In the first of a hilarious, heartfelt new trilogy from Newbery Medal-winning graphic novelist Jerry Craft, a kid without superpowers navigates the epic highs and lows of a school that trains its students to become anime heroes.

Aren Anderson may be the MVP at his middle school in Connecticut, but when he and his family suddenly get transported to a bizarre new realm, everything changes! That’s because all the kids at his new school, Anime Academy, have real superpowers! And they spend every moment of their lives training to become the kind of anime heroes he has only seen on TV.

Can Aren adjust from being the kid with all the power in his old school to feeling completely powerless in his new school? And if that’s not bad enough, he’ll also have to learn how to survive Death Battles, giant killer trees, and the most fearsome giant robot that any realm has ever seen!

In this action-packed adventure by Newbery Medal–winning graphic novelist Jerry Craft, fantastic powers may change the outcome of a battle, but family and teamwork will change the future!

From everyday apps to complex algorithms, Ruha Benjamin cuts through tech-industry hype to understand how emerging technologies can reinforce White supremacy and deepen social inequity.

Benjamin argues that automation, far from being a sinister story of racist programmers scheming on the dark web, has the potential to hide, speed up, and deepen discrimination while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to the racism of a previous era. Presenting the concept of the “New Jim Code,” she shows how a range of discriminatory designs encode inequity by explicitly amplifying racial hierarchies; by ignoring but thereby replicating social divisions; or by aiming to fix racial bias but ultimately doing quite the opposite. Moreover, she makes a compelling case for race itself as a kind of technology, designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice in the architecture of everyday life.

This illuminating guide provides conceptual tools for decoding tech promises with sociologically informed skepticism. In doing so, it challenges us to question not only the technologies we are sold but also the ones we ourselves manufacture.

From lifestyle trailblazer and author of The Afrominimalist's Guide To Living with Less, a practical guide to move beyond decluttering your space and, instead, declutter your life.

Less Is Liberation welcomes those who are tired and weary to embark upon a journey of self-discovery. This is an invitation to understand the interconnectedness of overwhelm and our overall wellbeing.

     For years, the constant pursuit of success silently wreaked havoc on Christine Platt’s happiness and health. While taking a personal pause, Christine discovered how her limiting beliefs about selfishness led to self-abandonment and a life of overwhelm. So, she decided to use the same intentional living strategy that helped her reduce overconsumption: choose less.

     With the perfect balance of wit and wisdom, Christine shares the necessities to come into alignment with Self and offers a roadmap for anyone ready to do the same. Less Is Liberation is more than a self-help guide, it is a call-to-action to tap into our most underutilized superpower: being intentional with our choices.

* We do not have to have so many things—we can choose less.
* We do not have to have so many obligations—we can choose less.
* We do not have to have so many priorities—we can choose less.
* We do not have to have so many relationships that feel transactional—we can choose less.

 We must simply learn how to be intentional about honoring ourselves.

 Less Is Liberation is an invitation to pause and begin the beautiful work of choosing ourselves over the profit and pleasure of others. It invites us to let go of behaviors that hinder our growth. It is time to embrace less as a gateway to find freedom from our lives of overwhelm, and a pathway to the life we want and deserve. Because we are not here for a life of doing. We are here for a life of being.

*Ships in 7-10 business days*

In The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living With Less, Christine gets right to the heart of how childhood experiences and expectations manifest in adulthood, the delicate dance between needs and wants, and the complicated weight of familial and societal pressures. A far cry from Konmaried closets, capsule wardrobes, and conspicuous consumption, Christine’s brand of “living with less” is more than a decluttering regimen. Inspired by her personal journey, Christine presents a radical revisioning of minimalism, one that celebrates the importance of history and heritage, and gives you permission to make space for what really matters…your way.

Celebrate the release of You've Got A Place Here, Too with Ebony Ladelle, Kiese Laymon, and Farrah Rochon!

EVENT DEETS

When: Monday, September 15 @ 7PM

Where: TBD

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

ABOUT THE BOOK

A heartwarming and unforgettable collection of love stories set at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, exploring hope, endurance, and what it means to leave a legacy, from some of today’s most prominent Black writers and edited by the acclaimed author of Love Radio

Love can be messy, painful, and heartbreaking, but it can also be revolutionary, profound, and hopeful. For Celine, a forbidden crush on a professor evolves into a second chance at romance years later. Myra’s focus on a coveted audition for the Fisk Jubilee Singers is challenged by the handsome music major determined to help her. Kiese investigates the darker side to academia, love, and identity. Like most blessings, love emerges in the most unexpected places—in a training cockpit for new pilots, during a Mardi Gras celebration, or while gathering signatures to start the first-ever LGBTQ+ student organization officially recognized at an HBCU.

These are just a few of the heart-searing, tender, and transporting love stories collected in You’ve Got a Place Here, Too—a true celebration of Black love and the profound impact of HBCUs on the community.

Featuring stories by Elizabeth Acevedo, Jasmine Bell, Carla Bruce, Aaron Foley, Kai Harris, Ebony LaDelle, Kiese Laymon, Christine Platt, Farrah Rochon, Kennedy Ryan, Dawnie Walton, and Nicola Yoon.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Ebony LaDelle (she/her) is the author of Love Radio—which was People magazine’s best book of the summer, an Audie Award Finalist, a Michigan Notable Book, an Apple Books’ best book, and featured on the Today Show. Prior to being an author, Ebony was a brand marketing director in book publishing and worked at Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, and HarperCollins. Ebony holds a BA in journalism from Howard University and an MS in publishing from Pace University.

Kiese Laymon is a Black Southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the author of the genre-bending novel Long Division and the essay collection How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. Laymon’s bestselling memoir, Heavy: An American Memoir, won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the 2018 Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, 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. He was also the recipient of the 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard and a MacArthur Genius grant. He currently teaches English and creative writing at Rice University.

Farrah Rochon is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of 40-plus adult romance and young adult novels, novellas, and short stories, including the popular Boyfriend Project series from Forever Romance. When she is not writing in her favorite coffee shop, Farrah spends most of her time reading, traveling the world, visiting Walt Disney World, and catching her favorite Broadway shows.

Celebrate the release of The Black Madonna with Christena Cleveland!

EVENT DEETS

When: Monday, September 21 @ 6:30 PM CST

Where: Virtual via Zoom. (We'll send you the Zoom link!)

How: 

• RSVP ONLY to reserve your spot.
• RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your spot and purchase a copy of The Black Madonna, supporting both the author and our store programming. The book will be available for pickup or shipped on the day of 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 you do not retrieve your event book , it will be returned to the publisher and you are not eligible for a refund. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Meet Black Madonna—Mother of Abundance, Holy Insurrectionist, Our Lady of F Around and Find Out

This bold reclamation of the divine feminine offers a new vision of Black Madonna as a unifying figure of refuge, resistance, and renewal. When we are exhausted and burned out, Black Madonna invites us to surrender to her protective embrace and be revitalized by her subversive life force. When disillusionment takes hold, Black Madonna offers radical belonging—urging us to reclaim our own sacred power.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christena Cleveland, Ph.D. is a social psychologist, public theologian, author, and activist. A weaver of Black liberation and the Divine Feminine, Dr. Cleveland embraces the archetype of the Black Madonna as she guides people of all races and genders into freedom, wholeness, and embodied justice. She is the founder of the Black Madonna Freedom School, which nurtures courageous and compassionate people who are uprooting white patriarchal religious conditioning in themselves and their communities, while skillfully planting intersectional divine feminine wisdom. Her latest book is The Black Madonna: Icon of Resistance & Nourisher of Souls where she explores the miraculous, liberating, and zany ways that the Black Madonna has protected, empowered, and nourished people around the globe and throughout history. An award-winning researcher and former professor at Duke University’s Divinity School, Christena lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. You can discover more about the Black Madonna and Christena at www.christenacleveland.com.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Natasha Gordon-Chipembere, PhD., is an African Diasporic literature professor and writer. Her first academic book was Representation and Black Womanhood: The Legacy of Sarah Baartman (Palgrave 2011). Gordon-Chipembere has been published in various academic presses, including Callaloo and Small Axe and also writes public facing non-fiction, which has been published in Essence. She has been the recipient of three Fulbright Fellowships, where she conducted research and taught at the University of Nairobi Kenya (1992-1993), Chancellor College, the University of Malawi (June-August 2010) and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark (June-July 2025). She continues to serve as a co-editor of the AfroLatin@Diasporas Book Series at Palgrave/Springer, as a founder with the late Miriam Jimenez-Roman and Juan Flores. Born and raised in New York to Costa Rican and Panamanian parents, Gordon-Chipembere relocated to Costa Rica with her husband and two children in 2014. In Costa Rica, Gordon-Chipembere focuses on promoting the Afro-descendant  legacy.  For five years, she wrote a monthly column on race and diversity, "Musings from an AfroCosta Rican¨ for the Tico Times, the longest established English language newspaper in Costa Rica. Her first historical fiction novel, Finding La Negrita (part one in a trilogy on AfroCosta Ricans) was published in 2022 (Jaded Ibis Press). It is a re-writing of the Black Madonna narrative in Costa Rica from an Africanist perspective.  Finding La Negrita won the 2023 Silver IPPY Award for Best Historical Fiction and was nominated for a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Best Debut Novel in 2023. Her second work-in-progress, 1710, focuses on the shipwrecks of two Danish slave ships on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica on March 2, 1710. Gordon-Chipembere is the founder and host of the annual Tengo Sed Writing Retreat for writers of color in Costa Rica. She co-edited with Yndia Lorick-Wilmont, Tengo Sed: An Anthology of Works Celebrating Black Voices, Identities, and Personhood (University of Illinois Press 2026), which documents the artistic production of Tengo Sed participants since its inception in 2015. Gordon-Chipembere is a member of a large AfroCosta Rican women advocacy group (CostaRicaAfro) in San Jose which provides mentorship, community discussions and cultural events to highlight the legacy of AfroCosta Ricans, who are not highly visible in the country. Dr. Gordon-Chipembere lectures widely on these issues nationally and internationally.

We're meeting to discuss You've Got a Place Here, Too edited by Ebony LaDelle!

BOOK CLUB MEETING DEETS

When: Tuesday, September 9 @ 7PM CST

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

How: RSVP ONLY to let us know you plan to attend! Support the Romance Book Club by purchasing a copy of the book from Kindred Stories here!

ABOUT You've Got a Place Here, Too: An Anthology of Black Love Stories Set at HBCUs

A heartwarming and unforgettable collection of love stories set at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, exploring hope, endurance, and what it means to leave a legacy, from some of today’s most prominent Black writers and edited by the acclaimed author of Love Radio

Love can be messy, painful, and heartbreaking, but it can also be revolutionary, profound, and hopeful. For Celine, a forbidden crush on a professor evolves into a second chance at romance years later. Myra’s focus on a coveted audition for the Fisk Jubilee Singers is challenged by the handsome music major determined to help her. Kiese investigates the darker side to academia, love, and identity. Like most blessings, love emerges in the most unexpected places—in a training cockpit for new pilots, during a Mardi Gras celebration, or while gathering signatures to start the first-ever LGBTQ+ student organization officially recognized at an HBCU.

These are just a few of the heart-searing, tender, and transporting love stories collected in You’ve Got a Place Here, Too—a true celebration of Black love and the profound impact of HBCUs on the community.

Featuring stories by Elizabeth Acevedo, Jasmine Bell, Carla Bruce, Aaron Foley, Kai Harris, Ebony LaDelle, Kiese Laymon, Christine Platt, Farrah Rochon, Kennedy Ryan, Dawnie Walton, and Nicola Yoon.

Join us as we celebrate author, Chenicia Higgins & the release of D'Vaughn & Kris Plan a Wedding!

Event Deets:

When: Friday, March 18 at 7:00 pm CST

Where:  Project Row Houses Community Gallery - 2521 Holman Street, Houston, TX 77004

How:  Limited in-person tickets are available.  You have the option to grab a ticket for free or purchase the book and ticket.  Only books purchased at the event will be eligible to be signed by the author.

We hope to see you there!

About the Book

D’Vaughn and Kris have six weeks to plan their dream wedding.

Their whole relationship is fake.

Instant I Do could be Kris Zavala’s big break. She’s right on the cusp of really making it as an influencer, so a stint on reality TV is the perfect chance to elevate her brand. And $100,000 wouldn’t hurt, either.

D’Vaughn Miller is just trying to break out of her shell. She’s sort of neglected to come out to her mom for years, so a big splashy fake wedding is just the excuse she needs.

All they have to do is convince their friends and family they’re getting married in six weeks. If anyone guesses they’re not for real, they’re out. Selling their chemistry on camera is surprisingly easy, and it’s still there when no one else is watching, which is an unexpected bonus. Winning this competition is going to be a piece of wedding cake.

But each week of the competition brings new challenges, and soon the prize money’s not the only thing at stake. A reality show isn’t the best place to create a solid foundation, and their fake wedding might just derail their relationship before it even starts

About the Author

Chencia Higgins hails from the big city of Houston in the greatest state of Texas. Writing has been her my passion since she was a young girl, when her subject matter were visions of middle school drama with her group of girlfriends.

She entered the world of publishing in May 2016 with an erotic novella that set the stage for a career in which she would craft engaging tales of Black women being loved up on. She continues to write for women who love to read but are tired of never seeing themselves in the story. 

Higgins proud to be a part of an indie and self-published author community 

When she's not writing, you can find her reading a book (or two, or three), saving recipes that she'll never make on Pinterest, and traveling as much as possible with her family.

About the Moderator

Hailin and Hollin, Kadiedre Henderson is a Black, Queer, Lesbian, and Houston native. She is most precious about the care she brings to herself and others. Through deep listening to the world and stars,  Kadie extends care by providing space for folks to tell their own stories. A lover of stories and storyteller at heart, Kadie started working with books back in 2019 and hasn't left since. A self-proclaimed optimist, Kadie loves Queer YA, Romance, Biographies, and Magic! She is especially excited by stories that speak to navigating grief, trauma, and Black Femme Eroticism. They are so happy to be a team member of the Kindred Stories staff. 

Through his work across many media, Houston and Los Angeles-based artist Vincent Valdez bears witness to the world around him, chronicling an America at the margins. Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream… features work from over twenty years and writings addressing Valdez's work through the lens of politics, history and humanity. Valdez's approach to imaging his country, its people, politics, pride, and foibles includes boxing, lynchings of Mexican Americans, border walls, politics, greed, the Ku Klux Klan, and the failings and triumphs of American society. Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream… accompanies survey exhibitions of his work by the same name at the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston (CAMH) in 2024-5 and MASS MoCA in 2025-6. The bilingual (English/Spanish) publication features both full-color works and a gatefold for The Strangest Fruit as well as a sewn-in booklet of behind-the-scenes studio images. Texts include a reprint of Joyce Carol Oates' On Boxing, essays by exhibition co-curators Denise Markonish and Patricia Restrepo; and a text by Evan Garza on the artist's relationship to Texas.

Join us as we celebrate the release of God is a Black Woman by Dr. Christena Cleveland.

God Is a Black Woman presents a powerful critique of a society shaped by white patriarchal Christianity and culture. Cleveland reveals how America’s collective idea of God as a white man has perpetuated hurt, hopelessness, and racial and gender oppression. Integrating womanist ideology, and theological, historical, and social science research, she invites readers to take seriously the truth that God is not white nor male and points to a new path for connecting with the divine and honoring the sacredness of all Black people.

Christena Cleveland Ph.D. is a social psychologist, public theologian, author, and activist. She is the founder and director of the Center for Justice + Renewal as well as its sister organization, Sacred Folk, which creates resources to stimulate people’s spiritual imaginations and support their journeys toward liberation. An award-winning researcher and. An award-winning researcher and a former professor at Duke University’s Divinity School, Christena’s work has appeared in magazines ranging from Essence to Christianity Today. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts. 

EVENT DEETS:

When: Friday, February 11 at 6:30 PM CST

Where: Virtual via Crowdcast.  You can register using this event page or directly through Crowdcast.

How:  Registration is required.  You can RSVP with a book purchase or without a book purchase.  We appreciate your support of our store by purchasing the book with us.  This empowers us to continue bringing amazing author programming to Houston and beyond.

Join us for our monthly book club. Our August pick is Zyla and Kia by Kristina Forest.

Book club will happen Wednesday, September 25 at 7:00 PM in the Kindred Stories Reading Garden. RSVP required. See ya'll there!

About the Book

A fresh love story about the will they, won't they—and why can't they—of first love. 

While on a school trip to the Poconos Mountains (in the middle of a storm) high school seniors, Zyla Matthews and Kai Johnson, run away together leaving their friends and family confused. As far as everyone knows, Zyla and Kai have been broken up for months. And honestly? Their break up hadn't surprised anyone. Zyla and Kai met while working together at an amusement park the previous summer, and they couldn't have been more different.
 
Zyla was a cynic about love. She'd witnessed the dissolution of her parents' marriage early in life, and it left an indelible impression. Her only aim was graduating and going to fashion school abroad. Until she met Kai.
 
Kai was a serial dater and a hopeless romantic. He'd put a temporary pause on his dating life before senior year to focus on school and getting into his dream HBCU. Until he met Zyla.
 
Alternating between the past and present, we see the love story unfold from Zyla's and Kai's perspectives: how they first became the unlikeliest of friends over the summer, how they fell in love during the school year, and why they ultimately broke up... Or did they?
 
Romantic, heart-stirring, and a little mysterious, Zyla & Kai will keep readers guessing until the last chapter. 

Join us for the official launch event of Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood & Myth with author, Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton and artist, Delita Martin. 

Event DEETS

When: March 7, 2023 at 7PM CST

Where: Project Row House Community Gallery (2521 Holman Street, HTX 77004)

How: Please RSVP reserve your spot. Checkout for RSVP with Book to support our store and the author/artists. 

About Black Chameleon

In the literary tradition of Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, and Jesmyn Ward’s Men We Reaped, this debut memoir confronts both the challenges and joys of growing up Black and making your own truth.

Growing up as a Black girl in America, Deborah Mouton felt alienated from the stories she learned in class. She yearned for stories she felt connected to—true ones of course—but also fables and mythologies that could help explain both the world and her place in it. What she encountered was almost always written by white writers who prospered in a time when human beings were treated as chattel, such as the Greek and Roman myths, which felt as dusty and foreign as ancient ruins. When she sought myths written by Black authors, they were rooted too far in the past, a continent away.

Mouton writes, “The phrases of my mother and grandmother began to seem less colloquial and more tied to stories that had been lost along the way. . . . Mythmaking isn’t a lie. It is our moment to take the privilege of our own creativity to fill in the gaps that colonization has stolen from us. It is us choosing to write the tales that our children pull strength from. It is hijacking history for the ignorance in its closets. This, a truth that must start with the women.”

Mouton’s memoir is a song of praise and an elegy for Black womanhood. With a poet’s gift for lyricism and poignancy, Mouton reflects on her childhood as the daughter of a preacher and a harsh but loving mother, living in the world as a Black woman whose love is all too often coupled with danger, and finally learning to be a mother to another Black girl in America. Of the moment yet timeless, playful but incendiary, Mouton has staked out new territory in the memoir form.

About Deborah DEEP Mouton

Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton is an internationally known writer, educator, activist, and performer and the first Black poet laureate of Houston, Texas. She was formerly ranked the #2 Best Female Performance Poet in the World (PSI). Her recent poetry collection, Newsworthy, garnered her a Pushcart nomination, was named a finalist for the 2019 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award, and received an honorable mention for the Summerlee Book Prize. Its German translation, under the title Berichtenswert, was released in Summer 2021 by Elif Verlag. The opera Marian’s Song, for which she wrote the libretto, debuted in 2020. 

About Delita Martin

Delita Martin is an artist currently based in Huffman, Texas. She received a BFA in drawing from Texas Southern University and an MFA in printmaking from Purdue University. Formerly a member of the fine arts faculty at UA Little Rock in Arkansas, Martin currently works as a full-time artist in her studio, Black Box Press. Martin’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Most recently Martin’s work was included in the State of the Arts: Discovering American Art Now, an exhibition that included 101 artists from around the United States. Her work is in numerous portfolios and collections.