Two for Tuesday: The Harlem Renaissance

These themes will vary! It could be based off of some book mail I just received, pop culture, something personal to me, a headline from the news, a trend I noticed when I was buying books for my library system, etc. I hope you stick around to see all the themes and book recs I come up with!

Today’s Theme: Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a time when some of the greatest Black artists broke out and broke the mold. Greatness exploded from painting, to music, to writing, and more, during the Harlem Renaissance. This time period featured some of the most ground breaking art from cultural legends that we still talk about today. And in both of these books, we see something featured from that time. In this one, Ezra is a musician who played with some of the greats! Some of them are even mentioned in the book. He’s like a prodigy of his own on the piano. Suddenly he leaves that time and ends up on a garden rooftop in the future. But I’ll let you find out more on your own!

In this one, the character is a Harlem Renaissance artist who makes these amazing paintings. As it turns out, Estelle’s paintings become incredibly rare. Her last one was very striking, but both Estelle and her last painting vanished into the night after her “godmother” dies. That is until her relative from the future, Shanice, finds it and makes decisions on what she wants to do with it. What she finds out about the painting shocks her, so she looks more into the artist. Y’all this book had me looking over MY shoulder lol And Estelle is described as such an incredible artist. That last thing we find out about it? I was SHOOK.

*Another that fits the theme!*

This one surrounds music, but there’s not too much focus on it.


Well, there you go! Here I’m just going to talk about why I grouped these two books together. I hope you enjoyed a look at this small part of the books. For a full synopsis of the book or to add it to your TBR, click the picture and it will take you to their Storygraph. The link on the caption will take you to it’s Goodreads.

Have you added either of these to your TBR? Have you ever researched the Harlem Renaissance? Let me know in the comments!

Take Me Away

Diverse Book Blogger. Diverse YA Librarian. Wonder Woman enthusiast. Bookish Blerd. "GryffinClaw" Geek extraordinaire. Pitbull mom. She/her linktr.ee/take_me_awayyy