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An artist’s odyssey from Jim Crow–era Georgia to the Yale Art Gallery—a stunningly vivid, full-color memoir in prose and painted leather, with a foreword by Bryan Stevenson.

Winfred Rembert grew up in a family of Georgia field laborers and joined the Civil Rights Movement as a teenager. He was arrested after fleeing a demonstration, later survived a near-lynching at the hands of law enforcement, and spent the next seven years on chain gangs.

During that time he met the undaunted Patsy, who would become his wife. Years later, at the age of 51 and with Patsy’s encouragement, he started drawing and painting scenes from his youth using leather tooling skills he learned in prison.

Chasing Me to My Grave presents Rembert’s breathtaking body of work alongside his story, as told to Tufts Philosopher Erin I. Kelly. Rembert calls forth vibrant scenes of Black life on Cuthbert, Georgia’s Hamilton Avenue, where he first glimpsed the possibility of a life outside the cotton field. As he pays tribute, exuberant and heartfelt, to Cuthbert’s Black community and the people, including his wife, Patsy, who helped him to find the courage to revisit a traumatic past, Rembert brings to life the promise and the danger of Civil Rights protest, the brutalities of incarceration, his search for his mother’s love, and the epic bond he found with Patsy.

Vivid, confrontational, revelatory, and complex, Chasing Me to My Grave is a searing memoir in prose and paintings that celebrates Black life and summons readers to confront painful and urgent realities at the heart of American history and society

The defining and uncompromising memoir from Super Bowl quarterback and renowned Civil Right activist, Colin Kaepernick.

On September 1, 2016, Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem, but the world has never fully understood the whole story. Not the "why." Not what it cost. Not what it took to become the man who was ready for that moment.

That story begins in Turlock, California, where Kaepernick, a Black kid adopted into a white family, spent his earliest years navigating an identity the world around him didn't always know how to hold. Everything that connected him to who he truly was--his Blackness, his culture, his sense of self--was met with resistance. Sports became his refuge and his proving ground. On the field, his talent could not be questioned, minimized, or taken from him. It was the one space that was entirely his. And what that space produced was extraordinary: a quarterback whose arm and instincts would carry him to the Super Bowl and into the history books.

But success brought with it an education he hadn't anticipated. He began to see the NFL not just as a league, but as a mirror of American capitalism, of racial exploitation, of a country that celebrated Black entertainment and criminalized Black lives in the same breath. He had been reading: Malcolm X. Muhammad Ali. Huey P. Newton. Angela Davis. He had been watching. And what he saw in the NFL, in Turlock, in the repeated, unpunished killing of Black and Brown Americans by the very systems claiming to protect them, converged into an undeniable truth: this was not someone else's fight. It was his. It is ours.

When Kaepernick knelt, he was not acting on impulse. He was acting on years of becoming, of absorbing, reckoning, and refusing to look away. In response, the NFL blackballed him, the country revealed its true self, and the man who had spent his whole life earning his place chose, deliberately, to risk all of it for something larger than himself.

But in the ten years since he took a knee, the questions his protest raised about race, power, identity, and the courage it takes to fight for a more equitable world have not gone away. They are the questions of our time. They are the questions this book answers.

In THE PERILOUS FIGHT, Kaepernick delivers his story with the same unflinching conviction that defined the moment the world watched. Equal parts memoir and manifesto, it traces the off-the-field battles that turned a single act of protest into a movement that changed American sports and culture forever. This is the story of a man who became someone the moment demanded. It is a story about identity, sacrifice, and the cost of courage. And it is, ultimately, a story about all of us and the future we are still fighting to build.

In the spirit of American cultural prophecy―from Ta-Nehisi Coates to Rebecca Solnit―acclaimed writer Casey Gerald offers a groundbreaking work of joyous dissent and stunning vision, a survival guide to a society in crisis.

“Somehow Casey Gerald has pulled off the most urgently political, most deeply personal, and most engagingly spiritual statement of our time by just looking outside his window and inside himself. Extraordinary.” ―Marlon James on There Will Be No Miracles Here

Most afternoons for the past three years, Casey Gerald took a walk. He would pass the compound that Elon Musk was building in his neighborhood; the burned-down Freedman's church; the little house where he and his lover Jack had seen a shooting star. He knew the world was crumbling, but he didn't fret. He had been promised: When it breaks, you'll be ready.

"There is a great unfolding going on," Gerald writes, "and all the clues for what's to come are planted in the people." In this quietly redemptive and lyrical book, Gerald shares his map for finding those clues, finding each other, and finding our way out of this dark and wearied time. On the other side of No, Gerald insists, there is a Yes―an embrace of what we really want, what we might finally claim once we refuse.

Calling forth a kaleidoscopic cast, from Odysseus to D'Angelo, Sun Tzu to Simone Biles, Black literati and desert mystics, Gerald implores us to take our power back and to remake the world together, on our terms. Written with Didion's cold eye and Baldwin's unflinching urgency, and with the dark humor of a man who’s seen too much but still wants to see what’s next, The Great Refusal is a lifeline from the other side of ruin.

A powerful memoir about the path to freedom and justice from one of the most important activists in American history, freshly repackaged for the Union Square & Co. Signature Editions line.

Born into slavery in New York, Isabella Baumfree became Sojourner Truth, one of the 19th century’s most powerful and outspoken advocates for abolition and women’s rights. In her remarkable 1850 narrative—dictated to a friend because she could not read or write—she recounts her incredible journey to freedom.

This foundational work of American literature offers an intimate and unflinching account of the brutalities of slavery in the North, the spiritual awakening that fueled Truth’s activism, and her tireless fight for justice. Both raw and deeply moving, her autobiography is a testament to speaking truth to power.

A posthumous book from hip-hop legend DMX that brings readers into the heart of his faith—a raw, redemptive collection of prayers and never-before-seen spiritual writings revealing the struggle and hope behind one of music’s most uncompromising voices. Authorized by the Estate of Earl “DMX” Simmons and carefully curated by co-administrators Desiree Lindstrom and Sasha Simmons, and featuring a foreword by Rakim.

DMX was celebrated for his brutally honest lyrics and raw, emotional delivery. Beneath that intensity was a man of deep and unshakable faith, relentlessly searching for grace while openly wrestling with temptation, suffering, and redemption. His prayers, whether whispered in solitude or spoken before thousands, revealed a soul determined to reconcile pain with purpose and anger with surrender. Through that vulnerability, he transformed hip-hop into testimony.

In quiet moments, DMX recorded his spiritual reflections wherever he could—on napkins, receipts, and hotel notepads—capturing his faith in its most immediate and unfiltered form. The Gospel According to DMX gathers this legacy into a posthumous collection of his prayers, sermons, spiritual writings, and selected lyrics. Presented in a beautifully designed edition crafted to echo the enduring form of a Bible, and including a moving foreword from Rakim, the book features never-before-seen handwritten pages that offer an intimate window into the private devotions of a man whose faith was as fierce as his artistry.

Despite its title, The Gospel According to DMX is not a religious or doctrinal text. Readers should note that some portions of this book contain profanity, explicit language, and mature themes. Earl Simmons's archival materials are presented in their original form and should be considered in the context of the complete body of work.

Emmy-winning comedian Katt Williams delivers a raw, unfiltered memoir that takes readers on a wild ride from homelessness to Hollywood, revealing the resilience, faith, and unapologetic humor that define his iconic career. With a forward by Shaquille O’Neal.

At thirteen, Micah Williams told his devout Jehovah’s Witness parents he was done. Knocking on doors wasn’t his calling, but knocking out audiences would be. He hitchhiked to Florida, hustled odd jobs, and years later would transform into Katt Williams, Emmy-winner, five-foot-five giant of comedy. The only man in Hollywood who can rock both a press and curl and sold-out arenas.

Katt details the grit and unwavering self-belief that fueled his ascent from an impromptu set at a small Florida comedy club to commanding audiences worldwide. He funded his own tours, kept his ownership, and he learned early that if you’re going to be underestimated, you might as well profit from it.

Katt also reveals the quieter side of the man behind the mic: thoughtful, spiritually grounded, and deeply committed to fatherhood. He addresses the headlines head-on, sets the record straight on his legal battles, while sharing what it really means to survive Hollywood without losing ownership of your money, your voice, or your peace.

From the soul of a man who refuses to fail, this memoir is part comedy masterclass and part middle finger to convention. It’s not just for fans; it’s for anyone who’s ever been told their dreams were too loud. Katt delivers a blueprint for betting on yourself…and winning.

A groundbreaking investigative account of the life of the mogul who brought hip-hop to the mainstream, offering readers a riveting look at the empire he built and the destructive power of celebrity

If not for Sean “Diddy” Combs’ ability to harness the voice of hip-hop and package it via artists like Mary J. Blige and the Notorious B.I.G., the landscape of American―and world―music would look and sound entirely different. For decades, mainstream performers clamored to be close to Combs; his charisma, vision, and brand of cool transformed hip-hop culture into a multibillion-dollar powerhouse. While his acumen built an empire that reflected the biggest names in not only music but also fashion, business, and the bright lights of Hollywood, another side of Combs was hidden from public view.

In Bad Boy for Life, journalist Cheyenne Roundtree vividly brings to life Combs’ early days and his rise to power. She also excavates the disturbing history of his alleged abuse. Through cultural insights, meticulous reporting, and in-depth interviews with more than one hundred sources, she examines Combs’ misuse of power that led to the criminal trial in 2025 that caused his kingdom to unravel.

Ultimately, this account shows how Combs embodies the much bigger story of hip-hop’s ascension, the wider music industry, and fame’s sinister aspects. This is one of the most significant pop-culture stories of our time, one that charts the path of an impresario while asking questions about accountability and justice, who is believed and who is silenced, and why we protect the powerful. In Bad Boy for Life, Roundtree depicts the man in full, offering a comprehensive portrait of Combs’ astonishing rise and fall.

A revelatory and powerful testament of protest, courage, and imprisonment in America’s deportation regime

“Are you Mahmoud Khalil?” The question marked the start of a politically charged odyssey that took the Palestinian graduate student and legal resident from his pregnant wife and home in New York City, transported him across the country, and locked him up in a Louisiana detention camp under threat of deportation. His “crime”: exercising his right to free speech at Columbia University, where he emerged as a leading voice against the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. No Land to Stand On is his indelible account, the story of a man confronting the reality that he had become target number one for a lawless regime shredding basic rights.

Drawing on his prison diary and writing in vivid, page-turning detail, Mahmoud Khalil conjures the despair and cruelty of ICE detention, where prisoners can vanish overnight and visiting families risk their own deportation. There is humanity, too, in the men’s acts of care―their mutual help with documents, the prison cake they make after Mahmoud can only follow the birth of his son on the public payphone. In tandem, he tells the multi-generational story of a family expelled from Palestine to a Syrian refugee camp, of flight from Assad’s regime to Lebanon, of arrival in an America that promised permanence and protection, and of the enduring struggle for Palestine.

A work of courage and resistance, No Land to Stand On is a call to integrity, to staying true to one’s life’s mission, and to defending the inalienable right to safety, freedom, and a land to stand on.

They may be the author of the #1 most banned book in America, but George M. Johnson isn't finished telling their story yet. Written with unflinching emotion and unapologetic boldness, And If I Die Before I Wake is nothing short of a testimony -- one the world desperately needs to hear.

George M. Johnson is no stranger to death. In this debut adult memoir, readers are invited to witness as they navigate an HIV diagnosis, alcoholism, tremendous loss, and nationwide book bans over the span of 15 years. Through the highs and lows of life in the spotlight, they have clung to family and community like never before -- finding their most authentic self along the way.

Drawing inspiration from Toni Morrison, Jesmyn Ward, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, And If I Die Before I Wake explores grief, trauma, sexuality, and the Black family through the lens of transformation, healing, and hope. Poetic, grounded, and bursting with signature humor, this is New York Times-bestselling author George M. Johnson more bold, more brave, and more daring than ever.

From bestselling author Celeste Headlee, an urgent and eye-opening story of the women who risked everything to ensure a generation of Black Americans had the right to read.

In the waning days of the antebellum South, millions of African Americans were suddenly released from enslavement. But they soon realized that “freedom” was not free; they were subject to hundreds of laws aimed at preventing them from voting and, in many cases, learning. Were it not for the work of an exceptional group of women―activists, educators, mothers, organizers―the foundations for Black education might never have been laid.

With Freedom's Daughters, Headlee set out to write into the record book the untold stories of these remarkable women. As a journalist who spent her career in public media, Headlee has long championed unheard voices and sought to tell the stories of those whose contributions have gone unacknowledged. But this project was fueled by an even deeper connection: Carrie Still Shepperson―one of the most important figures in this fight―is Headlee's great grandmother and one of the biggest influences in her life.

Now, after a decade of research spanning personal diaries to public records, Freedom’s Daughters paints a vivid portrait of figures intentionally erased from history, recognizing the work of a generation of Black women who believed freedom was inextricably linked with learning and free expression, and who worked tirelessly to secure access to literacy and education for a generation of children born into freedom.

By turns shocking, inspiring, and deeply moving, Freedom’s Daughters is Headlee’s impeccably researched journey to better understand her family history and herself, and a timely examination of the influence and power of unfettered access to schools, libraries, and higher education.

“A landmark work of beauty, honesty, and insight.”—Helen Macdonald 

From acclaimed ornithologist and MacArthur Fellow J. Drew Lanham comes a modern classic of nature writing and memoir, newly expanded with reflections on the decade since its original publication. 

A decade after its original publication, The Home Place remains a distinguished work of American memoir and nature writing—a beloved bestseller that has inspired readers, birders, conservationists, and anyone seeking a deeper connection to the natural world.

In these pages, renowned ornithologist J. Drew Lanham traces his roots to Edgefield County, South Carolina, where generations of his family have lived since slavery. There, amid fields, forests, and fence rows, a young Lanham discovers the birds that will shape his life. Through birding, he finds wonder, purpose, and belonging, while beginning to grapple with what it means to be “the rare bird”—a Black naturalist in spaces where few people look like him.

With lyricism, humor, and unflinching honesty, Lanham explores race, inheritance, identity, and the enduring bonds between people and place. This special 10th anniversary edition includes new and expanded reflections that revisit the book’s central themes through the lens of a decade of cultural and environmental change, deepening the conversation that has made The Home Place a touchstone for readers across generations.

At once intimate and expansive, The Home Place is the story of a family’s roots, a birder’s awakening, and a lifelong love affair with nature. For longtime admirers and first-time readers alike, this anniversary edition celebrates a modern classic whose message of belonging, stewardship, and hope has only grown more urgent with time.

Amid the current firestorm of interest in women’s basketball, Natasha Howard reveals the tremendous obstacles she overcame to become a three-time WNBA champion who continues to excel on the hardwood.

THE PAST THREE YEARS HAVE SEEN A WORLDWIDE EXPLOSION of interest in women’s basketball and the rise of young superstars like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers. As the audience grows exponentially, the public is hungry to know more about some of the women who have ushered the sport into this bright spotlight, including elite and still-active veterans like Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson, Natasha Howard, Napheesa Collier, and others.

Before Natasha Howard was a three-time WNBA champion, before she was named Defensive Player of the Year, she was a thoughtful girl growing up in very difficult circumstances. Her mother faced challenges of her own while shepherding her four children between cities, and sometimes in and out of homeless shelters. 

Young Natasha’s life changed when her uncle Greg introduced her to basketball―with a bribe that included candy. Tash was instantly hooked. But what does a basketball player do when her school doesn't have a girls' team? She joins together with a friend to demand that they be allowed to try out for the boys' team. Which is what Tash did―and then became a starter.

In 2025 Natasha Howard was named MVP of the 2025 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup. She currently plays with the Minnesota Lynx and shows no signs of slowing down at the age of thirty-four. The Vision Through My Lens is her powerful story of building a life for herself through basketball. As a gay, Black woman, she used all her strength to forge forth, to triumph over an astonishing array of obstacles. Coauthored by Deyscha Smith, this memoir tells an unusually empowering tale of a strong girl becoming a stronger woman.

A call to courage and connection from prize-winning poet and champion for the arts and humanities Elizabeth Alexander.

“We send signals across vast distances, hoping to connect.” In luminous prose, Elizabeth Alexander embraces that hope, offering resources―life wisdom, historical perspective, poetry, and art―to embolden us to “reach beyond ourselves.” Her close readings of visionary poets, interwoven with extraordinary visual art, reveal how poetry and art can sustain us. Her stories of connection―as a daughter, wife, widow, and mother; as an aspiring dancer; on the dais at President Obama’s inauguration; in the hospital with her college-age son―deeply move us. She shines a light on our nation’s painful history of inequity, recounting in her Class Day speech to Yale students the thwarted dream destroyed in 1831 of a Black college in New Haven; she calls for a reckoning of centuries of injustice in historical memory and memorializing. She asks, What will we each do to make the dream of freedom, for everyone, real? Every page conveys her hope that we recognize the abundant resources we carry within: language, history, community, family, our bodies, our stories, love itself. Signals Across Vast Distances empowers us―in Alexander’s closing words―to lead with love.

12 color illustrations

The first biography of a controversial, iconoclastic architect of Black Studies, from a leading scholar of the Black intellectual tradition

In the 1960s and 1970s, Harold Cruse (1916–2005) was one of the most prominent Black intellectuals in the world, mentioned in the same breath as James Baldwin, Frantz Fanon, and Malcolm X. Today, Cruse is nearly forgotten. In this biography, Vincent W. Lloyd reclaims the story of an influential contrarian, a man who was beloved, feared, hated, reviled, praised.

Cruse grew up poor in Virginia and Harlem, worked as a critic and organizer, and then spent years making his living through manual labor while writing The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (1967). The book electrified Black America, and the activist who never finished high school became a tenured college professor, a founder of the field of Black Studies, and a mentor to countless student activists. By the 1980s, however, Cruse’s distaste for integration, liberal pluralism, and multiculturalism meant that his influential work was fading from view.

Drawing on Cruse’s letters and unpublished writings, along with scores of interviews, Lloyd offers a fast-paced narrative of an extraordinary life―and a new perspective on Black justice struggles. Ultimately, this is the story of a singular man: passionate, brilliant, strange, and visionary.

An illuminating portrait of five Black woman artists and the New York nightclub that helped inspire the civil rights movement.

Before they became household names, Maya Angelou, Lorraine Hansberry, Abbey Lincoln, Miriam Makeba, and Nina Simone needed a place to practice and perform. That place was the Village Gate, a New York City nightclub that became a downtown hotspot for Black art, culture, music, and politics. Freedom’s Gate depicts the deepening political convictions and groundbreaking artistry of women of the Gate as they developed as entertainers, activists, and intellectuals in the spotlight of art and revolution. From Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun to Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam” and Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach’s We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, Soyica Diggs Colbert brings to life the culture and performances that were the soundtrack to Black freedom struggles in the 1950s and early 1960s. With supporting roles from stars and activists such as Harry Belafonte, Stokely Carmichael, and Sidney Poitier, Freedom’s Gate is a vibrant history of a little-known chapter of the civil rights movement that gave voice and soul to the call for liberation.

20 photographs

An exploration of sisterhood, creativity, and community inspired by the artist Alma Thomas’s life and work, from the award-winning poet Alexis Pauline Gumbs
 
Alma Thomas (1891–1978) was an influential figure in twentieth-century modern art, best known for her bright, mosaiclike abstract paintings. Although some critics have seen Thomas’s emphasis on beauty, color, and abstract art as a way to divorce her work from her life as a Black woman, Alexis Pauline Gumbs reveals how Thomas’s art was, in fact, deeply rooted in the Black community in which she lived. Black, in other words, was one of Thomas’s primary colors.
 
Gumbs sheds light on Thomas’s experience as a junior high school teacher in the still-segregated schools of Washington, D.C., where Thomas—as educator, mentor, and advocate—established community art programs for Black schoolchildren and galleries to showcase Black artists’ work. In this volume of poems and prose, Gumbs becomes a student of Thomas, allowing the wonder in Thomas’s work to open her to wonder about her own creativity, sistering, daughtering, and practice of communal transformation.

The late, legendary performer and activist’s candid reflections on American race relations and social movements, based on previously unpublished conversations with the award-winning historian

Harry Belafonte was more than a bestselling folk singer and Hollywood’s first Black matinée idol; he was also the secret weapon of human rights movements for seventy years—a close confidante of Martin Luther King Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt; a trusted whisperer to JFK; and a political advisor to African heads of state.

Belafonte simultaneously advised Robert F. Kennedy on how to win the Black vote, openly supported Communist leaders including Fidel Castro, and skillfully avoided being blacklisted by J. Edgar Hoover. He was also a masterful fundraiser, almost singlehandedly bankrolling the civil rights movement from his own earnings as well as donations solicited from Hollywood friends and Vegas mobsters. It was Belafonte’s idea to organize superstar artists to record the hit song, “We Are the World” in 1984 to benefit famine victims in Africa.

In this candid, revelatory book, drawn from a series of conversations with historian Kevin Baker shortly before Belafonte’s death in 2023, the legendary singer of “Day-O” shares his philosophy on racial politics, African colonialism, the emergence of Israel, the shortcomings of Barack Obama, and the rise of Donald Trump. A Burning House offers a primer on celebrity activism at its best—as well as a cautionary tale about the rise of American authoritarianism.

An updated and revised biography of Patrice Lumumba, former Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Patrice Lumumba (1926-61) is perhaps the most famous leader of the African independence movement. He became an icon of anti-imperialist struggle after his execution in 1961, when he had been the prime minister of the newly liberated Congo for only seven months. As the news came out, his picture was brandished in demonstrations in capitals around the world, along with those of Che Guevara and Mao Zedong. His life and the independence that he sought for the Congo made him a pivotal figure of the twentieth century, exposing ongoing Western colonialism and the problematic nature of the independence granted to huge swathes of the globe after 1945.

In this book, revised and updated to include new thinking on the Congo crisis and incorporating material recently released from British intelligence archives, Leo Zeilig tells the story of the Congo in the dying days of colonialism and of Lumumba’s transition from nationalist to revolutionary to international symbol of African liberation.

"My clothes are different, my face is different, my hair is different, but I am somebody. I am black, brown, white. I speak a different language. But I must be respected, protected, never rejected. I am God’s child. ⁣I am somebody.” —Jesse Jackson

Few figures loom as large as Reverend Jesse Jackson in the history of American civil rights. From marching in the 1960s with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to forming the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, to his historic presidential campaigns, Jesse Jackson spent his life at the forefront of the civil rights movement. Recipient of numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and NAACP Spingarn Medal, Jackson is undoubtedly one of the most consequential figures in the nation's history.

Collected here are rare and previously uncollected interviews with magazines, newspapers, and television broadcasts. In them, Jackson talks of his work with Dr. King, and the tragic night when he was killed. He addresses the economic deregulation of the 1970s, how it translated to tax cuts for the wealthy but few benefits for the poor and underrepresented. He tells of his own presidential campaigns and, with the political rise of Barack Obama, anticipates the election of the country's first Black president. From these brief glimpses emerges a picture of a man of moral purpose, who taught us that the only justification to look down on someone is to stop and pick them up.

The art historian, poet, and novelist close-reads images, moving and still, canonical and lesser known, that have shaped her evolving identity as an American “Mulatta” lesbian born at the end of the Civil Rights Movement in this singular blend of life-writing and cultural studies.

The daughter of the WASP mother who raised her and a Black father she has never known, J. Vanessa Lyon delivers a candid memoir across thirteen uniquely structured chapters in conversation with enduring, often damaging, mis/representations of so-called race mixing in fine art and popular media. Reflecting on a lifetime of being “dis-read,” she examines insidious cultural tropes of White passing beginning with art from the era of transatlantic slavery—from Rembrandt and Rubens, Gentileschi and Stubbs, to Manet—before moving on to Br’er Rabbit, Louise Nevelson, 1950s melodrama, and Adrian Piper. Original analysis of a broad chronological range of visual art parallels the unfolding of Lyon’s sense of self as animated by the interiors and geographies—not to mention the challenging and remarkable women—that have figured in her life. Through her investigations, she comes to terms with long-withheld information and the seemingly unalterable reality of being an out lesbian who, legally Black, may never be viewed by Whites or other African Americans in the ways she experiences her own raced and gendered personhood.

By turns scholarly and intimate, Blackness Thirteen Ways reveals surprising connections between the art Lyon teaches and the woman she has become, challenging history to accommodate an unapologetic image of herself and other “impassably” Black women.

Celebrating the history-making Black American who smashed world records and became a global cycling sensation!

Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor was one of the greatest American athletes of the early 20th century, setting records in regional bike races as a teen and winning his first world championship by the age of twenty. But Taylor was born in 1878 in Indianapolis and came of age during the height of the Jim Crow era, facing racism at every turn.

Cartoonist Frederick Noland is a cyclist himself and in this epic 400 page graphic biography of America's first Black world champion, he thrills in the records Taylor broke and the adoring public he found across North America, Europe, and Australia, all the while showing how the invention of the bicycle changed society. Yet Noland also documents how racism inflected Black life in the post Civil War era: cyclists would collude to injure Taylor, and he faced segregationist policies even in liberal cities such as San Francisco. And while Taylor found respite racing overseas, he soon found American-style racism exported internationally to sell tickets.

Noland pens a gorgeous, humane, graphic paean to Major Taylor, illustrating how the fastest man in America also had a deep well of integrity and fortitude not just to succeed, but to overcome the racist abuse he faced from fellow athletes and society at large. Major Taylor is a loving tribute to an exceptional American.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Franchise comes the little-known story of the pioneering Black women artists and activists who were seen, but barely heard, at the 1963 March on Washington.

"Chatelain lets us see the complexities of these women’s lives, feel their pain, and marvel at their ability to cut through the thicket of racism and sexism."—Carol Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of White Rage

"Chatelain brilliantly reframes one of the most enduring images in American memory through the women erased from its frame."—Alexis Coe, New York Times bestselling author of You Never Forget Your First

There is no shortage of footage immortalizing the men who spoke at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, when 250,000 Americans gathered beneath the Lincoln Memorial to call for an end to segregation. There were reverends and rabbis, activists and Rat-Pack icons—and of course the day's headliner, whose prophetic dream of a post-Jim Crow world has forever defined the Civil Rights Movement. But there is no “class photo” of the Black women who helped organize the march, performed on its main stage, or were honored during its “Tribute to Negro Women Fighters for Freedom.”

In How Bright the Path Grows, Marcia Chatelain weaves a gleaming group portrait of these singular women. Among this cohort were several household names: vaudeville icon Josephine Baker; civil rights activist Rosa Parks gospel legend Mahalia Jackson, and Daisy Bates, champion of the Little Rock Nine. But many were relative unknowns, including Eva Jessye, the choir director who designed the day’s musical program, and Anna Hedgeman, the coordinator who pushed in the eleventh hour for a tribute to Black women’s work.

How Bright the Path Grows is a scintillating group biography, rendering the lives of thirteen Black women visionaries—some famous, others soon to be—in novelistic detail and like never seen before.

A startling and eye-opening look into America’s First Family, Never Caught is the powerful story about a daring woman of “extraordinary grit” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

When George Washington was elected president, he reluctantly left behind his beloved Mount Vernon to serve in Philadelphia, the temporary seat of the nation’s capital. In setting up his household he brought along nine slaves, including Ona Judge. As the President grew accustomed to Northern ways, there was one change he couldn’t abide: Pennsylvania law required enslaved people be set free after six months of residency in the state. Rather than comply, Washington decided to circumvent the law. Every six months he sent the slaves back down south just as the clock was about to expire.

Though Ona Judge lived a life of relative comfort, she was denied freedom. So, when the opportunity presented itself one clear and pleasant spring day in Philadelphia, Judge left everything she knew to escape to New England. Yet freedom would not come without its costs. At just twenty-two-years-old, Ona became the subject of an intense manhunt led by George Washington, who used his political and personal contacts to recapture his property.

“A crisp and compulsively readable feat of research and storytelling” (USA TODAY), historian and National Book Award finalist Erica Armstrong Dunbar weaves a powerful tale and offers fascinating new scholarship on how one young woman risked everything to gain freedom from the famous founding father and most powerful man in the United States at the time.

The veteran White House correspondent follows up Black Women Will Save the World with a gripping, soul-baring, and deeply personal examination of online misogynoir—specific and relentless online bullying attacks based solely on race and gender.

Notes on a Blacklash is veteran White House reporter April Ryan’s gripping, soul-baring look at what happens when the world suddenly turns its full attention on you. This isn’t just the story of one viral moment with President Trump. It’s about the avalanche that follows: the scrutiny, the emotional and physical toll, and the way your identity can become fuel for headlines and hashtags.

April pulls back the curtain on what it truly costs to be seen and what it takes to survive it. With vulnerability and power, she recounts the moments that made her go viral, not because she chased attention, but because she showed up authentically. Her presence, her truth, and her refusal to shrink under pressure struck a chord and sparked cultural firestorms.

From a high-stakes press room showdown to the history-making decision by Vice President Kamala Harris, from the public disrespect of Stevie Wonder to the slap heard around the world, April explores how race, gender, and power collide in a world addicted to outrage and instant opinions.

At its core, this book explores visibility—its price, its power, and the fight to reclaim your story when millions are watching. What does it mean to go viral when your hair is politicized, your voice is policed, and your very existence is treated as a threat? Sometimes, this is what it feels like when the spotlight finds you: uninvited, unrelenting, and impossible to ignore.

The little-known heroes behind Motown's greatest hits are finally heard in this moving memoir filled with the rich historical atmosphere and emotional resonance of Hidden Figures, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Questlove's Music Is History.

Their voices can be heard on Motown classics such as "My Guy," "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and "Stop! In the Name of Love"--immortal songs that defined an era. Relegated to the shadows behind the stars, the three professional backup singers who contributed to these smash hits and countless others were rarely known to the public.

In One Step Away, Motown legend Louvain Demps, joined by Emmy Award-winning journalist Paul Milliken, flips the record to at last tell the story of The Andantes--the powerhouse trio of Black women who secretly shaped the soundtrack of a generation--shining a warm spotlight on their talent and contributions.

Marlene Barrow. Jackie Hicks. Louvain Demps. They were Motown's "clean-up girls" -- the voices called in when the stars couldn't hit the notes. They recorded background vocals for thousands of songs--racking up as many Billboard hits as Elvis, Mariah, and Beyoncé. Yet for their contributions they were often paid $10 a session, denied credit, and excluded from history.

Now, in a story as electrifying as the music itself, Louvain recreates Motown's golden years and her experiences in helping to build the brand, taking us from the vibrant Detroit street corners where she first sang to Studio A. One Step Away is both an intimate personal portrait of a legendary time and a journey of resilience, reinvention, and survival.

Part overlooked history, part heartfelt reminiscence, part cultural reckoning, One Step Away is the missing story of the women who made Motown sing. Informative and entertaining, it restores The Andantes to their rightful place in American music and popular culture, alongside the legends whose voices they helped immortalize.

One Step Away includes a 16-pages photo insert.

The long-awaited memoir by the comedy legend and author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, a beautiful and mesmerizing book that reveals as never before his childhood in South Central Los Angeles, his time in the infamous Bloods gang, and how humor became his salvation.

I learned a joke could be more than humor. It was body armor. Could be a spell. Could be a sword and a shield, all in one breath.

He was always Charlie’s Boy—even before he found his name, his voice, his fame.

In this raw, cinematic, and deeply personal memoir, acclaimed comedian and cultural critic D.L. Hughley documents his rise from the streets of South Central Los Angeles to the national spotlight—and the man who quietly stood behind him through it all.

While his mother’s wrath shaped his early years with fear and rejection, it was Charlie Hughley—a soft-spoken bag handler at the Los Angeles Airport—who raised D.L. and taught him how to survive through tough love and sacrifice. Though he was not D.L.’s biological father—a fact only revealed when D.L. was ten—Charlie gave his boy the only thing he truly needed: a sense of being seen.

It was a time when gangs ruled the streets of South Central, and D.L. rose through the ranks of the Bloods. But when his mother’s car was shot up and dead roses were left on his doorstep—signaling he was marked for death—D.L.’s mother knew that he couldn’t stay in Los Angeles. So, D.L. boarded a bus to Ohio and left behind everything he understood. It was exile. But it proved to be a fresh start.

This is not just a coming-of-age story. It’s the story of how one man found his voice by being raised in silence—and how he learned to get on stage and turn pain into punch lines. Through storytelling that’s both unsparing and funny, Charlie’s Boy is a tribute to the man who never asked for one, and a reckoning for the boy who had to wrestle for love, identity, and truth.

Step into the vibrant streets of the 1970s Bronx and witness the exact moment a global movement began. Birth of a Culture gives you a front-row seat to the origins of hip-hop, told through the firsthand experiences of Grandmaster Flash—one of the founding pioneers who helped build the culture from the ground up.

When you read this book, you feel the pulse of the neighborhood parks, hear the scratch of the vinyl, and experience the raw energy of a community turning its daily struggles into a revolutionary art form. This is not just a collection of dates and facts. It is a deeply personal narrative written by Grandmaster Flash and coauthor Robert “Scoop” Jackson that brings you into the rooms and onto the streets where music changed forever.

What you will discover inside:

* An Authentic Pioneer Perspective: Read a personal narrative from the mind of Grandmaster Flash, complete with untold stories of the earliest park jams and legendary club nights.
* The Blueprint of a Movement: Understand exactly how DJing, MCing, break dancers, and graffiti artists merged to form the core pillars of a massive cultural shift.
* Untold History Revealed: Uncover the real stories behind the evolution of hip-hop and culture.
* Timeless Cultural Relevance: Explore how the innovation born in the Bronx directly influences the music, art, and social movements you interact with every day.

This book cuts through the myths to deliver an authentic, chronological history—bringing you alongside Grandmaster Flash as he invents the groundbreaking Quik Mix Theory and helps transform a landscape of social unrest into a global movement. With turntables and microphones, the young innovator sparked a cultural explosion that quickly swept the world.

More than a timeline of musical milestones, this Birth of a Culture explores the profound power of community, resilience, and unapologetic creativity. The challenges and triumphs detailed within these pages mirror the social issues we still face, proving that music remains our most vital tool for connection and change.

Whether you are a lifelong hip-hop fan, a dedicated music historian, or simply someone who loves powerful stories of cultural triumph, this book belongs on your shelf. Once you’ve read Birth of a Culture, you can say you know the undeniable heartbeat of hip-hop's true origins.

FINALIST FOR THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY

An engrossing memoir of escaping the First Liberian Civil War and building a life in the United States

When Wayétu Moore turns five years old, her father and grandmother throw her a big birthday party at their home in Monrovia, Liberia, but all she can think about is how much she misses her mother, who is working and studying in faraway New York. Before she gets the reunion her father promised her, war breaks out in Liberia. The family is forced to flee their home on foot, walking and hiding for three weeks until they arrive in the village of Lai. Finally, a rebel soldier smuggles them across the border to Sierra Leone, reuniting the family and setting them off on yet another journey, this time to the United States.

Spanning this harrowing journey in Moore’s early childhood, her years adjusting to life in Texas as a black woman and an immigrant, and her eventual return to Liberia, The Dragons, the Giant, the Women is a deeply moving story of the search for home in the midst of upheaval. Moore has a novelist’s eye for suspense and emotional depth, and this unforgettable memoir is full of imaginative, lyrical flights and lush prose. In capturing both the hazy magic and the stark realities of what is becoming an increasingly pervasive experience, Moore shines a light on the great political and personal forces that continue to affect many migrants around the world, and calls us all to acknowledge the tenacious power of love and family.

The incredible journey of activist Opal Lee—known as the Grandmother of Juneteenth—is brought to life in this biographical graphic novel that not only explores Opal’s remarkable path, but the history of the holiday of Juneteenth itself.

From the 1860s to Ms. Opal’s childhood home, from her years as a teacher to the White House, First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth seeks to give readers an insight into the history behind one of the central figures in the creation of America’s newest federal holiday, Juneteenth.

Born in 1926, Opal Lee grew up in a racially divided America and dedicated her life to overcoming the obstacles presented therein. A lifelong educator, Ms. Opal has been a community activist all her life, and would take on the movement to celebrate and commemorate Juneteenth not just as a holiday, but as a symbol of comprehensive freedom for all people.

Ms. Opal’s life personifies the fight for everyday freedom that leads to lasting change. As the Grandmother of Juneteenth says, “There is so much more to do.”

Written by acclaimed journalist, producer, and author Angélique Roché (My Super Hero is Black) and drawn by a trio of talented artists—including Alvin Epps (I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005: A Graphic Novel), Bex Glendining (the upcoming Indigo Port), and rising star Millicent Monroe—The First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth promises to illuminate the life of a singular woman and the history of a momentous holiday, with additional back matter providing more insights into Juneteenth’s history and the making of this graphic novel tribute.

From Terrell Carter, a standout on Tyler Perry’s new Netflix drama Beauty in Black as Varney, Problem Child is a heart-wrenching story that will take you on an emotional rollercoaster ride that makes the Twilight Zone look like Disneyland.

Problem Child is the unbelievably true story of Terrell Carter, an American musician and actor who grew up in Buffalo, New York, in a dysfunctional family, each member crazier than the next. And the Problem Child is the only one in the story who may, or may not, actually have a problem. An emotional journey of trials and revelations, with a huge secret at its core, this story may force you to laugh—just to keep from crying.

“Terrell, we’re still feeling the goosebumps.”—Quincy Jones

“My beautiful baby boy, even more beautiful on the inside, and he sings even better than that. Now Ms. Patti is giving him his wings to fly among the greats.”—Patti LaBelle

A long-overdue corrective to the history of rock ‘n’ roll and alternative music, repopulating it with the extraordinary Black artists and influential figures who steered its course, from an author, journalist, and front woman of the British post punk band Big Joanie.

The history of rock and roll and alternative music is often told in bold, sweeping, isolated moments that are removed from the context of their time. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that the stories we tell center primarily on the achievements of white men like Elvis Presley, The Ramones, Nirvana, and David Bowie. White men who were the stars, white men who supposedly changed the game, white men who seemingly were at the forefront of every musical innovation in the 20th and 21st centuries. These rock and roll retellings perpetuate the belief that white men were the most important people to wield a guitar, strut on stage, or pound out a pummeling drumbeat. What is missing in these stories is everything in between—the people, the places, and the scenes that connect the dots—and you can’t tell the history of any music scene, let alone alternative music, without the Black community.

From the genre's earliest moments, Black musicians—like gospel entertainer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the 1930s-40s and rock and roll legend Chuck Berry in the 1950s—have consistently pushed musical boundaries that forever impacted the music that followed. Throughout the decades, numerous Black entertainers continued to add their take on rock and alternative genres, expanding and building on what was already there to create what we know as alternative music today: look no further than the electric fire of Jimi Hendrix’s guitar licks in the '60s, the kaleidoscopic melee of hardcore and reggae that was Bad Brains in the late '70s, and the funkadelic swagger of Living Colour in the '80s.

Despite their groundbreaking contributions, why have Black musicians been so neglected from the historical canon? Is alternative music still seen as a white genre, and how are Black musicians and fans making space for themselves in the music scenes they love? We Were Here tells the story of Black artists performing in alternative genres from punk to rock and roll, indie to new wave, alongside their Black fans. Through brand new interviews and meticulous research, Phillips documents the history of Black people’s influence on these genres, highlighting the key players, assessing the legacy of their work, and drawing attention to those who have been obscured from history.

Where rock magazines and music books previously omitted or misunderstood the stories of Black artists and fans, this book centers their voices and attempts to right the wrongs of the past. Along the way, Phillips infuses her own coming-of-age story as a Black female musician in the punk scene, alongside a cultural analysis of rock and alternative music history.