Books and Films from Prior Years

sdarj book and film group at the lewes public library

The SDARJ Book & Film Group was founded by Dr. Aimee Wiest (1940-2022) upon completion of an in-depth study session of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. We meet once a month at the Lewes Public Library as well as virtually on Zoom. Browse through the books and films archive below to see what we’ve discussed in prior months and years. You can view the upcoming list of titles and register for our upcoming Book & Film Group meeting here.

Books and Films Archives

Browse the books and films discussed in previous years.

2026

January 27 – The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore

2025

January 28 – The book Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People by Tiya Miles

February 25 – The film Stamped from the Beginning Supplemental reading: Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning

March 25 – James: A Novel by Percival Everett

April 22 – Black Barbie (film)

May 27 – Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel, His Master Distiller Nearest Green, and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest by Fawn Weaver

June 24 – The Nickel Boys: A Novel by Colson Whitehead

July 22 – A Pair of Wings: A Novel by Carole Hopson

August 26 – Rustin (film)

September 23 – The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church by Rachel L. Swarns

October 28 – Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on Health in America by Linda Villarosa

November 25 – The film “What Happened, Miss Simone?”. Supplemental reading: I Put a Spell on You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone

2024

January 23 – Twice as Hard: The Stories of Black Women Who Fought to Become Physicians, from the Civil War to the 21st Century by Jasmine Brown

February 27 – The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson

March 26 – But Will You Love Me Tomorrow: An Oral History of the ‘60s Girl Groups by Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz

April 23 – Origin (film) / Supplemental reading: Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

May 28 – I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War on Reconstruction by Kidada E. Williams

June 25 – Women of the Post: A Novel by Joshunda Sanders / Supplemental viewing: Six Triple Eight (film)

July 23 – Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

August 27 – I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO and Notes of a Native Son by Raoul Peck + James Baldwin

September 24 – Fiction: Daddy Was a Numbers Runner by Louise Merriweather

October 22 – Film + Book GOING TO MARS: THE NIKKI GIOVANNI PROJECT +
Make Me Rain: Poems and Prose

November 26 – Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King

December – No meeting

2023

January 24 The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race by Jesmyn Ward et al.

February 28 A Most Beautiful Thing (2020 film; companion book by Arshay Cooper)

March 28 The Trees by Percival Everett (book) and Till (2022 film)

April 25 United Skates (2018 film)

May 23 Kindred by Octavia Butler

June 27 Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005 film) and Higher Is Waiting by Tyler Perry)

July 25 Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

August 22 Ernie Freeman The Man and His Times by Agin A. SHaheed

September 26 Finding Me by Viola Davis, plus any movie starring Viola Davis

October 24: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

November The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharris, plus 2022 documentary based on the book.

December: No meetings

2022

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot
by Mikki Kendall

One Night in Miami (Film; 2020)

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning of the History of Slavery Across America
by Clint Smith

Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of the Runaway Slave Ona Judge
by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

The Color of Water
by James McBride

The Sweetness of Water
by Nathan Harris

West of Rehoboth
by Alexs D. Pate

Dolomite Is My name (Film; 2019)

The Fire Next Time
by James Baldwin

Just As I Am: A Memoir by Cicely Tyson plus any movie starring Ms. Tyson

Somebody’s Daughter
by Ashley C. Ford

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Film; 2020)

2021

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
by Isabel Wilkerson

A Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine Hansberry

How To Be An AntiRacist
by Ibram X. Kendi

I Am Somebody’s Child (Film; 2019)

The Color of Law
by Richard Rothstein

My Grandmother’s Hands
by Resmaa Menakem

Begin Again
by Eddie Glaude

Car Wash (Film; 1976)

The Sum of Us
by Heather McGhee

Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes At Home and At War
by Linda Hervieux

The Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett

Real American
by Julie Lythcott-Haims

2020

The Water Dancer
by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Black and the Blue
by Matthew Horace and Ron Harris

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (Film; 2019)

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
by David W. Blight

Born a Crime
by Trevor Noah

Tears We Cannot Stop
by Michael Eric Dyson

The Color Purple (Film; 1982)
and book by Alice Walker

Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol
by Nell Irvin

I Can’t Date Jesus
by Michael Arceneux

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Film; 2017)
and book by Rebecca Skloot

The Souls of Black Folks
by W.E.B. DuBois

Mudbound (Film; 2008)

2019

Fences (Film; 2016) and play
by August Wilson

Alice’s Ordinary People (Film; 2018)

From Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation
by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History
by Mitch Landrieu

On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope
by DeRay Mckesson

Let Freedom Sing: How Music Inspired the Civil Rights Movement (Film; 2016)

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
by Ibram X. Kendi

Becoming
by Michelle Obama

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
by Zora Neale Hurston

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Race
by Robin DiAngelo

Wade in the Water: Poems
by Tracey K. Smith

Thank you for visiting the books and films archives. View the upcoming list of titles and register for our upcoming Book & Film Group meeting here.