that define who they are and the kind of adults they will become.

If you have a library card issued by McCarthy Library, you also have access available to all the collections at the Napa County Library. This means that in addition to the digital resources available to you through the college resources, you are also able to access the digital collections available through the county library system. Some highlights are:

Hoopla Digital

Streaming movies, TV shows, music, eBooks, and eAudiobooks.

Kanopy

More than 30,000 feature films, documentaries, foreign language, and training videos, including the Great Courses, the Frontline series, and international films.