Critical conversations and reflections about lessons learned at the intersection of social movements and artist production.

Diversity of Aesthetics collects powerful and timely conversations among leading cultural critics, artists, and organizers to connect the threads between some of the most pressing social struggles and conflicts of our time: policing, war, borders and migration, economic crisis.

Across three themes—infrastructure, migration, and riots—militant thinkers, artists, educators, and others discuss aesthetic production, forms of social organization, modes of struggle against gendered and racialized capitalism, and revolutionary theory. Common to all three conversations is a commitment to rethinking the relationship between forms of critique and forms of struggle undertaken by collective social practices, offering lessons for tactics, strategies, and practices.

*Paperback Release Date -02/02/27*

A dedicated journalist unearths a generations-old family secret—and a connection to a string of missing girls that hits way too close to home—in this gripping debut novel.

In the wake of her grandmother's passing, Sydney Singleton finds a hidden photograph of a little girl who looks more like Sydney than her own sister or mother. She soon discovers the mystery girl in the photograph is her aunt, Carol, who was one of six North Carolina Black girls to go missing in the 1960s. For the last several decades, not a soul has talked about Carol or what really happened to her. But now, with her grandmother gone and Sydney looking to start a family of her own, she is determined to unravel the truth behind her long-lost aunt’s disappearance, and the sinister silence that surrounds her.

Unfortunately, this is familiar territory for Sydney: Years earlier, while she worked the crime beat as a journalist, her obsession with the case of another missing girl led to a psychotic break. And now, in the suffocating grip of fertility treatments and a marriage that's beginning to crumble, Sydney’s relentless pursuit for answers might just lead her down the same path of self-destruction. As she delves deeper into Carol's fate, her own troubled past reemerges, clawing its way to the surface with a vengeance. The web of secrets and lies entangling her family leaves Sydney questioning everything—her fixation on the missing girls, her future as a mom, and her trust in those she knows and loves.

Delving into family, community, secrets, and motherhood, We Don’t Talk About Carol is a gripping and deeply emotional story about overcoming the rot at the roots of our family trees—and what we’ll do for those we love.

Celebrate the release of In The House with Alton LaDay!

EVENT DEETS

When: Monday, October 5 @ 6:30 PM CST 

Where: VIRTUAL VIA ZOOM 

How: 

• RSVP ONLY to reserve your spot and receive the Zoom link.

  RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your spot and purchase a copy of In the House, supporting both the author and our store programming. The book will be available for pickup or shipped on the day of the event. You’ll also receive the Zoom link.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A vibrant and inspiring celebration of America’s leading Black interior designers

In the House is a groundbreaking showcase of the talent, vision, determination, and impact of today’s leading Black interior designers. With gorgeous photography, compelling profiles, and vivid narratives spotlighting signature projects, this book offers an intimate look into the work and inspiration of 33 trailblazing designers, including Brigette Romanek, Tiffany Brooks, Elliott Barnes, Ishka Designs, Forbes Masters, Beth Diana Smith, Keita Turner, Laura Hodges, Justina Blakeney, Leyden Lewis, Rayman Boozer, and many more.

Featuring designers working in an extensive variety of styles and aesthetics, In the House spotlights the breadth and collective brilliance of Black interior designers in one volume. These creatives are redefining style, forging new paths within the industry, and setting new standards in residential spaces across the country and around the world.

Author Alton LaDay’s introduction draws on his extensive interviews to explore the Black experience in interior design, honoring pioneers such as Cecil Hayes (the first Black designer to be featured in Architectural Digest, in 1997, and included on the AD 100 list, in 2000) and examining how far the field has come - and where it’s headed.

Perfect for design enthusiasts and professionals alike, In the House is more than a visual feast; it’s a powerful testament to the creative impact of today’s Black interior designers, and a source of inspiration for the next generation of talent.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A vibrant and inspiring celebration of America’s leading Black interior designers

In the House is a groundbreaking showcase of the talent, vision, determination, and impact of today’s leading Black interior designers. With gorgeous photography, compelling profiles, and vivid narratives spotlighting signature projects, this book offers an intimate look into the work and inspiration of 33 trailblazing designers, including Brigette Romanek, Tiffany Brooks, Elliott Barnes, Ishka Designs, Forbes Masters, Beth Diana Smith, Keita Turner, Laura Hodges, Justina Blakeney, Leyden Lewis, Rayman Boozer, and many more.

Featuring designers working in an extensive variety of styles and aesthetics, In the House spotlights the breadth and collective brilliance of Black interior designers in one volume. These creatives are redefining style, forging new paths within the industry, and setting new standards in residential spaces across the country and around the world.

Author Alton LaDay’s introduction draws on his extensive interviews to explore the Black experience in interior design, honoring pioneers such as Cecil Hayes (the first Black designer to be featured in Architectural Digest, in 1997, and included on the AD 100 list, in 2000) and examining how far the field has come - and where it’s headed.

Perfect for design enthusiasts and professionals alike, In the House is more than a visual feast; it’s a powerful testament to the creative impact of today’s Black interior designers, and a source of inspiration for the next generation of talent.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Joy Sewing is an award-winning news columnist for the Houston Chronicle, reporting and opining on issues, including social justice, politics, education, health care and inequity. She can be reached at  joy.sewing@houstonchronicle.com.

Celebrate the release of Bringing Wreck with Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley!

EVENT DEETS

When: Sunday, October 18 @ 6 PM CST

Where: 2310 Elgin St, Houston, TX 77004

How: 

• RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat.
• RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your seat and purchase a copy of Bringing Wreck, supporting both the author and our store programming. The book will be available for pickup at the event.

Please Note: Books purchased from other retailers are not permitted in the bookstore and are not eligible for the signing or photo line. To participate in the signing and photo opportunity, you must either purchase a copy from Kindred Stories or select the RSVP: I Already Have the Book ticket option, which allows you to bring a copy purchased elsewhere. If you already purchased your book from Kindred Stories, you may select the RSVP Only ticket option and bring your Kindred Stories copy to the event.

If you purchase a ticket and are unable to attend the event, your ticket is non-refundable. If your ticket includes a book, an email will be sent to all attendees before and after the event with instructions on how to receive your book. Books must be claimed within 14 days following the event. If your book is not retrieved it will be returned to the publisher and will not be available for pick up in the future.

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley is Professor and Chair of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her books include The Color Pynk: Black Femme Art for Survival (2022), Beyoncé in Formation: Remixing Black Feminism (2018), Ezili’s Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders (2018), and Thiefing Sugar: Eroticism Between Women in Caribbean Literature (2010).

*ships in 7 - 10 business days*

In Just Us, Claudia Rankine invites us into a necessary conversation about Whiteness in America. What would it take for us to breach the silence, guilt, and violence that arise from addressing Whiteness for what it is? What are the consequences if we keep avoiding this conversation? What might it look like if we step into it? “I learned early that being right pales next to staying in the room,” she writes.


This brilliant assembly of essays, poems, documents, and images disrupts the false comfort of our culture’s liminal and private spaces―the airport, the theater, the dinner party, the voting booth―where neutrality and politeness deflect true engagement in our shared problems. Rankine makes unprecedented art out of the actual voices and rebuttals of others: White men responding to, and with, their White male privilege; a friend clarifying her unexpected behavior at a play; and women on the street expressing the political currency of dyeing their hair blond, all running alongside fact-checked notes and commentary that complement Rankine’s own text, complicating notions of authority and who gets the last word. Funny, vulnerable, and prescient, Just Us is Rankine’s most intimate and urgent book, a crucial call to challenge our vexed reality.

The Sovereign brings princess Luca and soldier Touraine together one last time in the thrilling conclusion to C. L. Clark's beloved queer political fantasy trilogy. 

Luca is the new queen of Balladaire. Her empire is already splintering in her hands. Her uncle wasn’t the only traitor in the court, and the Withering plague will decimate her people if she can’t unearth Balladaire’s magic. The only person who can help her wants the only thing Luca won’t give—the end of the monarchy. 

Touraine is Luca’s general. She has everything she ever wanted. While Luca looks within Balladaire’s borders, Touraine looks outward—the alliance with Qazal is brittle and Balladaire’s neighbors are ready to pounce on its new weakness. When the army comes, led by none other than Touraine’s old lover, Touraine must face the truth about herself—and the empire she once called home. 

A storm is coming. Touraine and Luca will stand against it together, or it will tear them apart once and for all.

Magic of the Lost
The Unbroken
The Faithless
The Sovereign

Long before racial integration became the law of the land, Broadway showed Americans what it could look and sound like.

Shaped by Black musical traditions, European theatrical forms, and immigrant cultures, the Broadway musical emerged in the twentieth century as a visceral embodiment of the American melting pot. In Broadway in Black and White, conductor and historian John Mauceri―together with linguist and cultural commentator John H. McWhorter―presents a dazzling history of collaboration between Black and white artists in the American musical theater.

Moving from ragtime and operetta through Show Boat and Shuffle Along to The Lion King, Ragtime, and Hamilton, Mauceri reveals how Broadway’s social and political influence extends far beyond artistic achievements and commercial successes. Incisive, deeply personal interludes by McWhorter offer a parallel perspective on the American musical as a testament to cultural exchange.

Mauceri and McWhorter illustrate that the Broadway musical both reflected and accelerated the nation’s continued strides toward racial equality. Politically active works confronted prejudice and invited audiences to imagine a more just society. Equally potent was the visible fact of Black and white artists writing, creating, and performing together, when segregation still shaped much of American life.

Together, Mauceri and McWhorter celebrate the American musical as an art form belonging to all of us. Though this history contains prejudice, exclusion, compromise, and contradiction, it is also a history of extraordinary progress. Broadway in Black and White lovingly presents Broadway as a metaphor for America in all its complexity―fragmented and imperfect, yet eminently capable of becoming greater than the sum of its parts.

30 photos

*ships in 7-10 business days

As a little boy grows into a bigger boy, ready to take on the world, he first must have that very difficult conversation far too familiar to so many Black and Brown Americans in this gentle and ultimately hopeful picture book.

Jay’s most favorite things are hanging out with his pals, getting kisses from Grandma, riding in his dad’s cool car, and getting measured by his mom with pencil marks on the wall. But as those height marks inch upward, Grandpa warns Jay about being in too big a group with his friends, Grandma worries others won’t see him as quite so cute now that he’s older, and Dad has to tell Jay how to act if the police ever pull them over.

And Jay just wants to be a kid.

All Black and Brown kids get The Talk—the talk that could mean the difference between life and death in a racist world. Told in an age-appropriate fashion, with a perfect pause for parents to insert their own discussions with their children to accompany prompting illustrations, The Talk is a gently honest and sensitive starting point for this far-too-necessary conversation, for Black children, Brown children, and for ALL children. Because you can’t make change without knowing what needs changing.

Celebrate the power of sisterhood with Dr. Joy Braden Bradford & Wale Okerayi!

TICKETS SOLD ON EVENTBRITE

EVENT DEETS

When: Wednesday, July 19 at 7PM CST

Where: ELDORADO BALLROOM at Project Row Houses

How: Get Your Ticket on Eventbrite. 

ABOUT BOOK

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.

A path-breaking work of biography of two American giants, Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson, whose lives would forever be altered by the Cold War, and would explosively intersect before its most notorious weapon, the House Un-American Activities Committee — from one of the best sports and culture writers working today. 

Kings and Pawns is the untold story of sports and fame, Black America and the promise of integration through the Cold War lens of two transformative events. The first occurred July 18, 1949 in Washington, D.C., when a reluctant Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball star who integrated the game and at the time was the most famous Black man in America, appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee to discredit Paul Robeson, the legendary athlete, baritone, and actor — himself once the most famous Black man in America. The testimony would be a defining moment in Robinson’s life and contribute heavily to the destruction of Robeson’s iconic reputation in the eyes of America.

The second occurred June 12, 1956, in the midst of the last, demagogic roar of McCarthyism, when a battered, defiant Robeson – prohibited from leaving the United States – faced off in a final showdown with HUAC in the same setting Robinson appeared in seven years earlier. These two moments would epitomize the ongoing Black American conflict between patriotism and protest. On the cusp of a nascent civil rights movement, Robinson and Robeson would represent two poles of a people pitted against itself by forces that demanded loyalty without equality in return – one man testifying in conflicted service to and the other in ferocious critique of a country that would ultimately and decisively wound both.

In a time of great division, with America in the midst of a new era of retrenchment and Black athletes again chilled into silence advocating for civil rights, the story of these two titans reverberates today within and beyond Black America. From the revival of government overreach to curb civil liberties to the Cold War-era rhetoric of “the enemy within” levied against fellow citizens, Kings and Pawns is a story of a moment that remains hauntingly present.

*ships in 7-10 business days*

A conversation between 2 eminent Black thinkers on how to work together to make the world a better place despite deep religious differences

Brad Braxton and Anthony Pinn represent two traditions—Christianity and Secular Humanism respectively—that have for centuries existed in bitter opposition. For too long, people with different worldviews have disparaged and harmed one another. Instead of fighting each other, Braxton and Pinn talk with, listen to, and learn from one another. Their wide-ranging conversation demonstrates the possibility of fruitful exchange that accounts for—rather than masks—their differences.

Written amid the Covid-19 pandemic, threats to our democracy, and national protests for racial justice, A Master Class on Being Human shows us that constructive dialogue can help us pursue the common good without sacrificing our distinctive identities. In conversations that are frank, personal, and deeply informed by scholarship, Braxton and Pinn discuss topics that are urgent and immediate, such as the ongoing violence against Black communities, the rise of religiously unaffiliated communities, the Black Lives Matter movement. They also ponder those broader philosophical and theological questions that inform our politics and sense of what it means to be human: the meaning of religion, the stubborn dilemma of moral evil, the power and problems of hope.

Braxton and Pinn invite us to join them in a master class as they strive to create a world where differences are not tolerated but instead celebrated. In that kind of courageous classroom, all can learn how to be better people who in turn transform the world into a better place.