Cultural Literature

The Life of a TrailblazerMatilda Arabella Evans was born four years after the abolition of slavery and raised on a family farm in eastern Aiken County. She was the first African American woman in South Carolina to obtain a medical license and fervently...

An intimate, inspiring memoir by educator and labor union leader Karen Lewis, a formidable fighter, a staunch defender of teachers and students, and a beloved Chicagoan. In 2012, Karen Lewis led the Chicago Teachers Union to a historic strike,...

A powerful, incisive reckoning with the impacts of school desegregation that traces four generations of the author's family to show how the implementation of integration decimated Black school systems and did much of the Black community a disservice On...

Why don't our schools work? Eve L. Ewing tackles this question from a new angle: What if they're actually doing what they were built to do? She argues that instead of being the great equalizer, America's classrooms were designed to do the opposite: to...

A poignant, unflinching study of black grief as a form of elegy found in visual art, music, literature--everywhere, if you know how to see it. In Black Elegies, Kimberly Juanita Brown examines the form of the elegy and its unique capacity to convey the...

How Black Stories Shaped My OwnAward-winning author Marita Golden explores her writing career and how the igniting power of storytelling is still inspiring generations of Black authors today.A lifetime of stories to tell. Growing up, Marita would listen...

National Humanities Medal recipient and two-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize David Levering Lewis's own family history that shifts our understanding of the larger American story Sitting beneath a stained glass window dedicated to his grandmother in...

Juxtaposing the world-building of afrofuturism and the world-negating of afropessimism to show how both movements have offered us critical resources of hope. Science fiction imagines aliens and global crises as world-unifying events, both a threat and...

Pass down the powerful teachings of African oral tradition by adding this luxe illustrated volume of over 50 cultural folktales to your home library. In this captivating collection of folklore from African culture, discover the stories that have been...

NOW IN PAPERBACK WITH BONUS MATERIAL, this NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller is a sweeping survey of Black history shows how Black humanity has been erased and how its recovery can save the humanity of us all. You're also getting an exclusive bonus chapter: "The...

A New York Times Notable Book "Henry Louis Gates is a national treasure. Here, he returns with an intellectual and at times deeply personal meditation on the hard-fought evolution and the very meaning of African American identity, calling upon our...

*Well-Read Black Girl - Book Club Pick* A riveting memoir by the former CEO of Black Entertainment Television (BET), about the glamorous and ugly moments of being a high-powered Black woman executive in the entertainment industry. As an incredible...