The award-winning co-anchor of PBS NewsHour presents a sweeping and insightful retrospective on the history of Black comedy in America.

Black comedians have long played a pivotal role in shaping the American sense of humor. The 1990s showcased a golden era for Black comedy, highlighted by the surge of iconic sitcoms that redefined television and left a lasting cultural imprint. Shows like In Living Color, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Living Single, Martin, and A Different World stood on the shoulders of decades of groundbreaking work by Black comedians, both on-screen and on-stage, to deliver nuanced portrayals of life, family, and culture. Yet, just decades earlier, the idea of Black artists dominating American airwaves with characters that were both hilarious and heartfelt would have been unimaginable. How did it come to be?

The journey begins with 19th-century minstrel shows – offensive by today’s standards but the first stage for Black performers to reach mainstream audiences. Over time, comedians challenged racial stereotypes, exploring race and identity through humor. Icons like Jackie “Moms” Mabley, Redd Foxx, Dick Gregory, Flip Wilson, Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg, and Eddie Murphy shifted perceptions and changed how the nation understood itself. In this incisive history, Geoff Bennett tells the story of how they did it.

In Black Out Loud, Bennett chronicles the transformative history of Black comedy in America, drawing on research and interviews with the actors and executives behind some of the most impactful shows. This brilliant exploration traces the evolution of Black comics and provocateurs who reshaped the culture and ultimately became powerful agents of social change -- transforming the way America laughed along the way.

Includes interviews and insights from: Martin Lawrence, Robert Townsend, Debbie Allen, Tisha Campbell, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Quinta Brunson, Arsenio Hall, and many more!

Celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the release of Grace Engine with Joshua Burton!

EVENT DEETS

When: Saturday, March 21st, @ 6PM

Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St, Unit #2, Houston, TX 77004).

How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming. Please note that all tickets are non refundable. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

“Words carry the dead like henchmen,” in Joshua Burton’s extraordinary debut volume, Grace Engine. These spare and powerful poems are like pallbearers, like eulogists, like survivors, like battered souls hoping and dreaming for a future that may never be. Grappling head-on with the history of lynchings, mental illness, and the endurance of black bodies and psyches against impossible odds, Burton writes, “I spent so many years being afraid to be black, that now / I am only afraid of silence, / / or the silence that it brings.”

Burton experiments with spaces, absences, and forms in navigating the tensions between shame and accountability, guilt and forgiveness, to understand how one finds the ability to cope under the worst of conditions. With patience and ferocity, he delves into generational and familial trauma to question whether black strength is inherent to blackness and to build a mechanism to survive and heal.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joshua Burton is a poet and educator from Houston, TX and he received his MFA in poetry at Syracuse University. His chapbook Fracture Anthology is out with Ethel Press, and his debut poetry collection Grace Engine is out with the University of Wisconsin Press. He is a Tin House Scholar, a 2023 Elizabeth George Foundation grant recipient, and a Writers' League of Texas Book Awards Discovery Prize Winner.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Chan Tea is a trans nonbinary Khmai person and multidisciplinary poet and artist whose work has been featured in publications including Glass Mountain, Sybil, Infrarrealista Review, Holy of Holies, and Location/Houston. Alongside the poems, Chan’s head is filled with pool sequences and chess calculations.

“An absolutely delightful romp that you need in your life.” —C. B. Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe

A teen mystic will do anything to solve a series of love-related magical mishaps plaguing her high school, including fake dating her boss's daughter, in this charming sapphic romance.

Magic lingers in the cozy town of Fair Glen, Illinois, and it’s up to the agents at the Bureau of Mystical Affairs to keep it in check. Monroe Bennett, a junior recruit at the Bureau, is ready to ace her first assignment: tracking down the source of a rogue love charm.

Protecting her charmed classmates, including the Bureau Director’s daughter Iris James, is top priority. But when Iris asks Monroe to fake date her to make her ex jealous, things get complicated.

Monroe believes in duty, not romance. Yet the more time she spends with Iris, the harder it is to ignore the very real sparks flying between them. Can Monroe protect herself from love long enough to solve this case, or will her growing feelings get in the way?

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New visions and possibilities for Black masculinity through the lenses of 28 international photographers

In Black Masculinities, clichés of Black identity and masculinity are deconstructed and remade with exhilarating flexibility and imagination through the lenses of 22 Black photographers from around the world. Deeply embedded in histories of slavery, racism and oppression, Black masculinity is often mediated as aggressive, hypersexual and violent. Here, Swiss author, artist and editor Joshua Amissah compiles work that contributes to a wider spectrum of Black masculinities. By doing so, he writes, "[the photographers] are also questioning the narratological function of race and gender in visual culture as a whole … the stereotyped entanglement of ‘Black identity’ and ‘masculinity’ is visually deconstructed, partly reproduced and, more importantly, charged with a new set of values."
Photographers include: Kemka Ajoku, Kwaku Alston, Namafu Amutse, Eric Asamoah, Nuits Balnéaires, Arielle Bobb-Willis, Braylen Dion, Kofi Duah, Yannis Davy Guibinga, Jabari Jacobs, Kelvin Konadu, Jude Lartey, Naomi Mukadi, Maganga Mwagogo, Lakin Ogunbanwo, Ruby Okoro, RogersOuma, Micha Serraf, Ngadi Smart, Isaac West, Jozef Wright, and Ussi’n Yala.

An inspiring and practical catalyst to break out of survival mindset and walk in the fullness of God’s plan for your life—from the New York Times bestselling author of When God Speaks.

With so much happening in the world, we are carrying more than we ever expected—pressure, responsibilities, unanswered questions, and the weight of discerning what matters most in uncertain times. But there is a revelation to be found right where you are.

Pastor, prophet, and bestselling author Joshua Giles weaves together spiritual and behavioral insights to help you move out of survival mode and into the life God is calling you to live. Discover how to

• identify and break free from survival mode’s gravitational pull
• let go of the past and begin dreaming again about your future
• understand the transitions between your night and day seasons—and receive the promises and blessings in both
• recognize spiritual resistance at pivotal moments and respond with wisdom, authority, and faith
• design your environment to better support your calling

This message is a catalyst to awaken you to the gifts and opportunities around you and build the future God has planned.

Your moment is here. It’s time to shift your life.

From the USA Today bestselling author of Before I Let Go comes a powerful, "achingly beautiful" (A.L. Jackson) novel of one woman on the brink of making a decision that will change her life forever. 

Kerris Moreton knows how to make things work. Bounced from foster home to foster home as a kid, she adapted; when opportunity arose, she thrived. Now, about to open her own business and accept a marriage proposal, Kerris is ready to build the life she's always wanted. The only thing missing? A passionate connection with her would-be fiance, Cam. Kerris wants to believe that sparks are overrated-until Walsh Bennett lights her up like the Fourth of July.

As one of the East Coast's most eligible bachelors, Walsh enjoys financial independence, fulfilling work with his family's nonprofit, and plenty of female attention. But lately he's been distracted by the one woman he can't have. Lovely to look at and even sweeter to know, Kerris is the soul mate Walsh never thought he would find. The problem is, his best friend found her first. 

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Lenore Bennett has always been a force. A star artist and style icon at her high school, she’s a master in the subtle art of not giving a . . . well, you know what. But now that graduation is here, she’s a little less sure.

She’s heading to NYU in the fall with a scarlet U (for “undeclared”) written across her chest. Her parents always remind her that Black kids don’t have the luxury of figuring it out as they go—they have to be 110 percent prepared. But it’s a lot of pressure to be her ancestors’ wildest dreams when Lenore’s not even sure what her dreams are yet.

When her family embarks on a post-graduation Mediterranean cruise, her friend Tessa is sure Lenore’s in for a whirlwind romance. But Lenore knows that doesn’t happen in real life. At least not to girls like her.

Then she meets Alex Lee. After their parents bond over the Cupid Shuffle, she ends up stuck with him for the remainder of the cruise. He’s a hopeless romantic and a golden boy with a ten-year plan. In short, he’s irritating as hell.

But as they get to know each other during the picturesque stops across Europe, he may be able to help her find something else she’s been looking for, even if she doesn’t want to admit it to herself: love.

Secrets emerge and romance sparks in this irresistible romance from the USA Today bestselling author Kennedy Ryan.

Kerris Moreton should be the happiest woman in the world: She has a successful business and is about to start the family she's always wanted. But the man of her dreams--the one whose green eyes see straight into her soul and whose gentle hands make her body hum with pleasure--is not hers.

Each secret moment with Walsh Bennett serves to remind Kerris of what she's missing. And every stolen hour makes it harder to see her future without him. But being with Walsh would betray a sacred promise and upend her perfect life. When tragedy strikes, the razor's edge between love and loyalty grows sharper than ever. And Kerris must decide where her heart will fall . . .

Don't miss the beginning of Kerris and Walsh's story in When You Are Mine.

The bookclub meeting will take place on July 27, 2023 at 7 PM in the Kindred Stories Reading Garden. Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read) but you are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

Please support the space and opportunities we create by purchasing your book from our store. 

About the Book

2019, Texas Library Association's Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List
Amazon Book Review's Best Comics & Graphic Novels of 2018
NPR's Best Books of 2018
Newsweek's Best Comic Books of 2018
The Advocate's Best LGBTQ Graphic Novels of 2018
Book Riot's Best Comics of 2018
Autostraddle's 50 of the Best LGBT Books of 2018

When Hazel Johnson and Mari McCray met at church bingo in 1963, it was love at first sight. Forced apart by their families and society, Hazel and Mari both married young men and had families. Decades later, now in their mid-'60s, Hazel and Mari reunite again at a church bingo hall. Realizing their love for each other is still alive, what these grandmothers do next takes absolute strength and courage.

This Jackpot Edition contains over SIXTY PAGES of bonus material, including the talents of MARGUERITE BENNETT (Batwoman) and newcomer BEVERLY JOHNSON, SHAWN PRYOR (Cash and Carrie) and PAULINA GANUCHEAU (Zodiac Starforce), award-winning historical romance author ALYSSA COLE's comics writing debut with SHAE BEAGLE (MOONSTRUCK), GAIL SIMONE (CROSSWIND) and MARGAUX SALTEL (Superfreaks), and AMANDA DEIBERT (Wonder Woman '77) and CAT STAGGS (CROSSWIND), with illustrations from MEGAN HUTCHINSON (ROCKSTARS) and ARIELA KRISTANTINA (InSeXts). Plus a sneak peek of BINGO LOVE, VOL. 2: DEAR DIARY, with an afterword from GABBY RIVERA (America).

Deep in the Soul of Texas: An Anthology of Black Literature from the Lone Star State presents vivid firsthand accounts of resistance, perseverance, and triumph of the Black experience as the first-ever anthology of African American Texan writers. From Giddings poet Gwendolyn B. Bennett (1902–1981) to Beaumont native and intellectual Amilcar Shabazz, this anthology highlights the most prominent literary figures of each decade and features Texas’ leading African American writers of today.

Edited by Cary Clack, the first Black metro columnist at the San Antonio Express-News, this anthology represents an important attempt at uncovering and celebrating the roots of Black writing and writers from and about Texas. This collection of poetry, fiction, essays, drama, speeches, and memoir join to celebrate story, imagination, and language of the last 150 years of Texas history. Within each chapter, the anthology grows one step closer in addressing a longstanding question that looms over the Lone Star State: what does it mean to be Black in Texas?

Each of the five parts in this anthology features a different facet of Black history from escape and heritage to folklore and injustice. Illuminating the varied Black experience in Texas, this anthology fills a major gap in Texas literature. Deep in the Soul of Texas brings light to all Texans as it helps change conversations―not just about what it means to be Black in Texas but expanding conceptions of what being “a Texan” truly means.

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For much of American history, Black people have been conceived and legally defined as nonpersons, a subgenre of the human. In Being Property Once Myself, prize-winning poet Joshua Bennett shows that Blackness has long acted as the caesura between human and nonhuman and delves into the literary imagination and ethical concerns that have emerged from this experience. Each chapter tracks a specific animal―the rat, the cock, the mule, the dog, the shark―in the works of Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Jesmyn Ward, and Robert Hayden. The plantation, the wilderness, the kitchenette overrun with pests, the valuation and sale of animals and enslaved people―all place Black and animal life in fraught proximity.

Bennett suggests that animals are deployed to assert a theory of Black sociality and to combat dominant claims about the limits of personhood. And he turns to the Black radical tradition to challenge the pervasiveness of anti-Blackness in discourses surrounding the environment and animals. Being Property Once Myself is an incisive work of literary criticism and a groundbreaking articulation of undertheorized notions of dehumanization and the Anthropocene.