Events
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: Chichi and Didi Love Their Names with Peace and Ndidi Amadi - June 28 @ 12PM
![IRL AUTHOR TALK: Chichi and Didi Love Their Names with Peace and Ndidi Amadi - June 28 @ 12PM]()
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Chichi and Didi Love Their Names with Peace and Ndidi Amadi - June 28 @ 12PM
from $5.00Celebrate the release of Chichi and Didi Love Their Names with Peace and Ndidi Amadi!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, June 28 @ 12PM
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. Note that books not purchased from Kindred Stories are not allowed in the venue.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Nigerian American sisters Chichi and Didi are ready for the first day of school! But after Chichi is teased for her “different” name, she comes home feeling discouraged.
Daddy and Mama tell the sisters the stories behind their names, helping Chichi return to school with her head held high.
Inspired by the childhood experiences of real-life sisters Peace Amadi and Ndidi Amadi, Chichi and Didi Love Their Names will teach readers:- to be curious about the origin and meanings of their own names
- the importance of identity and saying names correctly
- the beauty in celebrating difference and taking pride in uniqueness
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Although most people now know Peace Amadi by her middle name, her first name is Chinyere and she is the real-life Chichi. Peace is a psychology professor, author, and speaker, and her work lies at the intersection of mental health, faith, and culture.
Ndidi Amadi is the real-life Didi and has grown up to become a lawyer, educator, philanthropist and artist. Ndidi’s passion lies in supporting and creating equitable opportunities for underserved communities. - 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]()
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.Although Portland, Oregon, is sometimes called “America’s Whitest city,” Black residents who grew up there made it their own. The neighborhoods of Northeast Portland, also called “Albina,” were a haven for and a hub of Black community life. But between 1990 and 2010, Albina changed dramatically—it became majority White.
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]()
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, Unit 2, 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]()
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]()
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.
- JUNE 2025: Non Fiction Book Club - June 17 @ 7PM
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JUNE 2025: Non Fiction Book Club - June 17 @ 7PM
from $0.00We're meeting to discuss Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Joy Degruy!
BOOK CLUB MEETING DEETS
When: Tuesday, JUNE 17 @ 7PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you plan to attend and RSVP WITH BOOK to purchase your book and support Fiction Book Club!
ABOUT POST TRAUMATIC SLAVE SYNDROME
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.
- MAY 2025: Fiction Book Club - May 22 @ 7PM
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MAY 2025: Fiction Book Club - May 22 @ 7PM
from $0.00We're meeting to discuss The Wedding by Dorothy West!
BOOK CLUB MEETING DEETS
When: Thursday, May 22 @ 7PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you plan to attend and RSVP WITH BOOK to purchase your book and support Fiction Book Club!
ABOUT THE WEDDING
In her final novel, “a beautiful and devastating examination of family, society and race” (The New York Times), Dorothy West offers an intimate glimpse into the Oval, a proud, insular community made up of the best and brightest of the East Coast's Black bourgeoisie on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1950s.
Within this inner circle of "blue-vein society," we witness the prominent Coles family gather for the wedding of the loveliest daughter, Shelby, who could have chosen from "a whole area of eligible men of the right colors and the right professions." Instead, she has fallen in love with and is about to be married to Meade Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York. A shock wave breaks over the Oval as its longtime members grapple with the changing face of its community.With elegant, luminous prose, Dorothy West crowns her literary career by illustrating one family's struggle to break the shackles of race and class.
- MAY 2025: Romance Book Club - May 13 @ 7PM
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MAY 2025: Romance Book Club - May 13 @ 7PM
from $0.00We're meeting to discuss No Ordinary Love by Myah Ariel!
BOOK CLUB MEETING DEETS
When: Tuesday, May 13 @ 7PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you plan to attend and RSVP WITH BOOK to purchase your book and support Romance Book Club!
ABOUT NO ORDINARY LOVE.
A PR partnership between a pop superstar and a pro-athlete bad boy turns into so much more in this swoony romance from the acclaimed author of When I Think of You.
Ella Simone’s popstar life is what dreams are made of. Her eight year marriage to renowned music producer, Elliot Majors, has helped garner the hits, awards, and adoring fans to prove it. But when Ella tires of Elliot's many infidelities, she decides to fight for her independence despite the ironclad prenup that threatens her career.
To help her case, Ella is under strict orders to stick to The Plan: no headlines, no rumors, no rocking the boat. But this strategy is thrown a curveball after an awards show wardrobe snafu and quick rescue by Miles Westbrook, MLB’s most eligible player, sends the tabloids into a frenzy. Amid tricky divorce proceedings, Ella’s magnetic connection with the charismatic pitcher might just be her downfall.
Now the pressure is on to turn a scandal into an opportunity and give their teams what they want: a picture-perfect performance that will shore up both Ella and Miles' reputations. But as the lines between reality and PR begin to blur, Ella will either stick to the choreographed life she knows so well, or surrender to a love that could set her free. - MARCH 2025: NO NAME BOOK CLUB - March 29 @ 1 PM CST
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MARCH 2025: NO NAME BOOK CLUB - March 29 @ 1 PM CST
Sold outNo Name is a Black-owned worker cooperative connecting community members both inside and outside carceral facilities with radical books. Each month, No Name uplifts two books written by Black, indigenous, and other people of color. No Name believes building community through political education is crucial for our liberation and should be accessible to everyone—which is why all programming is free.
MEETING DEETSWhen: Saturday, March 29 @ 1 PMWhere: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)How: RSVP to let us know you're coming! RSVP WITH BOOK to pick up your book in store or have it shipped to you before the meeting.ABOUT CHAIN GANG ALL STARS
She felt their eyes, all those executioners…
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of the Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly popular, highly controversial profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators, and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.
In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death matches before packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, Thurwar considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games. But CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo, and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences.
Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors, to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system’s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means from a “new and necessary American voice” (Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review). - IRL STORYTIME: See Marcus Grow with Marcus Bridgewater - May 10 @ 1 PM
![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
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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]()
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]()
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]()
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
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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: Spilling the Tea with Brenda Jackson - May 15 @ 7PM
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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
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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. - MARCH 2025: Non Fiction Book Club - March 18 @ 7PM
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MARCH 2025: Non Fiction Book Club - March 18 @ 7PM
Sold outWe're meeting to discuss Communion by bell hooks!
BOOK CLUB MEETING DEETS
When: Tuesday, March 18 @ 7PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you plan to attend and RSVP WITH BOOK to purchase your book and support Fiction Book Club!
ABOUT COMMUNION
Intimate, revealing, provocative, Communion challenges every female to courageously claim the search for love as the heroic journey she must choose to be truly free. Silencing our fears about becoming women who love too much, Communion answers all of our questions about the place of love in a woman’s life.
bell hooks explores the ways ideas about women and love were changed by the feminist movement, by women’s full participation in the workforce, by the culture of self-help and by popular media forces such as television and movies. She celebrates the experiences of women over 30, shares collective wisdom, and the lessons learned as we practice the art of loving. Communion is the heart-to-heart talk every woman needs to hear.
- MARCH 2025:Fiction Book Club - March 27 @ 7PM
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MARCH 2025:Fiction Book Club - March 27 @ 7PM
Sold outBOOK CLUB MEETING DEETS
When: Thursday, March 27 @ 7PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you plan to attend and RSVP WITH BOOK to purchase your book and support Fiction Book Club!
ABOUT ISAAC'S SONG
Isaac is at a crossroads in his young life. Growing up in Missouri, the son of a caustic, hard-driving father, he was conditioned to suppress his artistic pursuits and physical desires, notions that didn’t align with a traditional view of masculinity. But now, in late 80s Chicago, Isaac has finally carved out a life of his own. He is sensitive and tender-hearted and has built up the courage to seek out a community. Yet just as he begins to embrace who he is—two social catalysts—the AIDS crisis and Rodney King’s attack—collectively extinguish his hard-earned joy.
At a therapist’s encouragement, Isaac begins to write down his story. In the process, he taps into a creative energy that will send him on a journey back to his family, his ancestral home in Arkansas, and the inherited trauma of the nation’s dark past. But a surprise discovery will either unlock the truths he’s seeking, or threaten to derail the life he’s fought so hard to claim.
Poignant, sweeping and luminously told, Isaac’s Song marks a return to the beloved characters of Don’t Cry for Me, and a highwater mark in the career of an award-winning author.
- 2025 Buzzed Adult Spelling Bee: Black History Month Edition - February 16 @ 6PM
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2025 Buzzed Adult Spelling Bee: Black History Month Edition - February 16 @ 6PM
Sold outWE'RE BACK BABY!!!!!!!!!!!
Join us for the 4th Buzzed Adult Spelling Bee presented by Babe Events and Kindred Stories, sponsorship by the Third Ward Cultural District and Brugal 1888!
EVENT DEETS
When: Sunday, February 16 @ 6 PM (Doors open at 5 PM)
Where: Eldorado Ballroom (2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004)
How: There are two different ticket options. If you would like to attend and enjoy the show, purchase your ticket as an attendee. If you would like to contest as the spelling bee champ, grab your ticket as a contestant. Both tickets come with three drinks. THIS EVENT IS FOR ADULTS (21+) ONLY!
Tickets are final sale and non refundable. You will not be allowed to transfer tickets.
ABOUT THE SPELLING BEE
Contestants will be asked to spell words that speak to the theme of Black History Month including slang and AAVE over the course of four rounds. If you misspell the word, you are out! As the words get harder, you might be able to Phone a Friend or Battle to earn your place back into the competition. Fun and music-filled, this event is for folks looking for something BLACKITY BLACK to do on a Sunday night!
Be mindful that you don't have to participate in the Bee. We definitely need an audience!
Contact lanise.harris@gmail.com or chanecka@kindredstorieshtx.com for more details.
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: Dear Manny with Nic Stone - March 4 @ 7 PM
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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
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GRIEF WRITING WORKSHOP: All the Blues in the Sky with Renée Watson - Feburary 11 @ 7PM
Renée Watson
Sold outAttend 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
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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
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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
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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
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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 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]()
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]()
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]()
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.
- November 2024: Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club - November 21 @ 7PM
![November 2024: Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club - November 21 @ 7PM]()
November 2024: Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club - November 21 @ 7PM
Sold outBOOK CLUB MEETING DEETS
When: Thursday, November 21 @ 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTXZ, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you are attending or RSVP WITH BOOK to support our store programming
ABOUT SHE WHO KNOW
When there is a call, there is often a response.
Najeeba knows.
She has had The Call. But how can a 13-year-old girl have the Call? Only men and boys experience the annual call to the Salt Roads. What’s just happened to Najeeba has never happened in the history of her village. But it’s not a terrible thing, just strange. So when she leaves with her father and brothers to mine salt at the Dead Lake, there’s neither fanfare nor protest. For Najeeba, it’s a dream come true: travel by camel, open skies, and a chance to see a spectacular place she’s only heard about. However, there must have been something to the rule, because Najeeba’s presence on the road changes everything and her family will never be the same.
Small, intimate, up close, and deceptively quiet, this is the beginning of the Kponyungo Sorceress. - November 2024: Adult Fiction Book Club - November 26 @ 7PM
![November 2024: Adult Fiction Book Club - November 26 @ 7PM]()
November 2024: Adult Fiction Book Club - November 26 @ 7PM
Sold outBOOK CLUB MEETING DEETS
When: Tuesday, November 26 @ 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you're coming and RSVP WITH BOOK to get your copy of James and support our store programming.
ABOUT JAMES
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.
Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature. - NOVEMBER 2024: Non Fiction Book Club - November 19 @ 7PM
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NOVEMBER 2024: Non Fiction Book Club - November 19 @ 7PM
Sold outBook Club Meeting DEETS
When: Tuesday, November 19 @ 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you plan to attend or RSVP WITH BOOK to support Non Fiction Book Club and our other programming.
About We Refuse
Black resistance to white supremacy is often reduced to a simple binary, between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolence and Malcolm X’s “by any means necessary.” In We Refuse, historian Kellie Carter Jackson urges us to move past this false choice, offering an unflinching examination of the breadth of Black responses to white oppression, particularly those pioneered by Black women.
The dismissal of “Black violence” as an illegitimate form of resistance is itself a manifestation of white supremacy, a distraction from the insidious, unrelenting violence of structural racism. Force—from work stoppages and property destruction to armed revolt—has played a pivotal part in securing freedom and justice for Black people since the days of the American and Haitian Revolutions. But violence is only one tool among many. Carter Jackson examines other, no less vital tactics that have shaped the Black struggle, from the restorative power of finding joy in the face of suffering to the quiet strength of simply walking away.
Clear-eyed, impassioned, and ultimately hopeful, We Refuse offers a fundamental corrective to the historical record, a love letter to Black resilience, and a path toward liberation.
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