Celebrating Black History Month

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A fun and fact-filled introduction to the dismissed Black art masters and models who shook up the world. Elegant. Refined. Exclusionary. Interrupted. The foundations of the fine art world are shaking. Beyoncé and Jay-Z break the internet by blending modern Black culture with fine art in their iconic music video filmed in the Louvre. Kehinde Wiley powerfully subverts European masterworks. Calls resonate for diversity in museums and the resignations of leaders of the old guard. It's clear that modern day museums can no longer exist without change--and without recognizing that Black people have been a part of the Western art world since its beginnings. Quietly held within museum and private collections around the world are hundreds of faces of Black men and women, many of their stories unknown. From paintings of majestic kings to a portrait of a young girl named Isabella in Amsterdam, these models lived diverse lives while helping shape the art world along the way. Then, after hundreds of years of Black faces cast as only the subject of the white gaze, a small group of trailblazing Black American painters and sculptors reached national and international fame, setting the stage for the flourishing of Black art in the 1920s and beyond. Captivating and informative, BLK ART is an essential work that elevates a globally dismissed legacy to its proper place in the mainstream art canon. From the hushed corridors of royal palaces to the bustling streets of 1920s Paris--this is Black history like never seen before.--

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A girl who believes in UFOs; a boy who might have finally found his Prince Charming; a hopeful performer who dreams of being cast in her school's production of The Sound of Music; a misunderstood magician of sorts with a power she doesn't quite understand. These plotlines and many more compose the eclectic stories found within the pages of this dynamic, exciting, and expansive collection featuring exclusively Black characters. From contemporary to historical, fantasy to sci-fi, magical to realistic, and with contributions from a powerhouse list of self-proclaimed geeks and bestselling, award-winning authors, this life-affirming anthology celebrates and redefines the many facets of Blackness and geekiness--both in the real world and those imagined.

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Jonell Joshua spent her childhood shuttling back and forth between Savannah and New Jersey -- living in grandparents' homes during the times her mother, struggling with mental illness, needed support to raise her and her brothers. Together the family found a way to keep going even in the darkest of times. How Do I Draw These Memories? is an illustrated memoir about nostalgia, faith, the preciousness of life, and unconditional love.

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The seven-time NAACP Image Award-winning poet unapologetically celebrates her heritage in a deeply personal collection of verse that speaks to the injustices of society and the depths of her own heart.

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Farah Jasmine Griffin's beloved father died when she was nine, bequeathing her an unparalleled inheritance in closets full of remarkable books and other records of Black genius. In Read Until You Understand - a line from a note he wrote to her - she shares a lifetime of discoveries: the ideas that framed the United States Constitution and that inspired Malcolm X's fervent speeches, the soulful music of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, the daring literature of Phillis Wheatley and Toni Morrison, the artistry of Romare Bearden, and many others. Having taught a popular Columbia University survey course of Black literature, she explores themes such as grace, justice, rage, self-determination, beauty, and mercy to help readers grapple with the ongoing project that is American democracy. Joining her experiences in Black communities with her immersion in the glorious works of Black artists, [this] is a powerful testament to the enduring wisdom of Black culture and history--

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More than one hundred years ago, the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, perpetrated a massacre against its Black residents. For generations, the true story was ignored, covered up, and diminished by those in power and in a position to preserve the status quo. Blending memoir and immersive journalism, RJ Young shows how, today, Tulsa combats its racist past while remaining all too tolerant of racial injustice.Requiem for the Massacre is a cultural excavation of Tulsa one hundred years after one of the worst acts of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Young focuses on unearthing the narrative surrounding previously all-Black Greenwood district while challenging an apocryphal narrative that includes so-called Black Wall Street, Booker T. Washington, and Black exceptionalism. Young provides a firsthand account of the centennial events commemorating Tulsa's darkest day as the city attempts to reckon with its self-image, commercialization of its atrocity, and the aftermath of the massacre that shows how things have changed and how they have stayed woefully the same...--Provided by publisher.

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In the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, a loose circle of lovers and friends encounter, confront, and provoke one another in a volatile year of self-discovery. At the group's center are Seamus, a frustrated young poet; Ivan, a dancer turned aspiring banker who dabbles in amateur pornography; Fatima, whose independence and work ethic complicates her relationships with friends and a trusted mentor; and Noah, who didn't seek sex out so much as it came up to him like an anxious dog in need of affection. As each prepares for an uncertain future, the group heads to a cabin to bid goodbye to their former lives--- a moment of reckoning that leaves each of them irrevocably altered. -- adapted from jacket

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Thought-provoking poems that challenge preconceptions of form and style while focusing on themes of everyday experience, class, politics, literature, and more.

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Jada Williams is good at judging people by their looks. From across the mall, she can tell not only someone's inseam and pants size, but exactly what style they need to transform their life. Too bad she's no longer using this superpower as a wardrobe designer to Hollywood stars, but for minimum wage plus commission at the Glendale mall. When Jada is fired yet again, she is forced to outrun the newly instated Debt Police who are out for blood. But Jada, like any great antihero, is not going to wait for the cops to come kick her around. With the help of two other debt-burdened mall coworkers, she hatches a plan for revenge. Together the three women plan a heist to erase their student loans forever and get back at the system that promised them everything and then tried to take it back--

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Joining the ranks of Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Zora Neale Hurston's rediscovered classic Barracoon, an immersive and revelatory history of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to land on US soil, told through the stories of its survivors--the last documented survivors of any slave ship--whose lives diverged and intersected in profound ways--

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Set in New York City in the '90s, the author's poems and stories paint a mosaic of childhood that is shaped by the past and reverberates into the present. As the writer navigates the city through memory, this book illuminates the places where Black girls are nurtured or boxed in, through stories and poems about expectations, exploitation, love, loss, and self-realization. These poems center on pivotal moments of Black childhood, using footnotes that encourage readers to listen to songs, watch movies, and even learn how to play Spades to further contextualize and celebrate Black culture in every aspect of life. But even with Black joy, life ain't no crystal stair. Between fond memories, the writer also explores the dark corners of childhood by showing us the ways adultification, misogynoir, and sexual assault can impact girlhood. Every piece in this poetic memoir invites you to unpack the past - to find and transcend the expectations and boxes the world puts Black girls in. --

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When #BlackLivesMatter emerged in 2013, it animated the most consequential Black-led mobilization since the civil rights and Black power era. Today, the hashtag turned rallying cry is but one expression of a radical reorientation toward Black politics, protest, and political thought. Christopher Paul Harris examines the spirit and significance of this insurgency, offering an account of a new political culture--responsive to pain, suffused with joy, and premised on care--emerging from the centuries-long arc of Black rebellion, a tradition that traces back to the Black slave. Drawing on his own experiences as an activist and organizer, Harris takes readers inside the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) to chart the propulsive trajectory of Black politics and thought from the Middle Passage to the present historical moment. Carefully attending to the social forces that produce Black struggle and the contradictions that arise within it, Harris illustrates how M4BL gives voice to an abolitionist praxis that bridges the past, present, and future, outlining a political project at once directed inward to the Black community while issuing an outward challenge to the world. --From publisher's description.

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In 2018, the author's New York Times Magazine article on maternal and infant mortality among Black mothers and babies in America caused an awakening. Hundreds of studies had previously established a link between racial discrimination and the health of Black Americans, with little progress toward solutions. But the author's article exposing that a Black woman with a college education is as likely to die or nearly die in childbirth as a white woman with an eighth grade education made racial disparities in health care impossible to ignore. Now, in this book, she lays bare the forces in the American health-care system and in American society that cause Black people to live sicker and die quicker compared to their white counterparts. Twenty-first century medical texts and instruments still carry fallacious slavery-era assumptions that Black bodies are fundamentally different from white bodies. Study after study of medical settings show worse treatment and outcomes for Black patients. Black people live in dirtier, more polluted communities due to environmental racism and neglect from all levels of government. And, most powerfully, the author describes the new understanding that coping with the daily scourge of racism ages Black people prematurely. Anchored by unforgettable human stories and offering incontrovertible proof, this book is dramatic, tragic, and necessary reading. --

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When hospitalized for her clinical depression, Whimsy connects with a boy named Faerry, who also suffers from the traumatic loss of a sibling, and together they work to unearth buried memories and battle the fantastical physical embodiment of their depression.

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America is seen through the eyes and ambitions of three characters with ties to Africa in this gripping novel--

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White Supremacy Is All Around arrives as the U.S.'s ongoing racial reckoning has left readers searching for voices they can trust. BIPOC and other intentionally ignored Americans want to feel heard and empowered; organization leaders and allies invested in dismantling white supremacy want a framework for how best to contribute. Dr. Akilah Cadet speaks to all these needs, drawing from her life experiences and work helping leading brands build inclusive and equitable cultures to offer an informed perspective that prioritizes intersectionality. In a series of personal stories told with candor and wit, Dr. Cadet explores the long-term work required to combat structural oppression from her unique vantage point as a Black disabled woman. She tackles everything: from the 2020 summer of allyship and depression caused by workplace discrimination to navigating disability and building a consulting business, all with a little inspo from Beyoncé. A powerful call for true accompliceship for non-Black people, and a way for Black people to see and celebrate themselves. White Supremacy Is All Around ushers in a new voice that is timely, urgent, and essential--and a vision we all need now--

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Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see black youth seated together in the cafeteria. Of course, it's not just the black kids sitting together--the white, Latino, Asian Pacific, and, in some regions, American Indian youth are clustered in their own groups, too. The same phenomenon can be observed in college dining halls, faculty lounges, and corporate cafeterias. What is going on here? Is this self-segregation a problem we should try to fix, or a coping strategy we should support? How can we get past our reluctance to talk about racial issues to even discuss it? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, asserts that we do not know how to talk about our racial differences: Whites are afraid of using the wrong words and being perceived as racist while parents of color are afraid of exposing their children to painful racial realities too soon. Using real-life examples and the latest research, Tatum presents strong evidence that straight talk about our racial identities-whatever they may be-is essential if we are serious about facilitating communication across racial and ethnic divides. This remarkable book, infused with great wisdom and humanity, has already helped hundreds of thousands of readers figure out where to start. These topics have only become more urgent in recent years, as the national conversation about race has become increasingly acrimonious-and sometimes violent. This fully revised and updated edition is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand-and perhaps someday fix-the problem of segregation in America--

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Weeks ago, Andre Cobb received a much-needed liver transplant. He passes out and wakes up somewhere totally unexpected... in 1969, where he connects with Michael. Just as suddenly, he slips back to present-day Boston, where the family of his donor is waiting to explain that his new liver came with a side effect-- the ability to time travel. They task their youngest son, Blake, with teaching Andre how to use his unexpected new gift. Andre splits his time between the past and future, between Michael and Blake. Torn between two boys, one in the past and one in the present, Andre has to figure out where he belongs--and, more importantly, who he wants to be--before the consequences of jumping in time catch up to him and change his future for good.--