EVENT DEETS:

When: February 4, 2023, at 6:30 PM (Door Open at 6:00 PM)

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

How: Purchase your ticket TODAY! Each ticket comes with entry as well as two cocktails. THIS EVENT IS FOR ADULTS (21+) ONLY!

ABOUT THE SPELLING BEE:

Contestants will be asked to spell words that speak to the theme of Black History Month over the course of four rounds. If you misspell the word, you are out!  As the words get harder, you might be able to Phone a Friend or Battle to earn your place back into the competition. The last three contestants standing will receive a prize!

Fun and music-filled, this event is for folks looking for something BLACKITY BLACK to do on a Saturday night! 

If you have any questions please reach out to laniseharris@gmail.com or chanecka@kindredstorieshtx.com.

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A paradigm-shifting investigation of Jim Crow–era violence, the legal apparatus that sustained it, and its enduring legacy, from a renowned legal scholar.

If the law cannot protect a person from a lynching, then isn’t lynching the law?

In By Hands Now Known, Margaret A. Burnham, director of Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, challenges our understanding of the Jim Crow era by exploring the relationship between formal law and background legal norms in a series of harrowing cases from 1920 to 1960. From rendition, the legal process by which states make claims to other states for the return of their citizens, to battles over state and federal jurisdiction and the outsize role of local sheriffs in enforcing racial hierarchy, Burnham maps the criminal legal system in the mid-twentieth-century South, and traces the unremitting line from slavery to the legal structures of this period?and through to today.

Drawing on an extensive database, collected over more than a decade and exceeding 1,000 cases of racial violence, she reveals the true legal system of Jim Crow, and captures the memories of those whose stories have not yet been heard.

A cowboy romance enthusiast discovers that everything’s bigger in Texas—even love—in this swoony novel from beloved author Alexa Martin.

Fueled by a love of romance novels, Luna Starr was destined for a life with her head in the clouds. Her delusional tendencies serve her well…or at least they used to. When life throws her a curveball, she decides it’s time to turn her cowboy fantasies into reality and purchases a tiny farm in Celestial, Texas. After all, don’t all heroines try to outrun grief?

Tate Jacobs hates cowboys, which is a small problem, considering his family happens to own the largest ranch in Celestial. Life might not have gone the way he wanted, but as head coach at his old high school and the town’s best (and only) handyman, he’s figured out how to stay busy and keep his head down—until the new girl in town shows up. Luna’s new property is a bad accident waiting to happen unless someone helps her with her DIY home renovations.

As Tate and Luna spend more time together fixing up her house, unexpected feelings and undeniable chemistry bubble to the surface. Luna might’ve moved to Celestial to make her cowboy dreams come true, but somewhere beneath the vast Texas skies, she discovers that love in the real world can be far better than she imagined.

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By the Light of My Father's Smile is Alice Walker's first novel in six years--a stunning, original, and important book by "one of the best American writers of today" (The Washington Post).

A family from the United States goes to the remote Sierras in Mexico--the writer-to-be, Susannah; her sister, Magdalena; her father and mother.  And there, amid an endangered band of mixed-race Blacks and Indians called the Mundo, they begin an encounter that will change them more than they could ever dream.  Moving back and forth in time, and among unforgettable characters and their stories, Walker crosses conventional borders of all kinds as she explores in this magical novel the ways in which a woman's denied sexuality leads to the loss of the much prized and necessary original self; and how she regains that self, even as her family's past of lies and love is transformed.

By the Light of My Father's Smile presents, as Alice Walker puts it, "a celebration of sexuality, its absolute usefulness in the accessing of one's mature spirituality, and the father's role in assuring joy or sorrow in this arena for his female children."  It explores the richness and coherence of alternative culture, experience of sexuality as a celebration of life, of trust in Nature and the Spirit, even as it affirms the belief, as Walker says, "that it is the triumphant heart, not the conquered heart, that forgives.  And that love is both timeless and beyond time."

The warm embrace you need to kickstart your day or unwind in the evening. This comforting candle blends the rich aroma of Instant Coffee with the creamy warmth of Steamed Milk, sweetened by a touch of Azúcar. Inspired by those quick, cozy breakfasts with family, where coffee and quesitos are the stars, this scent offers a soothing sense of familiarity and a subtle boost of creativity, perfect for any time of day.

11 oz (*up to 80hrs burn time) - Double Wick

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A prophetic new collection of poems from Shane McCrae, “a shrewd composer of American stories” (The New Yorker).

Writing you I give the death I take
I know I should feel wounded by your death
I write to you to make a wound write back

Shane McCrae fashions a world of endings and infinites in Cain Named the Animal. With cyclical, rhythmic lines that create and re-create images of our shared and specific pasts, he writes into and through the wounds that we remember and “strains toward a vision of joy” (Will Brewbaker, Los Angeles Review of Books).

Cain Named the Animal expands upon the biblical, heavenly world that McCrae has been building throughout his previous collections; he writes of Eden, of the lost tribe that watched time enter the garden and God rehearse the world, and of the cartoon torments of hell. Yet for McCrae, these outer bounds of our universe are inseparable from the lives and deaths on Earth, from the mundanities and miracles of time passing and people growing up, growing old, and growing apart. As he writes, “God first thought time itself / Was flawed but time was God’s first mirror.”

In the first book of a new series inspired by African mythology, dragon gods rule the earth and sky—until the gods are betrayed, and one girl embarks on a journey to save the world from war and ruin. From the New York Times bestselling author of Skin of the Sea.

The people are calling . . .
And the gods will answer.

Moremi has only ever known peace in the Kingdom of Kwa, thanks to the two dragon gods keeping an unspeakable evil at bay. But when the king tries to claim the gods’ power for himself, it all goes dreadfully wrong. The great dragons are injured and flee . . . and the world’s darkest shadows are released.

Suddenly, Kwa’s ancient tales of monsters become all too real. Yet as death comes for those around her, Moremi somehow finds herself magically connected to both dragon gods—a feat that should be impossible.

Now, Moremi is Kwa’s only hope for restoring the gods to full strength. But will Jagun, the mysterious prince, let her anywhere near the dragons? And how does her childhood friend, Nox, feel about it all? It may not matter in the end, because if Moremi fails her quest, then she risks the earth caving in and the sky crumbling down.

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The breakout poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman

Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, Amanda Gorman’s remarkable new collection reveals an energizing and unforgettable voice in American poetry. Call Us What We Carry is Gorman at her finest. Including “The Hill We Climb,” the stirring poem read at the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden, and bursting with musical language and exploring themes of identity, grief, and memory, this lyric of hope and healing captures an important moment in our country’s consciousness while being utterly timeless.

NAACP nominee and USA Today bestselling author Beverly Jenkins celebrates her beloved Blessings series with a heartwarming novel set in Henry Adams, Kansas.

“If you haven’t yet gotten your hands on [this] author’s work, you should do so immediately.”—Shondaland

Tamar July, town matriarch of Henry Adams, KS, is being haunted by dreams of her humiliating wedding day, sixty years ago, when she discovered her intended, Joel Newton, was already married. The truth left her furious, heartbroken, and carrying a child, her son Malachi “Mal” July. Why are these dreams coming to her now? And is the great horned owl perched on her backyard shed somehow connected? When Joel’s legitimate son comes to Henry Adams wanting to meet his half-brother, Mal, Tamar must deal with her past, her anger, and explore what it means to truly forgive.

Tamar isn’t the only one being tested. Teenager Devon July wants to be anyone but himself. When he first arrived in Henry Adams, as an eight-year-old foster child, he wanted to be a preacher. Then, to be like his adopted brother, Amari. Now, he’s decided to be a variant of James Brown—wig included—rather than who he really is, a boy who lost his beloved grandmother and is the son of a mentally challenged woman. Will Tamar be able to guide his spirit quest and place him on the road to finally being at peace within himself?

As the big August 1st celebration nears, town owner Bernadine Brown has a lot on her plate, chief among them, what to do with former mayor Riley Curry’s monstrous tribute to his hog Cletus. There are no secrets in Henry Adams, but there’s never a dull moment either.

Liara Tamani’s debut novel deftly and beautifully explores the universal struggles of growing up, battling family expectations, discovering a sense of self, and finding a unique voice and purpose. Taja Brown lives with her parents, older brother, and younger sister in Houston, Texas. She has always known what the expectations of her conservative and tightly-knit African American family are—do well in school, go to church every Sunday, no intimacy before marriage. But Taja is trying to keep up with her friends as they experience their first kisses, first boyfriends, first everythings. And she’s tired of cheering for her athletic younger sister and an older brother who has more freedom just because he’s a boy. Taja dreams of going to college and forging her own relationship with the world and with God, but when she falls in love for the first time, those dreams are suddenly in danger of evaporating.

Cuban American Camila Núñez has always been afraid of the future. She’s been working hard to keep her anxieties in check, but with so many new experiences―her first queer love, trouble with her dog walking job, her mother’s judgments about her body, learning to drive, her father being too busy with work―there’s just so much to worry about.

So when Camila’s best friend gives her a tarot card reading for her sixteenth birthday, she believes it when the cards predict terrible things to come. As the year unfolds, the cards seem to be spot-on―is her papi having an affair? Will her best friend’s love life ruin their friendship? Are all her relationships doomed to fail?

Whether she’s ready or not, Camila will have to reckon with all the ways her fear about the future is ruining her life and learn to find peace amidst it all.

Camille has worked her way up from the Guadeluopean lakou where she was born and raised to the heights of Orlando, where she is a successful motivational speaker. Her assistant, Evelyn, is struggling as a single mother, especially since she has been keeping the existence of her son a secret from her family in Jamaica. As Camille relates the story of her life to Evelyn, she urges Evelyn to see her difficult life as one of great fortune—“My girl, a woman falls, but she never despairs”—and to fully share her joys and successes with her loved ones.

Camille’s Lakou tells the story of Camille, a young Caribbean girl living with her single‑parent mother in a 1960s urbanized zone at the edge of Pointe‑à‑Pitre, Guadeloupe, following her through her adult life as a Caribbean migrant in Florida. Author Marie Léticée explores neocolonial culture clash and identity conflict themes that will be familiar to readers of the Francophone Caribbean coming‑of‑age novel and its revisions by women writers such as Capécia, Lacrosil, Manicom, Schwarz‑Bart, Condé, Pineau, and others. Léticée makes it her own by fleshing out a time and place not well‑represented in Guadeloupean literature. While previous bildungsromane from the writers mentioned here typically focus on rural peasant or urban bourgeois settings, Camille’s Lakou shifts location to an impoverished urban environment. “Lakou” is translated as “courtyard” or, more colloquially, “yard.” The author explores the culture and politics of lakou society while raising the issue of how this social dynamic is transformed through the impact of globalization and dispersal into a diasporic experience outside the island milieu of Camille’s childhood.

In a collaborative translation effort between the author and Kevin Meehan, Camille’s Lakou will bring the realities and joys of Léticée’s Guadeloupe to an English audience for the first time.

Camo, by photographer Thandiwe Muriu, is the first publication to chronicle the work of this international artist, celebrating the vibrant portraits she creates that combine cultural textiles and beauty ideologies. Muriu takes us on a colorful, reflective journey through her world as a woman living in modern Kenya as she reinterprets contemporary African portraiture. 

As the sole woman operating in the male-dominated advertising photography industry in Kenya, Thandiwe Muriu has repeatedly confronted questions around the role of women in society, the place of tradition, and her own self-perception. These experiences inspired her personal project of cultural reflection: the Camo series. Camo was the catalyst for her to push new boundaries in her photography, leading her into a deeply personal artistic journey.

The compelling, fully saturated photographs in this collection confront issues surrounding identity while seeking to redefine female empowerment through Muriu’s choice of materials. These constructed images are not digital manipulations but physical sets that incorporate African Ankara wax textiles as backdrops and custom-tailored clothing and headdresses. At the forefront of her practice is using textiles to make her subjects disappear and serve as a canvas for reflection on the question of identity and its evolution over time. Muriu also consistently reimagines common objects associated with the daily lives of Kenyans into bold accessories donned by her subjects. These objects range from hairpins to the mosquito-repellent coils she grew up using. In Kenya, an object can have multiple uses beyond its original purpose; as Muriu explains, “When you have little, you transform and reuse it.”

Throughout the book, each image is paired with an inspirational African proverb in both English and Swahili, expressing the collected wisdom of generations that continue to inspire. Proverbs such as "With a little seed of imagination, you can grow a field of hope" convey the uplifting spirit of Muriu's work that empowers women, preserves tradition, and celebrates African beauty and culture. 

A visually stunning art book and cultural touchstone, Camo is a collectible treasure as the first book to showcase the work of a rising star in the worlds of photography and art.

What happens when you return to summer camp only to find that eveything has changed—including yourself? From a rising star cartoonist and bestselling author comes the second book in the Camp Frenemies series, perfect for fans of Guts and Real Friends.

It’s the last day of seventh grade and Beatrice is different than she’d been a year ago. True, she’s wearing mascara and doing her hair differently, but it’s more than that—she doesn’t seem to need her stuffed bunny, Roger, as much. And last year, he went everywhere with her. Everywhere.
When Bea gets to camp and reunites with Virginia and Roxy, they can’t believe how much she’s changed—especially Virginia, who won’t let it go. Can’t a girl grow up a little?! As tensions rise, and friends become frenemies once more, Bea decides that maybe camp isn’t for her. After all, they are the oldest campers—and maybe they shouldn't have even come back. Will they make up by the end of camp, or will frenemies become enemies?
With a pitch-perfect voice and accessible cartoons, don't miss this second installment in the Camp Frenemies graphic novel series from uber talented creator Liz Montague.

Campbell's Journey through Honesty Cave is a picture book for young children, ages 6-10 years old, that explores the importance of being a truth-teller.

After an accident derails their playdate, strong-willed and empathetic Campbell must decide how to "fix" what has happened. In his dilemma, he is swept into the cave of Truth Rock, where his special butterfly friend, Omni, challenges him to face its deepest cracks and crevices. Each step below reveals what Campbell is truly made of, how lies really take shape, and what is needed to conquer everyday word wars and the threat of a crumbling good character. But will Campbell take it all in to get back above ground and save the day?

Campbell's Journey explores the relationships between:

* Pride and Humility
* Fear and Courage
* Shame and Boldness

Why is it important? Our growing boys deserve to express themselves freely and wisely. We must offer a safe space for them to discover and understand the power of their words and decisions. It is with us that they first learn to choose better paths through tough life situations. Before the world can exact consequences for their actions, we firmly, and with love, rear them to become vocal, trusting, confident, and integral men of valor.

Returning to her hometown was not in the plans, and neither was falling for her former best friend…

Briyana Hayes can’t seem to catch a break.

The job offer she expected after taking an unpaid internship at a major shoe company didn’t come through. The friend who’d offered her a place to stay suddenly gave her forty-eight hours to vacate after a misunderstanding. And when she’s forced to move back to her hometown to live with her father and his mistress-turned-wife, it almost seems impossible for things to get any worse… until she runs into her former best friend who’s only gotten fine with time.

With his sixth season as the starting linebacker for his hometown Houston Skyhawks on the horizon, the only thing Lance Hawkins is looking forward to is another year of getting paid and chasing accolades. But when he discovers that the girl he once considered his best friend is back in the city, he quickly finds himself intrigued by a different kind of pursuit after seeing how attractive she’s gotten.

Even with the fallout of the past, their undeniable chemistry as friends makes it impossible for the two of them to remain distant. And once romantic feelings get involved, it doesn’t take long for Briyana and Lance to find themselves on a journey of not only reestablishing what once was, but also exploring what could be.

New York Times bestselling author and BookTok star Kennedy Ryan concludes the Skyland trilogy with an unapologetically ambitious businesswoman finally finding a soft place to land with a soulmate who wants nothing more than to make all her dreams come true...if she would only let him.

Hendrix Barry lives a fabulous life. She has phenomenal friends, a loving family, and a thriving business that places her in the entertainment industry's rarefied air. Your vision board? She’s probably living it.

She’s a woman with goals, dreams, ambitions—always striving upward. And in the midst of everything, she's facing her toughest challenge yet: caring for an aging parent. Who has time for romance? From her experience, there's a low ROI on relationships. Anyway, she hasn't met the man who can keep up with her. Until...him.

Tech mogul Maverick Bell is a dilemma wrapped in an exquisitely tailored suit and knee-melting charm. From their first charged glance at the summer's hottest party, Hendrix feels like she’s met her match. Only he can’t be. Mav may be the first to make her feel this seen and desired, but he’s the last one she can have. Forbidden fruit is the juiciest, and this man is off limits if she plans to stay the course she’s set for herself.

But when Maverick gives chase—pursuing her, spoiling her, understanding her—is it time to let herself have something more?

After years away from home, Summer Graves is back in Austin, Texas, to accept a new teaching position. Of all the changes to the old neighborhood, the most dispiriting one is the slated demolition of the high school her grandmother founded. There’s no way she can let developers destroy her memories and her family legacy. But the challenge stirs memories of another kind.

On the architectural team revitalizing the neighborhood, hometown girl Aiko Holt is all about progress. Then she sees Summer again. Some things never change.

Neither can forget the kiss they shared at their senior-year dance. Neither can back down from her unwavering beliefs about what’s right for the neighborhood.

For now, the only thing Summer and Aiko are willing to give in to is a heat that still burns. But can two women with so much passion—for what once was and what could be—agree to disagree long enough to fall in love?

Jean Toomer’s Cane is one of the most significant works to come out of the Harlem Renaissance, and is considered to be a masterpiece in American modernist literature because of its distinct structure and style.

First published in 1923 and told through a series of vignettes, Cane uses poetry, prose, and play-like dialogue to create a window into the varied lives of African Americans living in the rural South and urban North during a time when Jim Crow laws pervaded and racism reigned. While critically acclaimed and known today as a pioneering text of the Harlem Renaissance, the book did not gain as much popularity as other works written during the period. Fellow Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes believed Cane’s lack of a wider readership was because it didn’t reinforce the stereotypes often associated with African Americans during the time, but portrayed them in an accurate and entirely human way, breaking the mold and laying the groundwork for how African Americans are depicted in literature.

For the first time in Penguin Classics, this edition of Cane features a new introduction, suggestions for further reading, and notes by scholar George Hutchinson, and National Book Award Foundation 5 Under 35 novelist Zinzi Clemmons contributes a foreword.

A New York Times bestseller and Oprah's Book Club Pick-the unique and deeply moving saga of four generations of African-American women whose journey from slavery to freedom begins on a Creole plantation in Louisiana.

Beginning with her great-great-great-great grandmother, a slave owned by a Creole family, Lalita Tademy chronicles four generations of strong, determined black women as they battle injustice to unite their family and forge success on their own terms. They are women whose lives begin in slavery, who weather the Civil War, and who grapple with contradictions of emancipation, Jim Crow, and the pre-Civil Rights South. As she peels back layers of racial and cultural attitudes, Tademy paints a remarkable picture of rural Louisiana and the resilient spirit of one unforgettable family.

There is Elisabeth, who bears both a proud legacy and the yoke of bondage... her youngest daughter, Suzette, who is the first to discover the promise-and heartbreak-of freedom... Suzette's strong-willed daughter Philomene, who uses a determination born of tragedy to reunite her family and gain unheard-of economic independence... and Emily, Philomene's spirited daughter, who fights to secure her children's just due and preserve their dignity and future.

Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Cane River presents a slice of American history never before seen in such piercing and personal detail.

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When a Mariachi star transfers schools, he expects to be handed his new group's lead vocalist spot―what he gets instead is a tenacious current lead with a very familiar, very kissable face. In a twenty-four-hour span, Rafael Alvarez led North Amistad High School’s Mariachi Alma de la Frontera to their eleventh consecutive first-place win in the Mariachi Extravaganza de Nacional; and met, made out with, and almost hooked up with one of the cutest guys he’s ever met. Now eight months later, Rafie’s ready for one final win. What he didn’t plan for is his family moving to San Antonio before his senior year, forcing him to leave behind his group while dealing with the loss of the most important person in his life―his beloved abuelo. Another hitch in his plan: The Selena Quintanilla-Perez Academy’s Mariachi Todos Colores already has a lead vocalist, Rey Chavez―the boy Rafie made out with―who now stands between him winning and being the great Mariachi Rafie's abuelo always believed him to be. Despite their newfound rivalry for center stage, Rafie can’t squash his feelings for Rey. Now he must decide between the people he’s known his entire life or the one just starting to get to know the real him. Canto Contigo is a love letter to Mexican culture, family and legacy, the people who shape us, and allowing ourselves to forge our own path. At its heart, this is one of the most glorious rivals-to-lovers romance about finding the one who challenges you in the most extraordinary ways.

Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah explores how early social scientists developed our modern understandings of society through their theories of religion
 
The foundations of modern social science were built on the study of religion, the acclaimed thinker Kwame Anthony Appiah argues. Delving into the intellectual currents of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he investigates how formative thinkers—notably Edward Burnett Tylor, Émile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, and Max Weber—grappled with the concepts of society and religion as interdependent categories. Appiah shows how their efforts to define religion, or evade the task, mark the power and limitations of social thought in ways that persist among theorists today. Religion was not merely an object of study but a framework through which early social scientists established sociology as a discipline.
 
Appiah also examines more recent work in both interpretive sociology and evolutionary and cognitive psychology about the mechanisms through which communities form beliefs and values—while underscoring the enduring significance of these earlier debates for contemporary social thought. Throughout, he intertwines storytelling, historical analysis, and philosophical reflection to show how our ideas about society and culture have been, and continue to be, forged in dialogue with religious questions.

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Care activism challenges the stereotype of downtrodden migrant caregivers by showing that care workers have distinct ways of caring for themselves, for each other, and for the larger transnational community of care workers and their families. Ethel Tungohan illuminates how the goals and desires of migrant care worker activists goes beyond political considerations like policy changes and overturning power structures. Through practices of subversive friendships and being there for each other, care activism acts as an extension of the daily work that caregivers do, oftentimes also instilling practices of resistance and critical hope among care workers. At the same time, the communities created by care activism help migrant caregivers survive and even thrive in the face of arduous working and living conditions and the pains surrounding family separation. As Tungohan shows, care activism also unifies caregivers to resist society’s legal and economic devaluations of care and domestic work by reaffirming a belief that they, and what they do, are important and necessary.

*ships in 7-10 business days*

Have shame, guilt, or codependency seemingly become insurmountable hurdles in your life? Do you struggle with forgiveness, setting boundaries, and putting yourself first? Are negative self-talk and people-pleasing tendencies preventing you from feeling fulfilled?

Sylvester McNutt III, life coach and host of the Free Your Energy podcast, shares the stories of his own traumas and challenges to reveal the lessons he’s learned to overcome obstacles and truly thrive.

To help guide you down your own path of healing, Sylvester provides:

• Strategies for managing stress, setting boundaries, and cultivating healthy habits
• Practical tactics for processing childhood trauma and being present as an adult
• Tools to move beyond the feelings of pain that are holding you back
• Inspiring advice that will urge you to keep moving forward

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In 2013, film and culture critic Zeba Blay was one of the first people to coin the viral term #carefreeblackgirls on Twitter. As she says, it was “a way to carve out a space of celebration and freedom for Black women online.”

In this collection of essays, Blay expands on this initial idea by delving into the work and lasting achievements of influential Black women in American culture--writers, artists, actresses, dancers, hip-hop stars--whose contributions often come in the face of bigotry, misogyny, and stereotypes. Blay celebrates the strength and fortitude of these Black women, while also examining the many stereotypes and rigid identities that have clung to them. In writing that is both luminous and sharp, expansive and intimate, Blay seeks a path forward to a culture and society in which Black women and their art are appreciated and celebrated.