2024 STAFF HOLIDAY PICKS

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  • The Nap Ministry's Rest Deck: 50 Practices to Resist Grind Culture

    by Tricia Hersey & Paula Champagne

    $19.95

    The Nap Ministry's Rest Deck is a rousing call to reclaim rest in everyday life. Delivered in a stunning package with gold accents and gorgeous artwork throughout, the deck combines restorative meditations with prescient wisdom from celebrated activist and teaching artist Tricia Hersey, a.k.a. "the Nap Bishop," and founder of the Nap Ministry.

    Readers will discover 50 inspiring cards, each with an empowering affirmation and a simple practice to encourage rest, care, and imagination. Rooted in social justice and imbued with spirituality, these cards offer short, accessible practices designed to uplift anyone suffering from the toxic effects of grind culture.

    CELEBRATED AUTHOR: Tricia Hersey, a.k.a. "the Nap Bishop," is the founder of the Nap Ministry and the bestselling author of Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto. Her work as a social justice activist, artist, and thought leader has been featured by the New York Times, NPR, The Cut, and the Atlantic, among many others. In this deck, she distills her profound and celebrated teachings into 50 accessible practices. 
     
    TOOL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE: Brimming with practices to empower personal liberation as a step toward building a healthier, more just world, this deck offers readers a new way to engage with social justice and invites a wide audience to embrace the power of rest as an essential balm for our collective exhaustion. 
     
    BEAUTIFUL TO GIFT AND DISPLAY: This bold, eye-catching package with colorful illustrations and gold accents is a beautiful and meaningful gift for friends, activists, and anyone feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by the demands of grind culture. 

    • A powerful new tool for social justice activists
    • Great gift or self-purchase for socially engaged millennials and Gen-Zers
    • For anyone seeking mindful affirmation cards to aid their healing practice
    • Perfect for fans of the Nap Ministry, Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto, Layla Saad, Adrienne Maree Brown, Chani Nicholas, and Alex Elle
    • For readers of Me and White Supremacy, I’m Still Here, and How to Do Nothing
  • Lonéz Scents Tomato Vine
    $28.00

    An earthy and sophisticated fresh garden scent. Subtle notes of bergamot, grapefruit, and flowers. Middle and bottom notes of tomato, earthy musk, and wild herb. The Hue Collection is an expression of art and scent playfully coming together to create a unique candle experience.

    LONÉZ SCENTS candles are made from 100% soy wax Grown in the USA - creating a clean, environmentally friendly burn. Size - 12 oz. - 80 hour burn time. - Cotton wick. - No dyes added. - Phthalate-free. - Lead-free. - Zinc free.

  • The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump

    by Clay Cane

    from $17.99

    Part history and part cultural analysis, The Grift chronicles the nuanced history of Black Republicans. Clay Cane lays out how Black Republicanism has been mangled by opportunists who are apologists for racism.

    After the Civil War, the pillars of Black Republicanism were a balanced critique of both political parties, civil rights for all Americans, reinventing an economy based on exploitation, and, most importantly, building thriving Black communities. How did Black Republicanism devolve from revolutionaries like Frederick Douglass to the puppets in the Trump era?

    Whether it's radical conservatives like South Carolina Senator Tim Scott or Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, they are consistently viral news and continuously upholding egregious laws at the expense of their Black brethren. Black faces in high places providing cover for explicit bigotry is one of the greatest threats to the liberation of Black and brown people. By studying these figures and their tactics, Cane exposes the grift and lays out a plan to emancipate our future.

  • The Message

    by Ta-Nehisi Coates

    $30.00

    The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell—and the ones we don’t—shape our realities.

    Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set out to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell’s classic “Politics and the English Language,”but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories—our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking—expose and distort our realities.

    In the first of the book’s three intertwining essays, Coates, on his first trip to Africa, finds himself in two places at once: in Dakar, a modern city in Senegal, and in a mythic kingdom in his mind. Then he takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he reports on his own book’s banning, but also explores the larger backlash to the nation’s recent reckoning with history and the deeply rooted American mythology so visible in that city—a capital of the Confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares. Finally, in the book’s longest section, Coates travels to Palestine, where he sees with devastating clarity how easily we are misled by nationalist narratives, and the tragedy that lies in the clash between the stories we tell and the reality of life on the ground. 

    Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.

  • Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human

    by Cole Arthur Riley

    $22.00

    A collection of prayers, poems, and spiritual practices centering Black interior lives, from the New York Times bestselling author of This Here Flesh and creator of Black Liturgies

    For years, Cole Arthur Riley was desperate for a spirituality she could trust. Amid ongoing national racial violence, the isolation of the pandemic, and a surge of anti-Black rhetoric in many Christian spaces, she began dreaming of a more human, more liberating expression of faith. She went on to create Black Liturgies, a digital project that connects spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black memory, and the Black body.

    In this book, she brings together hundreds of new prayers, along with letters, poems, meditation questions, breath practices, scripture, and the writings of Black literary ancestors to offer forty-three liturgies that can be practiced individually or as a community. Inviting readers to reflect on their shared experiences of wonder, rest, rage, and repair, and creating rituals for holidays like Lent and Juneteenth, Arthur Riley writes with a poet’s touch and a sensitivity that has made her one of the most important spiritual voices at work today.

    For anyone healing from communities that were more violent than loving; for anyone who has escaped the trauma of white Christian nationalism, religious homophobia, or transphobia; for anyone asking what it means to be human in a world of both beauty and terror, Black Liturgies is a work of healing and empowerment, and a vision for what might be.

  • Up Home: One Girl's Journey

    by Ruth J. Simmons

    from $19.00

    Paperback On Sale: January 7, 2025

    An inspiring, indelible memoir from the daughter of sharecroppers in East Texas who became the first Black president of an Ivy League University—an uplifting story of girlhood and the power of family, community, and the classroom to transform one young person's life.

    I was born at a crossroads: a crossroads in history, a crossroads in culture, and a geographical crossroads in North Houston County in East Texas.

    Born in 1945, Ruth J. Simmons grew up the twelfth child of sharecroppers. Her first home had no running water, no electricity to light the two crowded rooms, no books to read. Yet despite this—or, in her words, because of it—Simmons would become one of America’s preeminent educators. The former president of Smith College and Brown University, and now the outgoing president of Prairie View A&M, Texas's oldest HBCU, for decades Simmons has inspired generations of students as she herself made history.

    In Up Home, Simmons takes us back to Grapeland to show how the people who love us when we are young shape who we become: We meet her caring, tireless mother who managed to feed her large family with an often empty pantry; her father, who refused to let racial and economic injustice crush his youngest daughter's dreams; the doting brothers and sisters; and the attentive teachers who welcomed Ruth into the classroom, guiding her to a future she could hardly imagine as a child.

    From the farmland of East Texas to Houston's Fifth Ward to New Orleans at the dawn of the civil rights movement, Simmons depicts an era long gone but whose legacies of inequality we still live with today. Written in clear and timeless prose, Up Home is both an origin story set in the segregated South and the uplifting chronicle of a girl whose intellect, grace, and curiosity guide her as she creates a place for herself in the world.

  • Reel

    by Kennedy Ryan

    $18.99

    A Broadway actress has a chance at stardom when cast by a major Hollywood director, but the role of her dreams may cost her the love of a lifetime in this epic novel from "one of the finest romance writers of our age." (Entertainment Weekly)

     For months I stood in the wings, an understudy waiting for my time to shine. I never imagined he would be in the audience that night. Canon Holt. Famous film director. Talented. Fine. Before I could catch my breath, everything changed. I went from backstage Broadway to center stage Hollywood. From being unknown, to my name, Neevah Saint, on everyone's lips when Canon casts me in a star-studded Harlem Renaissance biopic. But stars shine brightest in the dead of night. Forbidden attraction, scandal and circumstances beyond my control jeopardize my dream. Could this one shot—the role and love of a lifetime—cost me everything?

    This beautiful new edition includes a never-before-published bonus epilogue!   

       ·Entertainment Weekly Best Romances of the Year
       ·Washington Post Best Romances of the Year
       ·BookBub's Highest Rated Books of the Year
       ·LA Times 50 Best Hollywood Books of All Time

  • James: A Novel [Signed]

    by Percival Everett

    $28.00

    NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME, NPR, AND OPRAH DAILY • A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view • From the “literary icon” (Oprah Daily) and Pulitzer Prize Finalist whose novel Erasure is the basis for Cord Jefferson’s critically acclaimed film American Fiction When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light. Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.

  • Black Crossword: 100 Mini Puzzles Celebrating the African Diaspora

    by Juliana Pache

    $15.99

    Groundbreaking new book based on the popular site blackcrossword.com featuring over 100 original puzzles inspired by the Diaspora and covering history, popular culture, trailblazers, literature, and politics.  

    “Crosswords, and puzzles in general, are good in times of stress,” Will Shortz, the puzzle editor of The New York Times, has said, and during the pandemic sales of crossword puzzles and participants in online games such as Wordle, skyrocketed. Frustrated by the dearth of Black people creating puzzles or appearing as clues, entrepreneur Juliana Pache created blackcrossword.com in early 2023. The site at once took off counting such regular players and fans as Academy Award winner Questlove, popular social activist Brittney Packet Cunningham, and author and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib.

    Now, to expand her platform, Pache is looking to bring her cultural crossword puzzles to book publishing. Like her site, the concept for the first BLACK CROSSWORD is a game that places emphasis on terms and clues from across the diaspora. By highlighting prominent cultural figures, movements, artistic achievements, and Black vernacular from across the globe, BLACK CROSSWORD on the page will serve as a simple yet impactful way for solvers to engage in the diaspora and celebrate Black culture.

    In a crossword landscape that is predominantly white, BLACK CROSSWORD will provide puzzles to an underserved and passionate market. While the puzzles are meant to increase Black representation in crosswords, they also underscore the fact that this historically underserved market — Black solvers who would like puzzles that are culturally relevant to them—has the potential to become both a commercial hit and resonate with multiple generations of readers. BLACK CROSSWORD has the potential to become a series of books, including a general edition, a calendar edition, a pop culture edition across the diaspora, a Black History edition, and a trailblazer edition. While in a trade paperback format, BLACK CROSSWORD could have an elevated look/tone that would be a perfect gift or keepsake – the possibilities are endless.

  • Lonéz Scents Ozone & Moss
    $28.00
    Fresh ozone, green leaves, moss, balsam and sandalwood. The Hue Collection is an expression of art and scent playfully coming together to create a unique candle experience. LONÉZ SCENTS candles are made from 100% soy wax grown in the USA - creating a clean, environmentally friendly burn.  * 12 oz * 80 hour burn time * cotton wick * no dyes added * phthalate free * lead free * zinc free
  • Remember Love: Words for Tender Times

    By Cleo Wade

    $26.00
    Cleo Wade is that friend you dream of having—the one you could phone in your darkest hours, confident she’d say the perfect thing, because no matter what you’re going through, she’s going to meet you with warmth and understanding. She’s never shied away from her own setbacks and heartbreaks; she’s embraced them and distilled them into pearls of essential truth and sincere advice which can help get you through, can make you see that tomorrow still lies straight ahead. If only you had such a friend...

    And now you do.

    Remember Love, Cleo Wade’s first original work for adults since her widely adored Heart Talk, offers the consoling, inspiring voice that so many are craving amid the chaos of modern life. In clear, deep, generous poetry and prose, she urges those feeling confused, lost, or overwhelmed by change to return to what’s essential: love. Time and again, she reminds us that love, particularly self-love, is what saves us, even on our worst days—especially on our worst days. Love, Cleo says, is the sacred birthright of every human being. It’s not a want; it’s a need, and we require its nourishment now more than ever.

    Reminiscent of the comfort found in classic favorites from Maya Angelou and Mary Oliver, Remember Love is a counsel, an offering, a beautiful lifeline for members of every generation.
  • Rick Lowe

    by Dieter Roelstraete & Antwaun Sargent

    $100.00
    Houston-based artist Rick Lowe is widely known for his pioneering contributions to the development of “social practice art,” work that landed him a MacArthur fellowship in 2014. What few people realize is that he was originally trained as a landscape painter. In recent years, Lowe has increasingly turned back to painting, producing complex multi-panel and quasi-abstract images that are deeply rooted in thirty years of work creating “social sculptures,” recalling the urban fabric of cities around the world that have formed the backdrop of many of his community-based art projects. This book, which brilliantly reproduces Lowe’s paintings, is the first dedicated to the work of this important American artist, focusing on his painterly practice and its origins in his work in the public sphere.

  • Lovely One: A Memoir [Signed]

    by Ketanji Brown Jackson

    $35.00

    In this inspiring, intimate memoir, the first Black woman to ever be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court chronicles her extraordinary life story.
     
    With this unflinching account, Justice Ketanji BrownJackson invites readers into her life and world, tracing her family’s ascent from segregation to her confirmation on America’s highest court within the span of one generation.
     
    Named “Ketanji Onyika,” meaning “Lovely One,” based on a suggestion from her aunt, a Peace Corps worker stationed in West Africa, Justice Jackson learned from her educator parents to take pride in her heritage since birth. She describes her resolve as a young girl to honor this legacy and realize her dreams: from hearing stories of her grandparents and parents breaking barriers in the segregated South, to honing her voice in high school as an oratory champion and student body president, to graduating magna cum laude from Harvard, where she performed in musical theater and improv and participated in pivotal student organizations.
     
    Here, Justice Jackson pulls back the curtain, marrying the public record of her life with what is less known. She reveals what it takes to advance in the legal profession when most people in power don’t look like you, and to reconcile a demanding career with the joys and sacrifices of marriage and motherhood.
     
    Through trials and triumphs, Justice Jackson’s journey will resonate with dreamers everywhere, especially those who nourish outsized ambitions and refuse to be turned aside. This moving, open-hearted tale will spread hope for a more just world, for generations to come.

  • BLK MKT Vintage: Reclaiming Objects and Curiosities That Tell Black Stories

    by Jannah Handy and Kiyanna Stewart

    $40.00

    This one-of-a-kind treasure trove of Black cultural ephemera, from the entrepreneurs behind the vintage shop BLK MKT Vintage, expands on their mission to curate vintage objects that tell Black stories and celebrate the contributions Black people have made to our American consciousness.
     
    Jannah Handy and Kiyanna Stewart have spent years scouring piles, stacks, bookshelves, and dilapidated boxes in search of themselves and their history, Black history. Through their Brooklyn brick-and-mortar BLK MKT Vintage and online shop, they have uncovered tens of thousands of items including vintage literature, vinyl records, clothing, art, decor, furniture and more.
     
    BLK MKT Vintage: Reclaiming Objects and Curiosities That Tell Black Stories invites readers into Handy and Stewart’s work and partnership as they pick, collect, curate, design, and reimagine futures for the objects of the past. Brimming with more than 300 photographs of vintage pieces of ephemera, the book is a beautiful, ephemeral object itself calling to mind a scrapbook or family album that has a surprise on every page whether that’s 1972 celluloid pins from Shirley Chisholm’s presidential campaign, early 1800’s hand-drawn maps of the African continent, or 1920’s bound yearbooks from various HBCUs. The book also explores the various concepts that ground Handy and Stewart’s work; interviews with Black archivists, artists, memory workers and collectors – including a foreword from Spike Lee; a look into their private collection of thousands of items they have discovered over the years; an explanation of the different players in the antiques and vintage world; and tips and tricks on how to begin your own collection and curate physical spaces that reflect your identity and experience.

  • Guide Me Home (A Highway 59 Novel, 3)

    by Attica Locke

    $29.00

    In the final novel in the "timely and evocative" (NPR) Highway 59 trilogy, from Edgar Award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author Attica Locke, Darren Matthews is pulled out of an early retirement to investigate the disappearance of a Black college student from an all-white sorority and soon finds nothing is as it seems.

    Texas Ranger Darren Mathews isn’t sure he’s been a good cop, but believes he’s got a shot at being a good man—if he manages to dodge the potential indictment hanging over his head and if he, from here on out, pledges allegiance to the truth. It’s a virtue the country appears to have wholly lost its grip on, but one Darren sees as his salvation. He is in the midst of remaking his life with the woman he loves, hoping for the peace of country living at his beloved farmhouse, when he is visited by someone who couldn’t hold the truth on her tongue if it was dipped in sugar, a woman who’s always been bent of tearing his life apart. His mother. Armed with a tall tale about a missing Black college student, Sera (whose white sorority sisters insist she isn’t missing at all). Darren must decide if his can trust his mother is telling the truth—and what her ulterior motive may be, and what if that motive has to do with a grand jury deciding his fate.

    Darren gets his hooks into the investigation, along the way discovering things about Sera’s family and her hometown that are odd at best, vaguely sinister at worst. Hamstrung by local law enforcement and the Texas Rangers who likewise doubt the account of a missing girl, if Darren wants answers, he’ll need help from the person whom he swore to never trust again—his mother.

    In this emotionally stirring conclusion to the singular Highway 59 series, set three years after the events of Heaven, My Home, Darren reckons with his life’s purpose as he’s forced to choose between his own peace and the higher call to do good.

  • Black Love Letters

    by Cole Brown & Natalie Johnson

    $24.00
    One of W magazine’s Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2023

    "We reserve this space for our humanity in all of its fond, ironic, elated, grief-stricken, confused glory . . . When you find yourself alone and downtrodden, when the news is too much, return to these pages. This one is for you." —from the introduction by Cole Brown and Natalie Johnson


    "There's something particularly special about Black Love. When you consider the history of our people, the strife and adversity we've overcome, love seems an almost illogically ambitious act of resistance." —from the foreword by John Legend

    From celebrated Black writers, creators, and thinkers—and with a foreword by John Legend—comes a collection of letters and original illustrations on the subject of Black love, a powerful and heartfelt celebration of Blackness in all its many forms.


    In this exquisite anthology of letters and illustrations, Cole Brown and Natalie Johnson bring together a constellation of influential Black figures to write to the people, places, and moments that mean the most to them. With a foreword from John Legend and contributions from Brontez Purnell, Morgan Jerkins, Reverend Al Sharpton, and Dr. Imani Perry, among many others, Black Love Letters is an ode to a phenomenal community: a testament to the fact that where there has been pain and suffering, there has also always been immeasurable, irrepressible joy and love.

    With letters from: Akili King • Reverend Al Sharpton • Alexandra Elle • Allisa Charles-Findley • Barbara Edelin • Belinda Walker • Ben Crump • Bill Whitaker • Bilquisu Abdullah • Brianna Holt • Brontez Purnell • Cole Brown • Danez Smith • Dick Parsons • Deborah Willis • Doug Jones • Douglas Kearney • Imani Perry • Jamila Woods • Jan Menafee • Jayne Allen • Jeh Charles Johnson • Jenna Wortham • Jonathan Capehart • John Legend • Joel Castón • Joy-Ann Reid • Justus Cornelius Pugh • Kwame Dawes • Lynae Vanee Bogues • Mahogany Browne • Malachi Elijah • Michael Eric Dyson • Morgan Jerkins • Nadia Owusu • Natalie Johnson • Raka Reynolds • Rhianna Jones • Chef Rōze Traore • Sojourner Brown • Tarana Burke • Tembe Denton-Hurst • Topaz Jones • Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts • VJ Jenkins
  • Remote Control

    by Nnedi Okorafor

    $19.99
    An alien artifact turns a young girl into Death's adopted daughter in this tale of community and female empowerment by Binti's Nnedi Okorafor

    “She’s the adopted daughter of the Angel of Death. Beware of her. Mind her. Death guards her like one of its own.”

    The day Fatima forgot her name, Death paid a visit. From here on in she would be known as Sankofa­­—a name that meant nothing to anyone but her, the only tie to her family and her past.

    Her touch is death, and with a glance a town can fall. And she walks—alone, except for her fox companion—searching for the object that came from the sky and gave itself to her when the meteors fell and when she was yet unchanged; searching for answers.

    But is there a greater purpose for Sankofa, now that Death is her constant companion?

  • Christmas in Spite of You

    by K.C. Mills

    $17.95

    A neat freak Scrooge and a Christmas-loving ball of chaos must coexist for a week, and the friction and separation that ensue make the most magical time of the year highly remarkable.

    After pumping her hard-earned savings into a business plan that doesn’t pan out, Noel Anderson is left financially strapped and needs a way to earn money to stay afloat. She decides to rent her apartment as an Airbnb for the Christmas holidays while visiting her family for Christmas. What she didn’t plan on was coming down ill and having to cancel the trip.

    Kanton Joseph is on the cusp of securing a lucrative business deal. In order to get a one-up on his competition, he rents an Airbnb in the same apartment complex where his potential client resides. He’s surprised when he shows up, and the owner of the Airbnb not only wants to cancel the reservation but is still occupying the space.

    With great reluctance, Noel and Kanton agree to cohabitate for one week. Noel attempts to stay out of Kanton’s way, but they undoubtedly cross paths, causing friction between them. They immediately clash on everything, most notably with their views on the holidays. Noel is determined to have a very Merry Christmas despite her temporary housemate, which is the source of Kanton’s irritation. Eventually, the two begin to soften toward each other and Kanton learns to view things through Noel’s eyes.

    Will the holiday magic fizzle, or will these two spark a connection they didn’t realize they needed?

  • Sheila Bridges: Harlem 1,000-Piece Puzzle

    by Sheila Bridges

    $24.99

    A stunning full-color Harlem-themed 1,000-piece puzzle from beloved interior designer Sheila Bridges.

    Sheila Bridges is a world-renowned interior designer, recognized for her classic yet versatile design aesthetic and critical eye. She is sought after to create thoughtfully inspired and narrative rich interiors because of her profound sensitivity and appreciation of timeless design and quality craftsmanship. Her Harlem Puzzle is a beautiful ode to Harlem, New York, known around the globe its rich cultural heritage and significant contributions of talented African American writers, painters, poets, musicians, activists and artists.

    Featuring:

    • 1,000 full-color interlocking pieces
    • Art print with puzzle image
    • Finished puzzle is 18 7/8" x 26 3/8"

    Artisan Puzzles are produced with great intention and quality to create hours of pure pleasure, from anticipating the assembly to admiring the completed work.
  • Consider This: Reflections for Finding Peace

    by Nedra Glover Tawwab

    $28.00

    Inspiring advice for navigating life’s ups and downs, and finding ways to grow every day—from the New York Times bestselling author of Set Boundaries, Find Peace and Drama Free

    Life comes at us fast, with new challenges to navigate at every turn. Millions of fans have embraced the fresh insights of bestselling author Nedra Glover Tawwab, a popular therapist who brings both expertise and a fresh perspective to the everyday struggles we all navigate in our relationships and within ourselves.

    In this inspiring book of daily insights, Nedra delivers food for thought, friendly reminders, and perspective shifts to help us stay true to who we are and what matters most.Topics include setting boundaries, rising above drama, expressing ourselves with clarity and integrity, and finding peace and joy every chance we can get.

    This empowering and embraceable book will help us stay the course— and grow more fully into ourselves every day.

  • Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)?: Adventures in Boyhood

    by Jay Ellis

    $29.00

    *ships in 7 - 10 business days*

    Jay Ellis, star of HBO’s Insecure, tells the story of growing up with an imaginary best friend you will never forget—part Dwayne Wayne from A Different World, part Will Smith from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air—in this hilarious, vulnerable memoir.

    What to do when you’re the perpetual new kid, only child, and military brat hustling school to school each year and everyone’s looking to you for answers? Make some shit up, of course! And a young Jay Ellis does just that, with help from his imaginary friend, Mikey.

    A testament to the importance of invention, trusting oneself, and making space for creativity, Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)? is a memoir of a kid who confided in his imaginary sidekick to navigate parallel pop culture universes (like watching Fresh Prince alongside John Hughes movies or listening to Ja Rule and Dave Matthews) to a lifetime of birthday disappointment (being a Christmas-season Capricorn will do that to you) and hoop dreams gone bad. Mikey also guides Ellis through tragedies, like losing his teenage cousin in a mistaken-target drive-by and the shame and fear of being pulled over by cops almost a dozen times the year he got his driver’s license.

    As his imaginary friend morphs into adult consciousness, Ellis charts an unforgettable story of looking inward to solve to some of life’s biggest (and smallest) challenges, told in the roast-you-with-love voice of your closest homey.

  • Sheila Bridges: Wrapping Paper & Gift Tags

    by Sheila Bridges

    $19.99

    A collection of 12 stunning wrapping paper sheets and matching gift tags from beloved interior designer Sheila Bridges.

    Similar to Artisan's John Derian Products Line, here is a curated collection of wrapping paper sheets and matching gift tags from Sheila Bridges's globally recognized modern and beautiful patterns and designs. The book includes 12 perforated wrapping paper sheets—including her ever popular Harlem Toile de Jouy and Van Doe patterns—that detach and unfold to 19 5/8" by 25 3/4", along with 12 matching gift tags.

  • Black Power and Palestine: Transnational Countries of Color (Stanford Studies in Comparative Race and Ethnicity)

    Michael R. Fischbach

    $28.00

    The 1967 Arab–Israeli War rocketed the question of Israel and Palestine onto the front pages of American newspapers. Black Power activists saw Palestinians as a kindred people of color, waging the same struggle for freedom and justice as themselves. Soon concerns over the Arab–Israeli conflict spread across mainstream black politics and into the heart of the civil rights movement itself. Black Power and Palestine uncovers why so many African Americans―notably Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali, among others―came to support the Palestinians or felt the need to respond to those who did.

    Americans first heard pro-Palestinian sentiments in public through the black freedom struggle of the 1960s and 1970s. Michael R. Fischbach uncovers this hidden history of the Arab–Israeli conflict's role in African American activism and the ways that distant struggle shaped the domestic fight for racial equality. Black Power's transnational connections between African Americans and Palestinians deeply affected U.S. black politics, animating black visions of identity well into the late 1970s. Black Power and Palestine allows those black voices to be heard again today.

    In chronicling this story, Fischbach reveals much about how American peoples of color create political strategies, a sense of self, and a place within U.S. and global communities. The shadow cast by events of the 1960s and 1970s continues to affect the United States in deep, structural ways. This is the first book to explore how conflict in the Middle East shaped the American civil rights movement.

  • What Do Brothas Do All Day?

    by Ajuan Mance

    $17.99

    Inspired by Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day?, these joyous portraits of Black men engaged in everyday life celebrate the deep roots and rich cultures of African American communities.

    Have you ever wondered . . .
    What do brothas do all day?
    Brothas drive. Brothas dance. Brothas work. Brothas listen. And brothas love.

    Scarry’s now-classic book, first published in 1968, is a richly illustrated guide to the places, jobs, and activities that defined the daily lives of grown-ups. Author-illustrator Ajuan Mance created What Do Brothas Do All Day?, like Scarry, in response to children’s innate curiosity about the activities and experiences of others, but also to meet the longing many kids have for characters and communities that look and feel like the people and places they know.

    This joyous reflection of real Black men and boys engaged in everyday life is a gift for Black kids who rarely see themselves reflected in the pages of a book and an affirmation of their world and the people who populate it. From grocery shopping and waiting for a trim at the barbershop to singing, dancing, and laughing with friends, Mance captures the beauty in the ordinary, affirming the enduring strength of the Black community.

    DIVERSE BOOKS FOR KIDS: This picture book features real Black men the author has observed in the world—everyday people, not models or stereotypes. One fan describes it as "just a rainbow of Black men, a beautiful rainbow of Black men."

    LIBRARIAN LOVE: What Do Brothas Do All Day? began as an all-ages zine, but the author began to conceive of it as a children's book after being approached by two children's librarians.

    INSPIRED BY A CLASSIC: As the author notes in the book, "I first encountered Richard Scarry’s work in the early 1970s when I was about six years old. The world of adults, with its grocery lists, PTA meetings, shopping trips, and dinner parties, seemed both tantalizingly exotic and impossibly complex. Today, those same descriptors can be applied to the ways that many people of all ages perceive Black men."

    AN INVITATION: The book ends with an invitation, perhaps even a call to action: What will you do today?

    Perfect for:

    • Parents and grandparents seeking engaging read-aloud and read-along picture books
    • Teachers and librarians looking for books featuring Black communities
    • Gift for readers of Jacqueline Woodson, Kwame Alexander, Cedella Marley, and Derrick Barnes books
    • Fans of Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day?
  • The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience [Signed]

    by Nikole Hannah-Jones

    $65.00

    An illustrated edition of The 1619 Project, with newly commissioned artwork and archival images, The New York Times Magazine's award-winning reframing of the American founding and its contemporary echoes, placing slavery and resistance at the center of the American story.

    Here, in these pages, Black art provides refuge. The marriage of beautiful, haunting and profound words and imagery creates an experience for the reader, a wanting to reflect, to sit in both the discomfort and the joy, to contemplate what a nation owes a people who have contributed so much and yet received so little, and maybe even, to act. --Nikole Hannah-Jones, from the Preface

    Curated by the editors of The New York Times Magazine, led by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, this illustrated edition of The 1619 Project features seven chapters from the original book that lend themselves to beautiful, engaging visuals, deepening the experience of the content. The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience offers the same revolutionary idea as the original book, an argument for a new national origin story that begins in late August of 1619, when a cargo ship of enslaved people from Africa arrived on the shores of Jamestown, Virginia. Only by reckoning with this difficult history and understanding its powerful influence on our present can we prepare ourselves for a more just future.

    Filled with original art by thirteen Black artists like Carrie Mae Weems, Calida Rawles, Vitus Shell, Xaviera Simmons, on the themes of resistance and freedom, a brand-new photo essay about slave auction sites, vivid photos of Black Americans celebrating their own forms of patriotism, and a collection of archival images of Black families by Black photographers, this gorgeous volume offers readers a dynamic new way of experiencing the impact of The 1619 Project.

    Complete with many of the powerful essays and vignettes from the original edition, written by some of the most brilliant journalists, scholars, and thinkers of our time, The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience brings to life a fuller, more comprehensive understanding of American history and culture.

  • Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership

    by Brea Baker

    $30.00

    Why is less than 1% of rural land in the U.S. owned by Black people? An acclaimed writer and activist explores the impact of land theft and violent displacement on racial wealth gaps, arguing that justice stems from the literal roots of the earth.

    “With heartfelt prose and unyielding honesty, Baker explores the depths of her roots and invites readers to reflect on our own.”—Donovan X. Ramsey, author of the National Book Award for Nonfiction semi-finalist When Crack Was King

    To understand the contemporary racial wealth gap, we must first unpack the historic attacks on Indigenous and Black land ownership. From the moment that colonizers set foot on Virginian soil, a centuries-long war was waged, resulting in an existential dilemma: Who owns what on stolen land? Who owns what with stolen labor? To answer these questions, we must confront one of this nation’s first sins: stealing, hoarding, and commodifying the land.

    Research suggests that between 1910 and 1997, Black Americans lost about 90% of their farmland. Land theft widened the racial wealth gap, privatized natural resources, and created a permanent barrier to access that should be a birthright for Black and Indigenous communities. Rooted traces the experiences of Brea Baker’s family history of devastating land loss in Kentucky and North Carolina, identifying such violence as the root of persistent inequality in this country. Ultimately, her grandparents’ commitment to Black land ownership resulted in the Bakers Acres—a haven for the family where they are sustained by the land, surrounded by love, and wholly free.

    A testament to the Black farmers who dreamed of feeding, housing, and tending to their communities, Rooted bears witness to their commitment to freedom and reciprocal care for the land. By returning equity to a dispossessed people, we can heal both the land and our nation’s soul.

  • There's a Unicorn in my Backyard!

    by Martellus Bennett

    $19.99

    A tale about a young heroine named Carolina Blue who sets out to catch a magical black unicorn that just so happens to frequent her backyard.

  • "Hey Pretty Girl" Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle
    $27.00

    "Hey Pretty Girl" 76-piece wooden jigsaw puzzle is packaged in a character-themed box. The completed puzzle size is width-11 1/4 inches and length- 8 1/2 inches.

    What Else Is Included: -2 wood stand pieces -Puzzle pieces packaged in a cloth drawstring bag.

  • Good Vibes, Good Life Calendar 2025: Daily Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

    Vex King

    $17.99

    From the #1 Sunday Times best-selling author and self-love writer Vex King—a motivational page-a-day calendar bringing guidance into your home or workspace so you can welcome growth, gratitude, and good vibes all year round.

    Invite positivity, joy, and self-healing into your life with daily inspirational messages and affirmations to help you achieve success, manifest your goals, and live a high-vibe life!

    The Good Vibes, Good Life 2025 Calendar offers daily advice, prompts, and actionable wisdom on topics like manifestation, appreciation, and self-acceptance to help you to cultivate better lifestyle habits, welcome great opportunities into your life, and discover your higher purpose.

  • Halima, Superhero Princess

    by Emily Joof and Asa Gilland

    $18.95

    A young Black girl overcomes self-doubt and embraces her unique superhero princess identity in this energetic and empowering book from the author of I Will Swim Next Time.

    Halima can't decide who to dress up as for her friend's birthday party. Should she be a princess like Elsa, or a sort-of superhero like Pippi Longstocking? "You can't be either," her friends tell her, "because you don't look like them."

    Mama assures Halima can be whoever she wants to be, and together they discover more strong, brave women to look up to. Can Halima find the confidence to become her own unique superhero princess?

    Heartfelt and uplifting, Halima's story encourages pride and self-expression in young readers, and introduces them to inspiring women of colour from around the world. African-diaspora mother Emily Joof is the author of I Will Swim Next Time. Åsa Gilland's vibrant and lively illustrations are full of fun.

  • We Will Rest!: The Art of Escape

    by Tricia Hersey

    $26.00

    Escape from grind culture and dehumanizing systems with this visionary guide from the author of the New York Times bestseller Rest Is Resistance
     
    We don’t believe we are worthy of rest unless we burn ourselves out to accomplish it. Our thinking has been limited by disconnection, sleep deprivation, and the unattainable call for perfection. The systems will never give us rest. It is something we must create for ourselves and each other. 
     
    Just as the North Star guided the enslaved on their journeys to freedom, visionary artist and founder of The Nap Ministry Tricia Hersey leads us to imagine a new world: one in which we subvert the narrative of productivity at all costs and embrace rest as a healing spiritual practice. 
     
    Inspired by vintage hymnals, prayer books, and abolitionist pamphlets, We Will Rest! is a modern sacred object, medicine for a sick and exhausted world. Weaving together meditations and poetry with storytelling and powerful art, Hersey provokes liberation through refusal and trickster rebellion in the face of capitalism and white supremacy. 
     
    There is another way. Focus on the escape. Focus on the transformation. We can just be. We are beautiful. We are enough. We are escape artists. We Will Rest!
     
     ***
     
    Have you ever noticed
    when you ask for rest
    the body becomes a holy trumpet
    the walls come tumbling down?

  • Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde

    by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

    $35.00

    A bold, innovative biography that offers a new understanding of the life, work, and enduring impact of Audre Lorde.

    We remember Audre Lorde as an iconic writer, a quotable teacher whose words and face grace T-shirts, nonprofit annual reports, and campus diversity-center walls. But even those who are inspired by Lorde’s teachings on “the creative power of difference” may be missing something fundamental about her life and work, and what they can mean for us today.

    Lorde’s understanding of survival was not simply about getting through to the other side of oppression or being resilient in the face of cancer. It was about the total stakes of what it means to be in relationship with a planet in transformation. Possibly the focus on Lorde’s quotable essays, to the neglect of her complex poems, has led us to ignore her deep engagement with the natural world, the planetary dynamics of geology, meteorology, and biology. For her, ecological images are not simply metaphors but rather literal guides to how to be of earth on earth, and how to survive―to live the ethics that a Black feminist lesbian warrior poetics demands.

    In Survival Is a Promise, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the first researcher to explore the full depths of Lorde’s manuscript archives, illuminates the eternal life of Lorde. Her life and work become more than a sound bite; they become a cosmic force, teaching us the grand contingency of life together on earth.

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