Curate LA Book Club: Cameron Shaw
By: Curate La
Tags: African American, Reading, Museums, Books, Los Angeles

Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman

One of my oldest friends sent me this book a few weeks ago, and since then I’ve sent copies to two more friends. That says everything about how this book can make you feel.

‘Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close’ by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman

Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Last Interview and Other Conversations by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Melville House produces several great series including The Last Interview. Like the name suggests, it’s the final interview of a person’s life published alongside other notable conversations from their career.

‘Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Last Interview and Other Conversations’ by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Cauleen Smith: Human_3.0 Reading List 2015–2016

This tiny book is the ultimate reading list and manifesto for reading itself by artist, Cauleen Smith. So visually compelling, prescient, and necessary.

Cauleen Smith: Human_3.0 Reading List 2015–2016

Homie by Danez Smith

If you think you don’t like poetry readings, go see Danez Smith read when you can. In the meantime, read this book.

‘Homie’ by Danez Smith

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

My grandparents moved to LA from Arkansas during the Great Migration, so this book by Wilkerson is part of my self-education in every sense of the word.

‘The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration’ by Isabel Wilkerson

The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images

This encyclopedia is great for interpreting dreams or when you’re having déjà vu. Friends frequently call me for interpretations!

‘The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images’

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

Concurrently watching Donald Glover’s TV series Atlanta and thinking about the Black absurdist tradition and its relationship to abstraction.

‘The Sellout’ by Paul Beatty

One Story

My aunt gave me a One Story subscription for Christmas and the first issue arrived right before quarantine started. Every month is a new, so far totally excellent, short story written by emerging writers such as Shannon Sanders, author of The Everest Society.

Radio Imagination: Artists and Writers in the Archive of Octavia E. Butler by Clockshop

I used to go on long walks at the Huntington and always ended up in the gift shop. I bought this exhibition catalogue to be inspired by Butler and the act of curating, and it delivers on both.

‘Radio Imagination: Artists and Writers in the Archive of Octavia E. Butler’ by Clockshop

CAAM’s site in Exposition Park also includes a research space, housing more than 6,000 books, periodicals, records, and ephemera in subjects such as history, music, art, and culture, which date back to the museum’s inception in 1981. For more information about the Research Library while the museum is temporarily closed due to COVID-19 visit caammuseum.org

The Curate LA Book Club is a growing series of reading material from Los Angeles-based artists, libraries, platforms, and luminaries that reflect individual and collective ideas with an invariable commitment to accessibility, diversity, and marginality. Discover previous book clubs and more virtual art coverage by signing up to our weekly newsletter: Curate LA INSIDE.