Cultural Literature

In An Unstable Container, John LaPine explores the provocative dangers and tantalizing pleasures of corporeality across five deeply personal essays. Resonating with a distinct, lyrical Midwestern sensibility, LaPine's work examines with tenderness the...

The breathtaking story of one family's journey to restore, renovate, and preserve a historic mansion. It's a million-dollar project with gorgeous potential--and many challenges. THE CHANCELLOR'S MANSION was built by William Townsend McCoun, a public...

The first full and definitive narrative of one of the most shocking and largely unknown events of racial injustice in US history: the execution of nineteen Black soldiers in TexasOn the sweltering, rainy night of August 23, 1917, one of the most...

The long and pernicious relationship between fast food restaurants and the African American community Today, fast food is disproportionately located in Black neighborhoods and marketed to Black Americans through targeted advertising. But throughout much...

"Moving, thoughtful, redemptive. The Strangers is an important book. It will become a Black classic."-- Ben Okri, author of The Famished Road"Thrilling and ingenious, propulsive and genre-defying: The Strangers is an outstanding book. Compelling and...

A multifaceted history of Black resistance during the War of Independence The American Revolution brought about violent and unpredictable social changes throughout the new nation, particularly in the South. Sylvia Frey reveals how slave resistance gave...

How American symbols inspired enslaved people and their allies to fight for true freedom In the early United States, anthems, flags, holidays, monuments, and memorials were powerful symbols of an American identity that helped unify a divided people. A...

A typical Jenta story is one of limited vision. The stereotype is that a person born in Jenta--a slum area of Jos, Nigeria--is stuck in poverty and drifts naturally to vice, crime, and gang activity, mainly because they lack vision for anything better...

Located just across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, Alexandria, Virginia, has long held a unique sociopolitical position due to its proximity to the nation's capital. This unexplored relationship had a profound impact on African Americans' access...

A corrective history of the essential role that Black women played in the early Black press.In Great Thinkers and Doers, Teresa Zackodnik looks at the vital--and largely overlooked--role of Black women readers, writers, and editors in the development of...

Lawrence Thomas Guyot Jr. (1939-2012), known simply as "Guyot" (pronounced ghee-aught), was a pivotal yet underrecognized figure in the civil rights movement. As a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) field secretary in the 1960s, he battled...

Obie Mann was a successful grocery owner from Tulsa, Oklahoma (Greenwood District aka Black Wall Street) and a decorated World War I hero who led the resistance against German forces in the trenches of Normandy. Despite facing extreme hostility, he and...