Biography

Born in slavery in Maryland in 1817, Frederick Douglass escaped from servitude twenty years later, joined the ranks of abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips and John Brown, and devoted a long and fruitful life to the winning of...

The late Grammy-winning founder of the legendary pop/R&B/soul/funk/disco group tells his story and charts the rise of his legendary band in this sincere memoir that captures the heart and soul of an artist whose groundbreaking sound continues to...

"Aisha Harris is one of our smartest, most entertaining modern cultural critics. The nine pieces offer insight on Stevie Wonder, the Spice Girls, Pen15, and New Girl--among many other pop artifacts, of course--which might as well be parlance for, 'Read...

A stirring, intimate reflection on the nature of race and American nationhood that has inspired generations of writers and thinkers, first published in 1963, the same year as the March on Washington "The finest essay I've ever read."--Ta-Nehisi Coates,...

"You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people." The New York Times bestselling author of Race Matters and Democracy Matters offers provocative, open-hearted wisdom for our times. In a...

Abdi Nor Iftin first fell in love with America from afar. As a child, he learned English by listening to American pop and watching action films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. When U.S. marines landed in Mogadishu to take on the warlords, Abdi cheered...

Finalist for the 2023 Southern Book Prize A Black mother bumps up against the limits of everything she thought she believed--about science and medicine, about motherhood, and about her faith--in search of the truth about her son. One morning, Tophs,...

On Foreign Ground, A True Story of a Wild Soul-charts a journey over time and world geography after the author, Ingeborg van Zanten Hayes born in the Netherlands, has a mental breakdown. Her search for personal and cultural identity to build a new...

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE 2020 TORONTO BOOK AWARDWINNER OF THE OLA EVERGREEN AWARDFINALIST FOR THE WRITERS' TRUST SHAUGNESSY COHEN PRIZEFINALIST FOR THE RAKUTEN KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE *UPDATED with new foreword, postscript, and educator's...

The first biography of one of the most fascinating yet long-neglected rulers of the ancient world: Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Antony and Cleopatra.Years ago, archaeologists excavating near Pompeii unearthed a hoard of Roman treasures, among them a...

A motivational memoir by a formerly incarcerated man who transformed from founder and leader of the Dallas Bloods to a practitioner of peace and nonviolence in the neighborhood he once helped destroy As a child of an incarcerated father, Antong Lucky...

A powerful collection of autobiographical poems from Yale Young Poets Award Winner and Philadelphia's Poet Laureate Airea D. Matthews about the economics of class and its failures for those rendered invisible by it.As a former student of economics, Airea...

A new memoir and collection of love poems by #1 New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Medalist Kwame Alexander. In a powerfully intimate and non-traditional (or "new-fashioned") memoir, Kwame Alexander shares snapshots of a man learning how to...

Remember Whose Little Girl You Are captures the flavor of the Deep South like no author since Eudora Welty or Flannery O'Connor. Ellen Nichols captures the tenor of small-town Southern life in the fifties and sixties, with its vicissitudes and hilarity...

James Cooley unpacks his thoughts on the challenges that many Black men face due to their ancestors being taken away from their homeland over 400 years ago and forced into slavery and colonization.Based on history, his experiences, and trying to adjust...