For fans of The Body Keeps Score and How to Do the Work, trauma therapist Simone Saunders bridges the gap where talk therapy falls short—showing you how to move beyond self-awareness and reconnect with the sensations, signals and emotions your body has been shaped by, breaking cycles of emotional disconnection once and for all.

Many of us assume that once we understand why we feel the way we do, things will finally change. Traditional talk therapy often equips us with the language and self-awareness we’ve been missing — yet so many of us find ourselves stuck. We can recognize the trigger, name the pattern, and explain the story, yet still feel unable to create tangible change in our day-to-day lives. So, where’s the disconnect? What’s missing?

Registered social worker and trauma therapist Simone Saunders believes the answer lies in crossing the threshold from the mind into the body—moving from self-awareness into a felt, embodied understanding. In Where Do You Feel That in Your Body, Simone guides you through a gentle and practical approach to noticing what emotions feel like in your body, understanding the protective patterns shaped by identity and past experiences, and recognizing how your nervous system responds to stress and disconnection. You’ll learn how to read your body’s signals with curiosity, and how to build the capacity to stay present with your emotions instead of disconnecting from them.

In recent years, the language of the body—posture, facial expressions, movements, and sensations—has become more widely recognized for the integral role it plays in shaping and maintaining our survival patterns. Where Do You Feel That in Your Body shows you how to build a steady, supportive relationship with your nervous system that grows and shifts over time. You’ll understand how your body and mind communicate, how identity and culture shape your emotional responses, and how to gently shift the patterns that once helped you survive.

Black performance theory is a rich interdisciplinary area of study and critical method. This collection of new essays by some of its pioneering thinkers—many of whom are performers—demonstrates the breadth, depth, innovation, and critical value of black performance theory. Considering how blackness is imagined in and through performance, the contributors address topics including flight as a persistent theme in African American aesthetics, the circulation of minstrel tropes in Liverpool and in Afro-Mexican settlements in Oaxaca, and the reach of hip-hop politics as people around the world embrace the music and dance. They examine the work of contemporary choreographers Ronald K. Brown and Reggie Wilson, the ways that African American playwrights translated the theatricality of lynching to the stage, the ecstatic music of Little Richard, and Michael Jackson's performance in the documentary This Is It. The collection includes several essays that exemplify the performative capacity of writing, as well as discussion of a project that re-creates seminal hip-hop album covers through tableaux vivants. Whether deliberating on the tragic mulatta, the trickster figure Anansi, or the sonic futurism of Nina Simone and Adrienne Kennedy, the essays in this collection signal the vast untapped critical and creative resources of black performance theory.

Contributors. Melissa Blanco Borelli, Daphne A. Brooks, Soyica Diggs Colbert, Thomas F. DeFrantz, Nadine George-Graves, Anita Gonzalez, Rickerby Hinds, Jason King, D. Soyini Madison, Koritha Mitchell, Tavia Nyong'o, Carl Paris, Anna B. Scott, Wendy S. Walters, Hershini Bhana Young

Bestselling authors Christine Pride and Jo Piazza return with a gripping and thought-provoking new novel about a Black woman whose interracial marriage is tested when a journalist investigates a decades-old murder tied to her wealthy husband’s family.

Simone Hartwell has made trade-offs to build a life she loves, including giving up her once promising career as a journalist. But as her husband, Alex, stands to finally take the reins of the family business—a chain of high-end grocery stores his grandfather started—Simone vows to settle contently into her role supporting him and raising their son Langston.

But when her college ex and first love, Kwame, resurfaces in her life, her carefully constructed domestic bliss threatens to crumble under the weight of old feelings and new dramas. Kwame, who built the journalism career Simone once dreamed of, is investigating a decade’s old mystery of a young Black man who disappeared from The Tate School—the same elite prep school that Alex’s family has attended for generations. When he discovers a startling connection to the Hartwells, it sets everyone on a collision course that will unearth long-held secrets, test loyalties, and force a major reckoning between the past and the future.

Thorny, urgent, and nuanced, I Never Knew You at All is a story of love, forgiveness, and redemption that asks provocative questions: Who deserves forgiveness? Can people really change? And ultimately—what does it take to hold a marriage together…or break it apart?

From beloved content creator Taryn Delanie Smith, comes a luminous and comforting vision of the afterlife—told through her beloved character, Denise, Heaven’s sharp-witted and big-hearted receptionist.

For millions of followers, Denise has become a guide to the great beyond: welcoming new arrivals at Heaven’s front desk, answering their most pressing questions, and offering reassurance with humor, grace, and a knowing wink. What is there to do in Heaven? Can our loved ones still sense us? What about our pets? Do we get to choose our eternal outfit? Denise has heard it all—and she’s ready with answers that are as thoughtful as they are disarming.

In Welcome to the Afterlife, Smith expands the world that has captivated those who know her from social media, inviting readers on a richly imagined tour of the “Upstairs.” From horseback riding and bingo nights to flying lessons and long-awaited reunions, Heaven is revealed as a place of joy, restoration, and deep connection. But Denise doesn’t shy away from the harder questions: What happens to unfinished business? How are babies cared for? How do we forgive ourselves—and each other—once we’ve crossed over?

Along the way, we meet unforgettable souls, and with each encounter, Denise gently reminds us that love endures, and that those we’ve lost are never truly far away.

Behind the humor and sparkle lies Smith’s own grounding in philosophy and religion, lending depth and nuance to Denise’s voice. The result is a work that is at once playful and profound—a comforting meditation on grief, grace, and the invisible threads that bind us to one another.

Warm, funny, and unexpectedly wise, Welcome to the Afterlife offers solace to anyone who has loved and lost—and a hopeful reminder that what awaits us may be far less frightening, and far more beautiful, than we imagine.

An illuminating portrait of five Black woman artists and the New York nightclub that helped inspire the civil rights movement.

Before they became household names, Maya Angelou, Lorraine Hansberry, Abbey Lincoln, Miriam Makeba, and Nina Simone needed a place to practice and perform. That place was the Village Gate, a New York City nightclub that became a downtown hotspot for Black art, culture, music, and politics. Freedom’s Gate depicts the deepening political convictions and groundbreaking artistry of women of the Gate as they developed as entertainers, activists, and intellectuals in the spotlight of art and revolution. From Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun to Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam” and Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach’s We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, Soyica Diggs Colbert brings to life the culture and performances that were the soundtrack to Black freedom struggles in the 1950s and early 1960s. With supporting roles from stars and activists such as Harry Belafonte, Stokely Carmichael, and Sidney Poitier, Freedom’s Gate is a vibrant history of a little-known chapter of the civil rights movement that gave voice and soul to the call for liberation.

20 photographs

For fans of the New Camelot series by Sierra Simone and Kennedy Ryan’s All the King’s Men duet, comes The Illusion of Power. A spicy, contemporary romance that follows future First Lady, Selene Taylor, during the integral months of her husband's campaign for the Oval where she finds herself navigating the embarrassment of his infidelity, the dangers of being a Black woman in proximity to political power, and perhaps worst of all, falling for the two men tasked with protecting her.

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From parents and actors Jazmyn Simon and Dulé Hill comes a picture book filled with beautiful, inspiring affirmations reminding kiddos of their infinite wonder. Perfect for children of any age!

I am worthy. I am loved. I am enough.
Every child, no matter their age, needs to know how loved they are and, more importantly, should love themselves. In this gorgeously illustrated book of affirmations, young readers are told how cherished, deserving, and gifted they are.

In their tender picture book, actors Jazmyn Simon and Dulé Hill tell children about the magic of self-love and standing firm, regardless of outside voices and doubt. Children will feel their confidence grow as they repeat the encouraging words on the page, take in the warm illustrations, and learn to believe in themselves!

A sweeping narrative of the unique beauty and trials of Black matriarchy in America that weaves a sharp, tender examination of three single Black mothers—the author's grandmother, mother, and the author herself—with stories of influential Black women in our culture

"Bonét tells the whole history of this country through the relationships of and between Black mothers and daughters."—Imani Perry, National Book Award-winning author of South to America

“Bonét dances on our hearts in this classic creation of will and wit. Electrifying... Wow.”—Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir

Betty Jean, the author’s grandmother, had a house along a bayou in Texas, a home paid for and run without a man by her side. This home served as the center of Bonét’s family’s universe, the one place that was a constant through all of life’s changes.

Mama Connie, one of Betty Jean’s eleven children, vowed that her life would be different. And in many ways it was: she got married, lived in suburbia, and built a life resembling the American dream. But when it came to raising children of her own, she was more like Betty Jean than she cared to admit. But, like her mother before her, Connie’s sweat was the founding salt of her own universe.

Today, Sasha Bonét navigates all aspects of being a mother—escape, promise, burden, assent, and rebellion—not just for the women in her family who came before her, but for Black women with whom society is acquainted, too: figures like Nina Simone, Betty Davis, and Darnella Frazier, who filmed the murder of George Floyd.

Generations of Black women have borne children, borne the burdens of events untold, and borne witness to unspeakable trials. The Waterbearers carries this history, its fierce eloquence capturing a masterpiece of life written by an author who is intimately acquainted with how Black women have passed down knowledge and culture. Sasha Bonét doesn’t just present genealogical lineages but illuminates the cultural and societal connections of strong Black women who have built legacies and changed the world, sometimes in the most mundane of moments. The fierce eloquence of this story confirms Sasha Bonét as a voice we all now need to hear.

Over the past two decades, Simone Leigh has created artwork that situates questions of Black femme-identified subjectivity at the center of contemporary art discourse. Her sculpture, video, installation and social practice explore ideas of race, beauty and community in visual and material culture. Leigh’s art addresses a wide swath of historical periods, geographies and traditions, with specific references to materials across the African diaspora, as well as forms traditionally associated with African art and architecture.This publication includes substantial new scholarship addressing Leigh’s work across mediums and topics. The volume, timed with the artist's first museum survey and national tour, includes contributions by her longtime collaborators, new scholars who add diverse insights and perspectives, and a conversation highlighting Leigh’s voice. Additionally, generous and lushly illustrated plates feature her critically acclaimed work for the 59th Venice Biennale and works made throughout her 20-year career. A special section featuring Leigh's research images gives access to Leigh’s research methodologies and encourages readers to fully engage with all aspects of Leigh’s work. This monograph provides a timely opportunity to gain a holistic understanding of the complex and profoundly moving work of this groundbreaking artist.

Born in Chicago in 1967, Simone Leigh received a BA in fine art with a minor in philosophy from Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, in 1990. In 2022, Leigh represented the United States at the 59th Venice Biennale with her critically acclaimed exhibition Sovereignty. She has had solo presentations at the Kitchen, New York (2012); Creative Time, New York (2014); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2016); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); and the High Line, New York (2019); among other venues. Leigh lives and works in Brooklyn.

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Love, Simon meets Bend It Like Beckham in this feel-good contemporary romance about a trans athlete who must decide between fighting for his right to play and staying stealth.

“A sharply observant and vividly drawn debut. I loved every minute I spent in this story, and I’ve never rooted harder for a jock in my life.” – New York Times bestselling author Becky Albertalli

Fifteen-year-old Spencer Harris is a proud nerd, an awesome big brother, and a David Beckham in training. He's also transgender. After transitioning at his old school leads to a year of isolation and bullying, Spencer gets a fresh start at Oakley, the most liberal private school in Ohio.

At Oakley, Spencer seems to have it all: more accepting classmates, a decent shot at a starting position on the boys' soccer team, great new friends, and maybe even something more than friendship with one of his teammates. The problem is, no one at Oakley knows Spencer is trans—he's passing.

But when a discriminatory law forces Spencer's coach to bench him, Spencer has to make a choice: cheer his team on from the sidelines or publicly fight for his right to play, even though it would mean coming out to everyone—including the guy he's falling for.

Winner of the 2022 Modern Language Association First Book Prize

Winner of the 2022 Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Outstanding Book Award, presented by the Caribbean Philosophical Association

"Hold tight. The way to go mad without losing your mind is sometimes unruly." So begins La Marr Jurelle Bruce's urgent provocation and poignant meditation on madness in black radical art. Bruce theorizes four overlapping meanings of madness: the lived experience of an unruly mind, the psychiatric category of serious mental illness, the emotional state also known as "rage," and any drastic deviation from psychosocial norms. With care and verve, he explores the mad in the literature of Amiri Baraka, Gayl Jones, and Ntozake Shange; in the jazz repertoires of Buddy Bolden, Sun Ra, and Charles Mingus; in the comedic performances of Richard Pryor and Dave Chappelle; and in the protest music of Nina Simone, Lauryn Hill, and Kendrick Lamar, among many others. These artists activate madness as content, form, aesthetic, strategy, philosophy, and energy in an enduring black radical tradition. Joining this tradition, Bruce mobilizes what he calls "mad methodology"—where madness informs and animates ways of reading, ways of thinking, ways of feeling, ways of telling, ways of being, and ways of life. Ultimately, How to Go Mad without Losing Your Mind is both a study and an act of critical, ethical, radical madness.