Past Events
- IRL Author Signing: The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay with Dale Walls - December 23 @ 1PM CST
![IRL Author Signing: The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay with Dale Walls - December 23 @ 1PM CST]()
IRL Author Signing: The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay with Dale Walls - December 23 @ 1PM CST
$19.99Pull up on us to meet Dale Walls and get a signed copy of The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, December 23 at 1 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP to reserve your copy of the book!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Texas native, Dale Walls' debut novel checks all the Gen Z marks - tenderness, tropes, and timeliness - and that makes sense because they wrote the first version while attending High School in Houston
Queer Love. Something Dawn wants, desperately, but does not have. But maybe, if she can capture it, film it, interview the people who have it, queer love will be hers someday. Or, at least, she'll have made a documentary about it. A documentary that, hopefully, will win Dawn a scholarship to film school. Many obstacles stand in the way of completing her film, but her best friends Edie and Georgia are there to help her reach her goal, no matter what it takes. A touching and joyous story of queer friendship and girlhood set in the vibrant city of Houston, THE QUEER GIRL IS GOING TO BE OKAY will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you believe that eventually, everything will be okay.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dale Walls is the author of the forthcoming novel The Queer Girl Is Going to Be Okay. They are currently a graduate student at Stanford University studying art history. When not writing, they can be found creating educational videos about POC artists on their YouTube channel, Art in Color.
- IRL Author Talk: How to Live Free in a Dangerous World with Shayla Lawson: February 9 @ 7PM
![IRL Author Talk: How to Live Free in a Dangerous World with Shayla Lawson: February 9 @ 7PM]()
IRL Author Talk: How to Live Free in a Dangerous World with Shayla Lawson: February 9 @ 7PM
from $0.00Celebrate How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir with journalist, poet, author, Shayla Lawson!
EVENT DEETS
When: Friday, February 9 at 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden
How: RSVP ONLY to save you seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our programming
ABOUT THE BOOK
In their new book, Shayla Lawson reveals how traveling can itself be a political act, when it can be a dangerous world to be Black, femme, nonbinary, and disabled. With their signature prose, at turns muscular and luminous, Lawson explores layered meanings within love, time, and the self.
Through encounters with a gorgeous gondolier in Venice, an ex-husband in The Netherlands, and a lost love on New Year’s Eve in Mexico City, Lawson’s travels bring unexpected wisdom about life in and out of love. They learn the strength of friendships, and the dangers of beauty during a near escape in Egypt. They examine Blackness in post dictatorship Zimbabwe, then take us on a secretive tour of Black freedom movements in Portugal.
Through a deeply insightful journey, Lawson leads readers from a castle in France, to a hula hoop competition in Jamaica, to a traditional theater in Tokyo, to a Prince concert in Minnesota, and finally to find liberation on a beach in Bermuda, exploring each location—and their deepest emotions—to the fullest. In the end, they discover how trials of marriage, grief, and missed connections, can lead to self transformation and unimagined new freedoms.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shayla Lawson (they/them) is the author of This is Major, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle and the LAMBDA Literary Award, and two poetry collections. They have written for New York Magazine, Salon, ESPN, and Paper, and have earned fellowships from Yaddo and the MacDowell Artist Colony. They live in Lexington, Kentucky.
- Virtual Author Workshop: Decolonizing Therapy with Jennifer Mullan - January 10 @ 6:30 PM CST
![Virtual Author Workshop: Decolonizing Therapy with Jennifer Mullan - January 10 @ 6:30 PM CST]()
Virtual Author Workshop: Decolonizing Therapy with Jennifer Mullan - January 10 @ 6:30 PM CST
from $10.00Are you a mental health worker? Come spend a evening diving into your practices and decolonizing them with clinically psychologist, Jennifer Mullan.
THE DEETS
When: Wednesday, January 10 at 6:30 PM
Where: Virtual Via Zoom
How: Grab your ticket and we'll shoot the Zoom link to you!
ABOUT THE BOOK
A call to action for therapists to politicize their practice through an emotional decolonial lens.
An essential work that centers colonial and historical trauma in a framework for healing, Decolonizing Therapy illuminates that all therapy is—and always has been— inherently political. To better understand the mental health oppression and institutional violence that exists today, we must become familiar with the root of disembodiment from our histories, homelands, and healing practices. Only then will readers see how colonial, historical, and intergenerational legacies have always played a role in the treatment of mental health.
This book is the emotional companion and guide to decolonization. It is an invitation for Eurocentrically trained clinicians to acknowledge privileged and oppressed parts while relearning what we thought we knew. Ignoring collective global trauma makes delivering effective therapy impossible; not knowing how to interrogate privilege (as a therapist, client, or both) makes healing elusive; and shying away from understanding how we as professionals may be participating in oppression is irresponsible.
ABOUT AUTHOR
Jennifer Mullan, Psy.D is a dynamic international speaker, professor, healer-spiritualist, scholar-activist and widely known as the Rage Doctor ™. Dr. Jennifer Mullan is the author of “Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma & Politicizing Your Practice”.
Trained as a clinical psychologist; Dr. Jennifer Mullan birthed Decolonizing Therapy ®, a psychological evolution that weaves together political, ancestral, therapeutic and global well-being.
Dr. Mullan is a major disruptor in the mental health industrial complex. Her work is an urgent call to dive to the root of global and generational trauma to unlock the wisdom of our sacred rage.
Decolonizing Therapy ® catalyzes a growing movement of practitioners who are unlearning colonial methods of psychology. They are co-creating a new liberatory model of mental health.
Dr. Jennifer Mullan received ESSENCE Magazine’s 2020 Essential Hero Award in Mental Health, and was featured on The Today Show, Vox, Cosmopolitan, Allure, GQ, Bloomberg, Heal Magazine, Catalyst and the Calgary Journal, among many others. She currently lives in Northern NJ on land that was stewarded by the Leni Lenape people.
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: Mind, Body & Soul with Oludara Adeeyo - January 12 at 7PM
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IRL AUTHOR TALK: Mind, Body & Soul with Oludara Adeeyo - January 12 at 7PM
from $10.00Celebrate what makes Black women powerful, brilliant, and brave with Mind, Body, & Soul: A Self-Care Coloring Book for Black Women!
EVENT DEETS
When: Friday, January 12 @ 7PM
Where: 2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004 (We will be on the first floor in the garden room)
How: Grab a $10 ticket to reserve a seat or grab a $25 ticket to purchase a book with the Mind, Body & Soul: A Self Coloring Book for Black Women! (No refunds)
ABOUT THE BOOK
Relax, rejuvenate, and renew your mind, body, and soul with this coloring books designed for Black women that focuses and elevates the already popular—and effective—self-care activity with illustrations to color and affirmations to empower.
Celebrate what makes Black women powerful, brilliant, and brave with Mind, Body, & Soul: A Self-Care Coloring Book for Black Women. As you enjoy coloring in 35 gorgeous art pages, you’ll be practicing self-care as you take the time to relax for just you. You’ll find stunning art pages depicting Black women vibing, being creative in their homes, listening to music, practicing yoga, meditating in nature, and transcending in metaphysical dimensions. With affirmations included on each page, you’ll internalize the positive messages and manifest positive outcomes for yourself as you color.
With Mind, Body, & Soul, every time you sit down to color in these inspiring designs, you’ll be affirming yourself and your right to self-care.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Oludara (Dara) Adeeyo is a Los Angeles based mental health therapist, author, and social media content creator who is passionate about encouraging people, especially Black women, to face every day with self-confidence and self-love.
Her first series of books, published by Adams Media, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, share specific advice and activities designed to help Black women outwardly express their inner joy: Self-Care for Black Women (2022), Affirmations for Black Women: A Journal (2022), and Mind, Body, & Soul: A Self-Care Coloring Book for Black Women (2024).
Oludara’s accessible approach to writing and talking about mental health is influenced by her previous professional experience in the media industry as a writer and editor where she worked for popular publications such as Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and XXL. Her writing has also appeared in Women’s Health and Wondermind.
As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Oludara has extensive experience with treating mood disorders, personality disorders, and thought disorders for diverse populations. She is currently working to establish her own private practice where she will specialize in helping people of color, especially Black women, manage their stressors, boost their self-confidence, and manifest their desires by releasing people-pleasing impulses. Oludara holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Southern California (USC) and a Bachelor of Arts in Print Journalism with a Minor in Women’s Studies from Hofstra University.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Wale is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor working with folks in New York and Texas. She has a double masters degree in mental health counseling from Teachers College Columbia University. After practicing in New York for a few years, Wale moved back to her hometown Houston and started her own therapy practice in 2020. Wale currently works with individuals and couples, writers and creative folks on a weekly basis.
As an avid reader and Kindred Stories aficionado, Wale has moderated various author talks featuring: Lyvonne Briggs, Sochil Washington, Tyriek White, Adorah Nworah, Dr. Joy, and Nicole Walters.
- IRL EVENT: Gather Together Community Puzzle Time - December 8 at 6PM
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IRL EVENT: Gather Together Community Puzzle Time - December 8 at 6PM
Sold outWe're using puzzling as an excuse to be in community with you all!!!
EVENT DEETS
When: Friday, December 8 at 6PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP to reserve your spot!
ABOUT THE EVENT
Join us as we attempt to complete The Gather Together 500 Piece Puzzle from Galison. Maja Tomljanovic’s Gather Together is a joyful, Mediterranean influenced vignette of friends and family gathering together at the table.
We'll provide the puzzles and trays. We encourage bringing your favorite snacks, beverages or anything to make you feel cozy and comfortable!
Note: This event is intended for adults!
- IRL Collage Bookmark Workshop with Tay Butler - November 17 at 6:30 PM
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IRL Collage Bookmark Workshop with Tay Butler - November 17 at 6:30 PM
Sold outWe've teamed up with one of our favorite artist/artist-teachers to bring you this special DIY collage bookmark workshop!
EVENT DEETS
When: Friday, November 17 at 6:30 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: Grab your $30 ticket now! Space is Limited. Tickets are non-refundable.
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
We all love a good bookmark but sometimes the market just doesn't do what it's supposed to do. This is the first in a series of bookmark workshops. We'll be using collages as our medium. Get ready to do a little cut and paste between sips. All supplies necessary will be provided. If you want to bring extra magazines, feel free!
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Tay Butler is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Houston, Texas. He received his BFA in Photography and Digital Media from the University of Houston and recently completed his MFA in the University of Arkansas’ Photography program. After retiring from the US Army and abandoning a middle-class engineering career to search for purpose, Butler reignited a rich appreciation for Black history and a deep obsession with the Black archive. Using past and present images to create a historically-layered body of work, Tay reorients cultural material from the ever-growing Black experience.
Butler works with photography, collage, video, and sound exhibitions and installations. His solo exhibitions and installations include RE.Migrant I & II at Project Row Houses, Houston and We Are Still Searching at the Louise J. Moran Fine Arts Courtyard, Houston. Group exhibitions of his work have been featured at ArtPace, San Antonio, the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, and the Texas Biennial at Fotofest. Performance exhibitions include The Triangle, for The Idea Fund and CAMH, and Jefferson Pinder’s Fire and Movement for DiverseWorks, Houston. Butler’s awards include the Individual Artist Fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council, and First Prize in the 2019 Citywide African-American Artists Exhibition at Texas Southern University, Houston. He has collaborated with the Houston Rockets, Coca-Cola, and many others. Butler currently teaches Art & Design for San Jacinto College, Houston and has led both private and community workshops for The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative, Virginia and Crystal Bridges Museum, Arkansas.
Web: www.stayclosetay.com
IG: @stayclosetay - IRL Author Workshop: Believe-in-You Money with Jessica Norwood - November 15 @ 7PM
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IRL Author Workshop: Believe-in-You Money with Jessica Norwood - November 15 @ 7PM
from $0.00We're taking a deep dive into money with Jessica Norwood, author of Believe-in-You Money: What would It Look Like if the Economy Loved Black People?
EVENT DEETS
When: Wednesday, November 15 at 7PM
Where: Project Row Houses Community Gallery (2521 Holman Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP today to attend this free workshop! Support the author and the book by RSVPing with Book.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Offering a revolution in Black business financing, this book centers the entrepreneur and responds to the systemic failures surrounding Black wealth building.
There is a huge racial wealth gap in America today. Owning a business is one of the best ways to build wealth—but entrepreneurs need capital. And investing in Black companies is obstructed by systemic racism and implicit biases that continue to create barriers to success.
Merging historical information and data, along with tactical examples and explanations, this practical guide shows us what needs to be done in order to change the way we support Black companies and how we think about wealth.
Norwood calls for investors to move away from extractive, individualistic, exploitative approaches to capital and entrepreneurship. She asks us to move toward transformational, restorative, regenerative, and interdependent relationships to repair the impacts of systemic racism. Investors, large and small, need to say to Black business owners, “we believe in you.”
With an entrepreneur-centric approach, Believe-In-You Money challenges the system failure surrounding Black companies. It’s a guide on how Black entrepreneurs can be supported in sustainable ways and offers a shift in the way we think about who can be an investor, while aiming to change our personal relationships with money.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jessica Norwood is the founder of RUNWAY, a social enterprise that provides startup capital to Black founders. Her innovative work has been profiled on NPR and Bloomberg Television and in Essence magazine, Next City, Fast Company, and Conscious Company, and she has participated in fellowships at Harvard University, Duke University, and Southern University College of Business for emerging leaders. Learn more about Jessica’s leadership and work at www.jessicanorwood.com.
- IRL The Banned Wagon - October 7, 2023
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IRL The Banned Wagon - October 7, 2023
$0.00The Banned Wagon: A Vehicle for Change is road-tripping through the South this #BannedBooksWeek (October 1-7).
EVENT DEETSDate: Saturday, October 7
Time: 1pm-4pm
Location: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart St., Houston, TX, 77004)
Book bans are on the rise in America, driven by new laws and regulations limiting the kinds of books that kids can access.
Penguin Random House, in partnership with Freedom to Read Foundation, PEN America, Free Little Library and local bookstores, is roadtripping through the South handing out free copies of banned books to people in affected communities who need and want them most.
Join us for an afternoon of tunes, community, free books and giveaways! - IRL Author Talk: Abeni's Song with Phenderson Djèlí Clark - October 2 @ 7:30 PM CST
![IRL Author Talk: Abeni's Song with Phenderson Djèlí Clark - October 2 @ 7:30 PM CST]()
IRL Author Talk: Abeni's Song with Phenderson Djèlí Clark - October 2 @ 7:30 PM CST
from $0.00Join us for an evening with Phenderson Djèlí Clark!
EVENT DEETS
When: Monday, October 2 @ 7:30 PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP here for your free ticket or RSVP with book to reserve your book and support our programming
ABOUT THE BOOK
Like a West African and African Diaspora-inspired Spirited Away, Abeni's Song follows a reluctant apprentice witch out of her village and into a world of spirits on a quest to save her friends. This is P. Djèlí Clark's kids' debut.
On the day of the spirits festival, the old woman who lives in the forest appears in Abeni's village with a terrible message:
You ignored my warnings. It’s too late to run. They are coming.
The old woman hasn't come to save them, only to collect one child as payment for her years of service and protection. When warriors with burning blades storm the village and a man with a cursed flute plays an impossibly alluring song, everyone Abeni has ever known and loved is captured and marched toward far-off ghost ships set for even more distant lands.
But not Abeni. Abeni escapes the warriors in the clutches of the old woman, magically whisked into the forest away from all she’s ever known. And there she begins her unwanted magical apprenticeship, her journey to escape the witch, and her impossible mission to bring her people home.
Abeni’s Song is the beginning of a timeless, enchanting fantasy adventure about a reluctant apprentice, a team of spirit kids, and the town they set out to save from the evil Witch Priest who enslaved Abeni’s people.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in New York and raised mostly in Houston, P. DJÈLÍ CLARK spent the formative years of his life in the homeland of his parents, Trinidad and Tobago. He is the author of the novel A Master of Djinn, the novellas Ring Shout, The Black God’s Drums, and The Haunting of Tram Car 015, and a contributor to the #1 New York Times bestseller Black Boy Joy. He has won the Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards and been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Sturgeon Awards. His stories have appeared in online venues such as Tor.com, Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Apex, Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and in print anthologies, including Griots, Hidden Youth, and Clockwork Cairo. He is also a founding member of FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction and an infrequent reviewer at Strange Horizons.
ABOUT THE INTERLOCUTOR
Stevens is a writer, organizer, and archivist. As part of the Kindred Stories family he is the Operations & Community Facilitator, and part-time Adjunct Professor. Stevens' current work and concentration is centered around his social-political analysis and its intersections with the arts, community, and revolutionary politics.
- IRL LAUNCH PARTY: Family Meal with Bryan Washington - October 16 @ 7: 30 PM CST
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IRL LAUNCH PARTY: Family Meal with Bryan Washington - October 16 @ 7: 30 PM CST
from $0.00Join us in celebrating one of Houston's most beloved author, Bryan Washington's forthcoming book, Family Meal.
EVENT DEETS
When: Monday, October 16, 2023 at 7:30 PM
Where: Hogan Brown Gallery in The Eldorado Ballroom at Project Row Houses
How: RSVP ONLY to make sure you get in the door. RSVP WITH BOOK to ensure you leave with a signed copy of Family Meal. You must purchase Family Meal in order to enter the signing line.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Cam is living in Los Angeles and falling apart after the love of his life has died. Kai's ghost won't leave Cam alone; his spectral visits wild, tender, and unexpected. When Cam returns to his hometown of Houston, he crashes back into the orbit of his former best friend, TJ, and TJ's family bakery. TJ's not sure how to navigate this changed Cam, impenetrably cool and self-destructing, or their charged estrangement. Can they find a way past all that has been said - and left unsaid - to save each other? Could they find a way back to being okay again, or maybe for the first time?
When secrets and wounds become so insurmountable that they devour us from within, hope and sustenance and friendship can come from the most unlikely source. Spanning Los Angeles, Houston, and Osaka, Family Meal is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love. With his signature generosity and eye for food, sex, love, and the moments that make us the most human, Bryan Washington returns with a brilliant new novel.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bryan Washington is the author of the story collection Lot and the novel Memorial. He is also the winner of a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award, a New York Public Library Young Lions Award, an Ernest J. Gaines Award, an International Dylan Thomas Prize, a Lambda Literary Award, and was a finalist for the James Tait Black Prize, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, a PEN/Robert W. Bingham prize finalist, a National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize finalist, and the recipient of an O. Henry Award. He is a columnist for the New York Times Magazine and his fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and The Best American Short Stories. He divides his time between Houston and Osaka.
- IRL Author Talk: Ways to Build Dreams with Renee Watson - October 28 at 2 PM CST
![IRL Author Talk: Ways to Build Dreams with Renee Watson - October 28 at 2 PM CST]()
IRL Author Talk: Ways to Build Dreams with Renee Watson - October 28 at 2 PM CST
from $0.00Join for an author talk with award-winning and beloved author, Renee Watson!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, October 28 at 2PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat. RSVP WITH BOOK to grab your seat along with a copy of Renee's newest book, Ways to Build Dreams. There will be additional titles on sale. However, you must purchase her newest book to join the signing line.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award winner Renée Watson continues her bestselling young middle grade series starring Ryan Hart.
Middle school is just around the corner for Ryan Hart, which means it’s time to start thinking about the future—and not just how to prank her brother, Ray!
Ryan wonders who she wants to be and what kind of person her family hopes she’ll become. Ryan has always been known for her sunny outlook, but can she keep hoping even when things seem hopeless? During Black History Month, Ryan learns more about her ancestors and local Black pioneers and their hopes for the future, for her generation. Drawing on the ambitions of those who came before her, and her own goals, Ryan is determined to turn her dreams into reality.
Grow and shine and share with Ryan Hart in this series that brings ever more humor, more love, and more fun.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Her novel, Piecing Me Together, received a Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award. Her books include the Ryan Hart series, Some Places More Than Others, This Side of Home, What Momma Left Me, Betty Before X, cowritten with Ilyasah Shabazz, Watch Us Rise, cowritten with Ellen Hagan, and Love is a Revolution, as well as acclaimed picture books: Places Where Hurricanes Happen, and Harlem’s Little Blackbird, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Renée splits her times between Portland, Oregon and New York City.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Jasminne Mendez is a best-selling Dominican-American poet, translator, playwright and award winning author of several books for children and adults. Including the middle grade novel in verse Aniana del Mar Jumps In (Dial) which was released to four starred reviews. Her other books have received prizes from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Writer’s League of Texas and the International Latino Book Awards. She is an MFA graduate of the creative writing program at the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University and a University of Houston alumni. She is the Program Director for the literary arts non-profit Tintero Projects and she lives and works in Houston, TX.
- IRL LAUNCH PARTY: Blaque Pearle with Tarris Marie - October 7 @ 7PM
![IRL LAUNCH PARTY: Blaque Pearle with Tarris Marie - October 7 @ 7PM]()
IRL LAUNCH PARTY: Blaque Pearle with Tarris Marie - October 7 @ 7PM
from $0.00We're celebrating author, Tarris Marie and her debut book, Blaque Pearle!
EVENT DEETS
When: Saturday, October 7 at 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2034 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: Be sure to RSVP ONLY to attend or RSVP with Book to support the Tarris and our bookstore! We're encouraging everyone to bring their own style to an all Black attire. We're also encouraging Black masquerade masks and pearls. When you finish the book, you'll know why!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Tarris Marie’s debut novel intertwines crime, romance, and the ‘90s era. A refreshing new voice for urban romance lovers and women’s crime thriller connoisseurs.
Tarris Marie is proudly a Midwestern girl of the '90s, born and raised in Gary, IN. After 15 years in corporate America, Tarris lost her central vision and eventually her six-figure career in a battle with Stargardt's—a genetic eye disease that caused her legal blindness. In addition to being a novelist, Tarris is a screenwriter and actress who uses slivers of her life experienced pie to create vivid characters and roller coaster journeys to inspire and entertain others.
Before her Hollywood dreams were shattered, Pearle Monalise Brown was the tenacious aspiring actress from Compton's unforgiving, scarred streets. Never broken, Pearle switches gears to a fallback plan—resorting to her beauty and acting skills to swindle money and expensive jewels. When she's hired by the Colombian cartel to steal a priceless Basquiat from the debonair kingpin and art collector, Blaque, her talents might not be enough to keep her from falling into a trap she never saw coming.
Blaque is sagacious and handsome—not to mention the legacy of two powerful organized crime families: the Laurent’s—known dons hailing from Kingston, Jamaica, and the Savage’s—a sophisticated syndicate with criminal enterprises across the U.S. As Blaque and Pearle become passionately entangled, Pearle falls prey to a darker underworld. Time is ticking. Lives are at stake. Will these love outlaws be able to outsmart their enemies, or will they wage an all-out war, leaving the bodies to fall wherever they may?
“Both inspirational and a delight to watch, Tarris Marie is proof that limits and barriers exist only in our minds.” —N’TYSE, national bestselling author and film producer of Trap Soldiers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tarris received a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and business administration from Indiana University, where she also became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She currently resides with her two children and husband in the great city of spaceships (Houston, TX.). Blaque Pearle is the author's debut novel. Connect with Tarris Marie online by following @authortarrismarie - Ode to Hip Hop Trivia Night with Kiana Fitzgerald & DaLyah Jones
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Ode to Hip Hop Trivia Night with Kiana Fitzgerald & DaLyah Jones
$10.00Grab the homies come experience the Ode to Hip Hop Trivia Deck and its creator, Kiana Fitzgerald!
EVENT DEETS
When: Sunday, October 8 at 6 PM CST
Where: Kindred Stores Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: Tickets are REQUIRED! Be sure to get yours as tickets are limited.
ABOUT THE TRIVIA NIGHT
We are hosting a pub style trivia night! Each table is a team. You can bring your friends or family be apart of your team or be prepared to join a team when you get here. You and your team will work together to correctly answer as many questions as possible. Put prepared for a few twists during the night!
ABOUT THE DECK
This fun and challenging game offers hip-hop listeners 200 questions to test their knowledge of the genre! Set includes:
- Trivia Deck: 50 full-color printed cards filled with trivia questions (4 per card, for a total of 200 questions)
- Range of Eras and Subjects: Questions on hip-hop history cover a range of subjects from iconic album releases to key players to little known facts, from hip-hop's birth in the Bronx through modern day; cards measure 3 x 5 inches
- Keepsake Box: Cards are housed in full-color printed keepsake box with magnetic closure
- Entertain Like a Pro: This game works for solo play as well as groups of 2, 3, or more
- Perfect Gift: A fun and meaningful deck for anyone who appreciates this iconic genre
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kiana Fitzgerald is a freelance music journalist, cultural critic, and DJ. Her writing credits include Billboard, The Cut, NPR, Complex, Nylon Magazine, and Rolling Stone, among other publications. She writes for the world from deep in the heart of Texas.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
DaLyah Jones was born and raised behind the “Pine Curtain” of rural Deep East Texas. She serves as the program officer for Borealis Philanthropy’s Racial Equity in Journalism Fund. She is the former Director of Engagement and staff writer for the watchdog magazine Texas Observer. She’s also a former board member and Freedomways Fellow with movement journalism - journalism in service of liberation - collective Press On. DaLyah’s work in news and storytelling has been aimed at providing coverage to and by historically disadvantaged communities in Texas, especially in the rural regions. Her past work can be found at NPR, Texas Monthly, NBC Think, OkayPlayer, Texas Highways Magazine and more. - In Gratitude & Self Preservation: Meditation & Journal Workshop - September 23 @10 AM
![In Gratitude & Self Preservation: Meditation & Journal Workshop - September 23 @10 AM]()
In Gratitude & Self Preservation: Meditation & Journal Workshop - September 23 @10 AM
$25.00Traditionally, Autumn has been a season in which we uproot and take stock of all the work that we've put in. Come join us in paying gratitude to ourselves.
WORKSHOP DEETS
When: Saturday, September 23 at 10 AM
Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden
How: Purchase tickets to guarantee your spot!
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
With the help of guided journaling and meditation, we will tune into our inner knowing to review all that the last season has brought us and how we have preserved ourselves. It will be a light-filled gathering, and all you need to bring is yourself, a yoga mat and a journal.Space is limited.
Light refreshments will be provided.*Tickets are non refundable* - IRL Author Talk: Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System with Alan Dettlaff
![IRL Author Talk: Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System with Alan Dettlaff]()
IRL Author Talk: Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System with Alan Dettlaff
from $0.00In Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System, Alan J. Dettlaff presents a call to abolish the American child welfare system due to the harm and destruction it causes Black families. Dettlaff traces the origins of the modern child welfare system, which emerged following the abolition of slavery, to demonstrate that the harm and oppression that result from child welfare intervention are not the result of "unintended consequences" but rather are the clear intents of the system and the foreseeable results of the policies that have been put in place over decades.
By tracing the history of family separations in the United States since the era of slavery, Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System demonstrates that the intended outcomes of those separations--the subjugation of Black Americans and the maintenance of white supremacy--are the same intended outcomes of the family separations done today. What distinguishes contemporary family separations from those that occurred during slavery is that today's separations occur under a facade of benevolence, a myth that has been perpetuated over decades that family separations are necessary to "save" the most vulnerable children.
Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System presents evidence of the vast harms that result from family separations to make a case that the child welfare system is beyond reform. Rather, the only solution to ending these harms is complete abolition of this system and a fundamental reimagining of the way society cares for children, families, and communities. - IRL Author Talk: Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion with Mitchell S. Jackson & Tay Butler-September 13 at 7PM CT
![IRL Author Talk: Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion with Mitchell S. Jackson & Tay Butler-September 13 at 7PM CT]()
IRL Author Talk: Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion with Mitchell S. Jackson & Tay Butler-September 13 at 7PM CT
from $0.00Pull up in your best to celebrate Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion with Pulitzer winning author, Michell S. Jackson and one of our favorite artist/community members, Tay Butler.
EVENT DEETS
When: Wednesday, September 13, 2023 at 7PM
Where: The Reading Room HTX (401 Franklin Street, 77201)
How: RSVP to grab your free ticket or RSVP book to reserve your seat and your copy of the book while supporting our programming.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Equal parts stunning, photo-rich lookbook, and cultural commentary, Fly is the story of the extraordinary intersection of high fashion and basketball. Each chapter explores the style of an era and the cultural influences that shaped it: The league’s inception in 1949, pre-Civil Rights Movement, when the NBA was mostly comprised of white players who wore suits and skinny ties. The years following the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the birth of funk and R&B when basketball fashion got flashier (think Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Wilt Chamberlain wearing fur coats and big hats). The Michael Jordan era of the 1980s and 1990s, with its oversize suits. The epic Iverson/Hip-Hop years of the late 1990s and early 2000s. And now to today, a time defined not only by social media and high fashion’s birthing of the tunnel walk (think LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Russell Westbrook), but one in which athletes are idealized as style icons and activists, figures who inspire conversations beyond how they play and what they wear.ABOUT THE AUTHORMitchell S. Jackson is the winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing and the 2021 National Magazine Award in Feature Writing. Jackson’s debut novel, The Residue Years, won a Whiting Award and the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. His essay collection Survival Math was named a best book of 2019 by fifteen publications. Jackson’s other honors include fellowships, grants, and awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Creative Capital, the Cullman Center of the New York Public Library, the Lannan Foundation, PEN America, and TED. His writing has been featured on the cover of the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, Time, and Esquire, as well as in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, the Paris Review, the Guardian, and elsewhere. Jackson is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Esquire. He holds the John O. Whiteman Dean’s Distinguished Professorship in the Department of English at Arizona State University.
ABOUT THE INTERLOCUTOR
Tay Butler is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer and educator based in Houston, Texas. He received his MFA from the University of Arkansas' Photography and Studio Art Program, BFA in Photography and Digital Media from the University of Houston and everything else from Milwaukee, MN. After retiring from the US Army and abandoning a middle-class engineering career to search for purpose, Butler reignited a rich appreciation for Black history and a deep obsession with the Black archive. Using past and present images to create a historically-layered body of work, Tay reorients cultural material from the ever-growing Black experience.
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: Thieves Gambit with Kayvion Lewis & Kwame Mbalia-September 28 at 7PM
![IRL AUTHOR TALK: Thieves Gambit with Kayvion Lewis & Kwame Mbalia-September 28 at 7PM]()
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Thieves Gambit with Kayvion Lewis & Kwame Mbalia-September 28 at 7PM
from $0.00Join us as we celebrate the release of Thieves' Gambit with debut author, Kayvion Lewis!
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, September 28 at 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden
How: RSVP ONLY to grab your free seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your copy of Thieves' Gambit and support our programming
ABOUT THE BOOK
At only seventeen years old, Ross Quest is already a master thief, especially adept at escape plans. Until her plan to run away from her legendary family of thieves takes an unexpected turn, leaving her mother’s life hanging in the balance.
In a desperate bid, she enters the Thieves’ Gambit, a series of dangerous, international heists where killing the competition isn’t exactly off limits, but the grand prize is a wish for anything in the world—a wish that could save her mom. When she learns two of her competitors include her childhood nemesis and a handsome, smooth-talking guy who might also want to steal her heart, winning the Gambit becomes trickier than she imagined.
Ross tries her best to stick to the family creed: trust no one whose last name isn’t Quest. But with the stakes this high, Ross will have to decide who to con and who to trust before time runs out. After all, only one of them can win.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kayvion Lewis is a young adult author of all things escapist and high-octane. A former youth services librarian, she’s been working with young readers and kidlit since she was sixteen. When she’s not writing, she’s breaking out of escape rooms, jumping out of airplanes, and occasionally running away to mountain retreats to study kung fu. Though she’s originally from Louisiana, and often visits her family in The Bahamas, these days you can find her in New York—at least until she takes off on her next adventure.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Kwame is a husband, father, writer, a New York Times bestselling author, and a former pharmaceutical metrologist in that order. His debut middle-grade novel, TRISTAN STRONG PUNCHES A HOLE IN THE SKY was awarded a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, and it—along with the sequels TRISTAN STRONG DESTROYS THE WORLD and TRISTAN STRONG KEEPS PUNCHING, out October 5th—is published by Rick Riordan Presents/Disney-Hyperion. He is the co-author of LAST GATE OF THE EMPEROR with Prince Joel Makonnen, from Scholastic Books, and the editor of the #1 New York Times bestselling anthology BLACK BOY JOY, published by Delacourte Press. A Howard University graduate and a Midwesterner now in North Carolina, he survives on Dad jokes and Cheezits.
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: Not Everyone is Going to Like You with Rinny Perkins - August 22 at 7PM
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IRL AUTHOR TALK: Not Everyone is Going to Like You with Rinny Perkins - August 22 at 7PM
from $0.00Join us as we celebrate Houston's own, Rinny Perkins and her new book, Not Everyone is Going to Like You!
EVENT DEETS
When: August 22 at 7 PM CST
Where: The Reading Room HTX (401 Franklin St, Houston, TX 77201)
How: RSVP to grab you free ticket or RSVP with book to support the author and our program!
ABOUT THE BOOK
A debut illustrated manifesto by Rinny Perkins (@RinnyRiot) about what she's learned as a queer Black woman through the art of self-validation.
In this graphic collection of mini essays, comedian Rinny Perkins illustrates her experiences as the owner of a popular online shop while she figures out antidepressant prescriptions and the seemingly never-ending dating-app cycle.
Rinny shares what she's learned across topics like mental health, work, sex and dating, and family and friends. Featuring funny, real reflections from experiences in her hometown of (Third Ward!) Houston, Texas to Los Angeles — the author traces her journey to understanding that whether through a friendship break-up or saving up for a Telfar bag, the only person who can truly validate us is ourselves.
With 1970s-inspired graphics like a "When To Quit Your Job" checklist and Microaggressions Bingo, Not Everyone's Going to Like You is a long DM of affirmations from Rinny to herself on how to get through life. Her advice? Stop ignoring your intuition, ignore perfection, and leave them on read.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rinny Perkins is a performer, multidisciplinary artist, and writer. Her graphic design and installation work nods to '70s ephemera with an emphasis on Black and queer womanhood. Her work has been featured by outlets such as I-D/VICE, Nylon and Teen Vogue.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
deun ivory is a texas-based creative wellness visionary, multidisciplinary artist & photographer whose work centers and celebrates black women. widely known for her ethereal aesthetic & creative ingenuity, ivory curates visual experiences that inspire those who engage with her work to restore and reclaim narratives rooted in self-empowerment, joy & worthiness. ivory draws from the belief that beauty is wellness, which informs her exploration of art, spaces and design as healing mechanisms for marginalized communities.
as a visionary, ivory serves as the founder and creative director of two influential brands: the body: a home for love, a 501(c)3 non-profit & black women are worthy, a social impact initiative specializing in conceptual design and immersive art installations.
ivory has cemented her power and influence as a thought-leader and visual storyteller by working with some of the world’s biggest brands to produce creative projects that have resonated & inspired communities worldwide. some of her clients include: google, facebook, lululemon, HBO, glossier, issa rae, apple, and more. ivory has been featured in vogue, harpers bazaar, essence, glamour magazine and beyond for her impactful contributions & authentic presence in the creative and wellness space.
ABOUT THE READING ROOM
Founded by Amarie Gipson, The Reading Room is a reference library and creative incubator based in Houston, Texas.
Gipson is a Houston-born art worker, writer and creative entrepreneur. She has held curatorial positions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Renaissance Society, the Contemporary Austin and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Independently, her writing has been published in several journals and magazines including Artforum, ARTNews, ARTS.BLACK, Cite, ESSENCE, Gulf Coast, MUD and THE SEEN.
After seven years of travel, Gipson is currently based in her hometown. She created an open-format dance party and community called PHYSICAL THERAPY where she serves as creative director and resident DJ. She is also the former Arts & Culture editor of Houstonia Magazine, where she worked to bring much-needed attention to Houston’s art scene.
With nearly a decade of experience in the realms of fine art, music and media, Gipson built The Reading Room with a desire to share her deep passion for Black culture. It is a culmination of her professional experience and a labor of love. - IRL AUTHOR TALK: Holler, Child with Latoya Watkins-August 31 at 7:30 PM
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IRL AUTHOR TALK: Holler, Child with Latoya Watkins-August 31 at 7:30 PM
from $0.00We're celebrating Latoya Watkins second book, Holler, Child: Stories!
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, August 31st at 7:30 PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Garden
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and programming.
ABOUT BOOK
Set in the same Black community in Texas as PERISH, LaToya's debut novel, each story focuses on unique characters that illuminate life in Texas; they offer briliant, heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful perspectives from the women and men in the community, and touch on big themes like race, power, inequality, and more.
In one story, the appearance of a horse in a man's suburban backyard places a former horse breeder in trouble with the police, while in another, following the mass suicide of his entire congregation, the mother of a cult leader tries to honor him in a way she couldn't while he was alive.
Fresh and urgently told, HOLLER, CHILD is a wise follow-up to LaToya's debut novel.- This collection features 11 stories--six of which have been previously published and five of which are entirely new for this collectionABOUT AUTHOR
LaToya Watkins’s writing has appeared in A Public Space, The Sun, McSweeney’s, Kenyon Review, The Pushcart Prize Anthology (2015), and elsewhere. She has received grants, scholarships, and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and A Public Space (she was one of their 2018 Emerging Writers Fellows). She holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas. Perish was her debut novel.
ABOUT MODERATOR
Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton is an internationally known writer, educator, activist, and performer and the first Black poet laureate of Houston, Texas. She was formerly ranked the #2 Best Female Performance Poet in the World (PSI). Her recent poetry collection, Newsworthy, garnered her a Pushcart nomination, was named a finalist for the 2019 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award, and received an honorable mention for the Summerlee Book Prize. Its German translation, under the title Berichtenswert, was released in Summer 2021 by Elif Verlag. The opera Marian’s Song, for which she wrote the libretto, debuted in 2020.
- IRL AUTHOR TALK: Forged By Blood with Ehigbor Okosun-August 11 at 7:30 PM CST
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IRL AUTHOR TALK: Forged By Blood with Ehigbor Okosun-August 11 at 7:30 PM CST
from $0.00Celebrate the release of Forged by Blood, a Nigerian inspired fantasy novel with debut author, Ehigbor Okosun!
ABOUT THE EVENT
When: Friday, August 11th at 7:30 PM
Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Garden
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our programming.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In the midst of an authoritarian regime and political invasion, Dèmi just wants to survive: to avoid the suspicion of the nonmagical Ajes who occupy her ancestral homeland of Ifé; to escape King Sorenson’s brutal genocide of her people, the darker skinned, magic wielding Oluso; and to live peacefully with her secretive mother while learning to control the terrifying blood magic that is her birthright.
But when Dèmi’s misplaced trust costs her mother’s life, survival gives way to vengeance. She bides her time until the devious Lord Ekwensi grants her the perfect opportunity—kidnap the Aje prince, Jonas, and bargain with his life to save the remaining Oluso. With the help of her reckless childhood friend Colin, Dèmi succeeds, but discovers that she and Jonas share more than deadly secrets; every moment tangles them further in a forbidden, unmistakable attraction, much to Colin’s—and Dèmi’s—distress
The kidnapping is now a joint mission: to return to the King, help get Lord Ekwensi on the council, and bolster the voice of the Oluso in a system designed to silence them. But the way is dangerous, Dèmi’s magic is growing yet uncertain, and she’s not sure if she can trust the two men at her side.
A tale of rebellion and redemption, race and class, love and trust and betrayal, Forged by Blood is epic fantasy at its finest, from an enthusiastic, emerging voice.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ehigbor Okosun is an Austin-based author who writes speculative fiction for adult and young adult audiences. A British private school survivor turned Nigerian American immigrant, she hopes to do justice to the myths and traditions she was steeped in, and to honor her large, multiracial, and multiethnic family. She is a graduate of the University of Texas with degrees in Plan II Honors, neurolinguistics, and English, as well as chemistry and premedical studies, and was recently named a Cynthia Leitich Smith Writing Mentor Award finalist. When she’s not reading, you can catch her bullet journaling and baking.ABOUT THE MODERATORJ. Elle is the New York Times bestselling author of young adult and middle-grade fantasy fiction and a 2022 NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth and Teens. Her work is being translated and distributed in over fifteen countries. The former educator credits her nomadic lifestyle and humble inner-city beginnings as inspiration for her novels. When she’s not writing, Elle can be found on the hunt for desserts without chocolate, looking for any excuse to get dressed up, and road-tripping her way across the country with her family of six plus four pets in tow.
- IRL Author Talk: Dark Days with Roger Reeves: Fugitive Essays - August 4 at 7PM CST
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IRL Author Talk: Dark Days with Roger Reeves: Fugitive Essays - August 4 at 7PM CST
from $0.00Come celebrate the new essay collection, Dark Days: Fugitive Essays with National Book Award winner, Roger Reeves!
EVENT DEETS
When: Friday, August 4 at 7 PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden
How: RSVP ONLY to save your seat or RSVP with ticket to support the author or programming.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A crucial book that calls for community, solidarity, and joy, even in—especially in—these dark days
In his debut work of nonfiction, award-winning poet Roger Reeves finds new meaning in silence, protest, fugitivity, freedom, and ecstasy. Braiding memoir, theory, and criticism, Reeves juxtaposes the images of an opera singer breaking the state-mandated silence curfew by singing out into the streets of Santiago, Chile, and a father teaching his daughter to laugh out loud at the planes dropping bombs on them in Aleppo, Syria. He describes the history of the hush harbor—places where enslaved people could steal away to find silence and court ecstasy, to the side of their impossible conditions. In other essays, Reeves highlights a chapter in Toni Morrison’s Beloved to locate common purpose between Black and Indigenous peoples; he visits the realities of enslaved people on McLeod Plantation, where some of the descendants of those formerly enslaved lived into the 1990s; and he explores his own family history, his learning to read closely through the Pentecostal church tradition, and his passing on of reading as a pleasure, freedom, and solace to his daughter, who is frightened the police will gun them down.
Together, these groundbreaking essays build a profound vision for how to see and experience the world in our present moment, and how to strive toward an alternative existence in intentional community underground. “The peace we fight and search for,” Reeves writes, “begins and ends with being still.”ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ROGER REEVES is the author of the poetry collections King Me and Best Barbarian. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a 2015 Whiting Award, and Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard University. His essays and poems have appeared in Poetry, the New Yorker, Granta, the Yale Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Austin, Texas.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Stevens is a Writer, Organizer, and Archivist. As part of the Kindred Stories family he is the Operations & Community Facilitator, and part-time Adjunct Professor. Stevens' current work and concentration is centered around his social-political analysis and its intersections with the arts, community, and revolutionary politics. - IRL Author Talk: Plantains & Our Coming with Melania Luisa Marte-August 24 at 7:30 PM CST
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IRL Author Talk: Plantains & Our Coming with Melania Luisa Marte-August 24 at 7:30 PM CST
from $0.00Celebrate the release of Plantains & Our Becoming with Melania Luisa Marte!EVENT DEETSWhen: Thursday, August 24 at 7:30 PMWhere: Kindred Stories Reading GardenHow: RSVP ONLY for free ticket or support the author by RSVP WITH BOOK.ABOUT THE BOOK
PLANTAINS AND OUR BECOMING is an imaginative, blistering, beautifully written poetry collection about identity and history on the island of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to celebrate and center the Black Diasporic experience.
Through the exploration of the themes of self-love, nationalism, displacement, generational traumas, and ancestral knowledge, this collection uproots Black stereotypes while creating a new joyous vision for Black identity and personhood, one that is deeply grounded in the heirlooms and teachings of Black celebration as well as preservation.
The collection is structured in the following sections: Part I: Daughter of Diaspora, exploring immigration and identity within the U.S. Part II: A History of Plantains, exploring the aftermath of colonialism, displacement and gentrification for Afro-descendants.ABOUT THE AUTHORMelania Luisa Marte is a writer, poet, and musician from New York living between the Dominican Republic and Texas. Her viral poem “Afro-Latina” was featured by Instagram on their IG TV for National Poetry Month and has garnered over nine million views. Her work has also been featured by Ain’t I Latina, AfroPunk, The Root, Teen Vogue, Telemundo, Remezcla, PopSugar, and elsewhere.ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER/CO READERAriana Brown is a queer Black Mexican American poet from San Antonio, TX, currently based in Houston. She is the author of We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020). Ariana’s work investigates queer Black personhood in Mexican American spaces, Black relationality and girlhood, loneliness, and care. She holds a B.A. in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies, an M.F.A. in Poetry, and an M.S. in Library Science. Ariana is a 2014 national collegiate poetry slam champion and owes much of her practice to Black performance communities led by Black women poets from the South. She has been writing, performing, and teaching poetry for over ten years. Follow Ariana online @ArianaThePoet. - IRL Poetry Reading with Ariana Brown & Aris Kian-July 29 at 7PM
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IRL Poetry Reading with Ariana Brown & Aris Kian-July 29 at 7PM
from $0.00We're celebrating the anniversary of We Are Owed. with Ariana Brown!
EVENT DEETS
When: July 29, 2023
Where: Project Row House Community Gallery
How: RSVP for a free ticket or support the our programming and the author by RSVP WITH BOOK to grab a copy of We Are Owed.
ABOUT THE BOOKWe Are Owed. is the debut poetry collection of Ariana Brown, exploring Black relationality in Mexican and Mexican American spaces. Through poems about the author’s childhood in Texas and a trip to Mexico as an adult, Brown interrogates the accepted origin stories of Mexican identity. We Are Owed. asks the reader to develop a Black consciousness by rejecting U.S., Chicano, and Mexican nationalism and confronting anti-Black erasure and empire-building. As Brown searches for other Black kin in the same spaces through which she moves, her experiences of Blackness are placed in conversation with the histories of formerly enslaved Africans in Texas and Mexico.
ABOUT THE AUTHORAriana Brown is a queer Black Mexican American poet from San Antonio, TX, currently based in Houston. She is the author of We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020). Ariana’s work investigates queer Black personhood in Mexican American spaces, Black relationality and girlhood, loneliness, and care. She holds a B.A. in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies, an M.F.A. in Poetry, and an M.S. in Library Science. Ariana is a 2014 national collegiate poetry slam champion and owes much of her practice to Black performance communities led by Black women poets from the South. She has been writing, performing, and teaching poetry for over ten years. Follow Ariana online @ArianaThePoet.ABOUT CONVERSATION PARTNER/ CO-READER
Aris Kian is a Houston enthusiast and student of abolitionists. Her poems are published with Button Poetry, West Branch, Obsidian Lit, The West Review and elsewhere. She ranks #2 in the 2023 Womxn of the World Poetry Slam and is the 2023-2025 Houston Poet Laureate. She received her MFA from the University of Houston as an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow and currently serves as the Narrative Change & Media Manager at Houston in Action. - Virtual Author Panel: Black & In Love with Tia Williams, Kianna Alexander, Chenicia Higgins, Synithia Williams, A.E. Valdez, Kosoko Jackson, Charish - August 17 at 6:30PM
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Virtual Author Panel: Black & In Love with Tia Williams, Kianna Alexander, Chenicia Higgins, Synithia Williams, A.E. Valdez, Kosoko Jackson, Charish - August 17 at 6:30PM
Sold outIn honor of Bookstore Romance Day, we have gathered some of our favorite Black contemporary Romance authors, traditionally and indie published.
EVENT DEETS
WHEN: August 17 at 6:30PM
WHERE: Virtual Via Zoom
HOW: Be sure to purchase your $5 ticket or choose one of the bundles to gain entry to this virtual event.
ROMANCE BOOK BUNDLES
Forbidden Love: The Perfect Find, Forbidden Promises - $26
Second Chance Romance: All I've Ever Want All I've Ever Needed , Seven Days in June - $31
Opposite Attract: Mickey Chambers Shakes It Up, The Secret to a Southern Wedding - $36
Meet Queer: D'Vaughn & Kris Plan A Wedding, Can't Let Her Go , A Dash of Salt & Pepper- $45
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Tia Williams had a fifteen-year career as a beauty editor for magazines including Elle, Glamour, Lucky
, Teen People, and Essence. In 2004, she pioneered the beauty-blog industry with her award-winning site, Shake Your Beauty. She wrote the bestselling debut novel The Accidental Diva and penned two young adult novels, It Chicks and Sixteen Candles. Her award-winning novel The Perfect Find is a Netflix movie starring Gabrielle Union. Her latest novel is New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, Seven Days in June, published by Grand Central. Tia currently lives with her daughter and her husband in Brooklyn. Like any good Southern belle, Kianna Alexander wears many hats: doting mama, advice-dispensing sister, fun aunt and gabbing girlfriend. She's a voracious reader, an amateur seamstress and occasional painter in oils.She has a passion for history and an endless curiosity. Kianna is proud to tell stories where Black women are loved, valued, and thriving. A native of the TarHeel state, Kianna still lives there while maintaining her collection of well-loved vintage 80's Barbie dolls.
Chencia Higgins hails from the big city of Houston in the greatest state of Texas. Writing has been her my passion since she was a young girl, when her subject matter were visions of middle school drama with her group of girlfriends. She entered the world of publishing in May 2016 with an erotic novella that set the stage for a career in which she would craft engaging tales of Black women being loved up on. She continues to write for women who love to read but are tired of never seeing themselves in the story. Higgins proud to be a part of an indie and self-published author community. When she's not writing, you can find her reading a book (or two, or three), saving recipes that she'll never make on Pinterest, and traveling as much as possible with her family.
A.E. Valdez published her first book, All I’ve Wanted, All I’ve Needed, in 2021. She has continued to write stories with endearing and relatable characters centered firmly around Black love. Readers have described her work as sweet and spicy, deeply emotional, and healing.
She currently resides in the Pacific Northwest with the love of her life and their two sons. When she’s not typing away on a keyboard, she enjoys spending time with her family, going on hiking trips, gaming, or curling up with a good book.
Kosoko Jackson is a digital-media specialist, who lives in the New York Metro Area and spends too much time listening to Halsey and Taylor Swift.
Charish Reid is a fan of sexy books and disaster films. When she's not grading papers or prepping lessons for college freshmen, she enjoys writing romances that celebrate quirky black women who deserve HEAs. Charish currently lives in Sweden, with her husband, avoiding most forms of exercise.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Dr. Shaquinta Richardson is a lover of books in the realm of fantasy and filth written by and for Black women. She rediscovered her love for fiction after years of reading non-fiction for school and career and has been loving the experience of re-immersing herself in the all the beautiful stories of bad-ass powerful Black girls and women being loved fiercely. When she is not reading, she helps Black women build lives and careers with balance, ease, and daily joy as a life coach and consultant. She lives in Houston, TX with her wife and two dogs and can be found in any corner of Houston with her book or her Kindle and her caramel macchiato. - IN PERSON AUTHOR TALK: Sisterhood Heals with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford (Founder of Therapy for Black Girls)-July 19 at 7PM CST (PURCHASE TICKETS ON EVENBRITE)
![IN PERSON AUTHOR TALK: Sisterhood Heals with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford (Founder of Therapy for Black Girls)-July 19 at 7PM CST (PURCHASE TICKETS ON EVENBRITE)]()
IN PERSON AUTHOR TALK: Sisterhood Heals with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford (Founder of Therapy for Black Girls)-July 19 at 7PM CST (PURCHASE TICKETS ON EVENBRITE)
$35.00Celebrate the power of sisterhood with Dr. Joy Braden Bradford & Wale Okerayi!
EVENT DEETS
When: Wednesday, July 19 at 7PM CST
Where: ELDORADO BALLROOM at Project Row Houses
How: Get Your Ticket on Eventbrite.
ABOUT BOOK
Strengthen the relationships that mean the most, heal with your sisters, and transform your life for the better with the licensed clinical psychologist who founded the award-winning podcast Therapy for Black Girls.
Sisterhood is that sacred space where all the masks that are worn for the world fall off. It’s the place where you lay down your load, refill your cup, and laugh until your belly aches. Our sister circles literally prolong our lives. However, building and keeping healthy friendships take work. How must these friendships evolve as we age? What practices can we put in place? Can they be the key to unlocking a more fulfilled existence? The answer is yes.
Dr. Joy Harden Bradford has been doing the work to help Black women heal together for more than twenty years. In a sisterhood community with more than half a million members, she’s the go-to therapist for Black women looking to prioritize their mental health and become the best possible versions of themselves. Now she’s sharing all she’s learned using the tenets of psychology and group therapy to help us foster relationships that are not only positive, but transformative.
In Sisterhood Heals you will
- discover the ways in which your present-day relationships with Black women have been influenced by your past
- identify the recurring role you play in your friend group and how it influences your relationships
- learn new strategies to grow and sustain healthy, nurturing friendships as well as how to rebuild after a rupture
Dr. Joy brings the warmth, wisdom, empathy, and levity found in our girlfriends to these pages, and reminds us that during difficult times sisterhood is often a lifeline with the power to help us experience fuller, more satisfying lives.ABOUT AUTHOR
Dr. Joy Harden Bradford is a licensed psychologist and the host of the award-winning mental health podcast Therapy for Black Girls. Her work focuses on making mental health topics and support more relevant and accessible for Black women. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Xavier University of Louisiana, a master’s degree in vocational rehabilitation counseling from Arkansas State University, and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Georgia. Her work has been featured in Essence, Oprah Daily, The New York Times, HuffPost, Black Enterprise, and Women’s Health. Dr. Joy lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and two sons.
ABOUT MODERATOR
Wale is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor working with folks in New York and Texas. She has a double masters degree in mental health counseling from Teachers College Columbia University. After practicing in New York for a few years, Wale moved back to her hometown Houston and started her own therapy practice in 2020. Wale currently works with individuals and couples on a weekly basis.
- IRL Author Talk: My Week with Him with Joya Goffney- July 11
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IRL Author Talk: My Week with Him with Joya Goffney- July 11
Sold outCelebrate the release of My Week With Him with author, Joya Goffney!
EVENT DEETS
When: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden
How: RSVP ONLY for a free ticket and RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your seat and book. Books will be available onsite for sale. Only copies of My Week With Him purchased from Kindred Stories are eligible for the signing line.
ABOUT THE BOOK
From Joya Goffney, author of Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, comes her third stunning YA novel, a stirring coming-of-age, best friends-to-lovers romance about a girl named Nikki who plans to run away from small-town Texas but ultimately finds that her oldest friend, Mal, just might be the one who’s been there for her all along. Filled with Joya’s signature heart and humor, this book captures complex family dynamics, friendship, and love. For fans of I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest and Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan.
After a painful betrayal by her sister and a heated argument with their mother, Nikki is kicked out and finds herself homeless over spring break, only two months away from graduation. But instead of relying on anyone, especially someone like Malachai and his rich, overeager, overgenerous parents, to give her a home, and instead of waiting for her dad who isn't actually her birth-dad to talk some sense into her heartless mother again, she decides to jet. She'll drive as far as her car will take her, so long as it's away from that woman.
When Malachai catches wind of her plan to flee Texas, he begs her to stay the remainder of spring break with him at his parent-free house. He believes that over the course of a week, he can either convince her to stay in Cactus, Texas, or at least help her come up with a solution that ends with her graduating. All the while, she's dead set on heading to California at the end of the week to get started on her dream music career, no matter how impractical it is. But all their spring break plans are interrupted when Nikki's sister goes missing. Running away isn't something Vae does—it's always been Nikki's thing.
Nikki is forced to work alongside her wretched mother, her mother's ex-husband, and Malachai, who may or may not be moving into the boyfriend slot, to find her little sister, all with the uncertainty of what will happen at the end of the week. Will Nikki find a way to stay in Cactus, or will this spring break be the last time she ever sees these people?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joya Goffney is the author of the novels Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry and Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl. Joya grew up in New Waverly, a small town in East Texas. In high school, she challenged herself with to-do lists full of risk-taking items, like "hug a random boy" and "eat a cricket," which inspired her debut novel, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry. With a passion for black social psychology, she moved out of the countryside to attend the University of Texas in Austin, where she still resides. Her second novel, Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl was released in 2022.ABOUT THE MODERATORLiara Tamani holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA from Duke University. She is the author of the acclaimed young adult novels Calling My Name, a 2018 PEN America Literary Award Finalist and SCBWI Golden Kite Finalist; All the Things We Never Knew, a 2020 Kirkus Best YA Book of the Year; and What She Missed. Before becoming a writer, she attended Harvard Law School and worked as a marketing coordinator for the Houston Rockets and Comets, production assistant for Girlfriends (TV show), home accessories designer, floral designer, and yoga and dance teacher. She lives in Houston, Texas. www.liaratamani.com - Juneteenth Trivia Night - June 18th at 6PM CST
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Juneteenth Trivia Night - June 18th at 6PM CST
Sold outGrab the homies for our 1st annual Juneteenth Trivia Night!
EVENT DEETS
When: Sunday, June 18th at 6PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: Purchase your ticket here TODAY! Each ticket comes with entry and one drink!
ABOUT THE TRIVIA NIGHT
We are hosting a pub style trivia night! Each person is a participant. You can bring your friends or family be apart of your team or be prepared to join a team when you get here. There will be five rounds of questions around Juneteenth, Black History, Black music & culture, prominent Black history figures etc. You and your team will work together to correctly answer as many questions as possible. Put prepared for a few twists during the night!
This is a great alternative to observe Juneteenth!
- Kindred Stories + Murder By The Book Presents All the Sinners Bleed with S.A. Cosby-June 14 at 6:30 PM CST
![Kindred Stories + Murder By The Book Presents All the Sinners Bleed with S.A. Cosby-June 14 at 6:30 PM CST]()
Kindred Stories + Murder By The Book Presents All the Sinners Bleed with S.A. Cosby-June 14 at 6:30 PM CST
from $0.00We're joining forces with our friends from Murder By The Books to celebrate the release of All the Sinners Bleed with author, S.A. Cosby.EVENT DEETSWhen: Wednesday, June 14 at 6:30 PM CSTWhere: Murder By The Book ( 2342 Bissonnet Street, HTX, 77005)How: RSVP ONLY to grab your free ticket OR RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your copy and support our store's programming.ABOUT THE BOOKAfter years of working as an FBI agent, Titus Crown returns home to Charon County, land of moonshine and corn bread, fistfights and honeysuckle. Seeing his hometown struggling with a bigoted police force inspires Titus to run for sheriff. He wins and becomes the first Black sheriff in the history of the county.
Then, a year to the day after his election, a young Black man is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies.
Titus pledges to follow the truth wherever it leads. But no one expected he would unearth a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon.
Now Titus must pull off the impossible: stay true to his instincts, prevent outright panic, and investigate a shocking crime in a small town where everyone knows everyone yet secrets flourish—all while breaking up backroad bar fights and being forced to protect racist Confederate pride marchers.
For a Black man wearing a police uniform in the American South, that’s no easy feat. But Charon is Titus’s home and his heart, and he won’t let the darkness overtake it. Even as it threatens to consume him.ABOUT THE AUTHORS. A. Cosby is an Anthony Award–winning writer from southeastern Virginia. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Razorblade Tears, which won two ITW Thriller Awards and was named to more than thirty Best of the Year lists, and Blacktop Wasteland, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, The Guardian, and Library Journal, among others - IRL Author Talk-What She Missed with Liara Tamani-June 17 at 3PM CST
![IRL Author Talk-What She Missed with Liara Tamani-June 17 at 3PM CST]()
IRL Author Talk-What She Missed with Liara Tamani-June 17 at 3PM CST
Sold outCome celebrate the launch of What She Missed with the author, Liara Tamani!EVENT DEETSWHEN: Saturday, June 17 at 3PM CSTWhere: 3719 Navigation Blvd, HTX, 77003How: RSVP ONLY to grab your free ticket or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your book and support our programming.ABOUT THE BOOKSixteen-year-old Ebony Jones is devastated when both of her parents lose their jobs, and her family moves from Houston to her grandmother’s house in the country. There’s nothing for Ebony in Alula Lake, Texas. So She Thinks. What She Missed is a rich and emotional novel that celebrates change, nature, friendship, growing up, and love, for readers of Sarah Dessen’s The Rest of the Story and Elizabeth Acevedo’s Clap When You Land.
When Ebony and her parents move from Houston to her grandmother’s house in a small lake town, Ebony is sure that her life is doomed. And to make matters worse, the ghost of Ebony’s beloved grandmother—a strong swimmer who tragically drowned in the lake—is everywhere. Alula Lake does offer one perk: reconnecting Ebony with her childhood friend, Jalen.
But as Ebony settles into life, she finds herself drifting away from Jalen and gravitating to his older sister, Lena. Lena is chaotic, disorderly, and rebellious, yet she offers a reprieve from the anger and sadness Ebony feels over losing so much.
An ode to nature, art, friendship, history, family, and love, this lyrical coming-of-age story explores one girl’s summer of self-discovery as she reimagines the world and her place in it.
ABOUT AUTHORLiara Tamani lives in Houston, Texas. She is the author of the acclaimed young adult novels Calling My Name, All the Things We Never Knew, and What She Missed. Her words have appeared in Time Magazine, NPR, and The New York Times. And her work has been featured by Good Morning America, Buzzfeed, Essence Magazine, Teen Vogue, and more. Before becoming a writer, she attended Harvard Law School and worked as a marketing coordinator for the Houston Rockets & Comets, production assistant for Girlfriends (TV show), home accessories designer, floral designer, and yoga and dance teacher. She holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA from Duke University. www.liaratamani.com
ABOUT MODERATORJ. Elle is the New York Times bestselling author of young adult and middle-grade fantasy fiction and a 2022 NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth and Teens. Her work is being translated and distributed in over fifteen countries. The former educator credits her nomadic lifestyle and humble inner-city beginnings as inspiration for her novels. When she’s not writing, Elle can be found on the hunt for desserts without chocolate, looking for any excuse to get dressed up, and road-tripping her way across the country with her family of six plus four pets in tow.
- IRL Author Talk: House Woman with Adorah Nworah-June 6 @7PM CST
![IRL Author Talk: House Woman with Adorah Nworah-June 6 @7PM CST]()
IRL Author Talk: House Woman with Adorah Nworah-June 6 @7PM CST
Sold outCome celebrate the release of House Woman with Adorah Nworah!EVENT DEETSWhen: Tuesday, June 6 at 7 PM (It's publication day!)Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)How: RSVP ONLY to grab your free ticket or RSVP with book to support the author and our programming!ABOUT THE BOOKWhen Ikemefuna is put on a plane from Lagos, Nigeria to Sugar Land, Texas, she anticipates her newly arranged All-American life: a handsome husband, a beautiful red-brick mansion, pizza parlors, and dance classes.
Desperate to please, she'll happily cater to her family's needs. But Ikemefuna soon discovers what it actually means to live with her in-laws. Demands for a grandson grow urgent as her every move comes under scrutiny. As Ikemefuna finds there’s no way out, her new husband grapples with the influence of his parents against his own increasing affection for her.
As family secrets boil to the surface, Ikemefuna must decide how to scrape herself out of an impossibly sticky situation: a marriage succumbing to generational cycles of pain and silence. In the end, she may be carrying the greatest secret of all.
An unforgettably delicious thriller, House Woman is about a woman trapped in a dangerous web of conflicting desires, melting in the Texas heat.
ABOUT THE AUTHORAdorah Nworah is an Igbo writer from South-East Nigeria. Her stories have been published in AFREADA and adda magazine. Her short stories, "The Bride and Broken English" made the shortlist for the 2019 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize and the longlist for the 2018 Short Story Day Africa Prize respectively. She lives in Philadelphia, where she practices real estate finance law and is cat mom to her handsome Napoleon cat.ABOUT THE MODERATORWale is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor working with folks in New York and Texas. She has a double masters degree in mental health counseling from Teachers College Columbia University. After practicing in New York for a few years, Wale moved back to her hometown Houston and started her own therapy practice in 2020. Wale currently works with individuals and couples on a weekly basis. - IRL AUTHOR TALK: ONYX with Adrienne Raquel & Nandi Howard-June 9 at 7PM CST
![IRL AUTHOR TALK: ONYX with Adrienne Raquel & Nandi Howard-June 9 at 7PM CST]()
IRL AUTHOR TALK: ONYX with Adrienne Raquel & Nandi Howard-June 9 at 7PM CST
Sold outCome celebrate the release of Adrienne Raquel: ONYX!EVENT DEETSWhen: Friday, June 9 at 7PM CSTWhere: ELDORADO BALLROOM at Project Row Houses (2310 Elgin Street, Houston, Texas 77004)How: RSVP ONLY to grab your free ticket and RSVP WITH BOOK to support this Texas author!ABOUT THE BOOKNYX pays homage to the heyday of hip-hop music videos of the '90s and early 2000s, adopting their aesthetics and alluding to the seductive power of the video vixen.” –CNN
In ONYX, photographer Adrienne Raquel explores the intensity and escapism of the strip club experience, documenting performers at Houston’s famed Club Onyx. Raquel’s photography is usually editorial, with high-powered celebrities such as Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Nas X and Travis Scott as subjects. Now, for this project commissioned by Fotografiska New York, she turns her lens toward a community of underrepresented artists in her hometown. At Club Onyx, strippers display their bodies and seductiveness, but there’s a virtue to this particular space: “they don’t get naked” is a common description of the club’s ambiance. Performers there negotiate what “stripper” means to them on their own terms.
Raquel captures these performers with her signature glossy style. From powerful images of the dancers mid-movement to detailed shots and intimate portraits, Raquel’s photographs place their beauty and energy on full display. She also takes viewers behind the scenes, giving us a window into the community the dancers have built in the privacy of the locker room. ONYX displays the empowerment and inclusivity in strip clubs that society has tended to ignore.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adrienne Raquel (born 1990) is a Texas-raised photographer and art director working between Houston, New York and Los Angeles. Featured in Aperture's New Black Vanguard, she received her first solo exhibition at Fotografiska New York in 2021. Clients include Apple, Savage x Fenty, Pat McGrath Labs, Dior, Bacardi, Rare Beauty, Bacardi, Nike and Beats By Dre, as well as covers for Vanity Fair, V Magazine, GQ and Interview.
- VIRTUAL AUTHOR PANEL: Black & Killer with Johnny Compton, Tananarive Due, Alexis Henderson, Victor LaValle, Brandon Massey-May 26 at 7:30 PM CST
![VIRTUAL AUTHOR PANEL: Black & Killer with Johnny Compton, Tananarive Due, Alexis Henderson, Victor LaValle, Brandon Massey-May 26 at 7:30 PM CST]()
VIRTUAL AUTHOR PANEL: Black & Killer with Johnny Compton, Tananarive Due, Alexis Henderson, Victor LaValle, Brandon Massey-May 26 at 7:30 PM CST
from $0.00We always receive requests for Black Horror recommendations, so we've gathered up some of the best to ever write horror to discuss ALL the things!*ZOOM LINK*
EVENT DEETSWhen: Friday, May 26 at 7:30 PM CSTWhere: Virtual via ZoomHow: RSVP ONLY to reserve your spot! RSVP WITH BUNDLE to reserve your spot AND get a Black Horror starter pack!The OG Bundle includes The Between by Tananarive Due, Dark Corner by Brandon Massey, and The Devil in Silver by Victor Lavalle.The New School Bundle includes The Spite House by Johnny Compton and The Year of Witching by Alexis Henderson.Be sure to check out our Black Horror Collection!ABOUT THE PANELISTJohnny Compton has short stories that have appeared in Pseudopod, Strange Horizons, The No Sleep Podcast, and many other markets. He is an HWA member and creator, and host of the podcast Healthy Fears. Spite House is his debut novel.Tananarive Due is an American Book Award–winning, Essence bestselling author of sixteen books, including the Blood Colony, The Living Blood, The Good House, Joplin’s Ghost, and Devil’s Wake. She was also a contributor to Jonathan Maberry’s middle grade anthology, Don’t Turn Out the Lights. She has won an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award. She teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Visit her website TananariveDue.com to learn more about her work.Alexis Henderson is the author of the Goodreads Choice Awards nominated novels, House of Hunger and The Year of the Witching. When she's not writing, you'll find her tending to an assortment of houseplants or nursing a hot cup of teaVictor LaValle is the author of seven works of fiction: four novels, two novellas, and a collection of short stories. His novels have been included in best-of-the-year lists by The New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Nation, and Publishers Weekly, among others. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Key to Southeast Queens. He lives in the Bronx with his wife and kids and teaches at Columbia University.Brandon Massey sold his first short story in 1996 to a speculative fiction magazine. Three years later, he self-published Thunderland, his first novel. After managing to sell a few thousand copies on his own, Kensington Publishing Corp signed him to a publishing contract and republished the novel in 2002. Since then, Massey has published up to three books a year, ranging from thriller novels such as The Landlord and The Other Brother, vampire fiction such as Dark Corner, and short story collections such as Twisted Tales. Massey currently lives with his family near Atlanta, GA.Get ready for a killer time!
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