367 results for “tanvier peart”

Not finding what you're looking for? Check out our shop on bookshop.org to order and still support us ♥

  • IRL Author Talk: Dark Days with Roger Reeves: Fugitive Essays - August 4 at 7PM CST
    from $0.00

    Come celebrate the new essay collection, Dark Days: Fugitive Essays with National Book Award winner, Roger Reeves! 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Friday, August 4 at 7 PM CST

    Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden

    How:  RSVP ONLY to save your seat or RSVP with ticket to support the author or programming.

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    A crucial book that calls for community, solidarity, and joy, even in—especially in—these dark days

    In his debut work of nonfiction, award-winning poet Roger Reeves finds new meaning in silence, protest, fugitivity, freedom, and ecstasy. Braiding memoir, theory, and criticism, Reeves juxtaposes the images of an opera singer breaking the state-mandated silence curfew by singing out into the streets of Santiago, Chile, and a father teaching his daughter to laugh out loud at the planes dropping bombs on them in Aleppo, Syria. He describes the history of the hush harbor—places where enslaved people could steal away to find silence and court ecstasy, to the side of their impossible conditions. In other essays, Reeves highlights a chapter in Toni Morrison’s Beloved to locate common purpose between Black and Indigenous peoples; he visits the realities of enslaved people on McLeod Plantation, where some of the descendants of those formerly enslaved lived into the 1990s; and he explores his own family history, his learning to read closely through the Pentecostal church tradition, and his passing on of reading as a pleasure, freedom, and solace to his daughter, who is frightened the police will gun them down.

    Together, these groundbreaking essays build a profound vision for how to see and experience the world in our present moment, and how to strive toward an alternative existence in intentional community underground. “The peace we fight and search for,” Reeves writes, “begins and ends with being still.”

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    ROGER REEVES is the author of the poetry collections King Me and Best Barbarian. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a 2015 Whiting Award, and Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard University. His essays and poems have appeared in Poetry, the New Yorker, Granta, the Yale Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Austin, Texas.

    ABOUT THE MODERATOR

    Stevens is a Writer, Organizer, and Archivist. As part of the Kindred Stories family he is the Operations & Community Facilitator, and part-time Adjunct Professor. Stevens' current work and concentration is centered around his social-political analysis and its intersections with the arts, community, and revolutionary politics.
  • AUTHOR TALK: The Drakon King with Terry J. Benton-Walker - November 18 @ 7 PM
    from $5.00

    Celebrate the release of The Drakon King with Terry J. Benton-Walker!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Wednesday, November 18 @ 7PM CST

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

    How:

    • RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat
    • RSVP WITH BOOK to reserv your seat, grab your copy of The Drakon King, and support the author and our store programming.

    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. 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

    The forbidden royal romance of Red, White & Royal Blue meets the dragon-riding adventure of Fourth Wing, in The Drakon King by Terry J. Benton-Walker.
    Two princes, born to rival kingdoms.

    Heir to a kingdom built on lies, Prince Reverie has one goal: avoid the crown. So when Reverie sees an opportunity to escape a life of pain and cruelty, he takes it and runs.

    Heir to a kingdom banished into the sky, Prince Xandreth has one goal: find out why his people are going missing, abandoning his kingdom to find the truth, no matter the cost.

    A meeting that was never meant to be.

    On the run, pursued by both kingdoms and wild creatures, the princes meet. Xandreth can't trust a party boy to help find the answers he seeks and Reverie has been taught to hate and fear Xandreth’s people since he was born, but the only way forward is for Reverie to break his vow to never return home. And for both of them to trust the other with their lives.

    A love that could change the world.

    But as truths come to light, a myth as old as the world comes to light, as well. A bird on fire and a world turning to ash.

    Reverie and Xandreth are suddenly at the heart of a crisis—and a love—neither can afford to ignore.

    Together they must claim the power they left behind and change their world.

    Or watch it burn.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Terry J. Benton-Walker is the best-selling and award-winning author of fantasy and horror, most notably the Blood Debts and Alex Wise series and The White Guy Dies First horror anthology. The Drakon King is Terry’s first romantic fantasy for the adult market.

    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

    N.E. Davenport is the author of Our Vicious Oaths, the Blood Gift duology, and the YA novels Out of Body and Love Spells Trouble (as Nia Davenport). When she isn’t writing, she enjoys vacationing with her family, skiing, and being a huge foodie.

  • IRL Author Talk: Abeni's Song with Phenderson Djèlí Clark - October 2 @ 7:30 PM CST
    from $0.00

    Join us for an evening with Phenderson Djèlí Clark!

    EVENT DEETS

    When:  Monday, October 2 @ 7:30 PM CST

    Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: RSVP here for your free ticket or RSVP with book to reserve your book and support our programming

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    Like a West African and African Diaspora-inspired Spirited Away, Abeni's Song follows a reluctant apprentice witch out of her village and into a world of spirits on a quest to save her friends. This is P. Djèlí Clark's kids' debut.

    On the day of the spirits festival, the old woman who lives in the forest appears in Abeni's village with a terrible message:

    You ignored my warnings. It’s too late to run. They are coming.

    The old woman hasn't come to save them, only to collect one child as payment for her years of service and protection. When warriors with burning blades storm the village and a man with a cursed flute plays an impossibly alluring song, everyone Abeni has ever known and loved is captured and marched toward far-off ghost ships set for even more distant lands.

    But not Abeni. Abeni escapes the warriors in the clutches of the old woman, magically whisked into the forest away from all she’s ever known. And there she begins her unwanted magical apprenticeship, her journey to escape the witch, and her impossible mission to bring her people home.

    Abeni’s Song is the beginning of a timeless, enchanting fantasy adventure about a reluctant apprentice, a team of spirit kids, and the town they set out to save from the evil Witch Priest who enslaved Abeni’s people.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Born in New York and raised mostly in Houston, P. DJÈLÍ CLARK spent the formative years of his life in the homeland of his parents, Trinidad and Tobago. He is the author of the novel A Master of Djinn, the novellas Ring Shout, The Black God’s Drums, and The Haunting of Tram Car 015, and a contributor to the #1 New York Times bestseller Black Boy Joy. He has won the Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards and been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Sturgeon Awards. His stories have appeared in online venues such as Tor.com, Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Apex, Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and in print anthologies, including Griots, Hidden Youth, and Clockwork Cairo. He is also a founding member of FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction and an infrequent reviewer at Strange Horizons.

    ABOUT THE INTERLOCUTOR

    Stevens is a writer, organizer, and archivist. As part of the Kindred Stories family he is the Operations & Community Facilitator, and part-time Adjunct Professor. Stevens' current work and concentration is centered around his social-political analysis and its intersections with the arts, community, and revolutionary politics.

  • IRL Author Talk: Where is Africa with Anita N. Bateman - March 12 @ 6:30 PM
    from $0.00

    Celebrate the release of Where is Africa with author and curator, Anita N. Bateman!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Tuesday, March 12, 2024 @ 6:30 PM 

    Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, Houston, TX, 77004)

    How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP with Book to support the author and our programming. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    A multidisciplinary illustrated reader unpacking imperialist representations of Africa by promoting dialogue, memory and everyday practice, and reimagining cultural institutions and the arts—from museums to academia, from architecture to art

    In 2017, curator and art historian Anita N. Bateman and architect and professor Emanuel Admassu initiated research on the traditional positioning and mispositioning of the arts across the African continent. Where Is Africa has been an extended set of exchanges with contemporary artists, curators, designers and academics who are actively engaged in representing the continent—both within and outside its geographic boundaries. By examining artist collectives, new currents in art history and the rise of contemporary art festivals in and about Africa from the past 10 years, the project unpacks the imperialist foundations of cultural institutions and their anthropological fascination with African objects, people and places.
    The interviews in Where Is Africa examine African and African-diasporic identities and spaces through questions of positionality in relation to specific disciplinary, cultural and political contexts. The texts address Afro-diasporic aesthetic practices and the curatorial, museological and artistic matrices that confront epistemologies of dominance and exclusion. The commissioned essays and images offer concise methodologies that expand or complicate issues addressed by the interviewees.
    Where Is Africa is a conceptual project that accompanies a conceptual place, driven by the desire to dislodge Africa from categorical fixity and the representational logics of nation-states. Africa can never be fully enclosed by the residue of colonial violence or the totalitarian gaze of neoliberalism; instead, it creates infinite malleability, where place and concept are untethered from each other.


    Contributors include: Mikael Awake, Salome Asega, Tau Tavengwa, Anthony Bogues, Jay Simple, Eric Gottesman, Rebecca Corey, Aida Mulkozi, Rakeb Sile, Mesai Haileleul, Mpho Matsipa, Niama Safia Sandy, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Rehema Chachage, Robel Temesgen, Valerie Amani, Meskerem Assegued, Elias Sime, Olalekan Jeyifous, Amanda Williams, Germane Barnes and Mario Gooden.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Dr. Anita N. Bateman (she/her) specializes in modern and contemporary African art and the art of the African diaspora with additional expertise in the history of photography, Black Feminism/Womanism, and the role of social media in activism and liberation work. Bateman earned a doctorate in art history and visual culture and graduate certificate in African and African American Studies from Duke University, a master’s in art history from Duke University, and completed her undergraduate degree in art history, graduating cum laude from Williams College. She has held curatorial positions at the RISD Museum, the Williams College Museum of Art, and the Nasher Museum of Art. Her academic research has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council. Bateman was the Fall 2022 ARCAthens Curatorial Fellow and a 2022 Graham Foundation grantee for the forthcoming publication, Where Is Africa (Center for Art, Research, and Alliances), co-edited with Emanuel Admassu. She is currently the Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
    Ashley Hoskins is an inspiration to those who strive for cultural enrichment and knowledge expansion. As a lifelong reader and educator, Ashley finds the most joy in witnessing someone connect with a book. She believes that reading creates an imaginative space for travel and spirituality. She recalls always being a personal librarian for her friends and family members. They would often contact her to borrow books and ask for suggestions. Ashley founded the Houston chapter in 2019 with the blessings of OlaRonke Akinmowo of The Free Black Women’s Library. The Free Black Women’s Library HTX serves as a creative space that amplifies the literary and artistic expression of the Black woman. As the creative director of The Free Black Women’s Library HTX, Ashley curates community events centered around Black women writers and artists. She is currently an artist in residence at the Anderson Center for the Arts, where The Free Black Women’s Library HTX is on exhibition and available for visitors to swap books written by Black women authors.
  • IRL Author Signing: The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay with Dale Walls - December 23 @ 1PM CST
    $19.99

    Pull up on us to meet Dale Walls and get a signed copy of The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Saturday, December 23 at 1 PM

    Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: RSVP to reserve your copy of the book!

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    Texas native, Dale Walls' debut novel checks all the Gen Z marks - tenderness, tropes, and timeliness - and that makes sense because they wrote the first version while attending High School in Houston

    Queer Love. Something Dawn wants, desperately, but does not have. But maybe, if she can capture it, film it, interview the people who have it, queer love will be hers someday. Or, at least, she'll have made a documentary about it. A documentary that, hopefully, will win Dawn a scholarship to film school. Many obstacles stand in the way of completing her film, but her best friends Edie and Georgia are there to help her reach her goal, no matter what it takes. A touching and joyous story of queer friendship and girlhood set in the vibrant city of Houston, THE QUEER GIRL IS GOING TO BE OKAY will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you believe that eventually, everything will be okay.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Dale Walls is the author of the forthcoming novel The Queer Girl Is Going to Be Okay. They are currently a graduate student at Stanford University studying art history. When not writing, they can be found creating educational videos about POC artists on their YouTube channel, Art in Color.

  • IRL AUTHOR TALK: Holy American Burnout! with Sean Enfield - March 21 @ 6:30 PM CST
    from $0.00

    Celebrate with debut author, Sean Enfield on his newest book, Holy American Burnout!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Thursday, March 21 @ 6:30 PM

    Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Gardent (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

    How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat and RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    Sean Enfield delves into the great American condition: burnout.

    Threading his experiences both as a Texan student and later as a first-year teacher of predominately Muslim students at a Texas middle school, Holy American Burnout! weaves personal essay and cultural critique into the historical fabric of Black and bi-racial identity.

    Enfield intersects examinations of which voices are granted legitimacy by virtue of school curriculum, the complex relationship between basketball and education for Black and brown students, his students' burgeoning political consciousness during the 2016 presidential campaign, and cultural figures ranging from Kendrick Lamar to Hamlet.

    These classroom narratives weave around Enfield's own formative experiences contending with a conflicted bi-racial family lineage, reenacting the Middle Passage as the only Black student in his 7th grade history class, and moshing in both Christian and secular hardcore pits.

    As Enfield wrestles with the physical, mental, and emotional burdens that American society places on educators, students, and all relatively conscious minorities in this country, he reaches for an education that better navigates our burnt-out empire.

     

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

    Sean Enfield is an essayist, poet, gardener, bassist, and educator from Dallas, TX. He also serves as an assistant non-fiction editor at Terrain.org. His debut collection of essays, Holy American Burnout!, is forthcoming from Split/Lip Press in December 2023. You can find his work at seanenfield.com.


    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

    Miranda Ramírez is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and writer born and raised in Houston, Texas. She’s the founder and director of Defunkt Magazine & Press, a literary columnist for Public Poetry, a guest editor for Teachers and Writers Collaborative, and a co-organizer of the Houston Poetry and Arts Festival. You may find her work in Atticus Review’s–The Attic, Coffin Bell, Cowboy Jamboree, Cutthroat Journal’s anthology Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century, and Ripples in Space. She is drafting her first novel as an MFA candidate at Sam Houston State University.
  • IRL Author Talk: How to Live Free in a Dangerous World with Shayla Lawson: February 9 @ 7PM
    from $0.00

    Celebrate How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir with journalist, poet, author, Shayla Lawson!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Friday, February 9 at 7PM

    Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden 

    How: RSVP ONLY to save you seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our programming

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    In their new book, Shayla Lawson reveals how traveling can itself be a political act, when it can be a dangerous world to be Black, femme, nonbinary, and disabled. With their signature prose, at turns muscular and luminous, Lawson explores layered meanings within love, time, and the self.

    Through encounters with a gorgeous gondolier in Venice, an ex-husband in The Netherlands, and a lost love on New Year’s Eve in Mexico City, Lawson’s travels bring unexpected wisdom about life in and out of love. They learn the strength of friendships, and the dangers of beauty during a near escape in Egypt. They examine Blackness in post dictatorship Zimbabwe, then take us on a secretive tour of Black freedom movements in Portugal.

    Through a deeply insightful journey, Lawson leads readers from a castle in France, to a hula hoop competition in Jamaica, to a traditional theater in Tokyo, to a Prince concert in Minnesota, and finally to find liberation on a beach in Bermuda, exploring each location—and their deepest emotions—to the fullest. In the end, they discover how trials of marriage, grief, and missed connections, can lead to self transformation and unimagined new freedoms.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Shayla Lawson (they/them) is the author of This is Major, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle and the LAMBDA Literary Award, and two poetry collections. They have written for New York Magazine, Salon, ESPN, and Paper, and have earned fellowships from Yaddo and the MacDowell Artist Colony. They live in Lexington, Kentucky.

  • IRL AUTHOR TALK: Not Everyone is Going to Like You with Rinny Perkins - August 22 at 7PM
    from $0.00

    Join us as we celebrate Houston's own, Rinny Perkins and her new book, Not Everyone is Going to Like You! 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: August 22 at 7 PM CST

    Where: The Reading Room HTX (401 Franklin St, Houston, TX 77201)

    How: RSVP to grab you free ticket or RSVP with book to support the author and our program!

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    A debut illustrated manifesto by Rinny Perkins (@RinnyRiot) about what she's learned as a queer Black woman through the art of self-validation.

    In this graphic collection of mini essays, comedian Rinny Perkins illustrates her experiences as the owner of a popular online shop while she figures out antidepressant prescriptions and the seemingly never-ending dating-app cycle.
     
    Rinny shares what she's learned across topics like mental health, work, sex and dating, and family and friends. Featuring funny, real reflections from experiences in her hometown of (Third Ward!) Houston, Texas to Los Angeles — the author traces her journey to understanding that whether through a friendship break-up or saving up for a Telfar bag, the only person who can truly validate us is ourselves.
     
    With 1970s-inspired graphics like a "When To Quit Your Job" checklist and Microaggressions Bingo, Not Everyone's Going to Like You is a long DM of affirmations from Rinny to herself on how to get through life. Her advice? Stop ignoring your intuition, ignore perfection, and leave them on read.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

    Rinny Perkins is a performer, multidisciplinary artist, and writer. Her graphic design and installation work nods to '70s ephemera with an emphasis on Black and queer womanhood. Her work has been featured by outlets such as I-D/VICE, Nylon and Teen Vogue.

    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

    deun ivory is a texas-based creative wellness visionary, multidisciplinary artist & photographer whose work centers and celebrates black women. widely known for her ethereal aesthetic & creative ingenuity, ivory curates visual experiences that inspire those who engage with her work to restore and reclaim narratives rooted in self-empowerment, joy & worthiness. ivory draws from the belief that beauty is wellness, which informs her exploration of art, spaces and design as healing mechanisms for marginalized communities. 

    as a visionary,  ivory serves as the founder and creative director of two influential brands: the body: a home for love, a 501(c)3 non-profit & black women are worthy, a social impact initiative specializing in conceptual design and immersive art installations. 

    ivory has cemented her power and influence as a thought-leader and visual storyteller by working with some of the world’s biggest brands to produce creative projects that have resonated & inspired communities worldwide. some of her clients include: google, facebook, lululemon, HBO, glossier, issa rae, apple, and more. ivory has been featured in vogue, harpers bazaar, essence, glamour magazine and beyond for her impactful contributions & authentic presence in the creative and wellness space. 

    ABOUT THE READING ROOM

    Founded by Amarie Gipson, The Reading Room is a reference library and creative incubator based in Houston, Texas.

    Gipson is a Houston-born art worker, writer and creative entrepreneur. She has held curatorial positions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Renaissance Society, the Contemporary Austin and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Independently, her writing has been published in several journals and magazines including Artforum, ARTNews, ARTS.BLACK, Cite, ESSENCE, Gulf Coast, MUD and THE SEEN.

    After seven years of travel, Gipson is currently based in her hometown. She created an open-format dance party and community called PHYSICAL THERAPY where she serves as creative director and resident DJ. She is also the former Arts & Culture editor of Houstonia Magazine, where she worked to bring much-needed attention to Houston’s art scene.  

    With nearly a decade of experience in the realms of fine art, music and media, Gipson built The Reading Room with a desire to share her deep passion for Black culture. It is a culmination of her professional experience and a labor of love.

  • CANCELLED AUTHOR TALK: Moments of Joy with Camille Joy - August 28 @ 7 PM
    from $0.00

    This Event Has Been Cancelled 

    Celebrate the release of Moments of Joy with Camille Joy!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Friday, August 28 @ 7PM CST

    Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St, Houston, TX 77004)

    How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat, RSVP WITH BOOK to grab your copy of Moments of Joy, support the author and our store programming, or RSVP( BUT I HAVE THE BOOK) to bring in your own copy of Moments of Joy.

    Please note outside copies of the book will not be allowed in the bookstore and you will not be eligible for the signing/photo line. You must buy a book from Kindred Stories or purchase the RSVP (BUT I HAVE THE BOOK) ticket. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    A life-affirming resource for parents raising children with special needs, this inspiring devotional brings together real hope, uplifting truths, and practical applications to help you reconnect with God's constant love and presence.

    Raising a child with special needs is a journey filled with unique challenges and profound joys. Through 90 days of heartening devotions, advocate and founder Camille Joy draws from her personal experience of raising a son with autism, IDD, and complex medical issues to help you see God’s presence and plan in your own journey. With inspiring scripture, each devotion offers a very brief and encouraging reflection, as well as a bold affirmation to take with you into your day.

    Moments of Joy is a celebration of your tenacious love for your child and a powerful reminder of God’s indomitable love for you both. These pages offer a safe place to acknowledge the hard, and a restful oasis for your weary heart. Whether you're celebrating small victories or facing overwhelming obstacles, you’ll find hope, practical reminders, and solidarity with each reading. Embrace the joy that sustains and discover peace in knowing you are never alone.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Camille Joy is a devoted wife and mother, with a heart as vast as her roles: entrepreneur, podcaster, advocate, and a beacon of hope. She radiates joy and utilizes her diverse platforms to uplift families navigating the unique challenges of raising children with special needs.

    In 2018, Camille Joy embarked on an inspiring journey when she launched her podcast, "Moments of Joy." Today, it stands tall as a premier platform, uniting parents raising children with disabilities and providing them with a supportive community. In her weekly podcast episodes, Camille draws from her personal experiences and shares compelling narratives from parents and professionals across the globe.

    Her mission is crystal clear: to deliver genuine support and absolute transparency to parents in the caregiving journey. This cause holds a special place in her heart, as her youngest son, Maison, was born with congenital heart disease and later diagnosed with Autism. Camille Joy's life is a testament to the power of empathy, resilience, and unwavering determination to make a difference in the lives of families like hers.

    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

    Kirby Jackson  was born and raised in Houston, Texas. By day, they work at Kindred Stories, receiving books and helping readers discover their next great fantasy read. Outside of work, Kirby enjoys reading and exploring Houston's parks and trails with their son.

  • IRL Poetry Reading: Ankle - Deep in Pacific Water with E. Hughes - December 5 @ 7PM
    from $0.00

    Celebrate E. Hughes' debut poetry collection, Ankle - Deep in Pacific Water! 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Thursday, December 5 @ 7PM 

    Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, Houston, Texas, 77004) 

    How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our programming. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    Ankle-Deep in Pacific Water, a debut collection by E. Hughes, marries personal narrative with historical excavation to articulate the intricacies of Black familial love, life, and pain. Tracing the experiences of a southern Black family, their migration to the San Francisco Bay area, and the persistent anti-Blackness there (despite the state’s insistence that it is/was not involved in the US’ projects of imperialism or chattel slavery), Hughes illuminates the intersections of history, grief, and violence.


    At the book’s heart is “The Accounts of Mammy Pleasant,” a persona poem written from the perspective of the formerly enslaved abolitionist and financier Mary Ellen Pleasant who is thought to have helped fund John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. Alongside this historical account, Hughes deftly weaves in the story of a contemporary Black family navigating the generational trauma resulting from the Great Migration: domestic violence and racialized violence, familial love and loyalty, the work of parenting, and the work of being a child. Ankle-Deep in Pacific Water reveals in its pages that, while many things have changed over time, ultimately the question of what “freedom” meant and looked like for Black people in the early 20th century retains the same murkiness and contradictions for Black people today. 

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

    E. Hughes’ poems have been published or are forthcoming in The Rumpus, Guernica, Poet Lore, Indiana Review, and Gulf Coast Magazine—among others. They are a Cave Canem fellow and have been a finalist for the 2021 Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize, longlisted for the 2021 Granum Fellowship Prize, and a semifinalist of the 2022 and 2023 92Y Discovery Contest. In 2021, they received their MFA+MA from the Litowitz Creative Writing Program at Northwestern University. Currently, Hughes is a PhD student in Philosophy at Emory University studying black aesthetics, psychoanalysis, and poststructuralism

  • AUTHOR TALK: No Sense In Wishing with Lawrence Burney - July 10 @ 6 PM
    from $5.00

    Celebrate the release of No Sense in Wishing with Lawrence Burney!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Friday July 10 @ 6 PM CST

    Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St, Houston, TX 77004)

    How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to grab your copy of No Sense In Wishing, support the author and our store programming.

    Please note outside copies of the book will not be allowed in the bookstore and you will not be eligible for the signing/photo line. You must buy a book from Kindred Stories 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    A personal and analytical essay collection from culture critic Lawrence Burney that is a personal and analytical look at his home city of Baltimore, music from throughout the global Black diaspora, and the traditions that raised him.

    There are moments in our lives when we discover an artist, an album, a film, or a cultural artifact that leaves a lasting impression. These moments inform how we understand the world, and ourselves, moving forward.

    In a time when music is spurring Black Americans’ connection with Africans on the Continent, culture critic Lawrence Burney takes us on a journey from the streets of Baltimore to the concert halls of Lagos, reminisces on seeing his mother perform as the opening act of a Gil Scott-Heron show when he was a child, and sits at a Maryland crab feast with family, assessing how the Black people in his home state have historically improvised paths for their liberation. Burney explores these profound interactions with incisive and energizing prose, offering us a personal and critical perspective on the people, places, music, and art that transformed him.

    No Sense in Wishing is a kaleidoscopic exploration of Burney’s search for self. With its gutsy and uncompromising criticism alongside intimate personal storytelling, this “powerful collection of essays” (Rolling Stone) is like an album that hits all the right notes, from a promising writer on the rise.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Lawrence Burney is a writer, editor, critic, and the founder of True Laurels, an independent magazine covering Baltimore’s music and culture scene. His work has appeared in publications such as New York Magazine, GQ, Washington Post and Pitchfork. He has also worked as an editor at The Fader, a staff writer at VICE, and an editor/reporter at The Baltimore Banner. His first book, No Sense in Wishing, a collection of essays, was published in July 2025 via Atria Books. His second book, Sing Back To Me, will also be published by Atria Books. Follow him on Instagram and X @TrueLaurels.

    ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

    Kiese Laymon is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. Laymon is the author of Long Division, which won the 2022 NAACP Image Award for fiction, and the essay collection, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, named a notable book of 2021 by the New York Times critics. Laymon’s bestselling memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir, won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Barnes and Noble Discovery Award, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. The audiobook, read by the author, was named the Audible 2018 Audiobook of the Year. Laymon is the recipient of 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard.

    Laymon is at work on the books, Good God, and City Summer, Country Summer, and a number of other film and television projects. He is the founder of The Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative, a program based out of the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University, aimed at aiding young people in Jackson get more comfortable reading, writing, revising and sharing on their on their own terms, in their own communities. He is the co-host of Reckon True Stories with Deesha Philyaw. Kiese Laymon was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022.

  • IRL Author Talk: Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion with Mitchell S. Jackson & Tay Butler-September 13 at 7PM CT
    from $0.00

    Pull up in your best to celebrate Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion with Pulitzer winning author, Michell S. Jackson and one of our favorite artist/community members, Tay Butler. 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Wednesday, September 13, 2023 at 7PM

    Where: The Reading Room HTX (401 Franklin Street, 77201)

    How: RSVP to grab your free ticket or RSVP book to reserve your seat and your copy of the book while supporting our programming. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    Equal parts stunning, photo-rich lookbook, and cultural commentary, Fly is the story of the extraordinary intersection of high fashion and basketball. Each chapter explores the style of an era and the cultural influences that shaped it: The league’s inception in 1949, pre-Civil Rights Movement, when the NBA was mostly comprised of white players who wore suits and skinny ties. The years following the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the birth of funk and R&B when basketball fashion got flashier (think Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Wilt Chamberlain wearing fur coats and big hats). The Michael Jordan era of the 1980s and 1990s, with its oversize suits. The epic Iverson/Hip-Hop years of the late 1990s and early 2000s. And now to today, a time defined not only by social media and high fashion’s birthing of the tunnel walk (think LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Russell Westbrook), but one in which athletes are idealized as style icons and activists, figures who inspire conversations beyond how they play and what they wear. 
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Mitchell S. Jackson is the winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing and the 2021 National Magazine Award in Feature Writing. Jackson’s debut novel, The Residue Years, won a Whiting Award and the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. His essay collection Survival Math was named a best book of 2019 by fifteen publications. Jackson’s other honors include fellowships, grants, and awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Creative Capital, the Cullman Center of the New York Public Library, the Lannan Foundation, PEN America, and TED. His writing has been featured on the cover of the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, Time, and Esquire, as well as in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, the Paris Review, the Guardian, and elsewhere. Jackson is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Esquire. He holds the John O. Whiteman Dean’s Distinguished Professorship in the Department of English at Arizona State University.

     

    ABOUT THE INTERLOCUTOR

    Tay Butler is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer and educator based in Houston, Texas. He received his MFA from the University of Arkansas' Photography and Studio Art Program, BFA in Photography and Digital Media from the University of Houston and everything else from Milwaukee, MN. After retiring from the US Army and abandoning a middle-class  engineering career to search for purpose, Butler reignited a rich appreciation for Black history and a  deep obsession with the Black archive. Using past and present images to create a historically-layered  body of work, Tay reorients cultural material from the ever-growing Black experience.  

Stay Informed. We're building a community committed to celebrating Black authors + artisans. Subscribe to keep up with all things Kindred Stories.