A 1960s teen pop group determined to conquer the music world must contend with the cost of fame—and a ghost with a grisly past—in this riveting family story from the New York Times bestselling author of The Black Kids.

“My favorite kind of read: epic and immersive, riding the line between darkness and light, with a cast of characters who kept me alternately laughing and stressed through the rhythms of their lives.”—Dawnie Walton, author of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

Odysseus Johnson dreams of musical stardom for his three sons: Roman, the rebel, more interested in being a teenager than a performer; Rocco, arguably the most talented of the bunch but different in a way the world doesn’t understand; and dutiful River, the youngest, who dreams of fame just like his dad.

Driving back from another failed audition in Detroit, the Johnson boys encounter the ghost of Christmas Jones the Third, an effervescent, if lonely, little Black boy who carries the scars of his horrific past as an orphan and minstrel sensation. Desperate for family, Christmas begs the Johnsons to bring him home with them. When Odysseus refuses, Christmas stows away in the family Cadillac.

Despite their initial horror, Christmas becomes a part of the Johnson family. With the promise of opportunities in California, Odysseus moves the family out west, and the boys’ talent starts getting noticed. But just as the brothers are finally on the cusp of fame, Christmas commits a violent act that wreaks havoc on the Johnsons’ lives, and the family is torn asunder in the aftermath. Roman flees the country. Rocco is institutionalized. River’s solo star rises. Christmas disappears.

Spanning decades, roving from the rapacious music industry and the ravages of Vietnam to the dark corridors of a mental institution and the very planes of the afterlife, The Johnson Four is epic in scope. And at its beating heart is the unforgettable story of a family trying to find their way back to one another.

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In two of the most renowned and historic venues in Harlem, Alexander Smalls and JJ Johnson created a unique take on the Afro-Asian-American flavor profile. Their foundation was a collective three decades of traveling the African diaspora, meeting and eating with chefs of color, and researching the wide reach of a truly global cuisine; their inspiration was how African, Asian, and African-American influences criss-crossed cuisines all around the world. They present here for the first time over 100 recipes that go beyond just one place, taking you, as noted by The New Yorker, “somewhere between Harlem and heaven.”

This book branches far beyond "soul food" to explore the melding of Asian, African, and American flavors. The Afro Asian flavor profile is a window into the intersection of the Asian diaspora and the African diaspora. An homage to this cultural culinary path and the grievances and triumphs along the way, Between Harlem and Heaven isn’t fusion, but a glimpse into a cuisine that made its way into the thick of Harlem's cultural renaissance.

I Will Keep You in Good Company brings together pages and fragments from over twenty of Ghanaian-Russian artist Liz Johnson Artur’s personal workbooks – handmade volumes she has kept since the early 1990s. Part diary, part experimental playground, these books are where she shaped her photographic language through layering, cutting, annotating, and assembling: a space for processing not only images, but life itself. Each page is a tactile surface, combining photographic prints on canvas, tracing paper, faxes, and photo stock with screen-prints, handwriting, and clipped texts. The result is a sensorial, intimate archive of moments lived and witnessed – of friends, family, strangers, lovers – held with care and attention. ‘I like to be right next to it, in the middle of it, to take it home’, Johnson Artur writes. ‘To keep them close is a way of giving importance and appreciation.’ These workbooks are acts of presence – visual thinking made physical – and the foundation for her celebrated Black Balloon Archive, a project that honours communities across the African diaspora. I Will Keep You in Good Company is a candid, generous record of a photographer learning not only how to look, but how to stay close.

From the New York Times–bestselling author of All Boys Aren’t Blue comes an empowering set of essays about Black and Queer icons from the Harlem Renaissance.

In Flamboyants, George M. Johnson celebrates writers, performers, and activists from 1920s Black America whose sexualities have been obscured throughout history. Through 14 essays, Johnson reveals how American culture has been shaped by icons who are both Black and Queer – and whose stories deserve to be celebrated in their entirety.

Interspersed with personal narrative, powerful poetry, and illustrations by award-winning illustrator Charly Palmer, Flamboyants looks to the past for understanding as to how Black and Queer culture has defined the present and will continue to impact the future. With candid prose and an unflinching lens towards truth and hope, George M. Johnson brings young adult readers an inspiring collection of biographies that will encourage teens today to be unabashed in their layered identities.

You can sparkle, shimmer, shine – just like Marsha did.

This vibrant and joyful picture book celebrates the legacy of Marsha P. Johnson, a Black trans woman and activist who played an instrumental role during the Stonewall Riots that lead to PRIDE month, written by award-winning filmmaker and artist Tourmaline.

You wouldn’t even believe the things Saint Marsha used to get up to—she had more of a zest for life than anyone I’ve ever known, and the biggest heart, too.

It’s a hot summer day and New York City is buzzing like a hive of eager honeybees. From Riis Beach to the Flower District, into the West Village and over to the Brooklyn Museum, folks young and old embrace the resolute and love-filled spirit of icon activist Marsha P. Johnson in all that they do.

Told through the eyes of an old friend and with bright, buoyant artwork, this jubilant story celebrates the indelible stamp that Marsha P. Johnson left on New York City and beyond, culminating in a powerful convergence one day in June 2020, when activists from across all five boroughs rallied loudly for Black trans lives.

The spirit of Marsha has never been more alive and present in what we do.

This book provides a narrative historical, postcolonial account of African American religions. It examines the intersection of Black religion and colonialism over several centuries to explain the relationship between empire and democratic freedom. Rather than treating freedom and its others (colonialism, slavery, and racism) as opposites, Sylvester A. Johnson interprets multiple periods of Black religious history to discern how Atlantic empires (particularly that of the United States) simultaneously enabled the emergence of particular forms of religious experience and freedom movements as well as disturbing patterns of violent domination. Johnson explains theories of matter and spirit that shaped early indigenous religious movements in Africa, Black political religion responding to the American racial state, the creation of Liberia, and FBI repression of Black religious movements in the twentieth century. By combining historical methods with theoretical analysis, Johnson explains the seeming contradictions that have shaped Black religions in the modern era.

The creator of the viral TikTok series “Who TF Did I Marry?” shares an even more unfiltered account of how she reclaimed herself, fought through toxic relationships, and regained her foundation through healing and deep self-reflection.

When Tareasa “Reesa Teesa” Johnson decided to disclose the full details of her turbulent marriage in a 50-part TikTok series, from first meeting to the finality of divorce, she hoped it would help at least one person from making similar mistakes. In a flash "Who TF Did I Marry?" went global, becoming a movement. Millions around the world were enraptured and identified with Tareasa's story, ultimately sharing their own experiences of heartbreak and deceit.

While “Who TF Did I Marry?” questioned the relationship, What (TF) Do I Do Now? probes deeper, asking “Where did I lose myself?” Through reflection, acceptance, and humor, Tareasa unravels even more details of what caused her to stay in a partnership where familiarity became too comfortable, and loneliness was a scarier proposition than owning her solitude. Tareasa’s indelible voice and keen perspective shares new, engrossing stories and practical insights as she regains her footing and her faith in herself, offering readers the chance to do the same.

Probing, personal, and incredibly relatable, What (TF) Do I Do Now? isn’t a self-help guide, but an empowering conversation with the reader, illuminating the courage it takes to trust yourself because healing is on the other side of pain.

A nuanced profile, in image and text, of the great Black Power leader at the exhilarating moment of the movement’s ascendancy

Gordon Parks’ 1967 Life magazine essay “Whip of Black Power” is a nuanced profile of the young, controversial civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael. As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Carmichael gained national attention and inspired media backlash when he issued the call for Black Power in Greenwood, Mississippi, in June 1966. Parks shadowed him from the fall of 1966 to the spring of 1967, as Carmichael gave speeches, headed meetings and promoted the growing Black Power movement. Parks’ photos and writing addressed Carmichael’s intelligence and humor, presenting the whole man behind the headline-making speeches and revealing his own advocacy of Black Power and its message of self-determination and love.
Stokely Carmichael and Black Power delves into Parks’ groundbreaking presentation of Carmichael, with analysis of his images and accompanying text about the charismatic leader. Lisa Volpe explores Parks’ complex understanding of the movement and its leader, and Cedric Johnson frames Black Power within the heightened political moment of the late 1960s. Carmichael’s own voice is represented through a reprint of his important 1966 essay “What We Want.”
Gordon Parks (1912–2006) was a photographer, filmmaker, musician and author whose 50-year career focused on American culture, social justice, the civil rights movement and the Black American experience. Born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas, Parks was awarded the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in 1942, which led to a position with the Farm Security Administration. In 1969 he became the first Black American to write and direct a major feature film, The Learning Tree, and his next directorial endeavor, Shaft (1971), helped define a film genre.

In this ambitious work, first published in 1983, Cedric Robinson demonstrates that efforts to understand Black people's history of resistance solely through the prism of Marxist theory are incomplete and inaccurate. Marxist analyses tend to presuppose European models of history and experience that downplay the significance of Black people and Black communities as agents of change and resistance. Black radicalism, Robinson argues, must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on Western continents, and any analyses of African American history need to acknowledge this.

To illustrate his argument, Robinson traces the emergence of Marxist ideology in Europe, the resistance by Blacks in historically oppressive environments, and the influence of both of these traditions on such important twentieth-century Black radical thinkers as W. E. B. Du Bois, C. L. R. James, and Richard Wright. This revised and updated third edition includes a new preface by Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, and a new foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley.

The most comprehensive publication to date on widely celebrated artist Rashid Johnson

‘Johnson is a leading voice of his generation.’ – New York Times

The most comprehensive publication to date on widely celebrated artist Rashid Johnson

Working with a variety of media that includes painting, sculpture, photography, video, and performance, Rashid Johnson has created a nuanced and iconographic body of work that connects literature, music, and art. Personal references and pervasive cultural narratives are interweaved with the legacy of modernist abstraction, producing what critics have labelled ‘conceptual post-black art’. A precocious talent (his work was included in the seminal ‘Freestyle’ exhibition in New York in 2001), Johnson received the High Museum of Art’s David C. Driskell Prize, which honours contributions in the field of African-American art.