Music & Movies

A must-have for every Boyz II Men fan, this handsome volume traces forty years of the groundbreaking group through stunning photography, fascinating facts, and interviews with fans and industry pros. Philly's own Boyz II Men is an iconic boy band that...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Satchel and Bobby Kennedy, a sweeping and spellbinding portrait of the longtime kings of jazz--Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie--who, born within a few years of one another, overcame racist...

"A fresh new perspective that will be a true revolution to readers and will open new lines of discussion on . . . the importance of the city of New Orleans for generations to come." --Dr. Michael White, jazz clarinetist, composer, and Keller Endowed...

How long will you wait to live your dreams? Maybe you're just starting out and are unsure where to invest your time and energy. Maybe you've started and stopped so much already that your fallback plan has become the only plan. Maybe you've simply lost...

From Pitchfork and Guardian contributor Dean Van Nguyen comes a revelatory history of Tupac beyond his musical legend, as a radical son of the Black Panther Party whose political legacy still resonates today. Before his murder at age twenty-five, Tupac...

The groundbreaking story of the BBC's first Black woman broadcaster--finally brought to light.Una Marson was unstoppable--a poet whose words lit up hearts, a broadcaster who made history in 1941 as the first Black woman on the BBC, and an activist who...

Canada and the Blackface Atlantic traces the origins of theatre, dance, and concert singing in Canada and their connection to British and American song and dance traditions. When theatrical acts first appeared in the late eighteenth century, chattel...

The remarkable life story of Ella Jenkins, "The First Lady of Children's Music." Ella Jenkins was one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century. Her songs "You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song" and "Who Fed the Chickens?" are...

Alice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author presents "a celebration of all things country music" (Ken Burns) as she reflects on her search for the first family of Black country music. Country music had brought Alice Randall and her...

Reel Freedom intimately captures the relationship between Black film culture and space in New York City. Alyssa Lopez argues that Black film culture, from its origins in the early twentieth century to its firm establishment in the 1930s, was necessarily...

In 1959, Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel wrote and performed "Ne me quitte pas" (Don't leave me), a visceral and haunting plea for his lover to come back. As a teenager, Maya Angela Smith was so captivated by Nina Simone's powerful 1965 cover of...

Winner, Grand Prize, French Voices Award In Too Black to Be French, Isabelle Boni-Claverie navigates the complexities of identity, race, and family in a world that constantly questions her belonging. Boni-Claverie's singular account interweaves the...

A Hollywood history told from the perspective of those that fought for diversity, inclusion and acknowledgement Are the Oscars (still) so white? Is it even possible to decolonize the film industry? Why is Hollywood's race problem everyone's problem? ...

In this insightful new volume, Jack Chambers explores Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington's music thematically, collating motifs, memes, and predilections that caught Ellington's attention and inspired his restless muse. In presenting Ellington's work in...

A punk rock anti-memoir told through the eyes of a biracial Afrolatino punk academic. P?NK! follows Moose, an alienated academic and lead guitarist for Pipebomb!, as he navigates through spaces in and out of South East Los Angeles: punk clubs, college...

All the unwritten rules of rap say it doesn't happen like this. Yet Killer Mike, a Black man from Atlanta, Georgia, and El-P, a white man from Brooklyn, New York, have transformed what should have been the twilight of their careers as rappers into their...