Johnson looks at various sites of performed blackness, including Marlon Riggs’s influential documentary Black Is . . . Black Ain’t and comedic routines by Eddie Murphy, David Alan Grier, and Damon Wayans. He analyzes nationalist writings by Amiri Baraka and Eldridge Cleaver, the vernacular of black gay culture, an oral history of his grandmother’s experience as a domestic worker in the South, gospel music as performed by a white Australian choir, and pedagogy in a performance studies classroom. By exploring the divergent aims and effects of these performances—ranging from resisting racism, sexism, and homophobia to excluding sexual dissidents from the black community—Johnson deftly analyzes the multiple significations of blackness and their myriad political implications. His reflexive account considers his own complicity, as ethnographer and teacher, in authenticating narratives of blackness.

An inclusive and essential new resource for reproductive health―including period problems, pelvic pain, menopause, fertility, sexual health, vaginal and urinary conditions, and overall wellbeing―from leading expert and fierce advocate Dr. Karen Tang

"Dr. Karen Tang is a literal godsend to women in a time still filled with great ignorance in medical research and financing of women's health initiatives. Please read her book, follow her on Instagram as I have, and feel blessed as I do to have an advocate for our body, our health, and our human rights." ―Sharon Stone

Did you know that up to 90% of women experience menstrual abnormalities or pelvic issues in their lifetime? Yet these conditions are overwhelmingly misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or dismissed. The root causes for these issues, such as PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, ovarian cysts, PMDD, or pelvic floor dysfunction, don’t receive the stream of funding for research and new treatments that other conditions do, despite affecting up to half the population.

Dr. Karen Tang is on a mission to transform how we engage with our bodies and our healthcare. It’s Not Hysteria is a comprehensive guide to common conditions and potential treatment options, with practical tools such as symptom prompts and sample questions for your provider, to equip readers to take control of their gynecologic health.

Reproductive healthcare, from abortion to gender-affirming care, is under siege. The onus continues to fall on patients to find and advocate for the care they need. In the face of uncertainty and misinformation, It’s Not Hysteria is destined to become a new classic that educates and empowers women and those assigned female at birth.

Whitney Graves didn’t build Ellswood’s most respected gallery by playing it safe. She’s spent years cultivating the perfect reputation—and keeping her heart firmly out of frame. What her gallery needs is a masterpiece to cement her legacy. So when whispers surface about a highly coveted private collection, she’s determined to claim it. She just didn’t expect Warner Easton, six-foot-infinity stunner, enigmatic billionaire, reclusive widower, and the estate representative.

Warner isn’t just another powerful man with deep pockets. He’s rebuilding his life, and parting with his late wife’s art is another step toward healing. So when a local gallery’s brochure is hand-delivered along with an invitation to an upcoming exhibit, it feels like a sign. A fresh start. A chance to meet the captivating woman featured inside… not so much the scandalous “Restroom Rendezvous” that makes the next day’s headlines.

Now no other gallery will touch him. And Whit may be his only option.

Soon, Warner asks her to venture to his remote Caribbean island to assess the collection. There’s just one catch: isolation changes everything. Alone in paradise with an unfairly beautiful man as guarded as she is, Whit finds herself entangled in more than brushstrokes and contracts. As secrets surface and an unexpected art thief closes in, what begins as a high-stakes acquisition turns dangerous. And if they’re not careful, surviving may be the least of their worries—a second chance at love could leave their hearts in ruins.

Perfect for our lovers of fiction that read for enjoyment and to escape after a long day. With this monthly subscription, you'll receive a frontlist hardcover book (books published less than one year ago) written by a Black author. The books selected for this subscription group will be recommendations from our team and mostly focus on contemporary fiction titles.

What you get: A mix of hardcover and paperback frontlist and backlist books.

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When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have one explanation . . . Maddy did it.

An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she’s dealt with it since she had more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She had been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington.

After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High’s racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan: host the first integrated prom as a show of unity. Popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it’s possible to have a normal life. But some of her classmates aren’t done with her just yet. And they don’t know that Maddy still has another secret . . . one that will cost them all their lives.

This richly illustrated and vastly inclusive collection uplifts the works of authors who are often underrepresented in the literary world. Using their keen knowledge and deep love for all things literary, coauthors Jamise Harper (founder of the Diverse Spines book community) and Jane Mount (author of Bibliophile) collaborated to create an essential volume filled with treasures for every reader:

• Dozens of themed illustrated book stacks—like Classics, Contemporary Fiction, Mysteries, Cookbooks, and more—all with an emphasis on authors of color and authors from diverse cultural backgrounds
• A look inside beloved bookstores owned by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color
• Reading recommendations from leading BIPOC literary influencers

Diversify your reading list to expand your world and shift your perspective. Kickstart your next literary adventure now!

*ships in 7 - 10 business days*

A New York Times Notable Book

Daring and fiercely original, The Women is at once a memoir, a psychological study, a sociopolitical manifesto, and an incisive adventure in literary criticism. It is conceived as a series of portraits analyzing the role that sexual and racial identity played in the lives and work of the writer's subjects: his mother, a self-described "Negress," who would not be defined by the limitations of race and gender; the mother of Malcolm X, whose mixed-race background and eventual descent into madness contributed to her son's misogyny and racism; brilliant, Harvard-educated Dorothy Dean, who rarely identified with other blacks or women, but deeply empathized with white gay men; and the late Owen Dodson, a poet and dramatist who was female-identified and who played an important role in the author's own social and intellectual formation.

Hilton Als submits both racial and sexual stereotypes to his inimitable scrutiny with relentless humor and sympathy. The results are exhilarating. The Women is that rarest of books: a memorable work of self-investigation that creates a form of all its own.

Towards What Hurt is a debut poetry collection structured as a ceremony.

In three movements - The Portal Opens, The Wildfire, and The Return - Detroit writer adria moses takes the reader from preparation, through fire, and into return.

Drawing on 15 years of writing through chronic illness, major surgery, domestic violence, and childhood abuse, these poems treat the body as archive and altar. They refuse the demand that healing be soft, worthiness be earned, or survival be quiet.

This is not a wellness book. It is a ceremony in poems that do not flinch. That witness. That burn. That restore.

For the hurt and the healed. For survivors and seekers. For anyone who has chosen to stay awake in a world that rewards numbness.

Towards what hurt is the way home.

Mosley presents distinct characters as they struggle to move through the world in each of these stories—heroes who are awkward, nerdy, self-defeating, self-involved, and, on the whole, odd. He overturns the stereotypes that corral black male characters and paints a subtle, powerful portrait of each of these unique individuals. In "The Good News Is," a man’s insecurity about his weight gives way to a serious illness and the intense loneliness that accompanies it. Deeply vulnerable, he allows himself to be taken advantage of in return for a little human comfort in a raw display of true need. "Pet Fly," previously published in the New Yorker, follows a man working as a mailroom clerk for a big company—a solitary job for which he is overqualified—and the unforeseen repercussions he endures when he attempts to forge a connection beyond the one he has with the fly buzzing around his apartment. And "Almost Alyce" chronicles failed loves, family loss, alcoholism, and a Zen approach to the art of begging that proves surprisingly effective.

A collectible hardcover edition of the beloved novel about a New York City girlhood that heralded a renaissance in Black women’s literature, with a new foreword by Nicole Dennis-Benn, the bestselling author of Patsy and Here Comes the Sun

One of The New York Times Magazine’s 25 Most Significant New York City Novels from the Last 100 Years

A Penguin Vitae Edition

Selina Boyce comes of age in 1940s New York as the daughter of two immigrants from Barbados: a free-spirited father she adores and who dreams of returning to his Caribbean island home, and a disciplined, hardworking mother she admires and who is determined to purchase their Brooklyn brownstone. When her father comes into an unexpected inheritance, Selina is torn between his nostalgia for the past and her mother’s ambition for the future, all while negotiating racism, sexuality, Depression-era poverty, and the competing values of African Americans and her West Indian immigrant community.

First published in 1959, Brown Girl, Brownstones opened a window into the rich inner life of Black women and today ranks with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as one of the great New York City novels. With her autobiographical debut, Paule Marshall paved the way for Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, and Maya Angelou—and took her place in the American literary canon.

Penguin Vitae—loosely translated as "Penguin of one's life"—is a deluxe hardcover series from Penguin Classics celebrating a dynamic and diverse landscape of classic fiction and nonfiction from seventy-five years of classics publishing. Penguin Vitae provides readers with beautifully designed classics that have shaped the course of their lives, and welcomes new readers to discover these literary gifts of personal inspiration, intellectual engagement, and creative originality.