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  • Born in a House of Glass

    by Chinenye Emezie

    $19.99

    As Udonwa grows, her hidden family history changes her forever.

    Let me tell you a story. It’s about a war. This war is not the type fought with guns and machetes. It is a family type. A silent war. The type fought in the heart. It began long before I was formed.

    Udonwa’s family is at war ― a war of relationships, played out under the tyranny of a monster dad. Age twelve, Udonwa has a peculiar love for her father, Reverend Leonard Ilechukwu, who favours her but beats his wife and his other children. She sees his good side: after all, he pays the school fees, and tells her that she, named “the peaceful child,” is the one most likely to become a doctor.

    When her newly married eldest sister suddenly takes her from their family compound in Iruama, Nigeria, to live with her in Awka, Udonwa experiences violence first-hand. Later, pieces of a sinister picture emerge that shake her life to the core.

    No longer the person she thought she was, Udonwa launches into a period of extreme change, and parts of her life spiral into chaos as she finds herself torn between her love for her father and an underlying need to free herself. This vivid family saga is engrossing, deeply unsettling, and finally uplifting.

  • Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War

    by Howard W. French

    $19.95
    Revealing the central yet intentionally obliterated role of Africa in the creation of modernity, Born in Blackness vitally reframes our understanding of world history.

    Traditional accounts of the making of the modern world afford a place of primacy to European history. Some credit the fifteenth-century Age of Discovery and the maritime connection it established between West and East; others the accidental unearthing of the “New World.” Still others point to the development of the scientific method, or the spread of Judeo-Christian beliefs; and so on, ad infinitum. The history of Africa, by contrast, has long been relegated to the remote outskirts of our global story. What if, instead, we put Africa and Africans at the very center of our thinking about the origins of modernity?

    In a sweeping narrative spanning more than six centuries, Howard W. French does just that, for Born in Blackness vitally reframes the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in the West, and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe’s dehumanizing engagement with the “dark” continent. In fact, French reveals, the first impetus for the Age of Discovery was not—as we are so often told, even today—Europe’s yearning for ties with Asia, but rather its centuries-old desire to forge a trade in gold with legendarily rich Black societies sequestered away in the heart of West Africa.

    Creating a historical narrative that begins with the commencement of commercial relations between Portugal and Africa in the fifteenth century and ends with the onset of World War II, Born in Blackness interweaves precise historical detail with poignant, personal reportage. In so doing, it dramatically retrieves the lives of major African historical figures, from the unimaginably rich medieval emperors who traded with the Near East and beyond, to the Kongo sovereigns who heroically battled seventeenth-century European powers, to the ex-slaves who liberated Haitians from bondage and profoundly altered the course of American history.

    While French cogently demonstrates the centrality of Africa to the rise of the modern world, Born in Blackness becomes, at the same time, a far more significant narrative, one that reveals a long-concealed history of trivialization and, more often, elision in depictions of African history throughout the last five hundred years. As French shows, the achievements of sovereign African nations and their now-far-flung peoples have time and again been etiolated and deliberately erased from modern history. As the West ascended, their stories—siloed and piecemeal—were swept into secluded corners, thus setting the stage for the hagiographic “rise of the West” theories that have endured to this day.

    “Capacious and compelling” (Laurent Dubois), Born in Blackness is epic history on the grand scale. In the lofty tradition of bold, revisionist narratives, it reframes the story of gold and tobacco, sugar and cotton—and of the greatest “commodity” of them all, the twelve million people who were brought in chains from Africa to the “New World,” whose reclaimed lives shed a harsh light on our present world.

  • Born Royal: Overcoming Insecurity to Become the Woman God Says You Are

    by Oneka McClellan

    $24.00

    A revolution for women to live confidently in their God-given identity and united in the call to bring goodness to the world, adapted from Born of a Woman, from speaker and pastor of the influential Shoreline City Church.

    “In these pages, you will experience the beauty of a friend who says, ‘Royal sister, take a seat. We have been waiting for you!’”—Charlotte Gambill, Global communicator, author, and leadership mentor

    We know women are meant to bring powerful and lasting goodness into the world because God repeatedly called women to do so: He trusted Mary to give birth to Jesus, Esther to save His people, and Deborah to lead His kingdom. Yet so much of our potential is limited by our own insecurity and fear. It’s time for us to stand confident in our stunning worth as royal daughters, unite in community, and walk in the unshakable hope of Christ. 

    In a message that’s both vibrant and conversational, Pastor Oneka McClellan reminds us that God has uniquely positioned and gifted women to be a source of life, wisdom, and strength. Through insightful biblical truths and real stories of women showing up in powerful ways, McClellan equips you to

    • completely trust your God-given identity
    • lead with courage and wisdom in any room 
    • fight for the flourishing of others
    • celebrate the greatness in every woman
    • see with eyes of hope that God can redeem any story

    To every woman who’s ever felt held back, pushed down, or disqualified from stepping fully into her purpose, McClellan’s Born Royal offers hope, encouragement, and empowerment. It also sounds a liberating call for each and every one of us—including you—to walk boldly and precisely as the women God has created us to be.

  • Born to Serve: A History of Texas Southern University (Volume 14) (Race and Culture in the American West Series)

    Merline Pitre

    $21.95

    Texas Southern University is often said to have been “conceived in sin.” Located in Houston, the school was established in 1947 as an “emergency” state-supported university for African Americans, to prevent the integration of the University of Texas. Born to Serve is the first book to tell the full history of TSU, from its founding, through the many varied and defining challenges it faced, to its emergence as a first-rate university that counts Barbara Jordon, Mickey Leland, and Michael Strahan among its graduates.

    Merline Pitre frames TSU’s history within that of higher education for African Americans in Texas, from Reconstruction to the lawsuit that gave the school its start. The case, Sweatt v. Painter, involved student Heman Marion Sweatt, who was denied entry to the University of Texas Law School because he was black. Pitre traces the tortuous measures by which Texas legislators tried to meet a provision of the state’s constitution that called for the establishment and maintenance of a “branch university for the instruction of colored youths of the State.” When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1950 that the UT Law School’s efforts to remain segregated violated the U.S. Constitution, the future of the institution that would become Texas Southern University in 1951 looked doubtful.

    In its early years the university persevered in the face of state neglect and underfunding and the threat of merger. Born to Serve describes the efforts, both humble and heroic, that faculty and staff undertook to educate students and turn TSU into the thriving institution it is today: a major metropolitan university serving students of all races and ethnicities from across the country and throughout the world.

    Launched during the early civil rights movement, TSU has a history unique among historically black colleges and universities, most of which were established immediately after the Civil War. Born to Serve adds a critical chapter to the history of education and integration in the United States.

  • Boundaries Are Self-Care: A Journal to Help You Set Boundaries, Redefine Strength, and Put Yourself First

    by Asha Gibson

    Sold out

    *ships in 7-10 business days*

    Learn to establish healthy boundaries and prioritize your own needs

    Many women struggle with setting boundaries—saying no, speaking up, and believing their own needs are as important as everyone else’s. This journal helps readers figure out where they need stronger boundaries, and gives them the inspiration and encouragement they need to set and maintain them, encouraging and empowering happier, healthier lives.

  • Boy Dad

    by Sean Williams

    $21.99

    *Ships in 7-10 business days*

    There’s nothing a dad won’t do for his favorite boy.

    Told in upbeat rhyming verse, Boy Dad is a picture book that celebrates fathers who raise, love, and uplift little men. A companion to Girl Dad, this keepsake will make a fun read aloud and gift for the special dad in your life.

  • Boyogi: How a Wounded Family Learned to Heal

    by David Barclay Moore

    $17.99

    When his daddy comes home from the service struggling with PTSD, a young boy discovers that learning yoga together can be a source of healing.

    Ever since Daddy returned from overseas, he’s been different. At first, Butta Bean thinks it’s his fault—that maybe his daddy doesn’t love him anymore. But Mama explains that Daddy’s mind is hurt from things that happened while he was away. When Mama takes them all to yoga class at their local YMCA, Daddy doesn’t want to go at first, and Butta Bean thinks it looks weird. But as Daddy and Butta Bean get better at the yoga poses (Daddy says he’s a real boyogi), Butta Bean starts to see a change in Daddy. He seems more and more like his old self. In a picture book gently tuned to a child’s understanding, award-winning author David Barclay Moore and Caldecott Honor recipient Noa Denmon celebrate the transformative power of yoga, therapy, and abiding love for your family.

  • Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

    Robin Wall Kimmerer

    $35.00

    A New York Times Bestseller
    A Washington Post Bestseller
    A Los Angeles Times Bestseller
    Named a "Best Essay Collection of the Decade" by Literary Hub
    A Book Riot "Favorite Summer Read of 2020"
    A Food Tank Fall 2020 Reading Recommendation

    Updated with a new introduction from Robin Wall Kimmerer, the special edition of Braiding Sweetgrass, reissued in honor of the fortieth anniversary of Milkweed Editions, celebrates the book as an object of meaning that will last the ages. Beautifully bound with a new cover featuring an engraving by Tony Drehfal, this edition includes a bookmark ribbon and five brilliantly colored illustrations by artist Nate Christopherson. In increasingly dark times, we honor the experience that more than 350,000 readers in North America have cherished about the book—gentle, simple, tactile, beautiful, even sacred—and offer an edition that will inspire readers to gift it again and again, spreading the word about scientific knowledge, indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of plants.

    As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).

    Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

  • Brave. Black. First. Puzzle
    $16.99
  • Brazil Bossa Nova
    Sold out

    Notes: Dark chocolate, caramel, peanut butter, red fruit
    Region: Cerrado Mineiro
    Altitude: 800–1,300 masl
    Process: Natural

    Origin Story

    Bossa Nova translated literally means “new wave”, and this particular roast represents a post 3rd wave expression. The Cerrado Mineiro region is the first “Designation of Origin” in Brazil, located in the northwest of the Minas Gerais state in central part of the country. The coffees under this Designation of Origin are “Origin and Quality Guaranteed” by the Cerrado Minerio Region –D.O. Regulatory Board, and each bag carries a QR code connecting it to the specific farm and farmer who produced the coffee. This adds an additional layer of traceability which is often difficult in the massive coffee growing regions of Brazil.

    Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world, and production of coffee in Brazil is unique, in that Brazilian farms tend to have flatter elevations, less shade cover, and more manicured fields. They also use mechanical harvesters and produce far more coffee per hectare than other origins. Coffee in Cerrado Mineiro grows between 800-1300 meters above sea level and has very distinct rainy and dry seasons, creating the distinctive coffee of the region.

    This lot is from Mercon Specialty’s LIFT sustainability program. LIFT is working with a group of farmers in Araxa, who are extremely dedicated to high quality. LIFT is helping the group digitalize their farm management, and to continue to respect the highest environmental standards in terms of biodiversity preservation of the Atlantic Forest.

  • Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma

    by Dr. Mariel Buqué

    $30.00

    The definitive, paradigm shifting guide to healing intergenerational trauma—weaving together scientific research with practical exercises and stories from the therapy room—from Dr. Mariel Buqué, Ph.D, a Columbia University-trained, trauma-informed, psychologist, professor, and practitioner of holistic healing.

    When a physical wound is left unhealed, it continues to cause pain and can infect the whole body. When emotions are left unhealed, they similarly cause harm that spreads to other parts of our lives, hurting our family, friends, coworkers, and others. Eventually, this hurt can injure an entire community, metastasizing across years and generations. This is intergenerational trauma. 

    This trauma is why some of us become estranged from our families, why some of us are people pleasers, why some of us find ourselves in co-dependent relationships. This trauma can be rooted in the experiences of ancestors, who may have suffered due to their race or identity, and it can be collective, the result of a shared experience like systemic oppression, harmful engrained behaviors in a culture like the acceptance of physical discipline of children, or even a natural disaster like a pandemic. These wounds are complex, impacting our minds, bodies, and spirits. Healing requires a holistic approach that has so far been absent from the field of psychology. Until now. 

    From Dr. Mariel Buqué, a leading trauma psychologist, comes a groundbreaking guide to transforming intergenerational pain into intergenerational abundance. With BREAK THE CYCLE, she delivers the definitive guide to healing inherited trauma. Weaving together scientific research with practical exercises and stories from the therapy room, Dr. Buqué teaches readers how trauma is transmitted from one generation to the next and how they can break the cycle through tangible therapeutic practices, learning to pass down strength instead of pain to future generations.

  • Break This House

    by Candice Iloh

    $17.99

    *ships/available for pickup in 7-10 business days

    From Printz honoree and National Book Award Finalist Candice Iloh, a prose novel about a teenager reckoning with her family’s--and her home town's--secrets.

    Yaminah Okar left Obsidian and the wreckage of her family years ago. She and her father have made lives for themselves in Brooklyn. She thinks she’s moved on to bigger and better things. She thinks she's finally left behind that city she would rather forget. But when a Facebook message about her estranged mother pierces Yaminah’s new bubble, memories of everything that happened before her parents' divorce come roaring back. Now, Yaminah must finally reckon with the truth about her mother and the growing collapse of a place she once called home. 

  • Breathe

    by Imani Perry

    $19.95

    *ships in 7-10 business days*

    2020 Chautauqua Prize Finalist

    2020 NAACP Image Award Nominee - Outstanding Literary Work (Nonfiction)

    Best-of Lists: Best Nonfiction Books of 2019 (Kirkus Reviews) · 25 Can't-Miss Books of 2019 (The Undefeated)

    Explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world.

    Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love—finding beauty and possibility in life—and she exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find steady footing and inspiration in Black tradition.

    Perry draws upon the ideas of figures such as James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ida B. Wells. She shares vulnerabilities and insight from her own life and from encounters in places as varied as the West Side of Chicago; Birmingham, Alabama; and New England prep schools.

    With original art for the cover by Ekua Holmes, Breathe offers a broader meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience.

  • Briarcliff Prep

    by Brianna Peppins

    $17.99

    *ships/available for pickup in 7-10 business days

    Set at a luxe, aspirational boarding school inspired by the author's beloved alma mater Spelman College, this debut is a captivating celebration of the friends we choose, the family we protect, and the love we owe ourselves.

    It's fourteen-year-old Avielle "Avi" LeBeau's turn to do what everyone in her family has done: leave home to attend Briarcliff Prep—a Historically Black Boarding School (HBBS). And as scared as she is to say goodbye to her parents and move to Georgia, she knows her fearless big sister Belle will be there to show her the ropes.

    Before long, Avi settles into life at Briarcliff. New friends (and foes), challenging classes (at times too challenging), and maybe a cute tutor-turned-something-more (if her brothers don't get in the way). Meanwhile, Belle does what she always does: she runs the campus's social scene, especially now that she's dating Logan, the pride and joy of Briarcliff's sibling school Preston Academy.

    But something about Logan doesn't sit well with Avi, no matter how many times Belle reassures her Logan is a good guy. And when Avi stumbles across the truth, her relationship with Belle is put to the test. If Avi reveals what she knows, their sisterhood might never recover. But if she doesn't, she might lose Belle forever.

    Debut author Brianna Peppins deftly balances a celebration of sisterhood, self-discovery, and Black joy with an empathetic exploration of teen dating violence in this novel that is, at its heart, a love letter to Black girls.

  • Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End

    by Alua Arthur

    $28.99

    A deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives, from America’s most visible death doula.

    "A truly unique, inspiring perspective on the time we have, what we do with it, and how we let go of this world.... There is no one I'd trust more to guide me through an understanding of death, and how it informs life." — Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Mad Honey and The Book of Two Ways

    "Briefly Perfectly Human is a beautiful, raw, light-bringing experience. Alua's voice is shimmering, singular, and pulses with humor, vulnerability, insight, and refreshing candor.... Be prepared for it to grab you, hold you tight, and raise the roof on the power of human connection." — Tembi Locke, author of From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home

    For her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Alua Arthur is a friend at the end of the world. As our country’s leading death doula, she’s spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death—whether imminent or not—will breathe wild, new potential into your life.

    Warm, generous, and funny AF, Alua supports and helps manage end-of-life care on many levels. The business matters, medical directives, memorial planning; but also honoring the quiet moments, when monitors are beeping and loved ones have stepped out to get some air—or maybe not shown up at all—and her clients become deeply contemplative and want to talk. Aching, unfinished business often emerges. Alua has been present for thousands of these sacred moments—when regrets, fears, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally said aloud. When this happens, Alua focuses her attention at the pulsing center of her clients’ anguish and creates space for them, and sometimes their loved ones, to find peace.

    This has had a profound effect on Alua, who was already no stranger to death’s periphery. Her family fled a murderous coup d’état in Ghana in the 1980s. She has suffered major, debilitating depressions. And her dear friend and brother-in-law died of lymphoma. Advocating for him in his final months is what led Alua to her life’s calling. She knows firsthand the power of bearing witness and telling the truth about life’s painful complexities, because they do not disappear when you look the other way. They wait for you.

    Briefly Perfectly Human is a life-changing, soul-gathering debut, by a writer whose empathy, tenderness, and wisdom shimmers on the page. Alua Arthur combines intimate storytelling with a passionate appeal for loving, courageous end-of-life care—what she calls “death embrace.” Hers is a powerful testament to getting in touch with something deeper in our lives, by embracing the fact of our own mortality. “Hold that truth in your mind,” Alua says, “and wondrous things will begin to grow around it.”

  • Bright Red Fruit

    by Safia Elhillo

    $19.99

    An unflinching, honest novel in verse about a teenager's journey into the slam poetry scene and the dangerous new relationship that could threaten all her dreams. From the award-winning poet and author of HOME IS NOT A COUNTRY. Bad girl. No matter how hard Samira tries, she can’t shake her reputation. She’s never gotten the benefit of the doubt—not from her mother or the aunties who watch her like a hawk. Samira is determined to have a perfect summer filled with fun parties, exploring DC, and growing as a poet—until a scandalous rumor has her grounded and unable to leave her house. When Samira turns to a poetry forum for solace, she catches the eye of an older, charismatic poet named Horus. For the first time, Samira feels wanted. But soon she’s keeping a bigger secret than ever before—one that that could prove her reputation and jeopardize her place in her community. In this gripping coming-of-age novel from the critically acclaimed author Safia Elhillo, a young woman searches to find the balance between honoring her family, her artistry, and her authentic self.

  • Bring on the Blessings

    by Beverly Jenkins

    $16.99

    *ships/available for pickup in 7-10 business days

    Bestselling author Beverly Jenkins makes the move to trade paperback with this rich and moving story that introduces us to the beautiful Kansas town of Henry Adams, and the townspeople who make it unique

    Bernadine Brown is a woman with money to spend. Henry Adams is a town in desperate need of cash. But after Bernadine puts up the money, she has some ideas about how the town should be run. Will the townspeople be willing to shake up their comfortable lives to share the gift they’ve been given with others who really need it?

    One of the few all Black towns founded after Reconstruction, over a century later Henry Adams was falling apart. So Mayor Trenton July took a chance and put his town up for sale on the internet. With a new owner in town, and the ex mayor and his friends up in arms and doing everything they can to turn the deal on its head, will this be the death of Henry Adams...or its rebirth?

  • Brooklyn

    by Tracy Brown

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    *ships in 7 - 10 business days*

    Tracy Brown crafts a tale about a master manipulator and serial survivor, who will scorch earth to get what she wants. The question isn’t who murdered her; the question is who wouldn’t? Brooklyn Melody James has finally gotten the punishment she deserves after leaving a web of lies, heartache, and betrayal behind her. As her life slips away, Brooklyn remembers the events that shaped her into the cold, calculating creature she became. Brooklyn learned the art of hustling from her parents who used the church to get money. Idolizing her father and despising her mother, Brooklyn’s determined to be the type of woman who makes her own rules. When her back’s up against the wall, she sacrifices her family, takes the burnt offering that remains, and runs away. In NYC, young Brooklyn charms her way into the inner circle of hustlers and stick-up kids, learning tricks along the way. She catches the eye of a major player in the drug game, Hassan, and they have a breathless love affair. Brooklyn becomes integrated into his operation, earning the trust of Hassan and his associates. But when she gets the keys to the kingdom, driven by unfettered ambition and a ruthless desire to survive, Brooklyn snatches the pot of gold, leaving bitter retribution promises behind her. From DC to Maryland, Brooklyn burns bridges and breaks hearts. What she doesn't realize is that someone is prepared to end her reign of terror. As she faces her killer and her fate, Brooklyn’s stunned that justice comes from the least likely place.

  • Brooms

    by Jasmine Walls

    $18.99

    *ships in 7-10 business days*

    A queer, witchy Fast and the Furious - starting 6 BIPOC witches - that shines light on history not often told

    It’s 1930s Mississippi. Magic is permitted only in certain circumstances, and by certain people. Unsanctioned broom racing is banned. But for those who need the money, or the thrills...it's there to be found.

    Meet Billie Mae, captain of the Night Storms racing team, and Loretta, her best friend and second-in-command. They’re determined to make enough money to move out west to a state that allows Black folks to legally use magic and take part in national races.

    Cheng-Kwan – doing her best to handle the delicate and dangerous double act of being the perfect “son” to her parents, and being true to herself while racing.

    Mattie and Emma -- Choctaw and Black -- the youngest of the group and trying to dodge government officials who want to send them and their newly-surfaced powers away to boarding school.

    And Luella, in love with Billie Mae. Her powers were sealed away years ago after she fought back against the government. She’ll do anything to prevent the same fate for her cousins.  

    Brooms is a queer, witchy Fast and the Furious that shines light on history not often told – it’s everything you’d ever want to read in a graphic novel. 

  • Brother, I'm Dying

    Edwidge Danticat

    $18.00

    Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography
    A National Book Award Finalist
    A New York Times Notable Book

    From the age of four, award-winning writer Edwidge Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph as her “second father,” when she was placed in his care after her parents left Haiti for America. And so she was both elated and saddened when, at twelve, she joined her parents and youngest brothers in New York City. As Edwidge made a life in a new country, adjusting to being far away from so many who she loved, she and her family continued to fear for the safety of those still in Haiti as the political situation deteriorated.

    In 2004, they entered into a terrifying tale of good people caught up in events beyond their control. Brother I'm Dying is an astonishing true-life epic, told on an intimate scale by one of our finest writers.

  • Brothers in the Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr.

    by Marc Andrus

    $17.95
    The never-before-told story of the friendship between Martin Luther King Jr. and Thich Nhat Hanh—icons who changed each other and the world

    The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote a heartbroken letter to their mutual friend Raphael Gould. He said: "I did not sleep last night. . . . They killed Martin Luther King. They killed us. I am afraid the root of violence is so deep in the heart and mind and manner of this society. They killed him. They killed my hope. I do not know what to say. . . . He made so great an impression in me. This morning I have the impression that I cannot bear the loss." 
     
    Only a few years earlier, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote an open letter to Martin Luther King Jr. as part of his effort to raise awareness and bring peace in Vietnam. There was an unexpected outcome of Nhat Hanh's letter to King: The two men met in 1966 and 1967 and became not only allies in the peace movement, but friends. This friendship between two prophetic figures from different religions and cultures, from countries at war with one another, reached a great depth in a short period of time. Dr. King nominated Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He wrote: "Thich Nhat Hanh is a holy man, for he is humble and devout. He is a scholar of immense intellectual capacity. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity."

    The two men bonded over a vision of the Beloved Community: a vision described recently by Congressman John Lewis as "a nation and world society at peace with itself." It was a concept each knew of because of their membership within the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an international peace organization, and that Martin Luther King Jr. had been popularizing through his work for some time. Thich Nhat Hanh, Andrus shows, took the lineage of the Beloved Community from King and carried it on after his death. 

    In Brothers in the Beloved Community, Marc Andrus tells the little-known story of a friendship between two giants of our time.
  • Broughtupsy: A Novel

    by Christina Cooke

    from $16.95

    Paperback On Sale: January 28, 2025

    At once cinematic yet intimate, Broughtupsy is an enthralling debut novel about a young Jamaican woman grappling with grief as she discovers her family, her home, is always just out of reach.

    Tired of not having a place to land, twenty-year-old Akúa flies from Canada to her native Jamaica to reconnect with her estranged sister Tamika. Their younger brother Bryson has recently passed from sickle cell anemia—the same disease that took their mother ten years prior—and Akúa carries his remains in a small wooden box with the hope of reassembling her family.

    Over the span of two fateful weeks, Akúa and Tamika visit significant places from their childhood, but time spent with her sister only clarifies how different they are, and how years of living abroad have distanced Akúa from her home culture. "Am I Jamaican?" she asks herself again and again. Beneath these haunting doubts lie anger and resentment at being abandoned by her own blood. "Why didn’t you stay with me?" she wants to ask Tamika.

    Wandering through Kingston with her brother's ashes in tow, Akúa meets Jayda, a brash stripper who shows her a different side of the city. As the two grow closer, Akúa confronts the difficult reality of being gay in a deeply religious family, and what being a gay woman in Jamaica actually means.

    By turns diasporic family saga, bildungsroman, and terse sexual awakening, Broughtupsy is a profoundly moving debut novel that asks: what do we truly owe our family, and what are we willing to do to savor the feeling of home?

  • Brown Baby Jesus: A Picture Book

    by Dorena Williamson

    $15.99

    Celebrate Christmas with this unique retelling of the Nativity story featuring Jesus as a melanated baby in a story that’s rich with Scripture, historical accuracy, and a multicultural weaving of love—from the author of Crowned with Glory.

    Like Moses, brown baby Jesus would be a deliverer. Like Rahab, brown baby Jesus would save His people from destruction. Like David, brown baby Jesus would rule as a great king. Like the colorful threads that make up a beautiful cloth, Brown Baby Jesus brings together the characters and stories leading to Jesus—showing how God included many races and nations in the story we celebrate each year.

    With an unconventional Christmas setting of Egypt and written in sweet, lyrical prose, Brown Baby Jesus is sure to become a holiday classic embraced by families of all races and backgrounds.

  • Brown Baby Lullaby

    by Tameka Fryer Brown, AG Ford (Illustrated by)

    $8.99

    This #OwnVoices lyrical bedtime picture book is a must-have for every sweet brown baby.

    From sunset to bedtime, two brown-skinned parents lovingly care for their beautiful brown baby: first, they play outside, then it is time for dinner and a bath, and finally a warm snuggle before bed.

    With Spanish words sprinkled throughout and featuring warm art by New York Times–bestselling and NAACP-Award–winning illustrator AG Ford, Brown Baby Lullaby is the perfect new baby or baby shower gift.

  • Brown Girl Dreaming

    by Jacqueline Woodson

    $10.99

    *Ships in 7-10 Business Days*

    Jacqueline Woodson's National Book Award and Newbery Honor winner, now available in paperback with 7 all-new poems.

    Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

    Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.

    Includes 7 new poems, including "Brown Girl Dreaming"
  • Brown Girl in the Ring

    by Nalo Hopkinson

    $17.99

    *ships/available for pickup in 7-10 business days

    In this "impressive debut" from award-winning speculative fiction author Nalo Hopkinson, a young woman must solve the tragic mystery surrounding her family and bargain with the gods to save her city and herself. (The Washington Post)

    The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways -- farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother. She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends.

  • Brown Sugar Baby Christmas Joy

    by Kevin Lewis

    Sold out

    It is Brown Sugar Baby's first Christmas! When the three Aunties swirl in, full of love and sweetness, Baby is the center of family joy and new traditions. Award-winning Kevin Lewis does it again, writing another lyrical and relatable celebration of unconditional love. This African American family is full of warmth and celebration, and reminds us of the true meaning of Christmas. Perfect keepsake gift for baby's first Christmas. Grandparents will make memories with their grandchildren, too!

    • Relatable, lyrical story for parents and their little girls and boys to read together on Christmas. 
    • Beautiful illustrations, featuring an African American family, will keep kids engaged throughout the story.
    • Sturdy board book pages are easy to grasp, great for children practicing fine motor skills.
    • Poetic rhythm and rhymes encourage language patterns and development amongst toddlers.
    • Glitter cover and every page throughout provide tactile learning for kids of young ages as they touch the bumpy pages. The more senses you use as you read together, the better children can concentrate on their learning experience.
  • Brown Sugar: A Collection Of Erotic Black Fiction

    by Carol Taylor

    $14.00

    Brown Sugar brings together some of the most acclaimed voices in today's black literary world -- Sapphire, Natasha Tarpley, Reginald Harris, and Pamela Sneed, among them. These titillating stories cover the full spectrum of black experience and identity as they reveal sexuality and sensuality in all their varied and exotic forms. From the subtle to the graphic, Brown Sugar embraces the ardor and passion of black love and lust, and will appeal to both men and women. Featuring both well-established authors and promising new writers, this one-of-a-kind collection represents the past, present, and future of black literature at its pleasurable and outrageous best.

    It is a must-have for every lover, as well as every lover of first-rate fiction.

  • Bruce Gilden: Haiti

    by Bruce Gilden

    $55.00

    Dramatic, confrontational images of a country enduring inconceivable upheaval and disaster

    Bruce Gilden first traveled to Haiti in 1984 for the famous Mardi Gras festivities. There he discovered an impoverished territory in the grip of numerous natural disasters but charged with a unique energy. True to form, Gilden immediately departed from the beaten track, choosing to roam the length and breadth of the island along serpentine paths that led him to meet people from the four corners of the island, and into situations that few would choose to encounter.
    Gilden was to visit this country that he loves so much on 20 further occasions, tirelessly documenting the everyday lives of Haitians, their history and terrain. From vendors at the markets of major cities to its nightlife and funeral ceremonies, Gilden strives to take stock of Haitian culture and its rich visual diversity.
    Images from the series were first published as a slim monograph by Dewi Lewis in 1996; the book won the European Publishers Award for Photography. Atelier EXB’s beautifully printed new volume greatly expands the series with previously unseen images comprising nearly half of the book.
    Bruce Gilden (born 1946) has produced long and detailed photographic projects in New York, Haiti, France, Ireland, India, Russia, Japan, England and the US. He has published 28 monographs, among them, Facing New York (1992), Bleus (1994), Haiti (1996); After the Off (1999), Go (2000), Coney Island (2002), A Beautiful Catastrophe (2004), Foreclosures (2013), A Complete Examination of Middlesex (2014), Lost and Found (2019), Cherry Blossom (2021), Black Country (2022) and The Circuit (2022).

  • Bruised Hibiscus

    by Elizabeth Nunez

    $16.00

    The year is 1954. A white woman’s body, stuffed in a coconut bag, has washed ashore in Otatiti, Trinidad, and the British colony is rife with rumors. In two homes, one in a distant shantytown, the other on the outskirts of a former sugar cane estate, two women hear the news and their blood runs cold. Rosa, the white daughter of a landowner, and Zuela, the adopted “daughter” of a Chinese shop owner used to play together as girls—and witnessed something terrible behind a hibiscus bush many years ago.

  • Brujería: A Little Introduction

    by Yvette Montoya

    Sold out

    Learn more about Brujería, the set of practices and rituals found in traditional Latin American mysticism with this mini guide.

    Developed over centuries and influenced by Indigenous, Caribbean, African, Latin, and European culture, Brujería has a unique history. This beautifully illustrated introduction will outline the primary methods, practices, rituals, tools, and terms used in Brujería. Learn about limpias, mal de ojo, crystals, cleanses, astrology, and so much more in this enchanting guide.

  • Brunch & Browse for Educators, Librarians & School Leaders - August 3 @ 9:30 AM
    Sold out

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Saturday, August 3, 2024 

    Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: RSVP for free with your school email

    WHAT TO EXPECT:

    With the beginning of the school year on the horizon, we wanted to take a moment to show our love and appreciation for the work of educators. We'll be serving light bites and drink (including mimosas). There will be a short meditation and intention setting workshop. We'll also be sharing the services that we offer to schools and school districts.

    We hope you join us!

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