Search results: 122 results for “by Mychal Denzel Smith”
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122 results
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PRE-ORDER: White Girls
PRE-ORDER: White Girls
$19.00A 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.
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PRE-ORDER: We Made the World: Five Centuries of Queens, Warriors, and Other Foremothers
PRE-ORDER: We Made the World: Five Centuries of Queens, Warriors, and Other Foremothers
$30.00We 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.
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PRE-ORDER: Get Rich from Relationships: Build Your Winner's Circle for Ultimate Success (The Earn Your Leisure Rich Series)
PRE-ORDER: Get Rich from Relationships: Build Your Winner's Circle for Ultimate Success (The Earn Your Leisure Rich Series)
$30.00A blueprint for driving business success and creating wealth by relentlessly building your winner’s circle—the five people who will vouch for you in rooms you’re not in—from the New York Times bestselling authors of You Deserve to Be Rich and founders of the explosively popular Earn Your Leisure media platform.
“True wealth is about so much more than money. It’s about the people you have around you, the relationships you build, and the people who help you grow. That’s what Get Rich From Relationships is all about.”—La La Anthony
You’ve heard it before: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” But that’s only half the truth. The real game is how you show up for who you know—and whether those relationships are strong enough to open doors when it matters most.
Too many smart, ambitious people are stuck. They have great ideas. They’re making connections. Maybe they’re even in the right rooms. But they’re not moving forward. Why? Because nobody ever taught them how to build relationships that actually convert into opportunity. This book is the fix.
We built Earn Your Leisure from a grassroots podcast into a global media platform—not overnight, but through intentional relationship building that compounds over time. From sold-out arenas to partnerships with Fortune 500 companies, we’ve gained access to rooms nobody thought we would ever be in.
This is our unfiltered, community-rooted playbook for the world we live in now. Inside, you’ll learn how to:
• Build your winner’s circle—the core group that accelerates your growth and multiplies your opportunities
• Master the strategy of “attacking the perimeter” to unlock access most people never reach
• Stop chasing status and start networking across—rising alongside your peers strategically
• Put your ego aside and maximize impact by turning humility and consistency into your biggest advantageEmpires, communities, and relationships don’t happen by accident. They’re built—intentionally, consistently, and strategically. This book shows you how.
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PRE-ORDER: Sorrow's Kitchen: Recipes for Justice and True Safety
PRE-ORDER: Sorrow's Kitchen: Recipes for Justice and True Safety
$30.00From 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.
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PRE-ORDER: Our Fragile Freedoms: Essays
PRE-ORDER: Our Fragile Freedoms: Essays
$24.99“Engrossing and informative.” ―Zaakir Tameez, New York Times Book Review
From one of the most acclaimed and influential historians of the United States, an insightful guide to our history and why it matters.
Eric Foner has done more to shape the public and professional understanding of American history than any other scholar. The preeminent historian of the Civil War era, Foner’s keynote has been American freedom and the recurring battles over its meanings and boundaries. His award-winning works show that freedom has been a birthright for some and a struggle for others, that rights gained can also be lost, and that they must always be tended with knowledge and vigilance. The present political moment makes the importance of these themes abundantly clear.
This collection of Foner’s recent reviews and commentaries demonstrates the range of his interests and expertise, running from slavery and antislavery, through the disunion and remaking of the United States in the nineteenth century, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement, and into our current politics. Each piece shows a master at work, melding historical knowledge and balanced judgment with crystalline prose. Foner takes up towering figures from Washington to Lincoln, Douglass, and Rosa Parks, pivotal events such as the Fugitive Slave Act and the Tulsa Race Massacre, and the fragility of constitutional guarantees to civil liberties, due process, and birthright citizenship, whether in times of war or peace. He also explores recent controversies over how to commemorate, and how to teach, our history.
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PRE-ORDER: Black Is
PRE-ORDER: Black Is
$19.99COMPANION TO NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER, BLACK GOLD
In this companion picture book to Black Gold, the NAACP Image Award winner, Laura Obuobi and Society of Illustrators’ honoree London Ladd team up to tell a story that celebrates Black life, brims with black joy, and instills an important message about Black resilience.
Black is precious.
Black is holy.
Black is powerful.
Black is many things, and its magnificence can be found all throughout the world. It’s in obsidian, in the rolling fields of calla lilies, and the birth of the universe. Most importantly, Black is a people whose strength, grace, and resilience would foster change, creativity, and a culture from which would emerge a world that would never be the same and a community whose genius continues to inspire all. Despite everything that Black people have endured, they are still present—living and thriving.
Powerhouse duo Laura Obuobi and London Ladd return with another poignant, lyrical text that celebrates all that being Black is, positively reinforcing the magnitude of possibilities that being Black can—and will—be. With its important themes, Black Is will enchant young readers with events and achievements by people in Black history and the Black diaspora, like uprisings, innovations in culture, entertainment, literature, including civil rights work by West Africans, Caribbeans, and Black Americans.· Brimming with Black Joy: This book is magical, heartwarming, and a bright reminder that diverse stories are hopeful too. Laura has created a world where all facets of Black life, especially joy, are brought to light.
· Champion for Self-Love: This uplifting, impactful, and lyrical book will empower Black children and will inspire them to love themselves exactly as they are. This book delivers the important message that Black is beautiful and powerful.
· Bedtime Story with Lyrical, Poignant Text: Laura spins a story with language that is so rich, it is as though she has captured a dream on the page. Readers will be enthralled by this sweeping, meditative tale.
· Timely and Timeless Picture Book: This is a book that will always resonate with readers as they move on through every stage of their lives, uplifting and empowering, and is the perfect baby shower gift and graduation gift. -
PRE-ORDER: Student of Love: Your Guide to Discover, Uncover, and Recover Healthy Relationships
PRE-ORDER: Student of Love: Your Guide to Discover, Uncover, and Recover Healthy Relationships
$19.99Now available in trade paper!
Love isn't about finding the right person—it's about becoming the right person.
No matter your relationships status—single, dating, engaged, married, or divorced—Student of Love invites you back into the classroom to learn what it truly takes to build healthy, loving and long-lasting relationships. From Laterras R. Whitfield, the host of the Dear Future Wifey Podcast and widely regarded as "The Relationship Whisperer," comes an essential guide—offering a God-centered perspective on healthy relationships—packed with refreshing wisdom and heartfelt lessons designed to equip you to make the right decisions in all your relationships.
In a world fixated on finding love, Student of Love shifts the focus to becoming love—offering raw, relatable lessons and hopeful perspectives that resonate with healing, growth, and self-discovery.
What makes this book a must-read?
Laterras steps into the classroom not as a professor, but as a fellow student—creating a space where vulnerability meets wisdom. Here's what's in the curriculum:
* A fresh approach to relationships: Learn from your mistakes and use them as steppingstones to build a more intentional and fulfilling love life.
* Recognize and define the types of Love: Gain the clarity, knowledge, and courage to seek the right connections.
* Guidance for every stage of love: Whether you're navigating the early days of dating, strengthening a marriage, or healing from heartbreak, or focusing on yourself, this book meets you where you are.
* Courageous conversations: Laterras tackles the tough topics with compassion and candor, offering profound insights that challenge and heal.
* Find the roadmap to self-awareness: Discover how to show up in your relationships with confidence, clarity, and authenticity.
* Hope after heartbreak: Heartache isn't the end of your story—it's a chance to rewrite it. Learn how to reassess, rediscover, and rebuild from a place of strength and self-love.With brutal honesty and heartfelt authenticity, Student of Love explores the complexities of love in all its forms. It's not just a book—it's a guide to uncovering the love you deserve, starting with the love you give yourself.
Your love story isn't over. It's just beginning. So, grab your backpack, open your heart, and let Student of Love help you write the next chapter—one lesson at a time.
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PRE-ORDER: Place of All Games (Places and Games, 1)
PRE-ORDER: Place of All Games (Places and Games, 1)
$18.99Three children become involved in a world-altering game in the first book of an epic middle grade duology following in the tradition of The Giver and Ender’s Game—by celebrated Newbery Honor Author and National Book Award finalist Rita Williams-Garcia.
In the idyllic childhood place of Kumbla, Lows grow up with no wants, no danger, no parents, only endless games. But there comes a time in every Low's life when they yearn to test their skill and leave Kumbla for the Place of All Games—where there lies a challenge most are doomed to fail.
Kili is one among these many failed Lows. But unlike those before him, he’s returning to Kumbla, and with something remarkable: a second chance.
Kuwan is unlike the other Lows, content to never leave Kumbla. But Kili’s fate, and the fate of their world, rests in his ability to play his best game ever.
In an epic tale of innocence lost and family gained, and a gripping meditation on the futility of war, Newbery Honor author Rita Williams-Garcia reminds us that while children may become pawns in the great games of adults, they should never be underestimated.
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PRE-ORDER: Hope in a Classroom: The Remarkable Story of Black American Students, Teachers, and Schools from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement
PRE-ORDER: Hope in a Classroom: The Remarkable Story of Black American Students, Teachers, and Schools from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement
$18.99In her first book for young readers, National Book Award winner Imani Perry chronicles the history of schools and education in Black America.
After emancipation, freed people of all ages wanted to go to school. From the story of John McCline, who learned to read as a boy serving in the Union Army, through the teachers who built one-room schoolhouses across the rural South during Reconstruction to the student-led movement to desegregate schools during the Civil Rights movement, Imani Perry’s intimate and sweeping social history narrates this powerful desire for education and literacy―and how African Americans built and maintained an education system even while segregated and unequal public education failed them. These schools taught Black children to believe in themselves and their future despite Jim Crow and the institutionally racist society they lived in.
Informed by a rich trove of letters, diaries, and other archival materials, Hope in a Classroom is a necessary, expansive new narrative of the Black American experience for young readers, delivered in a propulsive and soaring voice.
illustrations throughout
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PRE-ORDER: Bradford Street Buddies: Springtime Blossoms (I Can Read Level 3)
PRE-ORDER: Bradford Street Buddies: Springtime Blossoms (I Can Read Level 3)
$5.99In this Level Three I Can Read, join twins Jada and Jamal, and their best friends Carlita and Josh as they come up with a colorful springtime plan to spruce up their schoolyard. Everyone in the neighborhood is invited!
CHIRP! CHIRP! CHIRP! It’s springtime on Bradford Street. Jada and Jamal are searching for signs of spring. So are their best friends, Carlita Garcia and Josh Cornell. But the most surprising sign of spring awaits them at school tomorrow . . . a surprise that blossoms into a colorful plan to beautify the schoolyard just in time for Earth Day. Get set to dig in and join the neighborhood fun with the Bradford Street Buddies!
This Level 3 I Can Read title is written for independent readers and includes challenging words and more complex themes and stories.
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PRE-ORDER: El Anatsui: Prints and Play
PRE-ORDER: El Anatsui: Prints and Play
$60.00A comprehensive survey of Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui’s experimental prints and paper works
Acclaimed contemporary artist El Anatsui (b. 1944) is renowned for his intricate large-scale sculptures across a range of media―from clay and wood to discarded materials such as bottle caps and cassava graters. Less well known are his inventive prints and paper works, which share an important relationship to his sculptural practice. Examining the connection between the experimental quality of his prints and the radical compositions of his metal sculptures, this book uncovers the invaluable role of printmaking in the development of his artistic imagination and studio practice.
Beginning with Anatsui’s first encounter with printmaking at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, author Chika Okeke-Agulu traces the artist’s engagement with the techniques and modalities of the medium, investigating how this allowed him to explore line, color, texture, and form. Offering an overview of Anatsui’s six decades of work on paper and aluminum, the book also includes a comprehensive catalogue of his prints. An essay placing Anatsui’s print work within the context of contemporary collaborative studio practices enriches our understanding of the global field of printmaking, and the book is further enlivened by a conversation with the artist himself.
Distributed for the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Exhibition schedule:
Philadelphia Museum of Art
(December 19, 2026–May 2, 2027)
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PRE-ORDER: Sunday Best: The Power and the Glory of Black Style
PRE-ORDER: Sunday Best: The Power and the Glory of Black Style
$60.00From high fashion to everyday clothes, this book looks at the personal and political importance of Black style from the 1880s to the present.
Both during and after slavery in North America, “Sunday best” referred to clothes reserved for church or special occasions. Dressing in one’s Sunday best conveyed a sense of dignity and self-worth. Sunday best styling evolved after emancipation into the twentieth century, reflecting subsequent periods of Black cultural liberation, empowerment, and upward mobility. It is emblematic of the ways that self-fashioning in African-diasporic communities affirms humanity and communicates identity.
With examples from Canada, the Caribbean, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Sunday Best features archival and contemporary fashion alongside photography, painting, sculpture, and time-based media, looking at the significance of Black style. Essays by an interdisciplinary group of curators, designers, and scholars consider how communities throughout the African diaspora have used style as a reminder of one’s value, visibility, and agency, and the enduring influence of Sunday best dressing on artistic expression.
This richly illustrated volume is organized around the following themes:
• Origins, featuring fashion design by Christopher John Rogers and photography by James Van Der Zee
• Black church, with art by Coreen Simpson, Gordon Parks, and Laura Wheeler Waring
• Migration, through designers such as Foday Dumbuya
• Liberation, with fashion design by Spencer Badu and photography by Chantal Regnault
• Call and response, including fashion design by Patrick Kelly and photography by Melodie McDanielPublished in association with the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Exhibition Schedule
Art Gallery of Ontario
(October 6, 2026–February 28, 2027)Philadelphia Museum of Art
(May 1, 2027–August 8, 2027)
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