Cultural Literature

With a Foreword by Simone BilesThe sensational two-time Olympian Jordan Chiles's heartfelt, inspiring memoir chronicling her unlikely path to the podium--including the unprecedented challenges, the joy of winning, the crushing pain of defeat, and the...

In 1959, Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel wrote and performed "Ne me quitte pas" (Don't leave me), a visceral and haunting plea for his lover to come back. As a teenager, Maya Angela Smith was so captivated by Nina Simone's powerful 1965 cover of...

A Black feminist take on exploitation and care in America's favorite game. Big-time college football promises prestige, drama, media attention, and money. Yet most athletes in this unpaid, amateur system encounter a different reality, facing dangerous...

From the deaf baseball legend and MLB Ambassador for Inclusion, a powerful anthem of ability diversity and overcoming the odds for readers of Nyle DiMarco's Deaf Utopia and sports memoirs such as Imperfect by Jim Abbott, Des Linden's Choosing to Run, and...

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...

"I'm still getting the brakes fixed and when that's done I'm coming to see you, probably in a couple of weeks. As I keep fixing this and that the car will finally become reliable from bumper to bumper and I can visit any time and often. I'll call before...

Portraits of Valor The stories of the passions and personalities that placed Virginia in the forefront of the Revolutionary War were replete with grief and sacrifice. The breakup of families over political differences was common. Bereavement spared few,...

A powerful exploration of self-resilience, family, and community from activist and prison abolitionist Keeonna Harris.Keeonna and Jason met as young teens. Only fourteen, Keeonna had never had a boyfriend before, dreamed of attending Spelman to become an...

An unforgettable and heartrending love story that will break your heart and piece it back together. Kareem Rosser and Lee Lee Jones were young, beautiful, and deeply in love. Their love was a real-world romance that felt like a fairy tale: Kareem was...

Winner of the 2023 Horowitz Prize by the Bard Graduate CenterShortlisted for the 2024 Charles C. Eldredge Prize by the Smithsonian American Art MuseumA meditation on suffering, resilience, creativity, and graceIn 1942 Missouri Pettway, newly suffering...

Illuminating two hundred years of lost Black History through the lens of an iconic abolitionist settlementIn the Light of Dawn shares the compelling story of how the iconic Dawn Settlement--now largely within the boundaries of Dresden, Ontario-- shaped...

"Part memoir, part history, and part political treatise, The South chronicles Reed's life under Jim Crow to correct what he sees as misleading representations of the past."-Elias Rodriques, Bookforum A memoir and historical account of growing up Black in...