Journey through the vibrant world of the African Diaspora with this captivating exploration of movement and culture. With each letter, uncover fascinating stories of legendary dancers, iconic styles, and the powerful cultural expressions that unite us all. Perfect for young readers, educators, and dance enthusiasts, this book is a joyful celebration of movement, history, and the enduring legacy of African diasporic traditions. Get ready to step, spin, and soar through the alphabet-one dance at a time!
Products
- IRL AUTHOR TALK:The World Before Racism with Lisa Farrington - March 28 @ 2PM
![IRL AUTHOR TALK:The World Before Racism with Lisa Farrington - March 28 @ 2PM]()
IRL AUTHOR TALK:The World Before Racism with Lisa Farrington - March 28 @ 2PM
Sold outCelebrate the release of The World Before Racism: An Art Story with Lisa Farrington! This special author talk is sponsored by Houston Museum of African American Culture.
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, March 28 @ 2PM
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 World Before Racism 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
he World Before Racism: An Art Story is a gripping history of anti-black racism, told through works of art as truth-sayers. Utilizing empirical evidence that is difficult, if not impossible to refute, (western art and literature from ancient Greece to the 21st century; and Darwin's original writings) this research conclusively answers the questions: Who invented racism? When? And why?The term racism is understood to mean that race is the principal determinant of specific human traits and capacities and that due to racial differences, one race is inherently superior to all others. Over time, racism has commonly referenced the notion that the White race is superior to all others, fostering prejudice and discrimination. In The Artist Book Foundation’s forthcoming publication, The World Before Racism: An Art Story, author and art historian Lisa Farrington meticulously examines the intersection of art, history, and race, using original works of art as primary source materials to support her premise that racism is a construct, invented in the mid-1700s, to support the financial, political, and religious structures of European colonialism.
Using art from ancient Egypt, classical Greece, and the Roman Empire, through Medieval Europe and the colonization of the New World, to the art of the present day—sources that cannot be easily altered, edited, or selectively trans¬lated—Farrington expertly examines the intricate interplay between the Black and White races, how they saw and understood each other over the centuries. The artworks serve as powerful voices, precisely conveying the artist’s intended messages. The goal of The World Before Racism is to present irrefutable evi¬dence that the ideology of racism is unfounded, unsupported, unjustified, and destined to fade away like so many other archaic and erroneous ideas.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lisa Farrington is an award-winning author and art historian. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita, City University of New York, past Associate Dean of Fine Arts, Howard University, and past Associate Professor of Art History, Parsons School of Design, New York and Paris. Her books include "Creating Their Own Image: The History of African American Women Artists," "African American Art: A Visual and Cultural History," both for Oxford University Press (2006 and 2016), "The World Before Racism: An Art Story" (Artist Book Foundation 2026), "Black Artists in Their Own Words" (University of California Press 2025), among many others, as well as dozens of scholarly articles. She has appeared in numerous documentary films in the U.S., the U.K., and France, and is featured on television and radio. Currently, Dr. Farrington offers riveting lectures in the U.S. and abroad.
- IRL Author Workshop: Believe-in-You Money with Jessica Norwood - November 15 @ 7PM
![IRL Author Workshop: Believe-in-You Money with Jessica Norwood - November 15 @ 7PM]()
IRL Author Workshop: Believe-in-You Money with Jessica Norwood - November 15 @ 7PM
from $0.00We're taking a deep dive into money with Jessica Norwood, author of Believe-in-You Money: What would It Look Like if the Economy Loved Black People?
EVENT DEETS
When: Wednesday, November 15 at 7PM
Where: Project Row Houses Community Gallery (2521 Holman Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP today to attend this free workshop! Support the author and the book by RSVPing with Book.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Offering a revolution in Black business financing, this book centers the entrepreneur and responds to the systemic failures surrounding Black wealth building.
There is a huge racial wealth gap in America today. Owning a business is one of the best ways to build wealth—but entrepreneurs need capital. And investing in Black companies is obstructed by systemic racism and implicit biases that continue to create barriers to success.
Merging historical information and data, along with tactical examples and explanations, this practical guide shows us what needs to be done in order to change the way we support Black companies and how we think about wealth.
Norwood calls for investors to move away from extractive, individualistic, exploitative approaches to capital and entrepreneurship. She asks us to move toward transformational, restorative, regenerative, and interdependent relationships to repair the impacts of systemic racism. Investors, large and small, need to say to Black business owners, “we believe in you.”
With an entrepreneur-centric approach, Believe-In-You Money challenges the system failure surrounding Black companies. It’s a guide on how Black entrepreneurs can be supported in sustainable ways and offers a shift in the way we think about who can be an investor, while aiming to change our personal relationships with money.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jessica Norwood is the founder of RUNWAY, a social enterprise that provides startup capital to Black founders. Her innovative work has been profiled on NPR and Bloomberg Television and in Essence magazine, Next City, Fast Company, and Conscious Company, and she has participated in fellowships at Harvard University, Duke University, and Southern University College of Business for emerging leaders. Learn more about Jessica’s leadership and work at www.jessicanorwood.com.
- IRL AUTHOR: Resting Bitch Face with Taylor Byas - September 4 @ 7 PM
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IRL AUTHOR: Resting Bitch Face with Taylor Byas - September 4 @ 7 PM
Sold outCelebrate Taylor Byas' new poetry collection, Resting Bitch Face!
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, September 4 @ 7 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin Street, Houston, Texas, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and the bookstore!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Resting Bitch Face is a book for women, for Black women, for lovers of art and film criticism, and for writers interested in work that finds a middle ground between poetry and prose. Taylor Byas uses some of our most common ways of “watching” throughout history (painting, films, sculpture, and photographs) to explore how these mediums shape Black female subjectivity.
From the examination of artwork by Picasso, Gauguin, Sally Mann, and Nan Goldin, Byas displays her mastery of the poetic form by engaging in intimate and inventive writing. Fluctuating between watcher and watched, the speaker of these poems uses mirrors and reflections to flip the script and talk back to histories of art, text, photography, relationships, and men. From Polaroids to gesso primer to sculpture, Byas creates a world in which the artist calls out and the muse responds. For not only does she enter the world of the long-revered classic artist, but she also infuses her poems with such iconic pop culture works as The Joker, WandaVision, and Last Tango in Paris.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TAYLOR BYAS is an award-winning poet and a Black Chicago native currently living in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her poetry collection I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times won the Maya Angelou Book Award, the Ohioana Book Award, the CHIRBy Award, and the BCALA Best Poetry Honor.
- IRL BOOK SIGNING: Burden of Love with Mya - April 12 @ 2 PM CST
![IRL BOOK SIGNING: Burden of Love with Mya - April 12 @ 2 PM CST]()
IRL BOOK SIGNING: Burden of Love with Mya - April 12 @ 2 PM CST
from $0.00Celebrate independent author, Mya's first traditionally published novel, Burden of Love!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, April 12 @ 2PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP WITH BOOK to secure your copy of Burden of Love or RSVP ONLY to buy your book at the event.
This is a book signing only so there will be no chairs, etc. You will be able to meet and chat with the author as well as purchase a book to get signed. Outside copies of Burden of Love will not be allowed in the venue.
ABOUT THE BOOK
She fights for justice; he bends the rules. Together, they break all of them in this scandalously sexy legal drama.
Soon after passing the bar exam, Talia Tate is tasked to assist her father, the head of Tate & Associates, with the controversial State v. Duncan trial. Talia is determined to prove to her father, the firm, and herself that she is a brilliant lawyer worthy of respect. Her stress hits a fever pitch when she realizes she’ll have an unexpected face-off on her first case.
Detective Maddox Reed doesn’t mind cutting corners when closing a case. Since his days in patrol, the locals knew to steer clear of “Speedy Reed-y.” When Donovan Duncan was brought into his squad room, he was ready to send him to prison without an interrogation. He thought the case was cut-and-dried . . . until Talia comes to his office with fingers pointed, ready to get Donovan the justice he deserves.
Representing opposite sides of the law, Talia and Maddox find themselves fighting two battles: justice and lust. How could they fall in love under circumstances so polarizing that the whole world can feel the tension? While both of them are in a race to come out on top, surprising feelings make it difficult to separate business from pleasure. Will these two souls find solace with each other? Or will the burden of love be too hard to bear?ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mya is a twenty-three-year-old, boy-mom and author from Houston, Texas. Since she was a little girl, she was drawn to books. From children’s books to young adult, her love blossomed. Mya's introduction to the literary world came at the young age of sixteen when she published her first book "His Little Secret". Starting with fan fiction and transitioning to African American romance, Mya now has a growing catalog of over 20 books which includes erotic romance and women's fiction novels. Mya’s love for black love has motivated her to create stories that reinforce the idea that regular people deserve extraordinary romantic tales. Through her books, she wants to leave readers with a discussion-provoking dialogue about the Black experience.
- IRL Book Signing: Out of Body with Nia Davenport - February 10 @ 2PM CST
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IRL Book Signing: Out of Body with Nia Davenport - February 10 @ 2PM CST
Sold outCelebrate Nia Davenport's young adult debut, Out of Body!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, February 10 @ 2 PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: Only book purchased from Kindred Stories will be eligible for signing line.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A high-stakes, propulsive young adult thriller with a body-swap twist thoughtfully explores themes of friendship and identity, perfect for fans of Tiffany D. Jackson.
Seventeen-year-old Megan Allen has been jumping from friend group to friend group in her high school, trying on identities like outfits. Nothing ever seems to fit—until she meets LC, the adventurous, charismatic girl who appears at her favorite coffee shop one day like magic. Finally, Megan feels like she’s becoming the person she’s meant to be: someone like LC.
On the night of their friendiversary, what was supposed to be a bonding experience ends in a waking nightmare. Suddenly, Megan is no longer herself. Too late, she realizes that LC has secrets—dangerous ones. Betrayed by her best friend, thrust into another girl’s life, and targeted by LC’s enemies, she must claim what makes Megan Megan to get her life back . . . or die trying.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NIA DAVENPORT is the author of the sci-fi fantasy Blood Gift duology. A lover of both science and literature, Nia has taught English and biology to a diverse public school population in Texas. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and now lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and kids. Find out more at nedavenport.com
- IRL Book Signing: Rest is Resisistance with Tricia Hersey - March 9 @ 6:00 PM
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IRL Book Signing: Rest is Resisistance with Tricia Hersey - March 9 @ 6:00 PM
Sold outCome have a cocktail and mocktail with Tricia Hersey, Founder of The Nap Ministry and author of Rest is Resistance!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, March 9 @ 6PM - 7:30 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP to help us prepare for your arrival or RSVP WITH BOOK to purchase your copy of Rest is Resistance.
ABOUT THE BOOK
What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too many of us have claimed productivity as the cornerstone of success. Brainwashed by capitalism, we subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine‑level pace –– feeding into the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit.
In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted. Our worth does not reside in how much we produce, especially not for a system that exploits and dehumanizes us. Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it asserts our most basic humanity. We are enough. The systems cannot have us.
Rest Is Resistance is rooted in spiritual energy and centered in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism. With captivating storytelling and practical advice, all delivered in Hersey’s lyrical voice and informed by her deep experience in theology, activism, and performance art, Rest Is Resistance is a call to action, a battle cry, a field guide, and a manifesto for all of us who are sleep deprived, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of Grind Culture.ABOUT THE DECK
From Tricia Hersey, the celebrated founder of the Nap Ministry and author of the New York Times bestseller Rest Is Resistance, this deck of 50 powerful rest practices helps you embrace rest as a form of radical communal care and personal liberation.
"This is about more than naps. Rest is anything that allows you to connect your body with your mind."
The Nap Ministry's Rest Deck is a rousing call to reclaim rest in everyday life. Delivered in a stunning package with gold accents and gorgeous artwork throughout, the deck combines restorative meditations with prescient wisdom from celebrated activist and teaching artist Tricia Hersey, a.k.a. "the Nap Bishop," and founder of the Nap Ministry.
Readers will discover 50 inspiring cards, each with an empowering affirmation and a simple practice to encourage rest, care, and imagination. Rooted in social justice and imbued with spirituality, these cards offer short, accessible practices designed to uplift anyone suffering from the toxic effects of grind culture.
CELEBRATED AUTHOR: Tricia Hersey, a.k.a. "the Nap Bishop," is the founder of the Nap Ministry and the bestselling author of Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto. Her work as a social justice activist, artist, and thought leader has been featured by the New York Times, NPR, The Cut, and the Atlantic, among many others. In this deck, she distills her profound and celebrated teachings into 50 accessible practices.
TOOL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE: Brimming with practices to empower personal liberation as a step toward building a healthier, more just world, this deck offers readers a new way to engage with social justice and invites a wide audience to embrace the power of rest as an essential balm for our collective exhaustion.
BEAUTIFUL TO GIFT AND DISPLAY: This bold, eye-catching package with colorful illustrations and gold accents is a beautiful and meaningful gift for friends, activists, and anyone feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by the demands of grind culture.
- A powerful new tool for social justice activists
- Great gift or self-purchase for socially engaged millennials and Gen-Zers
- For anyone seeking mindful affirmation cards to aid their healing practice
- Perfect for fans of the Nap Ministry, Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto, Layla Saad, Adrienne Maree Brown, Chani Nicholas, and Alex Elle
- For readers of Me and White Supremacy, I’m Still Here, and How to Do Nothing
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tricia Hersey is an artist, poet, theologian and community organizer. She is the founder of The Nap Ministry, an organization that examines rest as a form of resistance by curating sacred spaces for the community to rest via Collective Napping Experiences, immersive workshops, performance art installations, and social media. Tricia is a global pioneer and originator of the movement to understand the liberatory power of rest. She is the creator of the Rest is Resistance and Rest as Reparations frameworks. Her research interests include Black liberation theology, womanism, somatics, and cultural trauma. Tricia is a Chicago native and currently lives in South Georgia
- IRL Collage Bookmark Workshop with Tay Butler - November 17 at 6:30 PM
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IRL Collage Bookmark Workshop with Tay Butler - November 17 at 6:30 PM
Sold outWe've teamed up with one of our favorite artist/artist-teachers to bring you this special DIY collage bookmark workshop!
EVENT DEETS
When: Friday, November 17 at 6:30 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: Grab your $30 ticket now! Space is Limited. Tickets are non-refundable.
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
We all love a good bookmark but sometimes the market just doesn't do what it's supposed to do. This is the first in a series of bookmark workshops. We'll be using collages as our medium. Get ready to do a little cut and paste between sips. All supplies necessary will be provided. If you want to bring extra magazines, feel free!
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Tay Butler is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Houston, Texas. He received his BFA in Photography and Digital Media from the University of Houston and recently completed his MFA in the University of Arkansas’ Photography program. After retiring from the US Army and abandoning a middle-class engineering career to search for purpose, Butler reignited a rich appreciation for Black history and a deep obsession with the Black archive. Using past and present images to create a historically-layered body of work, Tay reorients cultural material from the ever-growing Black experience.
Butler works with photography, collage, video, and sound exhibitions and installations. His solo exhibitions and installations include RE.Migrant I & II at Project Row Houses, Houston and We Are Still Searching at the Louise J. Moran Fine Arts Courtyard, Houston. Group exhibitions of his work have been featured at ArtPace, San Antonio, the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, and the Texas Biennial at Fotofest. Performance exhibitions include The Triangle, for The Idea Fund and CAMH, and Jefferson Pinder’s Fire and Movement for DiverseWorks, Houston. Butler’s awards include the Individual Artist Fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council, and First Prize in the 2019 Citywide African-American Artists Exhibition at Texas Southern University, Houston. He has collaborated with the Houston Rockets, Coca-Cola, and many others. Butler currently teaches Art & Design for San Jacinto College, Houston and has led both private and community workshops for The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative, Virginia and Crystal Bridges Museum, Arkansas.
Web: www.stayclosetay.com
IG: @stayclosetay - IRL EVENT: "The Writer's Table" - Writing Workshop #2 - March 19 - 6PM
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IRL EVENT: "The Writer's Table" - Writing Workshop #2 - March 19 - 6PM
Sold outJoin us for a community-centered writing workshop that blends craft, creativity, and conversation. Led by Dr. La-Toya Scott, professor and founder of In House Scholar, this series brings the structure and depth of a college-level writing class into an accessible and supportive public space. Each session includes a short craft lecture, guided discussion of a sample text, dedicated writing time, and space to share work with fellow writers. Whether you’re new to writing or returning to the page, The Writer’s Table offers tools, prompts, and encouragement to help you develop your voice, sharpen your craft, and write with intention.
Workshop 2: “The Power of Detail: Showing vs. Telling”
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, March 19 @ 6 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St, Houston, TX 77004)
How: RSVP reserve your spot
- IRL EVENT: "The Writer's Table" - Writing Workshop - January 28 - 6PM
![IRL EVENT:]()
IRL EVENT: "The Writer's Table" - Writing Workshop - January 28 - 6PM
Sold outJoin us for a community-centered writing workshop that blends craft, creativity, and conversation. Led by Dr. La-Toya Scott, professor and founder of In House Scholar, this series brings the structure and depth of a college-level writing class into an accessible and supportive public space. Each session includes a short craft lecture, guided discussion of a sample text, dedicated writing time, and space to share work with fellow writers. Whether you’re new to writing or returning to the page, The Writer’s Table offers tools, prompts, and encouragement to help you develop your voice, sharpen your craft, and write with intention.
Workshop 1: “Intro to Writing: Who Am I as a Writer?”
EVENT DEETS
When: Wednesday, January 28 @ 6 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St, Houston, TX 77004)
How: RSVP reserve your spot
- IRL EVENT: Community Puzzle Night - November 14 at 6PM
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IRL EVENT: Community Puzzle Night - November 14 at 6PM
Sold outWe're using puzzle making as an excuse to be
in community with you all!!!
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, November 14 at 6PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: $5 to reserve your spot and libations.
ABOUT THE EVENT
Join us as we attempt to complete PLANT WORLD 1,000 Piece Puzzle, illustrated by Hye Jin Chung. She puts her fantastical spin on botanica with a larger than life celebration of plants.
We'll provide the puzzles, trays, and drinks. We encourage bringing your favorite snacks or anything to make you feel cozy and comfortable!
Note: This event is intended for adults!
- IRL EVENT: Community Puzzle Night - November 20 at 6:30PM
![IRL EVENT: Community Puzzle Night - November 20 at 6:30PM]()
IRL EVENT: Community Puzzle Night - November 20 at 6:30PM
Sold outWe're using puzzle making as an excuse to be
in community with you all!!!
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, November 20 at 6:30PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004)
How: $5 to reserve your spot and libations.
ABOUT THE EVENT
Join us as we explore puzzles that celebrate fall energy and community spirit!
We'll provide the puzzles, trays, and drinks. We encourage bringing your favorite snacks or anything to make you feel cozy and comfortable!
Note: This event is intended for adults!
- IRL EVENT: Framing Fatherhood- Celebration and Book Signing - November 23 at 1PM
![IRL EVENT: Framing Fatherhood- Celebration and Book Signing - November 23 at 1PM]()
IRL EVENT: Framing Fatherhood- Celebration and Book Signing - November 23 at 1PM
Sold outCelebrate the photography collection Framing Fatherhood!
EVENT DEETS
When: Sunday, November 23 at 1PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004)
RSVP to reserve your spot or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve a copy of Framing Fatherhood.
ABOUT THE EVENT
Join us as we celebrate fatherhood through photography and community. Enjoy libations and light bites while viewing artwork from the book. The event will include a book signing and gallery walk.
- IRL EVENT: Gather Together Community Puzzle Time - December 8 at 6PM
![IRL EVENT: Gather Together Community Puzzle Time - December 8 at 6PM]()
IRL EVENT: Gather Together Community Puzzle Time - December 8 at 6PM
Sold outWe're using puzzling as an excuse to be in community with you all!!!
EVENT DEETS
When: Friday, December 8 at 6PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP to reserve your spot!
ABOUT THE EVENT
Join us as we attempt to complete The Gather Together 500 Piece Puzzle from Galison. Maja Tomljanovic’s Gather Together is a joyful, Mediterranean influenced vignette of friends and family gathering together at the table.
We'll provide the puzzles and trays. We encourage bringing your favorite snacks, beverages or anything to make you feel cozy and comfortable!
Note: This event is intended for adults!
- IRL EVENT: Juneteenth Reading Party - April 24 at 6PM
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IRL EVENT: Juneteenth Reading Party - April 24 at 6PM
Sold outLet's kick off the 160th anniversary of Juneteenth with our first Reading Party!EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, April 24 at 6 PM
Where: Off The Record (416 Main Street, Houston, TX 77002)
How: RSVP to reserve your spot.
ABOUT THE EVENT
Sponsored by the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum.
Enjoy Juneteenth-inspired cocktails, lite bites from ChòpnBlọk, florals by Design + Revive, and a special listening session of selected tracks from Robert Hodge's Two & 1/2 Years album released on June 19, 2016.
Free entry and open bar! Mark your calendars, RSVP, and bring your favorite book.
- IRL EVENT: Oathbound Midnight Release Party - March 3 @ 10 PM CST
![IRL EVENT: Oathbound Midnight Release Party - March 3 @ 10 PM CST]()
IRL EVENT: Oathbound Midnight Release Party - March 3 @ 10 PM CST
Sold outYa'll asked, and we're delivering!!!
EVENT DEETS
When: Monday, March 3 @ 10 PM - 12 AM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: Get your tickets now! Each ticket includes a copy of Oathbound. There will be limited tickets available!
ABOUT THE EVENT
Oathbound is finally here! And we're celebrating all thing Bree and Tracy Deonn! Be prepared to get cozy, grab some custom snacks and drinks! We'll also be doing some trivia and giving away some goodies.
- IRL LAUNCH PARTY: Blaque Pearle with Tarris Marie - October 7 @ 7PM
![IRL LAUNCH PARTY: Blaque Pearle with Tarris Marie - October 7 @ 7PM]()
IRL LAUNCH PARTY: Blaque Pearle with Tarris Marie - October 7 @ 7PM
from $0.00We're celebrating author, Tarris Marie and her debut book, Blaque Pearle!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, October 7 at 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2034 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: Be sure to RSVP ONLY to attend or RSVP with Book to support the Tarris and our bookstore! We're encouraging everyone to bring their own style to an all Black attire. We're also encouraging Black masquerade masks and pearls. When you finish the book, you'll know why!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Tarris Marie’s debut novel intertwines crime, romance, and the ‘90s era. A refreshing new voice for urban romance lovers and women’s crime thriller connoisseurs.
Tarris Marie is proudly a Midwestern girl of the '90s, born and raised in Gary, IN. After 15 years in corporate America, Tarris lost her central vision and eventually her six-figure career in a battle with Stargardt's—a genetic eye disease that caused her legal blindness. In addition to being a novelist, Tarris is a screenwriter and actress who uses slivers of her life experienced pie to create vivid characters and roller coaster journeys to inspire and entertain others.
Before her Hollywood dreams were shattered, Pearle Monalise Brown was the tenacious aspiring actress from Compton's unforgiving, scarred streets. Never broken, Pearle switches gears to a fallback plan—resorting to her beauty and acting skills to swindle money and expensive jewels. When she's hired by the Colombian cartel to steal a priceless Basquiat from the debonair kingpin and art collector, Blaque, her talents might not be enough to keep her from falling into a trap she never saw coming.
Blaque is sagacious and handsome—not to mention the legacy of two powerful organized crime families: the Laurent’s—known dons hailing from Kingston, Jamaica, and the Savage’s—a sophisticated syndicate with criminal enterprises across the U.S. As Blaque and Pearle become passionately entangled, Pearle falls prey to a darker underworld. Time is ticking. Lives are at stake. Will these love outlaws be able to outsmart their enemies, or will they wage an all-out war, leaving the bodies to fall wherever they may?
“Both inspirational and a delight to watch, Tarris Marie is proof that limits and barriers exist only in our minds.” —N’TYSE, national bestselling author and film producer of Trap Soldiers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tarris received a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and business administration from Indiana University, where she also became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She currently resides with her two children and husband in the great city of spaceships (Houston, TX.). Blaque Pearle is the author's debut novel. Connect with Tarris Marie online by following @authortarrismarie - IRL LAUNCH PARTY: Family Meal with Bryan Washington - October 16 @ 7: 30 PM CST
![IRL LAUNCH PARTY: Family Meal with Bryan Washington - October 16 @ 7: 30 PM CST]()
IRL LAUNCH PARTY: Family Meal with Bryan Washington - October 16 @ 7: 30 PM CST
from $0.00Join us in celebrating one of Houston's most beloved author, Bryan Washington's forthcoming book, Family Meal.
EVENT DEETS
When: Monday, October 16, 2023 at 7:30 PM
Where: Hogan Brown Gallery in The Eldorado Ballroom at Project Row Houses
How: RSVP ONLY to make sure you get in the door. RSVP WITH BOOK to ensure you leave with a signed copy of Family Meal. You must purchase Family Meal in order to enter the signing line.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Cam is living in Los Angeles and falling apart after the love of his life has died. Kai's ghost won't leave Cam alone; his spectral visits wild, tender, and unexpected. When Cam returns to his hometown of Houston, he crashes back into the orbit of his former best friend, TJ, and TJ's family bakery. TJ's not sure how to navigate this changed Cam, impenetrably cool and self-destructing, or their charged estrangement. Can they find a way past all that has been said - and left unsaid - to save each other? Could they find a way back to being okay again, or maybe for the first time?
When secrets and wounds become so insurmountable that they devour us from within, hope and sustenance and friendship can come from the most unlikely source. Spanning Los Angeles, Houston, and Osaka, Family Meal is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love. With his signature generosity and eye for food, sex, love, and the moments that make us the most human, Bryan Washington returns with a brilliant new novel.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bryan Washington is the author of the story collection Lot and the novel Memorial. He is also the winner of a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award, a New York Public Library Young Lions Award, an Ernest J. Gaines Award, an International Dylan Thomas Prize, a Lambda Literary Award, and was a finalist for the James Tait Black Prize, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, a PEN/Robert W. Bingham prize finalist, a National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize finalist, and the recipient of an O. Henry Award. He is a columnist for the New York Times Magazine and his fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and The Best American Short Stories. He divides his time between Houston and Osaka.
- IRL Poetry Reading with Ariana Brown & Aris Kian-July 29 at 7PM
![IRL Poetry Reading with Ariana Brown & Aris Kian-July 29 at 7PM]()
IRL Poetry Reading with Ariana Brown & Aris Kian-July 29 at 7PM
Sold outWe're celebrating the anniversary of We Are Owed. with Ariana Brown!
EVENT DEETS
When: July 29, 2023
Where: Project Row House Community Gallery
How: RSVP for a free ticket or support the our programming and the author by RSVP WITH BOOK to grab a copy of We Are Owed.
ABOUT THE BOOKWe Are Owed. is the debut poetry collection of Ariana Brown, exploring Black relationality in Mexican and Mexican American spaces. Through poems about the author’s childhood in Texas and a trip to Mexico as an adult, Brown interrogates the accepted origin stories of Mexican identity. We Are Owed. asks the reader to develop a Black consciousness by rejecting U.S., Chicano, and Mexican nationalism and confronting anti-Black erasure and empire-building. As Brown searches for other Black kin in the same spaces through which she moves, her experiences of Blackness are placed in conversation with the histories of formerly enslaved Africans in Texas and Mexico.
ABOUT THE AUTHORAriana Brown is a queer Black Mexican American poet from San Antonio, TX, currently based in Houston. She is the author of We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020). Ariana’s work investigates queer Black personhood in Mexican American spaces, Black relationality and girlhood, loneliness, and care. She holds a B.A. in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies, an M.F.A. in Poetry, and an M.S. in Library Science. Ariana is a 2014 national collegiate poetry slam champion and owes much of her practice to Black performance communities led by Black women poets from the South. She has been writing, performing, and teaching poetry for over ten years. Follow Ariana online @ArianaThePoet.ABOUT CONVERSATION PARTNER/ CO-READER
Aris Kian is a Houston enthusiast and student of abolitionists. Her poems are published with Button Poetry, West Branch, Obsidian Lit, The West Review and elsewhere. She ranks #2 in the 2023 Womxn of the World Poetry Slam and is the 2023-2025 Houston Poet Laureate. She received her MFA from the University of Houston as an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow and currently serves as the Narrative Change & Media Manager at Houston in Action. - IRL Poetry Reading: Ankle - Deep in Pacific Water with E. Hughes - December 5 @ 7PM
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IRL Poetry Reading: Ankle - Deep in Pacific Water with E. Hughes - December 5 @ 7PM
from $0.00Celebrate E. Hughes' debut poetry collection, Ankle - Deep in Pacific Water!
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, December 5 @ 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, Houston, Texas, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our programming.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Ankle-Deep in Pacific Water, a debut collection by E. Hughes, marries personal narrative with historical excavation to articulate the intricacies of Black familial love, life, and pain. Tracing the experiences of a southern Black family, their migration to the San Francisco Bay area, and the persistent anti-Blackness there (despite the state’s insistence that it is/was not involved in the US’ projects of imperialism or chattel slavery), Hughes illuminates the intersections of history, grief, and violence.
At the book’s heart is “The Accounts of Mammy Pleasant,” a persona poem written from the perspective of the formerly enslaved abolitionist and financier Mary Ellen Pleasant who is thought to have helped fund John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. Alongside this historical account, Hughes deftly weaves in the story of a contemporary Black family navigating the generational trauma resulting from the Great Migration: domestic violence and racialized violence, familial love and loyalty, the work of parenting, and the work of being a child. Ankle-Deep in Pacific Water reveals in its pages that, while many things have changed over time, ultimately the question of what “freedom” meant and looked like for Black people in the early 20th century retains the same murkiness and contradictions for Black people today.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
E. Hughes’ poems have been published or are forthcoming in The Rumpus, Guernica, Poet Lore, Indiana Review, and Gulf Coast Magazine—among others. They are a Cave Canem fellow and have been a finalist for the 2021 Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize, longlisted for the 2021 Granum Fellowship Prize, and a semifinalist of the 2022 and 2023 92Y Discovery Contest. In 2021, they received their MFA+MA from the Litowitz Creative Writing Program at Northwestern University. Currently, Hughes is a PhD student in Philosophy at Emory University studying black aesthetics, psychoanalysis, and poststructuralism
- IRL Poetry Reading: No Sweet Without Brine with Cynthia Manick and Kendra Allen-May 11 at 7PM CST
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IRL Poetry Reading: No Sweet Without Brine with Cynthia Manick and Kendra Allen-May 11 at 7PM CST
Sold outJoin us for a live poetry reading with Cynthia Manick and Kendra Allen!EVENT DEETSWhen: May 11 at 7PM CSTWhere: Kindred Stories Reading GardenHow: Select RSVP ONLY to reserve your spot for this free reading or RSVP with book to support our store programming and the author.ABOUT THE BOOKNo Sweet Without Brine is both a soulful and celebratory collection that summons sticky sweet memories with an acrid aftertaste of deep thought. Satisfying moments are captured in odes to Idris Elba’s dulcet tones on a meditation app and the satisfaction of half-priced Entenmann’s poundcake; in childlike observations of parental Black love, the coveted female form on Jet Magazine covers, and the desire for Zamunda to be a real place full of Black joy. The sour taps into an analysis of reclusiveness, silencing catcalls from men on the street, and detailed recipes and advice to the Black girls forced to endow themselves with armor against the world.
Cynthia Manick’s latest is a playlist of everyday life, introverted thoughts, familial bonds, and social commentary. In piercing language, she traces the circle of life for a narrator who dares to exist between youthful remembrances and adulthood realities. Each poem in No Sweet Without Brine is a reminder that a hint of sorrow makes the celebration and recognition of the glory of Blackness in all ways, and through all people, that much sweeter.
ABOUT POETCynthia Manick is the winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry, editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry, and author of Blue Hallelujahs. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell Colony, and Château de la Napoule among other foundations. Manick is the creator of the Soul Sister Revue reading series and her poem “Things I Carry into the World” was made into a film by Motionpoems and debuted on Tidal for National Poetry Month. A storyteller and performer at literary festivals, libraries, universities, and most recently the Brooklyn and Frye museums, Manick and her work has been featured in the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, Callaloo, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, and other outlets. She currently serves on the board of the International Women’s Writing Guild and the editorial board of Alice James Books. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.ABOUT THE READING PARTNERKendra Allen was born and raised in Dallas, Tx. She loves laughing, leaving, and writing. Some of her other work can be found in, or on, The Paris Review, High Times, The Rumpus, and more. She's the author of poetry collection The Collection Plate and essay collection When You Learn the Alphabet, which won the 2018 Iowa Prize for Literary Nonfiction. Fruit Punch, her memoir, is out now.
- IRL POETRY READING: Praisesong For The People with Amanda Johnston & Friends - January 19 @ 6PM
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IRL POETRY READING: Praisesong For The People with Amanda Johnston & Friends - January 19 @ 6PM
Sold outCelebrate the release of Praisesong for the People with Amanda Johnston! This event will feature poetry readings from several of the poets included in the book.
EVENT DEETS
When: Monday, January 19 @ 6PM
Where: Kindred Stories ( 2310 Elgin Street, 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
“We turn to poetry in our greatest moments of joy and sorrow to help us tune in to our emotions and connect with others,” writes Johnston. In Praisesong for the People, poetry brings us together to celebrate the people across the state who make this land feel like home.
Edited by Amanda Johnston, the 61st Texas Poet Laureate and first Black woman to receive this honor, this vibrant anthology collects the work of 70 emerging and established poets across the state. Commissioned to write original poems celebrating everyday people, the poets in Praisesong for the People: Poems from the Heart and Soul of Texas are as diverse as the landscapes they inhabit, and reflect the intersecting identities of Texas’s population across age, gender, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disability, and immigrant communities. In these poems, their voices gather in a heartfelt chorus to praise the people in their communities who offer small kindnesses, asking nothing in return.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Amanda Johnston is a writer, visual artist, the 61st Texas Poet Laureate, and founder of Torch Literary Arts. Johnston is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key, and the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter (Argus House Press, 2017). Her work has appeared in numerous online and print publications, including Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry (Northwestern University Press, 2019), edited by Lauren K. Alleyne. She is a former board president of the Cave Canem Foundation and the founder and executive director of Torch Literary Arts. In 2024, Johnston was appointed the poet laureate of Texas. In the same year, she received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship.
- IRL Poetry Reading: Tender Headed with Olatunde Osinaike - March 2 @6PM
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IRL Poetry Reading: Tender Headed with Olatunde Osinaike - March 2 @6PM
Sold outJoin us for a poetry reading with Olatunde & friends, Ayokunle Falomo and Joshua Burton!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, March 2 @ 6PM
Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP Only to reserve seats or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your copy of the book and our programming. No refunds.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The irony of transformation often is that we mistake it to have occurred long before it does. Tender Headed takes its time in asserting the realization that growth remains ever ahead of you. Examining the themes of Black identity, accountability, and narration, we encounter a series of revealing snapshots into the role language plays in chiseling possibility and its rigid command of depiction. Olatunde Osinaike's startling debut sorts through the many-minded masks behind Black masculinity. At its center lies an inquiry about the puzzling nature of relationships, how ceaseless wonder can be in its challenge of a truth. In the name of music and self-identity, the speaker weaves their way through fault and how it amends Black life in America.
This is demonstrated best in how the demanding, yet vulnerable tone for the collection is set in "Men Like Me," its restless opening poem. Here, we find the speaker reciting a chronicle of generational neglect from men that became him also. Earnest and sharp, there is a beauty in seeing a poet not shy away from both the melancholy and resolve of rescripting their path while cherishing their steps and missteps along the way. This collection is a panel aching of fathers, sons, uncles, grandfathers, all of whom would do well to join in and confront shared privileges that are typically curtailed or altogether avoided in conversation. Tender Headed entrusts the heart to be a compass, insisting on a journey unto itself and a melodic detour toward tenderness precise with its own footing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Originally from the West Side of Chicago, Olatunde Osinaike is a Nigerian-American poet, essayist, and software developer. He is the author of Tender Headed (Akashic Books, 2023), selected by Camille Rankine as winner of the 2022 National Poetry Series. Tender Headed has received recognition by several outlets including EBONY, The Grio, The Millions, Publishers Weekly, The Root, Chicago Review of Books, and elsewhere. His work has received fellowships and support from Poets & Writers, Hurston/Wright Foundation, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, and the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University.
- IRL SIGNING AND Q & A: Beverly Jenkins and Brenda Jackson - October 25 @ 7PM
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IRL SIGNING AND Q & A: Beverly Jenkins and Brenda Jackson - October 25 @ 7PM
Sold outJoin us at Kindred Stories to celebrate two legendary authors: Beverly Jenkins and Brenda Jackson!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, October 25 @ 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St, #2, Houston, TX 77004)
How: RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming
*Attendees are required to purchase at least one recent release by one of the attending authors.
ABOUT THE BOOKS
Calling All Blessings
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.
Spilling the Tea
After sustaining injuries in Iraq, Chancellor Madaris was told he’d never walk again. Chance credits his great-grandmother Mama Laverne with giving him the will to heal and prove the doctors wrong. He has a healthy respect for her meddling ways and knows he’ll eventually end up next on her matchmaking list.
When Zoey Pritchard was eight, she survived a car accident that took the lives of her mother and father, and was sent to live with her great-aunt who refused to speak about her parents. Zoey has no memory from before the crash, but she’s been having the same dream over and over…
Searching for answers, Zoey travels to Houston, where she uncovers a scandal involving her parents and the wealthy and powerful Madaris family. Her trail leads her straight to Chance’s door. The dislike and intense attraction are instant and simultaneous. But to help Zoey restore her memory, he grudgingly introduces her to his great-grandmother…
Was it chance, or Mama Laverne’s plan, that threw this pair together?ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Beverly Jenkins is the recipient of the 2018 Michigan Author Award by the Michigan Library Association, the 2017 Romance Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the 2016 Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for historical romance. She has been nominated for the NAACP Image Award in Literature and was featured in both the documentary Love Between the Covers and on CBS Sunday Morning. Since the publication of Night Song in 1994, she has been leading the charge for inclusive romance and has been a constant darling of reviewers, fans, and her peers alike, garnering accolades for her work from the likes of The Wall Street Journal, People magazine, and NPR.
Brenda Jackson is a New York Times bestselling author of more than one hundred romance titles. Brenda lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and divides her time between family, writing and traveling. Email Brenda at authorbrendajackson@gmail.com or visit her on her website at brendajackson.net. - IRL STORYTIME: D is for Dance with Stacey Allen + Brynne Henry - August 2 @ 1 PM
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IRL STORYTIME: D is for Dance with Stacey Allen + Brynne Henry - August 2 @ 1 PM
Sold outCelebrate D is for Dance: Dancing Through the Diaspora with Stacey Allen and Brynne Hentry! Come meet the author and illustrator, hear a beautiful story about dance and culture, and enjoy a dance demonstration by Nia's Daughters Movement Collective!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, August 2 @ 1 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St #2, Houston, TX 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you're coming or RSVP WITH BOOK to secure your copy of D is for Dance: Dancing Through the Diaspora.
ABOUT THE BOOK
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stacey Allen is an award-winning dancemaker, curator, and advocate for arts education, equity, and reproductive justice. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Nia’s Daughters Movement Collective, a professional dance company committed to creating and supporting art and wellness initiatives through the lens of Black women and girls. Stacey is the author of two children’s books, A Little Optimism Goes a Long Way—recipient of the 2024 Children’s Publication Award from the National Association of Multicultural Education—and D is for Dance: Dancing Through the Diaspora. She also created The Fairytale Project, a touring dance-theater production inspired by Texas Freedom Colonies.
Stacey lives in the Greater Houston area with her husband, Chase Allen, and their three children: Chase Jr., Zora, and John. Learn more about her work at www.niasdaughters.com and follow her on Instagram at @theblackartsymom and @niasdaughters.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Brynne Henry is a Houston-based illustrator, mixed-media artist, researcher, and K-12 instructor. She graduated from the University of North Texas with a B. F. A. in Art Education and has held multiple positions in research spanning across the African-American arts and humanities. Her interest in African-American humanities was sparked in her college art history classes and fueled by a research fellowship she received from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. Her love for art was passed down generationally and she sincerely hopes to inspire the next generation of artists to continue using art as a vehicle for information exchange and self-expression. View more of her work at www.brynnehenry.com
- IRL STORYTIME: Main Street: A Community Story About Redlining with Britt Hawthorne - January 31 @ 12 PM
![IRL STORYTIME: Main Street: A Community Story About Redlining with Britt Hawthorne - January 31 @ 12 PM]()
IRL STORYTIME: Main Street: A Community Story About Redlining with Britt Hawthorne - January 31 @ 12 PM
Sold outCelebrate Main Street: A Community Story About Redlining with Britt Hawthorne!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, January 31 @ 12 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St #2, Houston, TX 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you're coming or RSVP WITH BOOK to secure your copy of Main Street: A Community Story About Redlining
Outside copies of Main Street will not be allowed into the bookstore.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A girl learns how the history of redlining has affected her neighborhood in this intergenerational picture book about racism, community action, and resilience by two New York Times bestselling authors.
Olivia can’t wait to invite her friends to the 62nd annual Main Street Block Party. But when she does, Alison says that Main Street isn’t safe. Olivia’s eyes fill with tears, and she begins to wish that she didn’t live on Main Street at all.
Then, Olivia learns what happened when her neighbor Ms. Effie was about her age: Ms. Effie's family was also told that Main Street wasn’t good enough. The bank wouldn’t give them a loan to buy their house based on where it fell on a color-coded map: Mostly Black people lived near Main Street, so the neighborhood was colored red on the map. To fight back against this practice called redlining, Ms. Effie’s family became friends with their neighbors and got organized.
With vibrant illustrations by David Wilkerson and engaging text by Britt Hawthorne and Tiffany Jewell, Main Street celebrates what might happen when neighbors come together for a common goal and everybody pitches in.
Features backmatter with an author's note about the full history of redlining and ideas for further engagement with your community!ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Britt Hawthorne is an award-winning author and teacher. She grew up in Rockford, IL, where she gobbled up thin-crust pizza and Swedish pancakes. She now lives with her family in Houston, Texas, delighting in coffee, sweet treats, and naps.
Website: BrittHawthorne.comInstagram: @BrittHawthorne. - IRL STORYTIME: See Marcus Grow with Marcus Bridgewater - May 10 @ 1 PM
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IRL STORYTIME: See Marcus Grow with Marcus Bridgewater - May 10 @ 1 PM
Sold outCelebrate Marcus Bridgewater aka Garden Marcus' debut picture book, See Marcus Grow!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, May 10 @ 1 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you're coming or RSVP WITH BOOK to secure your copy of See Marcus Grow.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Marcus Bridgewater, also known as the social media sensation Garden Marcus, shows kids the lessons he learned in his grandma's garden when he was growing up.
Grandma's favorite place is her garden. It seems like she could stay there forever! Marcus wants to know why--so they set about exploring it together. From shells protecting seeds (like Marcus's helmet protects his head!) to a small seed eventually growing into something big (also just like Marcus!), there are so many amazing connections to be made in this wonderful place. Day after day, Marcus delights in realizing how much he has in common with the plants--he drinks water every day, too, and he gets haircuts just like the plants get pruned. As his grandma says, there's a whole world to explore in a garden, and Marcus likes thinking about it as a playground for all the snails, birds, bugs, and worms. And one of its many beauties is the bounty they are rewarded with after all the love and care they pour into it!ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marcus Bridgewater, known on social media as Garden Marcus, is also the author of How to Grow: Nurture Your Garden, Nurture Yourself. Media outlets that have featured his work include Vogue, Dwell, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and The Drew Barrymore Show. A creator, educator, motivational speaker, and plant enthusiast, he is also the founder and CEO of Choice Forward, a company that offers life coaching, seminars, and workshops. He lives in Texas with his wife, son, and a thousand plants.
- IRL The Banned Wagon - October 7, 2023
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IRL The Banned Wagon - October 7, 2023
$0.00The Banned Wagon: A Vehicle for Change is road-tripping through the South this #BannedBooksWeek (October 1-7).
EVENT DEETSDate: Saturday, October 7
Time: 1pm-4pm
Location: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart St., Houston, TX, 77004)
Book bans are on the rise in America, driven by new laws and regulations limiting the kinds of books that kids can access.
Penguin Random House, in partnership with Freedom to Read Foundation, PEN America, Free Little Library and local bookstores, is roadtripping through the South handing out free copies of banned books to people in affected communities who need and want them most.
Join us for an afternoon of tunes, community, free books and giveaways! - Isaac's Song: A Novel
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Isaac's Song: A Novel
Daniel Black
Sold outThe beloved author of Don’t Cry for Me and Perfect Peace returns with a poignant, emotionally exuberant novel about a young queer Black man finding his voice in 1980s Chicago—a novel of family, forgiveness and perseverance, for fans of The Great Believers and On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Isaac is at a crossroads in his young life. Growing up in Missouri, the son of a caustic, hard-driving father, he was conditioned to suppress his artistic pursuits and physical desires, notions that didn’t align with a traditional view of masculinity. But now, in late ’80s Chicago, Isaac has finally carved out a life of his own. He is sensitive and tenderhearted and has built up the courage to seek out a community. Yet just as he begins to embrace who he is, two social catalysts—the AIDS crisis and Rodney King’s attack—collectively extinguish his hard-earned joy.
At a therapist’s encouragement, Isaac begins to write down his story. In the process, he taps into a creative energy that will send him on a journey back to his family, his ancestral home in Arkansas and the inherited trauma of the nation’s dark past. But a surprise discovery will either unlock the truths he’s seeking or threaten to derail the life he’s fought so hard to claim.
Poignant, sweeping and luminously told, Isaac's Song is a return to the beloved characters of Don’t Cry for Me and a high-water mark in the career of an award-winning author.
- Isaiah Johnson and the Big Game
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Isaiah Johnson and the Big Game
$15.99A sweet and thoughtful picture book about how we all need forgiveness--even parents--from the bestselling author of Andy Johnson and the March for Justice and Josey Johnson's Hair and the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah Johnson's baseball team has made it to the championships, and he's up to bat! Most of the Johnson family is in the stands cheering him on . . . but someone is missing: Isaiah's dad.
When Dad finally shows up, he apologizes for his absence and asks for Isaiah's forgiveness. But Isaiah is still hurt and isn't sure if he can forgive.
As a dad who's made plenty of mistakes himself, Esau McCaulley has crafted a biblically informed story that offers plenty of avenues for discussion on the power of forgiveness.
- It Was the Way She Said It: Short Stories, Essays, and Wisdom
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It Was the Way She Said It: Short Stories, Essays, and Wisdom
Terry McMillan
from $20.00*Paperback Release Date - 9/8/26*
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Waiting to Exhale comes a remarkable, career-spanning collection of short fiction and essays about love, aging, culture and all the things in between.
For the first time, a single volume brings together renowned author Terry McMillan’s previously published short fiction and nonfiction pieces, as well as never-before-seen works.
Before McMillan found success as a novelist in the early 1990s, she published provocative, boundary-pushing short stories, capturing the struggles and triumphs of Black life in America with vitality and honesty, from the workaday factory man’s malaise in “The End” to the cast-aside lover’s resolve in “Touching” to the elderly woman’s wiles in “Ma’Dear.” McMillan’s inimitable voice bravely explores the dark corners of human relationships with compassion, humor, and nuance. This collection also features five unpublished stories that reveal how she wrestled with controversial topics rarely addressed in short fiction, from domestic abuse in “Mama, Take Another Step” to extreme poverty in “Can’t Close My Eyes to It.”
Whether she’s revealing life lessons, pontificating about aging, recalling her sources of inspiration, or laying bare the beginnings of her life as a writer, McMillan approaches every piece with enduring candor, wit, and fearlessness.
Devoted fans and new readers alike will be delighted to discover these treasures spanning McMillan’s long, groundbreaking career. Indeed, it wasn’t only what Terry McMillan has said that made her so beloved . . . it was the way she said it.
- It's Always Been Ours : Rewriting the Story of Black Women’s Bodies
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It's Always Been Ours : Rewriting the Story of Black Women’s Bodies
Jessica Wilson
$29.00*Ships in 7-10 business days*
In It’s Always Been Ours eating disorder specialist and storyteller Jessica Wilson challenges us to rethink what having a "good" body means in contemporary society. By centering the bodies of Black women in her cultural discussions of body image, food, health, and wellness, Wilson argues that we can interrogate white supremacy’s hold on us and reimagine the ways we think about, discuss, and tend to our bodies.
A narrative that spans the year of racial reckoning (that wasn't), It’s Always Been Ours is an incisive blend of historical documents, contemporary writing, and narratives of clients, friends, and celebrities that examines the politics of body liberation. Wilson argues that our culture’s fixation on thin, white women reinscribes racist ideas about Black women's bodies and ways of being in the world as "too much." For Wilson, this white supremacist, capitalist undergirding in wellness movements perpetuates a culture of respectability and restriction that force Black women to perform unhealthy forms of resilience and strength at the expense of their physical and psychological needs.
With just the right mix of wit, levity, and wisdom, Wilson shows us how a radical reimagining of body narratives is a prerequisite to well-being. It’s Always Been Ours is a love letter that celebrates Black women’s bodies and shows us a radical and essential path forward to rediscovering their vulnerability and joy. - It's Big Brother Time! (My Time)
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It's Big Brother Time! (My Time)
Nandini Ahuja
Sold outBaby’s loud. Baby’s messy. Sometimes Baby really smells. Maybe Baby just doesn’t know the rules? Good thing it’s big brother time—he can show Baby how to be the best baby ever!
Told through the eyes of a big brother,this charming hardcover picture book empowers older siblings by showing them that they have very important roles to play in introducing their family’s new baby to the world.
From cleaning up messes to learning to share, big brother will teach the new baby everything. After all, big brother was a baby once, too—and he was really good at it.
It’s Big Brother Time! shows every boy how awesome it is being a big brother. Because as we all know, being a brother RULES!
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