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  • East Winds: Recipes, History and Tales from the Hidden Caribbean

    Riaz Phillips

    $40.00

    What’s inside: A celebration of the lesser known Caribbean culture, rooted in tales and memories of the history and heritage of the eastern reaches of the Caribbean.

    The hidden Caribbean isn’t a place but a legacy of the complex history, people, and food that exists outside the limelight of Caribbean culture.

    East Winds is full of Riaz's award-winning recipes, with food and travel writing interwoven throughout, giving full focus to both the violent and vibrant stories of the indentured Indian and Chinese, Indigenous tribes, and African heritage of Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Suriname and beyond. All equally create the kaleidoscope that is Caribbean food today.

    Ranging from plant-based to meat and seafood, Riaz offers up not only delicious dishes but also the inseparable stories of people and places. Get to know island favorites like hot doubles, a whole chapter dedicated to roti, a whole list of Caribbean curries, and much more. More than a cookbook, with East Winds you'll go on a culinary journey to explore the roots and evolution of the dishes you're cooking.

  • Easy Chinese Food Anyone Can Make

    Emma Chung

    $22.00

    Make your favorite Chinese dishes at home.

    Don’t get a takeout, make your own! From hugely popular online recipe creator Emma Chung @iam.chungry comes this must-have cookbook for anyone who loves to eat Chinese food. Brought up in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Emma knows the very best meals to cook and eat and, with these recipes, she shows you just how simple it is to whip up your own Sweet and Sour Pork, Crispy Chile Beef or Mapo Tofu . . . it's easier than you might think!

    From weeknight winners and takeout-style favorites to delightful dumplings and top-notch noodles—this cookbook is packed with easy-to-follow recipes, many of which include veggie and/or vegan alternatives as well as useful air-fryer options. So, no matter how confident you are in the kitchen, if you enjoy eating Chinese food, discover how easy it is to make old and new favorites including:

    Crispy Pork Chop with Soup Noodles

    Bang Bang Shrimp

    Lemon Chicken

    Chicken with Ginger and Scallion Sauce

    Cantonese-Style Eggplants

    Emma says: "In Mandarin, we use the term jiā cháng cài 家常菜 to describe home-style cooking. This type of food is unpretentious, delicious and deeply intertwined with the comfort of being at home. Having spent many years living abroad, this is the type of food I crave when I’m homesick. I don’t believe you need lots of time, money or equipment to make delicious Chinese food. That’s why this book is a collection of recipes that are easy, approachable and adaptable. Recipes that ANYONE, even those with limited time, space, budget or even cooking skills, can make at home."

  • Eat Plants, B*tch: 91 Vegan Recipes That Will Blow Your Meat-Loving Mind

    by Pinky Cole

    $28.99

    From the Slutty Vegan herself, a collection of ninety-one delicious, guilt-free, plant-based recipes that you will love to indulge in from the comfort of your own home.

    When Pinky Cole opened her first Slutty Vegan food truck in 2018, she was inspired by her love of vegan comfort food. Now, after having expanded to restaurants, a bar, and a philanthropic organization, Cole is ready to bring her best recipes straight to you.

    With mouth-watering photographs and easy-to-follow instructions, Eat Plants, B*tch celebrates Cole’s belief that it’s fun and accessible to cook and enjoy irresistible vegan comfort food. From Avocado Egg Rolls to her Black Pea Cauliflower Po’​Boy or Oyster Mushroom Parm and everything in between, it won’t be long before you will also be declaring Cole’s timeless mantra: Eat Plants, B*tch!

  • Echo Tree: The Collected Short Fiction of Henry Dumas

    by Henry Dumas

    Sold out
    Gothic romance, ghost story, parable, psychological thriller, inner-space fiction—Dumas’s stories form a vivid, expansive portrait of African-American life.

     

    African futurism, gothic romance, ghost story, parable, psychological thriller, inner-space fiction—Dumas’s stories form a vivid, expansive portrait of Black life in America.

    Henry Dumas’s fabulist fiction is a masterful synthesis of myth and religion, culture and nature, mask and identity, the present and the ancestral. From the Deep South to the simmering streets of Harlem, his characters embark on real, magical, and mythic quests. Humming with life, Dumas’s stories create a collage of mid-twentieth-century Black experiences, interweaving religious metaphor, African cosmologies, diasporic folklore, and America’s history of slavery and systemic racism.

  • Edges of Ailey

    by Adrienne Edwards and others

    $65.00

    A revelatory look at the life, work, and legacy of the legendary choreographer Alvin Ailey
     
    Alvin Ailey is one of the most celebrated choreographers of the twentieth century. The creator of iconic works such as Blues Suite, Revelations, and Cry, he is widely recognized for the dance company he founded in 1958 when he was just twenty-seven years old. Ailey imagined and cultivated a platform for modern dance through his innovative repertoire, interdisciplinary sensibility, and support of dancers and choreographers. This expansive volume situates Ailey within a broader social, creative, and cultural context, looking at the artists who influenced and collaborated with him, the spaces and scenes he frequented, the dynamic themes within his dances, and how his vision and work changed contemporary dance.
     
    Essays by artists, scholars, and critics cover topics ranging from the Black church, the South, and the Great Migration to nightclubs, musical influences, and queerness. With more than four hundred images including photographs of works Ailey choreographed, archival materials such as notebooks, sketches, letters, and never-before-published behind-the-scenes photos, and conversations about the legacy of the company with Sylvia Waters, Judith Jamison, and Masazumi Chaya as well as several contemporary dancers and scholars, this study offers an unprecedented full picture of one of the twentieth century’s leading artists and the way his work continues to inspire today’s generation of dancers.
     
    Distributed for the Whitney Museum of American Art  
     
    Exhibition Schedule:
     
    Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
    (September 25, 2024–February 9, 2025)

  • Educators' Night at Kindred Stories
    Sold out

    Join us for a special night for educators!  Come build community alongside teachers, librarians, and school leaders while stocking your classroom and school libraries using a special 15% discount.  We'll also be giving away free Advanced Reader Copies of recently published books!

    Light bites and cocktails will be provided by our friends at ChòpnBlọk.  

  • Eggs, Please! (A to Z Foods of the World)

    Cheryl Yau Chepusova, Rebecca Hollingsworth

    $12.95

    From “Egg” to Z—crack open a global culinary adventure for babies and toddlers!

    This adorable, plate-shaped alphabet board book from the author of Noodles, Please! introduces your youngest reader to the alphabet in a delightful and tasty journey across 20 different countries and cultures.

    Eat the alphabet as you discover 26 egg-based dishes from countries around the world. From Nadan Mutta to Tunisian Shakshouka, this food board book will have young foodies and their grown-ups wowed by all the amazing ways you can use a simple egg.

    • As you read, look for the name of each dish in both English and the native language of the country it comes from.

    • This giftable die-cut alphabet book is shaped to mimic a dinner plate on each page.

    • Vibrant illustrations of 20 different egg dishes from North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, India, Australia, and the Middle East

    Whether you’re a lifelong fan of frittata or a tiny emerging foodie, this children’s board book will have you screaming for more Eggs, Please!

  • Eight Men: Short Stories

    Richard Wright

    $17.00

    “[Wright’s] landscape was not merely that of the Deep South, or of Chicago, but that of the world, of the human heart.” —James Baldwin

    In these powerful stories, literary giant Richard Wright probes the landscape of the human heart and soul with deep compassion and biting clarity.

    Each of the short works in Eight Men focuses on a Black man at violent odds with a white world, reflecting Wright's views about racism in our society and his fascination with what he called "the struggle of the individual in America." Wrenching and indelible, these stories will captivate all those who loved Black Boy and Native Son.

  • Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion

    Gabrielle Stanley Blair

    $14.99

    THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

    In Ejaculate Responsibly, Gabrielle Blair offers a provocative reframing of the abortion issue in post-Roe America.

    In a series of 28 brief arguments, Blair deftly makes the case for moving the abortion debate away from controlling and legislating women’s bodies and instead directs the focus on men’s lack of accountability in preventing unwanted pregnancies.

    Highly readable, accessible, funny, and unflinching, Blair builds her argument by walking readers through the basics of fertility (men are 50 times more fertile than women), the unfair burden placed on women when it comes to preventing pregnancy (90% of the birth control market is for women), the wrongheaded stigmas around birth control for men (condoms make sex less pleasurable, vasectomies are scary and emasculating), and the counterintuitive reality that men, who are fertile 100% of the time, take little to no responsibility for preventing pregnancy. 

    The result is a compelling and convincing case for placing the responsibility—and burden—of preventing unwanted pregnancies away from women and onto men.

  • El Proyecto 1619: Nacieron sobre el agua

    by Nikole Hannah-Jones and translated by Jasminne Mendez

    $18.99
    A Spanish-language edition of the New York Times bestselling picture book in verse The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, which chronicles the consequences of slavery and the history of Black resistance in the United States, thoughtfully rendered by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and Newbery honor–winning author Renée Watson.

    A young student receives a family tree assignment in school, but she can only trace back three generations. Grandma gathers the whole family, and the student learns that 400 years ago, in 1619, their ancestors were stolen and brought to America by white slave traders. But before that, they had a home, a land, a language. She learns how the people said to be born on the water survived.

    Born on the Water, with this edition translated by Jasminne Mendez, provides a pathway for readers of all ages to reflect on the origins of American identity.
  • El Rey of Gold Teeth
    $16.00

    Texas Institute of Letters Award finalist for Best First Book of Poetry

    In El Rey of Gold Teeth, Reyes Ramirez explores living in America as a first-generation American of Salvadoran and Mexican descent, living among conflicting histories.

    Through the voices of an astronaut, a tennis player, a drag queen, family members, an alternate version of the self, and even a turtle, these propulsive poems embody the many marginalized voices demanding to be remembered in a nation that requires erasure of histories.

    Colonizing languages and subverting forms, rerouting histories, and finding the mundane made extraordinary, El Rey of Gold Teeth breaks open notions of destiny, in humorous and devastating ways, to reimagine the past and present a new future where lack transforms to abundance, where there will be many answers to every question. Reyes Ramirez's debut poetry collection plays in spaces of both elegy and joy, and introduces a vibrant new talent.

  • El río es mi mar (The River Is My Ocean) (Spanish Edition)

    by Rio Cortez

    Sold out

    Acompaña a la abuela un sábado en la tarde a visitar a Yamaya al río Hudson.

    Todos los días, la abuela extraña el océano en Puerto Rico. Pero los sábados, cuando el sol está alto en el cielo, la abuela y su nieta recorren Harlem hacia la 12 Avenida camino a un lugar mágico: al río Hudson.

    Ahí, van a celebrar al río que trajo a millones de americanos a sus costas, y al espíritu de una religión antigua y de un amor familiar pasado de generación a generación.

    Esta historia es en un relato reconfortante inspirado por un río icónico, un amor expansivo intergeneracional, recuerdos y la curiosidad infantil que inspiran en sí.

  • Elder Millennial Enamel Pin
    Sold out
    Add some playful, fun flair to your look with this Elder Millennial Enamel Pin. It’s a reminder of the '90s, when life was a little less complicated and a lot more fun! Wear it on your jean jacket or flannel, giving your style some nostalgic “I-was-there” cred.Show 'em that you aren't just a millennial, you're an Elder Millennial! Get your pin today! 1.25" soft enamel pin black plated double clutch, rubber pin back All pins come packaged on a paper backing card and wrapped in a clear cello bag for hanging. They're ready for display right out of the box! If you'd like to omit the plastic, please leave a note at checkout.
  • Elements of Fiction

    by Walter Mosley

    Sold out

    In his essential writing guide, This Year You Write Your Novel, Walter Mosley supplied aspiring writers with the basic tools to write a novel in one year. In this com-plementary follow up, Mosley guides the writer through the elements of not just any fiction writing, but the kind of writing that transcends convention and truly stands out. How does one approach the genius of writers like Melville, Dickens, or Twain? In The Elements of Fiction, Walter Mosley contemplates the answer.

    In a series of instructive and conversational chapters, Mosley demonstrates how to master fiction's most essential elements: character and char-acter development, plot and story, voice and narrative, context and description, and more. The result is a vivid depiction of the writing process, from the blank page to the first draft to rewriting, and rewriting again. Throughout, The Elements of Fiction is enriched by brilliant demonstrative examples that Mosley himself has written here for the first time.

    Inspiring, accessible, and told in a voice both trustworthy and wise, The Elements of Fiction writing will intrigue and encourage writers and readers alike.

  • Elevator Pitch: A Neighbors-To-Lovers Romance (Hapless in Love)

    Evelyn Leigh

    $25.00

    Selah Bailey, an anxious, risk-averse, homebody determined to finally become the main character in her own story, created a "F*ck It List" filled with goals and experiences to force her out of her comfort zone and introduce her to a life outside of her front door.

    Realizing she'll need a partner to help complete her more adventurous goals by the deadline, she goes on a few dates in hopes of breaking her dry spell with no luck.

    After what may be the worst date ever, she meets Greyson in the elevator of her building.

    She soon finds herself running out of time to complete the list and seeks an arrangement with anyone tolerable-though a certain neighbor comes to mind.

    Greyson is everything she wasn't prepared for and could be the perfect hero for her story. Except falling in love is against the rules and she should probably leave the house to find it.

    Greyson Park is a business oriented extrovert, who's fully content with the life he's built for himself amid his divorce. For the past 7 years, he's prioritized making the best out of everyday and keeping things casual in his love life.

    As the creator of a wildly successful dating app, he's become quite the modern day matchmaker. While he loves seeing others in love, he doesn't forgive himself for the past and believes romance isn't in the cards for a second time.

    After what may be the most awkward night ever, he meets Selah in the elevator of his building.

    He soon finds himself needing a believable date for his ex's wedding to silence the noise about him not moving on and works out an arrangement with his neighbor.

    Selah is everything he didn't know he needed and could be the one who introduces him to a life outside of work. Except falling in love is against the rules, and he should probably use his app to find it.

  • Eleven Words for Love: A Journey Through Arabic Expressions of Love

    by Randa Abdel-fattah

    $18.99

    A lyrical narrative of a Palestinian family in exile explores universal bonds of family, loyalty, and friendship through the lens of eleven Arabic expressions for love.

    A family has fled their homeland in search of safety in another country, carrying a single suitcase. As their journey unfolds, the oldest child reflects on the special contents of that suitcase: photo albums that evoke eleven of many names for love in Arabic. From sunshine-warm friendship to the love that dissolves all tears; from the love that makes you swoon to the love that leaves you yearning for the heart’s homeland—her family has experienced it all. Illustrated in vibrant watercolor pencil and collage on textured card stock, this moving scrapbook shows a family embracing an unknown future even as they honor the past, casting immigration and the refugee experience in the light of universal human connection.

  • Elijah's Easter Suit

    by Brentom Jackson

    $18.99

    *Ships in 7-10 business days*

    In a story full of style, sass, and significance, a young boy goes on a quest for the perfect Easter church outfit, inspired by elders from his community. Along the way learns about the importance of Easter traditions to his family, his ancestors, and the Black church. Elijah is on a mission to find the perfect church outfit for Easter. But when failed attempts at his town’s stores leave Elijah disappointed, an important conversation with Deacon Brown and Mother Green about tradition, culture, and clothing gives him the courage to create his own Easter masterpiece: a patchwork of perfection that tells his story with style. Families at Easter will appreciate seeing the themes of church and Black culture throughout Elijah's quest, in this sweet yet important story about a young boy's journey toward an understanding of those who came before him. An afterword from the author delves into the traditions and culture of Black communities at Easter and the historical importance and significance of Easter clothing and style.

  • Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies

    Dalila Scruggs

    Sold out

    A book highlighting the work of pioneering Black printmaker, sculptor, and activist Elizabeth Catlett.
      
    Accomplished printmaker and sculptor, avowed feminist, and lifelong activist Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) built a remarkable career around intersecting passions for formal rigor and social justice. This book, accompanying a major traveling retrospective, offers a revelatory look at the artist and her nearly century-long life, highlighting overlooked works alongside iconic masterpieces.
     
    Catlett’s activism and artistic expression were deeply connected, and she protested the injustices of her time throughout her life. Her work in printmaking and sculpture draws on organic abstraction, the modernism of the United States and Mexico, and African art to center the experiences of Black and Mexican women. Catlett attended Howard University, studied with the painter Grant Wood, joined the Harlem artistic community, and worked with a leftist graphics workshop in Mexico, where she lived in exile after the US accused her of communism and barred her re-entry into her home country.
     
    The book’s essays address a range of topics, including Catlett’s early development as an artist-activist, the impact of political exile on her work, her pedagogical legacy, her achievement as a social realist printmaker, her work with the arts community of Chicago’s South Side, and the diverse influences that shaped her practice.

  • Ella Gets the D

    Tanvier Peart

    $18.99

    The end of my marriage was the beginning of my happily ever after.

    What happens when you hear your husband putting dents in your mattress with another woman?

    Leave and never look back!

    Easier said than done when you're a stay-at-home mom, share two kids with the no-good cheater, and have a savings account that laughs in your face on the daily.

    I want out and agree to an outrageous separation agreement to avoid a showdown in court with a man standing on his wallet, waiting for me to fall. The mission is next to impossible, but I would rather attempt a full split on a hibachi grill after a Brazilian wax than stay in a marriage I should've ended years ago.

    Morgan, my best friend, offers a gorgeous townhouse her family owns to get me back on my feet. Eight months rent-free equals one step closer to Divorced AF.

    I didn't expect moms gone wild at my divorce party, but one fruity cocktail led to me staying out past my bedtime and the steamiest dream with a man straight from fantasies.

    Every kiss, every caress, made me feel worshipped. Adored.

    When Morgan offered this Georgetown home, she failed to mention it belongs to her younger brother, one of DC's most eligible bachelors. He's very fine, not a dream, and back early from time away in London.

    Now, we're staring at each other, dumbfounded and turned on.

    Ella Gets the D is a standalone divorce romantic comedy perfect for lovers of cinnamon roll heroes, a tired mom getting her groove back, tacos, and lots of spice (we kick the door wide open). This isn't your fluffy rom-com. Somebody might catch a case.

  • Eloquent Rage : A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower

    By Brittney Cooper

    $18.00
    "A dissertation on black women's pain and possibility." —Joy Reid, Cosmopolitan

    So what if it’s true that Black women are mad as hell? They have the right to be. In the Black feminist tradition of Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper reminds us that anger is a powerful source of energy that can give us the strength to keep on fighting.

    Far too often, Black women’s anger has been caricatured into an ugly and destructive force that threatens the civility and social fabric of American democracy. But Cooper shows us that there is more to the story than that. Black women’s eloquent rage is what makes Serena Williams such a powerful tennis player. It’s what makes Beyoncé’s girl power anthems resonate so hard. It’s what makes Michelle Obama an icon. Eloquent rage keeps us all honest and accountable. It reminds women that they don’t have to settle for less. When Cooper learned of her grandmother's eloquent rage about love, sex, and marriage in an epic and hilarious front-porch confrontation, her life was changed. And it took another intervention, this time staged by one of her homegirls, to turn Cooper into the fierce feminist she is today. This book argues that ultimately feminism, friendship, and faith in one's own superpowers are all we really need to turn things right side up again.

     

  • Embodied Self Awakening: Somatic Practices for Trauma Healing and Spiritual Evolution

    by Nityda Gessel

    $26.99

    An offering to be with, and to turn toward, the feelings from which we instinctively recoil.

    We have learned how to suppress our pain and deny its presence, but when we fight against our internal turmoil, glimmers of peace are short-lived. Rejecting our suffering is not a sustainable solution because trauma is held in the body. In this book, Nityda Gessel invites readers on a journey toward lasting freedom, with insights and experiential practices that marry the wisdom of Buddhist psychology, yogic teachings, and Indigenous understanding with somatic psychotherapy and neuroscience.

    When we heal, our actions and attitudes are not hijacked by our nervous systems as easily. We begin to feel more comfortable in our bodies; more at peace, awake, and free. With Gessel’s invitation, readers will learn to look out into the world, and see more than their own trauma reflected back.

  • Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas

    edited by Yolanda Covington-Ward & Jeanette S. Jouili

    Sold out
    The contributors to Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas investigate the complex intersections between the body, religious expression, and the construction and negotiation of social relationships and collective identities throughout the Black diaspora.

    The contributors to Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas investigate the complex intersections between the body, religious expression, and the construction and transformation of social relationships and political and economic power. Among other topics, the essays examine the dynamics of religious and racial identity among Brazilian Neo-Pentecostals; the significance of cloth coverings in Islamic practice in northern Nigeria; the ethics of socially engaged hip-hop lyrics by Black Muslim artists in Britain; ritual dance performances among Mama Tchamba devotees in Togo; and how Ifá practitioners from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, and the United States join together in a shared spiritual ethnicity. From possession and spirit-induced trembling to dance, the contributors outline how embodied religious practices are central to expressing and shaping interiority and spiritual lives, national and ethnic belonging, ways of knowing and techniques of healing, and sexual and gender politics. In this way, the body is a crucial site of religiously motivated social action for people of African descent.

    Contributors. Rachel Cantave, Youssef Carter, N. Fadeke Castor, Yolanda Covington-Ward, Casey Golomski, Elyan Jeanine Hill, Nathanael J. Homewood, Jeanette S. Jouili, Bertin M. Louis Jr., Camee Maddox-Wingfield, Aaron Montoya, Jacob K. Olupona, Elisha P. Renne
  • Embrace Healing and Peace Bookmark
    $3.00
    Discover calm and clarity with the Embrace Healing and Peace Bookmark. Crafted to inspire tranquility, this elegant design serves as a gentle reminder to prioritize self-care and mindfulness with every page you turn. Perfect for your favorite book or journal, it brings a touch of serenity to your reading experience. 2” x 6” size 16pt paper stock Glossy front, silk-finish back
  • Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

    by adrienne maree brown

    $16.00

    Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live. Change is constant. The world is in a continual state of flux. It is a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, this book invites us to feel, map, assess, and learn from the swirling patterns around us in order to better understand and influence them as they happen. This is a resolutely materialist “spirituality” based equally on science and science fiction, a visionary incantation to transform that which ultimately transforms us.

  • Emmett J. Scott: Power Broker of the Tuskegee Machine (Afro-Texans)

    Maceo C. Dailey Jr.

    $45.00

    Reared in Houston (Freedmen’s Town), Texas, Emmett J. Scott was a journalist, newspaper editor, government official, author, and chief of staff, adviser, and ghostwriter to Booker T. Washington. Called “the power broker of the Tuskegee Machine,” Scott was a Renaissance man, scholar, and political fixer. However, his life has not received a full examination until now.

    Built upon fifty years of research, Maceo C. Dailey’s Emmett J. Scott offers fascinating detail by describing Scott’s role in promoting the Tuskegee Institute. Before his 2015 death, Dailey had nearly singular access to the Scott papers at Morgan State University, which have been officially closed for decades. Readers will finally be exposed to Scott’s behind-the-scenes contributions to racial uplift and will see his influential role in advancing not only the Tuskegee Institute but also the Booker T. Washington agenda.

    Editors Will Guzmán and David H. Jackson Jr. lend their own expertise in bringing Dailey’s lifetime project to fruition. Two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David Levering Lewis, a close friend of Dailey’s, provides a timely foreword. Former Black Panther Party chairwoman Elaine Brown, Scott’s granddaughter, reflects on his impact and her relationship with the Scott family in the afterword.

    Taken together, this work of biography is an impressive reference and an essential endeavor of recovery, one that restores to prominence the life and legacy of Emmett J. Scott.

  • Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
    $32.00

    From a brilliant longtime AI insider with intimate access to the world of Sam Altman's OpenAI from the beginning, an eye-opening account of arguably the most fateful tech arms race in history, reshaping the planet in real time, from the cockpit of the company that is driving the frenzy

    When AI expert and investigative journalist Karen Hao first began covering OpenAI in 2019, she thought they were the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety enshrined as its core mission, the organization was meant, its leader Sam Altman told us, to act as a check against more purely mercantile, and potentially dangerous, forces. What could go wrong?

    Over time, Hao began to wrestle ever more deeply with that question. Increasingly, she realized that the core truth of this massively disruptive sector is that its vision of success requires an almost unprecedented amount of resources: the “compute” power of high-end chips and the processing capacity to create massive large language models, the sheer volume of data that needs to be amassed at scale, the humans “cleaning up” that data for sweatshop wages throughout the Global South, and a truly alarming spike in the usage of energy and water underlying it all. The truth is that we have entered a new and ominous age of empire: only a small handful of globally scaled companies can even enter the field of play. At the head of the pack with its ChatGPT breakthrough, how would OpenAI resist such temptations?

    Spoiler alert: it didn’t. Armed with Microsoft’s billions, OpenAI is setting a breakneck pace, chased by a small group of the most valuable companies in human history—toward what end, not even they can define. All this time, Hao has maintained her deep sourcing within the company and the industry, and so she was in intimate contact with the story that shocked the entire tech industry—Altman’s sudden firing and triumphant return. The behind-the-scenes story of what happened, told here in full for the first time, is revelatory of who the people controlling this technology really are. But this isn’t just the story of a single company, however fascinating it is. The g forces pressing down on the people of OpenAI are deforming the judgment of everyone else too—as such forces do. Naked power finds the ideology to cloak itself; no one thinks they’re the bad guy. But in the meantime, as Hao shows through intrepid reporting on the ground around the world, the enormous wheels of extraction grind on. By drawing on the viewpoints of Silicon Valley engineers, Kenyan data laborers, and Chilean water activists, Hao presents the fullest picture of AI and its impact we’ve seen to date, alongside a trenchant analysis of where things are headed. An astonishing eyewitness view from both up in the command capsule of the new economy and down where the real suffering happens, Empire of AI pierces the veil of the industry defining our era.

  • Empire Roller Disco: Photographs by Patrick D. Pagnano

    Patrick D. Pagnano

    Sold out

    A photographic look at Brooklyn's iconic Empire Roller Disco by photographer Patrick D. Pagnano.

    Brooklyn’s Empire Rollerdrome opened its doors in 1941 and soon became the borough’s premier destination for recreational and competitive roller skating. But it wasn’t until the late 1970s that the celebrated rink reached iconic status by replacing its organist with a live DJ, installing a state of the art sound and light system, and renaming itself after the nationwide dance craze it had helped to originate: the Empire Roller Disco was born. In 1980, the acclaimed street photographer Patrick D. Pagnano went on assignment to document the Empire and its legendary cast of partygoers. The resulting photographs, gathered in Empire Roller Disco for the first time, capture the vibrant spirits, extraordinary styles, and sheer joys of Brooklyn roller disco at its dizzying peak.

  • Empire Without End: A New History of Britain and the Caribbean

    Imaobong Umoren

    $31.00

    A powerful, groundbreaking new history of Britain and the Caribbean, challenging existing thinking about British colonization and recontextualizing the twin stories of contemporary inequality in both regions.

    In Empire Without End, historian Imaobong Umoren delivers an incisive and captivating exploration of the deep, complex ties between Britain and the Caribbean—largely underexamined until now. Spanning from the 16th century to the present, this riveting narrative redefines how we view the Caribbean—not just as a source of labor and resources for the British Empire, but as a dynamic testing ground for social and cultural experimentation. Umoren uncovers how the Caribbean shaped British societal ideals, many of which were exported back to Britain, laying the foundation for a racial-caste system that still affects social, political, and economic life today.

    This deeply researched work goes beyond historical accounts of sugar plantations and slavery. Umoren dives deeper, exploring how religion, global migration, war, grassroots protest, and even tourism all played into the Caribbean’s lasting legacy. She boldly connects the dots to modern-day issues, arguing that the shadow of British colonization lingers through neo-colonialism, continuing to shape the lives of Caribbean people. As the world confronts a collective racial reckoning, Empire Without End sheds light on the ongoing fight for reparations and justice, offering a much-needed lens on history’s unfinished business.

    Written with clarity and packed with profound insights, Empire Without End is a must-read for anyone curious about the intertwined histories of Britain, the Caribbean, and America. Joining the ranks of acclaimed historical titles like Black Ghosts of Empire and works by Ta-Nehisi Coates, this book provides a fresh, urgent perspective on empire’s enduring impact and the global conversation it demands today.

  • Empress Creed

    Tarris Marie

    $17.95

    When two outlaw lovers from opposite sides of the war face off, their second chance at happily ever after will come at a cost only one crime king and queen pin are willing to pay.

    Empress reigns as 1930’s Chicago’s cunning Queen Pin, yet sultry Dulce Ella Monroe still longs for freedom from oppression her criminal empire provides. But when rivals threaten all that the influential and glamorous Empress built, her last hope of defense walks through the door in sharp-shooting ex-lover Snipes Creed, now a foe for hire bound to the enemy.

    A decade ago, Perry Savage had stolen Dulce's heart before battles abroad stole their chance at happiness. Discharged into Depression’s bleak landscape, taking on the alias Snipes Creed elevated Perry from destitute veteran to contract fixer extraordinaire. But no success could eclipse memories of the one who got away.

    Facing off on opposing sides yet still bound by unbreakable passion, past promises, and present perils, Snipes and the notorious Empress must determine if their romance can rise again or if devastation will strike when luck inevitably runs dry. For two scarred souls gambling everything on last bets placed in the name of love and legacy, only one question remains: will Chicago burn them both before they burn Chicago down?

  • Encounter on the Seine: Essays (James Baldwin Centennial)

    James Baldwin

    $20.00

    "James Baldwin was born for truth. It called upon him to tell it on the mountains, to preach it in Harlem, to sing it on the Left Bank in Paris. . . . He was a giant." — Maya Angelou

    This collectible edition celebrates James Baldwin’s 100th-year anniversary, delving into his years in France and Switzerland

    Originally published in Notes of a Native Son, the essays, "Encounter on the Seine: Black Meets Brown," "A Question of Identity," "Equal in Paris," and "Stranger in the Village" will appeal to readers interested in Baldwin's observations as a Black man overseas.

    During his transformative time in Europe, Baldwin uncovers what it means to be American, immersing the reader in his life as a foreigner, his troubling encounter with a Parisian prison, and his unprecedented arrival to a tiny Swiss village.

    This final collection in the Baldwin centennial anniversary series raises issues of identity, belonging, nationhood, and race within a global context. Encounter on the Seine: Essays showcases Baldwin’s strengths as a storyteller, revealing how his years in Paris transformed his understanding of American identity.

  • Enter Ghost
    $18.00

    Winner of the Aspen Words Literary Prize 
    Winner of the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award 

    Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 

    A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book of the Year

    “Assured and formidable.” — Wall Street Journal

    After years away from her family’s homeland, and reeling from a disastrous love affair, actress Sonia Nasir returns to Haifa to visit her older sister Haneen. This is her first trip back since the second intifada and the deaths of their grandparents: while Haneen made a life here commuting to Tel Aviv to teach at the university, Sonia remained in London to focus on her acting career and now dissolute marriage. On her return, she finds her relationship to Palestine is fragile, both bone-deep and new.

    At Haneen’s, Sonia meets the charismatic and candid Mariam, a local director, and finds herself roped into a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Sonia is soon rehearsing Gertude’s lines in Classical Arabic and spending more time in Ramallah than Haifa, along with a dedicated group of men from all over historic Palestine who, in spite of competing egos and priorities, each want to bring Shakespeare to that side of the wall. As opening night draws closer it becomes clear just how many violent obstacles stand before a troupe of Palestinian actors. Amidst it all, the life Sonia once knew starts to give way to the daunting, exhilarating possibility of finding a new self in her ancestral home.

    A stunning rendering of present-day Palestine, Enter Ghost is a story of diaspora, displacement, and the connection to be found in family and shared resistance. Timely, thoughtful, and passionate, Isabella Hammad’s highly anticipated second novel is an exquisite feat, an unforgettable story of artistry under occupation.

  • Episodes: The Diary of a Recovering Mad Man

    Gucci Mane

    Sold out

    Gucci Mane, one of hip-hop’s most iconic figures and a trailblazer in Atlanta’s rap culture, reveals his struggles with mental health and drug addiction that will provide fans and readers with insights into his career and life.

    As one of hip-hop’s legendary figures and an indispensable fixture in Atlanta’s vibrant rap culture, Gucci was on an upswing in his career when he sold his debut memoir, The Autobiography of Gucci Mane in 2016. He had just been released from prison, sporting a slimmer physique and health-conscious diet; he announced his ninth album, the platinum-selling Everybody Looking; and became the face of a global campaign with the luxury Italian designer that inspired his name and persona. But underneath all that, he was hiding some of his darkest struggles from the world. Now he is ready to tell his full story.

    In Episodes, Gucci revisits his life and shares what was really going on for the first time. The mental anguish, the pitfalls, the triggers no one speaks about. Each episode is Gucci experiencing something—something you may remember from the news or even heard in his music—and giving you the background of where he was mentally. He reveals how his fascination with money got the worst of him, why he committed certain crimes, the story behind his ice cream cone tattoo, and how his wife felt watching him overdose. Along the way, he interviews medical professionals and mental health experts to provide insight into mental health awareness.

    Episodes is Gucci’s way of reaching beyond the “each one, teach one” approach of discussing mental illness behind closed doors, opting instead to cultivate a discourse amongst a culture that, while steadily improving how it regards mental health, still stigmatizes public discussions around the topic. This compelling memoir sheds light on both his inner struggles and his triumphs, offering an unflinching account of a man who defied the odds to leave a lasting legacy on music, culture, and conversations around mental health.

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