Cultural Literature

A new Penguin Classics series that recovers and rediscovers the work of African American poets from the 19th and 20th centuries, curated by Joshua Bennett and Jesse McCarthy A Penguin Classic As scholars of African American literature and cultural...

The moving story of the life of the woman behind A Raisin in the Sun, the most widely anthologized, read, and performed play of the American stage, by the New York Times bestselling author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee Written when she was...

A picture-book biography of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the woman who invented rock and roll--a warm, inspiring tale of a childhood filled with music, community, and a drive to succeed. "Music is the heart of our story," says Momma to young Rosetta,...

A timely exploration of Oscar-nominated Black actors and the complicated legacy of the Academy Awards. In Black Oscars: From Mammy to Minny, What the Academy Awards Tell Us about African Americans, Frederick W. Gooding Jr. draws on American, African...

Named one of the best music books of 2017 by The Wall Street JournalA unique and kaleidoscopic look into the life, legacy, and electricity of the pop legend Prince and his wideranging impact on our cultureBen Greenman, New York Times bestselling author,...

Lord knows, Reverend Al has had his personal and very public ups and downs, but he's come out bigger and better than ever--though the host of MSNBC's PoliticsNation is as fiery and outspoken as ever about the events and issues that matter most, he's...

Pittsburgh Jazz documents the almost forgotten magic created in the city of Pittsburgh by a host of artists, uptown inner city streets, and jazz joints that served patrons from a menu packed full of delightful music. The magical improvised songs,...

A beautifulmemoir written bythe first black female TV journalistabout her experience migrating from the Caribbean to the UK, and the beauty and struggle of becoming a woman during that experience Traveling over from Jamaica as a teenager, Barbara's...

The most substantial collection of critical essays on Morrison to appear since her death in mid-2019, this book contains previously unpublished essays which both acknowledge the universal significance of her writing even as they map new directions...

Using storytelling and performance to explore shared religious expression across continentsThrough a revolutionary ethnographic approach that foregrounds storytelling and performance as alternative means of knowledge, Situated Narratives and Sacred Dance...