One Book Baltimore has selected Baltimorean D. Watkins’ book We Speak for Ourselves: A Word from Forgotten Black America for the 2020-2021 school year. One Book Baltimore seeks to promote literacy for Baltimore City seventh- and eighth-graders and facilitates city-wide dialogue with families and community members by reading the same book.

One Book Baltimore, in its third year, is a collaboration between the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore City Public Schools, the T. Rowe Price Foundation, and other community partners. The program was recently runner up for the 2020 Penguin Random House Library Award for Innovation.

Copies of We Speak for Ourselves will be distributed to all city schools’ 7th and 8th -graders. The book is a collection of essays and stories centered on Watkins’ East Baltimore neighborhood.

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