Cultural Literature

A remarkable work of reportage by Nobel Prize Laureate V. S. Naipaul that surveys belief and religion among the disparate peoples of Africa. Like all of Naipaul's "travel" books, The Masque of Africa encompasses a much larger narrative and purpose: to...

Squatting offers a radical but simple solution to the crises of housing, homelessness and the lack of social space that mark contemporary society: occupying empty buildings and rebuilding lives and communities in the process. Squatting has a long and...

Paul Robeson, despite being one of the greatest Renaissance figures in American history, still remains in relative anonymity. An exceptional scholar, lawyer, athlete, stage and screen actor, linguist, singer, civil rights and political activist, he...

"Sixtus's father had only one request of Sixtus--'give back.' And give back he did." --Edward C. Benzel, MD, emeritus chairman of Neurosurgery, Cleveland Clinic Born into a poor West African family in the disease-stricken town of Fontem, John N. Atabong...

Celebrated scholar Carla Kaplan's cultural biography, Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance, focuses on white women, collectively called "Miss Anne," who became Harlem Renaissance insiders. The 1920s in New York City was a time of...

Lakeland, the historical African American community of College Park, was formed around 1890 on the doorstep of the Maryland Agricultural College, now the University of Maryland, in northern Prince George's County. Located less than 10 miles from...

In this definitive work, Howard Morgen demonstrates all the tools, techniques, and concepts to create masterful solo guitar arrangements. This one-of-a-kind book with online media features 19 full song arrangements based on 11 classic jazz standards,...

"Essential and fresh and vital . . . It is the argument of this important book that until Americans can reimagine rights, there is no path forward, and there is, especially, no way to get race right. No peace, no justice."--from the foreword by Jill...

There is an old saying that it takes a village to raise a child, but Jessie Jollymore has experienced through the youth of Hope Blooms, an inner city initiative she founded that engages at-risk youth, that sometimes it takes the children to raise the...

Falling Perfectly Without Trying is an inspirational true story of one woman's persistence to make a better life for herself and her children.In Hawaii, a love story unfolds between Jenny, a young naïve woman, and Miguel. As soon as they tie-the-not,...

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has spent a lifetime observing other creatures and other cultures, from her own backyard to the African savannah. Her books have transported millions of readers into the hidden lives of animals--from dogs and cats to deer and...

This book is about is the many ways that the foundations of hip-hop appropriation--allusions and creative language use, as well as technology and self-reference--inform the new millennium. In Dead Precedents, Roy Christopher traces the story of how...