Cultural Literature

"I am completely indebted to Jimmy Baldwin's prose. It liberated me as a writer."--Toni Morrison   This collectible edition celebrates James Baldwin's 100th-year anniversary, probing the shortcomings of the American protest novel and the harmful...

"bell hooks's brave memoir of struggling to find her own work, love, and independence." --Gloria SteinemWith her customary boldness and insight, brilliant social critic and public intellectual bell hooks traces her writer's journey in Wounds of Passion...

For bell hooks, the best cultural criticism sees no need to separate politics from the pleasure of reading. Yearning collects together some of hooks's classic and early pieces of cultural criticism from the '80s. Addressing topics like pedagogy,...

From multi-award winner Whoopi Goldberg comes a new and unique memoir of her family and their influence on her early life. If it weren't for Emma Johnson, Caryn Johnson would have never become Whoopi Goldberg. Emma gave her children the loving care and...

The women have something to say. Are you listening? In this powerful and needed collection, editor Angela P. Dodson brings together the voices of more than thirty-five accomplished women writers on the topic of violence and injustice against Black men...

"This book is about Black girl magick, queer girl magick, straight girl magick, trans magick, bisexual magick. It's about giving yourself the power to be fierce...Black women are Hierophants, Magicians, Empresses, and High Priestesses."--Mawiyah Kai...

Essence Magazine 2023 Must Read Journalist, attorney, and star of Bravo's The Real Housewives of New York reshapes the cultural landscape of achievement by showing why Black unity is crucial to individual and collective success. Eboni K. Williams knew...

One of Oprah Daily's Best Fall Nonfiction Books of 2022An empowering, unabashedly bold memoir by the Atlantic journalist and former ESPN SportsCenter coanchor about overcoming a legacy of pain and forging a new path, no matter how uphill life's battles...

From the photographer behind the Instagram sensation Brown Girls Do Ballet, this stunning coffee-table book showcases breathtaking images of ballerinas of color of all ages and levels that reflect today's beautifully diverse world of dance. For decades...

"Amended follows Will Creagh, a young African-American man from Birmingham, Alabama, throughout his childhood and into his college years. The book is centered around the question: "What does it mean for your livelihood to rest upon a Constitutional...

First published in 1903, The Souls of Black Folk is a masterpiece of American literature, a foundational text of sociology, and a deeply personal answer to the question "What is it like to be a Black American?" Breathtaking, searing, and brilliant,...

Cemeteries have stories to tell, voices to unearth-and lessons from the past that we can draw upon to better shape the future. If These Stones Could Talk brings fresh light to a forgotten corner of American history that begins in a small cemetery in...

"A moving portrait . . . funny and touching, intellectually and emotionally stimulating. There's pride and prejudice, family drama, and a love story. I loved this book. You will too."--Victor LaValle, author of The ChangelingDarrin Bell was six years old...

A seminal work that expands how we talk about the natural world and the environment as National Book Critics Circle Criticism finalist Camille T. Dungy diversifies her garden to reflect her heritage. In Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden, poet...

Iconic as a novelist and popular cultural figure, Zora Neale Hurston remains underappreciated as an anthropologist. Is it inevitable that Hurston's literary authority should eclipse her anthropological authority? If not, what socio-cultural and...