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He’s a newly single father with a demanding job as a firefighter.
She’s a newly unemployed daycare worker in need of new job.
Tripp believes it’s fate when his station house is called to a fire at the daycare Brylee works at. It becomes harder to manage being a full time father to a newborn and the hours his job demands so when he sees an opportunity to hire Brylee as an inhouse nanny he doesn’t hesitate.
The situation with his daughter’s mom is sticky, he’s trying to fight his feelings for Brylee, but Tripp learns it’s hard to ignore someone who checks all his boxes so perfectly.

*ships in 7 - 10 business days*

A powerful 30-day workbook journey intended to help the reader lovingly confront their inner oppressor and come to terms with their own internalized biases.

Based on mental wellness advocate and writer Leesa Renee Hall's longstanding work, Inner Field Trip provides a user-friendly, nonjudgmental, and introspective template for exploring our inner biases about race and other forms of inequity. The cornerstone of Hall's model involves confronting one's "Inner Oppressor."

The Inner Oppressor is a manifestation of internalized cultural messages that drive us to judge others but also works to sabotage our own needs. This 30-day program in workbook form takes readers—who become active participants in the experience—on a deep dive from which they will emerge changed.

*ships in 7-10 business days* 

From feeling at home in your body to tapping into the wisdom that already lives within you, Taylor Elyse Morrison, founder of the lifestyle brand Inner Workout, guides you to discover what “self-care” truly means and cultivate a dynamic relationship with your whole being.

• Physical (Feel at Home in Your Body)
• Energetic (Work with Your Energetic Cycles)
• Mental and Emotional (Cut Through Your Brain Fog)
• Wisdom (Tap into the Wisdom within You)
• Bliss (Experience Care Through Connection) 

• Anyone ready to develop easy self-care routines
• Health and wellness enthusiasts and practitioners looking for new approaches
• Expanding upon personal interests in chakra healing, yoga, body positivity, and other forms of health and wellness
• Corporate or private group resource for combatting burnout and promoting well-being
• Supportive and thoughtful gift for students, recent grads, overworked moms and dads, coworkers, or friends who would benefit from the permission to put themselves first
• Followers of Dive In Well, Black Girl in Om, Well + Good, and MindBodyGreen

Brittle Paper 100 Notable African Books of 2024
A Literary Review of Canada Best Book Cover of 2024

A taut and unsparing novel about a community plagued by violence, drugs, corruption, and prejudice―but where love and justice prevail.

The unidentifiable remains of a body are discovered in a field in Shadow Heights, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. Ley, the youngest detective at her precinct, is assigned the case and quickly begins her investigation. Soon after, Ley receives a phone call saying that Carl, a friend struggling with a meth addiction, has gone missing after being linked to the Drug King of Shadow Heights. Meanwhile, a local church group believe they are cleansing the area by burning sinners, starting with homosexuals.

The search for Carl and the truth leads the reader through the vibrant lives of the residents of Shadow Heights. Violence, poverty, and shame plague the neighbourhood, but there is also love, acceptance, and hope to be found among friends and family in the shadows of everyday life.

A pioneering work of fiction in which the dispossessed tell their own stories, Innie Shadows is the first novel to be translated from Kaaps, a dialect of Afrikaans that was until recently a spoken language only.

When a wife becomes the prime suspect in her husband’s murder, this criminal psychologist must forget everything she thought she knew in order to clear her name in this debut psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Shanora Williams’ The Wife Before.

Cassidy Evans is the blueprint. As a Criminal Psychologist, Cassidy is a savant. She spent years solving groundbreaking cases by shifting through the minds and behaviors of those driven by the darkness that controls them. After years of dedicated field work, Cassidy decides to retire and share her expertise of killers’ mentalities as a novelist.

As a published author, she’s now happily married and spends most of her time traveling the world and sharing with others how to understand the twisted minds that drive bad behaviors. Unfortunately, with all of the knowledge that Cassidy is armed with, she somehow overlooks the lies of the person closest to her. When she tags along to a crime scene with and old colleague, Cassidy is shocked to discover that the victim is her husband. If that’s not enough to send her world spiraling, she also finds out that the identity of the murdered victim, doesn’t match the name on their marriage license.

Things quickly escalate when Cassidy becomes the main suspect. Not knowing the man she is married to is the least of Cassidy’s problems. Everyone believes she is a murderer, and none more than the lead detective on the case¾Nathanial Davis. He is determined to find the truth while proving to the world that Cassidy isn’t who she claims to be. In doing so, he decides to keep Cassidy close while digging through her past to uncover all of her untold truths.

While she’s hiding secrets that could totally destroy the world she spent years building, Cassidy learns that things are never what they seem. With such an intricate familiarity of seeing through lies, how is it that Cassidy is happily married to a man who she loves and adores, but doesn’t truly know? Suddenly, losing her career is far less important than maintaining her freedom. In the end, she may lose both.

Inside the Body of Black Feminism connects historical studies of medical racism with Black feminist theories of the body to reimagine the material and metaphoric possibilities for political subjectivity across race, gender, and culture.

Inside the Body of Black Feminism charts a cultural genealogy of antiracist and feminist engagement with some of the most objectified internal “parts” of racist medical and scientific inquiry: bones and blood, brains and hearts, guts and wombs. In a move counterintuitive to Black feminism’s emphasis on externalized representations of the body, Samantha Pinto reinterprets the relationship between embodiment, health, and race through cultural archives that reimagine the inside of the Black body. Working through materials such as medical textbooks, memoirs, data visualizations, museum displays, speculative fiction, and horror films, Pinto explores how a visually inaccessible corporeal interior becomes discernible and racialized in the public sphere. Inside the Body of Black Feminism engages expressive cultural work to ask how we might know the inside of the Black body differently through Black feminist theory and how scientific and medical inquiry might enable us to understand political subjectivity anew.

From Andrea Williams, the bestselling author of We Are Family with LeBron James, comes Inside the Park, the story of a young baseball fan’s misadventures after getting locked inside a pro baseball stadium on the eve of the biggest game of the season.

In this all-new, hilarious, action-packed middle grade tale, Timothy “Pumpsie” Strickland, a baseball-loving twelve-year-old, is about to step up to the plate for the biggest swing of his life.

Pumpsie needs a win. Or to be more precise, he needs the Nashville Wildcats to win. Pumpsie’s been waiting his entire life—twelve whole years!—for his favorite team to make it to the playoffs. And this year—finally!—they’re just one win away.

But when Pumpsie accidentally gets trapped in Lookout Field the night before the last game of the season, with only a lost dog named Campy for company, he may have accidentally stumbled into the best night of his life. For a baseball fan like Pumpsie, using the pro batting cages, running the bases, playing with the public address system, eating all the concession-stand junk food he can find is a dream come true . . . until he realizes he’s not alone in the stadium. Foul plots are brewing beneath Lookout Field, and now it’s on Pumpsie to swallow his fears, gum up his courage, and swing for the fences if he wants to save the Wildcats’ postseason chances.

Inside the Park is a fun-filled, action-packed slice of wish fulfillment that’s perfect for fans of Mike Lupica and Tim Green or any kid who’s ever closed their eyes and imagined stepping up to the plate with the game tied and the season on the line.

In a current era marked by carceral logics, authoritarianism, and white supremacy, there has never been a greater need for the tools and inspiration that radical feminism provides. In Insurgent Visions, Chandra Talpade Mohanty explores methods of anticapitalist resistance to radically transform everyday life. She presents insurgent feminism—a theory and praxis with which to contest and replace the practices of violence grounded in racialized gender relations. Insurgent feminism unsettles existing power structures in order to enact new relationships and forge new subjectivities, epistemologies, and communities. Drawing on organizing efforts in the US-Mexico borderlands, Palestine/Israel, and Kashmir, as well as on abolitionist and Dalit feminisms, Mohanty contends that the knowledge that emerges from the experiences of marginalized groups who are struggling for economic, racial, and social justice is key for imagining feminist futures. She also turns to the neoliberal landscape of higher education in the United States and the difficulties of instituting transformative antiracist and anti-imperialist feminist knowledge building. Mapping new challenges for radical praxis, Mohanty reconfigures feminist studies while offering a model for decolonial cross-border organizing and solidarity.

A powerful, incisive reckoning with the impacts of school desegregation that traces four generations of the author’s family to show how the implementation of integration decimated Black school systems and did much of the Black community a disservice

On May 17, 1954 the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education determined that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Heralded as a massive victory for civil rights, the decision's goal was to give Black children equitable access to educational opportunities and clear a path to a better future. Yet in the years following the ruling, schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods were shuttered or saw their funding dwindle, Black educators were fired en masse, and Black children faced discrimination and violence from their white peers as they joined resource-rich schools that were ill-prepared for the influx of new students.

Award-winning interdisciplinary scholar of education and Black history Noliwe Rooks weaves together sociological data and cultural history to challenge the idea that integration was a boon for Black children. She tells the story of her grandparents, who were among the thousands of Black teachers fired following the Brown decision; her father, who was traumatized by his experiences at an almost exclusively-white school; her own experiences moving from a flourishing, racially diverse school to an underserved inner-city one; and finally her son and his Black peers, who over half-century after Brown still struggle with hostility and prejudice from white teachers and students alike. She also shows how present-day discrimination lawsuits directly stem from the mistakes made during integration.

At once assiduously researched and deeply engaging, Integrated tells the story of how education has remained both a tool for community progress and a seemingly inscrutable cultural puzzle. Rooks' deft hand turns the story of integration's past and future on it's head, and shows how we may better understand and support generations of students to come.

A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A powerful, incisive reckoning with the impacts of school desegregation that traces four generations of the author’s family to show how the implementation of integration decimated Black school systems and did much of the Black community a disservice

"Rooks deftly sketches this lamentable, sobering history."—The Atlantic

On May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education determined that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Heralded as a massive victory for civil rights, the decision’s goal was to give Black children equitable access to educational opportunities and clear a path to a better future. Yet in the years following the ruling, schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods were shuttered or saw their funding dwindle; Black educators were fired en masse; and Black children faced discrimination and violence from white peers and educators as they joined resource-rich schools that were reticent to accept the new students.

Award-winning scholar Noliwe Rooks weaves together sociological data, cultural history, and personal records to challenge the idea that integration was a boon for Black children. At once assiduously researched and deeply engaging, Integrated tells the story of how education has remained both a tool for community progress and a seemingly inscrutable cultural puzzle. Rooks’s deft hand turns the story of integration’s past and future on its head and shows how we may better understand and support generations of students to come.

“Jasmine Reid writes a shapeful, theoretical work involved in the rigorous attending to emergent selves and the languages made in calling them into being.” —aracelis girmay

Interlocutor Goddess explores the creation of a trans language for selfhood within an exilic state of "ecstatic grief."

Reid's experimental work challenges societal norms, particularly the family as a political construct while reflecting on the trans experiences of a queer Black woman. The poems grapple with oppressive systems of separation and colonial legacies, rejecting extractive, empire-driven paradigms, and gender essentialism. Within her collection, Reid envisions alternative, ethical ways of being, rooted in unity and wholeness and finds kinship with the rhythms and lifeways of the natural world—soil, stars, and water. 

Her poetry employs a trans-lyricism, weaving together dual meanings through homonyms, homophones, and portmanteaus to create a layered, fugitive language that resists rigid classifications. At its core, Interlocutor Goddess is an act of transfiguration, a celebration of girlhood, and a reclamation of wholeness for all who exist beyond imposed boundaries.

*ships in 7-10 business days

Deeply personal and powerfully moving, a short and timely series of reflective essays by one of the most clear-sighted and essential writers of our time.

Written during the early months of lockdown, Intimations explores ideas and questions prompted by an unprecedented situation. What does it mean to submit to a new reality--or to resist it? How do we compare relative sufferings? What is the relationship between time and work? In our isolation, what do other people mean to us? How do we think about them? What is the ratio of contempt to compassion in a crisis? When an unfamiliar world arrives, what does it reveal about the world that came before it?

Suffused with a profound intimacy and tenderness in response to these extraordinary times, Intimations is a slim, suggestive volume with a wide scope, in which Zadie Smith clears a generous space for thought, open enough for each reader to reflect on what has happened--and what should come next.

The author will donate her royalties from the sale of Intimations to charity.

Award-winning author Mark Oshiro (Anger is a Gift) returns with a new contemporary coming-of-age novel laced with a twisty, dark mystery you’ll have to read to believe.

KEEP YOUR SECRETS CLOSE TO HOME
It’s been one year since Manny was cast out of his family and driven into the wilderness of the American Southwest. Since then, Manny lives by self-taught rules that keep him moving—and keep him alive. Now, he’s taking a chance on a traveling situation with the Varela family, whose attractive but surly son, Carlos, seems to promise a new future.

Eli abides by the rules of his family, living in a secluded community that raised him to believe his obedience will be rewarded. But an unsettling question slowly eats away at Eli’s once unwavering faith in Reconciliation: Why can’t he remember his past?

But the reported discovery of an unidentified body found in the hills of Idyllwild, California, will draw both of these young men into facing their biggest fears and confronting their own identity—and who they are allowed to be.

For fans of Courtney Summers and Tiffany D. Jackson, Into the Light is a ripped-from-the-headlines story with Oshiro's signature mix of raw emotions and visceral prose—but with a startling twist you’ll have to read to believe.

Timely, relevant, and illuminating, this essential book by respected cultural historian, teacher, and author John G. Jackson sheds long overdue light on standard Eurocentric and distorting approaches to the history of Africa from early African civilizations to Africa’s significance in world history.
 
With brilliantly objective scholarship, respected historian and author John G. Jackson reexamines the outdated, racist, and Westernized history of Africa that is still taught in schools, and presents one infinitely more rich, colorful, varied—and truthful. Challenging the standard dehumanizing and exploitive approaches to African history, from the dawn of prehistory to the resurgent Africa of today--including the portrayal of Africans as “savages” who ultimately benefitted from European enslavement with its “blessings of Christian civilization”—Jackson confronts the parochial historian, devastates the theoretical pretensions of white supremacists, and expands intellectual horizons.
 
Accessible and informed, fascinating and candid, Introduction to African Civilizations is an important historical guide that will enhance antiracist teachings for the general reader and the scholar alike.
 
Introduction by John Henrik Clarke, pioneer of African Studies and author of Christopher Columbus and the African Holocaust
 
Foreword by Runoko Rashidi, historian, activist, and author of Introduction to the Study of African Classical Civilizations

A lil something for your laptop, water bottle, phone case, luggage & more! 

2in. x 1in. die cut sticker. Vinyl, waterproof, and scratch resistant.

Houston was Boomtown USA in the 1970s, growing through tremendous immigration of people and through frequent annexation of outlying areas. But in the shadow of the high-rise "petropolis" was another city ignored by and invisible to Houston municipal boosters and the national media. Black Houston, the largest black community in the South, remained largely untouched by the benefits of the boom but bore many of the burdens.

Robert D. Bullard systematically explores major demographic, social, economic, and political factors that helped make Houston the "golden buckle" of the Sunbelt. He then chronicles the rise of Houston's black neighborhoods and analyzes the problems that have accrued to the black community over the years, concentrating on the boom era of the 1970s and the dwindling of the economy and of government commitment to affirmative action in the late 1980s. Case studies conducted in Houston's Third Ward--a microcosm of the larger black community--provide data on housing patterns, discrimination, pollution, law enforcement, and leadership, issues that the author discusses and relates to the larger ones of institutional racism, poverty, and politics.

During Houston's rapid growth, freeways were built over black neighborhoods and municipal services were stretched away from the inner city and poverty pockets to the new, far-flung, and mostly white city limits. Businesses thrived, but many jobs called for advanced education and skills, while black youth still suffered from inadequate schools, inexperienced teachers, and, later, unemployment rates nearly double those of whites. When the oil-based economy collapsed in the early eighties, many blacks again bore a heavier share of the burdens.

Invisible Houston describes the rich cultural history of the South's largest black community and analyzes the contemporary issues that offer the chance for black Houston to become visible to itself, to the larger community, and to the nation.

The re-issue of a remarkable first novel by a young, gay, black author who fashioned a deeply moving and compelling coming of age story out of the highly controversial issues of bisexuality and AIDS.

Law school, girlfriends, and career choices were all part of Raymond Tyler's life, but there were other, more terrifying issues for him to confront. Being black was tough enough, but Raymond was becoming more and more conscious of sexual feelings that he knew weren't "right." He was completely committed to Sela, his longtime girlfriend, but his attraction to Kelvin, whom he had met during his last year in law school, had become more than just a friendship.

Fleeing to New York to escape both Sela and Kelvin, Raymond finds himself more confused than ever before. New relationships--both male and female--give him enormous pleasure but keep him from finding the inner peace and lasting love he so desperately desires. The horrible illness and death of a friend eventually force Raymond, at last, to face the truth.

An exploration of the link between politics of migration, prospects of integration, and ethnic identity among Iranian immigrants and their descendants in the United States, spanning from the 1970s to the present day.

Thousands of Iranians fled their homeland when the 1978–1979 revolution ended the fifty-year reign of the Pahlavi dynasty. Some fled to Europe and Canada, while others settled in the United States, where anti-Iranian sentiment flared as the hostage crisis unfolded. For those who chose America, Texas became the fourth-largest settlement area. Iranians in Texas culls data, interviews, and participant observations in Iranian communities in Houston, Dallas, and Austin to reveal the difficult, private world of cultural pride, religious experience, marginality, culture clashes, and other aspects of the lives of these immigrants.

Examining the political nature of immigration between Iran and the United States and social, cultural, and economic life for Iranian immigrants and their American-born children, Mohsen Mostafavi Mobasher incorporates his own experience as a Texas scholar born in Iran. In this revised edition, two new chapters and a new introduction and conclusion provide updates on what has happened in the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, including the Iran nuclear deal and resulting controversy, the Muslim ban, and the global protests over the death of twenty-two-year-old Mahsa Amini for not wearing a hijab. Bringing to life a unique immigrant population in the context of global politics, Iranians in Texas overturns stereotypes and echoes diverse voices.

Celebrate the release of Dear Cycle Breaker with Dusah Wiseman! Join us to learn about Dusah’s new book and participate in a workshop featuring practices highlighted in the text.

EVENT DEETS

When: Thursday, January 30 @ 6:30 PM

Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St. Houston, TX 77004)

How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat and participate in the workshop or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming. Please do not bring 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Transformational rituals and channeled messages for unlocking your true potential, healing through the divine feminine, and making the everyday sacred.

The practices and channeled messages within this book support you in going deep within your shadows to unlock the potent medicine of combining your light and dark, reclaiming your inner magic, and unmasking the true potential of your wild, wise, and whole self. When you reconnect with the divine feminine and tap into the ancient wisdom of the powerful women who came before you, you become a walking embodiment of love, magic, compassion, and power.

Writes Dusah, "My divine mission is to be a guiding light for those who are ready to unmask their true power and potential. This is the book that would have saved me from repetitive unwanted cycles. It is a beacon that will resurrect the Goddess who has been playing small for reasons that span previous lifetimes. It will empower the Queen who is finally ready to claim her legacy."

Peel back the layers covering up your true greatness: the lies, the past experiences, the trauma, the masks that your family or society has forced you to don. This is your initiation into a divine co-creation with Spirit—a pathway back to your highest self and a deep connection with Source.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dusah Wiseman, also known as Serpent Goddess, fell in love with shamanic practices as a child, and they have laid the foundation for her well-being. She has trained with indigenous elders and notable industry leaders, and her medicine bag includes yoga, pranayama, meditation, qigong, herbalism, music, and somatic healing through a trauma-informed lens. She believes in the art of inner alchemy and facilitates these tools to assist others who are looking to go deep within their shadows to unlock the potent medicine of combining both their light and dark to unmask their true power and potential. Sitting in ceremony is her favorite way to connect with the Divine.

Celebrate the release of The Story of My Anger with Jasminne Mendez!

EVENT DEETS

When: Friday, September 19 @ 6:30PM

Where: 2310 Elgin St #2, Houston, TX 77004

How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming.

*Only copies of The Story of Anger purchased from Kindred Stories will be allowed inside the venue. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Yulieta Lopez is angry. Angry at her racist drama teacher who refuses to cast Black students in lead roles. Angry at the school board threatening her favorite teacher for teaching works of literature that they deem “controversial.” Angry that she has to keep quiet until she can head to college and leave Texas forever.

Yuli is accustomed to playing various roles: the diligent daughter, the honorable hija, the good girl who serves everyone else before serving herself. But as the fire of Yuli's rage spreads and lights her up, she can no longer be silent. Determined to find a way to fight back, Yuli and her friends start a guerilla theatre club which stirs things up and gets people talking, and finally, Yuli steps into the role she was always meant to play.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jasminne Mendez is Pura Belpré Honor Award recipient and a Dominican-American poet, playwright and author of several books for children and adults. 

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Celebrate the release of Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness with Ashanté M. Reese!

EVENT DEETS

When: Wednesday, April 22 @ 7PM

Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St Houston, TX 77004)

How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming. 

*Please note outside copies of the book will not be allowed in the bookstore and you will not be eligible for the signing/photo line. You must buy a book from Kindred Stories.

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ashanté M. Reese is a writer, anthropologist, and associate professor of African and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Born in Cooper Settlement, Texas, she lives in Austin and is involved in food justice movements nationwide.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Ivy Lawrence-Walls is a pioneering agriculturalist deeply ingrained in both community and culture, making significant strides in the farming sphere with an unwavering dedication to nurturing food-secure ecosystems. As a key figure in Houston, she spearheaded the establishment of a community farm in Sunnyside, one of the city's oldest predominantly Black neighborhoods. 

Leveraging her rich third-generation farming legacy and an entrepreneurial spirit, Ivy stands at the forefront of advocating for food accessibility and equity. Her impactful portfolio comprises Ivy Leaf Farms, Fresh Houwse Grocery, Kuji Kitchen restaurant, and Black Farmer Box. Her revolutionary efforts have placed her at the center of a movement to transform the agricultural landscape, especially in Black communities. 

Celebrate the release of Slices of Black American Life with MR.TOMONOSHi!!

EVENT DEETS

When: Wednesday, August 6 @ 7PM

Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St #2, Houston, TX 77004)

How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming

ABOUT THE BOOK

Slices of Black American Life is a raw, electrifying yet polished articulation of Black America—its past, present, and future woven through Blaxploitation-inspired poetry and storytelling with cinematic flair.

It possesses a jazz rhythm in tone, MR. TOMONOSHi!’s words tap dance across the page—each syllable hitting like a beat, each line swinging with improvised brilliance.

Each piece offers a window into the fantastical worlds of Black American life, where reality and imagination collide—the characters breathe, move, speak, inviting you in, pulling you close, immersing you deep into the roots of the Black American experience.

A whimsical realness pulsates throughout its entirety.

This collection is more than homage—it’s an ode to the brilliance of Blaxploitation, capturing its bold aesthetics, fearless spirit, and unfiltered truth. Every poem, every story, cuts deep, speaks loud, and refuses to be forgotten.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MR. TOMONOSHi is a prolific multidisciplinary creator whose work spans literature, animation, interactive media, fashion, photography, and music. Known for his sophisticated yet whimsical approach to storytelling and design, he transforms everyday moments into immersive, culturally rich experiences for audiences of all ages. With a background in design and a deep commitment to imaginative play, MR. TOMONOSHi builds vibrant worlds that resonate from classrooms to playgrounds to living rooms—and now, across screens.

His work blends narrative elegance with playful ingenuity, bringing cinematic voice to books, games, fashion, and experiences that blur the line between reality and imagination. 

Celebrate the release of Where The Wildflowers Grow with Terah Shelton Harris!

EVENT DEETS

When: Sunday, February 22 @ 5:30 PM

Where: Kindred Stories( 2310 Elgin St, Houston, TX 77004)

How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming

ABOUT THE BOOK

From acclaimed author Terah Shelton Harris comes a poignant story of survival and redemption that questions what it means to stop existing and start living.

Leigh is the last of the Wildes. She knows this because she watched them all die.

Grief never truly fades and even as the tragedy haunts her, Leigh carries on, because survival is in her blood. So, when the transport bus taking her to prison careens off the road, killing everyone onboard except her, she does what's in her nature. She survives. 

While searching for a place to hide, Leigh stumbles upon an unexpected sanctuary: a flower farm in rural Alabama tucked away from the world. What Leigh doesn't expect is the found family there who have built something from the wreckage of their own lives. Especially Jackson, the farm's owner, who sees through Leigh's defenses, offers her small moments of tenderness, encourages her to face her own tragedies. Slowly, Leigh finds peace with the hard pace and soft nature of the farm, taking comfort in the life blooming around her. Maybe she's not beyond redemption, not too broken for something good. And maybe, just maybe, Leigh starts to heal.

But the past isn't so easily buried.

No matter how far she runs, the truth of who she is and the ghosts of the Wildes follow. And when those secrets catch up to her, threatening everything she's come to love, Leigh will have to truly face what she can survive.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Terah Shelton Harris is an author and former librarian, who now writes upmarket fiction with bittersweet endings. She is the author of One Summer in Savannah and Long After We Are Gone. Her books have been chosen as a Target Book Club pick, LibraryReads pick, Kobo Best Book, Together We Read pick, Publisher’s Marketplace Buzz Book, and a Goodreads Choice Awards nominee for Best Debut. Terah was also named Target’s first Author of the Year. She lives in Alabama with her husband.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

*please note Ryan Dennis and Assata Richards will no longer be moderating. 

Celebrate the first monograph dedicated to Rick Lowe's art practice! 

EVENT DEETS

When: Wednesday, May 22 at 7PM

Where: The Eldorado Ballroom (2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004)

How: RSVP ONLY to save your seat. RSVP WITH BOOK to get a copy of Rick Lowe's book. Limited books will be available onsite.

ABOUT THE BOOK

 
Houston-based artist Rick Lowe is widely known for his pioneering contributions to the development of “social practice art,” work that landed him a MacArthur fellowship in 2014. What few people realize is that he was originally trained as a landscape painter. In recent years, Lowe has increasingly turned back to painting, producing complex multi-panel and quasi-abstract images that are deeply rooted in thirty years of work creating “social sculptures,” recalling the urban fabric of cities around the world that have formed the backdrop of many of his community-based art projects. This book, which brilliantly reproduces Lowe’s paintings, is the first dedicated to the work of this important American artist, focusing on his painterly practice and its origins in his work in the public sphere.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Rick Lowe was born in 1961 in rural Russell County, Alabama, and lives and works in Houston. 

Collections include the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS; Menil Collection, Houston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the UBS Art Collection. Solo exhibitions include Art League Houston (2020–21). He also participated in Documenta 14, Athens (2017). 

Among Lowe’s numerous community art projects are Project Row Houses, Houston (1993–2018); Watts House Project, Los Angeles (1996–2012); Borough Project (with Suzanne Lacy and Mary Jane Jacob), Charleston, SC (2003); Small Business/Big Change, Anyang Public Art Program, Korea (2010); Trans.lation, Dallas (2013); Victoria Square Project, Athens (2017–18); Greenwood Art Project, Tulsa, OK (2018–21); and Black Wall Street Journey, Chicago (2021–). 

In 2013 President Barack Obama appointed Lowe to the National Council on the Arts, and in 2014 he was named a Mac Arthur Fellow. Lowe was a Visiting Fellow at the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society from 2019-2021. He is currently a professor of interdisciplinary practice at the University of Houston.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNERS

Ryan N. Dennis is Senior Curator and Director of Public Initiatives at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH). Her recent projects include Leonardo Drew’s City in the Garden (2020), Betye Saar: Call & Response (2021), Dusti Bonge: Piercing the Inner Wall (2021), and organizing CAPE Artist-in-Resident Shani Peter’s Collective Care for Black Mothers and Caretakers with the local Jackson community. She is the co-curator of the critically acclaimed exhibition, A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration. Prior to joining the MMA, she served as the Cura­tor and Programs Director at Project Row Houses (PRH) in Houston, where she worked with over 100 BIPOC artists to exhibit their work in the shot-gun houses, she led the creation of the 2:2:2 Exchange Residency Program with the Hyde Park Art Center in Chi­cago and established Project/Site, a temporary, site-specific, commission-based public art program. In 2017, she launched the PRH Fellowship with the Center for Art and Social Engagement at the University of Houston’s Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts. Dennis earned her master’s degree in Arts and Cultural Management from Pratt Institute with a focus in Curatorial Practice. Her writings have appeared in online and print catalogs, journals and publications nationally and internationally. She has been a visiting lecturer and critic at a number of art schools and institutions and has taught courses on community-based practices and contemporary art at the University of Houston. Most recently she was the co-curator of the 2021 Texas Biennial titled A New Landscape, A Possible Horizon (2021) and the guest art editor for Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts.

Assata Richards is a native of Houston, Texas and received much of her education in East Texas in the community known as “County Line”. After completing her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Houston, she earned a Master’s and PhD from Pennsylvania State University in Sociology with a concentration on political and community participation, research methods and mass incarceration. After serving as a faculty member at University of Pittsburgh, Assata returned to her community of Third Ward in Houston, Texas, where she is living and working with Project Row Houses and serving as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Houston. As a scholar and community organizer, she is fulfilling her lifelong commitment to social change and justice. Assata also serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Commissioners for Houston Housing Authority, as a appointee of Mayor Annise Parker.

Let's celebrate author, Karen Good Marable and illustrator, Tonya Engel on their new book, Yaya and The Sea!

ABOUT THE BOOK

A family goes on a trip from the city to the sea in search of renewal in this “lively and lovely…beautiful” (Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award–winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming) picture book that’s an ode to sisterhood, nature, and being present.

On the first day of spring, when the city is quiet and still, little Yaya takes the A train down to New York City’s southern shores with her mama and aunties to greet Mama Ocean and celebrate the arrival of a new season through a ritual of letting go of the past and embracing the new.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Karen Good Marable is a writer raised in Prairie View, Texas. Her essays, music journalism, and stories have appeared in several books and publications including The New Yorker, Oxford American, The Bitter Southerner,Seventeen, and Essence. After a lifetime of living in Brooklyn, she and her family now reside in Atlanta.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR