Cultural Literature

The rediscovery of a pivotal figure in Black history and his importance and influence in the struggle against slavery and discrimination Born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Samuel Ringgold Ward (1817-c. 1869) escaped enslavement and would become a...

The first critical analysis of how Whiteness drove the opioid crisis. In the past two decades, media images of the surprisingly white "new face" of the US opioid crisis abounded. But why was the crisis so white? Some argued that skyrocketing overdoses...

A remarkable new poetry collection from Clint Smith, the #1 New York Times bestselling and National Book Critics Circle award-winning author of How the Word Is Passed. Clint Smith's vibrant and compelling new collection traverses the vast emotional...

Southern Association for Women Historians Julia Cherry Spruill PrizeFinalist, Hooks National Book AwardHow Black women usedlessons in literacy to crack the foundation of white supremacy This book details how African American women used lessons in basic...

The award-winning journalist and co-host of CBS Saturday Morning tells the candid, and deeply personal story of her mother's abandonment and how the search for answers forced her to reckon with her own identity and the secrets that shaped her family for...

The story of Frederick Douglass is passionate, harrowing, and inspiring. As a former slave, impassioned abolitionist, gifted writer, newspaper editor, and powerful orator, Douglass was an immense, motivational figure. His early life, filled with physical...

"A brilliant and brilliantly different" (Kiese Laymon), wrenching and redemptive coming-of-age memoir about the difficulty of growing up in a hazardous home and the glory of finding salvation in geek culture. Stranded within an ever-shifting family's...

A hopeful, wise, and practical guide to help us move into spaces of individual and collective healing, community, and relationship building--with practices to shed our isolation, connect, and thrive. ​In times of isolation, heartbreak, and...

A timely and significant examination of how Black athletes have used their influence to create meaningful change and reform for Black Americans. In the age of social media, athletes have a powerful influence like never before. Many Black athletes have...

CARNEGIE MEDAL FINALIST - A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - From "one of our most nuanced thinkers on the intersections of race, class, and feminism (Cathy Park Hong, New York Times bestselling author of Minor Feelings) comes a memoir "as electric as...

The critically acclaimed author of In the Wake, Christina Sharpe is a brilliant thinker who attends unflinchingly to the brutality of our current arrangements . . . and yet always finds a way to beauty and possibility (Saidiya Hartman). A singular...