Music & Movies

A major biography of Duke Ellington from the acclaimed author of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was the greatest jazz composer of the twentieth century--and an impenetrably enigmatic personality whom no one, not...

Karen Barbera and Randall Keith Horton were strangers who met on a train. A cordial conversation led to an eight-year collaboration to tell new and enlightening stories about Duke Ellington and to bring his forgotten masterpieces back to life. The...

Take a deep dive into legendary hip-hop group Run-DMC's groundbreaking album, Raising Hell, on its 40th anniversary with this handsome slipcased celebration. In 1985, Queens, New York-based rap group Run-DMC teamed with heavy metal producer Rick Rubin to...

A stunning resurrection of the visionary choreographer Buddy Bradley whose contributions to rhythm tap and jazz dance in the 1920s and '30s indelibly transformed the way we move to music In Feel the Floor, Maureen Footer shows how Bradley's revolutionary...

What happened to the dancers who lit up the stage on the iconic show Soul Train?Get On Board! takes you behind the scenes and beyond the spotlight, tracing the lives of the original dancers who helped define a generation of music and movement. From...

Avenue Breakdown uncovers the rich yet often overlooked legacy of Black music in Shreveport, Louisiana--a city better known for country tunes and the Louisiana Hayride. This compelling history shines a spotlight on the city's vibrant postwar scene, where...

"Remembering Roots highlights the indomitability of the human spirit; and reminds us that, like our ancestors, as long as we continue to breathe, there's hope." --LEVAR BURTON, award-winning actor, director, author, and original cast member of Roots...

The book that inspired the MGM+ docuseries, Hollywood Black is a sweeping overview of the Black experience in film from the silent era through Black Panther, with striking photos and an engrossing history by award-winning author Donald...

A profound meditation on hip hop's transformative power, In the Hour of Chaos takes us deep into the mind of the genre's most unabashed revolutionary. This book is not an autobiography. It's not a manifesto. It's a razor-sharp investigation into hip...

In a country where systemic racism is embedded in every institution, and in a city like Milwaukee-known for its segregation, surveillance, and high incarceration rates of Black men-Craig Brown managed to do the improbable: he never caught a case.Never...

Clyde McPhatter (1932-1972) was the golden voice behind a musical revolution--a soaring tenor whose electrifying performances helped define the sound of early rock 'n' roll. From his breakthrough with the Dominoes to founding the Drifters and launching a...

Black and Blue TV explores the ways television productions have responded to the Black Lives Matter movement. Television programs' engagement with BLM was common before George Floyd's murder sparked international protests in the summer of 2020, at which...