Cultural Literature

From an acclaimed playwright comes "an American masterpiece" (Newsweek) about the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Twilight is a stunning work of "documentary theater" that explores the devastating human impact of the five days of riots following the Rodney King...

"It is probably easier to be Christian in any other area of life than it is in the area of race. Here the practice of the Christian religion seems to break down most completely." These words of prophetic judgment ground Mays's attempt to set down...

The Rhodesian War of 1965-80 is the battle for control of present day Zimbabwe. The former British colony of Southern Rhodesia rejected British moves towards majority rule and on 11 November 1965 the Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith announced his...

This erudite collection of writings from leading lights in the African literary community pays tribute to Ama Ata Aidoo through a broad spectrum of articles and personal memoirs from scholars of different generations and from other literary artists. The...

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...

A finalist for the 2015 National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award In How to Be Drawn, his daring fifth collection, Terrance Hayes explores how we see and are seen. While many of these poems bear the clearest imprint yet of Hayes's...

"Honey, if cookin' is a chore, then you ain't been doin' it right."--author and Lord Honey chef Jason Smith From Kentucky 'Nanners Foster Waffles to 'Lasses-Glazed Carrots to Sweet Tea and Bourbon Fried Chicken, celebrate the art of "Country Bling"...

#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...

"Kenan continues Baldwin's legendary tradition of 'telling it on the mountain' by giving a voice to the unvarnished truth."--The San Francisco Chronicle James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time was one of the essential books of the sixties, and one of the most...

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 magnificent 1000-piece puzzle featuring a colorful, intricately patterned quilt by artist Mary Lee Bendolph, matriarch of the historic quilting community in Gee's Bend, Alabama, and published by Paulson Fontaine Press in Berkeley, California. This is...

Dynasty and Divinity presents a major part of the extraordinary corpus of ancient Ife art in terra-cotta, stone, and metal, dating from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries. Artists at Ife, the ancient city-state of the Yoruba people of West Africa...

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...

The definitive monograph on contemporary African American painter Kerry James Marshall, accompanying a major traveling retrospective. This long-awaited volume celebrates the work of Kerry James Marshall, one of America's greatest living painters. Born...

Before the War Between the States, there was the war between the U.S. government and Oberlin, Ohio. . . . "A fascinating, gripping narrative."--James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of FreedomOn a crisp autumn day in Ohio, 1858, two Kentucky slave...