Wednesday, March 9, 2022 — 5 Arts The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com IT IS INTEGRAL to seek out Black voices at any point in the year, and especially during Black History Month. In hopes of highlighting voices that are oftentimes wrongfully overlooked, The Michigan Daily Book Review came together to curate a list of some of our favorite Black-authored novels. Read ahead to find books to read for Black History Month and beyond. — Meera Kumar, Book Beat Editor and Emilia Ferrante, Senior Arts Editor “Memorial” by Bryan Washing- ton Called a “queer traumedy” by the author, “Memorial” by Bryan Wash- ington centers on the dysfunctional relationship between two queer men of color. The protagonists, Mike and Benson, are in their 30s and lead unglamorous lives, struggling with weight and other insecurities. They spend most of the novel apart. When Mike finds out his estranged father has been terminally diagnosed with cancer, he jets out to Japan, leaving his partner Benson behind to receive and entertain Mike’s visiting mother. What follows is the gradual bonding of Mike’s traditional Japanese mother with Benson, an HIV-positive daycare teacher. In Japan, Mike slowly acquaints himself with his difficult father. The novel is bursting with beautiful turns of phrase and quiet character develop- ment that builds to a satisfying climax. Honest to god, the novel made me cry — I didn’t know how much I needed middle-aged, unsexy queer sex until I got it. Washington, illustrating how family can both anchor and damage us well into adulthood, coaxes out tears of love and sympathy. Daily Arts Writer Elizabeth Yoon can be reached at elizyoon@umich.edu. “Pet” by Akwaeke Emezi “Pet” by Akwaeke Emezi is a bone- chilling YA fantasy that focuses on Jam, a Black trans teen in Lucille (a town that claims to be free of mon- sters), as she accidentally conjures the eponymous Pet, a “monster”-hunter from another universe. Emezi wrote the piece in response to the “mass gaslighting” they feel occurs with the intentional ignorance of many older people when younger generations worry about issues of injustice; at first glance, the title appears oversimpli- fied, but as you settle into the novel, the metaphor takes on new meaning. As Jam tries to investigate the pres- ence of monsters, the adults in her life do everything to get her to ignore the surrounding evil — not because they don’t respect Jam’s perceptions of the world, but because they’re afraid of what they’ll have to admit to them- selves should they listen to Jam. As we follow Jam’s interactions with Pet and her best friend Redemption in the 208-page novel, the tale settles into a rhythm that peaks in a graphic con- frontation at the end — even though the book is for young adults, any read- er will be able to enjoy this slightly terrifying work of speculative fiction. Emezi’s body of work is dynamic, ranging from literary fiction to auto- biography to (upcoming) romance; readers can consume more of Emezi’s complex, illustrative writing (made accessible for younger readers) in “Pet.” The novel was overlooked when it was released; for many reasons, it should be reconsidered as a work of YA genius that is sure to stay relevant for decades. Books Beat Editor Meera Kumar can be reached at kmeera@umich.edu. “My Sister, the Serial Killer” by Oyinkan Braithwaite “My Sister, the Serial Killer” by Oyinkan Braithwaite was published in 2018, and I haven’t stopped rec- ommending it since. Set in Lagos, Nigeria, the book revolves around three central characters: Korede, a nurse; Ayoola, her younger sister; and their mother. Ayoola is known for her beauty and is the preferred sister of the two. Though she is beloved in the community, Ayoola has impulsive murderous tendencies, as is revealed by the title. Korede is constantly forced to clean up her sister’s messes, both figuratively and literally. All of Ayoola’s boyfriends end up dead, yet she is continuously discounted as a suspect. Though Korede has tried to stop Ayoola from killing, it isn’t until Ayoola starts to hang around Korede’s coworker crush that Korede finally intervenes. Though the novel’s primary focus is the relationship between Ayoola and Korede and Ayoola’s ceaseless mur- ders, Braithwaite includes another storyline that focuses on their late father. As the story progresses, flash- backs about their father are revealed that leave the reader pondering the circumstances of his death and the role both Ayoola and Korede might have played in it. Braithwaite’s expert pacing and crafty divulgence of family secrets make “My Sister, the Serial Killer” a quick, exciting read. The plot is gruesomely addicting, the characters impressively complex. Braithwaite tests each character and the reader by extension, begging us to question who we can trust and what information is true. Managing Arts Editor Lillian Pearce can be reached at pearcel@umich.edu. “They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South” by Stephanie Jones-Rogers “They Were Her Property” is an illuminating look into the active role that white women played in American slavery. Oftentimes, narratives around slavery focus solely on the harm of the white male slave owners while only giving negligible acknowledgment that white women were also part of the problem. Jones-Rogers pushes back on the idea that white women were bystanders and uses first-person narratives and legal documents to show that white women directly bene- fited from and engaged in the practice of slave labor. Combining discussions of gender, race and economics, “They Were Her Property” revolutionized the way I think of myself and other white women. At the end of the book, Jones- Rogers talks about the ways in which white women’s personal investments in slavery pushed them to uphold systems of white supremacy and seg- regation in the South post-Civil War. By better understanding the ways in which white women have histori- cally benefitted from the subjuga- tion of Black people, we can better understand their role in other white supremacist movements following the Civil War and today. Daily Arts Writer Isabella Kassa can be reached at ikassa@umich.edu. “Native Son” by Richard Wright “Native Son” is a book I was required to read in high school but has stayed with me far past graduation. Written in the 1940s, it follows a young Black man, Bigger, living in poverty in Chi- cago who gets a job working for a rich white family. After an unfortunate situation causes Bigger to commit a major crime, he struggles to outsmart and outrun authorities and is quickly caught and thrown in jail. While in jail, Bigger has a long conversation with his lawyer where he grapples with his identity as a Black man. This book is good because of its engaging plot, but great because it forces readers to understand them- selves in the unfairness of Bigger’s situation and the system that is up against him. Wright never makes Big- ger’s crime okay, but rather helps the reader realize that it was the forces out of Bigger’s control that led him to that point. Daily Arts Writer Isabella Kassa can be reached at ikassa@umich.edu. 6 Black-authored books to read next Design by Grace Filbin THE MICHIGAN DAILY BOOK REVIEW Daily Arts Books Beat CARMEN MARIA MACHADO and her work is everything and everywhere at once. On a chaotic, snowy day on campus, I was grate- ful to finally catch her in UMMA’s Stern Auditorium. Machado, the current guest in the Zell Visiting Writers Series, is known for her work across nearly every genre of writing: humor, comic books, short fiction, essay, memoir and journal- ism. Her work is featured in art exhibitions and album covers (most recently, Phoe- be Bridgers’s Punisher), and celebrated globally, recently awarded with the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction and The Ameri- can Booksellers Association’s Indies Choice Book Awards. Machado’s most famous work, a series of short sto- ries titled “Her Body and Other Parties,” unpacks the lives of women through their bodily experiences in stun- ningly real science fiction. In her memoir, “In the Dream House,” she flips what we think we know about mem- oirs, depicting life and com- plex relationships through a surrealist lens. Her recent comic series, “The Low Low Woods,” addresses complex social issues through night- mare-ish comic strips. Her unmistakable genre-bending style is why The New York Times named her a member of The New Vanguard. In this reading, Machado does what she does best: give readers a completely differ- ent worldview, in this case, literally. In her 2017 short story, Blur, a woman loses her glasses at a highway rest stop on the way to meet her girl- friend and blindly searches for hope in an unfamiliar world. Machado takes us through this unfamiliar and unset- tling experience as if we were experiencing it first hand. Her low whisper shakes the audience as we see reality through the nar- rator’s troubled eyes. The rich imagery (mostly audi- tory) snaps us back and forth between the harsh, and at times, funny, reality of the rest stop, and the narrator’s racing thoughts as she fears the fallout with her abusive girlfriend. The darkness and disori- entation pick up as Machado delves into a confusing bed- lam of sounds, colors and feelings. Machado takes the audience out of their near trance-like states as she switches voices. Machado turns into key characters with no names: the rude mother who promises her children did not steal the glasses, the girlfriend who hypothetically screams at the narrator, begging to know “who she is fucking” at the rest stop, the woman in the bathroom who prays and the almost surreal “man in the blue suit.” Machado slows her read- ing as the man in the blue suit hands the narrator a candy bar, the “sweetest thing I’ve tasted in years,” and later speeds up as they walk the distance to Indi- ana together. The narrator’s mind races with fear of the future and reflections on past moments. Her tone sud- denly changes as if reading us a ghost story. The man in the blue suit narrates the story of a woman who could not see and devoted her life and love to a horrible monster. The clear parallels between the monster and the girlfriend make Machado’s narrative as a whole all the more haunt- ing. As the narrator and the man in the blue suit continue their highway journey, the audience is left in painful suspense. As Machado transitions to the Question & Answer por- tion of the night, her haunt- ing tone suddenly switches to a jovial one. She sits for a talk with MFA student Anna Majeski that feels like an enriching dinner party con- versation that the audience is allowed to watch. Machado discusses her love of others’ work, ranging from “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” to Shirley Jackson’s short stories, her struggles with anxiety and her dreams and nightmares that inspire all of her work. Machado’s work famously deals with sickness, which she says is a “way into her own fear,” the “best space” for her to write. She laughs as she describes COVID-19 as something out of a story she wrote. She is honest, funny and nothing like the dark and horrifying scenes she creates for millions of read- ers around the world. She explains that these stories come directly from her fears, like her recent comic series, straight from her worst nightmare of leaving a movie theater with amnesia. Her stories also come from the frightening realities of life, especially the female expe- rience. She calls the repeat- ed themes of her work the things she “just can’t shake.” Her constant anecdotes are reminiscent of her writ- ing, in which a single page carries infinite stories. Yet, just like with her writing, every word she speaks has a purpose. As the Q&A opens to the auditorium and Zoom audi- ences, everyone is starstruck. Nearly everyone who comes to the microphone calls her an inspiration. Yet she main- tains her humility, laughing as she teaches the audience lessons on forming plots by “throwing things at the wall and seeing if they stick” and building upon character per- spectives. As the night ends, readers line up to chat with Macha- do and get her works auto- graphed. The event goes over by nearly 30 minutes, and the audience hopes to follow Machado into whatever real- ity she creates next. Daily Arts Writer Kaya Ginsky can be reached at kginsky@umich.edu. Carmen Maria Machado creates surreal realities as a Zell Visiting Writer KAYA GINSKY Daily Arts Writer THE COLD FEBRUARY rain didn’t stop dodie fans from arriving early to the Royal Oak Music Theater for the fifth night of her “Build A Problem” Tour. Bundled up in winter coats and umbrellas in hand, a long line of fans wrapped around the timeless the- ater in eager anticipation for the UK-based singer- songwriter’s performance. For many (myself includ- ed), this show was the first concert since the COVID- 19 pandemic began, and dodie surely didn’t dis- appoint with her warm welcome back to a live performance. Taking the stage with her five band members, dodie kicked off the night with “Air So Sweet” off of her May 2021 album, Build A Problem. “We’re going to delve into feelings,” the 26-year-old singer announced before transitioning into “Cool Girl,” also off of her latest album. After kicking off the night with newer music, dodie announced that she would be revisiting some of her older songs. Sitting at her rustic piano, she laughed into the micro- phone, admitting that she was “on the right side of drunk” after taking a shot with her bandmates before the show. Besides a few faulty chords, one could never tell that dodie was feeling a bit tipsy — her vocal delivery was flawless and possessed the pensive, nostalgic energy that had audience members swoon- ing and wiping away tears. dodie is an extremely talented and versatile performer, and she kept the audience on their toes from start to finish. Between her spontane- ous interpretive dancing and clarinet and drum solos, dodie’s performance remained true to the authentic, quirky musi- cianship that launched her career nearly six years ago. What’s most remarkable about dodie, however, is the way she connects with her fans. When she’s on stage, she’s constantly on the move, dancing along- side her band members and offering witty responses to fans when they’d shout messages of love. At one point an audience mem- ber even hurled their bra on stage, to which dodie asked, “Alright whose bra is that?” while suppressing a fitful of laughter. Just how dear fans hold dodie was most clear when she performed “Rain- bow.” Before perform- ing the song off of Build A Problem, dodie asked the crowd, “Who here is gay?” to which the crowd erupted into a clamor of applause and shouts. dodie, who is bisexual and a champion for the LGBTQ- IA+ community, beamed and explained how “Rain- bow” is a song she wrote to overcome the stigmas she has witnessed and expe- rienced as a queer person who grew up in a conser- vative town that was cold toward the LGBTQIA+ community. With rainbow lights accompanying dodie and her band, there were cheers and tears shed as the Royal Oak Music The- ater celebrated love in all of its forms. Perhaps the most mov- ing part of the night was when dodie performed her 2019 hit “She.” After play- ing the song on the piano to a chorus of fans sing- ing along, dodie explained how she tries to find new meaning in her older songs when she performs them live. On that cold Febru- ary night, dodie expressed how “She” has become a metaphor for her past self who felt trapped in her hometown, a reminder of how far she has come since the days when she felt ashamed of her queer identity. The auditorium was still as she described how she’s so happy to see more acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community and how much she wished that her younger self could have had the support she has now. dodie’s U.S. tour includes opener Lizzy McAlpine, a singer-song- writer from Philadelphia. As the lights dimmed in the theater, fans chanted “Lizzy” until the 22-year- old singer-songwriter took the stage for an acoustic set. Performing songs off of her upcoming album five seconds flat, the packed theater was filled with a chorus of voices reciting every word to McAlpine’s songs. The only thing that could have rivaled McAl- pine’s set were her retro jeans, as several shouts of “I like your pants!” were heard from across the auditorium. During her set, McAlpine even com- mented on how the audi- ence “sounded so good” while singing along to her songs. For both McAlpine and dodie’s performanc- es, nearly every person around me knew all of the words to their songs and was singing along the entire time. Some fans knew the music so well that they were even har- monizing with the band, creating a mesmerizing sea of voices. This phe- nomenon alone is a true testament to the energy both dodie and McAlpine brought to Royal Oak, and it was beautiful to witness two powerful songwriters pour love into their art and share that love with their fans. Daily Arts Writer Kai- tlyn Fox can be reached at kjfox@umich.edu. dodie enchants Royal Oak Music Theater with music and love on night five of her ‘Build A Problem’ tour Read more at MichiganDaily.com KAITLYN FOX Daily Arts Writer TESS CROWLEY/Daily dodie performs at the Royal Oak Theatre in Detroit Wednesday night.