Cultural Literature

"We have been waiting many years for a substantial volume on African Americans in Hawai'i and are finally rewarded with a fine anthology skillfully edited by Miles Jackson. Here, it is possible to feel the longstanding ties between African Americans and...

Kitwana, author of the best-selling The Hip-Hop Generation, sits down with leadership of the five major national hip-hop organizations, a larger part of the force that is driving the innovative marriage between hip-hop and civic engagement—The...

This is the first comprehensive selection from the correspondence of the iconic and beloved Langston Hughes. It offers a life in letters that showcases his many struggles as well as his memorable achievements. Arranged by decade and linked by expert...

Reggie Love is a unique witness to history, whose introduction to Washington was working in Junior Senator Barack Obama's mailroom. As "body man" to Obama during his first presidential campaign, Love's job was to stay one step behind the candidate, but...

In 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Johnson and five fellow soldiers were captured and taken as prisoners of war. Johnson, America's first black female prisoner of war, shares the story of her capture and imprisonment in Iraq and her rescue. In...

Picture a ballerina in a tutu and toe shoes. What does she look like?" As the only African American soloist dancing with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland has made history. But when she first placed her hands on the barre at an...

Dr. Yvonne Thornton, author of the heartwarming memoir The Ditchdigger's Daughters (which has been translated into 19 languages and adapted as an award-winning movie), knows what it's like to overcome steep odds. Born into a family with great ambition...

Andrea Stuart was born and raised in the Caribbean. She studied English at the University of East Anglia and French at the Sorbonne. Her book "The Rose of Martinique: A Life of Napoleon's Josephine" was published in the United States in 2004, has been...

"[Stanton] takes us into her survival mode on the streets, and adjustments she had to make in her home life. The author shares experiences of her teen years, growing up in Buffalo, NY. She leads us on a short stay as a young girl in Greensboro, NC. The...

Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time.Praise for Decoded "Compelling . . ...

Dubbed "the Hip-Hop Intellectual" by critics and fans for his pioneering explorations of rap music in the academy and beyond, Dyson probes the most compelling and controversial dimensions of hip-hop culture. Whether along race, class or generational...

Robinson explores the singularly curious and inimitable tragic history of the island nation of Haiti, beginning with the present anarchic disrepair of it modern state. From one revolution to another, Haiti has changed the fate of empires yet has not been...