Author Talks
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: We Belong Here with Shani Adia Evans - May 14 @ 7 PM CST
IRL AUTHOR TALK: We Belong Here with Shani Adia Evans - May 14 @ 7 PM CST
from $0.00Join us as we celebrate We Below Here: Gentrification, White Spacemaking and a Black Sense of Place with Shani Adia Evans!
EVENT DEETS
When: Wednesday, May 14
Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin Street, Unit 2, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author as well as our bookstore. There are free limited RSVP ONLY seats so please be mindful before you RSVP.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A landmark study that shows how Black residents experience and respond to the rapid transformation of historically Black places.
In We Belong Here, sociologist Shani Adia Evans offers an intimate look at gentrification from the inside, documenting the reactions of Albina residents as the racial demographics of their neighborhood shift. As White culture becomes centered in Northeast, Black residents recount their experiences with what Evans refers to as “White watching,” the questioning look on the faces of White people they encounter, which conveys an exclusionary message: “What are you doing here?” This, Evans shows, is a prime example of what she calls “White spacemaking”: the establishment of White space—spaces in which Whiteness is assumed to be the norm and non-Whites are treated with suspicion—in formerly non-White neighborhoods. Evans also documents Black residents’ efforts to create and maintain places for Black belonging in White-dominated Portland. While gentrification typically describes socioeconomic changes that may have racial implications, White spacemaking allows us to understand racism as a primary mechanism of neighborhood change. We Belong Here illuminates why gentrification and White spacemaking should be examined as intersecting, but not interchangeable, processes of neighborhood change.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shani Adia Evans is assistant professor of sociology at Rice University.
ABOUT THE INTERLOCUTOR
Jaison Oliver is a community organizer who brings people and institutions together to facilitate collaborative policymaking and drive community-led change. He is the Founder & Principal of Selden Resources and leads the Third Ward Cultural District in Houston, TX. Jaison is a Detroit native and an alumnus of Yale University.
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: This Could Be Forever with Ebony LaDelle - May 28 @ 7PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: This Could Be Forever with Ebony LaDelle - May 28 @ 7PM
from $0.00Celebrate the release of This Could Be Forever with Ebony LaDelle!
EVENT DEETS
When: Wednesday, May 28 @ 7PM CST
Where: 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. There is limited number of free tickets so please be mindful before you sign up.
ABOUT THE BOOK
This compelling and complex romance about love across cultures follows a Black girl and Brown boy who find themselves—and each other—while pursuing their passions the summer before college.
Deja’s got a plan. The first in her large family to go to college, she wants to study chemistry and sell natural skin care products, like the ones she already creates from plants grown on her family’s North Carolina farm. It all starts with the Onward Bound summer program at the University of Maryland, the summer before school officially starts.
Raja’s got a dream. His traditional Nepali parents want him to study engineering and settle down in an arranged marriage, but his passion is art, and he wants to open his own tattoo parlor one day. In the meantime, he’s apprenticing at a tattoo shop in College Park, Maryland.
When Deja walks into the shop where Raja’s working, they both start crushing hard—over the course of the summer, they fall more and more deeply for one another. But the closer they get and the more their lives entwine, the more they find that dating someone who doesn’t match your parents’ expectations is harder than they ever imagined.
Can they bridge the divide between the vision their families have for their futures and the lives—and love—that are starting to feel like destiny?ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ebony LaDelle is the author of Love Radio—which was People magazine’s best book of the summer, a 2023 Audie Award Finalist, a 2023 Michigan Notable Book, and was featured on the Today show—and is the editor of the forthcoming romance anthology, You’ve Got a Place Here, Too. Prior to being an author, Ebony was a brand marketing director in book publishing and worked at Penguin Random House and HarperCollins, among others. You can visit her online at EbonyLaDelle.com and follow her on social at @EbonyLaDelle.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Wale Okerayi is a licensed mental health therapist and a passionate literary enthusiast, uniquely blending her professional insights with her profound love for literature. Her work as a book influencer, particularly through her platform @theehottgirlbooks, focuses on celebrating and sharing BIPOC stories. Wale’s dual role enriches her contributions to both fields, making her a valuable voice in discussions around mental health and literature.When she’s not reading or in the therapy room, you can find her building lego sets and watching the real housewives. - IRL AUTHOR TALK: Communication Skills for Healthier Boundaries with Dr. LaToya S. Gilmore - May 8 @ 7PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Communication Skills for Healthier Boundaries with Dr. LaToya S. Gilmore - May 8 @ 7PM
from $5.00Celebrate the release of Communication Skills for Healthier Boundaries with Dr. LaToya S. Gilmore!
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, May 8 @ 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming
ABOUT THE BOOK
Stop People-Pleasing and Start Setting Healthier Boundaries Now
Do you feel resentful because you didn’t speak up? Do find yourself saying yes when you really mean no, only to burn out later? Or maybe frustration builds, leading to blowups that push people away? In Communication Skills for Healthier Boundaries, licensed psychotherapist Dr. LaToya S. Gilmore addresses the struggles many face when they can’t express their needs, often resorting to either giving in or losing control.
This book provides essential tools to break free from these patterns and communicate with clarity and confidence. Learn how to set firm, healthy boundaries without guilt and honor yourself without fear of conflict. Tackling either people-pleasing or explosive reactions, Dr. Gilmore’s practical guidance will help you build and maintain fulfilling relationships without compromising your well-being.
Communication Skills for Healthier Boundaries includes:
* Verbal and nonverbal communication skills and activities. Attain lifelong skill sets to build assertiveness, confidence, and self-awareness.
* Real-life dialogue scripts. Practice setting and asserting boundaries at your own pace while finding your communication style.
* Easy implementation in two parts. Learn core communication skills in the first part of the book, and then apply these skills in the second part, which features common scenarios where boundaries are challenged in everyday life, relaABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. LaToya S. Gilmore is a licensed therapist, educator, consultant, writer, and speaker. She inspires those she works with to intentionally integrate self-care and healthy boundaries in their daily lives and is an advocate for ending the stigma related to seeking therapy. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Prairie View A&M University and a doctorate in counselor education from Texas Southern University. Her master’s degree in marriage and family therapy was earned at Fuller Theological Seminary. She resides in Houston, Texas.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Kandice Ewing is a lifelong Houston resident and a dedicated co-leader at the Fellowship of Love Church for over 20 years. Recently, Kandice earned a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Houston Christian University and is now a Licensed Professional Counselor-Associate. Believing that therapy is her true calling, Kandice is committed to supporting individuals, groups, and couples experiencing mental distress, emotional dysregulation, and life stressors.
With expertise in areas such as grief and loss, depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, spiritual struggles, relationships, boundaries, assertiveness, and self-esteem, Kandice takes an eclectic therapeutic approach and tailors’ treatment to meet each client's unique needs.
Passionate about guiding others on their wellness journey, Kandice is dedicated to fostering healing and personal growth in a compassionate and supportive environment.
- VIRTUAL AUTHOR TALK: Zeal with Morgan Jerkins - April 28 @ 6:30 PM CST
VIRTUAL AUTHOR TALK: Zeal with Morgan Jerkins - April 28 @ 6:30 PM CST
from $0.00Celebrate the release of Zeal with Morgan Jerkins!
EVENT DEETS
When: Monday, April 28 @ 6:30 PM
Where: Online via Zoom
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The New York Times bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing and Caul Baby returns with an epic, multi-generational novel that illuminates the legacy of slavery and the power of romantic love.
Harlem, 2019. Ardelia and Oliver are hosting their engagement party. As the guests get ready to leave, he hands her a love letter on a yellowing, crumbling piece of paper . . .
Natchez, 1865. Discharged from the Union Army as a free man after the war’s end, Harrison returns to Mississippi to reunite with the woman he loves, Tirzah. Upon his arrival at the Freedmen’s Bureau, though, he catches the eye of a woman working there, who’s determined to thwart his efforts to find his beloved. After tragedy strikes, Harrison resigns himself to a life with her.
Meanwhile in Louisiana, the newly free Tirzah is teaching at a freedmen’s school, and discovers an advertisement in the local paper looking for her. Though she knows Harrison must have placed it, and longs to find him, the risks of fleeing are too great, and Tirzah chooses the life of seeming security right in front of her.
Spanning over a hundred and fifty years, Morgan Jerkins’s extraordinary novel intertwines the stories of these star-crossed lovers and their descendants. As Tirzah's family moves across the country during the Great Migration, they challenge authority with devastating consequences, while of the legacy of heartbreak and loss continues on in the lives of Harrison's progeny.
When Ardelia meets Oliver, she finds his family’s history is as full of secrets and omissions as her own. Could their connection be a cosmic reconciliation satisfying the unfulfilled desires of their ancestors, or will the weight of the past, present and future tear them apart?
Sweeping, textured, and meticulously researched, Zeal is both a story of how one generation’s choices reverberate through the years and an indelible portrait of an enduring love.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Morgan Jerkins is the author of four books, This Will Be My Undoing, a New York Times bestseller, Wandering in Strange Lands, Caul Baby, and Zeal.
She is a former editor at Medium’s ZORA, New York Magazine, ESPN’s Andscape fka The Undefeated, and Catapult. She's also the recipient of two National Magazine Awards and her online work as appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic, among many others.
She held the Picador Professorship at Leipzig University and taught at Princeton and Columbia Universities, as well as Pacific University, and The New School.
She holds a Bachelor’s in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and an MFA from Bennington College. She's based in Brooklyn.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Antonia is an educator, avid reader, and proud Houstonian. She runs the platform BlackGirlThatReads, which aims to connect a wide range of readers with books by Black women. When she is not reading, she spends her time traveling to visit museums and bookstores across the country.
- IRL STORYTIME: See Marcus Grow with Marcus Bridgewater - May 10 @ 1 PM
IRL STORYTIME: See Marcus Grow with Marcus Bridgewater - May 10 @ 1 PM
from $0.00Celebrate 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 AUTHOR TALK: Run Like a Girl with Amaka Egbe - May 24 @ 1 PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Run Like a Girl with Amaka Egbe - May 24 @ 1 PM
from $0.00Celebrate debut author, Amaka's Egbe, first novel, Run Like a Girl!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, May 24 @ 1 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you're coming or RSVP ONLY to secure your seat and book.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Perfect for fans of Furia, this YA debut follows a girl whose dreams of becoming an Olympic track star are thrown for a loop when she has to move in with her estranged father and learns her new school doesn’t have a girls’ track team—so she joins the boys’ team instead.
Dera Edwards knows her life is over when she's shipped off to live with her estranged father in the middle of White Suburbia. To make matters worse, Dera learns that her new school doesn’t have a girls’ track team, shattering her dreams of getting a track scholarship and, one day, competing in the Olympics.
Not one to give up easily, Dera joins the boys’ team instead. But while she has the school administration’s blessing, her new teammates and classmates are less than welcoming. Between that and her frustratingly distant father, Dera is positive her junior year is ruined.Just as she starts to accept her status as an outsider, Dera’s approached by her classmate Rosalyn, who wants to feature Dera’s story in her blog. Eager to change the narrative and spend more time with Rosalyn's gorgeous cousin Gael—also known as one of the few teammates who will talk to her—Dera agrees.
But when she goes viral and gains attention across the state, Dera’s new notoriety opens the door for trolls both online and at school. Paired with her deteriorating relationship with her father, she soon finds everything to be too much. Will Dera be able to keep outrunning her problems, or will her dream be the very thing that derails her?ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amaka Egbe has been writing ever since she could hold a pen. Exploring cultural differences and mental health are major tenants in her work, stemming from her American and Nigerian upbringing. Amaka studied Marketing and Psychology at the University of Houston and earned a master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Run Like a Girl is her debut novel.
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: boy maybe with W. J. Lofton - April 30 @ 7PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: boy maybe with W. J. Lofton - April 30 @ 7PM
from $0.00Celebrate W. J. Lofton's debut poetry collection, boy maybe!
EVENT DEETS
When: Wednesday, April 20 @ 7 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know to expect you or RSVP WITH BOOK to secure your copy of boy maybe: poems!
ABOUT THE BOOK
51 achingly eloquent poems from a young Cave Canem fellow: W. J. Lofton's verses explore Black queer Southern identity, grief, love, and intimacy while enduring and witnessing unfreedom in America
W. J. Lofton writes vivid, accessible poems that channel the energy, urgency, ambitions, joys, and sorrows of a young Black queer artist. They are about love and flirtation, sweet tea and hot sauce, God and family, life and death, police brutality and extrajudicial killings. His verses honor some of the young lives extinguished by these killings—Breonna Taylor, Kendrick Johnson, Ahmaud Arbery. He also pays tribute to some of the towering figures of Black culture who have come before him—Richard Pryor, Assata Shakur. His style is endlessly propulsive, informed by some of the Harlem Renaissance greats—Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks—but also transforming that rich tradition for the present day.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
W.J. Lofton has earned fellowships from Cave Canem and Emory University. His work has been featured or is forthcoming in TIME, wildness, Obsidian, Scalawag, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day, American Poets Magazine, Prose to the People, No Justice, No Peace: From the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter, and film festivals nationwide.
- 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 AUTHOR TALK: Briefly Perfectly Human with Alua Arthur - April 29 @ 7PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Briefly Perfectly Human with Alua Arthur - April 29 @ 7PM
from $5.00Celebrate the paperwork release of Death Doula, Alua Arthur's book, Briefly Perfectly Human!
EVENT DEETS
When: Tuesday, April 29 @ 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your copy of Briefly Perfectly Human. If you already have a hardcover copy of Briefly Perfectly Human and you would like to get your book signed, please use the RSVP WITH SIGNING option.
Note: There are limited RSVP ONLY tickets. Please be sure that you can attend before checking out. Additionally, paperback copies of Briefly Perfectly Human will not be allowed in the venue.
ABOUT THE BOOK
For her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Alua Arthur is a friend at the end of the world. As our country’s leading death doula, she’s spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death—whether imminent or not—will breathe wild, new potential into your life.
Warm, generous, and funny AF, Alua supports and helps manage end-of-life care on many levels. The business matters, medical directives, memorial planning; but also honoring the quiet moments, when monitors are beeping and loved ones have stepped out to get some air—or maybe not shown up at all—and her clients become deeply contemplative and want to talk. Aching, unfinished business often emerges. Alua has been present for thousands of these sacred moments—when regrets, fears, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally said aloud. When this happens, Alua focuses her attention at the pulsing center of her clients’ anguish and creates space for them, and sometimes their loved ones, to find peace.
This has had a profound effect on Alua, who was already no stranger to death’s periphery. Her family fled a murderous coup d’état in Ghana in the 1980s. She has suffered major, debilitating depressions. And her dear friend and brother-in-law died of lymphoma. Advocating for him in his final months is what led Alua to her life’s calling. She knows firsthand the power of bearing witness and telling the truth about life’s painful complexities, because they do not disappear when you look the other way. They wait for you.
Briefly Perfectly Human is a life-changing, soul-gathering debut, by a writer whose empathy, tenderness, and wisdom shimmers on the page. Alua Arthur combines intimate storytelling with a passionate appeal for loving, courageous end-of-life care—what she calls “death embrace.” Hers is a powerful testament to getting in touch with something deeper in our lives, by embracing the fact of our own mortality. “Hold that truth in your mind,” Alua says, “and wondrous things will begin to grow around it."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times bestselling author Alua Arthur is the most visible and active death doula working in America today. She is a recovering attorney and the founder of Going with Grace, a death doula training and end-of-life planning organization. Her TED Talk titled, “Why Thinking About Death Helps You Live a Better Life,” went online in July 2023 and has already received 1.5 million views. A frequent guest on TV and radio, Arthur has been featured on CBS’s The Doctors and in Disney's Limitless docu-series with Chris Hemsworth, as well as in national print media outlets, such as Vogue, InStyle, the Los Angeles Times, The Cut, The New Yorker, and the New York Times. International newspaper features on Arthur include Brazil’s Estadão and Norway’s Årets Avis. She has appeared on dozens of podcasts, and a Refinery29 video feature on Arthur and her work received ten million views across social platforms. She travels the country and world as a keynote speaker, addressing audiences of several hundred to several thousand people at medical and end-of-life conferences, universities, seminaries, senior citizens’ communities, and more.
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: Behind the Waterline with Kionna LeMalle - April 8 @ 7PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Behind the Waterline with Kionna LeMalle - April 8 @ 7PM
Sold outCelebrate Kionna Walker LeMalle's debut novel, Behind the Waterline!
EVENT DEETS
When: Tuesday, April 8 @ 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you are coming or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your copy of Behind the Waterline.
NOTE: There are limited free RSVP ONLY tickets. Please be sure that you can make the event before checking out. Additionally, copies of the book from Behind the Waterline from other retailers will not be allowed
ABOUT THE BOOK
Behind the Waterline takes readers to the home of a teenager and his grandmother in a New Orleans neighborhood on the eve of Katrina, where there are few resources and little warning of what is about to happen, in this novel that mixes magical realism with reality.
When Hurricane Katrina approaches New Orleans, teenaged Eric and his grandmother and many of their neighbors decide to ride out the storm. Kionna Walker LeMalle’s masterful debut novel brings her readers, like the rising water, onto Eric’s street in the Third Ward, where stranded dogs bark for a time, where neighbors are floating on doors, and where Eric and his grandmother must take refuge in his second floor bedroom. After days of heat, dwindling supplies, and relentless rising water, neighbors begin to disappear and Eric’s grandmother, already known as an eccentric, begins to falter. It is then that Eric—in a dream, a hallucination, or something else—discovers a room beyond his closet wall, a place he has never seen. What he discovers inside will send him on a path to discover secrets to survival, bitter progress, and, ultimately, the history of his own people—those he sorely misses and those he never even knew.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kionna Walker LeMalle is an executive writer for the University of Houston-Downtown and has taught writers at Houston’s Writers in the Schools and Houston Christian University. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Education from Xavier University of Louisiana, a Master of Education degree from the University of New Orleans, and her MFA from Houston Christian University. She was born and raised in New Orleans, LA, and lives in Houston, TX, with her family. Behind the Waterline is her debut novel.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
ReShonda Tate is the national bestselling author of more than 50 books, including her latest The Queen of Sugar Hill, based on the life of Hattie McDaniel. Her novel, Let the Church Say Amen, was made into a film directed by actress Regina King, and produced by TD Jakes and Queen Latifah. Her book, The Secret She Kept, was also made into a TV One movie starring Kyla Pratt. ReShonda made appearances in both movies. She wrote a movie, Christmas with my Ex, which will run on TV One this winter.
A well-respected journalist and former TV News Anchor, ReShonda is currently Managing Editor for the Defender Newspaper and also works as a professional editor, ghostwriter, and literary consultant.
A highly sought-after motivational speaker and award-winning poet, ReShonda is the recipient of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature.
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: Where Shadows Meet with Patrice Caldwell - April 19 @ 3PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Where Shadows Meet with Patrice Caldwell - April 19 @ 3PM
Sold outCelebrate the amazing author (and literary agent) Patrice Caldwell's newest release, Where Shadows Meet!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, April 19 @ 3PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you're coming and RSVP WITH BOOK to secure your seat and copy of Where Shadows Meet.
Note: There are limited free RSVP ONLY tickets available so please be thoughtful about purchasing a ticket. Additionally, copies of Where Shadows Meet from other retailers will not be allowed on the premise.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The dark and thrillingly romantic debut vampire fantasy that questions what it truly means to sacrifice for love.
You have no idea what I’ve done for love. Just as you have no idea what you may one day do.
Once long ago, a girl named Favre sacrificed her wings for love. Thana, the young goddess she so willingly gave them up for, sacrificed that same love for power. But everything has a cost.
Favre never got over the loss of her wings. And Thana’s choices led to a life of eternal night, and later, their destruction. Favre has bided her time ever since, waiting for the chance to resurrect the girl she loves who turned her into the creature she hates.
Now, a thousand years later, Leyla, the crown princess of the malichora—an ancient race that survives on human blood—must travel to the Island of the Dead when her best friend is captured during an attack on her nation’s capital. Along with Najja, a fierce, beautiful seer, and the last person she expected to help her, Leyla forges down a dangerous path, intent on saving her friend. But nothing is as it seems. The closer she gets to her goal, the more she risks awakening an ancient evil and destroying everything she holds dear.
Set in the aftermath of a war between vampires, humans, and the gods that created them, Patrice Caldwell’s devastatingly romantic fantasy debut, Where Shadows Meet, centers the heart-wrenching pain of loss and the struggle of self-discovery to ask: do we choose our fates, or do our fates choose us?ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PATRICE CALDWELL is a former children’s book editor turned literary agent and author. She has been named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30”, a Publishers Weekly Star Watch honoree, and featured on Bustle’s inaugural “Lit List” as one of ten women changing the book world. Patrice is also the editor of A Phoenix First Must Burn, 16 stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope and Eternally Yours. After years living in New York City, she moved to Dallas, Texas (with her two adorable cats). Visit Patrice at patricecaldwell.com and @pncaldwell.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Nia "N.E." Davenport is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy author. She attended the University of Southern California and studied Biological Sciences and Theatre. She has an M.A. in Secondary Education, taught secondary English and Science for several years, and designs English/Language Arts curriculum for school systems and educational publishers across the US. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys vacationing with her family, skiing, and being a huge foodie. She’s an advocate for diverse perspectives and protagonists in literature. You can find her online at www.nedavenport.com, on Twitter @nia_davenport, or on Instagram @nia.davenport, where she talks about binge-worthy TV, fun movies, and killer books. - IRL AUTHOR TALK: Firstborn Girls with Bernice McFadden - April 10 @ 7 PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Firstborn Girls with Bernice McFadden - April 10 @ 7 PM
Sold outCelebrate award winning author, Bernice McFadden's memoir, Firstborn Girls!
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, April 10 @ 7 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to ensure your seat an a copy of Firstborn Girls!
There are limited free RSVP ONLY tickets so please make sure that you can make it.
Please note that copies of Firstborn Girls purchased from other retailers will not be allowed in the venue.
ABOUT THE BOOK
From award-winning author and creative writing professor at Tulane University comes an intimate and powerful memoir exploring inherited trauma, family secrets, and the enduring bonds of love between mothers and daughters.
On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died in a car crash near Detroit, only to be resuscitated after her mother pulled her from the flaming wreckage. Firstborn Girls traces her remarkable life from that moment up to the publication of her first novel, Sugar.
Growing up in 1980s Brooklyn, Bernice finds solace in books, summer trips to Barbados, and boarding school to escape her alcoholic father. Discovering the works of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, she finally sees herself and her loved ones reflected in their stories of “messy, beautiful, joyful Black people.”
Interwoven with Bernice's personal journey is her family's history, beginning with her four-times enslaved great-grandmother Louisa Vicey Wilson in 1822 Hancock County, Georgia. Her descendants survived Reconstruction and Jim Crow, joined the Great Migration, and mourned Dr. King’s assassination during the Civil Rights Movement. These women's wisdom, secrets, and fierce love are passed down like Louisa's handmade quilt.
A memoir of many threads, Firstborn Girls is an extraordinarily moving portrait of a life shaped by family, history, and the drive to be something more.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bernice L. McFadden is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Tulane University and the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including Sugar, The Warmest December, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, Glorious, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors' Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), The Book of Harlan (winner of a 2017 American Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction), and Praise Song for the Butterflies (long-listed for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction). She is a four-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of three awards from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton is an award-winning writer, director, performer, critic, and the first Black Poet Laureate of Houston, TX. Praised by the NY Times as an artist who “defies categorization”, her genre-bending works span from stage to page, and everything in between. She is the author of Newsworthy (Bloomsday Literary, 2019) which was translated into German (Berichtenswert, Elif Verlag, 2020), Black Chameleon (Henry Holt, 2023), and an upcoming children's book, Hush Hush Hurricane (Kokila Books, 2025). Honored as part of Houston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 class, she has been a contributing writer for Glamour, Texas Monthly, Muzzle, and ESPN's Andscape, to name a few.She has penned stage works including Marian's Song (Houston Grand Opera), The Forest of Secrets (National Sawdust), Atlanta: 1906 (Atlanta Opera) & On My Mind (Opera Theater St. Louis). Serving as Playwright/Director, she produced The World's Intermission, commissioned by Performing Arts Houston (Jones Hall), which has since been adapted for film, and Plumshuga: The Rise of Lauren Anderson, a choreopoem (Stages Theater) which made the cover of the NYT Culture section.Her recent memoir, Black Chameleon examines Black womanhood through afrofuturistic mythology which Mouton later adapted into a storybook opera titled (Lula, the Mighty Griot, HGO) and an independent short film (Headache & Heartthrob). A former Resident Artist with the American Lyric Theater, Rice University, and the Houston Museum of African American Culture, her upcoming projects will debut at The Kennedy Center and American Lyric Theater. She resides in Houston, TX. - IRL AUTHOR TALK: Spilling the Tea with Brenda Jackson - May 15 @ 7PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Spilling the Tea with Brenda Jackson - May 15 @ 7PM
from $5.00Celebrate Brenda Jackson's 150th book, Spilling the Tea!
EVENT DEETS
When: Tuesday, May 15 @ 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP WITH BOOK
ABOUT THE BOOK
Ninety-something Mama Laverne is determined to find all of her great-grandchildren their perfect match before going home to glory. So far, her success rate is 100 percent—and she intends to keep it that way.
Ninety-something-year-old Felicia Laverne Madaris, known in the family as Mama Laverne, is determined to find all of her great-grandchildren the perfect match before she goes home to glory. So far, her success rate is 100 percent, and she intends to keep it that way.
After sustaining injuries in Iraq, US Army Ranger Chancellor (Chance) Madaris was told he’d never walk again. Chance credits his great-grandmother, Mama Laverne, with giving him the will and fortitude 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 matchmaker’s list.
When Zoey Pritchard was eight, she survived a car accident that left both her parents dead. She 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…
Guided by nothing but a hunch and images from her dream, Zoey travels to Houston. Searching for answers, Zoey 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. Was it chance or Mama Laverne’s plan to throw this pair together?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BRENDA JACKSON is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than one hundred contemporary multicultural romance novels, including the Madaris Family series, the Westmorelands series, and The Playas series. She was the first African-American author to have a book published under the Harlequin/Silhouette Desire line and the first African-American romance author to hit both the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists in the series romance genre. Many of her books have been adapted into movies. Brenda lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and divides her time between family, writing and traveling. brendajackson.net.
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: Oathbound with Tracy Deonn - March 11 @ 7PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Oathbound with Tracy Deonn - March 11 @ 7PM
Sold outCelebrate the third installment of the Legendborn Cycle with the New York Times Bestseller author, Tracy Deonn!
EVENT DEETS
When: Tuesday, March 11 @ 7 PM
Where: 3719 Navigation Blvd, Houston, Texas 77003 (THIS IS AN OFF SITE EVENT)
How: Grab your ticket here! Each ticket comes with a book as well as some other goodies! Books will be available for pick up at the venue.
There are NO REFUNDS for event tickets. Please use the link if you can no longer attend the event but would like to pick up your book in store or have it shipped to you at cost.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Severed from the Legendborn. Oathbound to a monster.
Bree Matthews is alone. She exiled herself from the Legendborn Order, cut her ancestral connections, and turned away from the friends who can’t understand the impossible cost of her powers. This is the only way to keep herself—and those she loves—safe.
But Bree’s decision has come with a terrible price: an unbreakable bargain with the Shadow King himself, a shapeshifter who can move between humanity, the demon underworld, and the Legendborn secret society. In exchange for training to wield her unprecedented abilities, Bree has put her future in the Shadow King’s hands—and unwittingly bound herself to do his bidding as his new protégé.
Meanwhile, the other Scions must face war while their Round Table is fractured, leaderless, and missing its Kingsmage, as Selwyn has also disappeared. When Nick invokes an ancient law that requires the High Council of Regents to grant him an audience, the Order’s Merlins imprison him. No one knows what he will demand of the Regents…or what secrets he has kept hidden from the Table.
As a string of mysterious kidnappings escalates and Merlins are found dead, it becomes clear that no matter how hard Bree runs from who she is, the past will always find her.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tracy Deonn is the #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Legendborn Cycle. After earning her master’s degree in communication and performance studies, Tracy worked in live theater, video game production, and K–12 education. When she’s not writing, Tracy reads comics and fanfic, dreams up new magic systems, and keeps an eye out for ginger-flavored everything. She can be found online at @TracyDeonn and TracyDeonn.com.AUTHOR MODERATOR
Nia "N.E." Davenport is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy author. She attended the University of Southern California and studied Biological Sciences and Theatre. She has an M.A. in Secondary Education, taught secondary English and Science for several years, and designs English/Language Arts curriculum for school systems and educational publishers across the US. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys vacationing with her family, skiing, and being a huge foodie. She’s an advocate for diverse perspectives and protagonists in literature. You can find her online at www.nedavenport.com, on Twitter @nia_davenport, or on Instagram @nia.davenport, where she talks about binge-worthy TV, fun movies, and killer books. - IRL AUTHOR TALK: Somebody's Husband with Robbie Renee - March 8th @ 3PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Somebody's Husband with Robbie Renee - March 8th @ 3PM
Sold outCelebrate the release of Somebody's Husband with Robbi Renee!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, March 8th @ 3PM
Where: Eldorado Ballroom (2310 Elgin St, Houston, TX 77004) - Hogan Brown Gallery
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming
ABOUT THE BOOK
A grieving doctor and a nurturing professor join forces on a potentially groundbreaking medical study that sparks a profound connection neither saw coming in this unconventional romantic drama from the author who brought you the book club favorite Somebody’s Wife.
Dr. Dresden Xavier moved his family back to his hometown of Monroe City after an unfortunate tragedy. Searching for an escape from the reality of grief and depression, Dresden buries himself in a grueling medical research project that could yield life-changing results. What was supposed to be a short-term partnership with the professor of nursing at Monroe University quickly morphs into a case study of love . . . or maybe just an experiential error.
Harper Kingsley, a loving wife, mother, and professor, sought tenure and a little peace and happiness in her fast-paced life. In the public eye, Harper is a poised perfectionist, but behind closed doors, she desperately fights to mend the broken threads of her feeble family. Lies, sickness, and secrets that could destroy her family permeate her soul until the healing touch of Dr. Xavier changes her trajectory. What was supposed to be a clinical research assignment evolves into something much greater and beyond their control.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ROBBI RENEE: Loss, grief, & anxiety birthed Robbi Renee in December 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. She pens stories of love, heartbreak & healing. A love for reading transformed into an obsession with writing authentic Black characters, living beautiful Black lives in thriving Black communities that pay homage to her hometown of St. Louis! Robbi Renee enjoys writing contemporary & urban romance that takes readers on a wild ride.
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: City Summer, Country Summer with Kiese Laymon - April 6 @ 2PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: City Summer, Country Summer with Kiese Laymon - April 6 @ 2PM
Kiese Laymon
Sold outCelebrate the release of City Summer, Country Summer with Kiese Laymon!
EVENT DEETS
When: Sunday, April 6 @ 2PM
Where: 2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming
ABOUT THE BOOK
A lyrical picture book from the award-winning author of Heavy, about three Black boys who form a deep connection during a transformative summer trip down South to visit family.
On the ground of that garden, covered in vegetables and dirt, coated in laughter, I want to say that the Mississippi and New York in our Black boy bodies were indistinguishable.
Three Black boys spend one special summer exploring the Mississippi woods and woulds and coulds of sharing the kind of freeing friendship that is love.
Watched over and given space to discover by Grandmama and Mama Lara, New York, Country, and little C find camaraderie in their contrasts and all the unspoken things between them while playing games of marco polo in the thick garden and sledding on cardboard by the underpass.
With text brimming with love by award-winning author Kiese Laymon and deeply evocative illustrations by Ashley Franklin, City Summer, Country Summer illuminates the tenuous and tender bonds of friendship Black boys forge with one another.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kiese Laymon is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. Laymon is the author of Long Division, which won the 2022 NAACP Image Award for fiction, and the essay collection, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, named a notable book of 2021 by the New York Times critics. Laymon’s bestselling memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir, won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Barnes and Noble Discovery Award, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. The audiobook, read by the author, was named the Audible 2018 Audiobook of the Year. Laymon is the recipient of 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard. Laymon is at work on the books, Good God, and City Summer, Country Summer, and a number of other film and television projects. He is the founder of The Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative, a program based out of the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University, aimed at aiding young people in Jackson get more comfortable reading, writing, revising and sharing on their on their own terms, in their own communities. He is the co-host of Reckon True Stories with Deesha Philyaw. Kiese Laymon was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022.
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: Dear Manny with Nic Stone - March 4 @ 7 PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Dear Manny with Nic Stone - March 4 @ 7 PM
Sold outCelebrate the release of Dear Manny with Nic Stone!
EVENT DEETS
When: Tuesday, March 4 @ 7PM
Where: The Eldorado Ballroom -The Hogan Brown Gallery (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 the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin comes the thrilling final installment of the series, set in college. Jared (white, Justyce's roommate, woke) is running for Junior class president. With his antiracism platform, he's a shoo-in. But he's up against the new girl, Dylan. Will Jared have to choose between his head and his heart?
Jared Peter Christensen is running for president (of the Junior Class Council at his university, but still). His platform is solid—built on increased equity and inclusion in all sectors of campus life—and he’s got a good chance of beating the deeply conservative business major he’s running against.
But then a transfer student enters the race and calls Jared out for his big-talk/little-action way of moving. But what’s the right way to bring about change? As the campaign heats up, feelings are caught, and juicy secrets come to light, and Jared writes letters to his deceased friend Manny, hoping to make sense of his confusion. What’s a white boy to do when love and politics collide?
New York Times bestselling author Nic Stone writes from a new perspective in this exciting final chapter of the Dear Martin series that examines privilege, love, and our political climate.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nic Stone is the author of many novels, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Dear Martin and its New York Times bestselling sequel, Dear Justyce. She also penned the young adult titles Odd One Out, an NPR Best Book and an ALA Rainbow Book Top Ten, Jackpot, the YALSA Quick Pick Selection that takes a searing look at economic inequality, and Chaos Theory, a Southern Book Prize finalist and a YALSA Best Fiction Book for Young Adults Reading List selection. Her middle-grade novels include Clean Getaway, a New York Times bestseller, and Fast Pitch, a YALSA Quick Pick Selection. Nic lives in Atlanta and will continue to write books that ruffle feathers
ABOUT CONVERSATION PARTNER
Britt Hawthorne is a New York Times bestselling author, educator, and advocate for racial justice. Her book Raising Antiracist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide has been widely recognized as an essential resource for parents committed to fostering inclusivity and justice. She continues to educate and inspire through her forthcoming children's book, Main Street: A Story of Redlining, co-authored with Tiffany Jewell. This powerful story introduces young readers to the history of redlining—a discriminatory housing practice that denied homeownership opportunities to communities of color—helping children understand systemic inequality in an accessible and meaningful way.
Britt’s impactful work has been featured by PBS, Essence magazine, NPR, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Britt is based in Houston, Texas, and shares her home with her two teenagers and a lively dog named Butter. She remains dedicated to empowering families and educators by leading transformative conversations, sipping coffee, indulging in sweets, or sneaking in a well-earned nap. Learn more about her on Instagram @britthawthorne or at britthawthorne.com.
- GRIEF WRITING WORKSHOP: All the Blues in the Sky with Renée Watson - Feburary 11 @ 7PM
GRIEF WRITING WORKSHOP: All the Blues in the Sky with Renée Watson - Feburary 11 @ 7PM
Renée Watson
from $0.00Attend a grief focused writing workshop with award winning author, Renee Watson in honor of the release of All the Blues in Sky!
EVENT DEETS
When: Tuesday, February, 11 @ 7PM
Where: 2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming
ABOUT THE BOOK
Sage's thirteenth birthday was supposed to be about movies and treats, staying up late with her best friend and watching the sunrise together. Instead, it was the day her best friend died. Without the person she had to hold her secrets and dream with, Sage is lost. In a counseling group with other girls who have lost someone close to them, she learns that not all losses are the same, and healing isn't predictable. There is sadness, loneliness, anxiety, guilt, pain, love. And even as Sage grieves, new, good things enter her life—and she just may find a way to know that she can feel it all.
In accessible, engaging verse and prose, this is a story of a girl's journey to heal, grow, and forgive herself. To read it is to see how many shades there are in grief, and to know that someone understands.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Her novel, Piecing Me
Together, received a Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award. Her books include
the Ryan Hart series, Some Places More Than Others, This Side of Home, What Momma
Left Me, Betty Before X, cowritten with Ilyasah Shabazz, Watch Us Rise, cowritten with
Ellen Hagan, and Love Is a Revolution, as well as acclaimed picture books: Maya's Song,The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, written with Nikole Hannah-Jones, A Place Where
Hurricanes Happen, and Harlem's Little Blackbird, which was nominated for an NAACP
Image Award. Renée splits her time between Portland, Oregon and New York City.
http://www.reneewatson.net | @harlemportland (Instagram) | @reneewauthor (X) - IRL AUTHOR TALK: Bemused with Farrah Rochon - February 8 @ 1 PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Bemused with Farrah Rochon - February 8 @ 1 PM
Farrah Rochon
Sold outCelebrate the release of BeMused with Farrah Rochon!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, February 8th @ 1 PM
Where: 2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming*
ABOUT THE BOOK
The untold origin story of the 5 Muses from Disney’s Hercules is revealed in this rollicking YA fantasy filled with mythical adventure, music, and the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.
The Muses narrated Hercules’s story. Now, in this novel for fans of the New York Times bestsellers Go the Distance and Fire & Fate, they’ll narrate their own “gospel truth.”
Living in a quiet seaside village with their overprotective mother, teenaged sisters Calliope, Clio, Melpomene, Terpsichore, and Thalia are talented performers with no audience. If Calli had her way, she’d pursue her dream of writing epic stories in the city of Thebes. But family comes first, and as the eldest, she’d never leave her beloved sisters behind.
Then, following a disastrous public music performance, their mother reveals a shocking secret: she is Mnemosyne, the Goddess of Memory, and for nearly two decades, she’s been on the run from the gods of Mount Olympus, desperate to keep her daughters safe from their mother reveals a shocking secret: she is Mnemosyne, the Goddess of Memory, and for nearly two decades, she’s been on the run from the gods of Mount Olympus, desperate to keep her daughters safe from their machinations. Before she can share more, she is kidnapped . . . and though the girls don’t know it yet, the villain pulling the strings is none other than Hades, fiery God of the Underworld.
Under Calli’s leadership, the sisters embark on a journey to save their mother and to learn more about their own divine origins. But the path ahead is filled with mythical trials and tribulations, and they’ll need to rely on both their individual talents and the strength of their sisterhood to ensure that they ascend from “zeroes” to “heroes”–or more accurately, heroines.
Penned by New York Times bestselling author Farrah Rochon, this YA fantasy uniquely blends a twist on a Disney classic with a fresh take on Greek mythology.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A native of south Louisiana, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Farrah Rochon officially began her writing career while waiting in between classes in the student lounge at Xavier University of Louisiana. After earning her Bachelor of Science degree from Xavier and a Masters of Arts from Southeastern Louisiana University, Farrah decided to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a published novelist. Farrah's books have been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, NPR, The Washington Post, and many more.
When she is not writing in her favorite coffee shop, Farrah spends most of her time reading, traveling the world, hanging around on Twitter, visiting Disney World, and trying to attend as many Broadway shows as her budget will allow. An admitted sports fanatic, Farrah feeds her addiction to football by watching New Orleans Saints games on Sunday afternoons.
Farrah is represented by Evan Marshall of the Evan Marshall Literary Agency.
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: Good Sex with Candice Nicole Hargons, PhD. - February 19 @ 7PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Good Sex with Candice Nicole Hargons, PhD. - February 19 @ 7PM
Candice Nicole Hargons, PhD.
from $5.00Celebrate the release of Good Sex: Stories, Science, and Strategies for Sexual Liberation with Candice Nicole Hargons, PhD!
EVENT DEETS
When: Wednesday, February, 19 @ 7PM
Where: LOCATION CHANGED to The Dupree Room at the Eldorado Ballrom: 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. There are limited free tickets!
ABOUT THE BOOK
We all deserve sex that's great for everyone involved. Let sexual liberation be your guide to a truly satisfying sex life.
How we define good sex and the conditions that facilitate it will require a liberatory approach, because intersecting oppressions impose impossible sexual standards on most of us. Instead of intimate justice, we experience blocks to accessing the ingredients for erotic equity.
Good Sex presents the ingredients to revolutionize your sexual menu in a way that works well for you, including intimacy, fun, pleasure, nastiness, and connection. Each chapter offers more than just theory and science. Good Sex outlines action steps to understand, define, and practice sexual liberation in your personalized way, replacing the unseasoned sexual menu most of us were socialized into.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Candice Nicole Hargons is an award-winning psychologist and associate professor at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, where she studies sexual wellness and liberation. As a leading expert in sex research, Dr. Hargons has been featured in the Huffington Post, Good Housekeeping, Women's Health, Blavity, Essence, Cosmopolitan, and the New York Times.
She has been featured as a keynote speaker at various conferences, including the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality and the Society for Sex Therapy and Research. Dr. Hargons also directs the SAMHSA-funded Neighborhood Healers Project, which trains Black community members in Mental Health First Aid to reduce mental health stigma and increase mental health literacy and service utilization.
A graduate of Spelman College, Georgia State University, and the University of Georgia, Dr. Hargons has also worked with several businesses – Paramount, Lexmark, Penguin Random House, universities – University of Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Emory University, Howard University, and other K-12 school systems on enhancing awareness of sexual health, building social justice competence, healing from racial trauma, leadership development, and creating a culture of courage. She has served on the Kentucky Psychological Association Board, the Society of Counseling Psychology Executive Board, and the American Psychological Association (APA) Council of Representatives. She also served on the APA Board of Directors. She is the recipient of an APA Presidential Citation for her research and leadership in social justice.ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Dr. Nikki Coleman is an award-winning licensed psychologist and pleasure coach with a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology. After nearly 20 years in academia, Dr. Nikki took a bold step to fully invest in herself by becoming a full-time entrepreneur. She now runs a thriving business offering coaching services, workshop facilitation, and public speaking services, specifically centered on the mental and sexual wellness of high-achieving Black women. This year she launched The Pleasure Pursuit- a planner + journal designed to help women prioritize their pleasure.IG: @drnikkiknowsTikTok: @drnikkisextherapist - IRL AUTHOR TALK: Black Girls Breathing with Jasmine Marie - February 6 @ 7PM CST
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Black Girls Breathing with Jasmine Marie - February 6 @ 7PM CST
Jasmine Marie
from $10.00Celebrate the release of Black Girls Breathing with Jasmine Marie!
EVENT DEETS:
When: Thursday, February 6th @ 7PM
Where: Hogan Brown Gallery, 2310 Elgin St, HTX, 77004
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming
ABOUT THE BOOK:
As a Black woman, Jasmine Marie knows the impact that intergenerational trauma and systemic racism have had—and continue to have—on her community. Those experiences, along with her own journey through chronic stress, are why she created black girls breathing®, a movement dedicated to helping Black women understand the power of the mind‑body connection and its impact on their holistic health, one breath at a time.
In Black Girls Breathing, Jasmine Marie offers you the power of breathwork, and the revolutionary nature of slowing down and turning inward. With each intentional breath, you’ll learn how to sink deeper into your body to begin to undo the trauma that’s long been stored. Sharing exercises from her unique somatic philosophies proven by data and utilized by tens of thousands of participants to date, Jasmine Marie will also help you:- Connect more fully to your body
- Give yourself permission to rest
- Heal the chronic stress you carry in your body and nervous system
- Address emotional pain
- Rebuild your sense of self and your community
This is a long-overdue resource for every Strong Black Woman—the woman ready to break cycles of trauma, heal the internalized beliefs of perfectionism and conditional self‑worth, and follow the wisdom of her inner voice.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jasmine Marie is a speaker, breathwork practitioner, and founder of black girls breathing®, a wellness platform that provides Black women with tools to heal trauma in the body and reduce chronic stress and anxiety. An alum of NYU Stern School of Business, Jasmine Marie’s work has been featured in Good Morning America, VOGUE, Forbes, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Glamour, Nylon Mag, Black Enterprise, Oprah Magazine, Well + Good, Wall Street Journal, Bust Magazine, Goop, MindBodyGreen, Refinery29, Pix11 NY, The Cut, FoxSoul, Cosmopolitan, and PopSugar Fitness, among others.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER:
Raveen Johnson is a Wellness Writer, Registered Yoga Teacher, Journaling Workshop Guide and a deep advocate for Mental/Emotional Health.
Raveen has been hosting journaling workshops in Houston since 2016, and has since expanded the offering locally and internationally. She offers the practice of journaling as a form of expression that supports mental, emotional and even physical healing. The intention is to be able to use our words in ways that compassionately support the lives that we desire for ourselves.
Raveen's yoga journey began in 2016 as a student. The practice re-introduced her to herself in way that was more empowering, strong and gracious than before. Raveen knew she wanted to effectively share the practice with others so she received her 200HR-RYT certification in 2020 at BIG Power Yoga in Houston, Texas. Four years later in 2024, Raveen received another 200HR certification under the guidance of Sarah Montross and Gioconda Parker so that she could further expand her knowledge and practice of yoga.
Journaling and yoga offer a relationship with ourselves and others that is loving, accepting and trustworthy; these are important ingredients in the recipe of following your gut and being present to your life. Raveen is delighted to use these tools to support the mental, spiritual and physical aspects of your personal healing journey. - IRL Author Talk: In Open Contempt with Irvin Weathersby Jr. - January 9 @ 7 PM CST
IRL Author Talk: In Open Contempt with Irvin Weathersby Jr. - January 9 @ 7 PM CST
Irvin Weathersby Jr.
from $5.00Join us as we celebrate the release of In Open Contempt with author, Irvin Weathersby, Jr.This program is in partnership with Project Row Houses.EVENT DEETS:
When: Thursday, January 9 at 7 PM CST
Where: Hogan Brown Community (2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP WITH BOOK to support our programming and store or grab a free ticket.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
A stirring journey into the soul of a fractured America that confronts the enduring specter of white supremacy in our art, monuments, and public spaces, from a captivating new literary voice.
Amid the ongoing reckoning over America’s history of anti-Black racism, scores of monuments to slaveowners and Confederate soldiers still proudly dot the country’s landscape, while schools and street signs continue to bear the names of segregationists. With poignant, lyrical prose, cultural commentator Irvin Weathersby confronts the inescapable specter of white supremacy in our open spaces and contemplates what it means to bear witness to sites of lasting racial trauma.
Weathersby takes us from the streets of his childhood in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward to the Whitney Plantation; from the graffitied pedestals of Confederate statues lining Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, to the location of a racist terror attack in Charlottesville; from the site of the Wounded Knee massacre in South Dakota to a Kara Walker art installation at a former sugar factory in Brooklyn, New York. Along the way, he challenges the creation myths embedded in America’s landmarks and meets artists, curators, and city planners doing the same. Urgent and unflinchingly intimate, In Open Contempt offers a hopeful reimagining of the spaces we share in order to honor our nation’s true history, encouraging us to make room for love as a way to heal and treat each other more humanely.ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Irvin is a Brooklyn-based writer and professor from New Orleans. His writing has been featured in Esquire, The Atlantic, The Root, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from The New School, an MA from Morgan State University, a BA from Morehouse College and has received fellowships and awards from the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation, the Research Foundation of CUNY, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Mellon Foundation.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNERS
Texas native Anthony Suber is an interdisciplinary artist working and living in SouthEast Texas. He received a BFA from the University of Houston and completed his MFA at Houston Christian University. Throughout his career, Suber has exhibited work and produced multi-tiered activations both nationally and abroad. Suber is a professor of art with the Katherine G. McGovern College at University Houston’s School of Art and an artist-in-residence with Project Row Houses in Houston’s historic Third Ward community. He also serves as the Creative Director for the arts and mental health nonprofit, The Blackman Project.
Suber’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, Greece, Project Row Houses, Houston, Tinney Contemporary in Nashville, University Museum at Texas Southern University, Houston, Art is Bond Gallery, Houston, John B. Coleman Gallery at Prairie View A&M University, Houston Museum of African American Culture, with solo exhibitions at Red Bud Arts Center in Houston, LRT Gallery, Houston and Cindy Lisica Gallery, Houston. His work has been featured in publications such as Arts and Culture Texas, Glass Tire, The Houston Chronicle, and Free Press Houston. Suber was the recipient of the Artadia Art Prize in 2022.
Wale is a licensed mental health therapist and a passionate reader who uses her platform (@theehottgirlbooks) to dive deep into powerfully emotional stories written by BIPOC authors. Her love for reading and mental health fosters a passionate approach to her work both online and in the therapy room. When she is not immersed in the literary world, you can find her watching the real housewives or building an elaborate Lego set.
- IRL Author Talk: The Day God Saw Me as Black with D. Danyelle Thomas - January 7 @ 7PM
IRL Author Talk: The Day God Saw Me as Black with D. Danyelle Thomas - January 7 @ 7PM
Sold outCelebrate The Day God Saw Me as Black with Passuh Danyelle!
EVENT DEETS
When: Tuesday, January 7 @ 7PM
Where: 2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve you seat and signed copy!
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Day God Saw Me as Black is a genre-defying, cultural critique of white supremacy in the Black Pentecostal religious experience through the lenses of race, gender, sexual expression, and class analyses. A narrative that weaves between critique and meditation, decolonization and reconciliation, the theoretical and the deeply personal, The Day God Saw Me as Black is an imagining of what could be if we stopped denying ourselves — and each other — full liberation.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
D. Danyelle Thomas is a Black faith and spirituality writer, speaker, and digital faith leader. The founder of Unfit Christian, her work and words have been featured in Essence, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, Rewire.News, Splinter, and NBC News. She holds both a master's in Public Policy and a bachelor's in African American Studies from Georgia State University. She is on Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) via @UnfitChristian
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Daphne (she/her) is passionate about helping people leave harmful and abusive situations so she shares her experience as a way to offer hope to others who may be in the same position. She created Golden Daph to share the things she's learning to refine her life and build it into something she's proud of. She shares what she's learned from her divorce, emotional and spiritual abuse, and her faith deconstruction and decolonization. She has found so much freedom on my journey and she hopes to share it with you.
In her day-to-day life you can find her working in the social justice field in Houston, Texas. When she's not doing that, you can find her spending time with family and friends, listening to podcasts and audiobooks, or watching reality TV shows. She's also a co-host of the Love is a Trip Podcast with her good sis Ash!
- IRL Poetry Reading: Ankle - Deep in Pacific Water with E. Hughes - December 5 @ 7PM
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 Author Talk: Harlem Rhapsody with Victoria Christopher Murray - February 5 @ 7PM
IRL Author Talk: Harlem Rhapsody with Victoria Christopher Murray - February 5 @ 7PM
Sold outCelebrate the release of Harlem Rhapsody with Victoria Christopher Murray!
EVENT DEETS
When: Wednesday, February 5 @ 7PM
Where: Holy Family HTX (3719 Navigation Blvd, HTX, 77003)
How: Get your tickets here!
ABOUT THE BOOK
In 1919, a high school teacher from Washington, D.C arrives in Harlem excited to realize her lifelong dream. Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness. But she holds a secret that jeopardizes it all.
W. E. B. Du Bois, the founder of The Crisis, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart. Amidst rumors of their tumultuous affair, Jessie is determined to prove herself. She attacks the challenge of discovering young writers with fervor, finding sixteen-year-old Countee Cullen, seventeen-year-old Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen, who becomes one of her best friends. Under Jessie’s leadership, The Crisis thrives…every African American writer in the country wants their work published there.
When her first novel is released to great acclaim, it’s clear that Jessie is at the heart of a renaissance in Black music, theater, and the arts. She has shaped a generation of literary legends, but as she strives to preserve her legacy, she’ll discover the high cost of her unparalleled success.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Victoria Christopher Murray is one of the country's top Black contemporary authors. Her novels include the Seven Deadly Sins series and Stand Your Ground, a Library Journal Best Book of the Year. She holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
As a national bestselling author and award-winning journalist, ReShonda Tate has the credentials, and the passion, to bring stories to life. A highly sought-after motivational speaker/poet, ReShonda is a three-time nominee and previous winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature. She has received a plethora of distinguished awards and honors for her journalism, fiction, and poetry writing skills, including an induction into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame and the Texas Literary Hall of Fame. Two of her novels have been made into television movies.
- IRL Author Talk: We Will Rest with Tricia Hersey + Jerid P. Woods - January 19 @ 4PM
IRL Author Talk: We Will Rest with Tricia Hersey + Jerid P. Woods - January 19 @ 4PM
from $14.00Pay homage to We Will Rest: The Art of Escape with Tricia Hersey!
EVENT DEETS
When: Sunday, January 19 @ 4PM
Where: Eldorado Ballroom (2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004)
How: GET TICKETS HERE! All tickets will come with a copy of the book.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A beautifully illustrated “modern sacred object” of a book—inspired by vintage hymnals, prayer books, and abolitionist pamphlets—helping readers escape from grind culture and dehumanizing systems, by the New York Times bestselling author of Rest Is Resistance
Give the gift of rest and escape with this exquisitely designed volume of inspiring writings by Tricia Hersey, powerfully illustrated by award-winning designer George McCalman and featuring a silk ribbon marker.
We don’t believe we are worthy of rest unless we burn ourselves out to accomplish it. Our thinking has been limited by disconnection, sleep deprivation, and the unattainable call for perfection. The systems will never give us rest. It is something we must create for ourselves and each other.
Just as the North Star guided the enslaved on their journeys to freedom, visionary artist and founder of The Nap Ministry Tricia Hersey leads us to imagine a new world: one in which we subvert the narrative of productivity at all costs and embrace rest as a healing spiritual practice.
We Will Rest! is a modern sacred object, medicine for a sick and exhausted world. Weaving together meditations and poetry with storytelling and art, Hersey provokes liberation through refusal and trickster rebellion in the face of capitalism and white supremacy.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tricia Hersey is a multidisciplinary artist, theologian, escape artist and founder of The Nap Ministry. She is the global pioneer and originator of the “rest as resistance” and “rest as reparations” frameworks, and collaborates with communities all over the world to create sacred spaces where the liberatory, restorative, and disruptive power of rest can take hold. Tricia’s work is seeded within the soils of Black radical thought, somatics, Afrofuturism, womanism, and liberation theology. She is a Chicago native who believes in daydreaming, porch sitting, and poetry.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Jerid P. Woods, also known as Akili Nzuri, is a writer, educator, PhD Candidate, and literary influencer. He was born and raised in Natchez, MS, and survives on an unwavering commitment to ignite a passion for reading in the youth. He also exists as a living testimony to the power of shared stories and knowing one’s self. He is the owner and creator of Ablackmanreading.com and the Instagram blog @ablackmanreading.
- IRL Author Talk: BLK MKT Vintage with Jannah Handy & Kiyanna Stewart in conversation with Amarie Gipson
IRL Author Talk: BLK MKT Vintage with Jannah Handy & Kiyanna Stewart in conversation with Amarie Gipson
from $0.00Celebrate the release BLK MKT Vintage with Jannah Handy & Kiyanna Stewart!
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, October 24 @ 7 PM
Where: Eldorado Ballroom (2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming.
This event is in partnership with Project Row Houses!
ABOUT THE BOOK
This one-of-a-kind treasure trove of Black cultural ephemera, from the entrepreneurs behind the vintage shop BLK MKT Vintage, expands on their mission to curate vintage objects that tell Black stories and celebrate the contributions Black people have made to our American consciousness.
Jannah Handy and Kiyanna Stewart have spent years scouring piles, stacks, bookshelves, and dilapidated boxes in search of themselves and their history, Black history. Through their Brooklyn brick-and-mortar BLK MKT Vintage and online shop, they have uncovered tens of thousands of items including vintage literature, vinyl records, clothing, art, decor, furniture and more.
BLK MKT Vintage: Reclaiming Objects and Curiosities That Tell Black Stories invites readers into Handy and Stewart’s work and partnership as they pick, collect, curate, design, and reimagine futures for the objects of the past. Brimming with more than 300 photographs of vintage pieces of ephemera, the book is a beautiful, ephemeral object itself calling to mind a scrapbook or family album that has a surprise on every page whether that’s 1972 celluloid pins from Shirley Chisholm’s presidential campaign, early 1800’s hand-drawn maps of the African continent, or 1920’s bound yearbooks from various HBCUs. The book also explores the various concepts that ground Handy and Stewart’s work; interviews with Black archivists, artists, memory workers and collectors – including a foreword from Spike Lee; a look into their private collection of thousands of items they have discovered over the years; an explanation of the different players in the antiques and vintage world; and tips and tricks on how to begin your own collection and curate physical spaces that reflect your identity and experience.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jannah Handy and Kiyanna Stewart are the co-founders of BLK MKT Vintage, an online vintage/antique concept shop that specializes in collectibles and curiosities, representing the richness of black history and lived experience. Their passion for material culture and found objects has led them to interior design projects, personal sourcing, set design, prop rental, museum loans and other curatorial projects in media/entertainment, education, the arts & philanthropy. Jannah has a background in business and education, with a B.A. in Economics from Smith College, and a M.Ed. in Higher Education from UMASS, Amherst. Kiyanna has a background in fashion & education, with a B.A. in Journalism & Africana Studies and a M.A. in Women's Studies, all from Rutgers University
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Amarie Gipson is a Houston-born writer, cultural worker and founder of The Reading Room HTX. She has held curatorial positions at various art institutions, including The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Independently, her writing has been published in ARTS.BLACK, Artforum, ArtNews, ESSENCE, Oxford American and many others. As a DJ, Gipson has made a significant impact on her hometown through PHYSICAL THERAPY, a dance party and 7,000+ person community founded to foreground safety and togetherness in Houston's underground music/nightlife scene. She is the former Arts & Culture editor of Houstonia Magazine and currently the Houston Editor-At-Large for Burnaway, an Atlanta-based arts criticism publication focusing on the American South and the Caribbean. Advancing a new model for librarianship and public institution building, The Reading Room is increasing access to cultural history through literature and programming. It is a community-centered tribute to Black genius in the South and beyond.
- IRL Author Talk: Ours with Phillip B. Williams + Kiese Laymon - October 27 @ 3PM CST
IRL Author Talk: Ours with Phillip B. Williams + Kiese Laymon - October 27 @ 3PM CST
from $5.00Join us to commemorate Phillip B. Williams's first novel, Ours: A Novel!
EVENT DEETS
When: Sunday, October 27 @ 3PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve you seat (and bring your own copy) or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your copy.
If you are student or in financial need, please reach out to inquire about a free ticket.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In this ingenious, sweeping novel, Phillip B. Williams introduces us to an enigmatic woman named Saint, a fearsome conjuror who, in the 1830s, annihilates plantations all over Arkansas to rescue the people enslaved there. She brings those she has freed to a haven of her own creation: a town just north of St. Louis, magically concealed from outsiders, named Ours.
It is in this miraculous place that Saint’s grand experiment—a truly secluded community where her people may flourish—takes root. But although Saint does her best to protect the inhabitants of Ours, over time, her conjuring and memories begin to betray her, leaving the town vulnerable to intrusions by newcomers with powers of their own. As the cracks in Saint’s creation are exposed, some begin to wonder whether the community’s safety might be yet another form of bondage.
Set over the course of four decades and steeped in a rich tradition of American literature informed by Black surrealism, mythology, and spirituality, Ours is a stunning exploration of the possibilities and limitations of love and freedom by a writer of capacious vision and talent.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Phillip B. Williams is from Chicago, Illinois, and is the author of two collections of poetry: Thief in the Interior, which was the winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and a Lambda Literary Award, and Mutiny, which was a finalist for the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection and the winner of a 2022 American Book Award. Williams is also the recipient of a Whiting Award and fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently teaches in the MFA in creative writing program at New York University and the Randolph College low-residency MFA.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Kiese Laymon is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. Laymon is the author of Long Division, which won the 2022 NAACP Image Award for fiction, and the essay collection, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, named a notable book of 2021 by the New York Times critics. Laymon’s bestselling memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir, won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Barnes and Noble Discovery Award, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. The audiobook, read by the author, was named the Audible 2018 Audiobook of the Year. Laymon is the recipient of 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard. Laymon is at work on the books, Good God, and City Summer, Country Summer, and a number of other film and television projects. He is the founder of “The Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative,” a program based out of the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University, aimed at aiding young people in Jackson get more comfortable reading, writing, revising and sharing on their on their own terms, in their own communities. Kiese Laymon was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022.
- IRL AUTHOR SIGNING: Jax Freeman and Phantom Shriek with Kwame Mbalia - October 9 @ 4 -6 PM
IRL AUTHOR SIGNING: Jax Freeman and Phantom Shriek with Kwame Mbalia - October 9 @ 4 -6 PM
from $0.00Celebrate the newest book from Freedom Fire, Jax Freeman and Phantom Shriek!
EVENT DEETS
When: Wednesday, October 9 @ 4 -6 PM CST
Where: 2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you're stopping by or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your copy
ABOUT THE BOOK
What do you get when you combine Kwame Mbalia's incredible imagination and world-building talent with trains, history, and ghosts? Nothing less than middle grade magic.
On his twelfth birthday, Jackson "Jax" Freeman arrives at Chicago's Union Station alone, carrying nothing but the baggage of a scandal back in Raleigh. He's been sent away from home to live with relatives he barely knows. But even worse are the strangers who accost him at the train station, including a food vendor who throws dust in his face and a conductor who tries to steal his skin.
At his new school, Jax is assigned to a special class for "summoners," even though he has no idea what those are . . . until he accidentally unleashes an angry spirit on school grounds. Soon Jax is embroiled in all kinds of trouble, from the disappearance of a new friend to full-out war between summoning families.
When Jax learns that he isn't the first Freeman to be blamed for a tragedy he didn't create, he resolves to clear his own name and that of his great-grandfather, who was a porter back in the 1920's. By following clues, Jax and his schoolmates unlock the secrets of a powerful Praise House, evade vengeful ghosts, and discover that Jax may just be the most talented summoner of all.
A unique magic-school fantasy from the best-selling and award-winning author of the Tristan Strong trilogy has just pulled into the station.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kwame Mbalia is a #1 New York Times best-selling author and the publisher of Freedom Fire, an imprint of Disney Hyperion devoted to stories about the Black diaspora by Black creators. His debut middle-grade novel, Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, was awarded a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, and it was followed by Tristan Strong Destroys the World and Tristan Strong Keeps Punching. Kwame lives with his wife and children outside Raleigh, North Carolina, where he is currently working on the next Jax Freeman adventure. For more information, go to www.KwameMbalia.com.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Nia "N.E." Davenport is the award-winning author of the adult fantasy novels "The Blood Trials" and its sequel "The Blood Gift." She is also the author of the YA speculative thriller "Out of Body," which is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, and forthcoming YA fantasy romance "Love Spells Trouble." She attended the University of Southern California and studied Biological Sciences and Theatre. She has an M.A. in Secondary Education, taught secondary English and Science for several years, and designs English/Language Arts curriculum for school districts across the US. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys vacationing with her family, being a huge foodie, and talking about binge-worthy TV, fun movies, and killer books.
- IRL Author Talk: Love & Sportsball with Meka James - October 9 @ 7:30 PM CST
IRL Author Talk: Love & Sportsball with Meka James - October 9 @ 7:30 PM CST
from $0.00Celebrate Love & Sportsball with author, Meka James!
EVENT DEETS
When: Tuesday, October 9 @ 7:30 PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to save your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support our bookstore and the author!
ABOUT THE BOOK
In this steamy and sweet sapphic romance, set in the world of women's basketball, an uptight athletic trainer has one taboo night with a hot team member determined to play for her heart – and win.
Hard work has Khadijah Upton starting her dream job as an athletic trainer for the WNBA Atlanta Cannons. Then an evening of celebratory letting loose turns into a one-night-stand with a beautiful stranger. It’s a reckless, wildly sexy encounter that Khadijah intends to forget…until her first day on the job lands her face to face with Shae Harris again.
Shae is a major player in every sense of the word, and Khadijah doesn’t plan to be the latest in a long line of “Harris Honeys.” Personal and professional just don’t mix. But Shae, who’s all about living life to the fullest, keeps tempting Khadijah to blur the boundaries. And the more Shae reveals about herself, the harder it is for Khadijah to resist her.
In the bedroom, their tension sizzles. On the court, it’s a liability. But unless Khadijah’s willing to really let Shae in, it won’t be just the championship on the line, but a body-and-soul connection that rewrites all the rules.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Meka James is a writer of adult contemporary and erotic romance. A born and raised Georgia Peach, she still resides in the southern state with her hubby of 16 years and counting. Mom to four kids of the two legged variety, she also has four fur-babies of the canine variety. Leo the turtle and Spade the snake rounds out her wacky household. When not writing or reading, Meka can be found playing The Sims 3, sometimes Sims 4, and making up fun stories to go with the pixelated people whose world she controls.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Chencia C. Higgins is just a girl from Texas who has made it her mission to create stories in which sassy, southern Black women are loved out loud. In 2019 she won a Romance Slam Jam Emma award for her debut paranormal romance, Janine: His True Alpha. When she isn't hunkered down in her writing cave, Chencia can be found with her nose in a book, saving recipes on Pinterest for things she'll never make, and dreaming about traveling even further south for the winter.
- IRL Author Talk: Guide Me Home with Attica Locke - September 11 @ 7 PM
IRL Author Talk: Guide Me Home with Attica Locke - September 11 @ 7 PM
Sold outCelebrate the final installment of Attica Locke's Highway 59 Series, Guide Me Home!
EVENT DEETS
When: Wednesday, September 11, 2024 @ 7 PM
Where: Holy Family HTX (3719 Navigation Blvd, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support Attica Locke and the bookstore!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Texas Ranger Darren Mathews isn’t sure he’s been a good cop, but believes he’s got a shot at being a good man—if he manages to dodge the potential indictment hanging over his head and if he, from here on out, pledges allegiance to the truth. It’s a virtue the country appears to have wholly lost its grip on, but one Darren sees as his salvation. He is in the midst of remaking his life with the woman he loves, hoping for the peace of country living at his beloved farmhouse, when he is visited by someone who couldn’t hold the truth on her tongue if it was dipped in sugar, a woman who’s always been bent of tearing his life apart. His mother. Armed with a tall tale about a missing Black college student, Sera (whose white sorority sisters insist she isn’t missing at all). Darren must decide if his can trust his mother is telling the truth—and what her ulterior motive may be, and what if that motive has to do with a grand jury deciding his fate.
Darren gets his hooks into the investigation, along the way discovering things about Sera’s family and her hometown that are odd at best, vaguely sinister at worst. Hamstrung by local law enforcement and the Texas Rangers who likewise doubt the account of a missing girl, if Darren wants answers, he’ll need help from the person whom he swore to never trust again—his mother.
In this emotionally stirring conclusion to the singular Highway 59 series, set three years after the events of Heaven, My Home, Darren reckons with his life’s purpose as he’s forced to choose between his own peace and the higher call to do good.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Attica Locke is a NY Times best-selling author of six novels, including Guide Me Home. She is also a winner of an Edgar Award and the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and she has been short listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and nominated for an LA Times Book Prize and an NAACP Image award for her work as a novelist. Locke is also a screenwriter and TV producer, with credits that include Empire, When They See Us and the Emmy-nominated Little Fires Everywhere, for which she won an NAACP Image award for television writing. She co-created and executive produced an adaptation of her sister Tembi Locke’s memoir From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home for Netflix. A native of Houston, Texas, Attica lives in Los Angeles, California
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
ReShonda Tate is the national bestselling author of more than 50 books, including her latest The Queen of Sugar Hill, based on the life of Hattie McDaniel. Her novel, Let the Church Say Amen, was made into a film directed by actress Regina King, and produced by TD Jakes and Queen Latifah. Her book, The Secret She Kept, was also made into a TV One movie starring Kyla Pratt. ReShonda made appearances in both movies. She wrote a movie, Christmas with my Ex, which will run on TV One this winter. A well-respected journalist and former TV News Anchor, ReShonda is currently Managing Editor for the Defender Newspaper and also works as a professional editor, ghostwriter, and literary consultant. A highly sought-after motivational speaker and award-winning poet, ReShonda is the recipient of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature.
- IRL Author Talk: Seasons of Growth with Marcus Bridgewater - September 21 @ 9:30AM CST
IRL Author Talk: Seasons of Growth with Marcus Bridgewater - September 21 @ 9:30AM CST
Marcus Bridgewater
Sold outCelebrate the release of Seasons of Growth with Marcus Bridgewater!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, September 21 @ 9:30AM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
HOW: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming
ABOUT THE BOOK
Start your journey to flourishing with wisdom from the garden.
With the same soothing and sage insights from his beloved online channels where he is known as Garden Marcus, Marcus Bridgewater invites us all to journal on growth and transformation inspired by nature.
Using the central metaphor of a tree, Bridgewater explores how to undergo personal transformation in our minds (the leaves), in our bodies (the trunk), and in our spirit (our roots). Just as a tree yearns to grow, so do we. But as Marcus makes clear, “writing a single journal entry and expecting your life to turn around is like asking for fruit from a tree you planted yesterday. Growth doesn’t just happen—it’s a never-ending process, something we should welcome and embrace.”
In this beautiful self-care journal, we can discover powerful and healing practices organized by the seasons, each mirroring different stages of our growth process:
- SUMMER: learning how to pace and keep tempo
- FALL: opening ourselves to embrace transition and practice gratitude
- WINTER: taking time to rest, reflect, and prepare
- SPRING: discovering inspiration, keeping momentum
Like the rings of a tree marking every year of growth, our journal can become a log of lessons learned throughout the seasons of our lives. Featuring journal prompts, activities, breathing and mindfulness exercises, and bite-sized bits of knowledge to help us slow down, experiment with new wellness practices, Seasons of Growth can lead us to find inner clarity, harmony, and peace.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marcus Bridgewater is a creator, educator, motivational speaker, and plant enthusiast. He is the personality behind Garden Marcus on social media, which demonstrates that a positive, knowledgeable approach to nurturing plants also helps us grow as people. He is the Founder & CEO of Choice Forward, a company that offers life coaching, seminars, and workshops, and he is the author of How to Grow: Nurture Your Garden, Nurture Yourself. He lives in Texas with his wife, son, and a thousand plants.
Stay Informed. We're building a community committed to celebrating Black authors + artisans. Subscribe to keep up with all things Kindred Stories.