The Middle Passage by Tom Feelings

"No one can experience it and remain unmoved" reads the inside flap. There are no better words to characterize the power of this visceral, searing, brilliant work. This large format book powerfully conveys more about the horror of this experience through wordless images than any textbook ever could. Feelings, a Brooklyn native whose work hangs behind Crossroads' closed doors, explains his decades-long process efforts to research and create the book in a four-page introduction which may well fascinate a would-be artist. For others, skip the words and dive right into the first image. The volume concludes with a bibliography and a handy map of the African diaspora in the Americas to furnish geographical context. Pair with Spielberg's Amistad (Feelings first, Spielberg second) and Lester's From Slave Ship to Freedom Road and Day of Tears. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber