Cultural Literature

A film legend recalls his remarkable life of nearly eight decades--a heralded actor who's played the roles he wanted, from Brian's Song to Lando in the Star Wars universe--unchecked by the racism and typecasting so rife in the mostly all-white industry...

"This book is brutal and brutally honest, but still perversely addictive because Brontez Purnell is a performer in the truest sense. Reading Ten Bridges I've Burnt, I felt tucked-in with him, along for the intimate ride, and paused only once to write...

A revelatory look at the tumultuous life of a jazz legend and American cultural icon. In the first biography of Billie Holiday in more than two decades, Paul Alexander--author of heralded lives of Sylvia Plath and J.D. Salinger--gives us an...

Contemporary policing reflects the turn from welfare to domestic warfare as the chief means of regulating the excluded and oppressed The historic uprising in the wake of the murder of George Floyd transformed the way we think about race and policing. Why...

The lives and writings of six leading Black Buddhist women--Jan Willis, bell hooks, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, angel Kyodo williams, Spring Washam, and Faith Adiele--reveal new expressions of Buddhism rooted in ancestry, love, and collective liberation...

"This powerful trinity of Black authors invites us into the living room of their hearts, affirming who we are with earthy straight talk, textured diversity, and wise tenderness."--Ruth King Real talk on living joyfully and coming home to ourselves--with...

Catherine Meeks shares the wisdom she garnered over the journey of her life, from her father's sharecropping fields to the academy and beyond. Today, Catherine Meeks is a national leader of racial healing and an esteemed retired professor of African...

Challenging a prevailing attitude, this account disputes the idea that racism is no longer a factor in American life. Based on cultural and literary evidence--including Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn--it argues that, in some ways, the United States very...

"Genuine, unrestrained musings, both political and personal, on life as a Black woman in contemporary America...A highly rewarding, commiserating nod as well as an astute rallying cry."--KIRKUS (starred review) "Everyday Something Has Tried to Kill Me...

The issues that make monogamous dating daunting for people of color--shaming and exclusion by white partners, being fetishized, having realities of everyday racism ignored--occur in polyamorous relationships too, and trying "not to see race" only makes...

After immigrating from Jamaica to the United States, Prince Shakur's family is rocked by the murder of Prince's biological father in 1995. Behind the murder is a sordid family truth, scripted in the lines of a diary by an outlawed uncle hell-bent on...