INKPEN

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INKPEN

Home
PEN & INK
BOOKS INSPIRE
GIRLHOOD

because books inspire

Founded in 2018, INKPEN is a collaboration between readers and writers to put books in the hands of teens in under-resourced school libraries and to ensure that readers of color have access to stories by writers of color. We do this because we believe books inspire.

For many of us, reading has been a life-long love. We sought books of every genre for the worlds they brought to us. We sought books that shared the journeys of people who looked like us. We reflected on the joys of being seen and heard when we read authors such as Lorraine Hansberry, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes. Through INKPEN programming and partnerships, we aim to bring books to today's youth to help them through their questioning of the world.

INKPEN FOUNDERS & THE BOOKS THAT INSPIRE US

Darlene Taylor

Inspiration: A Raisin in the Sun

Lorraine Hansberry

Founder and Executive Director

Ahmad Wright

Christina Mason

Inspiration: A Gathering of Old Men

Ernest J. Gaines

Christina Mason

Inspiration: The Color Purple

Alice Walker

Flo McAfee

Christina Mason

Flo McAfee

Inspiration: Kindred

Octavia Butler

"My love of books and reading started young because it enabled me to leave the isolated west Texas environment of my childhood. I could do more, be more."

- Jaqee Cooke

Jaqee Cooke

Jewel James Simmons

Inspiration: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/

When the Rainbow Is Enuf

Ntozake Shange

Jewel James Simmons

Inspiration: Autobiography of

Malcom X

Alex Haley

Malaika Adero

Jewel James Simmons

Malaika Adero

Inspiration: Corregidora

Gayl Jones

"I've loved to read and hear stories for as long as I can remember, to learn about different experiences and places. I became obsessed with books by and about Black people, the experience was more meaningful. Every reader wants to experience the unfamiliar by a book. We also want enough of the familiar to connect and learn more about ourselves."

- Malaika Adero

Sabiyha Prince

Inspiration: Ain't I A Woman

bell hooks

Sabrina Curtis

Sabiyha Prince

Inspiration: The Education of Black People: Ten Critiques

W.E.B. DuBois

Sara Horton

Sabiyha Prince

Sara Horton

Inspiration: Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People

Nikki Giovanni

"Reading creates opportunities for black women and girls to expand their worlds - fostering the embrace and internalization of old and new forms of self-affirmation and intellectual growth."

- Sabiyha Prince

Simba Sana

Inspiration:

James Baldwin:

The Price of the Ticket

Simba Sana

"Our humanity is enhanced and our eyes are pried open as we explore the many worlds reading invites us to enter. Critical thinking and the ability to absorb a range of information are honed through reading and the journey it takes us on is one that lasts a lifetime."

- Sabihya Prince

BACK-TO-SCHOOL BOOK DRIVE: BOOKS TO STUDENTS

"INKPEN increases access to books that highlight Black stories and the literary contributions of Black authors to society, in addition to offering opportunity for all of us to engage with the authors themselves."

- Sabrina Curtis