Biography

The essential account of R. Kelly's actions and their consequences, a reckoning two decades in the making. Updated and expanded to include Kelly's 2021 trial and conviction. In 2000, Chicago journalist and music critic Jim DeRogatis received an anonymous...

Stuart Hall's retirement from the Open University in 1997 provided a unique opportunity to reflect on an academic career which has had the most profound impact on scholarship and teaching in many parts of the world. From his early work on the media,...

An inspiring memoir of one man's transformation from a delinquent, drug-dealing dropout to an award-winning Harvard educator through literature and debate--all by the age of twenty-seven. Brandon P. Fleming grew up in an abusive home and was shuffled...

Guitarist Michael Bloomfield shot to stardom in the '60s with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Bob Dylan, the Electric Flag and on Al Kooper's Super Session. His story is told in the words of his brother, musicians such as B.B. King, producer Paul...

Nearly 100 years after bursting onto Chicago's music scene under the tutelage of Joe King Oliver, Louis Armstrong is recognized as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. A trumpet virtuoso, seductive crooner, and consummate...

The Blindside meets Friday Night Lights in Keanon Lowe's Hometown Victory when an NFL coach returns home after losing a friend to opiods to coach a team of struggling high school kids on a 23-game losing streak. Keanon Lowe was working as an offensive...

Brother Mambo is a memoir of an anthropology graduate student who set out to document African cultural influences in the Guianas of South America. His initial study plan blocked by local immigration officials, he followed a hummingbird and other oracles...

A memoir about one man's journey to connect with his musician father, ultimately re-drawing the lines that define family and race. Throughout his adult life, whether he was opening a Seattle record store in the '90s or touring the world as the only...

Introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh NguyenA unique collection of 41 groundbreaking essays, poems, and artwork by migrants, refugees and Dreamers--including award-winning writers, artists, and activists--that illuminate what it is...

A poignant, moving memoir and urgent call to action for immigration justice by a Nigerian asylee and global gay rights and immigration activist Edafe Okporo. On the eve of Edafe Okporo's twenty-sixth birthday, he was awoken to a violent mob outside his...

In this spellbinding memoir, popular CNN anchor Zain E. Asher pays tribute to her mother's strength and determination to raise four successful children in the shadow of tragedy. Awaiting the return of her husband and young son from a road trip, Obiajulu...

The full, frank story of a remarkable life's journey--to the pinnacle of success as a basketball player, icon, and entrepreneur, to the depths of personal trauma and back, to a place of flourishing and peace--made possible above all by a family's love...

A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book A Best Book of 2021 by BuzzFeed and Real Simple   An "unmissable" (Vogue), "exceptional" (The Washington Post), and "evocative" (Chicago Tribune) memoir about three Black girls from the storied...

Langston Hughes is widely remembered as a celebrated star of the Harlem Renaissance -- a writer whose bluesy, lyrical poems and novels still have broad appeal. What's less well known about Hughes is that for much of his life he maintained a friendship...

A strong, funny, heartbreaking memoir (Elizabeth Gilbert) about a grandmother's ferocious love and redefining what it means to be family "Painfully good. I loved it." --Jenny Lawson, bestselling author of Furiously Happy The Ugly Cry is the funniest...