Non-Fiction
- Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir
by Sly Stone with Ben Greenman
$30.00The never-thought-we’d-see-it memoir from the legendary Sly Stone.
One of the few indisputable geniuses of pop music, Sly Stone is a trailblazer and a legend. He created a new kind of music, mixing Black and white, male and female, funk and rock. As a songwriter, he penned some of the most iconic anthems of the 1960s and ’70s, from “Everyday People” to “Family Affair.” As a performer, he electrified audiences with a persona and stage presence that set a lasting standard for pop-culture performance. Yet his life has also been a cautionary tale, known as much for how he dropped out of the spotlight as for what put him there in the first place. People know the music, but the man remains a mystery. In Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), his much-anticipated memoir, he’s finally ready to share his story—a story that many thought he’d never have the chance to tell.
Written with Ben Greenman, who has written memoirs with George Clinton and Brian Wilson, among others, and created in collaboration with Sly Stone’s manager, Arlene Hirschkowitz, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) includes a foreword by Questlove.
- Rise Up!: How You Can Join the Fight Against White Supremacy
Rise Up!: How You Can Join the Fight Against White Supremacy
by Crystal Marie Fleming
$12.99Perfect for fans of Stamped: Remix, this eye-opening nonfiction book for young people explores the roots of racism and its legacy in the modern day, all while empowering readers with actionable ways they can help foster equality.
Why are white supremacists still openly marching in the United States? Why are undocumented children of color separated from their families and housed in cages? Where did racism come from? Why hasn’t it already disappeared? And what can young people do about it?
Rise Up! breaks down the origins of racial injustice and its continued impact today, connecting dots between the past and present. By including contemporary examples ripped from headlines and actionable ways young people can help create a more inclusive world, sociologist Crystal Fleming shares the knowledge and values that unite all antiracists: compassion, solidarity, respect, and courage in the face of adversity. A People's History of the United States meets So You Want to Talk About Race for a new generation of young thinkers and activists. - Akim Aliu: Dreamer (Original Graphic Memoir)
Akim Aliu: Dreamer (Original Graphic Memoir)
by Akim Aliu
$24.99This honest, engrossing graphic memoir tells the story of professional athlete and activist Akim Aliu's incredible life as a hockey prodigy in Canada.
Akim Aliu — also known as "Dreamer" — is a Nigerian born, Ukrainian Canadian professional hockey player whose career took him all around the world and who experienced systemic racism at everyone turn. This graphic novel tells Akim's incredible story, from being the only black child in his Ukrainian school, to having his teeth bashed in by a racist teammate in the Ontario junior league. A gut-wrenching and riveting graphic novel memoir that reminds us to never stop dreaming, this story is sure to inspire young readers everywhere.
"With honesty and courage, Akim Aliu's Dreamer will inspire readers of all ages to move confidently in the direction of their future." - Colin Kaepernick
- In My Skin: My Life On and Off the Basketball Court
In My Skin: My Life On and Off the Basketball Court
by Brittney Griner with Sue Hovey
Sold outThe Phoenix Mercury star—the world’s most famous female basketball player—shares her coming-of-age story, revealing how she found the strength to overcome bullies and to embrace her authentic self
“[A] searing and ultimately liberating memoir” —New York Times Book ReviewAt six foot eight with an eighty-eight-inch wingspan and a size 17 men’s shoe, the Phoenix Mercury star and three-time All-American Brittney Griner has been shattering stereotypes and breaking boundaries ever since she burst onto the national scene as a dunking high school phenom. But the sport’s “most transformative figure” (Sports Illustrated) is equally famous for making headlines off the court, for speaking out on issues of gender, sexuality, body image, and self-esteem.
In this heartfelt memoir, Brittney reflects on painful episodes in her life, as well as the highs. She describes how she came to celebrate what makes her unique—inspiring lessons she now shares with readers. Filled with all the humor and personality that Brittney Griner has become known for, In My Skin is more than a glimpse into one of the most original people in sports; it’s a powerful call to readers to be true to themselves, to love who they are on the inside and out. - Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women
Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women
by Brittney C. Cooper
$19.95Beyond Respectability charts the development of African American women as public intellectuals and the evolution of their thought from the end of the 1800s through the Black Power era of the 1970s. Eschewing the Great Race Man paradigm so prominent in contemporary discourse, Brittney C. Cooper looks at the far-reaching intellectual achievements of female thinkers and activists like Anna Julia Cooper, Mary Church Terrell, Fannie Barrier Williams, Pauli Murray, and Toni Cade Bambara. Cooper delves into the processes that transformed these women and others into racial leadership figures, including long-overdue discussions of their theoretical output and personal experiences. As Cooper shows, their body of work critically reshaped our understandings of race and gender discourse. It also confronted entrenched ideas of how--and who--produced racial knowledge. - Care Activism: Migrant Domestic Workers, Movement-Building, and Communities of Care
Care Activism: Migrant Domestic Workers, Movement-Building, and Communities of Care
by Ethel Tungohan
Sold out*Ships in 7-10 Business Days*
Care activism challenges the stereotype of downtrodden migrant caregivers by showing that care workers have distinct ways of caring for themselves, for each other, and for the larger transnational community of care workers and their families. Ethel Tungohan illuminates how the goals and desires of migrant care worker activists goes beyond political considerations like policy changes and overturning power structures. Through practices of subversive friendships and being there for each other, care activism acts as an extension of the daily work that caregivers do, oftentimes also instilling practices of resistance and critical hope among care workers. At the same time, the communities created by care activism help migrant caregivers survive and even thrive in the face of arduous working and living conditions and the pains surrounding family separation. As Tungohan shows, care activism also unifies caregivers to resist society’s legal and economic devaluations of care and domestic work by reaffirming a belief that they, and what they do, are important and necessary.
- Safe in a Midwife's Hands: Birthing Traditions from Africa to the American South
Safe in a Midwife's Hands: Birthing Traditions from Africa to the American South
by Linda Janet Holmes
Sold outInterviews Black midwives in Africa and the US to detail birthing and postpartum traditions as vital cultural practices that counterbalance racism within medical systems.
A Ms. Magazine “Most Anticipated Feminist Book of 2023”
After a less-than-positive experience giving birth as a Black woman in the 1970s, Linda Janet Holmes launched a lifetime of work as an activist dedicated to learning about and honoring alternative birth traditions and the Black women behind them. Safe in a Midwife’s Hands brings together what Holmes has gleaned from the countless midwives who have shared with her their experiences, at a time when their knowledge and holistic approaches are essential counterbalances to a medical system that routinely fails Black mothers and babies. Building on work she began in the 1980s, when she interviewed traditional Black midwives in Alabama and Virginia, Holmes traveled to Ghana, Ethiopia, and Kenya to visit midwives there. In detailing their work, from massage to the uses of medicinal plants to naming ceremonies, she links their voices to those of midwives and doulas in the US. She thus illuminates parallels between birthing traditions that have survived hundreds of years of colonialism, enslavement, Jim Crow, and ongoing medical racism to persist as vital cultural practices that promote healthy outcomes for mothers and babies during pregnancy, birth, and beyond. - Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party
Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party
by Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr.
$27.95*ships in 7-10 business days*This timely special edition, published on the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party, features a new preface by the authors that places the Party in a contemporary political landscape, especially as it relates to Black Lives Matter and other struggles to fight police brutality against black communities.
In Oakland, California, in 1966, community college students Bobby Seale and Huey Newton armed themselves, began patrolling the police, and promised to prevent police brutality. Unlike the Civil Rights Movement that called for full citizenship rights for blacks within the United States, the Black Panther Party rejected the legitimacy of the U.S. government and positioned itself as part of a global struggle against American imperialism. In the face of intense repression, the Party flourished, becoming the center of a revolutionary movement with offices in sixty-eight U.S. cities and powerful allies around the world.
Black against Empire is the first comprehensive overview and analysis of the history and politics of the Black Panther Party. The authors analyze key political questions, such as why so many young black people across the country risked their lives for the revolution, why the Party grew most rapidly during the height of repression, and why allies abandoned the Party at its peak of influence. Bold, engrossing, and richly detailed, this book cuts through the mythology and obfuscation, revealing the political dynamics that drove the explosive growth of this revolutionary movement and its disastrous unraveling. Informed by twelve years of meticulous archival research, as well as familiarity with most of the former Party leadership and many rank-and-file members, this book is the definitive history of one of the greatest challenges ever posed to American state power. - Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul
Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul
by James McBride
$18.00Kill ’Em and Leave is more than a book about James Brown. Brown embodied the contradictions of American life: He was an unsettling symbol of the tensions between North and South, black and white, rich and poor. After receiving a tip that promises to uncover the man behind the myth, James McBride goes in search of the “real” James Brown. McBride’s travels take him to forgotten corners of Brown’s never-before-revealed history, illuminating not only our understanding of the immensely troubled, misunderstood, and complicated Godfather of Soul, but the ways in which our cultural heritage has been shaped by Brown’s enduring legacy. - Nobody Is Supposed to Know: Black Sexuality on the Down Low
Nobody Is Supposed to Know: Black Sexuality on the Down Low
by C. Riley Snorton
$28.00Since the early 2000s, the phenomenon of the “down low”—black men who have sex with men as well as women and do not identify as gay, queer, or bisexual—has exploded in news media and popular culture, from the Oprah Winfrey Show to R & B singer R. Kelly’s hip hopera Trapped in the Closet. Most down-low stories are morality tales in which black men are either predators who risk infecting their unsuspecting female partners with HIV or victims of a pathological black culture that repudiates openly gay identities. In both cases, down-low narratives depict black men as sexually dangerous, duplicitous, promiscuous, and contaminated.
In Nobody Is Supposed to Know, C. Riley Snorton traces the emergence and circulation of the down low in contemporary media and popular culture to show how these portrayals reinforce troubling perceptions of black sexuality. Reworking Eve Sedgwick’s notion of the “glass closet,” Snorton advances a new theory of such representations in which black sexuality is marked by hypervisibility and confinement, spectacle and speculation. Through close readings of news, music, movies, television, and gossip blogs, Nobody Is Supposed to Know explores the contemporary genealogy, meaning, and functions of the down low.
Snorton examines how the down low links blackness and queerness in the popular imagination and how the down low is just one example of how media and popular culture surveil and police black sexuality. Looking at figures such as Ma Rainey, Bishop Eddie L. Long, J. L. King, and Will Smith, he ultimately contends that down-low narratives reveal the limits of current understandings of black sexuality.
- Jim Crow's Pink Slip: The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership
Jim Crow's Pink Slip: The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership
by Leslie T. Fenwick
$34.00Jim Crow’s Pink Slip exposes the decades-long repercussions of a too-little-known result of resistance to the Brown v. Board of Education decision: the systematic dismissal of Black educators from public schools.
In 1954, the Supreme Court’s Brown decision ended segregated schooling in the United States, but regrettably, as documented in congressional testimony and transcripts, it also ended the careers of a generation of highly qualified and credentialed Black teachers and principals. In the Deep South and northern border states over the decades following Brown, Black schools were illegally closed and Black educators were displaced en masse. As educational policy and leadership expert Leslie T. Fenwick deftly demonstrates, the effects of these changes stand contrary to the democratic ideals of an integrated society and equal educational opportunity for all students.
Jim Crow’s Pink Slip provides a trenchant account of how tremendous the loss to the US educational system was and continues to be. Despite efforts of the NAACP and other civil rights organizations, congressional hearings during the Nixon administration, and antiracist activism of the 21st century, the problems fomented after Brown persist. The book draws the line from the past injustices to problems that the educational system grapples with today: not simply the underrepresentation of Black teachers and principals, but also salary reductions, teacher shortages, and systemic inequality.
By engaging with the complicated legacy of the Brown decision, Fenwick illuminates a crucial chapter in education history. She also offers policy prescriptions aimed at correcting the course of US education, supporting educators, and improving workforce quality and diversity. - Toni Morrison: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations
Toni Morrison: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations
edited by Nikki Giovanni
$16.99“Knowledge is what’s important, you know? Not the erasure, but the confrontation of it.” — TONI MORRISON
In this wide-ranging collection of thought-provoking interviews — including her first and last — Toni Morrison (whom President Barrack Obama called a “national treasure”) details not only her writing life, but also her other careers as a teacher, and as a publisher, as well as the gripping story of her family. In fact, Morrison reveals here that her Nobel Prize-winning novels, such as Beloved and Song of Solomon, were born out of her family’s stories — such as those of her great-grandmother, born a slave, or her father, escaping the lynch mobs of the South. With an introduction by her close friend, poet Nikki Giovani, Morrison hereby weaves yet another fascinating and inspiring narrative — that of herself. - Urban Apologetics: Restoring Black Dignity with the Gospel
Urban Apologetics: Restoring Black Dignity with the Gospel
by Eric Mason
$27.99This book will be a first-of-its-kind resource in the market, engaging cults and alternative religious groups specific to the African American community.
Urban Apologetics examines the legitimate issues that Black communities have with Western Christianity and shows how the gospel of Jesus Christ—rather than popular, socioreligious alternatives—restores our identity.
African Americans have long confronted the challenge of dignity destruction caused by white supremacy. While many have found meaning and restoration of dignity in the black church, others have found it in ethnocentric socioreligious groups and philosophies.
These ideologies have grown and developed deep traction in the black community and beyond. Revisionist history, conspiracy theories, and misinformation about Jesus and Christianity are the order of the day. Many young African Americans are disinterested in Christianity and others are leaving the church in search of what these false religious ideas appear to offer, a spirituality more indigenous to their history and ethnicity.
Edited by Dr. Eric Mason and featuring a top-notch lineup of contributors, Urban Apologetics is the first book focused entirely on cults, religious groups, and ethnocentric ideologies prevalent in the black community. The book is divided into three main parts:
- Discussions on the unique context for urban apologetics so that you can better understand the cultural arguments against Christianity among the Black community.
- Detailed information on cults, religious groups, and ethnic identity groups that many urban evangelists encounter—such as the Nation of Islam, Kemetic spirituality, African mysticism, Hebrew Israelites, Black nationalism, and atheism.
- Specific tools for urban apologetics and community outreach.
Ultimately, Urban Apologetics applies the gospel to black identity to show that Jesus is the only one who can restore it. This is an essential resource to equip those doing the work of ministry and apology in urban communities with the best available information.
- Black Again: Losing and Reclaiming My Racial Identity
Black Again: Losing and Reclaiming My Racial Identity
by LaTonya Summers
$19.95A memoir exploring the psychological impact of cultural assimilation and internalized racismLaTonya Summers knows the psychological impact of cultural assimilation and internalized racism all too well. In this inspiring memoir she explores how denying and suppressing her true black self, did her nothing but harm, and how through embracing her Blackness she could return to peace and healing.
"I was driven by the belief that if I wanted to go somewhere I'd need to be something other than Black."
LaTonya Summers was only six years old the first time she unconsciously tried to be "more white". Recollecting experiences from her childhood in foster care through to her life today as an Assistant Professor and mother, LaTonya examines how her perception of self was affected by internalized racism and led her to adopt white norms - influencing everything from her music and clothing choices to her speech and values. Join LaTonya in her journey of realization - how all those years assimilating, stretching and pressing for whiteness harmed her, and how, in a world that sees her as Black, it's about time she did too.
Discover how LaTonya has truly "made it" by embracing and endorsing the Afrocentric norms and values that have sustained her and her family better than any white picket fence ever could. - Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture
Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture
by Roxane Gay
$16.99A Paperback Original—Also Available as a Hardcover Library Edition
Edited and with an introduction by Roxane Gay, the New York Times bestselling and deeply beloved author of Bad Feminist and Hunger, this anthology of first-person essays tackles rape, assault, and harassment head-on
“Roxane Gay is the brilliant girl-next-door: your best friend and your sharpest critic. . . . she is also required reading.”—People
In this valuable and revealing anthology, cultural critic and bestselling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are “routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied” for speaking out. Contributions include essays from established and up-and-coming writers, performers, and critics, including actors Ally Sheedy and Gabrielle Union and writers Amy Jo Burns, Lyz Lenz, Claire Schwartz, and Bob Shacochis. Covering a wide range of topics and experiences, from an exploration of the rape epidemic embedded in the refugee crisis to first-person accounts of child molestation, this collection is often deeply personal and is always unflinchingly honest. Like Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me, Not That Bad will resonate with every reader, saying “something in totality that we cannot say alone.”
Searing and heartbreakingly candid, this provocative collection both reflects the world we live in and offers a call to arms insisting that “not that bad” must no longer be good enough.
- Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business
Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business
by Roxane Gay
$30.00From beloved and bestselling author Roxane Gay, “a strikingly fresh cultural critic” (Washington Post) comes an exhilarating collection of her essays on culture, politics, and everything in between.
Since the publication of the groundbreaking Bad Feminist and Hunger, Roxane Gay has continued to tackle big issues embroiling society—state-sponsored violence and mass shootings, women’s rights post-Dobbs, online disinformation, and the limits of empathy—alongside more individually personalized matters: can I tell my co-worker her perfume makes me sneeze? Is it acceptable to schedule a daily 8 am meeting? In her role as a New York Times opinion section contributor and the publication’s “Work Friend” columnist, she reaches millions of readers with her wise voice and sharp insights.
Opinions is a collection of Roxane Gay’s best nonfiction pieces from the past ten years. Covering a wide range of topics—politics, feminism, the culture wars, civil rights, and much more—with an all-new introduction in which she reflects on the past decade in America, this sharp, thought-provoking anthology will delight Roxane Gay’s devotees and draw new readers to this inimitable talent.
- Congratulations, The Best Is Over!: Essays
Congratulations, The Best Is Over!: Essays
by R. Eric Thomas
$27.00The beloved bestselling author of Here for It returns with an all-new collection of heartening, deeply relatable, and laugh-out-loud funny essays about what happens after happily ever after.
After going viral “reading” the chaotic political news, having one-too-many awkward social encounters, and coming to terms with his intersecting identities, R. Eric Thomas finally knew who he was and where he was going. He was living his best life.
But then everything changed.
In this collection of insightful and hilarious essays, Thomas finds himself moving back to his perpetually misunderstood hometown of Baltimore (a place he never wanted to return, even to be buried) and behaving completely out of character. They say you can't go home again, but what if you and home have changed beyond recognition? From attending his twenty-year high school reunion and discovering another person's face on his name badge, to splattering an urgent care room with blood à la The Shining, to being terrorized by a plague of gay frogs who’ve overtaken his backyard, Thomas provides the nitty, and sometimes the gritty, details of wrestling with the life he thought he'd left behind while trying to establish a new one.
With wit, heart, and hope for the future, Congratulations, The Best Is Over! is the not-so-gentle reminder we all need that even when life doesn't go according to plan, we can still find our way back home. - Remember Love: Words for Tender Times
Remember Love: Words for Tender Times
By Cleo Wade
$26.00Cleo Wade is that friend you dream of having—the one you could phone in your darkest hours, confident she’d say the perfect thing, because no matter what you’re going through, she’s going to meet you with warmth and understanding. She’s never shied away from her own setbacks and heartbreaks; she’s embraced them and distilled them into pearls of essential truth and sincere advice which can help get you through, can make you see that tomorrow still lies straight ahead. If only you had such a friend...
And now you do.
Remember Love, Cleo Wade’s first original work for adults since her widely adored Heart Talk, offers the consoling, inspiring voice that so many are craving amid the chaos of modern life. In clear, deep, generous poetry and prose, she urges those feeling confused, lost, or overwhelmed by change to return to what’s essential: love. Time and again, she reminds us that love, particularly self-love, is what saves us, even on our worst days—especially on our worst days. Love, Cleo says, is the sacred birthright of every human being. It’s not a want; it’s a need, and we require its nourishment now more than ever.
Reminiscent of the comfort found in classic favorites from Maya Angelou and Mary Oliver, Remember Love is a counsel, an offering, a beautiful lifeline for members of every generation. - Sí, Se Puede : The Latino Heroes Who Changed the United States
Sí, Se Puede : The Latino Heroes Who Changed the United States
Julio Anta, Yasmín Flores Montañez (Illustrated by)
$19.99Meet the unsung Latino rebels, artists, and activists who changed the United States--from Dolores Huerta to Desi Arnaz to Lin Manuel Miranda--in this bold and entertaining graphic history.
From community activism, to the halls of government, pop-culture, arts, and beyond, Latinos have shaped every aspect of American life. Nevertheless, these significant figures and their contributions are often left out of our textbooks. Sí, Se Puede, named after the “Yes, We Can” motto of the United Farm Workers, brings Latino history in the U.S. to the forefront.
The book follows a group of Hispanic-Americans as they embark on an interactive museum tour to meet Latino heroes they may not have learned about in school. The high tech, immersive exhibit allows the tour group to virtually travel through time, visiting the Hispanic Union soldiers of the Civil War; marching with César Chávez and Dolores Huerta in the farmworkers struggle; going to space with Ellen Ochoa, the first Latina to leave Earth’s atmosphere; meeting the youngest woman to ever serve in Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; and more. This ensemble of unlikely friends discover the rich history of Latinos in the United States, and gain new insights into their own American experiences.
Sí, Se Puede shines a spotlight on the often-overlooked Latino heroes throughout US history, bringing their stories to life through the sequential action, illustrated characters, and lush color palette of a graphic novel. - A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind
A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind
by Harriet A. Washington
Sold outA "powerful and indispensable" look at the devastating consequences of environmental racism (Gerald Markowitz) and what we can do to remedy its toxic effects on marginalized communities -- featuring a new preface on COVID-19 risk factors. Did you know...- Middle-class African American households with incomes between $50,000 and $60,000 live in neighborhoods that are more polluted than those of very poor white households with incomes below $10,000.
- When swallowed, a lead-paint chip no larger than a fingernail can send a toddler into a coma -- one-tenth of that amount will lower his IQ.
- Nearly two of every five African American homes in Baltimore are plagued by lead-based paint. Almost all of the 37,500 Baltimore children who suffered lead poisoning between 2003 and 2015 were African American.
From injuries caused by lead poisoning to the devastating effects of atmospheric pollution, infectious disease, and industrial waste, Americans of color are harmed by environmental hazards in staggeringly disproportionate numbers. This systemic onslaught of toxic exposure and institutional negligence causes irreparable physical harm to millions of people across the country-cutting lives tragically short and needlessly burdening our health care system. But these deadly environments create another insidious and often overlooked consequence: robbing communities of color, and America as a whole, of intellectual power.The 1994 publication of The Bell Curve and its controversial thesis catapulted the topic of genetic racial differences in IQ to the forefront of a renewed and heated debate. Now, in A Terrible Thing to Waste, award-winning science writer Harriet A. Washington adds her incisive analysis to the fray, arguing that IQ is a biased and flawed metric, but that it is useful for tracking cognitive damage. She takes apart the spurious notion of intelligence as an inherited trait, using copious data that instead point to a different cause of the reported African American-white IQ gap: environmental racism - a confluence of racism and other institutional factors that relegate marginalized communities to living and working near sites of toxic waste, pollution, and insufficient sanitation services. She investigates heavy metals, neurotoxins, deficient prenatal care, bad nutrition, and even pathogens as chief agents influencing intelligence to explain why communities of color are disproportionately affected -- and what can be done to remedy this devastating problem.Featuring extensive scientific research and Washington's sharp, lively reporting, A Terrible Thing to Waste is sure to outrage, transform the conversation, and inspire debate. - Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
by Angela Y. Davis
Sold outActivist, teacher, author and icon of the Black Power movement Angela Davis talks Ferguson, Palestine, and prison abolition.
In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world.
Reflecting on the importance of black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles, from the Black Freedom Movement to the South African anti-Apartheid movement. She highlights connections and analyzes today's struggles against state terror, from Ferguson to Palestine.
Facing a world of outrageous injustice, Davis challenges us to imagine and build the movement for human liberation. And in doing so, she reminds us that "Freedom is a constant struggle." - Want to Start A Revolution? Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle
Want to Start A Revolution? Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle
by Dayo F. Gore, Jeanne Theoharis, and Komozi Woodard
$30.00Uncovers the often overlooked stories of the women who shaped the black freedom struggle
The story of the black freedom struggle in America has been overwhelmingly male-centric, starring leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Huey Newton. With few exceptions, black women have been perceived as supporting actresses; as behind-the-scenes or peripheral activists, or rank and file party members. But what about Vicki Garvin, a Brooklyn-born activist who became a leader of the National Negro Labor Council and guide to Malcolm X on his travels through Africa? What about Shirley Chisholm, the first black Congresswoman?
From Rosa Parks and Esther Cooper Jackson, to Shirley Graham DuBois and Assata Shakur, a host of women demonstrated a lifelong commitment to radical change, embracing multiple roles to sustain the movement, founding numerous groups and mentoring younger activists. Helping to create the groundwork and continuity for the movement by operating as local organizers, international mobilizers, and charismatic leaders, the stories of the women profiled in Want to Start a Revolution? help shatter the pervasive and imbalanced image of women on the sidelines of the black freedom struggle.
Contributors: Margo Natalie Crawford, Prudence Cumberbatch, Johanna Fernández, Diane C. Fujino, Dayo F. Gore, Joshua Guild, Gerald Horne, Ericka Huggins, Angela D. LeBlanc-Ernest, Joy James, Erik McDuffie, Premilla Nadasen, Sherie M. Randolph, James Smethurst, Margaret Stevens, and Jeanne Theoharis. - Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant! : The Ultimate Guide to Black Pregnancy & Motherhood (Gift For New Moms)
Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant! : The Ultimate Guide to Black Pregnancy & Motherhood (Gift For New Moms)
by Shanicia Boswell
$39.99Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant! is a book that mostly focuses on the common knowledge that mothers should consider when having their first baby but also shares topics that can be beneficial for moms on their second, third, or fourth baby - such as VBAC’s, how to plan financially for your impending birth, maintaining your relationship and friendships during motherhood, and how to self advocate for your rights in a world that can already view you as less than. ▪ Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant focuses on Black Millennial motherhood ▪ Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant ties in the age of social media and its effect on parenting ▪ Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant uses cultural references and jargon for relatability ▪ Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant doubles as a pregnancy and motherhood guide as well as tells the story of the author, Shanicia Boswell, to an audience that is already familiar with her background.
What to Expect When Black, Pregnant, and Expecting
“This book stands as the modern-day guide to birthing while Black.” ―Angelina Ruffin-Alexander, certified nurse midwife
2021 International Book Awards finalist in Health: Women’s Health
#1 New Release in Pregnancy & Childbirth and Minority Demographic Studies, Medical Ethics, and Women's Health NursingWritten with lighthearted humor and cultural context, Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant! discusses the stages of pregnancy, labor, and motherhood as they pertain to pregnant Black women today.
Tailored to today’s pregnant Black woman. In the age of social media, how do pregnant women communicate their big announcement? What are the best protective hairstyles for labor? Most importantly, how many pregnancy guides focus on issues like Black maternal birth rates and what it really looks like to be Black, pregnant, and single today? Written for the modern pregnant Black woman, Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant! is the essential what to expect when you're expecting guide to understanding pregnancy from a millennial Black mom’s point of view.
Interviews, stories, and advice for pregnant women. Written by Black Moms Blog founder, the book tackles hard topics in a way that truly resonate with modern Black moms. With stories from her experiences through pregnancy, labor, and motherhood, and lessons learned as a mother at twenty-two, Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant! focuses on the common knowledge Black pregnant mothers should consider when having their first baby. It also shares topics beneficial to pregnant Black women on their second, third, or fourth born.
Find answers to questions:
- Do I financially plan for my birth?
- Can I maintain my relationship and friendships during motherhood?
- Will I self-advocate for my rights in a world that already views me as less than?
If you enjoyed books like Medical Apartheid, 50 Things To Do Before You Deliver, The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy, or Birthing Justice, then you’ll love Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant!
- PRE-ORDER: Imagination: A Manifesto
PRE-ORDER: Imagination: A Manifesto
by Ruha Benjamin
$22.00PRE-ORDER: On Sale Date: February 6, 2024
In this revelatory work, Ruha Benjamin calls on us to take imagination seriously as a site of struggle and a place of possibility for reshaping the future.
A world without prisons? Ridiculous. Schools that foster the genius of every child? Impossible. Work that doesn’t strangle the life out of people? Naive. A society where everyone has food, shelter, love? In your dreams. Exactly. Ruha Benjamin, Princeton University professor, insists that imagination isn’t a luxury. It is a vital resource and powerful tool for collective liberation.
Imagination: A Manifesto is her proclamation that we have the power to use our imaginations to challenge systems of oppression and to create a world in which everyone can thrive. But obstacles abound. We have inherited destructive ideas that trap us inside a dominant imagination. Consider how racism, sexism, and classism make hierarchies, exploitation, and violence seem natural and inevitable—but all emerged from the human imagination.
The most effective way to disrupt these deadly systems is to do so collectively. Benjamin highlights the educators, artists, activists, and many others who are refuting powerful narratives that justify the status quo, crafting new stories that reflect our interconnection, and offering creative approaches to seemingly intractable problems.
Imagination: A Manifesto offers visionary examples and tactics to push beyond the constraints of what we think, and are told, is possible. This book is for anyone who is ready to take to heart Toni Morrison’s instruction: “Dream a little before you think.”
- PRE-ORDER: Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol
PRE-ORDER: Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol
by Nell Irvin Painter
$18.99PRE-ORDER: On Sale Date: April 23, 2024
"A pathbreaking biography. It should command the widest popular attention and profound scholarly attention." —David Levering Lewis, author of W. E. B. DuBois
Sojourner Truth: ex-slave and fiery abolitionist, figure of imposing physique, riveting preacher and spellbinding singer who dazzled listeners with her wit and originality. Straight-talking and unsentimental, Truth became a national symbol for strong black women—indeed, for all strong women. Like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, she is regarded as a radical of immense and enduring influence; yet, unlike them, what is remembered of her consists more of myth than of personality.
Now, in a masterful blend of scholarship and sympathetic understanding, eminent black historian Nell Irvin Painter goes beyond the myths, words, and photographs to uncover the life of a complex woman who was born into slavery and died a legend. Inspired by religion, Truth transformed herself from a domestic servant named Isabella into an itinerant pentecostal preacher; her words of empowerment have inspired black women and poor people the world over to this day. As an abolitionist and a feminist, Truth defied the notion that slaves were male and women were white, expounding a fact that still bears repeating: among blacks there are women; among women, there are blacks.
No one who heard her speak ever forgot Sojourner Truth, the power and pathos of her voice, and the intelligence of her message. No one who reads Painter's groundbreaking biography will forget this landmark figure and the story of her courageous life.
- PRE-ORDER: Standing at Armageddon: A Grassroots History of the Progressive Era
PRE-ORDER: Standing at Armageddon: A Grassroots History of the Progressive Era
by Nell Irvin Painter
$19.99PRE-ORDER: On Sale Date: April 23, 2024
An “enthralling” (Michael Kazin, Washington Post) account of America’s shift from a rural and agrarian society to an urban and industrial society.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, technological innovation made possible dramatic increases in industrial and agricultural productivity; by 1919, per-capita gross national product had soared. But this new wealth and new power were not distributed evenly. In this landmark work—with continued resonance for our times—acclaimed historian Nell Irvin Painter illuminates the class, economic, and political conflicts that defined the Progressive era. Demonstrating the ways in which racial and social hierarchies were interwoven with reform movements, she offers a lively and comprehensive view of Americans, rich and working-class, at the precipice of change. - PRE-ORDER: Wake Up America: Black Women on the Future of Democracy
PRE-ORDER: Wake Up America: Black Women on the Future of Democracy
by Keisha N. Blain
$28.99PRE-ORDER: On Sale Date: February 13, 2024
From the coeditor of the best-selling Four Hundred Souls, a galvanizing anthology for those seeking to build an inclusive democracy.
In 1968, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer called for Americans to “wake up” if they wanted to “make democracy a reality.” Today, as Black communities continue to face challenges built on centuries of discrimination, her plea is increasingly urgent. In this exhilarating anthology of original essays, Keisha N. Blain brings together the voices of major progressive Black women politicians, grassroots activists, and intellectuals to offer critical insights on how we can create a more equitable political future.
These women draw on their diverse experiences and expertise to speak to three core themes: claiming civil and human rights, building political and economic power, and combating all forms of hate. We hear from Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza, who argues that Black communities must organize to wield increased political power; EMILYs List president Laphonza Butler, who spells out ways to fight for women’s reproductive rights; and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who delineates practical, thorough steps toward tangible reparations. Additional incisive essays include those by former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner; prison abolitionist Mariame Kaba; disability rights activist Andraéa LaVant; Boston’s first woman and first Black mayor, Kim Michelle Janey; and others at the forefront of the ongoing fight for social justice.
In addressing our most pressing issues and providing key takeaways, Wake Up America serves as a blueprint for the steps we can take right now and in the years to come.
- Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine
Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine
by Noura Erakat
$24.00The struggle for Palestinian sovereignty has been a quest for inclusion in—and recognition from—a world order that left them behind. Sovereignty has become a trap for Palestinians and getting out is a matter of political vision and will. The law does not determine any particular outcome, it only promises the contest over one. While Jewish and Palestinian sovereignty are incommensurable, their belonging is not. The law is not just and justice is not rule-based. Justice in the Question of Palestine is often framed as a question of law. Yet none of the Israel-Palestinian conflict's most vexing challenges have been resolved by judicial intervention. Occupation law has failed to stem Israel's settlement enterprise. Laws of war have permitted killing and destruction during Israel's military offensives in the Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accord's two-state solution is now dead letter.
Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key junctures—from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza—Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, the law has done more to advance Israel's interests than the Palestinians'. But, Erakat argues, this outcome was never inevitable.
Law is politics, and its meaning and application depend on the political intervention of states and people alike. Within the law, change is possible. International law can serve the cause of freedom when it is mobilized in support of a political movement. Presenting the promise and risk of international law, Justice for Some calls for renewed action and attention to the Question of Palestine.
- Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals
Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals
by Doug Melville
$27.99The amazing true story of America’s first Black generals, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. and Jr., a father and son who helped integrate the American military and created the Tuskegee Airmen. Perfect for fans of Devotion and Hidden Figures.
Red Tails, George Lucas’s celebration of America’s first Black flying squadron, the Tuskegee Airmen, should have been a moment of victory for Doug Melville. He expected to see his great-uncle Benjamin O. Davis Jr.—the squadron’s commander—immortalized on-screen for his selfless contributions to America. But as the film rolled, Doug was shocked when he realized that Ben Jr.’s name had been omitted and replaced by the fictional Colonel A. J. Bullard. And Ben’s father, Benjamin O. Davis Sr., America’s first Black general who helped integrate the military, was left out too.
Dejected, Doug looked inward and realized that unless he worked to bring their inspirational story to light, it would remain hidden from the world just as it had been concealed from him.
In Invisible Generals, Melville shares his quest to rediscover his family’s story across five generations, from post-Civil War America to modern day Asia and Europe. In life, the Davises were denied the recognition and compensation they’d earned, but through his journey, Melville uncovers something greater: that dedication and self-sacrifice can move proverbial mountains—even in a world determined to make you invisible.
Invisible Generals recounts the lives of a father and his son who always maintained their belief in the American dream. As the inheritor of their legacy, Melville retraces their steps, advocates for them to receive their long-overdue honors and unlocks the potential we all hold to retrieve powerful family stories lost to the past. - PRE-ORDER: How Muslims Shaped the Americas
PRE-ORDER: How Muslims Shaped the Americas
by Omar Mouallem
$18.00PRE-ORDER: ON SALE February 6, 2024
Journalist Omar Mouallem uncovers the surprising history of Muslim communities thriving in the west, challenging assumptions about belonging and identity, in this beautifully written, award-winning book.
Omar Mouallem grew up in a Muslim household, but always questioned the role of Islam in his life. As an adult, he used his voice to criticize what he saw as the harms of organized religion. But none of that changed the way others saw him. Now, as a father, he fears the challenges his children will no doubt face as Western nations become increasingly nativist and hostile toward their heritage.
In How Muslims Shaped the Americas, Mouallem explores the unknown history of Islam across the Americas, traveling to thirteen unique mosques in search of an answer to how this religion has survived and thrived so far from the place of its origin. From California to Quebec, and from Brazil to Canada’s icy north, he meets the members of fascinating communities, all of whom provide different perspectives on what it means to be Muslim. Along this journey he comes to understand that Islam has played a fascinating role in how the Americas were shaped—from industrialization to the changing winds of politics. And he also discovers that there may be a place for Islam in his own life, even if he will never be a true believer.
Original, insightful, and beautifully told, How Muslims Shaped the Americas reveals a secret history of home and the struggle for belonging taking place in towns and cities across the Americas, and points to a better, more inclusive future for everyone. - PRE-ORDER: LatinoLand: A Portrait of America's Largest and Least Understood Minority
PRE-ORDER: LatinoLand: A Portrait of America's Largest and Least Understood Minority
by Marie Arana
$32.50PRE-ORDER: ON SALE February 20, 2024
A sweeping yet personal overview of the Latino population of America, drawn from hundreds of interviews and prodigious research that emphasizes the diversity and little-known history of our largest and fastest-growing minority.
LatinoLand is an exceptional, all-encompassing overview of Hispanic America based on personal interviews, deep research, and Marie Arana’s life experience as a Latina. At present, Latinos comprise 20 percent of the US population, a number that is growing. By 2050, census reports project that one in every three Americans will claim Latino heritage.
But Latinos are not a monolith. They do not represent a single group. The largest numbers are Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Salvadorans, and Cubans. Each has a different cultural and political background. Puerto Ricans, for example, are US citizens, whereas some Mexican Americans never immigrated because the US-Mexico border shifted after the US invasion of 1848, incorporating what is now the entire southwest of the United States. Cubans came in two great waves: those escaping communism in the early years of Castro, many of whom were professionals and wealthy, and those permitted to leave in the Mariel boat lift twenty years later, representing some of the poorest Cubans, including prisoners.
As LatinoLand shows, Latinos were some of the earliest immigrants to what is now the US—some of them arriving in the 1500s. They are racially diverse—a random fusion of White, Black, Indigenous, and Asian. Once overwhelmingly Catholic, they are becoming increasingly Protestant and Evangelical. They range from domestic workers and day laborers to successful artists, corporate CEOs, and US senators. Formerly solidly Democratic, they now vote Republican in growing numbers. They are as varied culturally as any immigrants from Europe or Asia.
Marie Arana draws on her own experience as the daughter of an American mother and Peruvian father who came to the US at age nine, straddling two worlds, as many Latinos do. LatinoLand unabashedly celebrates Latino resilience and character and shows us why we must understand the fastest-growing minority in America. - PRE-ORDER: Black Feminist Constellations: Dialogue and Translation across the Americas
PRE-ORDER: Black Feminist Constellations: Dialogue and Translation across the Americas
edited by Christen A. Smith & Lorraine Leu
$29.95PRE-ORDER: ON SALE December 5, 2023
"As Black women's intellectual, cultural, and spiritual contributions are increasingly, albeit belatedly, included in the global feminist archive, Black Feminist Constellations challenges how ostensibly reparative methodologies can reinstate the very hierarchies they pretend to contest. In this immensely valuable volume, editors Christen Smith and Lorraine Leu do not simply insert those excluded voices, they ask us to imagine radical futures emerging from new foundations built on the work of Black feminists in the Global South and the political struggles they represent."-Angela Y. Davis
A collection of essays, interviews, and conversations by and between scholars, activists, and artists from Latin America and the Caribbean that paints a portrait of Black women's experiences across the region.
Black women in Latin America and the Caribbean suffer a triple erasure: as Black people, as women, and as non-English speakers in a global environment dominated by the Anglophone North. Black Feminist Constellations is a passionate and necessary corrective. Focused on and written by Black women of the southern Americas, the original works composing this volume make legible the epistemologies that sustain radical scholarship, art, and political organizing by Black women everywhere.In essays, poems, and dialogues, the writers in Black Feminist Constellations reimagine liberation from the perspectives of radical South American and Caribbean Black women thinkers. The volume’s methodologically innovative approach reflects how Black women come together to theorize the world and challenges the notion that the university is the only site where knowledge can emerge. A major work of intellectual history, Black Feminist Constellations amplifies rarely heard voices, centers the uncanonized, and celebrates the overlooked work of Black women.
Stay Informed. We're building a community committed to celebrating Black authors + artisans. Subscribe to keep up with all things Kindred Stories.