Cultural Literature

From the day Jonathan Conyers was born, he has found himself in places where he wasn't wanted or wasn't expected to survive, much less thrive. When Jonathan was 14 years old, he broke into a home to commit robbery when he and his friend were caught by...

A dazzling history of Africans in Europe, "masterfully" (Smithsonian) revealing their unacknowledged role in shaping the continent A finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History Conventional wisdom holds that Africans are only a recent...

In this fascinating inquiry into the African Diaspora, Caryl Phillips embarks on a soul-wrenching journey to the three major ports of the transatlantic slave trade. Juxtaposing stories of the past with his own present-day experiences, Phillips combines...

When the Peace Corps sends Susana Herrera to teach English in Northern Cameroon, she yearns to embrace her adopted village and its people, to drink deep from the spirit of Mother Africa--and to forget a bitter childhood and painful past. To the...

In Nairobi, slick advertising has made few inroads, and shopping malls and supermarkets remain a rarity. People buy their daily necessities locally, from small traders within their communities. Business owners paint their own billboards and signs, or...

In 2007, at the age of thirty-four, Mike Tomlin was hired as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Replacing Hall of Famer Bill Cowher--and two years removed from the team's Super Bowl XL victory--there was immense pressure on the first-year head...

For fans of Poverty Safari and Skint Estate, That Peckham Boy is a real-life manifesto calling for positive change for those on the fringes of society. 'When you're writing the story of your life, make sure you're holding the pen. In this life you can be...

On the Lower Frequencies is at once a manual, memoir, and history of creative resistance in a world awash with war and poverty. An icon on the 1990s zine scene, Iggy Scam traces not only the evolution of cities, but of his own thinking, from his early...