Cultural Literature

"A book that both taught me so much and also kept me on the edge of my seat. It is an invaluable text from a supremely talented writer." --Clint Smith, author of How the Word is PassedThe definitive history of the pervasiveness of racial inequality in...

This collection of poetry arose from the author's experiences as the fill-in receptionist at an "adult services" massage parlor in Pittsburgh. Informed by theories of feminized eroticism and a feminist inquiry of power dynamics, these poems reflect the...

Cone explores two classic aspects of African-American culture--the spirituals and the blues. He tells the captivating story of how slaves and the children of slaves used this music to affirm their essential humanity in the face of oppression. The blues...

While sailing around the Caribbean, Ann Vanderhoof and her husband Steve track wild oregano-eating goats in the cactus-covered hills of the Dominican Republic, gather nutmegs on an old estate in Grenada, make searing-hot pepper sauce in a Trinidadian...

"If you are a basketball fan, you should be aware of Spencer Haywood's immense historical importance. If you're not aware, you should be." --Bob Ryan, The Boston Globe Hall of Famer, Olympic gold medalist, MVP, and All-Star could all be used to describe...

Originally published by Lumen Publishing House in 2012, The Spectacle of the Body in Late Medieval England, now thoroughly revised and with an updated bibliography, welcomes medievalists, humanities students and the general public alike to the bygone...

THE SOUTHERN PHOENIX was born out of the Black experience in America during the mid-1900s. It is an intense story reflecting the lives of very real people. Throughout this historical fiction novel, the reader is introduced to events such as the sit-ins...

The South Side is a quietly powerful story of how a white, middle-class, and largely Jewish neighborhood, built from prairie on Chicago's far South Side in the optimistic years after World War II, rapidly and dramatically changed to a middle-class black...

**One of Buzzfeed's 18 Best Nonfiction Books Of 2016** A lyrical, intelligent, authentic, and necessary look at the intersection of race and class in Chicago, a Great American City In this intelligent and highly important narrative, Chicago-native...

Words have power and can either build us up, or tear us down. What about hidden agendas with words? Music has that same power, with the right words attached. This book will help you examine just how impressionable you are. Emotions ride high and...

First published in 1903, this extraordinary work not only recorded and explained history--it helped alter its course. Written after Du Bois had earned his Ph.D. from Harvard and studied in Berlin, these fourteen essays contain both the academic language...