Amanda Belantara, Schomburg Center Pre-Professional in the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, writes about our new Black Power Resource Guide, an essential guide culled from library resources that commemorate the Black Power movement:

As part of the Schomburg Center’s ongoing Black Power 50 initiative, which includes exploring the significance of the Black Power movement through our new Black Power! exhibition and Media Gallery, we are excited to present the Black Power Resource Guide. This essential companion piece includes books by key figures in the movement that are preserved in the Schomburg Center collections as well as more recent works that examine various aspects of the movement’s legacy.

Some of the titles in the guide, including Amiri Baraka’s Black Art, are independently produced, amplifying their historic value. In addition, The Black Panther Black Community News Service gives readers insight into the party’s work and values and contains striking artwork by Emory Douglas, whose work is featured in our upcoming Power in Print exhibition.

As a Pre-Professional in the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, who helped create this resource guide, I was excited to discover digitized collections of independent journal publications like Black Dialogue, Soul Book, and The Liberator included in the Freedom Archives and on Independent Voices.  These journals include original poetry, essays and artwork from artists involved in the Black Arts Movement.

Also included in the new resource guide are links to online collections of magazines such as Ebony and Jet,  specifically the issues pertaining to the Black Power movement.  Aside from the articles, the images and advertisements in these publications show changes in fashion and highlight the era from which they derive.

The Black Power Resource Guide was created using LibGuide software made by Springshare.  Designed specifically for libraries, LibGuide software makes it easy to showcase and link to books from a library’s collection as well as online resources.  It is software that will be very useful for my future career and I hope I can continue to use LibGuides as a way to provide user-centered reference services and raise awareness for what libraries and skilled librarians have to offer the public.