Cultural Literature

Alice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author presents "a celebration of all things country music" (Ken Burns) as she reflects on her search for the first family of Black country music. Country music had brought Alice Randall and her...

A dialogue on hope and persistence between a movement mentor and author, educator, and organizer, James R. Tracy.Malik Rahim served as the chair of the New Orleans Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Since that time he has never stopped organizing. In...

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...

From hip-hop moguls and political candidates to talk radio and critically acclaimed films, society communicates that Black girls don't matter and their girlhood is not safe. Alarming statistics on physical and sexual abuse, for instance, reveal the harm...

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...

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...

Ten beautifully illustrated essays tell the stories of handcrafted objects and their makers, providing inspiration and insight into Black history and craftsmanship.   Black artisans have long been central to American art and design, creating...

From celebrated scholar Dr. Yolanda Pierce comes this indelible meditation on Black faith, suffering, hope, and the healing possibilities of justice, written in the venerable tradition of James Cone and Kelly Brown Douglas. What do we do with wounds--our...

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...