Bestsellers

Availability

Price

$
$

More filters

  • Long Live Black History Sticker
    $5.00

    Black history is here to stay. 2.45″ x 3″ thick, durable, vinyl waterproof sticker! 

  • I Understand the Assignment Vinyl Sticker
    $3.50

    This sticker will look absolutely lovely on whatever water bottle, notebook, cell phone case, laptop, or other surface you put it on!

    Approximately 3 inches x 3 inches

    Durable scratch-resistant vinyl that is weatherproof and dishwasher safe 

  • Floral Book Enamel Bookmark
    $14.50

    Save your place in style with this gorgeous enamel chained bookmark featuring a hand drawn illustration of a book with poppies and the saying "Joy is getting lost in a good book." Perfect for any book lover! 

  • African American Herbalism: A Practical Guide to Healing Plants and Folk Traditions

    by Lucretia Van Dyke

    $16.95

    Discover the roots of modern-day herbal remedies, plant medicine, holistic rituals, natural recipes, and more that were created by African American herbal healers throughout history.

    This first-of-its-kind herbal guide takes you through the origins of herbal practices rooted in African American tradition—from Ancient Egypt and the African tropics to the Caribbean and the United States. Inside you’ll find the stories of herbal healers like Emma Dupree and Henrietta Jeffries, who made modern American herbalism what it is today. 

    After rediscovering the forgotten legacies of these healers, African American Herbalism dives into the important contributions they made to the world of herbalism, including: 

    • Rituals for sacred bathing and skin care
    • Herbal tinctures, potions, and medicine 
    • Recipes for healing meals and soul food 
    • And more!
    You’ll also find a comprehensive herbal guide to the most commonly used herbs—such as aloe, lavender, sage, sassafras, and more—alongside gorgeous botanical illustrations. African American Herbalism is the perfect guide for anyone wanting to explore the medicinal and healing properties of herbs.
  • Black Crossword: 100 Midi Puzzles Connecting the African Diaspora

    Juliana Pache

    $15.99

    Frustrated by the dearth of Black people creating puzzles or appearing as clues, media professional and entrepreneur Juliana Pache launched blackcrossword.com at the beginning of 2023. The site took off at once and was met with an overwhelmingly positive reception from new and seasoned solvers alike.

    This second collection offers even more challenges and choice, featuring different grid sizes from 6 x 6 to 8 x 8. Highlighting terms and clues from across the diaspora—topics include prominent cultural figures and movements, artistic achievements, history, and Black vernacular from around the globe—Black Crossword: 100 Midi Puzzles Connecting The African Diaspora covers popular culture, the arts, literature, and more, and follows the form of the original Black Crossword, but with more letters, and more room to highlight the Diaspora’s rich history

  • The Day God Saw Me as Black

    by D. Danyelle Thomas

    from $18.99

    Paperback Release: October 28, 2025

    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.

  • Black Boy, Black Boy

    by Ali Kamanda and Jorge Redmond

    $17.99

    This listing is for our upcoming school visit at the Imani School on October 13, 2022.

    Dear boy, Black boy, I believe in you so.

    Let's start your story—ready, set, go.

    From athlete and activist Colin Kaepernick to musician Sam Cooke, inventor Elijah McCoy to writer Chinua Achebe, there are so many inspirational men in Black history. Imagine what you can be and the great things you can do with the strength of people throughout history that have paved the way for Black boys.

    This inspiring, lyrical picture book combines an uplifting, motivational text with references to wonderful figures throughout history. The combination is both encouraging and educational, prompting boys to imagine what they can be and the great things they can do in their own lives.

  • Radical Friendship: Seven Ways to Love Yourself and Find Your People in an Unjust World

    Kate Johnson

    $17.95
    A case for friendship as a radical practice of love, courage, and trust, and seven strategies that pave the way for profound social change.
     
    Grounded in the Buddha’s teachings on spiritual friendship, Radical Friendship shares seven strategies to help us embody our deepest values in all of our relationships. Drawing on her experiences as a leading meditation teacher, as well as personal stories of growing up multiracial in a racist world, Kate Johnson brings a fresh take on time-honored wisdom to help us connect more authentically with ourselves, with our friends and family, and within our communities. 
     
    The divides we experience within us and between us are not only a threat to our physical and emotional health—they are also the weapons and the outcomes of structural oppression. But through wise relationships, it is possible to transform the barriers created by societal injustice. Johnson leads us on a journey to becoming better friends by offering ways to show up for our own and each other’s liberation at every stage of a relationship. Each chapter ends with a meditation or reflection practice to help readers cultivate vibrant, harmonious, revolutionary friendships. Radical Friendship offers a path of depth and hope and shows us the importance of working toward collective wellbeing, one relationship at a time.
  • Glow

    by Ruth Forman

    $8.99
    A joyfully poetic board book that delivers an ode to the beautiful light of African American boys.

    I shine night too
    smooth brown
    glow skin

    This simple, playful, and elegant board book stars a young boy who joyfully celebrates his dark skin with a bright moon at the end of a perfect day.
  • Resist Watermelon Enamel Pin for Palestinian Solidarity
    $10.00
    Presenting our vibrant Watermelon Resist Enamel Pin, a powerful symbol of solidarity for Palestine's resilience and resistance. This unique lapel pin, adorned with the word "Resist," serves as both a statement of support and a meaningful gift for those advocating for Palestine's freedom. -Pin is hard enamel with two metal butterfly clasps -Pin measures 1.5” in length
  • Africa, Amazing Africa: Country by Country 

    by Atinuke

    $19.99

    A Nigerian storyteller explores the continent of Africa country by country: its geography, peoples, animals, history, resources, and cultural diversity. The book is divided into five distinct sections—South, East, West, Central, and North—and each country is showcased on its own bright, energetic page brimming with friendly facts on science, industry, food, sports, music, wildlife, landscape features, even snippets of local languages. The richest king, the tallest sand dunes, and the planet’s largest waterfall all make appearances along with drummers, cocoa growers, inventors, balancing stones, salt lakes, high-tech cities, and nomads who use GPS!

  • Introverts Twerk Sticker
    $4.00

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

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

  • Picky Sticker
    Sold out

    This sticker will look absolutely lovely on whatever water bottle, notebook, cell phone case, laptop, or other surface you put it on!

    Measures approximately 3 inches

    Durable scratch-resistant vinyl that is weatherproof and dishwasher safe 

  • Lonéz Scents Candle - Peppercorn & Citrus Peel
    Sold out

    Smells like freshly cracked black peppercorn, orange peel and mandarian creating a spiced citrus scent. Balanced with notes of tonka, patchouli and smokey wood.

    The Hue Collection is an expression of art and scent playfully coming together to create a unique candle experience.

    LON
    ÉZ SCENTS candles are made from 100% soy wax grown in the USA - creating a clean, environmentally friendly burn. 

    • 12 oz
    • 80 hour burn time
    • cotton wick
    • no dyes added
    • phthalate free
    • lead free
    • zinc free
  • My Week with Him

    by Joya Goffney

    $19.99

     *All pre-orders are signed/personalized and come with exclusive art and bookmarks.*

     From Joya Goffney, author of Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, comes her third stunning YA novel, a stirring coming-of-age, best friends-to-lovers romance about a girl named Nikki who plans to run away from small-town Texas but ultimately finds that her oldest friend, Mal, just might be the one who’s been there for her all along. Filled with Joya’s signature heart and humor, this book captures complex family dynamics, friendship, and love. For fans of I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest and Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan.

    After a painful betrayal by her sister and a heated argument with their mother, Nikki is kicked out and finds herself homeless over spring break, only two months away from graduation. But instead of relying on anyone, especially someone like Malachai and his rich, overeager, overgenerous parents, to give her a home, and instead of waiting for her dad who isn't actually her birth-dad to talk some sense into her heartless mother again, she decides to jet. She'll drive as far as her car will take her, so long as it's away from that woman. 

    When Malachai catches wind of her plan to flee Texas, he begs her to stay the remainder of spring break with him at his parent-free house. He believes that over the course of a week, he can either convince her to stay in Cactus, Texas, or at least help her come up with a solution that ends with her graduating. All the while, she's dead set on heading to California at the end of the week to get started on her dream music career, no matter how impractical it is. But all their spring break plans are interrupted when Nikki's sister goes missing. Running away isn't something Vae does—it's always been Nikki's thing. 

    Nikki is forced to work alongside her wretched mother, her mother's ex-husband, and Malachai, who may or may not be moving into the boyfriend slot, to find her little sister, all with the uncertainty of what will happen at the end of the week. Will Nikki find a way to stay in Cactus, or will this spring break be the last time she ever sees these people?


  • Black Women Writers at Work

    by Claudia Tate

    $24.95

    A critical collection of conversations with Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Gayl Jones and other Black women writers that changed the scope of Black literature in the 20th century and beyond.

    “Black women writers and critics are acting on the old adage that one must speak for oneself if one wishes to be heard.” —Claudia Tate, from the introduction

    Long out of print, Black Women Writers at Work is a vital contribution to Black literature in the 20th century. 

    Through candid interviews with Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Gwendolyn Brooks, Alexis De Veaux, Nikki Giovanni, Kristin Hunter, Gayl Jones, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Margaret Walker, and Sherley Anne Williams, the book highlights the practices and critical linkages between the work and lived experiences of Black women writers whose work laid the foundation for many who have come after.


    Responding to questions about why and for whom they write, and how they perceive their responsibility to their work, to others, and to society, the featured playwrights, poets, novelists, and essayists provide a window into the connections between their lives and their art.

    Finally available for a new generation, this classic work has an urgent message for readers and writers today.

  • How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

    by Clint Smith

    from $18.99

    Beginning in his own hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader through an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation’s collective history, and ourselves.

    It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving over 400 people on the premises. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation-turned maximum security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers.

    In a deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country’s most essential stories are hidden in plain view-whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods—like downtown Manhattan—on which the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women and children has been deeply imprinted.

    Informed by scholarship and brought alive by the story of people living today, Clint Sm

  • Julep: Southern Cocktails Refashioned

    by Alba Huerta

    $25.99
    A tribute to the spirits and drinking traditions of the South through a leading barwoman's glass, with 80 recipes and photos.

    Craft cocktail maven Alba Huerta succinctly tells the story of drinking in the South through themes such as "Trading with the Enemy," "the Rural South," "the Drinking Society," "the Saltwater South," and others that anchor the menu at her destination bar, Julep. With historical overviews, 15 bar snack recipes, and 65 bespoke cocktail recipes, ranging from the iconic Mint Julep (and variations such as Rye Julep and Sparkling Julep) to modern inventions like the Snakebit Sprout, Liquid Currency, and Hot July, Huerta recounts the tales and traditions that define drinking culture in the American South today. Approximately 80 evocative cocktail and location photographs convey the romance and style that distinguish Julep and serve to inspire beverage enthusiasts to relive Southern history via the bar cart.
  • Hands On!

    by Anne Wynter

    $7.99

    Celebrate baby’s first steps with a board book that follows one curious baby’s journey to this important milestone.

    Hand in hand

    Left, right, left

    Hands out wide

    Step, step, step

    Hands On! is the cheerful and triumphant story of a baby’s journey from playing and grasping with their hands to stumbling on their feet to taking their very first steps. Anne Wynter’s spare and lyrical text—alongside Alea Marley’s colorful, appealing art—makes for an irresistible board book to be read over and over again.

  • Tapered Cut Bookmark
    Sold out
    Embrace your inner power with our Strength in Vulnerability affirmation bookmark. This beautifully designed bookmark serves as a gentle reminder that being vulnerable is a strength, not a weakness. Featuring an inspiring quote and a vibrant illustration, this bookmark is the perfect companion for your reading adventures. Let these words guide you through tough times and remind you that it's okay to show your authentic self. Take a moment to pause, breathe, and embrace the courage that comes with vulnerability. Our bookmark is a daily affirmation of your resilience and a celebration of the beauty found in being true to who you are. Add this empowering bookmark to your collection or gift it to a loved one to spread positivity and encouragement. Let's embrace our vulnerabilities and discover the immense strength that lies within - 16pt paper stock - Glossy front, silk-finish back
  • Reader's Checklist Bookmark
    $5.00
  • My Book Stack
    $3.00
  • Birthday Nails Card
    $6.00
    Blank Inside. A7 size (5" x 7"). Printed on 110lb Pure White recycled, archival and acid-free paper. Comes with Kraft envelope and protective sleeve.
  • Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

    by Dr. Joy DeGruy

    Sold out

    In the 16th century, the beginning of African enslavement in the Americas until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and emancipation in 1865, Africans were hunted like animals, captured, sold, tortured, and raped. They experienced the worst kind of physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual abuse. Given such history, isn't it likely that many of the enslaved were severely traumatized? And did the trauma and the effects of such horrific abuse end with the abolition of slavery?

     

    Emancipation was followed by one hundred more years of institutionalized subjugation through the enactment of Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, peonage, convict leasing, domestic terrorism and lynching. Today the violations continue, and when combined with the crimes of the past, they result in yet unmeasured injury. What do repeated traumas, endured generation after generation by a people produce? What impact have these ordeals had on African Americans today?

     

    Dr. Joy DeGruy, answers these questions and more. With over thirty years of practical experience as a professional in the mental health field, Dr. DeGruy encourages African Americans to view their attitudes, assumptions, and behaviors through the lens of history and so gain a greater understanding of how centuries of slavery and oppression have impacted people of African descent in America.

     

    Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome helps to lay the necessary foundation to ensure the well-being and sustained health of future generations and provides a rare glimpse into the evolution of society's beliefs, feelings, attitudes and behavior concerning race in America.

  • The Bluest Eye

    by Toni Morrison

    $14.95
    NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A PARADE BEST BOOK OF ALL TIME  From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner—a powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity that asks questions about race, class, and gender with characteristic subtly and grace.
     
    In Morrison’s acclaimed first novel, Pecola Breedlove—an 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment.
  • Collective Creative Actions: Project Row Houses at 25
    $29.95

    This book highlights the history of the Third Ward neighborhood and Project Row Houses’ role in its development over the past 25 years. It addresses the idea of social art practice from the perspective of Project Row Houses’ 5 pillars: art and creativity, education, social safety net, good and relevant architecture, and economic sustainability. The book will also include a timeline of 25 important moments in PRH’s history, which include but aren’t limited to selected documentation of the 300+ artists who have participated in Artist Rounds since 1994 and 60+ mothers who have participated in the Young Mothers Residential Program since 1996; and selected photographs of community individuals and events throughout PRH's storied past.

    Featured essays

    • “Artists in Action” by Ryan N. Dennis, PRH Curator & Programs Director

    • “Bound Up: Project Row Houses’ Covert Curriculum” by Sandra Jackson-Dumont, Frederick P. and Sandra P. Rose Chairman of Education at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

    • “A Soft Place to Stand: Escaping the Interlocking Systems of Race, Class, and Gender” by Assata-Nicole Richards, PhD, Founding Director of the Sankofa Research Institute (SRI) and Young Mothers Residential Program alumna

    • “The Collaboration of Rice Building Workshop and Project Row Houses” by Danny Samuels and Nonya Grenader, founders of the Rice Building Workshop (BRW) program

    • “Neighborhood Development and Art-Based Community Making” by George Lipsitz, Professor of Black Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara

    The Project Row Houses model for art and social engagement applies not only to Houston, but also to diverse communities around the world. This book speak to these ideas while offering insightful texts by important voices in the field.

  • When Southern Women Cook: History, Lore, and 300 Recipes with Contributions from 70 Women Writers

    Toni Tipton-Martin

    $40.00

    A first-of-its-kind Southern cookbook featuring more than 300 Cook's Country recipes and fascinating insights into the culinary techniques and heroes of the American South.

    Tour the diverse history of Southern food through 200+ stories of women who've shaped the cuisine!

    Shepherded by Toni Tipton-Martin and Cook's Country Executive Editor and TV personality Morgan Bolling, When Southern Women Cook showcases the hard work, hospitality, and creativity of women who have given soul to Southern cooking from the start. Every page amplifies their contributions, from the enslaved cooks making foundational food at Monticello to Mexican Americans accessing sweet memories with colorful conchas today.

    * 70+ voices paint a true picture of the South: Emmy Award–winning producer and author Von Diaz covers Caribbean immigrant foodways through Southern stews; food journalist Kim Severson delves into recipes' power as cultural currency; mixologist and beverage historian Tiffanie Barriere reflects on Juneteenth customs including red drink. Consulting food historian KC Hysmith contributes important—and fascinating—context throughout.

    * 300 Recipes—must-knows, little-knowns, and modern inventions: Regional Brunswick Stew, Dollywood Cinnamon Bread, Pickle-Brined Fried Chicken Sandwiches, Grilled Lemongrass Chicken Banh Mi, and Oat Guava Cookies bridge the gap between what Southern cooking is known for and how it continues to evolve.

    * Recipe headnotes contextualize your cooking: Learn Edna Lewis’ biscuit wisdom. Read about Waffle House and fry chicken thighs to top light-as-air waffles. Meet Joy Perrine, the "Bad Girl of Bourbon."

    Covering every region and flavor of the American South, from Texas Barbecue to Gullah Geechee rice dishes, this collection of 300 recipes is a joyous celebration of Southern cuisine and its diverse heroes, past and present.

  • Product Of The Street: Union City (Book 1)

    by E. Bowser

    Sold out

    Tali Saunders had one goal: to leave Union City and never look back. Going off to college with her sister Shandea was a perfect way to escape becoming a product of the street. She never imagined on her last night in Union City that she would meet someone who made her question everything she thought she knew about herself. Meeting Henny wasn’t in her plans, but after one night of pleasure and demands, a connection was made.


    Will Tali keep her to vow leave? Or will she stay?

    Hendrix ‘Henny’ Pharma had one plan that didn’t include meeting Tali Saunders. In an instant, he knew things would have to change to include his new addiction. One night wasn’t enough, but life had other plans. Will Henny get the chance to be with Tali? Or will he be left a fiend, craving the high she gave him without her to satiate him?

    Lennox ‘Oz’ Anderson met what would become his obsession the night Shandea ‘Dea’ Saunders sat down to play a game of poker.The only problem was that Dea belonged to someone else. Or at least she thought she did. Oz knew what he wanted, and it was Dea. He planned to make sure she understood that it meant forever once he made her his.
    Dea counted down the days until her sister Tali would graduate so they could leave Union City behind. Nothing and no one in Union City could keep her there, even her so-called boyfriend, Rodney.
    Dea always seemed to have a problem choosing the right man. But what happens when the right man chooses her?

    In a single night, soul ties were created that bonded these two couples in ways they’d never planned or imagined. But will betrayal, jealousy, and death make them second guess their connections being destiny or tear them apart?

    ***This book contains explicit language, graphic violence, and strong sexual content. It is intended for adults.***

  • Let Us Descend

    by Jesmyn Ward

    $17.99

    From Jesmyn Ward—the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congress Prize for Fiction, and MacArthur Fellow—comes a haunting masterpiece, sure to be an instant classic, about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War.

    “‘Let us descend,’ the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’” —Inferno, Dante Alighieri

    Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.

    Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with spirits: of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.

    From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land—the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages.

  • Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You

    by A'ja Wilson

    $24.99

    “Through honest stories and inspiring lessons from her life, A’ja Wilson reminds us to never doubt who we are or apologize for being true to ourselves. Dear Black Girls is a must-read for every Black girl out there.” ―Gabrielle Union This one is for all the girls with an apostrophe in their names. This is for all the girls who are labeled “too loud” and “too emotional.” This is for all the girls who are constantly asked, “Oh, what did you do with your hair? That’s new.” This is for my Black girls. Despite gold medals, WNBA championships, and a list of accolades, A’ja Wilson knows how it feels to be swept under the rug―to not be heard, to not feel seen, to not be taken seriously. As a fourth grader going to a primarily white school in South Carolina, A’ja was told she’d have to stay outside for a classmate’s birthday party. “Huh?” she asked. Because the birthday girl’s father didn’t like Black people. Wilson tells stories like this, about how even when life tried to hold her down, it didn’t stop her. She shares her contribution to “The Talk,” and how to keep fighting, all while igniting strength, passion, and joy. Dear Black Girls is a necessary and meaningful exploration of what it means to be a Black woman in America today―and a rallying cry to lift up women and girls everywhere. “ D ear Black Girls is filled with phenomenal stories and empowering insight on what it means to be a woman in today’s world. I didn’t want to put it down.” ―Tunde Oyeneyin, New York Times bestselling author of Speak

  • On Girlhood

    by Glory Edim

    $16.95

    With On Girlhood, Edim has beautifully curated a canonical work centering around the voices of young Black characters as they contend with innocence, belonging, love, and self-discovery. From the timeless lessons in Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” (“this is how you smile to someone you like completely”) to those in Dana Johnson’s “Melvin in the Sixth Grade” (“this is how kids start fights”), these short stories illuminate the power and the precariousness of Black girlhood. Highlighting both iconic and lesser-known authors—Edwidge Danticat, Amina Gautier, Dorothy West, Paule Marshall, Shay Youngblood, and more—this is an indispensable compendium that will instill readers with “the nerve to walk [their] own way” (Zora Neale Hurston).

  • The Awkward Black Man

    by Walter Mosley

    $17.00

    Mosley presents distinct characters as they struggle to move through the world in each of these stories—heroes who are awkward, nerdy, self-defeating, self-involved, and, on the whole, odd. He overturns the stereotypes that corral black male characters and paints a subtle, powerful portrait of each of these unique individuals. In "The Good News Is," a man’s insecurity about his weight gives way to a serious illness and the intense loneliness that accompanies it. Deeply vulnerable, he allows himself to be taken advantage of in return for a little human comfort in a raw display of true need. "Pet Fly," previously published in the New Yorker, follows a man working as a mailroom clerk for a big company—a solitary job for which he is overqualified—and the unforeseen repercussions he endures when he attempts to forge a connection beyond the one he has with the fly buzzing around his apartment. And "Almost Alyce" chronicles failed loves, family loss, alcoholism, and a Zen approach to the art of begging that proves surprisingly effective.

Stay Informed. We're building a community committed to celebrating Black authors + artisans. Subscribe to keep up with all things Kindred Stories.