– Sesi Magazine recommends 21 Books Every Black Girl Should Read (plus one extra).

– First Lady Michelle Obama continues to be an excellent graduation speaker, speaking frankly about the pressure to challenge racial stereotypes.

– The American Black Film Festival is thriving in its nineteenth year.

– Kendrick Lamar visited a ninth-grade English classroom that was using his album To Pimp a Butterfly as a way to help students understand Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.

– Dolen Perkins-Valdez spoke to NPR about her new Chicago-set novel, Balm, and her interest in exploring the effects of the Civil War on places that were “peripheral” to traditional narratives about that war.

– This post at Book Riot mulls over books that challenge the idea of “black cool” and the way that idea relates to structural inequality.

– Also on Book Riot, a post about giving voice to black youth in YA and why it’s important to do so.

– The bizarre, infuriating saga of Rachel Dolezal, with links to excellent think-pieces – and links to the #AskRachel Twitter hashtag, which Black Twitter used to challenge Rachel to prove her blackness bona fides.