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  • IRL Author Talk: The Kiss Countdown with Etta Easton - April 9 @ 7PM
    from $0.00

    Celebrate the release of The Kiss Countdown with Etta Eason!

    Event DEETS

    When: Tuesday, April 9 @ 7PM CST

    Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: RSVP to reserve your seat and RSVP WITH BOOK to grab your copy and support our programming. 

    About the Book 

    A struggling event planner and a sinfully hot astronaut must decide if their fake relationship is worth a shot at happily-ever-after, in this starry debut.

    Risk-averse event planner Amerie Price is jobless, newly single, and about to lose her apartment. With no choice but to gamble on her shaky start-up, the last thing she needed was to run into her smug ex and his new, less complicated girlfriend at Amerie's favorite coffee shop. Panicked, she pretends to be dating the annoyingly sexy man she met by spilling Americano all over his abs. He plays along—for a price.

    Half the single men in Houston claim to be astronauts, but Vincent Rogers turns out to be the real deal. What started as a one-off lie morphs into a plan: for the three months leading up to his mission, Amerie will play Vincent's doting partner in front of his loving but overly invested family. In exchange, she gets a rent-free room in his house and can put every penny toward her struggling business.

    What Amerie doesn't plan for is Vincent's gravitational pull. While her mind tells her a future with this astronaut is too unpredictable, her heart says he's exactly what she needs. As their time together counts down, Amerie must decide if she'll settle for the safe life—or shoot for the stars.

    About the Author

    Etta Easton is a certified hopeless romantic who now writes contemporary romance. Her stories are full of humor, relatable heroines, swoon-worthy heroes, and Black joy. She lives in Central Texas with her husband and two young kids.

    About the Conversation Partner

    Naina Kumar is a lawyer by day and a reader and writer of romance at night. She lives in Texas, close to her family whose antics provide endless inspiration. When she’s not writing, she enjoys taking her rowdy rescue dog on walks, rewatching Gilmore Girls on a loop, and shopping at HEB. Say You’ll Be Mine is her debut novel.

  • March 2024: Adult Book Club - March 28 @ 7PM
    from $0.00

    The bookclub meeting is on March 28, 2024 at 7 PM. We're be hanging out with our friends at The Plant Project (in the Montrose Collective). Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read) but you are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    In the vein of Octavia E. Butler and Margaret Atwood, a harrowing novel set in an alternate United States—a world of injustice and bondage in which a young Black woman becomes the concubine of a powerful white government official and must face the dangerous consequences.

    Solenne Bonet lives in Texas where choice no longer exists. An algorithm determines a Black woman’s occupation, spouse, and residence. Solenne finds solace in penning the biography of Henriette, an ancestor who’d been an enslaved concubine to a wealthy planter in 1800s Louisiana. But history repeats itself when Solenne, lonely and naïve, finds herself entangled with Bastien Martin, a high-ranking government official. Solenne finds the psychological bond unbearable, so she considers alternatives. With Henriette as her guide, she must decide whether and how to leave behind all she knows.  

    Inspired by the lives of enslaved concubines to U.S. politicians and planters, The Blueprint unfolds over dual timelines to explore bodily autonomy, hypocrisy, and power imbalances through the lens of the nation’s most unprotected: a Black girl.


  • March 2024: Young Adult Book Club for Adults - March 26 @ 7PM
    from $0.00

    The bookclub meeting will take place on March 26, 2024 at 7 PM in the Kindred Stories' Reading Garden. Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read). You are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    In this new pulse-pounding thriller from the author of The Black Queen, two brothers must come together to solve the murder of the most popular girl in school after one of them is caught fleeing the scene of her death.

    Amir Trudeau only goes to his half brother Marcel’s birthday party because of Chloe Danvers. Chloe is rich, and hot, and fits right into the perfect life Marcel inherited when their father left Amir’s mother to start a new family with Marcel’s mom. But Chloe is hot enough for Amir to forget that for one night.

    Does she want to hook up? Or is she trying to meddle in the estranged brothers’ messy family drama? Amir can’t tell. He doesn’t know what Chloe wants from him when, in the final hours of Mardi Gras, she asks him to take her home and stay—her parents are away and she doesn’t want to be alone. 

    Amir never finds out, because when he wakes up, Chloe is dead—stabbed while he was passed out on the couch. And in no time, Amir becomes the only suspect. A Black teenager caught fleeing the scene of a rich white girl’s murder? All of New Orleans agrees: the case is open-and-shut.

    Amir is innocent. He has a lawyer, but unless someone can figure out who really killed Chloe, things don’t look good for him. His number one ally? Marcel. Their relationship is messy, but Marcel knows that Amir isn’t a murderer—and maybe proving his innocence will repair the rift between them.

    To find Chloe’s killer, Amir and Marcel need to dig into her secrets. And what they find is darker than either could have guessed. Parents will go to any lengths to protect their children, and in a city as old as New Orleans, the right family connections can bury even the ugliest truths.

  • IRL AUTHOR TALK: Holy American Burnout! with Sean Enfield - March 21 @ 6:30 PM CST
    from $0.00

    Celebrate with debut author, Sean Enfield on his newest book, Holy American Burnout!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Thursday, March 21 @ 6:30 PM

    Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Gardent (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

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

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    Sean Enfield delves into the great American condition: burnout.

    Threading his experiences both as a Texan student and later as a first-year teacher of predominately Muslim students at a Texas middle school, Holy American Burnout! weaves personal essay and cultural critique into the historical fabric of Black and bi-racial identity.

    Enfield intersects examinations of which voices are granted legitimacy by virtue of school curriculum, the complex relationship between basketball and education for Black and brown students, his students' burgeoning political consciousness during the 2016 presidential campaign, and cultural figures ranging from Kendrick Lamar to Hamlet.

    These classroom narratives weave around Enfield's own formative experiences contending with a conflicted bi-racial family lineage, reenacting the Middle Passage as the only Black student in his 7th grade history class, and moshing in both Christian and secular hardcore pits.

    As Enfield wrestles with the physical, mental, and emotional burdens that American society places on educators, students, and all relatively conscious minorities in this country, he reaches for an education that better navigates our burnt-out empire.

     

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

    Sean Enfield is an essayist, poet, gardener, bassist, and educator from Dallas, TX. He also serves as an assistant non-fiction editor at Terrain.org. His debut collection of essays, Holy American Burnout!, is forthcoming from Split/Lip Press in December 2023. You can find his work at seanenfield.com.


    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

    Miranda Ramírez is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and writer born and raised in Houston, Texas. She’s the founder and director of Defunkt Magazine & Press, a literary columnist for Public Poetry, a guest editor for Teachers and Writers Collaborative, and a co-organizer of the Houston Poetry and Arts Festival. You may find her work in Atticus Review’s–The AtticCoffin BellCowboy JamboreeCutthroat Journal’s anthology Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century, and Ripples in Space. She is drafting her first novel as an MFA candidate at Sam Houston State University.
  • IRL Author Talk: I Finally Bought Some Jordans with Michael Arceneaux - March 19 @ 7PM
    from $0.00

    Let's celebrate I Finally Bought Some Jordans with Michael Arceneaux, one of our favorite Houston authors! 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Tuesday, March 19 @ 7 PM

    Where: Hogan Brown Gallery (2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: RSVP to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH Book to get a signed copy of I Finally Bought Some Jordans and support our programming. No refunds. 

    Note: There will be books on site. Copies of I Finally Bought Some Jordans bought from other retailers will not be allowed in the venue. If you would like an copy early, please purchase here

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    In his books I Can't Date Jesus and I Don't Want to Die Poor, Michael Arceneaux established himself as one of the most beloved and entertaining writers of his generation, touching upon such hot-button topics as race, class, sexuality, labor, debt, and, of course, paying homage to the power and wisdom of Beyoncé. In this collection, Arceneaux takes stock of how far he has traveled—and how much ground he still has to cover in this patriarchal, heteronormative society. He explores the opportunities afforded to Black creatives but also the doors that remain shut or ever-so-slightly ajar; the confounding challenges of dating in a time when social media has made everything both more accessible and more unreliable; and the allure of returning home while still pushing yourself to seek opportunity elsewhere.

    I Finally Bought Some Jordans is both a corrective to, and a balm for, these troubling times, revealing a sharply funny and keen-eyed storyteller working at the height of his craft.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Michael Arceneaux is the New York Times-bestselling author of I Can’t Date Jesus, I Don’t Want To Die Poor, and his latest, I Finally Bought Some Jordans

    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

    Josie Pickens is a womanist and abolitionist professor, organizer, writer and thought leader. In addition to speaking and writing about topics that focus on the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, Josie is also the program director for upEND Movement, which is an organization committed to abolishing the the child welfare system. Connect with Josie and follow her musings on Twitter and Instagram at @jonubian. 

  • IRL Author Talk: Where is Africa with Anita N. Bateman - March 12 @ 6:30 PM
    from $0.00

    Celebrate the release of Where is Africa with author and curator, Anita N. Bateman!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Tuesday, March 12, 2024 @ 6:30 PM 

    Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, Houston, TX, 77004)

    How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP with Book to support the author and our programming. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    A multidisciplinary illustrated reader unpacking imperialist representations of Africa by promoting dialogue, memory and everyday practice, and reimagining cultural institutions and the arts—from museums to academia, from architecture to art

    In 2017, curator and art historian Anita N. Bateman and architect and professor Emanuel Admassu initiated research on the traditional positioning and mispositioning of the arts across the African continent. Where Is Africa has been an extended set of exchanges with contemporary artists, curators, designers and academics who are actively engaged in representing the continent—both within and outside its geographic boundaries. By examining artist collectives, new currents in art history and the rise of contemporary art festivals in and about Africa from the past 10 years, the project unpacks the imperialist foundations of cultural institutions and their anthropological fascination with African objects, people and places.
    The interviews in Where Is Africa examine African and African-diasporic identities and spaces through questions of positionality in relation to specific disciplinary, cultural and political contexts. The texts address Afro-diasporic aesthetic practices and the curatorial, museological and artistic matrices that confront epistemologies of dominance and exclusion. The commissioned essays and images offer concise methodologies that expand or complicate issues addressed by the interviewees.
    Where Is Africa is a conceptual project that accompanies a conceptual place, driven by the desire to dislodge Africa from categorical fixity and the representational logics of nation-states. Africa can never be fully enclosed by the residue of colonial violence or the totalitarian gaze of neoliberalism; instead, it creates infinite malleability, where place and concept are untethered from each other.


    Contributors include: Mikael Awake, Salome Asega, Tau Tavengwa, Anthony Bogues, Jay Simple, Eric Gottesman, Rebecca Corey, Aida Mulkozi, Rakeb Sile, Mesai Haileleul, Mpho Matsipa, Niama Safia Sandy, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Rehema Chachage, Robel Temesgen, Valerie Amani, Meskerem Assegued, Elias Sime, Olalekan Jeyifous, Amanda Williams, Germane Barnes and Mario Gooden.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Dr. Anita N. Bateman (she/her) specializes in modern and contemporary African art and the art of the African diaspora with additional expertise in the history of photography, Black Feminism/Womanism, and the role of social media in activism and liberation work. Bateman earned a doctorate in art history and visual culture and graduate certificate in African and African American Studies from Duke University, a master’s in art history from Duke University, and completed her undergraduate degree in art history, graduating cum laude from Williams College. She has held curatorial positions at the RISD Museum, the Williams College Museum of Art, and the Nasher Museum of Art. Her academic research has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council. Bateman was the Fall 2022 ARCAthens Curatorial Fellow and a 2022 Graham Foundation grantee for the forthcoming publication, Where Is Africa (Center for Art, Research, and Alliances), co-edited with Emanuel Admassu. She is currently the Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
    Ashley Hoskins is an inspiration to those who strive for cultural enrichment and knowledge expansion. As a lifelong reader and educator, Ashley finds the most joy in witnessing someone connect with a book. She believes that reading creates an imaginative space for travel and spirituality. She recalls always being a personal librarian for her friends and family members. They would often contact her to borrow books and ask for suggestions. Ashley founded the Houston chapter in 2019 with the blessings of OlaRonke Akinmowo of The Free Black Women’s Library. The Free Black Women’s Library HTX serves as a creative space that amplifies the literary and artistic expression of the Black woman. As the creative director of The Free Black Women’s Library HTX, Ashley curates community events centered around Black women writers and artists. She is currently an artist in residence at the Anderson Center for the Arts, where The Free Black Women’s Library HTX is on exhibition and available for visitors to swap books written by Black women authors.
  • IRL Author Talk: This Could Be Us with Kennedy Ryan - March 10 @ 2PM
    Sold out

    Celebrate Kennedy Ryan's new book, This Could Be Us!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Sunday, March 10 at 2 PM

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

    How: Purchase your ticket here! Each ticket comes with a copy of This Could Be Us. No refunds.

    ABOUT THE BOOK 

    Soledad Barnes has her life all planned out. Because, of course, she does. She plans everything. She designs everything. She fixes everything. She’s a domestic goddess who's never met a party she couldn't host or a charge she couldn't lead. The one with all the answers and the perfect vinaigrette for that summer salad. But none of her varied talents can save her when catastrophe strikes, and the life she built with the man who was supposed to be her forever, goes poof in a cloud of betrayal and disillusion.
     
    But there is no time to pout or sulk, or even grieve the life she lost. She's too busy keeping a roof over her daughters' heads and food on the table. And in the process of saving them all, Soledad rediscovers herself. From the ashes of a life burned to the ground, something bold and new can rise.
     
    But then an unlikely man enters the picture—the forbidden one, the one she shouldn't want but can't seem to resist. She's lost it all before and refuses to repeat her mistakes. Can she trust him? Can she trust herself?
     
    After all she's lost . . .and found . . .can she be brave enough to make room for what could be?

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

    USA Today bestselling author and Audie Award winner, Kennedy Ryan writes for women from all walks of life, empowering them and placing them firmly at the center of each story and in charge of their own destinies. Kennedy and her writings have been featured in USA Today, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, Cosmo, TIME, and many others. The co-founder of LIFT 4 Autism, an annual charitable book auction, she has a passion for raising Autism awareness. She is a wife to her "lifetime lover" and mother to an extraordinary son.

    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

    Wale Okerayi is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor working with folks in New York and Texas. She has a double masters degree in mental health counseling from Teachers College Columbia University. After practicing in New York for a few years, Wale moved back to her hometown Houston and started her own therapy practice in 2020. Wale currently works with individuals and couples, writers and creative folks on a weekly basis.

    As an avid reader and Kindred Stories aficionado, Wale has moderated various author talks featuring: Lyvonne Briggs, Sochil Washington, Tyriek White, Adorah Nworah, Dr. Joy, and Nicole Walters. 

  • IRL Book Signing: Rest is Resisistance with Tricia Hersey - March 9 @ 6:00 PM
    Sold out

    Come have a cocktail and mocktail with Tricia Hersey, Founder of The Nap Ministry and author of Rest is Resistance! 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Saturday, March 9 @ 6PM - 7:30 PM 

    Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: RSVP to help us prepare for your arrival or RSVP WITH BOOK to purchase your copy of Rest is Resistance.

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too many of us have claimed productivity as the cornerstone of success. Brainwashed by capitalism, we subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine‑level pace –– feeding into the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit.

    In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted. Our worth does not reside in how much we produce, especially not for a system that exploits and dehumanizes us. Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it asserts our most basic humanity. We are enough. The systems cannot have us.


    Rest Is Resistance is rooted in spiritual energy and centered in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism. With captivating storytelling and practical advice, all delivered in Hersey’s lyrical voice and informed by her deep experience in theology, activism, and performance art, Rest Is Resistance is a call to action, a battle cry, a field guide, and a manifesto for all of us who are sleep deprived, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of Grind Culture.

    ABOUT THE DECK 

    From Tricia Hersey, the celebrated founder of the Nap Ministry and author of the New York Times bestseller Rest Is Resistance, this deck of 50 powerful rest practices helps you embrace rest as a form of radical communal care and personal liberation.
     

    "This is about more than naps. Rest is anything that allows you to connect your body with your mind."

    The Nap Ministry's Rest Deck is a rousing call to reclaim rest in everyday life. Delivered in a stunning package with gold accents and gorgeous artwork throughout, the deck combines restorative meditations with prescient wisdom from celebrated activist and teaching artist Tricia Hersey, a.k.a. "the Nap Bishop," and founder of the Nap Ministry.

    Readers will discover 50 inspiring cards, each with an empowering affirmation and a simple practice to encourage rest, care, and imagination. Rooted in social justice and imbued with spirituality, these cards offer short, accessible practices designed to uplift anyone suffering from the toxic effects of grind culture.

    CELEBRATED AUTHOR: Tricia Hersey, a.k.a. "the Nap Bishop," is the founder of the Nap Ministry and the bestselling author of Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto. Her work as a social justice activist, artist, and thought leader has been featured by the New York Times, NPR, The Cut, and the Atlantic, among many others. In this deck, she distills her profound and celebrated teachings into 50 accessible practices. 

    TOOL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE: Brimming with practices to empower personal liberation as a step toward building a healthier, more just world, this deck offers readers a new way to engage with social justice and invites a wide audience to embrace the power of rest as an essential balm for our collective exhaustion. 
     
    BEAUTIFUL TO GIFT AND DISPLAY: This bold, eye-catching package with colorful illustrations and gold accents is a beautiful and meaningful gift for friends, activists, and anyone feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by the demands of grind culture.

    • A powerful new tool for social justice activists
    • Great gift or self-purchase for socially engaged millennials and Gen-Zers
    • For anyone seeking mindful affirmation cards to aid their healing practice
    • Perfect for fans of the Nap Ministry, Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto, Layla Saad, Adrienne Maree Brown, Chani Nicholas, and Alex Elle
    • For readers of Me and White Supremacy, I’m Still Here, and How to Do Nothing

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Tricia Hersey is an artist, poet, theologian and community organizer. She is the founder of The Nap Ministry, an organization that examines rest as a form of resistance by curating sacred spaces for the community to rest via Collective Napping Experiences, immersive workshops, performance art installations, and social media. Tricia is a global pioneer and originator of the movement to understand the liberatory power of rest. She is the creator of the Rest is Resistance and Rest as Reparations frameworks. Her research interests include Black liberation theology, womanism, somatics, and cultural trauma. Tricia is a Chicago native and currently lives in South Georgia

  • IRL Author Talk: Sisters with a Side of Greens with Michelle Stimpson - March 9 @ 2 PM CST
    from $0.00

    Celebrate Texas author, Michelle Stimpson and her newesr book, Sisters with a Side of Greens

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Saturday, March 9 at 2 PM CST

    Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: RSVP ONLY to reserve you seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our programming. No refunds.

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    From award-winning author Michelle Stimpson: a Southern story of sisterhood and second chances

    Many years ago, Rose Tillman gave her sister, Marvina Dewberry, forty dollars to register a business where they would piggyback on their mother’s amazing spice mixture to make their fortune in fried chicken and other Southern comfort foods. Marvina used that forty dollars for a different reason and the business never got off the ground. It was just forty dollars, but that decision set the course of their lives. Now Rose has retired from a career at the post office and realizes she wants a second shot at her dreams, but she’ll have to go through her sister to get that chance...

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    MICHELLE STIMPSON has had a distinguished traditional publishing career writing Christian and Inspirational contemporary romance fiction. She has won an Emma Award, two Christian Literary Awards, Best Feature Film at CapCity Black Film Festival and was a finalist for the 2021 Vivian Award. She lives in Dallas, TX.

    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

    Norma L. Jarrett, is an award-winning, published writer and creative talent who loves to inspire, entertain and encourage others through impactful storytelling.

  • IRL Author Talk: The American Daughters with Maurice Carlos Ruffin - March 5 @ 7PM
    Sold out

    Celebrate release of The American Daughters, Maurice Carlos Ruffin's new historical fiction novel!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Tuesday, March 5, 2024 @ 7PM

    Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: RSVP Only to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to purchase your copy and support the author. No refunds.

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    A gripping historical novel about a spirited  girl who joins a sisterhood working to undermine the Confederates—from the award-winning author of We Cast a Shadow

    Ady, a curious, sharp-witted girl, and her fierce mother, Sanite, are an inseparable duo. Enslaved to a businessman in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the pair spend their days dreaming of a loving future and reminiscing on their family's rebellious and storied history. When mother and daughter are separated, Ady is left hopeless and direction-less, until she stumbles into the Mockingbird Inn and meets Lenore, a free Black woman with whom she becomes fast friends. Lenore invites Ady to join a clandestine society of spies called the Daughters. With the courage instilled in her by Sanite—and help from these strong women—Ady learns how to choose herself. So begins her journey toward liberation and imagin­ing a new future.

    The American Daughters is a novel of hope and triumph that reminds us what is possible when a community bands together to fight for their freedom.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

    Maurice Carlos Ruffin is the author of The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You, longlisted for The Story Prize and a finalist for The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and We Cast a Shadow, which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the PEN/Open Book Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and International Dublin Literary Award. A recipient of an Iowa Review Award in fiction, he has been published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, AGNI, the Kenyon Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas. A native of New Orleans, he is a graduate of the University of New Orleans Creative Writing Workshop and a member of the Peauxdunque Writers Alliance.

    ABOUT THE FACILITATOR 

    Sharon Sochil Washington, PhD is a cultural anthropologist, social entrepreneur, and writer. Her debut novel, The Blue Is Where God Lives, was published last year by Abrams Books. She’s also author of The Educational Contract, and creator of White Space, a Substack newsletter that explores the meaning between the words we use. She’s written for The American ScholarHuffington Post, Newsday (New York), Dallas Times Herald, and the Akron Beacon Journal; and she speaks regularly at universities and conferences on issues of education, social justice, economic insecurity, and media influences. 

  • IRL Poetry Reading: Tender Headed with Olatunde Osinaike - March 2 @6PM
    from $0.00

    Join us for a poetry reading with Olatunde & friends, Ayokunle Falomo and Joshua Burton!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Saturday, March 2 @ 6PM

    Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: RSVP Only to reserve seats or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your copy of the book and our programming. No refunds.

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    The irony of transformation often is that we mistake it to have occurred long before it does. Tender Headed takes its time in asserting the realization that growth remains ever ahead of you. Examining the themes of Black identity, accountability, and narration, we encounter a series of revealing snapshots into the role language plays in chiseling possibility and its rigid command of depiction. Olatunde Osinaike's startling debut sorts through the many-minded masks behind Black masculinity. At its center lies an inquiry about the puzzling nature of relationships, how ceaseless wonder can be in its challenge of a truth. In the name of music and self-identity, the speaker weaves their way through fault and how it amends Black life in America.

    This is demonstrated best in how the demanding, yet vulnerable tone for the collection is set in "Men Like Me," its restless opening poem. Here, we find the speaker reciting a chronicle of generational neglect from men that became him also. Earnest and sharp, there is a beauty in seeing a poet not shy away from both the melancholy and resolve of rescripting their path while cherishing their steps and missteps along the way. This collection is a panel aching of fathers, sons, uncles, grandfathers, all of whom would do well to join in and confront shared privileges that are typically curtailed or altogether avoided in conversation. Tender Headed entrusts the heart to be a compass, insisting on a journey unto itself and a melodic detour toward tenderness precise with its own footing.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Originally from the West Side of Chicago, Olatunde Osinaike is a Nigerian-American poet, essayist, and software developer. He is the author of Tender Headed (Akashic Books, 2023), selected by Camille Rankine as winner of the 2022 National Poetry Series. Tender Headed has received recognition by several outlets including EBONY, The Grio, The Millions, Publishers Weekly, The Root, Chicago Review of Books, and elsewhere. His work has received fellowships and support from Poets & Writers, Hurston/Wright Foundation, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, and the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University.

  • FEBRUARY 2024: Young Adult Book Club for Adults - February 29 @ 7PM
    from $0.00

    The bookclub meeting will take place on February 29, 2024 at 7 PM in the Kindred Stories' Reading Garden. Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read). You are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    A young girl with forbidden powers must free her people from oppression in this richly layered, gripping epic fantasy—called an “explosive, powerful debut” and “a triumph of a book” by New York Times bestselling authors Stephanie Garber and Roseanne A. Brown—inspired by Yoruba-Nigerian mythology and perfect for fans of Children of Blood and Bone and An Ember in the Ashes.

    This is what they deserve.

    They wanted me to be a monster.

    I will be the worst monster they ever created.

    Fifteen-year-old Sloane can incinerate an enemy at will—she is a Scion, a descendant of the ancient Orisha gods.

    Under the Lucis’ brutal rule, her identity means her death if her powers are discovered. But when she is forcibly conscripted into the Lucis army on her fifteenth birthday, Sloane sees a new opportunity: to overcome the bloody challenges of Lucis training and destroy them from within.

    Sloane rises through the ranks and gains strength but, in doing so, risks something greater: losing herself entirely and becoming the very monster that she abhors.

    Following one girl’s journey of magic, injustice, power, and revenge, this deeply felt and emotionally charged debut from Deborah Falaye, inspired by Yoruba-Nigerian mythology, is a magnetic combination of A Song of Wraiths and Ruin and Daughter of Smoke and Bone that will utterly thrill and capture readers.

     

  • 2024 Buzzed Adult Spelling Bee: Black History Month Edition - February 24 @ 7PM
    Sold out

    WE'RE BACK BABY!!!!!!!!!!!

    Join us for the 3rd Buzzed Adult Spelling Bee presented by Babe Events and Kindred Stories!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Saturday, February 24 @ 7 PM (Doors open at 6 PM)

    Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: There are two different ticket options. If you would like to attend, purchase your ticket as an attendee. If you would like to contest for the cash prize, grab your ticket as a contestant. Both tickets come with two drinks. THIS EVENT IS FOR ADULTS (21+) ONLY! 

    Tickets are final sale. You will be allowed to transfer tickets to guests.

    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 Saturday 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.

  • FEBRUARY 2024: Adult Book Club - February 22 @ 7PM
    from $0.00

    The bookclub meeting will take place on February 22, 2024 at 7 PM in the Kindred Stories. Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read) but you are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local, state, and federal police attempted to question her about the shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that had claimed the life of a white state trooper. Long a target of J. Edgar Hoover's campaign to defame, infiltrate, and criminalize Black nationalist organizations and their leaders, Shakur was incarcerated for four years prior to her conviction on flimsy evidence in 1977 as an accomplice to murder.

    This intensely personal and political autobiography belies the fearsome image of JoAnne Chesimard long projected by the media and the state. With wit and candor, Assata Shakur recounts the experiences that led her to a life of activism and portrays the strengths, weaknesses, and eventual demise of Black and White revolutionary groups at the hand of government officials. The result is a signal contribution to the literature about growing up Black in America that has already taken its place alongside The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the works of Maya Angelou.

    Two years after her conviction, Assata Shakur escaped from prison. She was given political asylum by Cuba, where she now resides.

  • IRL Author Talk: A Love Song for Ricki Wilde with Tia Williams - February 20 @7 PM
    from $20.00

    Join us to celebrate Tia Williams' newest release, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Tuesday, February 20 @7PM

    Where: STAGES (800 Rosine Street, HTX, 77019)

    How: Grab your tickets! Each ticket will come with a signed copy of A Love Song for Ricki Wilde. No refunds. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    In this enchanting love story from the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Days in June, a free-spirited florist and an enigmatic musician are irreversibly linked through the history, art, and magic of Harlem.

    Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing.

    Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her.

    When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers.

    One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.  

    Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked. 

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Tia Williams had a fifteen-year career as a beauty editor for magazines including ElleGlamourLuckyTeen People, and Essence. In 2004, she pioneered the beauty-blog industry with her award-winning site, Shake Your Beauty. She wrote the bestselling debut novel The Accidental Diva and penned two young adult novels, It Chicks and Sixteen Candles. Her award-winning novel The Perfect Find is a Netflix movie starring Gabrielle Union. Her latest novel is New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Bookclub pick, Seven Days in June, published by Grand Central.
     
    Tia currently lives with her daughter and her husband in Brooklyn
  • Virtual Author Talk: Convergence Problems & Womb City with Wole Talabi & Tlotlo Tsamaase - February 12 @ 7PM CST
    Sold out

    Join us in celebrating Wole Talabi and Tlotlo Tsamaase newest books, Convergence Problems and Womb City! 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Monday, February 12 at 7PM CST

    Where: Virtual Via Zoom

    How: RSVP to sign up to get the Zoom link. RSVP with Convergence Problems to receive Wole Talabi's newest book along with a signed bookplate and holographic stickers. RSVP with Womb City to puchase your copy of the book Also, check out the RSVP with Bundle to receive both books at a special rate!

    ABOUT THE BOOKS

    CONVERGENCE PROBLEMS is a stunning new collection of stories that investigate the rapidly changing role of technology and belief in our lives as we search for meaning, for knowledge, for justice; constantly converging on our future selves.

    A Publishers Weekly Top Ten Spring 2024 Roundup pick

    In “An Arc of Electric Skin,” a roadside mechanic seeking justice volunteers to undergo a procedure that will increase the electrical conductivity of his skin by orders of magnitude. In “Blowout,” a woman races against time and a previously undocumented geological phenomenon to save her brother on the surface of Mars. In “Ganger,” a young woman trapped in a city run by machines must transfer her consciousness into an artificial body and find a way to give her life
    purpose. In “Debut,” Nairobi-based technical support engineer tries to understand what is happening when an AI art system begins malfunctioning in ways that could change the world.

    The sixteen stories of Convergence Problems, which include work published for the first time in this collection, rare stories, and recently acclaimed work, showcase Talabi at his creative best: playful and profound, exciting and experimental, always interesting.

    Womb City is a genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body.

    Nelah seems to have it all: fame, wealth, and a long-awaited daughter growing in a government lab. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah’s perfect life is precarious. After a drug-fueled evening culminates in an eerie car accident, Nelah commits a desperate crime and buries the body, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret.

    The truth claws its way into Nelah’s life from the grave. 

    As the ghost of her victim viciously hunts down the people Nelah holds dear, she is thrust into a race against the clock: in order to save any of her remaining loved ones, Nelah must unravel the political conspiracy her victim was on the verge of exposing—or risk losing everyone. 

    Set in a cruel futuristic surveillance state where bodies are a government-issued resource, this harrowing story is a twisty, nail-biting commentary on power, monstrosity, and bodily autonomy. In sickeningly evocative prose, Womb City interrogates how patriarchy pits women against each other as unwitting collaborators in their own oppression. In this devastatingly timely debut novel, acclaimed short fiction writer Tlotlo Tsamaase brings a searing intelligence and Botswana’s cultural sensibility to the question: just how far must a woman go to bring the whole system crashing down?

    ABOUT THE AUTHORS

    WOLE TALABI is an engineer, writer, and editor from Nigeria. He is the author of the novel SHIGIDI AND THE BRASS HEAD OF OBALUFON (DAW books/Gollancz, 2023). His short fiction has appeared in places like Asimov’s Science Fiction, Lightspeed Magazine, Tor.com and is collected in the books CONVERGENCE PROBLEMS (DAW books, 2024) and INCOMPLETE SOLUTIONS (Luna Press, 2019). He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards, as well as the Caine Prize for African Writing and he has won the Nommo award for African speculative fiction and the Sidewise award for Alternate History. He has edited five anthologies including the acclaimed AFRICANFUTURISM: AN ANTHOLOGY (Brittlepaper, 2020) and MOTHERSOUND: THE SAUÚTIVERSE ANTHOLOGY (Android Press, 2023). He likes scuba diving, elegant equations, and oddly shaped things. He currently lives and works in Australia. Find him at wtalabi.wordpress.com and at @wtalabi on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky and Tiktok.

    Tlotlo Tsamaase (xe/xem/xer or she/her/hers) is a Motswana writer. Xer novella, The Silence of Wilting Skin, is a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and was the first Motswana nominee for the Rhysling Award. Tlotlo received support from the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, and xer story “Behind Our Irises” jointly won the Nommo Award. Xer short fiction has appeared in multiple best-of anthologies, Africa RisenNew Suns 2, Chiral Mad 5, and other venues. Womb City is Tlotlo’s debut novel.

  • IRL Book Signing: Out of Body with Nia Davenport - February 10 @ 2PM CST
    Sold out

    Celebrate Nia Davenport's young adult debut, Out of Body

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Saturday, February 10 @ 2 PM CST

    Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: Only book purchased from Kindred Stories will be eligible for signing line.

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    A high-stakes, propulsive young adult thriller with a body-swap twist thoughtfully explores themes of friendship and identity, perfect for fans of Tiffany D. Jackson.

    Seventeen-year-old Megan Allen has been jumping from friend group to friend group in her high school, trying on identities like outfits. Nothing ever seems to fit—until she meets LC, the adventurous, charismatic girl who appears at her favorite coffee shop one day like magic. Finally, Megan feels like she’s becoming the person she’s meant to be: someone like LC.

    On the night of their friendiversary, what was supposed to be a bonding experience ends in a waking nightmare. Suddenly, Megan is no longer herself. Too late, she realizes that LC has secrets—dangerous ones. Betrayed by her best friend, thrust into another girl’s life, and targeted by LC’s enemies, she must claim what makes Megan Megan to get her life back . . . or die trying.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    NIA DAVENPORT is the author of the sci-fi fantasy Blood Gift duology. A lover of both science and literature, Nia has taught English and biology to a diverse public school population in Texas. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and now lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and kids. Find out more at nedavenport.com

  • IRL AUTHOR TALK: Forged By Blood with Ehigbor Okosun-August 11 at 7:30 PM CST
    from $0.00

    Celebrate the release of Forged by Blood, a Nigerian inspired fantasy novel with debut author, Ehigbor Okosun! 

    ABOUT THE EVENT

    When: Friday, August 11th at 7:30 PM

    Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Garden

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

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    In the midst of an authoritarian regime and political invasion, Dèmi just wants to survive: to avoid the suspicion of the nonmagical Ajes who occupy her ancestral homeland of Ifé; to escape King Sorenson’s brutal genocide of her people, the darker skinned, magic wielding Oluso; and to live peacefully with her secretive mother while learning to control the terrifying blood magic that is her birthright.

    But when Dèmi’s misplaced trust costs her mother’s life, survival gives way to vengeance. She bides her time until the devious Lord Ekwensi grants her the perfect opportunity—kidnap the Aje prince, Jonas, and bargain with his life to save the remaining Oluso. With the help of her reckless childhood friend Colin, Dèmi succeeds, but discovers that she and Jonas share more than deadly secrets; every moment tangles them further in a forbidden, unmistakable attraction, much to Colin’s—and Dèmi’s—distress

    The kidnapping is now a joint mission: to return to the King, help get Lord Ekwensi on the council, and bolster the voice of the Oluso in a system designed to silence them. But the way is dangerous, Dèmi’s magic is growing yet uncertain, and she’s not sure if she can trust the two men at her side.

    A tale of rebellion and redemption, race and class, love and trust and betrayal, Forged by Blood is epic fantasy at its finest, from an enthusiastic, emerging voice.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Ehigbor Okosun is an Austin-based author who writes speculative fiction for adult and young adult audiences. A British private school survivor turned Nigerian American immigrant, she hopes to do justice to the myths and traditions she was steeped in, and to honor her large, multiracial, and multiethnic family. She is a graduate of the University of Texas with degrees in Plan II Honors, neurolinguistics, and English, as well as chemistry and premedical studies, and was recently named a Cynthia Leitich Smith Writing Mentor Award finalist. When she’s not reading, you can catch her bullet journaling and baking.

    ABOUT THE MODERATOR

    J. Elle is the New York Times bestselling author of young adult and middle-grade fantasy fiction and a 2022 NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth and Teens. Her work is being translated and distributed in over fifteen countries. The former educator credits her nomadic lifestyle and humble inner-city beginnings as inspiration for her novels. When she’s not writing, Elle can be found on the hunt for desserts without chocolate, looking for any excuse to get dressed up, and road-tripping her way across the country with her family of six plus four pets in tow.

  • Virtual Author Panel: Black & In Love with Tia Williams, Kianna Alexander, Chenicia Higgins, Synithia Williams, A.E. Valdez, Kosoko Jackson, Charish - August 17 at 6:30PM
    from $5.00

    In honor of Bookstore Romance Day, we have gathered some of our favorite Black contemporary Romance authors, traditionally and indie published.

    EVENT DEETS

    WHEN: August 17 at 6:30PM

    WHERE: Virtual Via Zoom

    HOW: Be sure to purchase your $5 ticket or choose one of the bundles to gain entry to this virtual event. 

    ROMANCE BOOK BUNDLES

    Forbidden Love: The Perfect Find, Forbidden Promises - $26

    Second Chance Romance: All I've Ever Want All I've Ever Needed , Seven Days in June - $31

    Opposite Attract: Mickey Chambers Shakes It Up, The Secret to a Southern Wedding - $36

    Meet Queer: D'Vaughn & Kris Plan A Wedding, Can't Let Her Go , A Dash of Salt & Pepper- $45

    ABOUT THE AUTHORS

    Tia Williams had a fifteen-year career as a beauty editor for magazines including ElleGlamourLuckyTeen People, and Essence. In 2004, she pioneered the beauty-blog industry with her award-winning site, Shake Your Beauty. She wrote the bestselling debut novel The Accidental Diva and penned two young adult novels, It Chicks and Sixteen Candles. Her award-winning novel The Perfect Find is a Netflix movie starring Gabrielle Union. Her latest novel is New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, Seven Days in June, published by Grand Central. Tia currently lives with her daughter and her husband in Brooklyn.

    Like any good Southern belle, Kianna Alexander wears many hats: doting mama, advice-dispensing sister, fun aunt and gabbing girlfriend. She's a voracious reader, an amateur seamstress and occasional painter in oils.She has a passion for history and an endless curiosity. Kianna is proud to tell stories where Black women are loved, valued, and thriving. A native of the TarHeel state, Kianna still lives there while maintaining her collection of well-loved vintage 80's Barbie dolls.

    Chencia Higgins hails from the big city of Houston in the greatest state of Texas. Writing has been her my passion since she was a young girl, when her subject matter were visions of middle school drama with her group of girlfriends. She entered the world of publishing in May 2016 with an erotic novella that set the stage for a career in which she would craft engaging tales of Black women being loved up on. She continues to write for women who love to read but are tired of never seeing themselves in the story. Higgins proud to be a part of an indie and self-published author community. When she's not writing, you can find her reading a book (or two, or three), saving recipes that she'll never make on Pinterest, and traveling as much as possible with her family.

    A.E. Valdez published her first book, All I’ve Wanted, All I’ve Needed, in 2021. She has continued to write stories with endearing and relatable characters centered firmly around Black love. Readers have described her work as sweet and spicy, deeply emotional, and healing.

    She currently resides in the Pacific Northwest with the love of her life and their two sons. When she’s not typing away on a keyboard, she enjoys spending time with her family, going on hiking trips, gaming, or curling up with a good book.

    Kosoko Jackson is a digital-media specialist, who lives in the New York Metro Area and spends too much time listening to Halsey and Taylor Swift.

    Charish Reid is a fan of sexy books and disaster films. When she's not grading papers or prepping lessons for college freshmen, she enjoys writing romances that celebrate quirky black women who deserve HEAs. Charish currently lives in Sweden, with her husband, avoiding most forms of exercise.

    ABOUT THE MODERATOR

    Dr. Shaquinta Richardson is a lover of books in the realm of fantasy and filth written by and for Black women. She rediscovered her love for fiction after years of reading non-fiction for school and career and has been loving the experience of re-immersing herself in the all the beautiful stories of bad-ass powerful Black girls and women being loved fiercely. When she is not reading, she helps Black women build lives and careers with balance, ease, and daily joy as a life coach and consultant. She lives in Houston, TX with her wife and two dogs and can be found in any corner of Houston with her book or her Kindle and her caramel macchiato. 
  • IRL Author Talk: Dark Days with Roger Reeves: Fugitive Essays - August 4 at 7PM CST
    from $0.00

    Come celebrate the new essay collection, Dark Days: Fugitive Essays with National Book Award winner, Roger Reeves! 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Friday, August 4 at 7 PM CST

    Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden

    How:  RSVP ONLY to save your seat or RSVP with ticket to support the author or programming.

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    A crucial book that calls for community, solidarity, and joy, even in—especially in—these dark days

    In his debut work of nonfiction, award-winning poet Roger Reeves finds new meaning in silence, protest, fugitivity, freedom, and ecstasy. Braiding memoir, theory, and criticism, Reeves juxtaposes the images of an opera singer breaking the state-mandated silence curfew by singing out into the streets of Santiago, Chile, and a father teaching his daughter to laugh out loud at the planes dropping bombs on them in Aleppo, Syria. He describes the history of the hush harbor—places where enslaved people could steal away to find silence and court ecstasy, to the side of their impossible conditions. In other essays, Reeves highlights a chapter in Toni Morrison’s Beloved to locate common purpose between Black and Indigenous peoples; he visits the realities of enslaved people on McLeod Plantation, where some of the descendants of those formerly enslaved lived into the 1990s; and he explores his own family history, his learning to read closely through the Pentecostal church tradition, and his passing on of reading as a pleasure, freedom, and solace to his daughter, who is frightened the police will gun them down.

    Together, these groundbreaking essays build a profound vision for how to see and experience the world in our present moment, and how to strive toward an alternative existence in intentional community underground. “The peace we fight and search for,” Reeves writes, “begins and ends with being still.”

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    ROGER REEVES is the author of the poetry collections King Me and Best Barbarian. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a 2015 Whiting Award, and Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard University. His essays and poems have appeared in Poetry, the New Yorker, Granta, the Yale Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Austin, Texas.

    ABOUT THE MODERATOR

    Stevens is a Writer, Organizer, and Archivist. As part of the Kindred Stories family he is the Operations & Community Facilitator, and part-time Adjunct Professor. Stevens' current work and concentration is centered around his social-political analysis and its intersections with the arts, community, and revolutionary politics.
  • IRL Author Talk: Plantains & Our Coming with Melania Luisa Marte-August 24 at 7:30 PM CST
    from $0.00
    Celebrate the release of Plantains & Our Becoming with Melania Luisa Marte!
    EVENT DEETS
    When: Thursday, August 24 at 7:30 PM
    Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden
    How: RSVP ONLY for free ticket or support the author by RSVP WITH BOOK. 
    ABOUT THE BOOK 
    PLANTAINS AND OUR BECOMING is an imaginative, blistering, beautifully written poetry collection about identity and history on the island of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to celebrate and center the Black Diasporic experience.

    Through the exploration of the themes of self-love, nationalism, displacement, generational traumas, and ancestral knowledge, this collection uproots Black stereotypes while creating a new joyous vision for Black identity and personhood, one that is deeply grounded in the heirlooms and teachings of Black celebration as well as preservation.

    The collection is structured in the following sections: Part I: Daughter of Diaspora, exploring immigration and identity within the U.S. Part II: A History of Plantains, exploring the aftermath of colonialism, displacement and gentrification for Afro-descendants.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Melania Luisa Marte is a writer, poet, and musician from New York living between the Dominican Republic and Texas. Her viral poem “Afro-Latina” was featured by Instagram on their IG TV for National Poetry Month and has garnered over nine million views. Her work has also been featured by Ain’t I Latina, AfroPunk, The Root, Teen Vogue, Telemundo, Remezcla, PopSugar, and elsewhere.
    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER/CO READER
    Ariana Brown is a queer Black Mexican American poet from San Antonio, TX, currently based in Houston. She is the author of We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020). Ariana’s work investigates queer Black personhood in Mexican American spaces, Black relationality and girlhood, loneliness, and care. She holds a B.A. in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies, an M.F.A. in Poetry, and an M.S. in Library Science. Ariana is a 2014 national collegiate poetry slam champion and owes much of her practice to Black performance communities led by Black women poets from the South. She has been writing, performing, and teaching poetry for over ten years. Follow Ariana online @ArianaThePoet.
  • IRL AUTHOR TALK: Holler, Child with Latoya Watkins-August 31 at 7:30 PM
    from $0.00

    We're celebrating Latoya Watkins second book, Holler, Child: Stories

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Thursday, August 31st at 7:30 PM CST

    Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Garden

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

    ABOUT BOOK

    Set in the same Black community in Texas as PERISH, LaToya's debut novel, each story focuses on unique characters that illuminate life in Texas; they offer briliant, heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful perspectives from the women and men in the community, and touch on big themes like race, power, inequality, and more.

    In one story, the appearance of a horse in a man's suburban backyard places a former horse breeder in trouble with the police, while in another, following the mass suicide of his entire congregation, the mother of a cult leader tries to honor him in a way she couldn't while he was alive.

    Fresh and urgently told, HOLLER, CHILD is a wise follow-up to LaToya's debut novel.- This collection features 11 stories--six of which have been previously published and five of which are entirely new for this collection

    ABOUT AUTHOR 

    LaToya Watkins’s writing has appeared in A Public SpaceThe SunMcSweeney’sKenyon ReviewThe Pushcart Prize Anthology (2015), and elsewhere. She has received grants, scholarships, and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and A Public Space (she was one of their 2018 Emerging Writers Fellows). She holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas. Perish was her debut novel.

    ABOUT MODERATOR

    Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton is an internationally known writer, educator, activist, and performer and the first Black poet laureate of Houston, Texas. She was formerly ranked the #2 Best Female Performance Poet in the World (PSI). Her recent poetry collection, Newsworthy, garnered her a Pushcart nomination, was named a finalist for the 2019 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award, and received an honorable mention for the Summerlee Book Prize. Its German translation, under the title Berichtenswert, was released in Summer 2021 by Elif Verlag. The opera Marian’s Song, for which she wrote the libretto, debuted in 2020. 

     

  • AUGUST 2023 ADULT BOOK CLUB: Perish by LaToya Watkins- August 31 at 7:30 PM
    from $0.00

    The bookclub meeting will take place on August 31, 2023 at 7:30PM in the Kindred Stories Reading Garden. Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read) but you are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

    Please support the space and opportunities we create by purchasing your book from our store. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    Bear it or Perish. Those are the words Helen Jean hears that fateful night in her cousin’s outhouse that changes the trajectory of her life.  
     
    Spanning decades, PERISH tracks the choices Helen Jean—the matriarch of the Turner family—makes and the way those choices have ripped across generations, from her children, to her grandchildren and beyond.
    Told in in alternate chapters that follows four members of the Turner clan: Julie B., a woman who regrets her wasted youth and the time spent under Helen Jean's thumb; Alex, a police officer grappling with a dark and twisted past; Jan, mother of two, who yearns to go to school and leave Jerusalem and all of its trauma behind for good; and Lydia, a woman whose marriage is falling apart because her body can't seem to stay pregnant; as they're called home to say goodbye to their mother and grandmother.
     
    This family's "reunion" unearths long-kept secrets and forces each member to ask themselves important questions about who is deserving of forgiveness and who bears the cross of blame.
     
    With stirring, evocative prose and a sense of place that is wholly immersive, offering a nuanced look into Black communities in Texas, and tackling themes like family, trauma, legacy, home, class, race and more, this beautiful yet heart-wrenching debut novel, will appeal to anyone who is interested in the intricacies of family and the ways bonds can be made, maintained or irrevocably broken.
  • IRL AUTHOR TALK: Thieves Gambit with Kayvion Lewis & Kwame Mbalia-September 28 at 7PM
    from $0.00

    Join us as we celebrate the release of Thieves' Gambit with debut author, Kayvion Lewis! 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Thursday, September 28 at 7PM

    Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden

    How: RSVP ONLY to grab your free seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your copy of Thieves' Gambit and support our programming

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    At only seventeen years old, Ross Quest is already a master thief, especially adept at escape plans. Until her plan to run away from her legendary family of thieves takes an unexpected turn, leaving her mother’s life hanging in the balance.

    In a desperate bid, she enters the Thieves’ Gambit, a series of dangerous, international heists where killing the competition isn’t exactly off limits, but the grand prize is a wish for anything in the world—a wish that could save her mom. When she learns two of her competitors include her childhood nemesis and a handsome, smooth-talking guy who might also want to steal her heart, winning the Gambit becomes trickier than she imagined.

    Ross tries her best to stick to the family creed: trust no one whose last name isn’t Quest. But with the stakes this high, Ross will have to decide who to con and who to trust before time runs out. After all, only one of them can win.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

    Kayvion Lewis is a young adult author of all things escapist and high-octane. A former youth services librarian, she’s been working with young readers and kidlit since she was sixteen. When she’s not writing, she’s breaking out of escape rooms, jumping out of airplanes, and occasionally running away to mountain retreats to study kung fu. Though she’s originally from Louisiana, and often visits her family in The Bahamas, these days you can find her in New York—at least until she takes off on her next adventure.

    ABOUT THE MODERATOR

    Kwame is a husband, father, writer, a New York Times bestselling author, and a former pharmaceutical metrologist in that order. His debut middle-grade novel, TRISTAN STRONG PUNCHES A HOLE IN THE SKY was awarded a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, and it—along with the sequels TRISTAN STRONG DESTROYS THE WORLD and TRISTAN STRONG KEEPS PUNCHING, out October 5th—is published by Rick Riordan Presents/Disney-Hyperion. He is the co-author of LAST GATE OF THE EMPEROR with Prince Joel Makonnen, from Scholastic Books, and the editor of the #1 New York Times bestselling anthology BLACK BOY JOY, published by Delacourte Press. A Howard University graduate and a Midwesterner now in North Carolina, he survives on Dad jokes and Cheezits.

  • IRL AUTHOR TALK: Not Everyone is Going to Like You with Rinny Perkins - August 22 at 7PM
    from $0.00

    Join us as we celebrate Houston's own, Rinny Perkins and her new book, Not Everyone is Going to Like You! 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: August 22 at 7 PM CST

    Where: The Reading Room HTX (401 Franklin St, Houston, TX 77201)

    How: RSVP to grab you free ticket or RSVP with book to support the author and our program!

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    A debut illustrated manifesto by Rinny Perkins (@RinnyRiot) about what she's learned as a queer Black woman through the art of self-validation.

    In this graphic collection of mini essays, comedian Rinny Perkins illustrates her experiences as the owner of a popular online shop while she figures out antidepressant prescriptions and the seemingly never-ending dating-app cycle.
     
    Rinny shares what she's learned across topics like mental health, work, sex and dating, and family and friends. Featuring funny, real reflections from experiences in her hometown of (Third Ward!) Houston, Texas to Los Angeles — the author traces her journey to understanding that whether through a friendship break-up or saving up for a Telfar bag, the only person who can truly validate us is ourselves.
     
    With 1970s-inspired graphics like a "When To Quit Your Job" checklist and Microaggressions Bingo, Not Everyone's Going to Like You is a long DM of affirmations from Rinny to herself on how to get through life. Her advice? Stop ignoring your intuition, ignore perfection, and leave them on read.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

    Rinny Perkins is a performer, multidisciplinary artist, and writer. Her graphic design and installation work nods to '70s ephemera with an emphasis on Black and queer womanhood. Her work has been featured by outlets such as I-D/VICENylon and Teen Vogue.

    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

    deun ivory is a texas-based creative wellness visionary, multidisciplinary artist & photographer whose work centers and celebrates black women. widely known for her ethereal aesthetic & creative ingenuity, ivory curates visual experiences that inspire those who engage with her work to restore and reclaim narratives rooted in self-empowerment, joy & worthiness. ivory draws from the belief that beauty is wellness, which informs her exploration of art, spaces and design as healing mechanisms for marginalized communities. 

    as a visionary,  ivory serves as the founder and creative director of two influential brands: the body: a home for love, a 501(c)3 non-profit & black women are worthy, a social impact initiative specializing in conceptual design and immersive art installations. 

    ivory has cemented her power and influence as a thought-leader and visual storyteller by working with some of the world’s biggest brands to produce creative projects that have resonated & inspired communities worldwide. some of her clients include: google, facebook, lululemon, HBO, glossier, issa rae, apple, and more. ivory has been featured in vogue, harpers bazaar, essence, glamour magazine and beyond for her impactful contributions & authentic presence in the creative and wellness space. 

    ABOUT THE READING ROOM

    Founded by Amarie Gipson, The Reading Room is a reference library and creative incubator based in Houston, Texas.

    Gipson is a Houston-born art worker, writer and creative entrepreneur. She has held curatorial positions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Renaissance Society, the Contemporary Austin and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Independently, her writing has been published in several journals and magazines including Artforum, ARTNews, ARTS.BLACK, Cite, ESSENCE, Gulf Coast, MUD and THE SEEN.

    After seven years of travel, Gipson is currently based in her hometown. She created an open-format dance party and community called PHYSICAL THERAPY where she serves as creative director and resident DJ. She is also the former Arts & Culture editor of Houstonia Magazine, where she worked to bring much-needed attention to Houston’s art scene.  

    With nearly a decade of experience in the realms of fine art, music and media, Gipson built The Reading Room with a desire to share her deep passion for Black culture. It is a culmination of her professional experience and a labor of love.

  • IRL Poetry Reading with Ariana Brown & Aris Kian-July 29 at 7PM
    from $0.00

    We're celebrating the anniversary of We Are Owed. with Ariana Brown!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: July 29, 2023

    Where: Project Row House Community Gallery 

    How: RSVP for a free ticket or support the our programming and the author by RSVP WITH BOOK to grab a copy of We Are Owed. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK
    We Are Owed. is the debut poetry collection of Ariana Brown, exploring Black relationality in Mexican and Mexican American spaces. Through poems about the author’s childhood in Texas and a trip to Mexico as an adult, Brown interrogates the accepted origin stories of Mexican identity. We Are Owed. asks the reader to develop a Black consciousness by rejecting U.S., Chicano, and Mexican nationalism and confronting anti-Black erasure and empire-building. As Brown searches for other Black kin in the same spaces through which she moves, her experiences of Blackness are placed in conversation with the histories of formerly enslaved Africans in Texas and Mexico.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Ariana Brown is a queer Black Mexican American poet from San Antonio, TX, currently based in Houston. She is the author of We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020). Ariana’s work investigates queer Black personhood in Mexican American spaces, Black relationality and girlhood, loneliness, and care. She holds a B.A. in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies, an M.F.A. in Poetry, and an M.S. in Library Science. Ariana is a 2014 national collegiate poetry slam champion and owes much of her practice to Black performance communities led by Black women poets from the South. She has been writing, performing, and teaching poetry for over ten years. Follow Ariana online @ArianaThePoet.

    ABOUT CONVERSATION PARTNER/ CO-READER

    Aris Kian is a Houston enthusiast and student of abolitionists. Her poems are published with Button Poetry, West Branch, Obsidian Lit, The West Review and elsewhere. She ranks #2 in the 2023 Womxn of the World Poetry Slam and is the 2023-2025 Houston Poet Laureate. She received her MFA from the University of Houston as an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow and currently serves as the Narrative Change & Media Manager at Houston in Action.
  • IN PERSON AUTHOR TALK: Sisterhood Heals with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford (Founder of Therapy for Black Girls)-July 19 at 7PM CST (PURCHASE TICKETS ON EVENBRITE)
    $35.00

    Celebrate the power of sisterhood with Dr. Joy Braden Bradford & Wale Okerayi!

    TICKETS SOLD ON EVENTBRITE

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Wednesday, July 19 at 7PM CST

    Where: ELDORADO BALLROOM at Project Row Houses

    How: Get Your Ticket on Eventbrite. 

    ABOUT BOOK

    Strengthen the relationships that mean the most, heal with your sisters, and transform your life for the better with the licensed clinical psychologist who founded the award-winning podcast Therapy for Black Girls.

    Sisterhood is that sacred space where all the masks that are worn for the world fall off. It’s the place where you lay down your load, refill your cup, and laugh until your belly aches. Our sister circles literally prolong our lives. However, building and keeping healthy friendships take work. How must these friendships evolve as we age? What practices can we put in place? Can they be the key to unlocking a more fulfilled existence? The answer is yes.

    Dr. Joy Harden Bradford has been doing the work to help Black women heal together for more than twenty years. In a sisterhood community with more than half a million members, she’s the go-to therapist for Black women looking to prioritize their mental health and become the best possible versions of themselves. Now she’s sharing all she’s learned using the tenets of psychology and group therapy to help us foster relationships that are not only positive, but transformative.

    In Sisterhood Heals you will
    • discover the ways in which your present-day relationships with Black women have been influenced by your past
    • identify the recurring role you play in your friend group and how it influences your relationships
    • learn new strategies to grow and sustain healthy, nurturing friendships as well as how to rebuild after a rupture

    Dr. Joy brings the warmth, wisdom, empathy, and levity found in our girlfriends to these pages, and reminds us that during difficult times sisterhood is often a lifeline with the power to help us experience fuller, more satisfying lives.

    ABOUT AUTHOR

    Dr. Joy Harden Bradford is a licensed psychologist and the host of the award-winning mental health podcast Therapy for Black Girls. Her work focuses on making mental health topics and support more relevant and accessible for Black women. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Xavier University of Louisiana, a master’s degree in vocational rehabilitation counseling from Arkansas State University, and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Georgia. Her work has been featured in Essence, Oprah Daily, The New York Times, HuffPost, Black Enterprise, and Women’s Health. Dr. Joy lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and two sons.

    ABOUT MODERATOR

    Wale is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor working with folks in New York and Texas. She has a double masters degree in mental health counseling from Teachers College Columbia University. After practicing in New York for a few years, Wale moved back to her hometown Houston and started her own therapy practice in 2020. Wale currently works with individuals and couples on a weekly basis.

  • IRL Author Talk: My Week with Him with Joya Goffney- July 11
    Sold out

    Celebrate the release of My Week With Him with author, Joya Goffney!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Tuesday, July 11, 2023

    Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden

    How: RSVP ONLY for a free ticket and RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your seat and book. Books will be available onsite for sale. Only copies of My Week With Him purchased from Kindred Stories are eligible for the signing line. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    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?

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Joya Goffney is the author of the novels Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry and Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl. Joya grew up in New Waverly, a small town in East Texas. In high school, she challenged herself with to-do lists full of risk-taking items, like "hug a random boy" and "eat a cricket," which inspired her debut novel, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry. With a passion for black social psychology, she moved out of the countryside to attend the University of Texas in Austin, where she still resides. Her second novel, Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl was released in 2022. 
    ABOUT THE MODERATOR
    Liara Tamani holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA from Duke University. She is the author of the acclaimed young adult novels Calling My Name, a 2018 PEN America Literary Award Finalist and SCBWI Golden Kite Finalist; All the Things We Never Knew, a 2020 Kirkus Best YA Book of the Year; and What She Missed. Before becoming a writer, she attended Harvard Law School and worked as a marketing coordinator for the Houston Rockets and Comets, production assistant for Girlfriends (TV show), home accessories designer, floral designer, and yoga and dance teacher. She lives in Houston, Texas. www.liaratamani.com
  • June 2023 Adult Bookclub: Belly of the Beast by Da'Shaun L. Harrison
    from $0.00

    Our meeting will be on Thursday, June 22, 2023, at 7:00 PM CST at KINDRED STORIES. Be sure to RSVP and show up with the book read (or mostly read).  If you haven't read the book at all, that's ok too.

    Please support the space and opportunities we create by purchasing your book from our store. 

    About the Book

    Exploring the intersections of Blackness, gender, fatness, health, and the violence of policing.

    To live in a body both fat and Black is to exist at the margins of a society that creates the conditions for anti-fatness as anti-Blackness. Hyper-policed by state and society, passed over for housing and jobs, and derided and misdiagnosed by medical professionals, fat Black people in the United States are subject to sociopolitically sanctioned discrimination, abuse, condescension, and trauma.
     
    Da’Shaun Harrison--a fat, Black, disabled, and nonbinary trans writer--offers an incisive, fresh, and precise exploration of anti-fatness as anti-Blackness, foregrounding the state-sanctioned murders of fat Black men and trans and nonbinary masculine people in historical analysis. Policing, disenfranchisement, and invisibilizing of fat Black men and trans and nonbinary masculine people are pervasive, insidious ways that anti-fat anti-Blackness shows up in everyday life. Fat people can be legally fired in 49 states for being fat; they’re more likely to be houseless. Fat people die at higher rates from misdiagnosis or nontreatment; fat women are more likely to be sexually assaulted. And at the intersections of fatness, Blackness, disability, and gender, these abuses are exacerbated.
     
    Taking on desirability politics, the limitations of gender, the connection between anti-fatness and carcerality, and the incongruity of “health” and “healthiness” for the Black fat, Harrison viscerally and vividly illustrates the myriad harms of anti-fat anti-Blackness. They offer strategies for dismantling denial, unlearning the cultural programming that tells us “fat is bad,” and destroying the world as we know it, so the Black fat can inhabit a place not built on their subjugation.

  • Juneteenth Trivia Night - June 18th at 6PM CST
    Sold out

    Grab the homies for our 1st annual Juneteenth Trivia Night! 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Sunday, June 18th at 6PM CST

    Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: Purchase your ticket here TODAY! Each ticket comes with entry and one drink!

    ABOUT THE TRIVIA NIGHT

    We are hosting a pub style trivia night! Each person is a participant. You can bring your friends or family be apart of your team or be prepared to join a team when you get here. There will be five rounds of questions around Juneteenth, Black History, Black music & culture, prominent Black history figures etc. You and your team will work together to correctly answer as many questions as possible. Put prepared for a few twists during the night! 

    This is a great alternative to observe Juneteenth! 

  • Houston Reads Alice Walker! Presented by Project Row Houses, Kindred Stories, and Chanecka Williams
    $0.00

    A message from Chanecka Williams:

    "Alice Walker has been a force in the world for over forty years. As a writer, poet and activist, she is relentless in her pursuit of a free(er) world for all. In this social, political, time-space reality, Walker’s work feels essential to be explored with new eyes. Join us as we read her novels, short story collections, and a few of her nonfiction works. It would be remiss to not mention that this journey is as spiritual as literary being that Alice Walker has always given credit to the spirits that accompany her. "
    This gathering will be held on the online video conferencing platform Zoom. Please join us by registering for this month only or the entire meet-up series here.

    Kindred Stories is proud to partner with Project Row Houses and Chanecka to present Houston Reads Alice Walker.

    Alice Walker Meeting Schedule:

    September 18 - The Temple of My Familiar
    October 16 - Possessing the Secret of Joy
    November 20 - The Third Life of Grange Copeland
    December 18 - In Love & Trouble
    January 15 - Meridian
    February 19 - You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down
    March 19 - By the Light of My Father's Smile
    April 16 - The Way Forward With a Broken Heart: Stories
    May 21 - Now is the Time to Open Your Heart
    June 11 - In Search of Our Mother's Garden Pt. I & Pt. II
    July 16 - In Search of Our Mother's Garden Pt. III & Pt. IV
    August 20 - Alike Walker Poetry Reading
    September 17 - Gathering Blossoms Under Fire
    About Alice Walker

    Alice Walker is an internationally celebrated writer, poet and activist whose books include seven novels, four collections of short stories, four children’s books, and volumes of essays and poetry.  She won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1983 and the National Book Award.

    About Chanecka Williams

    In May 2020, after realizing books were talking over her personal Instagram account, Chanecka started a new account with the handle @headwrpreader centering literature. As a book influencer, she is extremely passionate about book discovery. She is always ahead of the curve on new and lesser known book releases. Currently, she works as a team member at Kindred Stories in addition to pursuing a Master of Library and Information Science. She hopes to work as a research librarian and archivist.

    About Project Row Houses

    Project Row Houses is a community platform that enriches lives through art with an emphasis on cultural identity and its impact on the urban landscape. We engage neighbors, artists, and enterprises in collective creative action to help materialize sustainable opportunities in marginalized communities.

    Project Row Houses occupies a significant footprint in Houston’s Historic Third Ward, one of the city’s oldest African-American neighborhoods. The site encompasses five city blocks and houses 39 structures that serve as home base to a variety of community-enriching initiatives, art programs, and neighborhood development activities. PRH programs touch the lives of under-resourced neighbors, young single mothers with the ambition of a better life for themselves and their children, small enterprises with the drive to take their businesses to the next level, and artists interested in using their talents to understand and enrich the lives of others. Although PRH’s African-American roots are planted deeply in Third Ward, the work of PRH extends far beyond the borders of a neighborhood in transition. The Project Row Houses model for art and social engagement applies not only to Houston, but also to diverse communities around the world.

    ABOUT KINDRED STORIES

    Kindred Stories was born of a love for reading and a passion for community.

    Kindred Stories is here to give kids and adults alike a space to explore the wide open world of literary content and creative works fashioned by black and brown hands. We are a bookstore committed to amplifying Black voices and bringing diverse stories from throughout the African diaspora to our local community in Houston, TX. We will be located in the Third Ward neighborhood, where we'll provide a well curated offering to edify the swelling appetites for authentic stories as told by those who have lived them.

    We are beyond thrilled to serve Houston and the world at large through our website offerings. Stay tuned for what’s in store with the opening of our physical space later this year.  Thank you for being a part of our tribe!

  • IRL Author Talk-What She Missed with Liara Tamani-June 17 at 3PM CST
    Sold out
    Come celebrate the launch of What She Missed with the author, Liara Tamani!
    EVENT DEETS
    WHEN: Saturday, June 17 at 3PM CST
    Where: 3719 Navigation Blvd, HTX, 77003
    How: RSVP ONLY to grab your free ticket or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your book and support our programming.

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    Sixteen-year-old Ebony Jones is devastated when both of her parents lose their jobs, and her family moves from Houston to her grandmother’s house in the country. There’s nothing for Ebony in Alula Lake, Texas. So She Thinks. What She Missed is a rich and emotional novel that celebrates change, nature, friendship, growing up, and love, for readers of Sarah Dessen’s The Rest of the Story and Elizabeth Acevedo’s Clap When You Land

    When Ebony and her parents move from Houston to her grandmother’s house in a small lake town, Ebony is sure that her life is doomed. And to make matters worse, the ghost of Ebony’s beloved grandmother—a strong swimmer who tragically drowned in the lake—is everywhere. Alula Lake does offer one perk: reconnecting Ebony with her childhood friend, Jalen.

    But as Ebony settles into life, she finds herself drifting away from Jalen and gravitating to his older sister, Lena. Lena is chaotic, disorderly, and rebellious, yet she offers a reprieve from the anger and sadness Ebony feels over losing so much.

    An ode to nature, art, friendship, history, family, and love, this lyrical coming-of-age story explores one girl’s summer of self-discovery as she reimagines the world and her place in it.

    ABOUT AUTHOR 

    Liara Tamani lives in Houston, Texas. She is the author of the acclaimed young adult novels Calling My Name, All the Things We Never Knew, and What She Missed. Her words have appeared in Time Magazine, NPR, and The New York Times. And her work has been featured by Good Morning America, Buzzfeed, Essence Magazine, Teen Vogue, and more. Before becoming a writer, she attended Harvard Law School and worked as a marketing coordinator for the Houston Rockets & Comets, production assistant for Girlfriends (TV show), home accessories designer, floral designer, and yoga and dance teacher. She holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA from Duke University. www.liaratamani.com

    ABOUT MODERATOR

    J. Elle is the New York Times bestselling author of young adult and middle-grade fantasy fiction and a 2022 NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth and Teens. Her work is being translated and distributed in over fifteen countries. The former educator credits her nomadic lifestyle and humble inner-city beginnings as inspiration for her novels. When she’s not writing, Elle can be found on the hunt for desserts without chocolate, looking for any excuse to get dressed up, and road-tripping her way across the country with her family of six plus four pets in tow.

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