Uplift Your Voice, Tell Our Stories
The EmpowerED Book Club is a digital space celebrating Black LGBTQ+/SGL authors and their empowering narratives. EmpowerED provides the NBJC community with access to storytellers and stories that reflect the beautiful diversity that has always existed within our community and ways to strengthen community with like-minded people seeking to increase competence and compassion.
Our Mission
Champion Representation: Showcase Black LGBTQ+/SGL voices through a curated virtual bookshelf featuring must-read books exploring identity diversity and development, as well as Blackness, equity, and justice themes.
Education and Empowerment: We understand stories have the power to ignite and facilitate change. Our selections aim to support the autonomy of Black LGBTQ+/SGL people, communities, and families by building community, changing hearts and minds, deepening and defending democracy, and advancing social justice.
Community Building: We facilitate insightful discussions that dive into themes presented by the storytellers who offer them.
Monthly Book Giveaways:
We stand firm in favor of the freedom to learn and against censorship! Every month, we partner with an NBJC-selected Black LGBTQ+/SGL author to give away copies of their book.
Join the Conversation:
Dr. David J. Johns hosts IG Live sessions, where he chats with featured authors about their work and the powerful themes they explore. View Dr. Johns’ conversation with Rachel Crouch HERE.
About Our Community
- Only 6% of published authors are Black
- 16% of all authors are LGBT (that we know of)
- As of 2020, 10,727 Black authors were working in the U.S. 2020 was the first year in U.S. history with over 10,000 Black authors officially registered in the government database.
- Less than 5% of editors in the U.S. are Black.
- Black Americans make up approximately 12.1% of the US population but 23% of those with poor literacy skills.
- In 2017, 26.1% of Black students were proficient in 4th-grade reading, compared to 46.7% of white students.
Books
Visit our virtual bookshelf! Each book title is linked directly to the author's page or retailer, making it easy for audiences to support participating authors.
- Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race – Keith Boykin
- Modern Herstory – Blair Imani
- Radical Reparations – Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter
- Undiplomatic – Deesha Dyer
- Make it Count – Cece Telfer
- Survival is a Promise – Alexis Pauline Gumbs
- The Grift – Clay Cane
- The Risk It Takes to Bloom – Raquel Willis
- I Finally Bought Some Jordans – Michael Arceneaux
- Rooted – Brea Baker
- Flamboyants – George M. Johnson
Interested in offering your book for EmpowerED consideration?
Email the following to info@nbjc.org with “EmpowerED Offering” in the subject line:
- Headshot/photos of author with the book.
- The book covers pictures/graphics, quotes, and excerpts.
- Ten signed copies of the book.
- Video featuring the author promoting the book.
- We’ll collaborate and provide a script to produce a short video message explaining the giveaway.
- To promote the book, take 20 minutes to engage in a live Instagram conversation with Dr. David Johns, CEO & Executive Director.