Cultural Literature

In this frank, funny, and provocative book, relationship expert Dr. Cornish shows black women everywhere how to shed the duds and find the studs who will treat them with respect.

The New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-nominated author of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois and The Age of Phillis makes her nonfiction debut with this personal and thought-provoking work that explores the journeys and possibilities of Black...

"Among the most profound and dazzling debuts I've ever read." --Kiese Laymon, award-winning author of Heavy: An American Memoir   An essay collection from culture critic Lawrence Burney that is a personal and analytical look at his home city...

The star of classic television series, including The Jeffersons and 227, reveals her difficult journey from a tempestuous childhood to becoming a confident Hollywood powerbroker and groundbreaker who paved the way for today's superstar...

This detailed history of the famous Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York City, begins with its organization in 1809 and continues through its relocations, its famous senior pastors, and its many crises and triumphs, up to the present. Considered...

Summoned from the Margin tells the story of Lamin Sanneh's fascinating journey from his upbringing in an impoverished village in West Africa to education in the United States and Europe to a distinguished career teaching at the Universities of Yale,...

Black Church Beginnings provides an intimate look at the struggles of African Americans to establish spiritual communities in the harsh world of slavery in the American colonies. Written by one of today's foremost experts on African American religion,...

This book by Miguel De La Torre offers a fascinating guide to the history, beliefs, rituals, and culture of Santería -- a religious tradition that, despite persecution, suppression, and its own secretive nature, has close to a million adherents in the...

One of the greatest African American leaders and one of the most brilliant minds of his time, Frederick Douglass spoke and wrote with unsurpassed eloquence on almost all the major issues confronting the American people during his life--from the abolition...

This unprecedented work is the first one-volume study of the history of Christianity in Africa. Written by Elizabeth Isichei, a leading scholar in this field, A History of Christianity in Africa examines the origins and development of Christianity in...