Curator's Notes:

How To Read This Radical Library: What is collected here is a slim selection of the eclectic range of titles Umi purchased during a very specific time in her life: her early years as a Muslim. It is a radical library of a curious and engaged reader. As a member of Pan-African and Black Power movements, Umi was interested in radical ideas and possibilities that would fundamentally upend the white supremacist and capitalist systems that fuel worldwide subjugation, ya dig? And she brought that interest with her into Islam. The texts displayed here were written by Muslims from Muslim-majority nations who were grappling with states that had failed them. In a parallel way, Umi was grappling with the state that failed her, the United States. They represent a transnational, intellectual network of Muslim thought, of which Black Muslim-led organizations, like the Islamic Party in North America, and institutions like Brooklyn's As-Suq bookstore were critical nodes.