Radical Hood Library
Noname's natural extension to her book club comes alive
by Ancient Champion, Columnist
first published: October, 2021
first published: October, 2021
in April the Noname Book Club dispatched 44 books to prisoners across the USA by September that program had leapt to sending over 600 books per month.
I love Noname, her brilliant records are a joy and lyrically those pieces of music are amongst the smartest and funniest you will hear. That’s Entertainment, it might be said.
Noname came to prominence following her contribution to fellow Chicagoan Chance the Rapper’s 2013 Acid Rap mixtape. She has never settled since. Her 2018 LP Self amalgamated the soothest, floaty jazziest backbeats -the bass player gets in a lot of notes, with her powerful feminist lyricism. And Oh! The voice... One of the LPs of the year.
“Y'all really thought a bitch couldn't rap huh?”
In 2019 Noname instituted the Noname Book Club, a book club featuring less overtly commercial titles and featuring Black authors and thinkers. Her initiative, let’s say, took off. There are Noname Book Club chapters all across America and all over the world including London. They are sort of offline and online too. Join one. The current reading is the award winning Blood Child by Octavia E. Butler and also Oyinkan Braithwaite’s fabulous My Sister, The Serial Killer - which I can’t recommend highly enough - clearing up after your sister is never fun!
Noname’s commitment to literature is not the dabbling of a dilettante. Earlier this month, perhaps another dream was realized with the opening of the national headquarters of the Noname Book Club and The Radical Hood Library in Jefferson Park in Los Angeles. Noname told Lithub about her mum’s Afrocentric Bookstore in Chicago which she’d opened in 1990 which has kind of given Noname an entrepreneurial drive for independence which motivates her today.
A fun fact for you, in April the Noname Book Club dispatched 44 books to prisoners across the USA by September that program had leapt to sending over 600 books per month.
This is how change happens. Maybe Noname’s own book won’t be far down the line, oh wow can she write...
“My pussy teaches ninth-grade English
My pussy wrote a thesis on colonialism
In conversation with a marginal system in love with Jesus
Y'all really thought a bitch couldn't rap huh?” - Noname ‘Self’
More Info:
Lithub story on the Radical Hood Library
No Name Books website
Ancient Champion
Columnist
Ancient Champion writes for OUTSIDELEFT, relentlessly records instrumental easy listening tracks, and is always completing the short story collection, Six Stories About Motoring Nowhere. More info at AncientChampion.com
about Ancient Champion »»
in April the Noname Book Club dispatched 44 books to prisoners across the USA by September that program had leapt to sending over 600 books per month.
the weekly guide to new releases
10 clickable things
☉ Bruce's Beach. Reparations really, or what? (NYT) ☉
Drag Shows are banned ☉
QPR: Promotion push to relegation fight, 474,000 a week losses and a rescue mission ☉
How to talk like a Chelsea coach ☉
De La Soul Streaming at Last (Gothamist) ☉
Why 1997 Changed Everything (NYT) ☉
Robert Forster: why Venus by Television is the most perfect song of all time (Guardian) ☉
Magentaverse ☉
Elvis returns to the Las Vegas Hilton ☉
Marc Newson designs a toilet ☉
RECENT STORIES
Adventures in the archives
RANDOM READS
What Readers are Reading Right Now
- Track by Track: 'Stanford' by Senestra
Alan Rider talks us through Senestra's new Dark Electronic production, Stanford - Outsideleft Week in Music: Trombone Universe
We're hearing from - Kalia Vandever, Kokoroko, David Bowie, Eric Bibb, Edward Ka-Spel, Depeche Mode, Angel Olsen, Tinariwen, Yves Tumor, Sleaford Mods ft Perry Farrell, Fever Ray, Fenne Lily, Rodriguez, Sudden Infant, The Luka State, Lonnie Holley, David Benjamin Blower, Media Giant, Psyclon Nine, Miles Davis, Sam Gellaitry, Ghost Love, Blue Statue, Telecom, Grandma's House and Cosmic Crooner - Edward Ka-Spel is a national treasure
Alan Rider seeks Permission to Leave the Temple - John Robinson's Exhaustive, Masochistic and Entertaining (For Us), Chart Survey
John Robinson listens to this week's Top 40 Countdown, so you don't have to - Outsideleft Week in Music: Glorious Games with El Michels and Black Thought
We're hearing from... El Michels Affair and Black Thought, TEKE::TEKE, New Order, Sparks, Tom Waits, Jeremy Gluck and Paul Hazel, Simply Red, Eddie Chacon, Rudy De Anda, De La Soul, Lisa Said, Esben & The Witch, Scott Crow, Glitter Wizard, Eyesore & The Jinx, Iguana Death Cult, AJJ, McKinley-Dixon, Laura T, Alice Low, Joanna Sternberg, David Heatley, Beach Fossils, Bobby Harden and the Soulful Saints, Dippers, Les Imprimes, Evangeline Playboys, Alma, Anika + NI Vash and The Tallest Man on Earth - Cosmic Crooner...
Tim London gives some thought to the Perks of Being a Hypocrite... That's the title of Cosmic Crooner's LP - Outsideleft at SXSW: Angel Applicant - Documentary Review
Lake looks at the winning doc in the SXSW Grand Jury Awards - The Book Of Bare Life & Returns
Tim London Considers Alcohol and Redemption while listening to David Benjamin Blower's new LP - Outsideleft at SXSW - The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution - Documentary Review
Lake on the meme-filled scattergun doc on the gamification of American culture - Outsideleft at SXSW: THIS WORLD IS NOT MY OWN - documentary review
In the first of this year's reports from SXSW, Lake views a documentary on the artist Nellie Mae Rowe.
All About and Contributors
HELP OUTSIDELEFT
Outsideleft exists on a precarious no budget budget. We are interested in hearing from deep and deeper pocket types willing to underwrite our cultural vulture activity. We're not so interested in plastering your product all over our stories, but something more subtle and dignified for all parties concerned. Contact us and let's talk. [HELP OUTSIDELEFT]
WRITE FOR OUTSIDELEFT
If Outsideleft had arms they would always be wide open and welcoming to new writers and new ideas. If you've got something to say, something a small dank corner of the world needs to know about, a poem to publish, a book review, a short story, if you love music or the arts or anything else, write something about it and send it along. Of course we don't have anything as conformist as a budget here. But we'd love to see what you can do. Write for Outsideleft, do. [SUBMISSIONS FORM HERE]
WRITERS thru' the Years
Alan Devey, Alan Rider, Alex V. Cook, Ancient Champion, Andy Allison, Annemiek, Belle Plankton, Bruce Bailey, Caiomhin Millar, Chantal, Cheiron Coelho, Chris Connolly, Christian Present, Damon Hayhurst, Dan Breen, David Hackney, Denni Boyd, Dirty Lillie, DJ Fuzzyfelt, Dr. Richard Bennett, Duncan Jones, Erin, Erin Pipes, Erin Scott, Gracey Babs, Graham Baker, Guilaine Arts, H.xx, Hamilton High, Henderson Downing, Holly Martins, J. Charreaux, Jay Lewis, Jaycentee, Jennifer Lynn, Jenny McCann, Jeremy Gluck, Jez Collins, Joe Ambrose, John Robinson, Julie O, Karl Morgan, Katherine Pargeter, Kelsey Osgood, Kevin McHugh, Lake, Lee Paul, Luke Skinner, Malcolm, Marek Pytel, Mark Piggott, Meave Haughey, Michelle Williams, mindy strouse, Neil Campbell, Neil Scott, Ogglypoogly, OL House Writer, Pam, Paul Hawkins, Paul Quigley, Peter Williams, Pixie McMowat, Pixievic, Rene Williams, Rick Casson, Ronan Crinion, Ruby Lake, Ryan 'RJO' Stewart, Samantha Charles, Seth Sherwood, Shane O'Reilly, Sheridan Coyle, Sofia Ribeiro Willcox, Sophia Satchell-Baeza, Spanish Pantalones, Speedie John, Spencer Kansa, Steve McCarthy, The Conversation, Tim London, Tim Sparks, Toon Traveller, Wayne Dean-Richards, and founders, Alarcon & LamontpaulWEEK IN MUSIC
OUTSIDELEFT UNIVERSE
outsideleft content is not for everyone