Music & Movies

One of the few indisputable geniuses of pop music, Sly Stone is a trailblazer and a legend. He created a new kind of music, mixing Black and white, male and female, funk and rock. As a songwriter, he penned some of the most iconic anthems of the 1960s...

Singer. Dancer. Movie star. Activist. Queer icon. Afrofuturist. Working class heroine. Time traveler. Prophet. Feminist. Android. Dirty Computer. Janelle Monáe is all these things and more, making her one of the most fascinating artists to emerge in the...

Growing up around music, young George was inspired to piece together a makeshift drum set and teach himself to play as he practiced in the dark, dank basement of his run-down New Jersey row house. He soon joined forces with his friends to form a group...

A canonizing, bold, and urgent anthology setting a new precedent for Black Punk Lit, created by generations of Black punks--featuring both new voices and those from the not-so-recent past Black Punk Now is an anthology of contemporary nonfiction,...

In this breathtaking memoir, acclaimed author Alex Wheatle details how reggae music became his salvation through a childhood marred by abuse, imprisonment, and police brutality"In this inspiring, often harrowing narrative, the author chronicles how,...

1986. Ghana's prestigious Aburi Girls Boarding School. Queen Bee Paulina and her crew excitedly await the arrival of the Miss Ghana pageant recruiter. It's clear that Paulina is in top position to take the title until her place is threatened by Ericka -...

A cinematic narrative of glamour, grit, luxury, and luck, Fashion Killa draws on exclusive interviews with the leaders of the fashion world to tell the story of the hip-hop artists, designers, stylists, and unsung heroes who fought the power and...

A rollicking no-holds barred memoir from journalist and musician Eugene S. Robinson that takes readers along through the story of his life."A weird rollicking ride" frames how author Eugene S. Robinson views his journey from a Brooklyn kid with decidedly...

Twenty-five years ago in his hit song, "Sir Duke," Stevie Wonder sings: "Music knows it is and always will be one of the things that life just won't quit. / Here are some of music's basic pioneers that time will not allow us to forget: / There's Basie,...

A bold new adaptation of the 4,000-year-old Egyptian poem about Warrior King Sinuhe that captures the essence of civilization and the complexities of immigration, from the Booker Prize-winning author. Forced to flee Egypt, Sinuhe is captured as a...

A cut & paste celebration of Black punk and outsider identity, this is the only complete collection of the fanzine Shotgun Seamstress, a legendary DIY project that centered the scope of Blackness outside of mainstream corporate consumerist identity In...

(Real Book Multi-Tracks Play-Along). Today's best way to practice jazz! Accurate, easy-to-read lead sheets and professional, customizable audio tracks accessed online for 10 songs. The interactive, online audio interface includes: tempo control; looping;...

This volume explores concepts of freedom and bondage in the blues and argues that this genre of music explicitly calls for a reckoning while expressing faith in a secular justice to come. Placing blues music within its historical context of the...

Arguably one of the most mainstream music styles today, rap was in fact born centuries ago in West Africa with historians or 'griots' who used to tell stories of the past over the beat of a drum. But it wasn't until the 1970s in New York that rapping as...

(Jazz Play Along). For use with all Bb, Eb and C instruments, the Jazz Play-Along Series is the ultimate learning tool for all jazz musicians. With musician-friendly lead sheets, melody cues and other split-track choices on the included CD, this...

Blues was once described as the devil's music. It eventually became some of the most beloved American music that was embraced by a global audience. Originating in African American communities in the South in the late 1800s, it was inspired by gospel and...