Christine Gabrièlle

I didn’t get what I expected from this book.

Initially, I was just drawn to the cover. I mean, look at it!

Once I got past the cover (but still not over it), I thought I was going to read a collection of letters about Black people being deeply in love with other Black people and expressing it in beautiful language.

I wasn’t looking for a specific book to read during Black History Month, but I saw this while at Target with my mom and couldn’t help but reach for it. February is Black History Month and the month of love, so what better combination could I find for the perfect book to read in February?

I flipped through it for a second and noticed one of the letters was addressed to a niece, so I knew then it wasn’t a book of solely romantic love letters, but it wasn’t at all what I’d expected. In a good way.

The online project this collection of letters is based on was started after George Floyd’s murder as a way for Black people to grieve, express themselves, and attempt to heal.

The letters in this book are beautiful, encouraging, heartbreaking, hopeful, rich.

There are letters to siblings, mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, mentors, lovers, hair, bodies, cities, blackness.

There are letters on grief, love, healing, rejection, acceptance, inspiration… and the list goes on.

This little book of letters was read slowly, intentionally, and through the entire month of February. It was exactly what I needed and did exactly what I needed it to do.

🖤