A soulful collection of illuminating essays and interviews that explore Black people’s spiritual connection to the land and the climate justice crisis, curated by the acclaimed author of Farming While Black.

Author of Farming While Black and co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, Leah Penniman reminds us that ecological humility is an intrinsic part of Black cultural heritage. While racial capitalism has attempted to sever our connection to the sacred earth for 400 years, Black people have long seen the land and water as family and treating the Earth as a home essential.

This thought-provoking anthology brings together today’s most respected and influential Black environmentalist voices. These varied and distinguished experts include Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Alice Walker; the first Queen Mother and official spokesperson for the Gullah/Geechee Nation, Queen Quet; marine biologist, policy expert, and founder and president of Ocean Collectiv, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson; and the Executive Director of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, Land Loss Prevention Project, Savi Horne. These leaders address the essential connection between nature and our survival and how runaway consumption and corporate insatiability are harming the earth and every facet of American society, including racial violence, food apartheid, and climate justice.

Those whose skin is the color of soil are reviving their ancestral and ancient practice of listening to the earth for guidance. Penniman makes clear that the fight for racial and environmental justice demands that Black people put our planet first and defer to nature as our teacher.

From the author of the classic novel Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth is a powerful and brilliantly crafted tale that explores themes of identity, race, and ambition.

"[A] stunning achievement. . . . Ellison sought no less than to create a Book of Blackness, a literary composition of the tradition at its most sublime and fundamental."—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Time

The story follows Adam Sunraider, a race-baiting senator, whose life takes an unexpected turn when he calls for Alonzo Hickman, an old Black minister, to be by his side as he faces a mortal wound. As the two men intimately share their stories and memories, the true shape and substance of the past begin to emerge. 

Here is Ellison, a virtuoso of American vernacular—the preacher’s hyperbole and the politician’s rhetoric, the rhythms of jazz and gospel and ordinary speech—at the height of his powers, telling a moving, evocative tale of a prodigal of the twentieth century. 

With an introduction and additional notes by John F. Callahan, who first compiled Juneteenth out of thousands of manuscript pages in 1999, and a preface by National Book Award-winning author Charles R. Johnson.

“Beautifully written and imaginatively conceived, Juneteenth, like Invisible Man, deserves to be read and reread by generations.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

From family roots to big dreams, global change makers Marley Dias, Dr. Janice Johnson Dias and Scott Dias show how change starts with one brave step...

In this bold affirmation of empowerment, strength, and purpose, activists and global change makers Marley Dias, Dr. Janice Johnson Dias, and Scott Dias introduce their family’s legacy of blazing new trails, rising to meet opportunities, and choosing to seek new lands of promise. When Marley launched the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign, she showed the world that young people can make a difference through action. Now, in this deeply personal narrative, Marley and her parents share the ancestral histories that have forged new opportunities for future generations by reaching for their dreams.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “With a thoughtfully curated series of essays, poetry, and conversations, the brilliant scientist and climate expert Ayana Elizabeth Johnson has assembled a group of dynamic people who are willing to imagine what seems impossible, and articulate those visions with enthusiastic clarity.”—Roxane Gay

Our climate future is not yet written. What if we act as if we love the future?

A SMITHSONIAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Sometimes the bravest thing we can do while facing an existential crisis is imagine life on the other side. This provocative and joyous book maps an inspiring landscape of possible climate futures.

Through clear-eyed essays and vibrant conversations, infused with data, poetry, and art, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson guides us through solutions and possibilities at the nexus of science, policy, culture, and justice. Visionary farmers and financiers, architects and advocates, help us conjure a flourishing future, one worth the effort it will take—from every one of us, with whatever we have to offer—to create.

If you haven’t yet been able to picture a transformed and replenished world—or to see yourself, your loved ones, and your community in it—this book is for you. If you haven’t yet found your role in shaping this new world or you’re not sure how we can actually get there, this book is for you.

With grace, humor, and humanity, Johnson invites readers to ask and answer this ultimate question together: What if we get it right?

On possibility and transformation with:
Paola Antonelli • Xiye Bastida • Jade Begay • Wendell Berry • Régine Clément • Steve Connell • Erica Deeman • Abigail Dillen • Brian Donahue • Jean Flemma • Kelly Sims Gallagher • Rhiana Gunn-Wright • Olalekan Jeyifous • Corley Kenna • Bryan C. Lee Jr. • Franklin Leonard • Adam McKay • Bill McKibben • Kate Marvel • Samantha Montano • Kate Orff • Leah Penniman • Marge Piercy • Colette Pichon Battle • Kendra Pierre-Louis • Judith D. Schwartz • Jigar Shah • Ayisha Siddiqa • Bren Smith • Oana Stănescu • Mustafa Suleyman • Jacqueline Woodson

Event DEETS: 

When:  Tuesday, July 26, 2022 @ 7:00 PM CST

Where: Assembly HTX (2015 Berry Street, HTX 77004)

How: Limited in person seating available. You can grab a ticket only or get a book with your ticket. Only books purchased from Kindred Stories will be eligible for the signing line. 

About the Book

Koffi has saved her city and the boy she loves, but at a terrible price. Now a servant to the cunning god of death, she must  use her newfound power to further his continental conquest, or risk the safety of her home and loved ones. As she  reluctantly learns to survive amidst unexpected friends and foes, she will also have to choose between the life—and love— she once had, or the one she could have, if she truly embraces her dangerous gifts. 

Cast out from the only home he’s ever known, Ekon is forced to strike new and unconventional alliances to find and rescue  Koffi before it’s too late. But as he gets closer to the realm of death each day, so too does he draw nearer to a terrible  truth—one that could cost everything. 

Koffi and Ekon—separated by land, sea, and gods—will have to risk everything to reunite again. But the longer they’re  kept apart, the more each of their loyalties are tested. Soon, both may have to reckon with changing hearts—and maybe,  changing destinies.

About the Author

Ayana Gray is a New York Times bestselling young adult fantasy author and a lover of all things monsters, mythos, and magic. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, she now lives in Little  Rock, Arkansas, where she reads avidly, follows Formula One racing, and worries over the varying moods of her adopted baby black rhino, Apollo, and her mini goldendoodle, Dolly.  Her debut novel, Beasts of Prey, is being adapted for feature film.  

About the Moderator

J. Elle is the author of the instant New York Times and Indie bestseller Wings of Ebony, a YA novel about a Black teen who must lean into her ancestor’s magic to protect her inner-city community from drugs, violence, and crime. Ms. magazine calls it “the debut fantasy we need right now.” She also wrote its sequel, Ashes of Gold. Elle is a former educator and first-generation college student with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s in educational administration and human development. When she’s not writing, Elle can be found mentoring aspiring writers, binging reality TV, loving on her three littles, or cooking up something true to her Louisiana roots.