Clara Villarosa reading to children. Credit: Hue-Man Experience at Tattered Cover.
The Hue-Man Experience Bookstore, once a beloved woman-owned, Black-owned business in Denver that closed in 2000, recently established a new partnership with Tattered Cover, a local bookselling institution. Clara Villarosa, now in her 90s and the founder of the Hue-Man Experience Bookstore, is providing curatorial guidance to Tattered Cover on book selections that encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion, many of which are written by Black authors and feature Black characters and subjects.
In late 2021, CU Boulder Libraries funded a microgrant to deepen the Libraries' collection of books by Black authors, about Black lives and experiences, and for Black and underrepresented students on campus. Through the curatorial guidance of Tattered Cover and the Hue-Man Experience, the Libraries are purchasing books based on recommendations from Clara Villarosa and her collaborators, as well as additional titles that may align with either the Hue-Man Experience's monthly themes.
These curatorial decisions will be made to support the whole student; for example, a recent monthly theme on Black cookbooks and Food for the Soul includes memoirs from Black chefs and cookbooks from Black chefs and bakers. While these topics are outside of our usual academic collecting purview, we recognize the importance of widening that lens and including experiences that may have been excluded from our academic collection in the past.
Look for promotions and displays in the Libraries that will highlight these books, as well as the history of the Hue-Man Experience Bookstore and our collaboration.