Get ready to swing with A Child’s Introduction to Jazz, an interactive journey into one of the richest and most soulful music genres in the world. Listen while you learn with QR codes that will connect you to the instruments and musical flair of jazz. 

Welcome to jazz! Feel the music and rhythms of all the different styles of jazz, from swing and Dixieland to the blues and bebop, with this interactive introduction to the world’s coolest music.

Author Jabari Asim will take you on the journey through the history of jazz as you discover the most important musicians and singers while hearing some really cool sounds. You’ll learn all about the roots of jazz in Africa and New Orleans and how the music traveled to different parts of the United States and around the world. Along the way you’ll meet legendary trumpeter Louis Armstrong, who shaped a new form of jazz called improvisation; pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington, who helped create the big band sound of the swing era; and the singer Billie Holiday, whose songs such as “God Bless the Child,” “Don’t Explain,” and “Lady Sings the Blues” have become jazz standards.

Listen along to the sounds of jazz by downloading music and hearing instruments such as trumpets, clarinets, trombones, and even singers scatting as they improvise melodies. With a pull-out poster showing the different instruments of jazz, A Child’s Introduction to Jazz hits the perfect beat and will have you bebopping and scatting in no time!

A young girl and her father share an early morning horseback ride around their city in My Daddy Is a Cowboy, a picture book celebration of “just-us time,” perfect for fans of My Papi Has a Motocycle.
 
Tall. High as the clouds.
Strong as a horse’s back.
Like a cowboy.
 
In the early hours before dawn, a young girl and her father greet their horses and ride together through the waking city streets. As they trot along, Daddy tells cowboy stories filled with fun and community, friendship, discovery, and pride. Seeing her city from a new vantage point and feeling seen in a new way, the child discovers that she too is a cowboy—strong and confident in who she is.
 
Thoughtfully and lyrically written by debut author Stephanie Seales, with vibrant illustrations from award-winning artist C. G. Esperanza, this beautiful picture book is a celebration of Black joy, outdoor play, and quality time spent between child and parent.

A dying gangster's plea sends Joe King Oliver on a quest for a missing woman across America's coasts―unraveling a dark and violent family history along the way―in this engrossing new novel from one of the most celebrated and acclaimed crime writers at work today.

Joe King Oliver is the big man you call to solve the most delicate and dangerous of problems. Fresh off unraveling the mystery of his own parents’ fates, King finds himself accepting (again at his grandmother’s request) a case from Arman Babylon, a powerful Los Angeles gangster now dying from cancer.

Babylon’s granddaughter, Twyla Mann, has been missing for years, and he’s desperate to find her before he passes. The search pulls King into the Babylons’ stained past and the cold case of Dalia Shorts, a torch singer who vanished without a trace and whom Arman was once suspected of killing.

As King follows her trail from L.A. to New York and back, he’ll realize nothing is what it seems as he uncovers a pattern of violence that has targeted the women around Babylon for decades. How much will King be willing to risk to finally set things right?

Immer mehr Künstler·innen aus der Mehrheitswelt jenseits des klassischen „Westens“ verhandeln Fragen nach der eigenen Geschichte und Herkunft anhand von Fotografien aus der Kolonialzeit. In ihren Werken verbinden sie persönliche Erlebnisse mit kollektiven Erfahrungen, verknüpfen Gedächtnisspuren mit künstlerischer Imagination. Durch textile, fotografische, filmische und skulpturale Collagen entstehen neue Erinnerungen, die nicht bei einer historischen Reflexion kolonialistischer Unterdrückung haltmachen, sondern in Bewegung bleiben, sich widersetzen und als lebendiges Fundament für die Zukunft dienen. Der Band Fast ein Paradies, der anlässlich der gleichnamigen Ausstellung im Museum Rietberg erscheint, ist die erste Gesamtschau dieses internationalen Phänomens. Texte zu den beteiligten Künstler·innen werden ergänzt durch kritische Beiträge zur Geschichte der kolonialzeitlichen ­ Fotografie. Kimberly Juanita Brown ist Direktorin des Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life am Dartmouth College. Nanina Guyer ist Kuratorin für Fotografie am Museum Rietberg. Patricia Hayes ist Inhaberin des Lehrstuhls für Visual History & Theory an der University of the Western Cape. Deborah Willis leitet den Fachbereich Photography & Imaging an der New York University. Bindi Vora ist interdisziplinäre Künstlerin und leitende Kuratorin der Galerie Autograph, London.

*ships in 7-10 business days*

The year is 1797, and the kingdom of Segu is flourishing, fed by the wealth of its noblemen and the power of its warriors. The people of Segu, the Bambara, are guided by their griots and priests; their lives are ruled by the elements. But even their soothsayers can only hint at the changes to come, for the battle of the soul of Africa has begun. From the east comes a new religion, Islam, and from the West, the slave trade.

Segu follows the life of Dousika Traore, the king’s most trusted advisor, and his four sons, whose fates embody the forces tearing at the fabric of the nation. There is Tiekoro, who renounces his people’s religion and embraces Islam; Siga, who defends tradition, but becomes a merchant; Naba, who is kidnapped by slave traders; and Malobali, who becomes a mercenary and halfhearted Christian.

Based on actual events, Segu transports the reader to a fascinating time in history, capturing the earthy spirituality, religious fervor, and violent nature of a people and a growing nation trying to cope with jihads, national rivalries, racism, amid the vagaries of commerce.

Furo Wariboko, a young Nigerian, awakes the morning before a job interview to find that he's been transformed into a white man. In this condition he plunges into the bustle of Lagos to make his fortune. With his red hair, green eyes, and pale skin, it seems he's been completely changed. Well, almost. There is the matter of his family, his accent, his name. Oh, and his black ass. Furo must quickly learn to navigate a world made unfamiliar and deal with those who would use him for their own purposes. Taken in by a young woman called Syreeta and pursued by a writer named Igoni, Furo lands his first-ever job, adopts a new name, and soon finds himself evolving in unanticipated ways.

A. Igoni Barrett's Blackass is a fierce comic satire that touches on everything from race to social media while at the same time questioning the values society places on us simply by virtue of the way we look. As he did in Love Is Power, or Something Like That, Barrett brilliantly depicts life in contemporary Nigeria and details the double-dealing and code-switching that are implicit in everyday business. But it's Furo's search for an identity--one deeper than skin--that leads to the final unraveling of his own carefully constructed story.

LONGLISTED FOR THE SWANSEA UNIVERSITY DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE

WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION

“This is a deeply impressive book, and I think an important one. Its intensity, its narrative attack, the fascinations of its era and setting, make it impossible to tear the attention away. Energy and inventiveness distinguish every page.” — Hilary Mantel

From an unforgettable new voice in Caribbean literature, a sweeping story of two families colliding in 1940s Trinidad—and a chilling mystery that shows how interconnected their lives truly are 

Trinidad in the 1940s, nearing the end of American occupation and British colonialism. On a hill overlooking Bell Village sits the Changoor farm, where Dalton and Marlee Changoor live in luxury unrecognizable to those who reside in the farm’s shadow. Down below is the Barrack, a ramshackle building of wood and tin, divided into rooms occupied by whole families. Among these families are the Saroops—Hans, Shweta, and their son, Krishna, all three born of the barracks. Theirs are hard lives of backbreaking work, grinding poverty, devotion to faith, and a battle against nature and a social structure designed to keep them where they are.

But when Dalton goes missing and Marlee’s safety is compromised, farmhand Hans is lured by the promise of a handsome stipend to move to the farm as a watchman. As the mystery of Dalton’s disappearance unfolds, the lives of the wealthy couple and those who live in the barracks below become insidiously entwined, their community changed forever and in shocking ways.

A searing and singular novel of religion, class, family, and historical violence, and rooted in Trinidad’s wild pastoral landscape and inspired by oral storytelling traditions, Hungry Ghosts is deeply resonant of its time and place while evoking the roots and ripple effects of generational trauma and linked histories; the lingering resentments, sacrifices, and longings that alter destinies; and the consequences of powerlessness. Lyrically told and rendered with harrowing beauty, Hungry Ghosts is a stunning piece of storytelling and an affecting mystery, from a blazingly talented writer.

Martha’s Daughter is the brilliant and influential author David Haynes’s first short story collection and the first time that Haynes’s stories have ever been assembled in one volume. Steeped in everyday gossip and lives, this collection ranges from the magically real life of a city’s crumbling superhero to a rundown motel whose long-term guests are lucky to call home. In the titular novella the first hours are chronicled after Cynthia finds out her mother has died. What we learn is that Cynthia is a woman who has been bullied by her mother’s overbearing opinions, her disdain for difference, her respectability politics, and her outdated beliefs about how men and women should relate to one another. Martha’s death is less a catalyst for Cynthia’s grief than an opportunity to free herself of a burden too long endured.

The sixth in McSweeney’s Of the Diaspora series, Martha’s Daughter is another record in David’s oeuvre, of the people and places he’s been recording since the beginning of his career, some thirty years ago. With its full-circle connection to Haynes’s previous novels, Martha’s Daughter is guaranteed to enthrall longtime fans and new readers alike.

*Ships in 7-10 business days*

Acclaimed columnist and author Charles Blow never wanted to write a “race book.” But as violence against Black people—both physical and psychological—seemed only to increase in recent years, culminating in the historic pandemic and protests of the summer of 2020, he felt compelled to write a new story for Black Americans. He envisioned a succinct, counterintuitive, and impassioned corrective to the myths that have for too long governed our thinking about race and geography in America. Drawing on both political observations and personal experience as a Black son of the South, Charles set out to offer a call to action by which Black people can finally achieve equality, on their own terms.

So what will it take to make lasting change when small steps have so frequently failed? It’s going to take an unprecedented shift in power. The Devil You Know is a groundbreaking manifesto, proposing nothing short of the most audacious power play by Black people in the history of this country. This book is a grand exhortation to generations of a people, offering a road map to true and lasting freedom.

In this stunning sequel to her acclaimed debut My Brother’s Keeper, #1 national bestselling author ReShonda Tate Billingsley brings her real-deal insight to a heartfelt new novel about a wife and mother on a daring rescue mission—to save herself.
 
Freshly forty-five, Aja James knows that her life is good, complete with a loving, wealthy husband, well-adjusted children, and a beautiful home. Yet the truth is, she feels painfully unfulfilled, stuck in the present, haunted by a painful past. When a friend suggests a girls’ trip to a tropical paradise, Aja hopes a change of scene will also change her perspective.
 
On vacation, filled with fun and freedom, Aja is relieved to find her spirits lifting. But her good time also shines a light on what’s troubling her: from her siblings to her husband and kids, she’s spent nearly her whole life taking care of everyone—except herself. She’s lost her spark. She’s lost her identity.
 
Desperate to turn things around, Aja makes an impulsive decision—one that outrages her family and stuns her friends. But it may also be her wisest choice. Because it’s only through learning what she could lose—and what’s truly worth keeping—that Aja can transform this temporary fix into real, lasting happiness.
 
 
“Billingsley puts a spin on the question every woman will ask at some point—who am I outside of the people I love? More to Life answers that timeless question with grace, resilience, and a fresh voice.”
—Jessica Pack, author of Whatever It Takes

EVENT DEETS:

When: Thursday, January 9 at 7 PM CST

Where: Hogan Brown Community (2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004)

How: RSVP WITH BOOK to support our programming and store or grab a free ticket. 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Irvin is a Brooklyn-based writer and professor from New Orleans. His writing has been featured in Esquire, The Atlantic, The Root, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from The New School, an MA from Morgan State University, a BA from Morehouse College and has received fellowships and awards from the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation, the Research Foundation of CUNY, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Mellon Foundation.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNERS

Texas native Anthony Suber is an interdisciplinary artist working and living in SouthEast Texas. He received a BFA from the University of Houston and completed his MFA at Houston Christian University. Throughout his career, Suber has exhibited work and produced multi-tiered activations both nationally and abroad. Suber is a professor of art with the Katherine G. McGovern College at University Houston’s School of Art and an artist-in-residence with Project Row Houses in Houston’s historic Third Ward community. He also serves as the Creative Director for the arts and mental health nonprofit, The Blackman Project. 

Suber’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, Greece, Project Row Houses, Houston, Tinney Contemporary in Nashville, University Museum at Texas Southern University, Houston, Art is Bond Gallery, Houston, John B. Coleman Gallery at Prairie View A&M University, Houston Museum of African American Culture, with solo exhibitions at Red Bud Arts Center in Houston, LRT Gallery, Houston and Cindy Lisica Gallery, Houston. His work has been featured in publications such as Arts and Culture Texas, Glass Tire, The Houston Chronicle, and Free Press Houston. Suber was the recipient of the Artadia Art Prize in 2022. 

Wale is a licensed mental health therapist and a passionate reader who uses her platform (@theehottgirlbooks) to dive deep into powerfully emotional stories written by BIPOC authors. Her love for reading and mental health fosters a passionate approach to her work both online and in the therapy room. When she is not immersed in the literary world, you can find her watching the real housewives or building an elaborate Lego set.