Documentary Films ‘Seeds’ and ‘How to Build a Library’ Debut at Sundance—Just in Time for Black History Month

This year’s observance of Black History Month falls at a convulsive time for Americans. As the Trump administration works to eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusion programs in government and throughout American society, from companies to nonprofits, it’s more important than ever to celebrate and commemorate the achievements and the contributions of Black Americans.

With that in mind, two films that premiered at Sundance are worthy of your attention.

Seeds, the winner of the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for documentary, explores the lives, traditions and history of Black generational farmers in the American South.

How To Build A Library, a powerful new documentary from Kenya, tells the story of two remarkable women who decided to transform what used to be a whites-only library until 1958 into a vibrant cultural center in Nairobi.

An American Requiem: Beyoncé’s Country Statement at the Grammys

With all the upheaval, just two weeks in, that has accompanied the second term of the current presidential administration, the 67th annual Grammy Awards show came and went Sunday night like a welcome distraction. Even calling the event a “distraction” misses the serious work of art and its purpose in troubled times: to mobilize the masses, reaffirm our values and spread joy and light amid the darkness.

The big night, however, went to pop star Beyoncé, who not only made history as the first Black woman to win Best Country Album, but finally earned Album of the Year for her politically salient album Cowboy Carter, after previously losing in the category. The album, which opened with a “requiem” for America and closed on a prayer that “we’ll be the ones to purify our fathers’ sins,” calls on all of us to witness this nation’s history and its present, to reckon with its “sins” of exclusion and discrimination and demand that we purify it toward the democratic promise it has always held out for all of us and not just a select few determined to set us back on a backward course.

Loretta Ross on ‘Calling In’: 25 Lessons on Change, Compassion and Cancel Culture

In Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel, activist and scholar Loretta Ross challenges us to move beyond cancel culture and embrace a more humane approach to accountability. “A call in is a call out done with love,” she explains, emphasizing that true change requires “creating the conditions for differences of opinion to be heard” rather than relying on shame and ideological rigidity. With truth and history on our side, Ross urges us to build bridges, not burn them, leading a “revolution of moral renewal” that unites rather than divides.

Hip-Hop Icon Roxanne Shanté Gets Her Long-Overdue Grammy Moment

Roxanne Shanté made history once as the first solo female MC in hip-hop, and now she has made history again. On Feb. 1, 2025, the Recording Academy honored her with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, making her the first solo female rapper to receive this recognition. She received the award at the Special Merit Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles, just one day before the official Grammy Awards.

As she reflected on receiving one of the most prestigious honors in music, Shanté opened up about her career, her impact and her ongoing mission to support at-risk youth in this exclusive interview.

Award-Winning Doc ‘Sally!’ Introduces Sally Gearhart, the Lesbian Activist Who Took on Proposition 6 With Harvey Milk

Most people have heard of Harvey Milk. Sally Gearhart—not as much. But in fact, Gearhart sat right beside Milk as his debate partner in 1978 when they disputed—and ultimately defeated—Proposition 6, the Briggs Initiative that would have banned lesbian and gay teachers and topics in California’s public schools. When their opponents quoted the Bible, Milk was at a loss. Gearhart, on the other hand, could quote it right back at them.

Born in 1931 into a Christian household in Virginia, Gearhart charted her own unconventional path from a career as a teacher at Christian colleges in Texas until she determined to live her life out in the open and left for San Francisco with no job in the early 1970s. Ultimately, she gained a position at San Francisco State University, where she became the first open lesbian to be tenured at a major university in the U.S. Alongside that, she became a formidable and historic advocate for lesbian and queer rights.

This historic lesbian activist is featured in Deborah Craig’s new award-winning documentary Sally!

Feminist Musicals ‘Teeth’ and ‘Suffs’ Steel Us for the Next Four Years

As feminist resistance faces a critical crossroads, Suffs and Teeth present two diverging paths: marching forward or tearing it all down.

It is the feminist movement’s challenge moving into a time that will most certainly require vigilance and resistance to consider how to reconcile these two paths forward. Will we keep marching? Or will we lick our teeth? 

January 2025 Reads for the Rest of Us

Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.

As we tread uncertain waters, it’s nice to have something to depend on that provides a sense of grounding, respite and normalcy. For me, books are that something. So, while life is unpredictable and scary and precarious, I hope you can gain something from the books on this list.

Which one of these books will be the catalyst you’re looking for?  

From Playtime to Patriarchy: The Role of Toys in Gender Inequality

This “toy problem” doesn’t end in childhood—it grows up with kids and follows them into adulthood. When toys restrict a child’s imagination about their possibilities, it stifles development and creates a ripple effect. The path to gender equality must begin at the earliest stages of life—when children first engage with toys, books and screens.

Jodi Bondi Norgaard explores this in her new book More Than a Doll: How Creating a Sports Doll Turned into a Fight to End Gender Stereotypes.

Reads for the Rest of Us: The Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2025

As we enter a new year and an uncertain future, it’s clear that some of us need to read more than others, but we all need to read for relaxation, inspiration and knowledge. 

I hope you’ll make it a goal to carve out some time to read, and I’m here to give you my top 100 books that I am excited about this year.  I scour catalogs and websites, search my favorite authors, keep up with socials and try to get through as much email as I can to find the gems that I know Ms. readers will love and learn from. I look for feminist, queer, anti-racist, anti-colonial, original, radical and reflective books. Subversive books. Books that’ll make you think and feel. It’s a lot of work, but as a librarian and Ms. Feminist Know-It-All, it’s what I do! And it’s labor I love. 

How Diahann Carrol and Shirley Chisholm Reshaped Politics: An Excerpt from ‘A More Perfect Party’

An excerpt from Juanita Tolliver’s A More Perfect Party: The Night Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carrol Reshaped Politics, a story of how the first Black woman to star in a network sitcom teamed up with the first Black woman to run for president in order to spark change.

“Diahann Carroll knew how to throw a party. On the cool evening of April 29, 1972, Carroll’s estate was bursting with celebrity, exuberance and history in support of the first Black person, and the first woman, to seek the Democratic nomination for president. The Welcome to Hollywood party for the Honorable Shirley Chisholm, U.S. representative of New York, was kicking into high gear.”