Products
- Virgil Abloh. Nike. ICONS
Virgil Abloh. Nike. ICONS
by Virgil Abloh
$80.00From Air Jordan 1 to Air Presto, Nike and Virgil Abloh reinvented sneaker culture with their project, The Ten. Experience engineering ingenuity and Abloh’s investigative design process: each shoe is a piece of industrial design and a readymade sculpture. The binding on ICONS showcases an open spine, reflecting Abloh’s design philosophy. In 2016, sportswear manufacturer Nike and fashion designer Virgil Abloh joined forces to create a sneaker collection celebrating 10 of the Oregon-based company’s most iconic shoes. With their project The Ten—which reimagined icons like Air Jordan 1, Air Max 90, Air Force 1, and Air Presto, among others—they reinvigorated sneaker culture.
Virgil Abloh’s designs offer deep insights into engineering ingenuity and burst with cultural cachet. Drawing on the genius of the original shoe using lettering, ironic labels, collage, and sculpting techniques, Abloh played with language and sculptural elements to construct new meaning. Inspired by the wit of Dadaism, architectural theory, and avant-garde happenings, he analyzed what makes each shoe iconic and deconstructed it into an artistic assemblage, making each shoe into a piece of industrial design, a readymade sculpture, and a wearable all at once.
ICONS traces Abloh’s investigative, creative process through documentation of the prototypes, original text messages from Abloh to Nike designers, and treasures from the Nike archives. We find Swooshes sliced away from Air Jordans and reapplied with tape or thread, Abloh’s typical text fragments in quotation marks on Air Force 1, and All Stars cut into pieces. We take a look behind the scenes and witness Abloh’s DIY approach, which gave each model in the Off-WhiteTM c/o Nike collection its own unique touch. His deconstructive vocabulary is reflected in the Swiss binding, which showcases an open spine and discloses the production of the book.
The book documents Abloh’s cooperative way of working and reaffirms the power of print. For its design Nike and Abloh partnered with the acclaimed London-based design studio Zak Group. Together they conceived a two-part compendium, equal parts catalog and conceptual toolbox. The first part of the book presents a visual culture of sneakers while a lexicon in the second part defines the key people, places, objects, ideas, materials, and scenes from which the project grew. Texts by Nike’s Nicholas Schonberger, writer Troy Patterson, curator and historian Glenn Adamson, and Virgil Abloh himself frame the collaborative work within fashion and design history. A foreword by Hiroshi Fujiwara places the project within the historical continuum of Nike collaborators.
- Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech
Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech
edited by Michael Darling
$79.95The essential volume on the great fashion designer, entrepreneur and Louis Vuitton artistic director, back in print
This authoritative Virgil Abloh compendium, created by the designer himself, accompanies his acclaimed landmark 2019–23 touring exhibition and offers in-depth analysis of his career and his inspirations. More than a catalog, Figures of Speech is a 500-page user’s manual to Abloh's genre-bending work in art, fashion and design.
The first section features essays and an interview that examine Abloh’s oeuvre through the lenses of contemporary art history, architecture, streetwear, high fashion and race, to provide insight into a prolific and impactful career that cuts across mediums, connecting visual artists, musicians, graphic designers, fashion designers, major brands and architects. The book also contains a massive archive of images culled from Abloh’s personal files on major projects, revealing behind-the-scenes snapshots, prototypes, inspirations and more—accompanied by intimate commentary from the artist. Finally, a gorgeous full-color plate section offers a detailed view of Abloh’s work across disciplines.Virgil Abloh (1980–2021) was a fashion designer and entrepreneur, and the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's men's wear collection from 2018 to 2021. He was also CEO of the Milan-based label Off-White, a fashion house he founded in 2013. Born in Rockford, Illinois, to Ghanaian parents, he entered the world of fashion with an internship at Fendi in 2009 alongside rapper Kanye West. The two began an artistic collaboration that would launch Abloh's career with the founding of Off-White. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018.
- Virtual Author Panel: Black & In Love with Tia Williams, Kianna Alexander, Chenicia Higgins, Synithia Williams, A.E. Valdez, Kosoko Jackson, Charish - August 17 at 6:30PM
Virtual Author Panel: Black & In Love with Tia Williams, Kianna Alexander, Chenicia Higgins, Synithia Williams, A.E. Valdez, Kosoko Jackson, Charish - August 17 at 6:30PM
Sold outIn honor of Bookstore Romance Day, we have gathered some of our favorite Black contemporary Romance authors, traditionally and indie published.
EVENT DEETS
WHEN: August 17 at 6:30PM
WHERE: Virtual Via Zoom
HOW: Be sure to purchase your $5 ticket or choose one of the bundles to gain entry to this virtual event.
ROMANCE BOOK BUNDLES
Forbidden Love: The Perfect Find, Forbidden Promises - $26
Second Chance Romance: All I've Ever Want All I've Ever Needed , Seven Days in June - $31
Opposite Attract: Mickey Chambers Shakes It Up, The Secret to a Southern Wedding - $36
Meet Queer: D'Vaughn & Kris Plan A Wedding, Can't Let Her Go , A Dash of Salt & Pepper- $45
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Tia Williams had a fifteen-year career as a beauty editor for magazines including Elle, Glamour, Lucky
, Teen People, and Essence. In 2004, she pioneered the beauty-blog industry with her award-winning site, Shake Your Beauty. She wrote the bestselling debut novel The Accidental Diva and penned two young adult novels, It Chicks and Sixteen Candles. Her award-winning novel The Perfect Find is a Netflix movie starring Gabrielle Union. Her latest novel is New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, Seven Days in June, published by Grand Central. Tia currently lives with her daughter and her husband in Brooklyn. Like any good Southern belle, Kianna Alexander wears many hats: doting mama, advice-dispensing sister, fun aunt and gabbing girlfriend. She's a voracious reader, an amateur seamstress and occasional painter in oils.She has a passion for history and an endless curiosity. Kianna is proud to tell stories where Black women are loved, valued, and thriving. A native of the TarHeel state, Kianna still lives there while maintaining her collection of well-loved vintage 80's Barbie dolls.
Chencia Higgins hails from the big city of Houston in the greatest state of Texas. Writing has been her my passion since she was a young girl, when her subject matter were visions of middle school drama with her group of girlfriends. She entered the world of publishing in May 2016 with an erotic novella that set the stage for a career in which she would craft engaging tales of Black women being loved up on. She continues to write for women who love to read but are tired of never seeing themselves in the story. Higgins proud to be a part of an indie and self-published author community. When she's not writing, you can find her reading a book (or two, or three), saving recipes that she'll never make on Pinterest, and traveling as much as possible with her family.
A.E. Valdez published her first book, All I’ve Wanted, All I’ve Needed, in 2021. She has continued to write stories with endearing and relatable characters centered firmly around Black love. Readers have described her work as sweet and spicy, deeply emotional, and healing.
She currently resides in the Pacific Northwest with the love of her life and their two sons. When she’s not typing away on a keyboard, she enjoys spending time with her family, going on hiking trips, gaming, or curling up with a good book.
Kosoko Jackson is a digital-media specialist, who lives in the New York Metro Area and spends too much time listening to Halsey and Taylor Swift.
Charish Reid is a fan of sexy books and disaster films. When she's not grading papers or prepping lessons for college freshmen, she enjoys writing romances that celebrate quirky black women who deserve HEAs. Charish currently lives in Sweden, with her husband, avoiding most forms of exercise.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Dr. Shaquinta Richardson is a lover of books in the realm of fantasy and filth written by and for Black women. She rediscovered her love for fiction after years of reading non-fiction for school and career and has been loving the experience of re-immersing herself in the all the beautiful stories of bad-ass powerful Black girls and women being loved fiercely. When she is not reading, she helps Black women build lives and careers with balance, ease, and daily joy as a life coach and consultant. She lives in Houston, TX with her wife and two dogs and can be found in any corner of Houston with her book or her Kindle and her caramel macchiato. - VIRTUAL AUTHOR PANEL: Black & Killer with Johnny Compton, Tananarive Due, Alexis Henderson, Victor LaValle, Brandon Massey-May 26 at 7:30 PM CST
VIRTUAL AUTHOR PANEL: Black & Killer with Johnny Compton, Tananarive Due, Alexis Henderson, Victor LaValle, Brandon Massey-May 26 at 7:30 PM CST
from $0.00We always receive requests for Black Horror recommendations, so we've gathered up some of the best to ever write horror to discuss ALL the things!*ZOOM LINK*
EVENT DEETSWhen: Friday, May 26 at 7:30 PM CSTWhere: Virtual via ZoomHow: RSVP ONLY to reserve your spot! RSVP WITH BUNDLE to reserve your spot AND get a Black Horror starter pack!The OG Bundle includes The Between by Tananarive Due, Dark Corner by Brandon Massey, and The Devil in Silver by Victor Lavalle.The New School Bundle includes The Spite House by Johnny Compton and The Year of Witching by Alexis Henderson.Be sure to check out our Black Horror Collection!ABOUT THE PANELISTJohnny Compton has short stories that have appeared in Pseudopod, Strange Horizons, The No Sleep Podcast, and many other markets. He is an HWA member and creator, and host of the podcast Healthy Fears. Spite House is his debut novel.Tananarive Due is an American Book Award–winning, Essence bestselling author of sixteen books, including the Blood Colony, The Living Blood, The Good House, Joplin’s Ghost, and Devil’s Wake. She was also a contributor to Jonathan Maberry’s middle grade anthology, Don’t Turn Out the Lights. She has won an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award. She teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Visit her website TananariveDue.com to learn more about her work.Alexis Henderson is the author of the Goodreads Choice Awards nominated novels, House of Hunger and The Year of the Witching. When she's not writing, you'll find her tending to an assortment of houseplants or nursing a hot cup of teaVictor LaValle is the author of seven works of fiction: four novels, two novellas, and a collection of short stories. His novels have been included in best-of-the-year lists by The New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Nation, and Publishers Weekly, among others. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Key to Southeast Queens. He lives in the Bronx with his wife and kids and teaches at Columbia University.Brandon Massey sold his first short story in 1996 to a speculative fiction magazine. Three years later, he self-published Thunderland, his first novel. After managing to sell a few thousand copies on his own, Kensington Publishing Corp signed him to a publishing contract and republished the novel in 2002. Since then, Massey has published up to three books a year, ranging from thriller novels such as The Landlord and The Other Brother, vampire fiction such as Dark Corner, and short story collections such as Twisted Tales. Massey currently lives with his family near Atlanta, GA.Get ready for a killer time! - Virtual Author Talk: Fly with Brittany Thurman - March 16 @ 6:30 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: Fly with Brittany Thurman - March 16 @ 6:30 PM CST
Sold outOrder copies of Fly by Brittany Thurman here!
Grab your little ones and join us for a fun author chat as we reminiscence on a favorite Black girl magic pastime - double dutch! In Fly, Africa decides to compete in a Double Dutch competition despite never having jumped in one before, she'll have to learn the winning moves, but it's the birthmark in the shape of her name that tells her she's always been a winner.
EVENT DEETS:When: Wednesday, March 16 at 6:30 pm CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast.
How: Register on this page or head over to register on Crowdcast directly using this link. If you register using our website (with or without purchasing the book) and not Crowdcast, you will register a Crowdcast watch link at least 24 hours before the start of the event.
We hope you can join us!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
When Africa decides to compete in a Double Dutch competition despite never having jumped in one before, she'll have to learn the winning moves, but it's the birthmark in the shape of her name that tells her she's always been a winner.
Africa doesn't hesitate to train for a competition. She asks for help from her female friends who give her all sorts of useful advice and train with her. This book is perfect for anyone looking to surround young readers with stories of confident and successful African American girls.
Africa is inspired by the memory of her grandmother's achievements to help her on her own quest.ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Brittany Thurman is the author of Fly from Caitlyn Dlouhy Books. As a former children’s library specialist and museum educator, Brittany is dedicated to ensuring children's literature truthfully reflects the world in which we live. Brittany is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University where she studied Dramatic Writing, and Kingston University (London, England) where she studied theater. Her plays have been produced in Aspen, Colorado and on New York City's Theater Row.
Her forthcoming title includes FEARLESS: BOULEVARD OF DREAMS, by Mandy Gonzalez, co-written by Brittany J. Thurman, FOREVER AND ALWAYS, illustrated by Shamar Knight-Justice (Winter, 2024; Greenwillow/Harpercollins) and THE FIRST LIBRARY: THE STORY OF THE FIRST LIBRARY BY AND FOR BLACK AMERICA (2024, Clarion/HarperCollins).
ABOUT THE MODERATOR:
Joy Sewing has always had a way with words and becoming a journalist was a childhood dream. In August 2020, she was named Houston Chronicle’s Lifestyle and Culture Columnist and previously was the fashion and beauty editor. She has worked at the Kansas City Star, New York Post and has written regularly for Money, People, Vibe, Shape, Time, Town & Country, and other magazines. She has interviewed hundreds of famous faces, from Oscar de la Renta to Houston’s own Beyoncé Knowles.
An award-winning journalist, Joy holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from University of Houston, a master’s degree in business management from Webster University and taught journalism at Central Missouri State University. She is a National Press Foundation Spanish Language Fellow, in which she lived in Mexico, an España Y América Case Media Fellow and an Institute for the Advance Studies of Race Fellow, in which studied racism in Cuba.
She is author of “Ava and the Prince: The Adventures of Two Rescue Pups,” a children’s picture book about her own rescue boxer dogs
- Virtual Author Talk: Who Are Your People? with Bakari Sellers - Jan 19 @ 6:00 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: Who Are Your People? with Bakari Sellers - Jan 19 @ 6:00 PM CST
Sold outOrder copies of Who Are Your People an exclusive signed book plate here!
WHO ARE YOUR PEOPLE? is a tribute to community—it takes a village to raise a child, and we stand on the shoulders of those who came before. Sellers, New York Times bestselling author of My Vanishing Country, takes readers on a journey from cotton fields to sit-ins to the present day through the eyes of a young father and his children in this powerful picture book with illustrations from Reggie Brown.
This event is presented in partnership with the Emancipation Park Conservancy.
Event Deets:
When: Wednesday, January 19 at 6 pm CT/ 7 pm ET
Where: Virtual (watch link will be sent no more than 24 hours prior to the start of the event)
How: Registration is required. You have the option to get a free ticket or a ticket that includes one signed copy of the book.
We hope you can join us!
About the Author:
ABOUT BAKARI SELLERS:
Bakari Sellers made history in 2006 when, at just 22 years old, he defeated a 26-year incumbent state representative to become the youngest member of the South Carolina state legislature and the youngest African American elected official in the nation. In 2010 he was named to TIME’s 40 Under 40 list. In 2014 and 2015 he was named to The Root’s 100 Most Influential African Americans list. Sellers is the author of the New York Times bestseller My Vanishing Country and recently expanded his audience with the Bakari Sellers Podcast in collaboration with The Ringer and Spotify. He practices law with the Strom Law Firm, LLC, in Columbia, SC, and is a political commentator at CNN.
About The Emancipation Park Conservancy:
Emancipation Park Conservancy is a non-profit 501 c3 charitable corporation established in 2014 to restore, manage, and enhance Emancipation Park. Its purpose is to create an open space of environmental and community excellence while continuing to preserve the integrity and historical roots of the park. Its goal is to transform the park into one of the nation's premier landmark parks and international destinations through capital initiatives, operational improvements, strategic partnerships, programming and events.
- Virtual Author Talk: America Made Me A Black Man: A Memoir with Boyah J. Farah & Luc Cadet-September 8 @6:30 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: America Made Me A Black Man: A Memoir with Boyah J. Farah & Luc Cadet-September 8 @6:30 PM CST
Sold outCome celebrate the release of American Made Me A Black Man: A Memoir with debut author, Boyah J. Farah.
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, September 8, 2022 at 6:30 PM CST
Where: Virtual via Zoom
How: Register on this page. Once you register using our website (with book or without book), you will receive a Zoom link at least 24 hours before the event starts.
About the Book
A searing memoir of American racism from a Somalian-American who survived hardships in his birth country only to experience firsthand the dehumanization of Blacks in his adopted land, the United States.
“No one told me about America.”
Born in Somalia and raised in a valley among nomads, Boyah Farah grew up with a code of male bravado that helped him survive deprivation, disease, and civil war. Arriving in America, he believed that the code that had saved him would help him succeed in this new country. But instead of safety and freedom, Boyah found systemic racism, police brutality, and intense prejudice in all areas of life, including the workplace. He learned firsthand not only what it meant to be an African in America, but what it means to be African American. The code of masculinity that shaped generations of men in his family could not prepare Farah for the painful realities of life in the United States.
Lyrical yet unsparing, America Made Me a Black Man is the first book-length examination of American racism from an African outsider’s perspective. With a singular poetic voice brimming with imagery, Boyah challenges us to face difficult truths about the destructive forces that threaten Black lives and attempts to heal a fracture in Black men’s identity.
About the Author
Boyah J. Farah’s work has been featured in the Guardian, Harvard Transition, Scheer Intelligence at KCRW, GrubWrites, and Truthdig. He is the winner of Salon’s best essay of 2017, and he has written for Harvard’s Kennedy School Review, Pangyrus magazine, and the Huffington Post. He recently founded the Abaadi School in his hometown of Garowe, Somalia, which offers instruction in English, Math and Science to boys and girls ages 13–24. He divides his time between Somalia and Boston, Massachusetts.
About the ModeratorLuc Cadet is the Founder and President of Abantu Audio, a culturally curated audiobook platform. He is a member of Phi Beta Sigma, Inc. who loves working in his community. - Virtual Author Talk: Clint Smith in Conversation with Jeffrey Page - September 20 at 7 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: Clint Smith in Conversation with Jeffrey Page - September 20 at 7 PM CST
Sold outPresented in partnership with Project Row Houses
Join us for a virtual author talk in celebration of Clint Smith's newest book, How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, which debuted as a #1 New York Times Bestseller. This conversation will be moderated by Clint's former history teacher, Mr. Jeffrey Page.
Event Deets:
When: Monday, September 20 at 7:00 pm CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast
How: Registration is required by adding a ticket to your cart and checking out. There are 3 options for securing a ticket to the event. Use the dropdown to the right to select the following ticket types:
1) Select TICKET & BOOK to receive a book with your ticket. Your book will be shipped within 14 days after the event.
2) Select TICKET & DONATION to receive a ticket to the event. This option allows you to make a $5 donation to our store. These events are not free to execute so we appreciate your support!
3) Select TICKET ONLY to receive a ticket to the event only. This ticket option does not include a book.
We hope to see you there!
About the Book:
Beginning in his own hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader through an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation’s collective history, and ourselves.
It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving over 400 people on the premises. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation-turned maximum security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers.
In a deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country’s most essential stories are hidden in plain view-whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods—like downtown Manhattan—on which the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women and children has been deeply imprinted.
Informed by scholarship and brought alive by the story of people living today, Clint Smith’s debut work of nonfiction is a landmark work of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be.
About the Author:
Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of the poetry collection Counting Descent. The book won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He has received fellowships from New America, the Emerson Collective, the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. His writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review and elsewhere. Born and raised in New Orleans, he received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and his Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University.
About the Moderator:
Jeffrey Page is a native of Detroit, Michigan. He recently retired from The Awty International School where he taught History and Global Politics beginning in 2004. He has also served as an Adjunct Instructor of History at Texas Southern University and Houston Community College. In addition, he was an administrator at the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (Children's Protective Services), served as the Assistant Director of Children’s Division of the Mental Health Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County Texas, and has worked at Memorial Hermann Heights Hospital as a Medical Social Worker. He also worked as a Hospice Social Worker at the Hospice at the Texas Medical Center.
About Project Row Houses:
Project Row Houses is a community platform that enriches lives through art with an emphasis on cultural identity and its impact on the urban landscape. We engage neighbors, artists, and enterprises in collective creative action to help materialize sustainable opportunities in marginalized communities.
Project Row Houses occupies a significant footprint in Houston’s Historic Third Ward, one of the city’s oldest African-American neighborhoods. The site encompasses five city blocks and houses 39 structures that serve as home base to a variety of community-enriching initiatives, art programs, and neighborhood development activities. PRH programs touch the lives of under-resourced neighbors, young single mothers with the ambition of a better life for themselves and their children, small enterprises with the drive to take their businesses to the next level, and artists interested in using their talents to understand and enrich the lives of others. Although PRH’s African-American roots are planted deeply in Third Ward, the work of PRH extends far beyond the borders of a neighborhood in transition. The Project Row Houses model for art and social engagement applies not only to Houston, but also to diverse communities around the world.
To learn more or to make a donation to Project Row Houses visit www.projectrowhouses.org
- Virtual Author Talk: Diverging Spaces for Deviants with Dr. Akira Drake Rodriguez - April 6 @ 7:00 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: Diverging Spaces for Deviants with Dr. Akira Drake Rodriguez - April 6 @ 7:00 PM CST
Sold outJoin us as we examine the intersection of Black feminist politics and public housing with author Dr. Akira Drake Rodriguez and Josie Pickens!
EVENT DEETS:
When: Wednesday, April 6 at 7:00 PM CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast.
How: Register on this page or head over to register on Crowdcast directly using this link. If you register using our website (with or without purchasing the book) and not Crowdcast, you will register a Crowdcast watch link at least 24 hours before the start of the event.
We hope you can join us!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
This book explores the often-overlooked positive role of public housing in facilitating social movements and activism. Taking a political, social, and spatial perspective, the author offers Atlanta as a case study. Akira Drake Rodriguez shows that the decline in support for public housing, often touted as a positive (neoliberal) development, has negative consequences for social justice and nascent activism, especially among Black women. Urban revitalization policies target public housing residents by demolishing public housing towers and dispersing poor (Black) residents into new, deconcentrated spaces in the city via housing choice vouchers and other housing-based tools of economic and urban development.
Diverging Space for Deviants establishes alternative functions for public housing developments that would necessitate their existence in any city. In addition to providing affordable housing for low-income residents—a necessity as wealth inequality in cities increases—public housing developments function as a necessary political space in the city, one of the last remaining frontiers for citizens to engage in inclusive political activity and make claims on the changing face of the state.ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
AKIRA DRAKE RODRIGUEZ is an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Weitzman School of Design. She received her PhD from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Urban Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. She has a MPA from the Fels Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Her husband Ruben and her son Jack keep her laughing in their home in Philadelphia.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR:
Josie Pickens is a womanist and abolitionist professor, organizer, writer and thought leader. In addition to speaking and writing about topics that focus on the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, Josie is also the program director for upEND Movement, which is an organization committed to abolishing the the child welfare system. Connect with Josie and follow her musings on Twitter and Instagram at @jonubian.
- Virtual Author Talk: Finding Me with Viola Davis - April 26 @ 6:00 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: Finding Me with Viola Davis - April 26 @ 6:00 PM CST
Sold outJoin Viola Davis for a virtual discussion about her incredible life, career, and new memoir, FINDING ME. She’ll be in conversation with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Event Details
When: Tuesday, April 26 @ 6:00 PM CST
Where: Virtual via Zoom
How: After purchasing the book you’ll be registered and will receive an email confirming your event registration. Please allow at least one week between time of purchase and when you will receive the confirmation email. Your book will ship on April 26, 2022, the book's release date.
About Finding Me:
In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life changing decision to stop running forever.
This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose and my strength, but also to finding my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.
As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. They are bogarted, reinvented to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone who is searching for a way to understand and overcome a complicated past, let go of shame, and find acceptance. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be...you.
Finding Me is a deep reflection on my past and a promise for my future. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.
About Viola Davis:
VIOLA DAVIS is an internationally acclaimed actress and producer, known for her exceptional performances in television shows like 'How to Get Away with Murder' and movies like 'Fences' and 'The Help.' She is the winner of an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards, and in 2021 she won a Screen Actors Guild award for her role in 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'. In both 2012 and 2017, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Davis is also the founder and CEO of JuVee Productions, an artist driven production company that develops and produces independent film, theater, television, and digital content.
- Virtual Author Talk: God is a Black Woman with Dr. Christena Cleveland - Feb 11 @ 6:30 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: God is a Black Woman with Dr. Christena Cleveland - Feb 11 @ 6:30 PM CST
Sold outJoin us as we celebrate the release of God is a Black Woman by Dr. Christena Cleveland.
God Is a Black Woman presents a powerful critique of a society shaped by white patriarchal Christianity and culture. Cleveland reveals how America’s collective idea of God as a white man has perpetuated hurt, hopelessness, and racial and gender oppression. Integrating womanist ideology, and theological, historical, and social science research, she invites readers to take seriously the truth that God is not white nor male and points to a new path for connecting with the divine and honoring the sacredness of all Black people.
Christena Cleveland Ph.D. is a social psychologist, public theologian, author, and activist. She is the founder and director of the Center for Justice + Renewal as well as its sister organization, Sacred Folk, which creates resources to stimulate people’s spiritual imaginations and support their journeys toward liberation. An award-winning researcher and. An award-winning researcher and a former professor at Duke University’s Divinity School, Christena’s work has appeared in magazines ranging from Essence to Christianity Today. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
EVENT DEETS:
When: Friday, February 11 at 6:30 PM CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast. You can register using this event page or directly through Crowdcast.
How: Registration is required. You can RSVP with a book purchase or without a book purchase. We appreciate your support of our store by purchasing the book with us. This empowers us to continue bringing amazing author programming to Houston and beyond.
- Virtual Author Talk: Golden Ax with Rio Cortez & Ariana Brown-September 26 @7PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: Golden Ax with Rio Cortez & Ariana Brown-September 26 @7PM CST
Sold outJoin us as we celebrate the release of Golden Ax with Rio Cortez and poet author, Ariana Brown.
EVENT DEETS
When: September 25 @7PM CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast
How: Register on this page or head over to register on Crowdcast directly using this link. If you register using our website (with or without purchasing the book) and not Crowdcast, you will register a Crowdcast watch link at least 24 hours before the start of the event.
About the Book
“Outstanding . . . the poetry in these pages is intelligent, lyrical, as invested in the past as the present and future with witty nods to pop culture.” —Roxane Gay, author of Hunger
“I’ve never read anything like it. Truly a sublime experience.” —Jason Reynolds, author of Ain’t Burned All the Bright
A groundbreaking collection about Afropioneerism past and present from Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and New York Times bestselling author Rio Cortez
From a visionary writer praised for her captivating work on Black history and experience, comes a poetry collection exploring personal, political, and artistic frontiers, journeying from her family's history as "Afropioneers" in the American West to shimmering glimpses of transcendent, liberated futures.
In poems that range from wry, tongue-in-cheek observations about contemporary life to more nuanced meditations on her ancestors—some of the earliest Black pioneers to settle in the western United States after Reconstruction—Golden Ax invites readers to re-imagine the West, Black womanhood, and the legacies that shape and sustain the pursuit of freedom.About the Author
Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, Rio Cortez is the New York Times bestselling author of The ABCs of Black History (Workman, 2020) and I Have Learned to Define a Field As a Space Between Mountains, winner of the 2015 Toi Dericotte and Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize. Her honors include a Poets & Writers Amy Award, as well as fellowships from Cave Canem, Canto Mundo, The Jerome Foundation, and Poet’s House. Rio holds an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University.
About the Conversation Partner
Ariana Brown is a queer Black Mexican American poet from San Antonio, TX, currently based in Houston. She is the author of We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020). Ariana’s work investigates queer Black personhood in Mexican American spaces, Black relationality and girlhood, loneliness, and care. She holds a B.A. in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies, an M.F.A. in Poetry, and is pursuing an M.L.S. in Library Science. Ariana is a 2014 national collegiate poetry slam champion and owes much of her practice to Black performance communities led by Black women poets from the South. She has been writing, performing, and teaching poetry for over ten years. Follow Ariana online @ArianaThePoet.
- Virtual Author Talk: Good Morning Love with Ashley M. Coleman & Pauleanna Reid-June 22 @ 6:30 CST
Virtual Author Talk: Good Morning Love with Ashley M. Coleman & Pauleanna Reid-June 22 @ 6:30 CST
Sold outKindred Stories, Solid State Books, Cafe Con Libros, and Shelves Bookstore presents Good Morning, Love with Ashley M. Coleman & Pauleanne Reid.
Event Deets
When: June 22 @ 6:30PM CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast
How: Register on this page or head over to register on Crowdcast directly using this link. If you register using our website (with or without purchasing the book) and not Crowdcast, you will register a Crowdcast watch link at least 24 hours before the start of the event.
About the Book
Carlisa “Carli” Henton is a musician and songwriter hoping to follow in her father’s musical footsteps. But, biding her time until she makes it big in the music industry, she works as a junior account manager at a big-name media company to cover her New York City rent. Carli meticulously balances her work with her musical endeavors as a songwriter—until a chance meeting with rising star Tau Anderson sends her calculated world into a frenzy. Their worlds collide and quickly blur the strict lines Carli has drawn between her business and her personal life, throwing Carli’s reputation—and her burgeoning songwriting career—into question.
About the Author
Ashley M. Coleman is a freelance writer and music executive from Philadelphia. Working in the music industry for over ten years, she has also written for Essence, The Cut, Apartment Therapy, and GRAMMY.com among others. In 2017, she launched a writing community for BIPOC writers entitled Permission to Write.
About the Moderator
Pauleanna Reid is a celebrity ghostwriter who helps high-profile leaders and doers turn their personal stories into powerful brand assets. She founded The WritersBlok, a full-service ghostwriting agency composed of a team of content ninjas responsible for some of the most talked-about pop culture moments, books and noteworthy speeches. Pauleanna is Senior Contributor at Forbes and Business Insider where she reports on female leaders who are shaping the future. Pauleanna penned her debut novel, Everything I Couldn’t Tell My Mother, a loose adaptation of her life story. If she isn’t holding a pen or fostering next-generation leaders, Pauleanna is re-imagining a new world and crafting an exciting one of her own.
- VIRTUAL AUTHOR TALK: Homebodies with Tembe Denton-Hurst-May 15 at 6 PM CST
VIRTUAL AUTHOR TALK: Homebodies with Tembe Denton-Hurst-May 15 at 6 PM CST
Sold outCelebrate Tembe Denton-Hurst's debut novel, Homebodies:A Novel with the Black Bookstore Collective!EVENT DEETSWhen: May 15 at 6 PM CSTWhere: VirtualHow: RSVP ONLY to get your free ticket or RSVP WITH BOOK to support our programming! We'll send the link to view the talk 24 hours before the event.ABOUT THE BOOKUrgent, propulsive, and deeply insightful, Homebodies is a thrilling debut novel about a young Black writer whose world is turned upside down when she loses her job in media and her searing manifesto about racism in the industry goes viral.
Mickey Hayward dreams of writing stories that matter. She has a flashy media job that makes her feel successful and a devoted girlfriend who takes care of her when she comes home exhausted and demoralized. It’s not all A-list media parties and steamy romance, but Mickey’s on her way, and it’s far from the messy life she left behind in Maryland. Despite being overlooked and mistreated at work, everything finally seems to be falling into place—until she finds out she’s being replaced.
Distraught and enraged, Mickey fires back with a detailed letter outlining the racism and sexism she’s endured as a Black woman in media, certain it will change the world for the better. But when her letter is met with overwhelming silence, Mickey is sent into a tailspin of self-doubt. Forced to reckon with just how fragile her life is—including the uncertainty of her relationship—she flees to the last place she ever dreamed she would run to, her hometown, desperate for a break from her troubles.
Back home, Mickey is seduced by the simplicity of her old life—and the flirtation of a former flame—but the life she left behind in New York refuses to be forgotten. When a media scandal catapults Mickey’s forgotten letter into the public zeitgeist, suddenly everyone wants to hear what Mickey has to say. It’s what she’s always wanted—isn’t it?
Insightful, funny, and deeply sexy, Homebodies is a testament to those trying to be heard and loved in a world that refuses to make space, and introduces a standout new writer.
ABOUT THE AUTHORTembe Denton-Hurst is a staff writer at New York magazine’s The Strategist and has written for Nylon magazine, them, and Elle. When she’s not writing, Tembe can be found on her couch in Queens, New York, where she lives with her partner and their two cats, Stella and Dakota. - Virtual Author Talk: Jason Wilson in Conversation with The Black Man Project - September 21 at 7 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: Jason Wilson in Conversation with The Black Man Project - September 21 at 7 PM CST
Sold outPresented in partnership with Project Row Houses and The Black Man Project
Join us for a virtual author talk in celebration of Jason Wilson's newest book, Battle Cry. This conversation will be moderated by The Black Man Project and presented in partnership with Project Row Houses
Event Deets:
When: Tuesday, September 21 at 7:00 pm CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast
How: Registration is required by adding a ticket to your cart and checking out. You have the option to grab a ticket for free, make a donation with your ticket, or purchase the book together with the ticket.
We hope to see you there!
About the Book:
For decades, Jason Wilson tried his best to "be a man" but struggled to express the full range of human emotions because the only ones he felt comfortable expressing were the traditional "masculine" emotions--anger, aggression, and boldness. This went on until he finally released years of past trauma to attain the healing he needed to become a better man, husband, father, and leader. Learning how to master his emotions and verbally process them transformed Jason's life and relationships in ways he never could have imagined. He now seeks to expose the lies that many men have been deceived to believe about manhood and bring healing to their lives.
Battle Cry will teach men how to wage and win the war within themselves--unlearning society's definition of masculinity and empowering them with the tools needed to freely live from their hearts instead of their fears. Wilson shows readers how to
- win internal battles before they turn into external wars;
- master their emotions instead of being ruled by them;
- release trauma from their past so they can live fully to their potential in the present; and
- communicate more effectively with the people in their lives.
About the Moderators:
The Black Man Project explores the origins of how misconceptions such as one-dimensional expression and emotional inaccessibility have come to be. We specifically explore the complexity of African American masculinity for young boys and simultaneously create safe spaces for black young men to engage in dialogue that grants space that nurtures healing, wholeness, leadership, accountability, and brotherhood.
To learn more about The Black Man Project visit www.theblackmanproject.com.
About Project Row Houses:
Project Row Houses is a community platform that enriches lives through art with an emphasis on cultural identity and its impact on the urban landscape. We engage neighbors, artists, and enterprises in collective creative action to help materialize sustainable opportunities in marginalized communities.
Project Row Houses occupies a significant footprint in Houston’s Historic Third Ward, one of the city’s oldest African-American neighborhoods. The site encompasses five city blocks and houses 39 structures that serve as home base to a variety of community-enriching initiatives, art programs, and neighborhood development activities. PRH programs touch the lives of under-resourced neighbors, young single mothers with the ambition of a better life for themselves and their children, small enterprises with the drive to take their businesses to the next level, and artists interested in using their talents to understand and enrich the lives of others. Although PRH’s African-American roots are planted deeply in Third Ward, the work of PRH extends far beyond the borders of a neighborhood in transition. The Project Row Houses model for art and social engagement applies not only to Houston, but also to diverse communities around the world.
To learn more or to make a donation to Project Row Houses visit www.projectrowhouses.org
- Virtual Author Talk: Lark & Kasim Start A Revolution with Kacen Callender & Kadie-September 29@7 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: Lark & Kasim Start A Revolution with Kacen Callender & Kadie-September 29@7 PM CST
Sold outJoin us to celebrate the release of Lark & Kasim Start A Revolution with Kacen Callender & Kadie
EVENT DEETS:
When: Thursday, September 29 at 7PM CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast
How: Register on this page or head over to register on Crowdcast directly using this link. If you register using our website (with or without purchasing the book) and not Crowdcast, you will register a Crowdcast watch link at least 24 hours before the start of the event.
About the Book
From National Book Award–winner Kacen Callender, a contemporary YA that follows Lark's journey to speak the truth and discover how their own self-love can be a revolution
Lark Winters wants to be a writer, and for now that means posting on their social media accounts––anything to build their platform. When former best friend Kasim accidentally posts a thread on Lark's Twitter declaring his love for a secret, unrequited crush, Lark's tweets are suddenly the talk of the school—and beyond. To protect Kasim, Lark decides to take the fall, pretending they accidentally posted the thread in reference to another classmate. It seems like a great idea: Lark gets closer to their crush, Kasim keeps his privacy, and Lark's social media stats explode. But living a lie takes a toll—as does the judgment of thousands of Internet strangers. Lark tries their best to be perfect at all costs, but nothing seems good enough for the anonymous hordes––or for Kasim, who is growing closer to Lark, just like it used to be between them . . .
In the end, Lark must embrace their right to their messy emotions and learn how to be in love.About the Author
Kacen Callender is the bestselling and award-winning author of multiple novels for children, teens, and adults, including the Stonewall Honor Book Felix Ever After and the National Book Award for Young People's Literature King and the Dragonflies. Callender enjoys playing RPG video games, practicing their art, and focusing on healing and growth in their free time. They currently live in St. Thomas of the US Virgin Islands, where they were born and raised
About the Moderator
Hailin and Hollin, Kadiedre Henderson is a Black, Queer, Lesbian, and Houston native. She is most precious about the care she brings to herself and others. Through deep listening to the world and stars, Kadie extends care by providing space for folks to tell their own stories. A lover of stories and storyteller at heart, Kadie started working with books back in 2019 and hasn't left since. A self-proclaimed optimist, Kadie loves Queer YA, Romance, Biographies, and Magic! She is especially excited by stories that speak to navigating grief, trauma, and Black Femme Eroticism.
- Virtual Author Talk: Love Radio with Ebony Ladelle & Dhonielle Clayton- June 2 @7 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: Love Radio with Ebony Ladelle & Dhonielle Clayton- June 2 @7 PM CST
Sold outCome celebrate the release of Love Radio with author, Ebony Ladelle and Dhonielle Clayton with our wonderful friends at Blue Willow Bookshop.
Event Deets:
When: Thursday, June 2, 2022 @7 PM CST
Where: Virtual via Zoom
How: Register on this page. Once you register using our website (with or without purchasing the book), you will receive a Zoom Link at least 24 hours before the start of the event.
About the Book
Prince Jones is the guy with all the answers—or so it seems. After all, at seventeen, he has his own segment on Detroit’s popular hip-hop show, Love Radio, where he dishes out advice to the brokenhearted.
Prince has always dreamed of becoming a DJ and falling in love. But being the main caretaker for his mother, who has multiple sclerosis, and his little brother means his dreams will stay just that and the only romances in his life are the ones he hears about from his listeners.
Until he meets Dani Ford.
Dani isn’t checking for anybody. She’s focused on her plan: ace senior year, score a scholarship, and move to New York City to become a famous author. But her college essay keeps tripping her up and acknowledging what’s blocking her means dealing with what happened at that party a few months ago.
And that’s one thing Dani can’t do.
When the romantic DJ meets the ambitious writer, sparks fly. Prince is smitten, but Dani’s not looking to get derailed. She gives Prince just three dates to convince her that he’s worth falling for.
Three dates for the love expert to take his own advice, and just maybe change two lives forever.About Author
Ebony LaDelle is a marketing pusher by day, storyteller by night. Born in Michigan, awoken at Howard University, and cultivated in Brooklyn, Ebony can usually be found searching for her next live concert, scouting out the latest food craze to try, or being the undisputed Mom Friend of any group. She cohosted Why Not YA?, a @Belletrist and @EpicReads monthly video series where she interviewed authors in the young adult space. You can visit her online at EbonyLaDelle.com and follow her on social @EbonyLaDelle
About Moderator
Dhonielle Clayton spent most of her childhood under her grandmother's table with a stack of books. She hails from the Washington, D.C. suburbs on the Maryland side. She is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Belles series, Shattered Midnight, co-author of Blackout, and the co-author of The Rumor Game and the Tiny Pretty Things duology, a Netflix original series. She taught secondary school for several years, and is a former elementary and middle school librarian. She is COO of the non-profit We Need Diverse Books, and President of Cake Creative, an IP story kitchen dedicated to diverse books for all ages. She's an avid traveler, and always on the hunt for magic and mischief. Her new book, The Marvellers, is her middle-grade fantasy debut.
- Virtual Author Talk: Love Songs of W.E.B DuBois with Honoree Fanonne Jeffers & Jacqueline Allen Trimble-May 10 @7PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: Love Songs of W.E.B DuBois with Honoree Fanonne Jeffers & Jacqueline Allen Trimble-May 10 @7PM CST
Sold outCome celebrate the paperback release of The Long Songs of W.E.B DuBois with author, Honoree Fanonne Jeffers & Jacqueline Allen Tremble.
Event Deets
When: May 10 at 7PM CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast
How: Register on this page or head over to register on Crowdcast directly using this link. If you register using our website (with or without purchasing the book) and not Crowdcast, you will register a Crowdcast watch link at least 24 hours before the start of the event.
About the Book
“My life had its significance and its only deep significance because it was part of a Problem,” W. E. B. Du Bois once wrote. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood these words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother, the descendant of slaves and tenant farmers—Ailey carries the weight of this Problem on her shoulders.
The daughter of an accomplished doctor and a strict schoolteacher, Ailey is raised in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother’s family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. Growing up, she struggles with this duality, a battle for belonging that shapes her identity. On one side are her exacting parents and her imperious, light-skinned grandmother Nana Claire, to whom skin color is paramount. On the other, Ailey feels the pull of the “deep country” of her mother’s land-tending family, whose forebears endured the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow.
But how can Ailey live up to everyone’s expectations when half of her family rejects the truth of a fraught racial history, while the rest can’t ever seem to break away from it?
About the Author
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is a fiction writer, poet, and essayist. She is the author of five poetry collections, including the 2020 NBA-nominated collection The Age of Phillis. She was a contributor to The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race, edited by Jesmyn Ward, and has been published in the Kenyon Review, Iowa Review, and other literary publications. Jeffers was elected into the American Antiquarian Society, whose members include fourteen U.S. presidents, and is Critic at Large for Kenyon Review. She teaches creative writing and literature at University of Oklahoma.
About the Moderator
JACQUELINE ALLEN TRIMBLE lives and writes in Montgomery, Alabama, where she is a professor of English and chairs the Department of Languages and Literatures at Alabama State University. She a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow (Poetry), an Alabama State Council on the Arts Literary Fellow and a Cave Canem Fellow. Her work has appeared in various online and print publications including The Griot, The Offing, The Louisville Review, and Blue Lake Review. American Happiness (2016), her first collection, published by NewSouth Books, won the Balcones Poetry Prize. Trimble's next collection, How to Survive the Apocalypse, is forthcoming from NewSouth Books in fall of 2022.
- Virtual Author Talk: Nobody's Magic with Destiny O. Birdsong - Feb 23 @ 6:30 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: Nobody's Magic with Destiny O. Birdsong - Feb 23 @ 6:30 PM CST
Sold outJoin us as we celebrate the release of Nobody's Magic by Destiny O. Birdsong.
EVENT DEETS:
When: Wednesday, February 23 at 6:30 PM CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast. You can register using this event page or directly through Crowdcast.
How: Registration is required. You can RSVP with a book purchase or without a book purchase. We appreciate your support of our store by purchasing the book with us. This empowers us to continue bringing amazing author programming to Houston and beyond.
Like Barry Jenkins' Moonlight, Nobody's Magic is set against a backdrop of complicated social and racial histories, and it explores the region’s culture and its relationship to Blackness and Black womanhood. It is also a testament to the power of family—the ones you're born in and the ones you choose. And in the three narratives of Nobody’s Magic, among the yearning and loss, each of these women finds a seed of hope for the future.
Debut author, Destiny O. Birdsong’s writing has appeared in The Paris Review Daily, African American Review, and Catapult, among other publications. She has received the Academy of American Poets Prize and the Richard G. Peterson Poetry Prize. Her critically‑acclaimed debut collection of poems, Negotiations, was longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Voelcker Award and published by Tin House Books.Hailin and Hollin, Kadiedre Henderson is a Black, Queer, Lesbian, and Houston native. She is most precious about the care she brings to herself and others. Through deep listening to the world and stars, Kadie extends care by providing space for folks to tell their own stories. A lover of stories and storyteller at heart, Kadie started working with books back in 2019 and hasn't left since. A self-proclaimed optimist, Kadie loves Queer YA, Romance, Biographies, and Magic! She is especially excited by stories that speak to navigating grief, trauma, and Black Femme Eroticism. They are so happy to be a team member of the Kindred Stories staff.
- Virtual Author Talk: South to America with Imani Perry - Feb 1 @ 6:30 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: South to America with Imani Perry - Feb 1 @ 6:30 PM CST
Sold outRegistration is closed via our website, but please register directly via Crowdcast
ORDER South to America here for an exclusive signed copy!
We all think we know the South. Even those who have never lived there can rattle off a list of signifiers: the Civil War, Gone with the Wind, the Ku Klux Klan, plantations, football, Jim Crow, slavery. But the idiosyncrasies, dispositions, and habits of the region are stranger and more complex than much of the country tends to acknowledge. In SOUTH TO AMERICA: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, one of our most important thinkers and critics, acclaimed author Imani Perry tackles her most ambitious project yet, moving across the color line to grapple with the mix of intimacy and racial violence in Southern and American history, showing that what it means to be American is inextricably linked with the South.
Imani Perry will be in conversation with Dr. Melanye Price of Prairie View University
Event Details
When: Tuesday, February 1 @ 6:30 PM CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast
How: Register here or on Crowdcast. Although the event is free, we encourage you to support our store and future programming by purchasing the book here.
About the Author:
Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University where she also teaches in Gender and Sexuality Studies, Law and Public Affairs and Jazz Studies. She has a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D in the history of American civilization from Harvard University. Perry is the author of Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, winner of the Bograd-Weld Biography Prize of 2019 from the Pen America Foundation. She is also the author of Breathe: A Letter to My Sons, Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation, and May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem, which was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Nonfiction. Perry, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, who grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Chicago, lives outside of Philadelphia with her two sons.
About the Moderator:
Dr. Melanye Price is Endowed Professor of Political Science at Prairie View A&M University and principle investigator for their African American Studies Initiative, which is funded by grants and gifts from the Mellon Foundation. Her research/teaching interests include black politics, public opinion, political rhetoric, and social movements. Her most recent book, The Race Whisperer: Barack Obama and the Political Uses of Race (NYU, 2016) examines the multiple and strategic ways that President Obama uses race to deflect negative racial attitudes and engage with a large cross-section of voters. Her first book, Dreaming Blackness: Black Nationalism and African American Public Opinion (NYU, 2009) examined contemporary support for Black Nationalism. Her new project is called “Mountaintop Removal: Martin Luther King, Trump and the Racial Mountain,” which uses MLK’s “Mountaintop Speech” as a lens for understanding the rise of Trump and the 2016 election.
- Virtual Author Talk: Stacey's Extraordinary Words by Stacey Abrams - Dec 28 at 6 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: Stacey's Extraordinary Words by Stacey Abrams - Dec 28 at 6 PM CST
Sold outJoin us for a virtual author talk in celebration of Stacey Abrams' debut children's picture book, Stacey's Extraordinary Words! This event will be moderated by Cleo Wade.
*SIGNED COPIES available while supplies last*
Event Deets:
When: Tuesday, December 28 at 6pm CT/7pm ET
Where: Virtual (watch link will be sent no more than 24 hours prior to the start of the event)
How: Registration is required. You have the option to get a free ticket or a ticket that includes one signed copy of the book. Books will ship on December 28, the book's release date.
We hope you can join us!
About the Book:
Iconic voting rights advocate and former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams is adding children’s book author to her résumé with the publication of her debut picture book, Stacey’s Extraordinary Words. The story, which addresses themes of perseverance and bravery, is based on Abrams’s experience participating in several spelling bees while in elementary school.
“Words have always been important to me,” says Abrams. “I loved competing in spelling bees as a young girl. With this book, I want to inspire children to speak up for themselves and for others—and to keep trying if they don’t succeed the first time around.”
The young Stacey in the book, who loves words and spelling, is asked by her teacher to compete in a spelling bee. Her excitement quickly evaporates when she discovers that she’ll be competing against Jake, the class bully. Abrams recalls of her childhood, “Like Jake, some kids picked on me and others who were different. Over the years, I learned how to use my words to do good, even when I am most afraid.”
About the Author:
Stacey Abrams is the three-time New York Times bestselling author of While Justice Sleeps, Our Time Is Now, and Lead from the Outside; an entrepreneur; and a political leader. A tax attorney by training, she served eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven as Minority Leader, and became the 2018 Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia, where she won, at the time, more votes than any other Democrat in the state’s history. She has launched multiple organizations devoted to voting rights, training and hiring young people of color, and tackling social issues at the state, national, and international levels. She is the founder of Fair Fight, Fair Count, and the Southern Economic Advancement Project. Abrams is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the boards of Climate Power 2020, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, the Center for American Progress, and the Marguerite Casey Foundation. She has received degrees from Spelman College, the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, and Yale Law School.
About the moderator:
Cleo Wade is a writer, poet, and the New York Times Best-selling author of What The Road Said, Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life, and Where To Begin: A Small Book about Your Power to Create Big Change. Her work is dedicated to exploring love, freedom, self-care and the power of community. She has been called the poet of her generation by Time Magazine, one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company and sits on the board of The Lower East Side Girls Club, the National Black Theater in Harlem, and the Women’s Prison Association. Cleo is from New Orleans, Louisiana and currently lives in California with her family.
Click below to purchase books by Cleo Wade:
Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life
Where to Begin: A Small Book about Your Power to Create Big Change
- Virtual Author Talk: The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks with Shauna Robinson & Alexis-November 2 @ 7PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks with Shauna Robinson & Alexis-November 2 @ 7PM CST
Sold outJoin us on a screen near you to celebrate the release of The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks with author, Shauna Robinson and book influencer, Alexis.EVENT DEETS:When: November 2 at 7 PM CSTWhere: Virtual via CrowdcastHow: Grab a free ticket or support the author and the store by purchasing a ticket with book. You can self register here or we will send you a link before the event.About the BookI, Maggie Banks, solemnly swear to uphold the rules of Cobblestone Books.
If only, I, Maggie Banks, cared about following the rules.
When Maggie Banks arrives to run her best friend's struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to the small-town clientele. But with the town on the map as a top literary destination and the tourist society bent on keeping businesses historic, Maggie is banned from selling anything written this century. So, when a series of mishaps suddenly tip the bookstore toward ruin, Maggie will have to get creative to keep the shop afloat.
And in Maggie's world, bookish rules are made to be broken.
To help save the store, Maggie starts an underground book club—a series of events celebrating the books readers actually love. But keeping the club quiet, selling her customers the books they want, and dodging the historical society is nearly impossible. Especially when Maggie unearths a town secret that could upend everything.
About the AuthorShauna Robinson’s love of books led her to try a career in publishing before deciding she’d rather write books instead. Originally from San Diego, she now lives in Virginia with her husband and their sleepy greyhound. Shauna is an introvert at heart—she spends most of her time reading, baking, and figuring out the politest way to avoid social interaction. Must Love Books is her debut novel.About the Conversation PartnerLex is a PhD student at @uthealthsph (The University of Texas UTHealth School of Public Health) doing research focused on HIV prevention among Black women using PrEP. A lover of literature. Lex With The Text is a literary platform dedicated to amplifying #BIPOC literary voices. She is a proud HBCU alumna and native of Houston, TX. - Virtual Author Talk: The Black Girl Survives in This One with Desiree S. Evans and Saraceia J. Fennell - April 29 @ 6PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: The Black Girl Survives in This One with Desiree S. Evans and Saraceia J. Fennell - April 29 @ 6PM CST
from $0.00Join Desiree S. Evans and Saraceia J. Fennell along with a few contributors to celebrate The Black Girl Survives in This One!
EVENT DEETS
When: Monday, April 29 @ 6PM CST
Where: Virtual Via Zoom
How: RSVP ONLY to be sent the Zoom link to attend the event or RSVP WITH BOOK to purchase a copy of the book!
ABOUT THE BOOK
A YA anthology of horror stories centering Black girls who battle monsters, both human and supernatural, and who survive to the end.Be warned, dear reader:The Black girls survive in this one.
Celebrating a new generation of bestselling and acclaimed Black writers, The Black Girl Survives in This One makes space for Black girls in horror. Fifteen chilling and thought-provoking stories place Black girls front and center as heroes and survivors who slay monsters, battle spirits, and face down death. Prepare to be terrified and left breathless by the pieces in this anthology.
The bestselling and acclaimed authors include Erin E. Adams, Monica Brashears, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Daka Hermon, Justina Ireland, L. L. McKinney, Brittney Morris, Maritza & Maika Moulite, Eden Royce, and Vincent Tirado. The foreword is by Tananarive Due.ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Desiree S. Evans is a writer from the Louisiana bayou. She currently lives in New Orleans, where she spins spooky and fantastical tales for kids, teens, and adults. Desiree holds an MFA in Fiction from the Michener Center for Writers at The University of Texas at Austin, as well as degrees in journalism from Northwestern University and international affairs from Columbia University. Connect with Desiree on her website at desiree-evans.com and on Instagram/Twitter at @literarydesiree.Saraciea J. Fennell is a Black Honduran American writer, founder of The Bronx is Reading, and creator of Honduran Garifuna Writers. She is also a book publicist who has worked with many award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors. She is the editor of the nonfiction anthology, Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed, and her work has appeared in Popsugar, Refinery29, and Culturess,among others. Sign up for her newsletter, Black Girl Dreaming, on Substack for more of her writing. She lives in the Bronx with her family and black poodle, Oreo. - Virtual Author Talk: The Sex Lives of African Women with Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah & Aja Monet - April 10 @ 1 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: The Sex Lives of African Women with Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah & Aja Monet - April 10 @ 1 PM CST
Sold outEVENT DEETS:
When: Sunday, April 10 at 1 PM CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast
How: Register on this page or head over to register on Crowdcast directly using this link. If you register using our website (with or without purchasing the book) and not Crowdcast, you will receive a Crowdcast watch link at least 24 hours before the start of the event.
We hope you can join us!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In these confessional pages, women control their own bodies and desires, work toward healing their painful pasts, and learn to assert their sexual power. Weaving a rich tapestry of experiences with a sex positive outlook, The Sex Lives of African Women is an empowering, subversive book that celebrates the liberation, individuality, and joy of African women’s multifaceted sexuality.
From a queer community in Egypt, to polyamorous life in Senegal, and a reflection on the intersection of religion and pleasure in Cameroon, feminist author Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah explores the many layers of love and desire, its expression, and how it defines who we are.
Sekyiamah has spent decades talking openly and intimately to African women around the world about sex for her blog, “Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women.” For this book she spoke to over 30 African women across the globe while chronicling her own journey toward sexual freedom.ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah is a feminist activist, writer and blogger. She is the co-founder of Adventures from the Bedrooms of African Women, an award-winning blog that focuses on African women, sex and sexualities, and she writes frequently for The Guardian, Open Democracy, and elsewhere. She works with the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) as director of communications and tactics. She lives in Accra, Ghana.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Aja Monet is a Caribbean-American poet, performer, and educator from Brooklyn. She has been awarded the Andrea Klein Willison Prize for Poetry and the Nuyorican Poet's Café Grand Slam title, as well as the New York City YWCA's "One to Watch Award." She is the author of The Black Unicorn Sings and the co-editor, with Saul Williams, of Chorus: A Literary Mixtape. She lives in Little Haiti, Miami, where she is a co-founder of Smoke Signals Studio and dedicates her time merging arts and culture in community organizing with the Dream Defenders and the Community Justice Project.
- Virtual Author Talk: We Are the Scribes with Randi Pink & Chanecka-October 26@7PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: We Are the Scribes with Randi Pink & Chanecka-October 26@7PM CST
Sold outJoin us as we celebrate the release of We the Scribes with author, Randi Pink!Event DEETS:
When: October 26 at 7:00 PM CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast
How: Grab a free ticket here or support our programming and purchase a book with ticket. You can also self-register on Crowdcast.
About the Book
A young adult novel by Randi Pink about a teenage activist who is visited by the ghost of Harriet Jacobs, an enslaved woman.
Ruth Fitz is surrounded by activism. Her mother is a senator who frequently appears on CNN as a powerful Black voice fighting for legislative social change within the Black community. Her father, a professor of African American history, is a walking encyclopedia, spouting off random dates and events. And her beloved older sister, Virginia, is a natural activist, steadily gaining notoriety within the community and on social media. Ruth, on the other hand, would rather sit quietly reading or writing in her journal.
When her family is rocked by tragedy, Ruth stops writing. As life goes on,Ruth’s mother is presented with a political opportunity she can’t refuse. Just as Senator Fitz is more absent, Ruth begins receiving parchment letters with a seal reading WE ARE THE SCRIBES, sent by Harriet Jacobs, the author of the autobiography and 1861 American classic, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Is Ruth dreaming? How has she been chosen as a “scribe” when she can barely put a sentence together? In a narrative that blends present with past, Randi Pink explores two extraordinary characters who channel their hopelessness and find their voices to make history.About the Author
Randi Pink is the author of Angel of Greenwood, praised by NPR as a story “American kids need to know”; Girls Like Us, a School Library Journal Best Book of 2019, and Into White, also published by Feiwel and Friends. She lives with her family in Birmingham, Alabama. To learn more go to: iamrandipink.com
About the Moderator
In May 2020, after realizing books were talking over her personal Instagram account, Chanecka started a new account with the handle @headwrpreader centering literature. As a book influencer, she is extremely passionate about book discovery. She is always ahead of the curve on new and lesser known book releases. Currently, she works as a team member at Kindred Stories in addition to pursuing a Master of Library and Information Science. She hopes to work as a research librarian and archivist.
- Virtual Author Talk: Weightless with Evette Dionne & Morgan Jerkins-December 7 @ 7PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: Weightless with Evette Dionne & Morgan Jerkins-December 7 @ 7PM CST
Sold outJoin us on a screen near you to celebrate the release of Weightless with author, Evette Dionne and Morgan Jerkins.EVENT DEETS:When: December 7 at 7 PM CSTWhere: Virtual via CrowdcastHow: Grab a free ticket or support the author and the store by purchasing a ticket with book. You can self register here or we will send you a link before the event.About the Book
My body has not betrayed me; it has continued rebounding against all odds. It is a body that others map their expectations on, but it has never let me down.
In this insightful, funny, and whip-smart book, acclaimed writer Evette Dionne explores the minefields fat Black woman are forced to navigate in the course of everyday life. From her early experiences of harassment to adolescent self-discovery in internet chatrooms to diagnosis with heart failure at age twenty-nine, Dionne tracks her relationships with friendship, sex, motherhood, agoraphobia, health, pop culture, and self-image.
Along the way, she lifts back the curtain to reveal the subtle, insidious forms of surveillance and control levied at fat women: At the doctor’s office, where any health ailment is treated with a directive to lose weight. On dating sites, where larger bodies are rejected or fetishized. On TV, where fat characters are asexual comedic relief. But Dionne’s unflinching account of our deeply held prejudices is matched by her fierce belief in the power of self-love.
An unmissable portrait of a woman on a journey toward understanding our society and herself, Weightless holds up a mirror to the world we live in and asks us to imagine the future we deserve.
About Author
Evette Dionne is a journalist, editor, and pop culture critic. She is the National Book Award–nominated author of Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box, a middle-grade nonfiction book about Black women suffragists, and the former editor in chief of Bitch Media. Her work has appeared in Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Time, the New York Times, the Guardian, Teen Vogue, and elsewhere. A graduate of Bennett College, Dionne is based in Los Angeles, where she works at Netflix.
About Conversation Partner
Morgan Jerkins is the author of Caul Baby, Wandering in Strange Lands and the New York Times bestseller This Will Be My Undoing and a Senior Culture Editor at ESPN’s The Undefeated. Jerkins is a visiting professor at Columbia University and a Forbes 30 Under 30 leader in media, and her short-form work has been featured in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Elle, Esquire, and the Guardian, among many other outlets. She is based in Harlem.
- Virtual Author Talk: You Grow Gurl with Christopher Griffin - March 30 @ 7:00 PM CST
Virtual Author Talk: You Grow Gurl with Christopher Griffin - March 30 @ 7:00 PM CST
Sold outJoin us as we celebrate the release of You Grow Gurl by Christopher Griffin
EVENT DEETS:
When: Wednesday, March 30 at 7:00 PM CST
Where: Virtual via Crowdcast. You can register using this event page or directly through Crowdcast.
How: Registration is required. You can RSVP with a book purchase or without a book purchase. We appreciate your support of our store by purchasing the book with us. This empowers us to continue bringing amazing author programming to Houston and beyond.
About the Book
This accessible and empowering guide to plant care as self-care is the perfect book for this Spring. Written by Black, queer, and non-binary plant influencer and expert Christopher Griffin aka @PlantKween, YOU GROW, GURL! (3/22) spills the juiciest tea on how to take care of yourself while taking care of your plants.
About the Author
Christopher Griffin (he/she/they) aka @PlantKween is the go-to source on plant-care as self-care. With tips, tricks, and stunning content filling their Instagram feed, what a better way to share their knowledge with the world than with YOU GROW GURL! (Harper Design / March 22, 2022)—a gorgeous, accessible guide to all things plants. Six years ago, Griffin was just beginning the plant parenthood journey with one small Marble Queen Pothos. Today, this Black Queer non-binary femme plant influencer tends to a family of more than 200 healthy green gurls in the Brooklyn apartment they call home.
- Virtual Author Workshop: Decolonizing Therapy with Jennifer Mullan - January 10 @ 6:30 PM CST
Virtual Author Workshop: Decolonizing Therapy with Jennifer Mullan - January 10 @ 6:30 PM CST
from $10.00Are you a mental health worker? Come spend a evening diving into your practices and decolonizing them with clinically psychologist, Jennifer Mullan.
THE DEETS
When: Wednesday, January 10 at 6:30 PM
Where: Virtual Via Zoom
How: Grab your ticket and we'll shoot the Zoom link to you!
ABOUT THE BOOK
A call to action for therapists to politicize their practice through an emotional decolonial lens.
An essential work that centers colonial and historical trauma in a framework for healing, Decolonizing Therapy illuminates that all therapy is—and always has been— inherently political. To better understand the mental health oppression and institutional violence that exists today, we must become familiar with the root of disembodiment from our histories, homelands, and healing practices. Only then will readers see how colonial, historical, and intergenerational legacies have always played a role in the treatment of mental health.
This book is the emotional companion and guide to decolonization. It is an invitation for Eurocentrically trained clinicians to acknowledge privileged and oppressed parts while relearning what we thought we knew. Ignoring collective global trauma makes delivering effective therapy impossible; not knowing how to interrogate privilege (as a therapist, client, or both) makes healing elusive; and shying away from understanding how we as professionals may be participating in oppression is irresponsible.
ABOUT AUTHOR
Jennifer Mullan, Psy.D is a dynamic international speaker, professor, healer-spiritualist, scholar-activist and widely known as the Rage Doctor ™. Dr. Jennifer Mullan is the author of “Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma & Politicizing Your Practice”.
Trained as a clinical psychologist; Dr. Jennifer Mullan birthed Decolonizing Therapy ®, a psychological evolution that weaves together political, ancestral, therapeutic and global well-being.
Dr. Mullan is a major disruptor in the mental health industrial complex. Her work is an urgent call to dive to the root of global and generational trauma to unlock the wisdom of our sacred rage.
Decolonizing Therapy ® catalyzes a growing movement of practitioners who are unlearning colonial methods of psychology. They are co-creating a new liberatory model of mental health.
Dr. Jennifer Mullan received ESSENCE Magazine’s 2020 Essential Hero Award in Mental Health, and was featured on The Today Show, Vox, Cosmopolitan, Allure, GQ, Bloomberg, Heal Magazine, Catalyst and the Calgary Journal, among many others. She currently lives in Northern NJ on land that was stewarded by the Leni Lenape people.
- Virtual Launch: J Elle in Conversation with Ayana Gray - January 11 at 6:30 PM CST
Virtual Launch: J Elle in Conversation with Ayana Gray - January 11 at 6:30 PM CST
Sold outNOW VIRTUAL
Join us virtually for an evening of girl empowerment with a little magic mixed in as we celebrate the launch of Ashes of Gold with New York Times bestselling author, J Elle. Ashes of Gold is the heart-pounding conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Wings of Ebony duology. This conversation will be moderated by Ayana Gray, author of Beasts of Prey, and will be planned and executed in partnership with the students at Young Women's College Prep.
Event Deets:
When: Tuesday, January 11 at 6:30 pm CST
Where: Crowdcst https://www.crowdcast.io/e/ashes-of-gold-virtual
How: Grab a ticket for free or purchase the book and ticket together. All books will be shipped on Friday, January 14 after the author has had an opportunity to sign them.
We hope to see you there!
About the book:
In the heart-pounding conclusion to the Wings of Ebony duology, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Nicole Yoon calls “bold, inventive, big-hearted and deeply perceptive,” Rue makes her final stand to reclaim her people’s stolen magic.
Rue has no memory of how she ended up locked in a basement prison without her magic or her allies. But she’s a girl from the East Row. And girls from the East Row don’t give up. Girls from the East Row pick themselves back up when they fall. Girls from the East Row break themselves out.
But reuniting with her friends is only half the battle. When she finds them again, Rue makes a vow: she will find a way to return the magic that the Chancellor has stolen from her father’s people. Yet even on Yiyo Peak, Rue is a misfit—with half a foot back in Houston and half a heart that is human as well as god, she’s not sure she’s the right person to lead the fight to reclaim a glorious past.
When a betrayal sends her into a tailspin, Rue must decide who to trust and how to be the leader that her people deserve…because if she doesn’t, it isn’t just Yiyo that will be destroyed—it will be Rue herself.About the Author:
J Elle is a prolific Black author and advocate for marginalized voices in both publishing and her community. She is a New York Times bestselling author of young adult and middle-grade fantasy fiction. She is best known for her debut novel, Wings of Ebony, and her work has been translated into three languages. The former educator and first-generation college student credits her nomadic lifestyle and humble inner-city beginnings as inspiration for her novels. When she’s not writing, Elle can be found mentoring aspiring authors, binging reality TV, loving on her three
About the Moderator:
Ayana Gray is a New York Times bestselling young adult fantasy author and a lover of all things monsters, mythos, and magic. Originally from Atlanta, she now lives in Little Rock, Arkansas where she reads avidly, follows Formula One racing, and worries over the varying moods of her adopted baby black rhino, Apollo, and her mini goldendoodle, Dolly.
Her debut novel, BEASTS OF PREY, is being translated in 10 languages across five continents and is being adapted for film by Netflix.
Pronouns: She/Her
- Virtual: Black & Cozy: a panel of Black Mystery authors-December 1 at 7PM CST
Virtual: Black & Cozy: a panel of Black Mystery authors-December 1 at 7PM CST
Sold outMany people have never heard the term "cozy" or "cozy mystery". So, we decided to amplify several Black authors who are writing in the genre. We hope you join us to learn more about cozies from some of the best!
EVENT DEETS
When: December 1, 2022 at 7PM CST
Where: ZOOM
How: RSVP on our website or directly on Zoom If you would like to support the authors and programming. Consider purchasing the author's work through us or the cozy mystery bundle!
ABOUT THE PANELIST
Wall Street Journal bestselling author Abby Collette loves a good mystery. She was born and raised in Cleveland, and it's a mystery even to her why she hasn't yet moved to a warmer place. As Abby Collette, she is the author of the Ice Cream Parlor Mystery series, about a millennial MBA-holding granddaughter running a family-owned ice cream shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and the Books & Biscuits Mystery series, starring a set of fraternal twins who reunite and open a bookstore and soul food café.
OLIVIA MATTHEWS, pen name for romance author Patricia Sargeant, is a national bestselling and award-winning author. The Spice Isle Bakery mysteries are inspired by the author’s family history and the history of her birth place. As Olivia Matthews she is also the author of the Sister Lou mysteries and Peach Coast Library mysteries, and writes romance as Patricia Sargeant and Regina Hart. For more information about Patricia and her work, visit PatriciaSargeant.com.Valerie Wilson Wesley is the award-winning author of the Blackboard bestselling Tamara Hayle Mystery Series and the Odessa Jones Mysteries. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Excellence in Adult Fiction Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, the National Association of Black Journalists Griot Award, the Amigirls Book Club Author of the Year and the Literary Beacon Award from the national Go On Girls Book Club. A former executive editor of Essence® Magazine and Sisters in Crime board member, she is currently an artist-in-residence at the Cicely Tyson School of Performing Arts in East Orange, New Jersey. Wesley is a graduate of Howard University and holds master’s degrees from the Bank Street College of Education and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She can be found online at ValerieWilsonWesley.com
Ever since Esme Addison discovered Nancy Drew, she's wanted to solve mysteries. As a mystery author, she's finally found a way to make that dream come true. A former military spouse, Esme lives in Raleigh, NC with her husband and three boys. When she's not writing, you can find her visiting B&Bs, breweries, wineries, and historical sites.
Valerie (V. M.) Burns is a mystery writer whose novels and short stories have been finalists for the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, and Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She is the author of the Mystery Bookshop, Dog Club, RJ Franklin, and Baker Street Mystery series. Valerie is a member of Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America, and the Crime Writers' Association. She is also an adjunct professor in the Writing Popular Fiction Program at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA. Born and raised in northwestern Indiana, Valerie now lives in the southeastern United States with her two poodles. Connect with Valerie at VMBurns.com. - Vision & Justice: Aperture 223
Vision & Justice: Aperture 223
Aperture
Sold outGuest-edited by Sarah Elizabeth
Lewis, Vision & Justice addresses
the role of photography in the
African American experience.As the United States navigates a political moment defined by the close of the Obama era and the rise of #BlackLivesMatter activism, Aperture magazine releases “Vision & Justice,” a special issue guest edited by Sarah Lewis, the distinguished author and art historian, addressing the role of photography in the African American experience.
“Vision & Justice” includes a wide span of photographic projects by such luminaries as Lyle Ashton Harris, Annie Leibovitz, Sally Mann, Jamel Shabazz, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems and Deborah Willis, as well as the brilliant voices of an emerging generation―Devin Allen, Awol Erizku, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Deana Lawson and Hank Willis Thomas, among many others. These portfolios are complemented by essays from some of the most influential voices in American culture including contributions by celebrated writers, historians, and artists such as Vince Aletti, Teju Cole, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Margo Jefferson, Wynton Marsalis and Claudia Rankine.
"Vision & Justice” features two covers. This issue comes with an image by Awol Erizku, Untitled (Forces of Nature #1), 2014.
- Vivi Loves Science: Wind and Water
Vivi Loves Science: Wind and Water
by Kimberly Derting
$4.99*Ships in 7-10 business days*
Vivi loves science! In this STEM-themed Level 3 I Can Read! title, Vivi helps her community clean up the beach after a storm, and learns about how wind and water shape the landscape. A great choice for aspiring scientists, emergent readers, and fans of Andrea Beaty’s Ada Twist, Scientist.
Vivi loves science—and experimenting! In this Level 3 I Can Read! title, Vivi volunteers to help with the clean-up efforts at the beach after a storm hits her town. But where did the sand dunes and tide pools go? Vivi and her friends will have to ask a lot of questions, learn about erosion, and conduct experiments tofind out!
The Loves Science books introduce readers to girls who love science, as well as basic concepts of science, technology, engineering, and math. This Level 3 I Can Read! explores how wind and water impact different landscapes, and includes an experiment about erosion to try at home or school, as well as a glossary. A great pick for newly independent readers and an ideal companion to Cece Loves Science: Push and Pull; Libby Loves Science: Mix and Measure; and Vivi Loves Science: Sink or Float.
Includes activities, a glossary, and a fun experiment to do at home.
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