In 1962, George Ruble Woolfolk, perhaps the foremost Black historian in Texas at the time, published his most well-known work Prairie View: A Study in Public Conscience, 1878–1946, a history of the state’s first institution of higher education for African Americans. Recording the university’s first six decades of existence, Woolfolk’s book also chronicled the many social and educational challenges faced by Black Texans during what was still the Jim Crow Era in Texas and the American South.

Now, historian and scholar Ronald E. Goodwin has edited and annotated Woolfolk’s influential book, making it available and accessible to current scholars and students, as well as those interested in the early history of not only Prairie View A&M University but also of historically Black colleges and universities. Students and scholars in African American studies or the history of education will find Goodwin’s updated edition a valuable resource for study, research, and a more complete understanding of the historical contexts of higher education for people of color.

Published in coordination with the sesquicentennial of Prairie View A&M University, this new edition of Woolfolk’s classic work reintroduces a new generation of scholars and students to a vital and foundational work.

In this poignant memoir, as candid and indelible as The Glass Castle and Memorial Drive, a writer takes on the conflict between the love that binds us to home and the desire to escape it for good.

On a highway in Houston, Texas, Sarah LaBrie’s mother was found screaming at passing cars, terrified she would be murdered by invisible assailants. The diagnosis of schizophrenia that followed compelled Sarah to rethink her childhood, marked at turns by violence and all-consuming closeness.

Digging into the events that led to her mother’s break, Sarah traces her family history of mental illness, from the dysphoria that plagued her great-grandmother, a granddaughter of slaves, to her own experience with depression as a scholarship student at Brown. At the same time, she navigates a decades-long fixation on a novel she can’t finish but can't abandon, her complicated feelings about her white partner, and a fraught friendship colored by betrayal.

Spanning the globe from Houston’s Third Ward to Paris to Tallinn and New York to Los Angeles, No One Gets to Fall Apart is an unflinching chronicle of one woman's attempt to forge a new future through a better understanding of the past.

A heart-wrenching yet vividly hopeful novel about a Black girl's struggle to find the quiet beauty in life and friendship amid the chaos of grief and mental illness by New York Times, USA Today, and Indie bestselling author Frederick Joseph.

"Frederick is such a grounded and beautiful voice of not just this moment but all the moments. Everything's Not Lost cements him firmly as a much needed and stunning voice inside the world of YA literature." —Jacqueline Woodson, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award

As a sixteen-year-old Black girl with bipolar disorder, Ella Washington has plenty stacked against her. But following her beloved sister’s unexpected death and its turbulent aftermath, Ella is desperate to find any sense of normalcy. Worse still, someone at her school is determined to drive her deeper into despair.

It feels nearly impossible to find her way out of the fog of grief and loneliness, but through her love of art, some unlikely new friends, and the memory of her sister, Ella slowly learns that the pursuit of happiness and forgiveness is an endeavor that is more than worthwhile.

Told in Frederick Joseph’s perceptive and lyrical voice, Everything’s Not Lost is an achingly relatable story about finding points of light even in the darkest of times.

A poignant and inspiring memoir from the former mayor of Atlanta about her modest, hardscrabble upbringing, and fully appreciating the selfless, loving, fierce, and altogether Southern-twinged lessons her family taught her.

Long before Keisha Lance Bottoms rose to prominence in politics, she was a daddy’s girl from the Westside of Atlanta—the baby of her family who did well in school, though she talked too much in class; an outgoing kid who dreamt of growing up to be elegant and charismatic like her parents, cool like her older siblings and big cousins, and the pride of her very large, Southern family.

After law school, Bottoms worked as an attorney, served as a judge, and was elected to City Council and the mayorship, where she garnered national attention for her leadership during the pandemic and George Floyd protests. Later, she was appointed senior advisor in President Joe Biden’s administration.

Yet Bottoms felt disquieted internally. She was in her early fifties and approaching the age her beloved father was when he died. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something in her life was missing, like she’d forgotten to bring an essential element of herself along for her ascension. Stepping away from the daily political grind, Bottoms realized how much she’d sanded down parts of herself in her path to professional success. She’d tucked away the fuller details about her dad’s drug abuse and prison stint for dealing; the sexual abuse she endured; the eating disorder she developed; the close-knit, utterly unpolished family who doted on her and gave her an incredible foundation of love and confidence but whose influence she’d pruned to a sleek, charming, campaign-ready sheen. She thought that was the price of upward mobility. Then she realized she was wrong.

The Rough Side of the Mountain is about this excavation. It’s Bottoms’s deeply affecting journey to rescue a version of herself that she thought she had to leave behind to succeed. An honor to the lessons from kinfolk plainly told, hers is a timely and heartfelt memoir about unmasking oneself, the joys of authenticity, embracing what you see, and spreading that powerful message.

In March 2017, Bob Lee—freelance writer, community organizer, social worker, social justice warrior, child of Houston’s Fifth Ward and its advocate, former Chicago Black Panther—died at the age of 74. Alongside his larger legacy, he left behind this collection of fourteen stories published in the Houston Chronicle’s Sunday Texas Magazine between 1989 and 2000.

Framed by journalist and scholar Michael Berryhill, these youthful recollections and tales of his East Texas relatives reveal Lee’s shock at learning that his elderly aunt and uncle, who lived in Jasper, Texas, were lifelong Republicans; recount his discovery at the age of 19 that white people, too, could be poor; recall integrating a small-town restaurant with the help of the white rancher who hired him; explore the world of Black longshoremen and offer meditations on the mysteries of death. 

As he lay suffering from cancer, Lee told Berryhill that he wasn’t thinking about dying, but focusing on love. Berryhill, who was Lee’s first editor at the Houston Chronicle, has lovingly collected and edited Lee’s stories, which are complemented by an introduction and biographical essay. Treasured storyteller Bob Lee’s essays offer to readers the experience of Black history in both urban and rural settings by invoking the simple details and events of everyday life.

We. Do. Not. Care.

Hop aboard the Hot Mess Express, Sisters, and welcome to the club!
Do you wake up with night sweats at 3:26 a.m., overstimulated, mad at anything breathing, and ready to put the world on notice?
Do you forget the words you are saying as you are saying them?
If you have a she-shed and no longer care about clothes that fit or cellulite on your legs (legs is legs!), then welcome to the club--the We Do Not Care Club (WDNC). You're now a card-carrying member with an exclusive invite to the big­gest hormonal party in town.
This club is for all of our Sisters in perimenopause, menopause, and post­menopause who are over it. Here is a list* of things We Do Not Care about today:

* Shaving our legs. That's on our summer bucket list. Winter is here.
* Plucking our chin hair. If we can't see it, neither can you.
* Wearing bras. Be happy we have a shirt on.
* Wearing PJs all day. Clothes is clothes.
* Being on time. Be happy that I showed up -- I don't even want to be here.
* Cancelled plans. We didn't want to go anywhere anyway.
* If you're cold. Don't even think about touching that thermostat.

*partial and incomplete
Melani Sanders, founding member of the WDNC, is here to tell you that it's okay not to care. You're not alone. This book is your life raft. Let's hold on for dear life--and get through this together.

There are moments in life that change us forever—moments when a diagnosis is given, when a final breath is taken, or when the weight of care becomes both a privilege and a burden. These are the sacred spaces of goodbye, often filled with sorrow, but also with love, clarity, and even peace. Journeys of Goodbye was born from those spaces.

This book is for anyone who has ever whispered goodbye to someone they loved far too soon, unsure of how to move forward. It’s for the one sitting at the bedside of a parent, spouse, sibling, or friend—holding on tightly while slowly letting go. It’s for the courageous souls living with life-limiting illnesses who find strength in each new sunrise. And it is for the clinicians, caregivers, and spiritual leaders who walk with grace through the shadows, offering compassion and comfort when it’s needed most.

In these pages, you’ll find real stories—raw, beautiful, and transformative—told by spiritual leaders, healthcare professionals, and ordinary people facing extraordinary moments. Some stories speak of pain; others, of peace. All speak of the sacred journey toward the end of life and the mysterious threshold of what lies beyond. More than anything, this book is an offering of hope. It reminds us that even in the ache of loss, there is love. Even in the mystery of death, there is light. And even in goodbye, there is the promise of something more.

May Journeys of Goodbye give you the courage to face what’s ahead, the comfort to heal from what’s behind, and the faith to believe in what cannot always be seen.

Nonbinary Life is an invitation to imagine the possibilities of life outside of gender.

To write, to think, to imagine, to agitate, and to love without regard for gender is to lead a non-binary life. In this genre-defying work of autotheory, Marquis Bey proposes a radical refusal: to relinquish gender as a framework we carry - for ourselves and for others - and to embrace modes of being that exist outside of its grasp.

Spanning questions of pronouns, masculinity, love, family, language, and even the Redwood National Forest, Nonbinary Life blends memoir and theory to provide a philosophical meditation on what it means to live beyond the binary

In over a dozen interviews, Conversations with Kiese Laymon provides an in-depth look at author Kiese Laymon as an educator, creative writer, activist, family member, and Mississippian. Interviews capture surprising insights into Laymon’s life and craft. Within these pages, Laymon talks about his engagement with other writers, including Richard Wright, William Faulkner, and Eudora Welty. These revelations situate his memoir, Heavy, among other great Mississippi autobiographies and memoirs, such as Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi, Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings, Jesmyn Ward’s Men We Reaped, and Natasha Trethewey’s Memorial Drive. In other interviews, he discusses his obsession with revision and deftly fields questions about pop culture, politics, and Black masculinity, along with a host of other pressing contemporary issues.

As the first collection of its kind, Conversations with Kiese Laymon serves as the perfect introduction to studying Laymon. The cross section of interviews included reflects Laymon’s humility, while simultaneously celebrating his accomplishments. Most importantly, the interviews reflect his stature as a major American literary figure. With topics ranging from hip-hop and family to politics and everything in between, this volume provides an unfiltered look at the prolific Southern writer in his own words.

From Joya Goffney, author of Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry and Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl, both of which received starred reviews and stellar buzz, comes her fourth riveting YA romance novel about a book-smart wallflower who suddenly wins the attention of the school hottie—but only during seventh period. Perfect for fans of the hit rom-com John Tucker Must Die and filled with Joya's signature humor, complex characters, and searing romance.
Sunnaya Bates can’t stop thinking about Xavier Walker… and neither can six others.
When self-proclaimed wallflower Sunnaya Bates begins her first day of junior year, she’s not expecting to have the attention of star football player Omari Walker by seventh period. But Naya isn’t the only one that Zay has eyes for, in fact, Zay has a flirtationship with a different girl for every period. Everyone knows Zay doesn’t do relationships, so no harm, no foul… right?

And being a member of The Seven has its perks. People finally remember Naya’s name, Zahara is in the running for class president, and Raven gets the followers she needs to maintain her social media status. However, when Zay begins to only have eyes for new student Jesse Ramirez, things change for the newfound group, and so, they quickly hatch a plan to destroy Jesse’s status to retain theirs’. But Naya begins to struggle with her role in the plan and the feelings that are blooming between her and a certain should-be-annoying coworker. When things go too far, will Naya give up what she’s formed with The Seven to do what’s right?

Celebrate the release of Communication Skills for Healthier Boundaries with Dr. LaToya S. Gilmore!

EVENT DEETS

When: Thursday, May 8 @ 7PM

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

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

ABOUT THE BOOK

Stop People-Pleasing and Start Setting Healthier Boundaries Now

Do you feel resentful because you didn’t speak up? Do find yourself saying yes when you really mean no, only to burn out later? Or maybe frustration builds, leading to blowups that push people away? In Communication Skills for Healthier Boundaries, licensed psychotherapist Dr. LaToya S. Gilmore addresses the struggles many face when they can’t express their needs, often resorting to either giving in or losing control.

This book provides essential tools to break free from these patterns and communicate with clarity and confidence. Learn how to set firm, healthy boundaries without guilt and honor yourself without fear of conflict. Tackling either people-pleasing or explosive reactions, Dr. Gilmore’s practical guidance will help you build and maintain fulfilling relationships without compromising your well-being.

Communication Skills for Healthier Boundaries includes:

* Verbal and nonverbal communication skills and activities. Attain lifelong skill sets to build assertiveness, confidence, and self-awareness.
* Real-life dialogue scripts. Practice setting and asserting boundaries at your own pace while finding your communication style.
* Easy implementation in two parts. Learn core communication skills in the first part of the book, and then apply these skills in the second part, which features common scenarios where boundaries are challenged in everyday life, rela

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. LaToya S. Gilmore is a licensed therapist, educator, consultant, writer, and speaker. She inspires those she works with to intentionally integrate self-care and healthy boundaries in their daily lives and is an advocate for ending the stigma related to seeking therapy. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Prairie View A&M University and a doctorate in counselor education from Texas Southern University. Her master’s degree in marriage and family therapy was earned at Fuller Theological Seminary. She resides in Houston, Texas.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Kandice Ewing is a lifelong Houston resident and a dedicated co-leader at the Fellowship of Love Church for over 20 years. Recently, Kandice earned a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Houston Christian University and is now a Licensed Professional Counselor-Associate. Believing that therapy is her true calling, Kandice is committed to supporting individuals, groups, and couples experiencing mental distress, emotional dysregulation, and life stressors.

With expertise in areas such as grief and loss, depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, spiritual struggles, relationships, boundaries, assertiveness, and self-esteem, Kandice takes an eclectic therapeutic approach and tailors’ treatment to meet each client's unique needs.

Passionate about guiding others on their wellness journey, Kandice is dedicated to fostering healing and personal growth in a compassionate and supportive environment.

Join us for the official launch event of Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood & Myth with author, Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton and artist, Delita Martin. 

Event DEETS

When: March 7, 2023 at 7PM CST

Where: Project Row House Community Gallery (2521 Holman Street, HTX 77004)

How: Please RSVP reserve your spot. Checkout for RSVP with Book to support our store and the author/artists. 

About Black Chameleon

In the literary tradition of Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, and Jesmyn Ward’s Men We Reaped, this debut memoir confronts both the challenges and joys of growing up Black and making your own truth.

Growing up as a Black girl in America, Deborah Mouton felt alienated from the stories she learned in class. She yearned for stories she felt connected to—true ones of course—but also fables and mythologies that could help explain both the world and her place in it. What she encountered was almost always written by white writers who prospered in a time when human beings were treated as chattel, such as the Greek and Roman myths, which felt as dusty and foreign as ancient ruins. When she sought myths written by Black authors, they were rooted too far in the past, a continent away.

Mouton writes, “The phrases of my mother and grandmother began to seem less colloquial and more tied to stories that had been lost along the way. . . . Mythmaking isn’t a lie. It is our moment to take the privilege of our own creativity to fill in the gaps that colonization has stolen from us. It is us choosing to write the tales that our children pull strength from. It is hijacking history for the ignorance in its closets. This, a truth that must start with the women.”

Mouton’s memoir is a song of praise and an elegy for Black womanhood. With a poet’s gift for lyricism and poignancy, Mouton reflects on her childhood as the daughter of a preacher and a harsh but loving mother, living in the world as a Black woman whose love is all too often coupled with danger, and finally learning to be a mother to another Black girl in America. Of the moment yet timeless, playful but incendiary, Mouton has staked out new territory in the memoir form.

About Deborah DEEP Mouton

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. 

About Delita Martin

Delita Martin is an artist currently based in Huffman, Texas. She received a BFA in drawing from Texas Southern University and an MFA in printmaking from Purdue University. Formerly a member of the fine arts faculty at UA Little Rock in Arkansas, Martin currently works as a full-time artist in her studio, Black Box Press. Martin’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Most recently Martin’s work was included in the State of the Arts: Discovering American Art Now, an exhibition that included 101 artists from around the United States. Her work is in numerous portfolios and collections.