A poignant picture book about a family's resilience in the midst of the climate crisis as they prepare for an incoming storm.

The weather is always changing where Arianna lives. From baking summers to icy winters, she and her family have learned to cope with whatever the weather throws at them. But one time of year frightens Arianna more than anything else: hurricane season.

Hurricanes don't come to her southern US city every year, so she watches the sky and waits in worry. When a storm looms close by, Arianna and her parents stock up on food and water, refill first-aid kits, and board up windows. And when the hurricane arrives and floods Arianna’s home, her mother softly sings, “Hush, hush, hurricane, don’t you creep. Hush, hush, hurricane, let us sleep.” Arianna spends a long night in her parents’ arms. By morning, the storm has faded, and everyone's all right.

With lyrical text by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton and stunning illustrations by Trudy Tran, Hush, Hush, Hurricane reassures us that it's okay to be afraid when scary things happen, while offering helpful reminders: Be prepared, have a plan, and take care of your family and neighbors. Features backmatter that includes an emergency preparedness list and author's note.

From MacArthur Genius, award-winning expert on justice transformation, James Bell, Sorrow’s Kitchen presents a groundbreaking and unapologetically hopeful vision of what is possible if we center our communities and justice systems around care and wellbeing rather than punishment and control.

Weaving together powerful stories and solutions from his frontline work with justice practitioners, law enforcement officers, and community members throughout the states and around the globe, James Bell has written a book with a simple and powerful idea at its core: A justice system based on punishment makes all of us less safe. But we each have the power to reimagine and recreate justice in our communities in such a way that all of us are seen and cared for. And justice transformation begins with youth justice.

Sorrow’s Kitchen: The End of Punishment and the Beginning of True Safety delves into the deeply entrenched racial inequities within America’s justice system, tracing their roots to slavery, segregation, and systemic oppression. Through personal anecdotes, historical analysis, and a critique of current practices, James Bell exposes how structural racism has shaped the administration of justice, perpetuating cycles of harm and inequality. The metaphor of "Sorrow’s Kitchen," borrowed from Zora Neale Hurston, serves as a poignant symbol of the collective suffering endured by Black communities, while highlighting their resilience and determination to rise above systemic injustices.

A central focus of Sorrow’s Kitchen is the failure of punitive justice systems to ensure public safety or address the root causes of harm. Bell’s critiques of mass incarceration, racialized social control, and the over-policing of marginalized communities, make the argument that these approaches exacerbate inequality rather than resolve it. He advocates for a transformative vision of justice rooted in care, equity, and community-centered solutions. By centering the voices and expertise of those most impacted by systemic injustice, Sorrow’s Kitchen calls for dismantling harmful structures and replacing them with restorative practices that prioritize wellbeing and healing.

Ultimately, Sorrow’s Kitchen is a call to action, urging readers to reckon with America’s history of racial violence and to imagine a more equitable future. It emphasizes the importance of collective action, power-sharing, and authentic inclusion in reimagining justice systems that serve all people with dignity and humanity. Infused with hope and determination, Sorrow’s Kitchen challenges the status quo and inspires a vision of a society where care replaces control, and justice is truly transformative.

For the first time in print! A definitive compilation of Nikki Giovanni’s best and most beloved poems from her extraordinary 60-year career.

Nikki Giovanni’s poems are some of the most quoted, most memorable, and most talked about gems in American literature, with a huge pop culture following that continues even after her death in 2024. But there has never been a single “best of” volume of her work—until now.

The Essential Poems compiles Nikki’s most beloved and thought-provoking work, drawn from her extraordinary 60+ year career. Included here are classics like “Nikki-Rosa,” “Ego Trippin’,” “Housecleaning,” “Cotton Candy for a Rainy Day,” “Bicycles,” and “The Sterling Silver Mirror.” Edited by Dr. Virginia Fowler, Nikki’s widow, it also includes an Introduction and an Afterword by literary superstars Kwame Alexander and Renée Watson.

It is a book to be savored, and shared.

From Caldecott Honoree and #1 New York Times-bestselling creator Christian Robinson comes a beautiful, loving tribute to all kinds of moms, animal and human. This companion to his acclaimed Dad is the perfect gift for Mother’s Day and baby showers!

Mom is fierce.
Mom is warmth.
Mom is with you
even when she’s not.

There are as many ways to be a mom as there are moms in the world. Mom is a loving tribute to all of them, reflecting the range of relationships mothers have with their little ones.

The companion book to the acclaimed Dad, Mom is destined to be a classic, an evergreen gift for new mothers, and one of those rare picture books that can resonate with every reader at any age.

A new reissue of the acclaimed collection of essays blurring cultural criticism, memoir, even nonfiction itself, from the beloved Pulitzer Prize winner.

White Girls is about, among other things, Blackness, queerness, movies, Brooklyn, love (and the loss of love), AIDS, fashion, Basquiat, Capote, philosophy, porn, Eminem, Louise Brooks, and Michael Jackson. Freewheeling and dazzling, tender and true, it is an invaluable guide to the culture of our time, rendered in Hilton Als’s daring and provocative prose.

Use discount code SALE for 30% at checkout

This transformative collection advances new approaches to Black intellectual history by foregrounding the experiences and ideas of people who lacked access to more privileged mechanisms of public discourse and power. While the anthology highlights renowned intellectuals such as W. E. B. Du Bois, it also spotlights thinkers such as enslaved people in the antebellum United States, US Black expatriates in Guyana, and Black internationals in Liberia. The knowledge production of these men, women, and children has typically been situated outside the disciplinary and conceptual boundaries of intellectual history.
 
The volume centers on the themes of slavery and sexuality; abolitionism; Black internationalism; Black protest, politics, and power; and the intersections of the digital humanities and Black intellectual history. The essays draw from diverse methodologies and fields to examine the ideas and actions of Black thinkers from the eighteenth century to the present, offering fresh insights while creating space for even more creative approaches within the field.
 
Timely and incisive, Ideas in Unexpected Places encourages scholars to ask new questions through innovative interpretive lenses—and invites students, scholars, and other practitioners to push the boundaries of Black intellectual history even further.

In a piercing blend of biography, criticism, and memoir, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Salamishah Tillet explores Nina Simone’s life and the impact of her legacy.

In Nina Simone and the World She Made, Salamishah Tillet traces Nina Simone’s transformation from child prodigy to musical icon and fearless civil rights activist. When racism thwarted her dreams of becoming a classical pianist, Simone reinvented herself and created a sound wholly her own—one that would catapult her into stardom and the heart of the Black Power movement.

Decades later, Simone’s music inspired the hip-hop generation and Tillet’s own profound political awakening. From buying her first Nina Simone album to becoming a creative and activist, Tillet’s private encounters with Simone’s work grew into a broader exploration of her legacy. Exploring Simone’s unique impact on the American cultural landscape through the women who shaped her and those whom she shaped, Tillet reveals how art can be a powerful driver of social activism, and the struggles and sacrifices it involves.

With honest, lyrical prose, Tillet’s intimate portrait brings us close to Simone, while showing us how the singer’s voice captured the pain and promise of America and resonates in the fight for equality today. Nina Simone and the World She Made urges us to listen to Simone’s music—not just as a reflection of the past, but as a guide for the future.

We Made the World: Five Centuries of Queens, Warriors, and Other Foremothers traces five centuries of history through twelve extraordinary women of African descent—from queens and warriors to artists and activists—weaving together collective memory, oral tradition, and personal grief into a landmark work that places Black women at the center of world history.

In 1949, a seamstress from a small coastal town in the Gold Coast colony stood up in a room full of men and voted to split from the most powerful political party in the country. Her name was Hannah Kudjoe. She spent the next decade organizing the women who would win Ghana's first democratic election and help make it the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain independence from European colonial rule. When Nkrumah published his autobiography, she wasn't in it.

We Made the World does for twelve women what it does for Hannah Kudjoe. It finds the woman who was in the room, who was essential to the room, and whose name was removed from the record the moment her usefulness to powerful men was exhausted.

We're talking about Queen Njinga of Angola, who fought the Portuguese to a standstill for forty years and died at eighty still a sovereign. Wangarĩ Maathai, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who saved a Nairobi forest by walking upstream through a river at dawn to plant trees while the police watched. Brenda Fassie, the queer Black pop icon who sang South Africa through the end of apartheid and whose music still stops a room on any continent.

The author traveled to eleven countries to write this book. She gathered oral histories from descendants and community keepers across four continents. And she wrote it while experiencing great loss and grief which means this book knows in its bones what it costs to carry someone's memory, and what it costs not to.

We Made the World is five hundred years of history rewritten from the inside. It is the book that asks what we have lost by not knowing these women's names, and begins the important work of giving that back to us all.

Celebrate the release of Black Women In Bloom with Anayo Awuzie!

EVENT DEETS

When: Thursday, November 5 @ 7 PM CST

Where: 2310 Elgin St. Houston, TX 77004

How: 

• RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat.

• PAID RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat.to reserve your seat and support our store programming.
  

• RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your seat and purchase a copy Black Women In Bloom, supporting both the author and our store programming. The book will be available for pickup at the event.

Please Note: Copies of Black Women in Bloom 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 purchase a copy from Kindred Stories. 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

Black Women in Bloom is a limited-edition coffee table book and global storytelling experience celebrating the becoming journeys of Black women across the diaspora.

Featuring over 30 essays by writers from around the world, alongside stunning photography and original illustrations, the book traces Black women’s stories through the many stages of growth.

Curated and edited by Carefree Magazine founder Anayo Awuzie, Black Women in Bloom is both a work of art and an intimate reading experience. Designed to live on your coffee table but meant to be slowly savored, the book captures the quiet, powerful transformations that too often go unseen: taking risks, choosing softness, seeking healing, and blooming into themselves—unapologetically and on their own terms.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anayo is an editor, storyteller, and creative marketer exploring the in-between spaces of Black womanhood—where healing, identity, and everyday life unfold. She is the founder of Carefree Magazine, a slow storytelling platform sharing personal essays from Black women on life, love, and adventure, and the editor of Black Women in Bloom, a coffee table book featuring over 30 essays from Black women across the diaspora on their journeys of becoming. With a background spanning brand, experiential, and creator marketing, her work sits at the intersection of story and strategy—building worlds that feel as intentional as they are honest. She currently lives in Los Angeles, where she is constantly on the hunt for new restaurants and live shows.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Bria Lauren (b. 1993) is a transdisciplinary visual artist, community architect, and Third Ward, Houston native. Her practice bridges portraiture, storytelling, creative writing, and arts activism, centering Black women while building infrastructures of radical care and liberation around their livelihoods and futures.

Bria engages community building as a political and cultural practice of resistance. As a curatorial visionary, she centers ancestral memory, Black mother-daughter relationships, and the dimensions of Black women’s relationships with one another alongside community preservation, working across multimedia installation and community programming to honor the interior lives of Black femmehood without censorship.

In 2022, Bria founded Gold Was Made Fa’ Her (GWMFH), a 501(c)(3) arts and healing movement. It grew from a question she carried after her 2021 solo exhibition Gold Was Made Fa’ Her at Lawndale Art Center, a body of work dedicated to her mother and Black hood women on the Southside of Houston: What do Black women need more than being seen?

From the PEN-nominated author of The Blueprint comes a moving novel about two women connected by music, memory—and murder.

Texas, 1983. Lola Jones is in prison for the death of her mother’s former lover, a man whose presence tangled itself through both their lives. After years of silence, Lola writes a letter to the dead man’s daughter—the “secret sister” from the better part of town in whose shadow Lola has lived most of her life.

As Lola reaches across time and memory, her story unfolds in two mirrored movements: the first, a chronicle of her mother, Camille, a blues singer shaped by love, ambition, and loss; the second, a recounting of Lola’s own coming of age in the echo of Camille’s legacy.

Braided with music, memory, and the weight of being misunderstood, Sweet Water explores inheritance, identity, and the ways women learn to survive what they cannot control. It is a story about Black women connected and separated by their experiences with each other, and with the men in their lives. Written as a letter, structured like a blues song—call and response, verse and refrain—the novel asks what it means to reclaim your voice when someone else’s pain has defined your existence.

Celebrate the beautiful brown and black girls in your life with this magical and empowering ABC board book.

Tell your little one that they are magic with ABCs of Black Girl Magic. Featuring enchanting illustrations showcasing the power, beauty, and magic of black and brown girls alongside positive affirmations, this board book is a wonderful way to show your child they are loved and important.

From read alouds to bonding moments, this beautiful board book is the perfect baby shower gift, birthday present, and gift for your daughter, sister, mother, or any strong woman in your life that needs to know they are magic.

You are…

Amazing

Beautiful

Courageous

…and so much more!

From NAACP Image Award–nominated author Elise Bryant comes a tender, funny novel following a type-A teen whose meticulously coordinated life unravels when she develops a chronic illness.
Jubilee Foster is busy. Between caring for her two younger siblings while her single dad is working, maintaining her perfect GPA, and volunteering at her beloved local community center, she doesn’t have time for trivial things like hobbies or sleep.
And that’s just the way Jubilee likes it. When her to-do list is endless and her color-coded planner is full, it’s easier to ignore the glaring fractures in her life—like her mom’s abandonment, or that her community center is on the brink of closing down for good. Or the reappearance of Neal, her childhood friend turned nemesis, and all of the annoying, distracting feelings he brings.
But then Jubilee starts breaking out in mysterious hives, and her ability to be a perfect student, daughter, sister, and friend begins to fray. As her life buckles under symptoms and side effects, Jubilee will have to tackle the most difficult task on her to-do list yet: accepting help.
Critically acclaimed author Elise Bryant returns with a love letter to eldest daughters, recovering people pleasers, and those managing chronic illnesses in desperate search for the care they deserve.