Every day of Women’s History Month the MSU Women*s Student Services have been posting to their instagram different women that have had an impact. Here is the link to Angie Thomas’ Virtual Trading Card.
Author, producer, speaker, and activist Angie Thomas was born, raised, and lives in Jackson, Mississippi who was a former teen rapper. She “…holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Belhaven University and an unofficial degree in Hip Hop. she can also still rap if needed.”
“I look at books as a being a form of activism. Sometimes they’ll show us a side of the world that we might not have known about.”
She is probably best known for her #1 NYT bestseller and her debut; The Hate U Give a novel featuring a Black teen girl that witnesses the murder her childhood best friend by a police officer. The novel was also adapted into an amazing and critically acclaimed film in 2018 starring Amandla Stenberg and directed by George Tillman, Jr. If you haven’t yet, you NEED to read this book, or, at least, watch the movie. It’s beyond moving and, honestly, changed my life.
“What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?”
After The Hate U Give, Thomas released On the Come Up (a film is also in the works), FIND YOUR VOICE: A Guided Journal to Writing Your Truth, is featured as a contributor in Blackout, and, in 2021, wrote Concrete Rose which is a prequel to The Hate U Give centering on the father of that main character.
“Brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared. It means you go on even though you’re scared.”
“You can destroy wood and brick, but you can’t destroy a movement.”
So, why is Angie Thomas important?
Honestly, I hope this has already been answered. But, if you haven’t yet gotten it: she has continued the conversation of Black Lives Matter and Black Futures and Voices Matter with the story of Starr Carter who is directly targeted at younger students and teens that may not have been introduced to it yet. Plus, if it’s a banned book, you know it’s going to be good!