Cultural Literature

John Mayall has played with them all; Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jack Bruce, Mick Fleetwood, Mick Taylor, Andy Fraser... the list goes on. Now, in his 80's, John continues to tour all over the world and perform to sell-out crowds. With an incredible...

Once a thriving body of innovative and fluid music, jazz is now the victim of destructive professional and artistic forces, says Eric Nisenson. Corruption by marketers, appropriation by the mainstream, superficial media portrayal, and sheer lack of skill...

"Somebody has to pay the dues," says LaVern Baker. Here are the remarkable stories of six dazzlingly talented performers who blazed the R & B trail--the story of the performers' music and also of their struggle against racism and financial exploitation:...

The sea, the sky, the veins of your hands, the earth when photographed from space--blue sometimes seems to overwhelm all the other shades of our world in its all-encompassing presence. The blues of Blue Mythologies include those present in the world's...

The definitive biography of the late, rock 'n' roll legend, Fats Domino While many think of Elvis Presley as rock 'n' roll's driving force, the truth is that Fats Domino, whose records have sold more than 100 million copies, was the first to put it on...

"It is the most singular of sounds, yet among the most ubiquitous. It is the sound of isolation that has sold itself to millions." Miles Davis's Kind of Blue is the best-selling piece of music in jazz history and, for many listeners, among the most...

Blue Bird is Canadian storyteller Magda Ayuk's debut collection of poetry and prose. Blue Bird is the necessary and enduring journey of self-love. Ayuk explores this journey through the intersectional pulses of freedom, race and gender. Blue Bird is the...

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK - The national bestseller that tells the truth about the Vietnam War from the black soldiers' perspective. An oral history unlike any other, Bloods features twenty black men who tell the story of how members of their race...

An engaging and reflective look at how austerity and the billionaire class paved the way for Trump's presidency, the rise of the "alt-right," and the caging of migrant children and adults in detention centers across the countryFor all of the energy that...

Based on actual events, the book describes in detail what it was like during urban America's most violent decade; 1965-1975 when policing was low-tech and gritty. Dayton, Ohio experienced three riots; one of which was sparked by the shooting of an...

The "riveting"* true story of the fiery summer of 1970, which would forever transform the town of Oxford, North Carolina--a classic portrait of the fight for civil rights in the tradition of To Kill a Mockingbird *Chicago Tribune On May 11, 1970, Henry...

For readers of such crusading works of nonfiction as Katherine Boo's Beyond the Beautiful Forevers and Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains comes a powerful and captivating examination of two entwined global crises: environmental destruction and...