Learn to live with intention and tap into your inner power with this mind-opening full-color guide to vibrational-based living from the Instagram star and self-help pioneer behind internet community Vibrate Higher Daily.

“There is another way of being in the world. There is a better way to exist, rise, move beyond, and take our power back.” Certified spiritual practitioner and founder of Vibrate Higher Daily, Lalah Delia, is leading young spiritual seekers looking to live with more intuition and confidence. In her powerful mantras and poems on Instagram, her weekly courses, and her online memberships, Delia offers a hopeful message of affirmation, teaching each of her followers the value of listening to their unique inner voice. Too often we feel pulled down by circumstances or the negativity of others. We think we have no control over the things that are hurting us and holding us back from realizing our truest selves. But for Delia, we have more power within us than we know. She invites her readers to “step into their power” and embrace vibrational-based living, which is centered around being in tune with our agency, intuition, and intention. Delia teaches us how to become aware of the vibrations—energy, life force, frequency—that run through all things. She helps us see how different elements feed our negative and positive vibes, then invites us to take stock: what simple actions raise our vibrations? What people give us good vibes? What things gives us bad ones? Delia reveals that when we know what brings us joy and what takes away from it, we become empowered to choose what we give our attention. Vibrate Higher Daily encourages readers to engage with the things that feed their soul and raise their vibration, and to simultaneously let go of the things bringing their energy down. Through little actions every day—who we spend our time with, what we read, where we go, even what we eat—we can create more agency and positivity in our lives.

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, USA TODAY, & MORE

“You will burn through Victim and find your hands scalded when you are done…Pitch perfect.” —Xochitl Gonzalez, New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming

There’s a fine line between bending the truth and telling bold-faced lies, and Javier Perez is willing to cross it. Victim is a fearless satire about a hustler from the Bronx who sees through the veneer of diversity initiatives and decides to cash in on the odd currency of identity.

Javier Perez is a hustler from a family of hustlers. He learns from an early age how to play the game to his own advantage, how his background—murdered drug dealer dad, single cash-strapped mom, best friend serving time for gang activity—can be a key to doors he didn’t even know existed. This kind of story, molded in the right way, is just what college admissions committees are looking for, and a full academic scholarship to a prestigious university brings Javi one step closer to his dream of becoming a famous writer.

As a college student, Javi embellishes his life story until there’s not even a kernel of truth left. The only real connection to his past is the occasional letter he trades with his childhood best friend, Gio, who doesn’t seem to care about Javi’s newfound awareness of white privilege or the school-to-prison pipeline. Soon after Javi graduates, a viral essay transforms him from a writer on the rise to a journalist at a legendary magazine where the editors applaud his “unique perspective.” But Gio more than anyone knows who Javi really is, and sees through his game. Once Gio’s released from prison and Javi offers to cut him in on the deal, will he play along with Javi’s charade, or will it all come crumbling down?

A sendup of virtue signaling and tear-jerking trauma plots written with the bite of Paul Beatty, Victim asks what real diversity looks like and how far one man is willing to go to make his story hit the right notes.

Power plays, spilled blood, and romance abound in this thrilling sequel to the New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller Immortal Longings, inspired by Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra.

Calla Tuoleimi has succeeded in the impossible. Despite the odds, she has won San-Er’s bloody games and eliminated King Kasa, her tyrant uncle and the former ruler of Talin. She serves now as royal advisor to Kasa’s adopted son, August Shenzhi, who has risen to the throne.

Only Calla knows it isn’t really August.

Anton Makusa is still furious about Calla’s betrayal in the final round of the games. In an impossible feat, he took over August’s body to survive, and has no intention of giving up this newfound power. But when his first love, the beautiful, explosive Otta Avia, awakens from a years-long coma and reveals a secret that threatens the monarchy’s authority over Talin, chaos erupts. As tensions come to a boiling point, Calla and Anton must set their conflicts aside and head to the kingdom’s far reaches to prevent anarchy…even if their empire might be better off burning.

*ships in 7-10 business days*

A teen girl hiding the scars of a past relationship finds home and healing in the words of strong Black writers. A beautiful sophomore novel from a critically acclaimed author and poet that explores how words have the power to shape and uplift our world even in the midst of pain.

When Darius told Angel he loved her, she believed him. But five weeks after the incident, Angel finds herself in Brooklyn, far from her family, from him, and from the California life she has known.
 
Angel feels out of sync with her new neighborhood. At school, she can’t shake the feeling everyone knows what happened—and that it was her fault. The only place that makes sense is Ms. G’s class. There, Angel’s classmates share their own stories of pain, joy, and fortitude. And as Angel becomes immersed in her revolutionary literature course, the words from Black writers like Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Zora NEale Hurston speak to her and begin to heal the wounds of her past.

This stunning novel weaves together prose, poems, and vignettes to tell the story of Angel, a young woman whose past was shaped by domestic violence but whose love of language and music and the gift of community grant her the chance to find herself again.

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.

The 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.

In 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

*ZOOM LINK*

Order 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.

Order 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.

Come 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 

Presented 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

Join us in celebrating Wole Talabi and Tlotlo Tsamaase newest books, Convergence Problems and Womb City! 

EVENT DEETS

When: Monday, February 12 at 7PM CST

Where: Virtual Via Zoom

How: RSVP to sign up to get the Zoom link. RSVP with Convergence Problems to receive Wole Talabi's newest book along with a signed bookplate and holographic stickers. RSVP with Womb City to puchase your copy of the book Also, check out the RSVP with Bundle to receive both books at a special rate!

ABOUT THE BOOKS

CONVERGENCE PROBLEMS is a stunning new collection of stories that investigate the rapidly changing role of technology and belief in our lives as we search for meaning, for knowledge, for justice; constantly converging on our future selves.

A Publishers Weekly Top Ten Spring 2024 Roundup pick

In “An Arc of Electric Skin,” a roadside mechanic seeking justice volunteers to undergo a procedure that will increase the electrical conductivity of his skin by orders of magnitude. In “Blowout,” a woman races against time and a previously undocumented geological phenomenon to save her brother on the surface of Mars. In “Ganger,” a young woman trapped in a city run by machines must transfer her consciousness into an artificial body and find a way to give her life
purpose. In “Debut,” Nairobi-based technical support engineer tries to understand what is happening when an AI art system begins malfunctioning in ways that could change the world.

The sixteen stories of Convergence Problems, which include work published for the first time in this collection, rare stories, and recently acclaimed work, showcase Talabi at his creative best: playful and profound, exciting and experimental, always interesting.

Womb City is a genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body.

Nelah seems to have it all: fame, wealth, and a long-awaited daughter growing in a government lab. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah’s perfect life is precarious. After a drug-fueled evening culminates in an eerie car accident, Nelah commits a desperate crime and buries the body, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret.

The truth claws its way into Nelah’s life from the grave. 

As the ghost of her victim viciously hunts down the people Nelah holds dear, she is thrust into a race against the clock: in order to save any of her remaining loved ones, Nelah must unravel the political conspiracy her victim was on the verge of exposing—or risk losing everyone. 

Set in a cruel futuristic surveillance state where bodies are a government-issued resource, this harrowing story is a twisty, nail-biting commentary on power, monstrosity, and bodily autonomy. In sickeningly evocative prose, Womb City interrogates how patriarchy pits women against each other as unwitting collaborators in their own oppression. In this devastatingly timely debut novel, acclaimed short fiction writer Tlotlo Tsamaase brings a searing intelligence and Botswana’s cultural sensibility to the question: just how far must a woman go to bring the whole system crashing down?

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

WOLE TALABI is an engineer, writer, and editor from Nigeria. He is the author of the novel SHIGIDI AND THE BRASS HEAD OF OBALUFON (DAW books/Gollancz, 2023). His short fiction has appeared in places like Asimov’s Science Fiction, Lightspeed Magazine, Tor.com and is collected in the books CONVERGENCE PROBLEMS (DAW books, 2024) and INCOMPLETE SOLUTIONS (Luna Press, 2019). He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards, as well as the Caine Prize for African Writing and he has won the Nommo award for African speculative fiction and the Sidewise award for Alternate History. He has edited five anthologies including the acclaimed AFRICANFUTURISM: AN ANTHOLOGY (Brittlepaper, 2020) and MOTHERSOUND: THE SAUÚTIVERSE ANTHOLOGY (Android Press, 2023). He likes scuba diving, elegant equations, and oddly shaped things. He currently lives and works in Australia. Find him at wtalabi.wordpress.com and at @wtalabi on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky and Tiktok.

Tlotlo Tsamaase (xe/xem/xer or she/her/hers) is a Motswana writer. Xer novella, The Silence of Wilting Skin, is a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and was the first Motswana nominee for the Rhysling Award. Tlotlo received support from the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, and xer story “Behind Our Irises” jointly won the Nommo Award. Xer short fiction has appeared in multiple best-of anthologies, Africa Risen, New Suns 2, Chiral Mad 5, and other venues. Womb City is Tlotlo’s debut novel.

Join 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.

Join 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.

Join 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.

Join 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.

Kindred 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. 

Presented 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

Join 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. 

Come 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.

Come 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.

Join 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. 

Registration 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.

Join 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

What the Road Said

Join 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

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

 EVENT 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.

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.