Cultural Literature

Jake Makes a World follows the creative adventures of the young Jacob Lawrence as he finds inspiration in the vibrant colors and characters of his community in Harlem. From his mother's apartment, where he is surrounded by brightly colored walls...

The broadest and most comprehensive collection of writings available by an early civil and women's rights pioneer Seventy-one years before Rosa Parks's courageous act of resistance, police dragged a young black journalist named Ida B. Wells off a train...

In the underground labyrinths of New York City's subway system, beneath the third rail of a long forgotten line, Saul Williams discovered scrolls of aged yellowish-brown paper rolled tightly into a can of spray paint. His quest to decipher this mystical...

From microaggressions to the wage gap, The Memo empowers women of color with actionable advice on challenges and offers a clear path to success. Most business books provide a one-size-fits-all approach to career advice that overlooks the unique barriers...

On the heels of Kendrick Lamar's Pulitzer Prize, as the world begins to recognize the creative side of Hip-Hop, comes a writing guide from a musician and The greatest MC of all time, Rakim. The musician and Hip Hop legend--hailed as "the greatest MC of...

One of the most important books and television series ever to appear, "Roots" opened up the minds of Americans to one of the darkest and most painful parts of its past. This anniversary edition reminds the generation that originally read it that there...

For those who wish to decolonize their minds, particularly Black women, comes a thoughtful guide to ancestral veneration, with a focus on the importance of reclaiming African Spiritual practices as an act of liberation. In today's world, there's a...

A special 75th anniversary edition of Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir, with a new foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an afterword by Malcolm Wright, the author's grandson. When it exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, Black Boy was...

REGIONAL BESTSELLER Now a documentary narrated by Common, produced by Grant Hill, Dwyane Wade, and 9th Wonder, from filmmaker Mary Mazzio The moving true story of a group of young men growing up on Chicago's West side who form the first all-Black high...

Winner of the 2014 Anna Julia Cooper-CLR James Book Award presented by the National Council of Black Studies In We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement, Akinyele Omowale Umoja argues that armed resistance was critical to...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - ONE OF ESSENCE'S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS In this iconic memoir of his early days, Barack Obama "guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race"...

This new entry in the innovative Story line of chapter-book biographies focuses on John Lewis, a leader in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and a revered Congressman today. The son of an Alabama sharecropper, John Lewis experienced the injustice of...