Through images and texts both historical and contemporary, this book looks at the Great Migration and its profound and ongoing impactThis thoughtful interweaving of text and imagery presents a variety of perspectives on the Great Migration (1915–70), the mass exodus and dispersion of millions of African Americans out of the South. Through archival photography, newspaper clippings, maps, journal articles, book excerpts, and ephemera such as family recipes, the book immerses readers in Black history, the Great Migration, and its legacy. The book includes texts by authors ranging from W. E. B. Du Bois and Jean Toomer to Toni Tipton-Martin and culminates in a candid roundtable discussion about familial migration stories among some of the most respected Black artists, writers, and scholars working today: Theaster Gates, Kiese Laymon, Carrie Mae Weems, and others. The material is presented in three unique, thematic sections that explore the Great Migration’s impact on the American city, Black Southern foodways, and cultural expression. Taken as a whole, this important volume provides powerful testimony to the systemic challenges such as social segregation, racism, and discrimination that Black communities have faced from the post-Emancipation period to the present moment. BIO Jessica Bell Brown is curator and department head of contemporary art at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Ryan N. Dennis is chief curator and artistic director of the Center for Art & Public Exchange at the Mississippi Museum of Art. [H] Yale University Press / June 21, 2022 ﻿1.5" H x 10.5" L x 8.2" W (3.45 lbs) 320 pages

Image

Cover

String

ProductOption

A Movement in Every Direction: A Great Migration Critical Reader /// edited by Jessica Bell Brown and Ryan N. Dennis

Product

MoneyV2

SelectedOption

Hardcover

ProductVariant

UnitPriceMeasurement

From a highly lauded modern voice in feminism and racial justice comes a deeply personal and insightful testament to the power of reimagining to dismantle the frameworks and systems that no longer serve us while building new ones that do.There are breaking points in all our lives when we realize that the way things have been done before just don’t work for us anymore, be it the way we approach our relationships, our belief systems, our work, our education, even our rest. For activist, philanthropist, and CEO Rachel E. Cargle, reimagining—the act of creating in our minds that which does not exist but that we believe can and should—has been a lifelong process. Reimagining served as the most powerful catalyst for Cargle’s personal transformation from a small-town Christian wife to an incisive queer feminist voice of a generation.In A Renaissance of Our Own, we witness the sometimes painful but always inspiring breaking points in Cargle’s life that fostered a truer identity. These defining moments offer a blueprint for how we must all use our imagination—the space that sees beyond limits—to live in alignment with our highest values and to craft a world independent of oppressive structures, both personal and societal. Cargle now invites you to acknowledge ways of being that stem from societal expectations instead of your personal truth, and to embark on a renaissance of your own. She provides the very tools and prompts that she used to unearth her own truth, tools that opened her up to being a more authentic feminist and purpose-driven matriarchal leader. A Renaissance of Our Own gives us the courage to look at the world and say “I want something different.” It serves as a reminder of the power and possibility of reimagining a life that feels right, all the way down to the marrow of your bones. BIO Rachel E. Cargle is an activist, entrepreneur, and philanthropic innovator. She is the founder of The Loveland Group, a family of companies including Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre, a literary space that celebrates marginalized voices, and The Great Unlearn, an adult learning platform that centers the teaching of BIPOC thinkers. In 2018, she founded The Loveland Foundation, offering free access to mental health care for Black women and girls. Cargle is a regular contributor to Cultured magazine, Atmos, and The Cut, and her work has been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. REVIEWS “Dazzling—a loving, bold tale of imagination, bravery, and radical action in the face of injustice . . . Through an account of Cargle’s own complicated life journey, she provides a framework for our own acts of courage as brutality threatens to strip us of humanity.” -- Elle“I loved and admired this book as much as I have always loved and admired its author. Rachel Cargle is that rare sort of phoenix who rises from the ashes of her life not only reborn on the personal level but also fully ready to change the world. A Renaissance of Our Own is an elegant, thoughtful, vulnerable, and inspiring memoir. May this book land in a million hands, all over the world.” -- Elizabeth Gilbert, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Magic“Magical. Shape-shifting. Cargle recounts how she spun silk out of the threadbare yarns of patriarchy and white supremacy while reminding readers that such alchemy is possible for them, too. Such wonder is inevitable if we give ourselves permission to reimagine our existence and re-create ourselves in our own divine image.” -- Sonya Renee Taylor, New York Times bestselling author of The Body Is Not an Apology“What a beautiful offering and gentle invitation Rachel Cargle has extended with A Renaissance of Our Own. I felt the pull to really slow down and sit with both her stories and my own. This book is not meant to be simply consumed but explored.” -- Joy Harden Bradford, PhD, founder of the award-winning Therapy for Black Girls and author of Sisterhood Heals“A profoundly moving and powerful story of how one woman transformed both herself and her community while giving us the tools to do the same . . . Rachel shows that the closer we get to our own true light, the brighter we may shine for the world. You will celebrate, you will mourn, but ultimately you will leave these pages changed for the better.” -- Gabrielle Union, New York Times bestselling author of We’re Going to Need More Wine [H] Ballantine Books / May 16, 2023 1.2" H x 8.4" L x 5.9" W (0.85 lbs) 256 pages

A Renaissance of Our Own /// Rachel E. Cargle

The past as a building block of a more affirming and hopeful future As early as the eighteenth century, white Americans and Europeans believed that people of African descent could not experience nostalgia. As a result, black lives have been predominately narrated through historical scenes of slavery and oppression. This phenomenon created a missing archive of romantic historical memories. Badia Ahad-Legardy mines literature, visual culture, performance, and culinary arts to form an archive of black historical joy for use by the African-descended. Her analysis reveals how contemporary black artists find more than trauma and subjugation within the historical past. Drawing on contemporary African American culture and recent psychological studies, Ahad-Legardy reveals nostalgia's capacity to produce positive emotions. Afro-nostalgia emerges as an expression of black romantic recollection that creates and inspires good feelings even within our darkest moments. Original and provocative, Afro-Nostalgia offers black historical pleasure as a remedy to contend with the disillusionment of the present and the traumas of the past. BIO Badia Ahad-Legardy is an associate professor in the Department of English and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at Loyola University Chicago. She is the author of Freud Upside Down: African American Literature and Psychoanalytic Culture. REVIEWS "If you've been waiting for a book that steps out of trauma-time and the perpetual present of slavery clear-eyed and with its critical faculties alight, you've found it. Badia Ahad-Legardy breathes gentle and sweet smelling fresh air into stale corners in her book on Afro-Nostalgia, which cogently analyzes and affectively affirms Black cultural producers and chefs who treat the past less as an ongoing traumatic wound and more as a surrealistic space of black historical regenerative possibility and happiness. A gem." --Avery Gordon, author of Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination "This thoroughly researched book seeks and sheds light on the spaces where Black joy can live and flourish. Though its tone is academic, its insights reach far beyond the classroom.... a worthy addition to any multicultural studies library and to readers interested in American culture." --Museum of Americana "An important dissection of looking beyond the traumas of the past to find the happiness that existed (and exists) within the Black community. " --Library Journal [P] University of Illinois Press / April 12, 2021 ﻿0.7" H x 8.9" L x 6.0" W (0.75 lbs) 240 pages

Afro-Nostalgia: Feeling Good in Contemporary Black Culture /// Badia Ahad-Legardy

Paperback

Discover the untold story of African surf culture in this glorious and colorful collection of profiles, essays, photographs, and illustrations. AFROSURF is the first book to capture and celebrate the surfing culture of Africa. This unprecedented collection is compiled by Mami Wata, a Cape Town surf company that fiercely believes in the power of African surf. Mami Wata brings together its co-founder Selema Masekela and some of Africa's finest photographers, thinkers, writers, and surfers to explore the unique culture of eighteen coastal countries, from Morocco to Somalia, Mozambique, South Africa, and beyond. Packed with over fifty essays, AFROSURF features surfer and skater profiles, thought pieces, poems, photos, illustrations, ephemera, recipes, and a mini comic, all wrapped in an astounding design that captures the diversity and character of Africa. A creative force of good in their continent, Mami Wata sources and manufactures all their wares in Africa and works with communities to strengthen local economies through surf tourism. With this mission in mind, Mami Wata is donating 100% of their proceeds to support two African surf therapy organizations, Waves for Change and Surfers Not Street Children. BIO Mami Wata is an African surf brand whose mission is to be a creative force for good in Africa. They manufacture their products in Africa to create jobs and build skills, support the African surf therapy organization Waves for Change, and help strengthen African surf tourism to grow local economies. They are located in Cape Town. Selema Masekela is a beloved commentator, journalist, host, activist, and Emmy-nominated producer best known for his work across VICE, E!, ESPN/ABC, National Geographic, Red Bull Media House, and beyond. He is a co-founder of Mami Wata and lives in Los Angeles, California. Ten Speed Press / June 15, 2021 1.3" H x 11.1" L x 8.6" W (3.7 lbs) 320 pages

Afrosurf /// Mami Wata with foreword by Selema Masekela

In the tradition of The Glass Castle, this "gorgeous" (The New York Times, Editors' Choice) and deeply felt memoir from Whiting Award winner Nadia Owusu tells the "incredible story" (Malala Yousafzai) about the push and pull of belonging, the seismic emotional toll of family secrets, and the heart it takes to pull through. "In Aftershocks, Nadia Owusu tells the incredible story of her young life. How does a girl--abandoned by her mother at age two and orphaned at thirteen when her beloved father dies--find her place in the world? This memoir is the story of Nadia creating her own solid ground across countries and continents. I know the struggle of rebuilding your life in an unfamiliar place. While some of you might be familiar with that and some might not, I hope you'll take as much inspiration and hope from her story as I did." --MALALA YOUSAFZAI ​ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2021 SELECTED BY VULTURE AND TIME MAGAZINE! Young Nadia Owusu followed her father, a United Nations official, from Europe to Africa and back again. Just as she and her family settled into a new home, her father would tell them it was time to say their goodbyes. The instability wrought by Nadia's nomadic childhood was deepened by family secrets and fractures, both lived and inherited. Her Armenian American mother, who abandoned Nadia when she was two, would periodically reappear, only to vanish again. Her father, a Ghanaian, the great hero of her life, died when she was thirteen. After his passing, Nadia's stepmother weighed her down with a revelation that was either a bombshell secret or a lie, rife with shaming innuendo. With these and other ruptures, Nadia arrived in New York as a young woman feeling stateless, motherless, and uncertain about her future, yet eager to find her own identity. What followed, however, were periods of depression in which she struggled to hold herself and her siblings together. "A magnificent, complex assessment of selfhood and why it matters" ( Elle), Aftershocks depicts the way she hauled herself from the wreckage of her life's perpetual quaking, the means by which she has finally come to understand that the only ground firm enough to count on is the one written into existence by her own hand. "Full of narrative risk and untrammeled lyricism" (The Washington Post), Aftershocks joins the likes of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and William Styron's Darkness Visible, and does for race identity what Maggie Nelson does for gender identity in The Argonauts. BIO Nadia Owusu is a Brooklyn-based writer and urban planner. She is the recipient of a 2019 Whiting Award. Her lyric essay So Devilish a Fire won the Atlas Review chapbook contest. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Granta, The Guardian, Bon Appétit, Electric Literature, The Paris Review Daily, and Catapult. Aftershocks is her first book. REVIEWS "'I have lived in disaster, and disaster has lived in me, ' writes one of the literary world's most promising new voices, Nadia Owusu, in this astonishing memoir. After her mother left and her father died, Owusu became a woman of many homelands and identities: she grew up in many countries including Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, Italy, and the UK. [ Aftershocks] is Owusu's account of hauling herself out of the wreckage; an intimate look behind the division of today's world." --RED (UK) "Aftershocks is more than just a book--it is delicate, intricate choreography. This memoir is a testimony to how certain books and writers can tell you their story in a way that mirrors your own. Even if the facts of that story are different, the emotion is familiar. Owusu is that writer. She has created a book full of shared emotional memories and I wanted to sit in those memories with her for as long as I could. Nadia Owusu is powerful, beautiful, poetic, and Aftershocks is a testimony to her commitment to constructing towering, lovingly-rendered sentences. Quite simply, Aftershocks is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read." --BASSEY IKPI, New York Times bestselling author of I'm Lying but I'm telling the Truth "Nadia Owusu's Aftershocks bleeds honesty. It is a majestically rendered telling of all the history, hurt and love a body can contain. A wonderful work of art made of so many stories and histories it is bursting with both harshness and perseverance. An incredible debut."-- NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH, author of New York Times bestseller Friday Black [H] Simon & Schuster / January 12, 2021 1.1" H x 8.5" L x 5.5" W (1.01 lbs) 320 pages

Aftershocks: A Memoir /// Nadia Owusu

The acclaimed first volume in feminist icon bell hooks' Love Song to the Nation," All About Love is a revelation about what causes a polarized society and how to heal the divisions that cause suffering. Here is the truth about love, and inspiration to help us instill caring, compassion, and strength in our homes, schools, and workplaces. "The word 'love' is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb," writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society bereft with lovelessness--not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society's failure to provide a model for learning to love. As bell hooks uses her incisive mind to explore the question "What is love?" her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Razing the cultural paradigm that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and for a nation. The Utne Reader declared bell hooks one of the "100 Visionaries Who Can Change Your Life." All About Love is a powerful, timely affirmation of just how profoundly her revelations can change hearts and minds for the better. BIO bell hooks is an influential cultural critic, feminist theorist, and writer. Celebrated as one of America's leading public intellectuals, she is a charismatic speaker and writer who teaches and lectures around the world. Previously a professor in the English departments at Yale University and Oberlin College, hooks is the author of more than 17 books, including All About Love: New Visions; Salvation: Black People and Love; Communion: the Female Search for Love, as well as the landmark memoir Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood. REVIEWS "Each offering from bell hooks is a major event, as she has so much to give us." --Maya Angelou "She provides a refreshing spiritual treatise that steps outside the confines of the intellect and into the wilds of the heart." --Seattle Weekly "Like love, this book is worth the commitment." --Toronto Sun [P] William Morrow & Company / January 30, 2018 0.7" H x 8.0" L x 5.3" W (0.52 lbs) 272 pages

All About Love: New Visions /// bell hooks

A New York Times Bestseller! Optioned for television by Gabrielle Union Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, Today Show, and MSNBC feature stories Velshi Banned Book Club Amazon Best Book of the Year Indie Bestseller Teen Vogue Recommended Read Buzzfeed Recommended Read People Magazine Best Book of the Summer A New York Library Best Book of 2020 A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2020 ... and more!In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys.Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren't Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson's emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults. BIO George M. Johnson is a writer and activist based in New York. They have written on race, gender, sex, and culture for Essence, the Advocate, BuzzFeed News, Teen Vogue, and more than forty other national publications. George has appeared on BuzzFeed’s AM2DM as well as on MSNBC. All Boys Aren’t Blue is their debut, and was an Amazon Best Book of the Year, an Indie Bestseller, a People Magazine Best Book of the Year, and optioned for television by Gabrielle Union. The New York Times called it "an exuberant, unapologetic memoir infused with a deep but cleareyed love for its subjects." At the time of publication, George used he/him pronouns. Speak with them on Twitter: @IamGMJohnson. iamgmjohnson.com REVIEWS "An exuberant, unapologetic memoir infused with a deep but cleareyed love for its subjects." --The New York Times"This title opens new doors, as the author insists that we don't have to anchor stories such as his to tragic ends: 'Many of us are still here. Still living and waiting for our stories to be told—to tell them ourselves.' A critical, captivating, merciful mirror for growing up black and queer today." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review"An absolute necessity . . . the personal stories and the healing and reconciliation of self in this title are all undeniably honest and relatable—a reminder of our shared imperfection and humanity." --Booklist"The conversational tone will leave readers feeling like they are sitting with an insightful friend . . . This young adult memoir is a contemporary hallmark of the blossoming genre. Johnson anchors the text with encouragement and realistic guidance for queer Black youth." --School Library Journal"Johnson’s debut is a collection of heartfelt personal essays revolving around themes of identity and family . . . In a publishing landscape in need of queer black voices, readers who are sorting through similar concepts will be grateful to join him on the journey." --Publishers Weekly [H] Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr) / April 28, 2022 1.2" H x 8.3" L x 5.7" W (0.85 lbs) 320 pages

All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto /// George M. Johnson

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER - A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft an extraordinary testament to people who are left out of the archives. KIRKUS PRIZE FINALIST - ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post and Publishers Weekly - ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR "Deeply layered and insightful . . . [a] bold reflection on American history, African American resilience, and the human capacity for love and perseverance in the face of soul-crushing madness."--The Washington Post "A history told with brilliance and tenderness and fearlessness."--Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis, the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few precious items as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashley's survival. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the bag in spare yet haunting language--including Rose's wish that "It be filled with my Love always." Ruth's sewn words, the reason we remember Ashley's sack today, evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations. Now, in this illuminating, deeply moving book inspired by Rose's gift to Ashley, historian Tiya Miles carefully unearths these women's faint presence in archival records to follow the paths of their lives--and the lives of so many women like them--to write a singular and revelatory history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States. The search to uncover this history is part of the story itself. For where the historical record falls short of capturing Rose's, Ashley's, and Ruth's full lives, Miles turns to objects and to art as equally important sources, assembling a chorus of women's and families' stories and critiquing the scant archives that for decades have overlooked so many. The contents of Ashley's sack--a tattered dress, handfuls of pecans, a braid of hair, "my Love always"--are eloquent evidence of the lives these women lived. As she follows Ashley's journey, Miles metaphorically unpacks the bag, deepening its emotional resonance and exploring the meanings and significance of everything it contained. All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and of love passed down through generations of women against steep odds. It honors the creativity and fierce resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties even when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today. BIO Tiya Miles is professor of history and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University. She is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship and the Hiett Prize in the Humanities from the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Miles is the author of The Dawn of Detroit, which won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, among other honors, as well as the acclaimed books Ties That Bind, The House on Diamond Hill, The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts, and Tales from the Haunted South, a published lecture series. REVIEWS "Tiya Miles is a gentle genius . . . All That She Carried is a gorgeous book and a model for how to read as well as feel the precious artifacts of Black women's lives." --Imani Perry, author of Breathe: A Letter to My Sons "A brilliant exercise in historical excavation and recovery . . . With creativity, determination, and great insight, Miles illuminates the lives of women who suffered much, but never forgot the importance of love and family." --Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello "Tiya Miles uses the tools of her trade to tend to Black people, to Black mothers and daughters, to our wounds, to collective Black love and loss. This book demonstrates Miles's signature genius in its rare balance of both rigor and care." --Brittney Cooper, author of Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower [H] Random House / June 08, 2021 ﻿1.5" H x 8.35" L x 5.91" W (1.32 lbs) 416 pages

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER - A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft an extraordinary testament to people who are left out of the archives.
KIRKUS PRIZE FINALIST - ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post and Publishers Weekly - ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR 
"Deeply layered and insightful . . . [a] bold reflection on American history, African American resilience, and the human capacity for love and perseverance in the face of soul-crushing madness."--The Washington Post  
"A history told with brilliance and tenderness and fearlessness."--Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States 
In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis, the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few precious items as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashley's survival. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. 
Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the bag in spare yet haunting language--including Rose's wish that "It be filled with my Love always." Ruth's sewn words, the reason we remember Ashley's sack today, evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations. Now, in this illuminating, deeply moving book inspired by Rose's gift to Ashley, historian Tiya Miles carefully unearths these women's faint presence in archival records to follow the paths of their lives--and the lives of so many women like them--to write a singular and revelatory history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States.
The search to uncover this history is part of the story itself. For where the historical record falls short of capturing Rose's, Ashley's, and Ruth's full lives, Miles turns to objects and to art as equally important sources, assembling a chorus of women's and families' stories and critiquing the scant archives that for decades have overlooked so many. The contents of Ashley's sack--a tattered dress, handfuls of pecans, a braid of hair, "my Love always"--are eloquent evidence of the lives these women lived. As she follows Ashley's journey, Miles metaphorically unpacks the bag, deepening its emotional resonance and exploring the meanings and significance of everything it contained.
All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and of love passed down through generations of women against steep odds. It honors the creativity and fierce resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties even when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today.
BIO
<meta charset="UTF-8">Tiya Miles is professor of history and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University. She is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship and the Hiett Prize in the Humanities from the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Miles is the author of The Dawn of Detroit, which won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, among other honors, as well as the acclaimed books Ties That Bind, The House on Diamond Hill, The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts, and Tales from the Haunted South, a published lecture series.
REVIEWS
<meta charset="UTF-8">"Tiya Miles is a gentle genius . . . All That She Carried is a gorgeous book and a model for how to read as well as feel the precious artifacts of Black women's lives." --Imani Perry, author of Breathe: A Letter to My Sons
"A brilliant exercise in historical excavation and recovery . . . With creativity, determination, and great insight, Miles illuminates the lives of women who suffered much, but never forgot the importance of love and family." --Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello
<meta charset="UTF-8">"Tiya Miles uses the tools of her trade to tend to Black people, to Black mothers and daughters, to our wounds, to collective Black love and loss. This book demonstrates Miles's signature genius in its rare balance of both rigor and care." --Brittney Cooper, author of Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
[H] Random House  /  June 08, 2021
﻿1.5" H x 8.35" L x 5.91" W (1.32 lbs) 416 pages

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake /// Tiya Miles

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - Provocative and illuminating essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward. "A powerful read that fills one with, dare I say . . . hope?" --The New York Times NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE There is a renaissance blooming in the climate movement: leadership that is more characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist, rooted in compassion, connection, creativity, and collaboration. While it's clear that women and girls are vital voices and agents of change for this planet, they are too often missing from the proverbial table. More than a problem of bias, it's a dynamic that sets us up for failure. To change everything, we need everyone. All We Can Save illuminates the expertise and insights of dozens of diverse women leading on climate in the United States--scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, teachers, activists, innovators, wonks, and designers, across generations, geographies, and race--and aims to advance a more representative, nuanced, and solution-oriented public conversation on the climate crisis. These women offer a spectrum of ideas and insights for how we can rapidly, radically reshape society. Intermixing essays with poetry and art, this book is both a balm and a guide for knowing and holding what has been done to the world, while bolstering our resolve never to give up on one another or our collective future. We must summon truth, courage, and solutions to turn away from the brink and toward life-giving possibility. Curated by two climate leaders, the book is a collection and celebration of visionaries who are leading us on a path toward all we can save. With essays and poems by: Emily Atkin - Xiye Bastida - Ellen Bass - Colette Pichon Battle - Jainey K. Bavishi - Janine Benyus - adrienne maree brown - Régine Clément - Abigail Dillen - Camille T. Dungy - Rhiana Gunn-Wright - Joy Harjo - Katharine Hayhoe - Mary Annaïse Heglar - Jane Hirshfield - Mary Anne Hitt - Ailish Hopper - Tara Houska, Zhaabowekwe - Emily N. Johnston - Joan Naviyuk Kane - Naomi Klein - Kate Knuth - Ada Limón - Louise Maher-Johnson - Kate Marvel - Gina McCarthy - Anne Haven McDonnell - Sarah Miller - Sherri Mitchell, Weh'na Ha'mu Kwasset - Susanne C. Moser - Lynna Odel - Sharon Olds - Mary Oliver - Kate Orff - Jacqui Patterson - Leah Penniman - Catherine Pierce - Marge Piercy - Kendra Pierre-Louis - Varshini - Prakash - Janisse Ray - Christine E. Nieves Rodriguez - Favianna Rodriguez - Cameron Russell - Ash Sanders - Judith D. Schwartz - Patricia Smith - Emily Stengel - Sarah Stillman - Leah Cardamore Stokes - Amanda Sturgeon - Maggie Thomas - Heather McTeer Toney - Alexandria Villaseñor - Alice Walker - Amy Westervelt - Jane Zelikova BIO Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and Brooklyn native. She is co-founder of the non-profit think tank Urban Ocean Lab, co-founder of the climate initiative The All We Can Save Project, and co-creator of the podcast How to Save a Planet. In 2021, she was named to the Time 100 Next list. Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson is an author, strategist, teacher, and homegrown Atlantan, named one of fifteen "Women Who Will Save the World" by Time. Her writing has been featured in The Drawdown Review and the New York Times bestseller Drawdown, and she is the author of Between God & Green. REVIEWS "A fiery, hopeful manifesto on how to make sense of the staggering loss posed by climate change--and take justice-oriented action in spite of it." --Mashable "Hopeful and illuminating, All We Can Save is an anthology of essays by women at the forefront of the climate crisis. So often climate writing can make us feel doomed and anxious, but this collection is a comfort because of its honesty and courage . . . a reminder that we can work with hope towards a better future." --BuzzFeed [H] One World / September 22, 2020 1.5" H x 9.2" L x 6.5" W (1.74 lbs) 448 pages [P] One World / July 20, 2021 1.02" H x 8.05" L x 5.28" W (1.0 lbs) 448 pages

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - Provocative and illuminating essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward.
"A powerful read that fills one with, dare I say . . . hope?" --The New York Times
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE
There is a renaissance blooming in the climate movement: leadership that is more characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist, rooted in compassion, connection, creativity, and collaboration. While it's clear that women and girls are vital voices and agents of change for this planet, they are too often missing from the proverbial table. More than a problem of bias, it's a dynamic that sets us up for failure. To change everything, we need everyone.
All We Can Save illuminates the expertise and insights of dozens of diverse women leading on climate in the United States--scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, teachers, activists, innovators, wonks, and designers, across generations, geographies, and race--and aims to advance a more representative, nuanced, and solution-oriented public conversation on the climate crisis. These women offer a spectrum of ideas and insights for how we can rapidly, radically reshape society.
Intermixing essays with poetry and art, this book is both a balm and a guide for knowing and holding what has been done to the world, while bolstering our resolve never to give up on one another or our collective future. We must summon truth, courage, and solutions to turn away from the brink and toward life-giving possibility. Curated by two climate leaders, the book is a collection and celebration of visionaries who are leading us on a path toward all we can save. With essays and poems by: 
Emily Atkin - Xiye Bastida - Ellen Bass - Colette Pichon Battle - Jainey K. Bavishi - Janine Benyus - adrienne maree brown - Régine Clément - Abigail Dillen - Camille T. Dungy - Rhiana Gunn-Wright - Joy Harjo - Katharine Hayhoe - Mary Annaïse Heglar - Jane Hirshfield - Mary Anne Hitt - Ailish Hopper - Tara Houska, Zhaabowekwe - Emily N. Johnston - Joan Naviyuk Kane - Naomi Klein - Kate Knuth - Ada Limón - Louise Maher-Johnson - Kate Marvel - Gina McCarthy - Anne Haven McDonnell - Sarah Miller - Sherri Mitchell, Weh'na Ha'mu Kwasset - Susanne C. Moser - Lynna Odel - Sharon Olds - Mary Oliver - Kate Orff - Jacqui Patterson - Leah Penniman - Catherine Pierce - Marge Piercy - Kendra Pierre-Louis - Varshini - Prakash - Janisse Ray - Christine E. Nieves Rodriguez - Favianna Rodriguez - Cameron Russell - Ash Sanders - Judith D. Schwartz - Patricia Smith - Emily Stengel - Sarah Stillman - Leah Cardamore Stokes - Amanda Sturgeon - Maggie Thomas - Heather McTeer Toney - Alexandria Villaseñor - Alice Walker - Amy Westervelt - Jane Zelikova 
BIO 
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and Brooklyn native. She is co-founder of the non-profit think tank Urban Ocean Lab, co-founder of the climate initiative The All We Can Save Project, and co-creator of the podcast How to Save a Planet. In 2021, she was named to the Time 100 Next list.
Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson is an author, strategist, teacher, and homegrown Atlantan, named one of fifteen "Women Who Will Save the World" by Time. Her writing has been featured in The Drawdown Review and the New York Times bestseller Drawdown, and she is the author of Between God &amp; Green.
REVIEWS
"A fiery, hopeful manifesto on how to make sense of the staggering loss posed by climate change--and take justice-oriented action in spite of it." --Mashable
"Hopeful and illuminating, All We Can Save is an anthology of essays by women at the forefront of the climate crisis. So often climate writing can make us feel doomed and anxious, but this collection is a comfort because of its honesty and courage . . . a reminder that we can work with hope towards a better future." --BuzzFeed
[H] One World  /  September 22, 2020
1.5" H x 9.2" L x 6.5" W (1.74 lbs) 448 pages
<meta charset="utf-8">[P] One World  /  July 20, 2021
<meta charset="utf-8">1.02" H x 8.05" L x 5.28" W (1.0 lbs) 448 pages

All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis /// edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson

“An activist. An author. A scholar. An abolitionist. A legend.”—Ibram X. KendiThis beautiful new edition of Angela Davis’s classic Autobiography features an expansive new introduction by the author.“I am excited to be publishing this new edition of my autobiography with Haymarket Books at a time when so many are making collective demands for radical change and are seeking a deeper understanding of the social movements of the past.” —Angela Y. DavisAngela Davis has been a political activist at the cutting edge of the Black Liberation, feminist, queer, and prison abolitionist movements for more than 50 years. First published and edited by Toni Morrison in 1974, An Autobiography is a powerful and commanding account of her early years in struggle. Davis describes her journey from a childhood on Dynamite Hill in Birmingham, Alabama, to one of the most significant political trials of the century: from her political activity in a New York high school to her work with the U.S. Communist Party, the Black Panther Party, and the Soledad Brothers; and from the faculty of the Philosophy Department at UCLA to the FBI's list of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Told with warmth, brilliance, humor and conviction, Angela Davis’s autobiography is a classic account of a life in struggle with echoes in our own time. BIO Angela Y. Davis is Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz. An activist, writer, and lecturer, her work focuses on prisons, police, abolition, and the related intersections of race, gender, and class. She is the author of many books, from Angela Davis: An Autobiography to Freedom Is a Constant Struggle. REVIEWS “Angela Davis has spent more than 50 years working for social justice. This summer, society started to catch up.” -- Ava Duvernay, Vanity Fair“An activist. An author. A scholar. An abolitionist. A legend.” -- Ibram X. Kendi“Angela Davis: An Autobiography is riveting; as fresh and relevant today as it was almost 50 years ago. The words fire off the page with humour, anger and eloquence.” -- The Guardian“Before the world knew what intersectionality was, the scholar, writer and activist was living it, arguing not just for Black liberation, but for the rights of women and queer and transgender people as well.” -- New York Times“If anyone is qualified to make an assessment on the current situation, it is Angela Davis. She has spent five decades as an intellectual campaigning for racial justice, yet the causes she has pursued – prison reform, defunding the police, restructuring the bail system – had, until recently, been considered too radical for mainstream political thinking.” -- The Guardian [H] Haymarket Books / January 18, 2022 1.5" H x 9.1" L x 6.3" W (1.55 lbs) 420 pages [P] Haymarket Books / May 02, 2023 1.5" H x 9.0" L x 6.0" W (1.17 lbs) 400 pages

Angela Davis: An Autobiography /// Angela Y. Davis

At the Table of Power is both a cookbook and a culinary history that intertwines social issues, personal stories, and political commentary. Renowned culinary historian Diane M. Spivey offers a unique insight into the historical experience and cultural values of African America and America in general by way of the kitchen. From the rural country kitchen and steamboat floating palaces to marketplace street vendors and restaurants in urban hubs of business and finance, Africans in America cooked their way to positions of distinct superiority, and thereby indispensability. Despite their many culinary accomplishments, most Black culinary artists have been made invisible—until now. Within these pages, Spivey tells a powerful story beckoning and daring the reader to witness this culinary, cultural, and political journey taken hand in hand with the fight of Africans in America during the foundation years, from colonial slavery through the Reconstruction era. These narratives, together with the recipes from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, expose the politics of the day and offer insight on the politics of today. African American culinary artists, Spivey concludes, have more than earned a rightful place at the table of culinary contribution and power. BIO Diane M. Spivey is a culinary historian who has devoted more than forty years to the study and recording of African American food traditions and cooking. She is the author of the much heralded The Peppers, Cracklings, and Knots of Wool Cookbook: The Global Migration of African Cuisine and has written articles for The Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, the Black Scholar, Blackpast.org, South Florida Gourmet, the Black Book Review, Newsday, and Scribner’s Encyclopedia of World Food and Culture. Born and reared in Chicago, she and her family now reside in Palmetto Bay, Florida. REVIEWS "Diane M. Spivey has written a book that intersects African American cooks and cuisine with freedom, justice, law, and oppression. We now have a history of the professionalism of Black cuisine and the forces that have historically removed Black cooks from the center of their culinary creativity. Spivey presents an historical gentrification of African American culinary traditions that overtime has relegated cooks to the periphery of their history and traditions. This book documents and illustrates the presence of race in determining the status of African American culinary artists overtime limiting their growth and command of their culture." --Samuel W. Black, director of the African American Program at the Senator John Heinz History Center "Diane M. Spivey has compellingly moved Black cooks, chefs, caterers, and cuisine from the shadows into the floodlights of foodways in the United States and the Caribbean. With an amalgam of African, Native American, and European sources, she has put to rest the traditional narrative with sound scholarship and illustrative recipes. This book is a must to understand the African American story in its full dimensions." --Robert L. Harris, Jr., professor emeritus of African American history and American studies at the Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University "This singularly original, meticulously researched and wonderfully written work seamlessly integrates the extensive experience of Diane Spivey as insightful historian and international cookbook writer. It skillfully weaves together the important although neglected account of the essential contribution of African cuisine in the entire history of the United States. At the Table of Power can be rewardingly enjoyed as a marvelous cookbook, as an excellent general history, or as a powerful biographical dictionary. It excels in all three categories." --Franklin W. Knight, coeditor of the Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography [H] University of Pittsburgh Press / October 18, 2022 1.42" H x 9.06" L x 6.06" W (1.65 lbs) 377 pages

At the Table of Power: Food and Cuisine in the African American Struggle for Freedom, Justice, and Equality /// Diane Spivey

New York Times Bestseller - TIME Magazine's Best Nonfiction Book of 2018 - New York Public Library's Best Book of 2018 - NPR's Book Concierge Best Book of 2018 - Economist Book of the Year - SELF.com's Best Books of 2018 - Audible's Best of the Year - BookRiot's Best Audio Books of 2018 - The Atlantic's Books Briefing: History, Reconsidered - Atlanta Journal Constitution, Best Southern Books 2018 - The Christian Science Monitor's Best Books 2018 - "A profound impact on Hurston's literary legacy."--New York Times "One of the greatest writers of our time."--Toni Morrison "Zora Neale Hurston's genius has once again produced a Maestrapiece."--Alice Walker A major literary event: a newly published work from the author of the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God, with a foreword from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, brilliantly illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery as it tells the true story of one of the last-known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade--abducted from Africa on the last Black Cargo ship to arrive in the United States. In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile founded by Cudjo and other former slaves from his ship. Spending more than three months there, she talked in depth with Cudjo about the details of his life. During those weeks, the young writer and the elderly formerly enslaved man ate peaches and watermelon that grew in the backyard and talked about Cudjo's past--memories from his childhood in Africa, the horrors of being captured and held in a barracoon for selection by American slavers, the harrowing experience of the Middle Passage packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilda, and the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War. Based on those interviews, featuring Cudjo's unique vernacular, and written from Hurston's perspective with the compassion and singular style that have made her one of the preeminent American authors of the twentieth-century, Barracoon masterfully illustrates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it. Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all, black and white, this poignant and powerful work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture. BIO Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. An author of four novels (Jonah's Gourd Vine, 1934; Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1937; Moses, Man of the Mountain, 1939; and Seraph on the Suwanee, 1948); two books of folklore (Mules and Men, 1935, and Tell My Horse, 1938); an autobiography (Dust Tracks on a Road, 1942); and over fifty short stories, essays, and plays. She attended Howard University, Barnard College and Columbia University, and was a graduate of Barnard College in 1928. She was born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama, and grew up in Eatonville, Florida. She died in Fort Pierce, in 1960. In 1973, Alice Walker had a headstone placed at her gravesite with this epitaph: "Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South." REVIEWS "[ Barracoon's] belated publication of her phonetic transcription offers spine-chilling access to one of modernity's great crimes, an atrocity that, when described by a victim, suddenly becomes far less distant."-- The Guardian "Zora Neale Hurston's recovered masterpiece, Barracoon, is a stunning addition to several overlapping canons of American literature."-- Tayari Jones, Washington Post "Short enough to be read in a single sitting, this book is one of those gorgeous, much too fleeting things...Brimming with observational detail from a man whose life spanned continents and eras, the story is at times devastating, but Hurston's success in bringing it to light is a marvel."-- NPR [H] Amistad Press / May 08, 2018 0.8" H x 8.3" L x 5.8" W (0.7 lbs) 208 pages [P] Amistad Press / January 07, 2020 0.7" H x 8.0" L x 5.3" W (0.44 lbs) 256 pages

Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo /// Zora Neale Hurston, introduction by Alice Walker

Climate change. Two words that are quickly becoming the clarion call to action in the twenty-first century. It is a voter issue, an economy driver, and a defining dynamic for the foreseeable future. Yet, in Black communities, climate change is seen as less urgent when compared to other pressing issues, including police brutality, gun violence, job security, food insecurity, and the blatant racism faced daily around the country. However, with Black Americans disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change--making up 13 percent of the US population but breathing 40 percent dirtier air and being twice as likely to be hospitalized or die from climate-related health problems than white counterparts--climate change is a central issue of racial justice and affects every aspect of life for Black communities. In Before the Streetlights Come On, climate activist Heather McTeer Toney insists that those most affected by climate change are best suited to lead the movement for climate justice. McTeer Toney brings her background in politics, community advocacy, and leadership in environmental justice to this revolutionary exploration of why and how Black Americans are uniquely qualified to lead national and global conversations around systems of racial disparity and solutions to the climate crisis. As our country delves deeper into solutions for systemic racism and past injustices, she argues, the environmental movement must shift direction and leadership toward those most affected and most affecting change: Black communities. BIO Heather McTeer Toney is an attorney, environmentalist, speaker, and writer. She was the first Black, first female, and youngest mayor elected in Greenville, Mississippi, at age twenty-seven. In 2014, she was appointed by President Barack Obama as regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency's Southeast Region. Formerly the senior director for Moms Clean Air Force, Toney is now vice president of community engagement for the Environmental Defense Fund. She is a frequent guest on numerous shows and networks including CNN, Apple's The Problem with Jon Stewart, MSNBC, Democracy Now!, and Fox News. Heather lives with her husband and three children in Oxford, Mississippi. REVIEWS "A persuasive case for why Black activists should be at the forefront of the environmental movement." -- Publishers Weekly "Heather McTeer Toney gives us a practical, accessible, essential book that directly responds to Mother Earth's call: 'Say my name; you gonna respect me,"' as she dishes out some 'Do Right' to make sure we all know she's pissed about how we have disrespected the gift and how she expects us to do better moving forward." -- Mustafa Santiago Ali, EVP, National Wildlife Association "This book is so important. Heather McTeer Toney brings to life the intersection of climate change and the social justice issues faced by Black Americans daily through her stories and lived experience. ...This is the urgent solution we need in order to effectuate equitable climate policy. Heather's book will help people of all backgrounds see clearly the effects of unjust and unbalanced actions on Black America as well as understand why it is critical to our collective survival." -- from the foreword by Dr. Robert D. Bullard and Dr. Beverly Wright, authors of The Wrong Complexion for Protection: How the Government Response to Disaster Endangers African American Communities [H] Broadleaf Books / April 18, 2023 1.5" H x 8.1" L x 5.9" W (0.95 lbs) 198 pages

Before the Streetlights Come On: Black America's Urgent Call for Climate Solutions /// Heather McTeer Toney

Beginning to End Hunger presents the story of Belo Horizonte, home to 2.5 million people and the site of one of the world's most successful city food security programs. Since its Municipal Secretariat of Food and Nutritional Security was founded in 1993, malnutrition in Belo Horizonte has declined dramatically, leading it to serve as an inspiration for Brazil's renowned Zero Hunger programs. The Municipal Secretariat's work with local family farmers also offers a glimpse of how food security, rural livelihoods, and healthy ecosystems can be supported together. While inevitably imperfect, Belo Horizonte offers a vision of the path away from food system dysfunction, unsustainability, and hunger. This case study by M. Jahi Chappell shows the vital importance of holistic approaches to food security, offers ideas on how to design successful policies to end hunger, and lays out strategies for making policy change happen. With these tools, we can take the next steps toward achieving similar reductions in hunger and food insecurity elsewhere in the developed and developing worlds. BIO M. Jahi Chappell is a political agroecologist with training in ecology and evolutionary biology, science and technology studies, and chemical engineering. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) at Coventry University, a Fellow of FoodFirst/the Institute for Food and Development Policy, and an Adjunct Faculty member of the School of the Environment at Washington State University. REVIEWS "M. Jahi Chappell's exceptional scholarship in the food system finally gets the audience it deserves in this deeply researched and engaging work. Moving from the seats of Belo Horizonte's state-run restaurants to the annals of world history, Chappell demonstrates a keen eye for local detail and global relevance. This book is a provocation to new thought and better action to end hunger permanently." --Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World's Food System "Chappell illuminates how a city in Brazil, Belo Horizonte, has achieved the unthinkable--dramatic decreases in hunger and malnutrition--and skewers popular myths with logical, systematic analysis and brilliant analogies. Should be read by every person committed to ending hunger!" --Molly Anderson, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Food Studies, Middlebury College and member of International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems "In this remarkable book, Chappell uses the case of Belo Horizonte to challenge us to be 'active optimists.' Pairing hope with evidence, and recognizing that the course to universal food security will never run smooth, Chappell proposes we take responsibility for a vision of a world without hunger. Beginning to End Hunger is a passionate plea against a fatalistic acceptance of poverty and in favor of promoting meaningful democracy. This is a very fine, honorable book." --Cecilia Rocha, Professor and Associate Researcher, Centre for Studies in Food Security, Ryerson University University of California Press / January 19, 2018 0.7" H x 8.9" L x 5.9" W (0.8 lbs) 272 pages

Beginning to End Hunger: Food and the Environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Beyond /// M. Jahi Chapell with foreword by Frances Moore Lappé

The 2022 Lammy Award Winner in Transgender Nonfiction Exploring the intersections of Blackness, gender, fatness, health, and the violence of policing.To live in a body both fat and Black is to exist at the margins of a society that creates the conditions for anti-fatness as anti-Blackness. Hyper-policed by state and society, passed over for housing and jobs, and derided and misdiagnosed by medical professionals, fat Black people in the United States are subject to sociopolitically sanctioned discrimination, abuse, condescension, and trauma. Da’Shaun Harrison–a fat, Black, disabled, and nonbinary trans writer–offers an incisive, fresh, and precise exploration of anti-fatness as anti-Blackness, foregrounding the state-sanctioned murders of fat Black men and trans and nonbinary masculine people in historical analysis. Policing, disenfranchisement, and invisibilizing of fat Black men and trans and nonbinary masculine people are pervasive, insidious ways that anti-fat anti-Blackness shows up in everyday life. Fat people can be legally fired in 49 states for being fat; they’re more likely to be houseless. Fat people die at higher rates from misdiagnosis or nontreatment; fat women are more likely to be sexually assaulted. And at the intersections of fatness, Blackness, disability, and gender, these abuses are exacerbated. Taking on desirability politics, the limitations of gender, the connection between anti-fatness and carcerality, and the incongruity of “health” and “healthiness” for the Black fat, Harrison viscerally and vividly illustrates the myriad harms of anti-fat anti-Blackness. They offer strategies for dismantling denial, unlearning the cultural programming that tells us “fat is bad,” and destroying the world as we know it, so the Black fat can inhabit a place not built on their subjugation. BIO Da’Shaun Harrison is a Black trans theorist, storyteller, and community organizer in Atlanta, GA. Harrison has risen to national acclaim with the release of their debut title, Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness—published in August 2021. Belly of the Beast won the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction, and since then, Harrison has been the recipient of ProjectHEAL’s “Inspire Award” as well as other media and literary honors. Harrison lectures on Blackness, fatness, gender, and their intersections. Harrison currently serves as Editor-at-Large at Scalawag Magazine and is the co-host of the podcast “Unsolicited: Fatties Talk Back.” Between the years 2019 and 2021, Harrison served as Associate Editor — and later as Managing Editor — of Wear Your Voice Magazine. Harrison penned their first published piece in the summer of 2017 while navigating heightened poverty and homelessness. This would become the genesis of their writing career. Harrison writes not only as a means of survival, but with the belief that if the marginalized wish for a future where their history is depicted accurately and their stories are told correctly then they must document them. Writing, for Da’Shaun, is not solely a passion or talent, but it is the foundation on which their home—their love, their survival, their creativity—is built. It is their expression of self; their contribution to the documentation of the histories of oppressed/colonized peoples. Harrison’s writing has appeared in PhiladelphiaPrint, Medium, THEM, Black Youth Project, BET, and other online publications. They have also been featured in/interviewed by The Fader, Everyday Feminism, Buzzfeed, Teen Vogue, the New York Times, and other local and national publications. REVIEWS “This modern classic relishes in collapsing conventional and clichéd orthodoxies. As formative as Harrison’s proclamations are, it is Harrison’s pacing that gives the book the lingering feeling of the most sensual whisper.” -- Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir“Belly of the Beast is written with poise and lucidity. It pushes us to think past the pablum of telling fat folx all they gotta do is love themselves to enacting a movement that addresses the source and ramifications of societal anti-fatness as anti-Blackness. Harrison forces us not to look away, reminding us that all too often ‘health’ and ‘desire’ are used to annul Blackness. In a ‘post bo-po’ world, desire and the sheer right to life can be rooted in something other than all the things named non-Black.”-- Sabrina Strings, author of Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia“Da’Shaun Harrison is an insightful visionary, world-builder, and ingenious writer who brings us into deeper understandings and frameworks of the intersections of anti-Blackness and anti-fatness. Belly of the Beast brings us closer to ourselves because it brings us closer to the truth—that anti-Blackness is the foundation to how violence shapes our relationships to our bodies and each other. Harrison not only intervenes in the terror of white supremacist paradigms but develops the tools to imagine and build a new world. Belly of the Beast eats, and it leaves no crumbs.” -- Hunter Shackelford, author of You Might Die for This [P] North Atlantic Books / August 10, 2021 0.39" H x 8.43" L x 5.43" W (0.45 lbs) 144 pages

Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness /// Da’Shaun L. Harrison, foreword by Kiese Laymon

An award-winning author charts the poignant global journeys of African Americans as she explores her own transatlantic family odyssey in Beyond the Shores, a powerful history of living abroad while Black. “By exploring the life of Black expats, creatives, and activists, Beyond the Shores enhances the stories of migration to reveal how race is lived in the United States and abroad.”—Marcia Chatelain, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of South Side GirlsPart historical exploration, part travel memoir, Beyond the Shores reveals poignant histories of a diverse group of African Americans who have left the United States over the course of the past century. Together, the interwoven stories highlight African Americans’ complicated relationship to the United States and the world at large. Beyond the Shores is not just about where African Americans stayed or where they ate when they traveled but also about why they left in the first place and how they were treated once they reached their destinations. Drawing on years of research, Dr. Tamara J. Walker chronicles their experiences in atmospheric detail, taking readers from well-known capital cities to more unusual destinations like Yangiyul, Uzbekistan, and Kabondo, Kenya. She follows Florence Mills, the would-be Josephine Baker of her day, in Paris, and Richard Wright, the author turned actor and filmmaker, in Buenos Aires. Throughout Beyond the Shores, she relays tender stories of adventurous travelers, including a group of gifted Black crop scientists in the 1930s, a housewife searching for purpose in the 1950s, a Peace Corps volunteer discovering his identity in the 1970s, and her own grandfather, who, after losing his eye fighting in World War II and returning to a country that showed no signs of honoring his sacrifice, set out with his wife and children on a circuitous journey that sent them back and forth across the Atlantic. Tying these tales together is Walker’s personal account of her family’s, and her own, experiences abroad—in France, Brazil, Argentina, Austria, and beyond. By sharing the accounts of those who escaped the racism of the United States to try their hands at life abroad, Beyond the Shores shines a light on the meaning of home and the search for a better life. BIO Tamara J. Walker is a historian and associate professor of Africana studies at Barnard College of Columbia University, where her research and teaching focus on the history of slavery and freedom in Latin America. Her first book, Exquisite Slaves: Race, Clothing, and Status in Colonial Lima, won the Harriet Tubman Prize awarded by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Her writing has appeared in Columbia Global Reports, The Guardian, Slate, and The Root. REVIEWS “Much more than a mere group biography, Beyond the Shores is a well-researched account of how global social, cultural and political affairs shaped the conditions for African Americans to travel. Walker combines the detailed knowledge of a tour guide with storytelling flair.” -- The New York Times Book Review“Vivid . . . With each story, Beyond the Shores builds a canon of Black creative expression that crosses both temporal and geographic barriers. . . . As others’ stories unfold, so does [Walker’s] own, giving the book the feel of a travel memoir without ever losing the gravity of a historical compendium. The interplay deepens the book’s storytelling.” -- The Atlantic“An intimate history . . . Nuanced, poignant tales that beautifully flesh out a little-known aspect of the African American experience.” -- Kirkus Reviews“An absorbing and vibrant group biography. By exploring the life of Black ex-pats, creatives, and activists, Walker enhances the stories of migration to reveal how race is lived in the U.S. and abroad. Beautifully researched, this book blends history and autobiography seamlessly in order to tell several American stories.” -- Marcia Chatelain, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author of Franchise“Beyond the Shores is a marvel, both epic and intimate, rigorous and rousing. Walker brings each of her characters’ journeys fully alive. Together, their stories illuminate how African Americans have transformed the world with their liberatory vision, creativity, and courage.” -- Nadia Owusu, author of Aftershocks“Through exquisitely crafted storytelling, Beyond the Shores tells of a different Great Migration. Rather than fighting a seemingly losing battle at home, many African American families, including Walker’s, moved to foreign lands and found both privilege and pain. It’s a story of resilience and hope in the midst of ever-present racism.” -- Dorothy A. Brown, author of The Whiteness of Wealth [H] Crown Publishing Group / June 20, 2023 ﻿1.3" H x 8.3" L x 5.6" W (1.0 lbs) 352 pages

Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad /// Tamara J. Walker

Born of a desire to bring together the voices of those most harshly affected by the intersecting pandemics of Covid-19 and systemic racism, Bigger Than Bravery explores comfort and compromise, challenge and resilience, throughout the Great Pause that became the Great Call. Award-winning author and scholar of the Black archive Valerie Boyd curates this anthology of original essays and poems, alongside some of the most influential nonfiction published on the subject, inviting readers into a conversation of restorative joy and enduring wisdom. Bigger Than Bravery captures what Boyd calls the “first draft of history,” with poems serving as deep breaths between narrative essays to form a loose chronology of this unprecedented time. Karen Good Marable cranks “Whip My Hair” from the car windows during quarantine joyrides with her daughter. Deesha Philyaw ponders loneliness as she sorts Zoom meetings into those that require a bra and those that don’t. Writing in the moment though not of it, Pearl Cleage reflects on what has and hasn’t changed since the AIDS epidemic. Jason Reynolds harnesses heat and flavor to carry on his father’s legacy. Sorrow and outrage have their say, but the stories in these pages are bright with family, music, food, and home, teaching us how to nourish ourselves and our communities. Looking ahead as much as it looks back, Bigger Than Bravery offers a window into a hopeful, complex present, establishing an essential record of how Black people in America insist on joy as an act of resistance. BIO Valerie Boyd was an American writer and academic. She was best known for her biography of Zora Neale Hurston entitled Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. She was an associate professor and the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, where she taught narrative nonfiction writing, as well as arts and literary journalism. REVIEWS “Eloquent and riveting, Boyd’s collection delivers not only, as she promises in her introduction, ‘a long exhalation, a silent prayer, a solace and a comfort’ but also, in the words of Imani Perry, a celebration of Blackness as ‘an immense and defiant joy.’ This one’s not to be missed.” -- Publishers Weekly, starred review, Big Indie Books of Fall 2022 “A map of ancestral knowledge, revelatory insight, and feelings laid bare . . . These pages share poems of hope, narratives of loss, anger, fear, loneliness, togetherness, death, and most potently, life, to paint a portrait . . . resonant to all.” -- Library Journal, Editors’ Pick “Valerie Boyd’s Bigger Than Bravery isn’t just an anthology; it is a survival guide.” -- Courtney B. Vance, Tony and Emmy-winning actor [P] Lookout Books / November 15, 2022 1.0" H x 8.4" L x 5.5" W (0.71 lbs) 256 pages

Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic /// edited by Valerie Boyd, featuring Tayari Jones, Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Deesha Philyaw, Jason Reynolds & Alice Walker

The first major career survey of work by renowned fiber and textile artist Billie Zangewa Published to accompany the exhibition presented by the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, Billie Zangewa: Thread for a Web Begun explores Zangewa’s creation of literal and figurative tapestries of the everyday lives and contemporary intersectional identities of Black women. Through her hand-sewn silk collages, which primarily depict Black women in the domestic sphere, Zangewa reclaims a medium that was once relegated as “women’s work” and delves into the familiarity, beauty, and sociopolitical drivers of the seemingly mundane. Beginning her career in the fashion and advertising industries, Zangewa employs her understanding of textiles to portray personal and universal experiences through domestic interiors, urban landscapes, and portraiture. Through the method of their making and their narrative content, Zangewa’s silk paintings illustrate gendered labor in a sociopolitical context, where the domestic sphere becomes a pretext for a deeper understanding of the construction of identity, questions around gender stereotypes, and racial prejudice.This volume, packaged in a beautiful slipcase, showcases the past 15 years of Zangewa’s work as well as new pieces made for this exhibition, and although many of these decontextualized pieces are autobiographical, all of them portray a sense of intimacy and exploration of identity—connecting the pieces to each other through a larger narrative about Black femininity and tugging on the thread of the viewer’s own lived experience. BIO Dexter Wimberly is an American entrepreneur and curator based in Hayama, Japan. He’s the co-founder and CEO of the online education platform CreativeStudy. Wimberly has organized exhibitions in galleries and museums around the world including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, The Green Family Art Foundation in Dallas, The Harvey B. Gantt Center in Charlotte, The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, KOKI Arts in Tokyo, and The Third Line in Dubai. His exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times and Artforum, and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and The Kinkade Family Foundation. Wimberly is a Senior Critic at New York Academy of Art, and the founder and director of the Hayama Artist Residency in Japan. Prior to his curatorial career, Wimberly was the managing partner of the New York-based advertising and marketing agency August Bishop, representing a diverse array of clients including Adidas, The Coca-Cola Company, and HBO. The Museum of the African Diaspora opened to the public in 2005 and is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization. MoAD is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and plays a vital role in the local arts community. MoAD is uniquely positioned as one of the few museums in the world focused exclusively on African Diaspora culture and on presenting the rich cultural heritage of the people of Africa and of African descendant cultures all across the globe. [H] Cameron Books / May 16, 2023 112 pages

Billie Zangewa: Thread for a Web Begun /// edited by Dexter Wimberly, produced by Museum of the Africa Diaspora

From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot, a searingly smart and bitingly hilarious retelling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans. America’s backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. It is the story of the pilgrims on the Mayflower building a new nation. It is George Washington’s cherry tree and Abraham Lincoln’s log cabin. It is the fantastic tale of slaves that spontaneously teleported themselves here with nothing but strong backs and negro spirituals. It is a sugarcoated legend based on an almost true story. It should come as no surprise that the dominant narrative of American history is blighted with errors and oversights—after all, history books were written by white men with their perspectives at the forefront. It could even be said that the devaluation and erasure of the Black experience is as American as apple pie. In Black AF History, Michael Harriot presents a more accurate version of American history. Combining unapologetically provocative storytelling with meticulous research based on primary sources as well as the work of pioneering Black historians, scholars, and journalists, Harriot removes the white sugarcoating from the American story, placing Black people squarely at the center. With incisive wit, Harriot speaks hilarious truth to oppressive power, subverting conventional historical narratives with little-known stories about the experiences of Black Americans. From the African Americans who arrived before 1619 to the unenslavable bandit who inspired America’s first police force, this long overdue corrective provides a revealing look into our past that is as urgent as it is necessary. For too long, we have refused to acknowledge that American history is white history. Not this one. This history is Black AF. BIO Michael Harriot is a columnist at theGrio.com where he covers the intersection of race, politics, and culture. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, The Atlantic, NBC, BET, and on his mother’s refrigerator. He is a political commentator on MSNBC and CNN and has been honored by the National Association of Black Journalists for commentary, digital commentary, and TV news writing. Michael is the creator and cohost of the podcast Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History, produced in partnership with Pharrel's OTHERtone. His college course “Race: An Economic Construct” was adapted by university economics departments across the country as a model for teaching the combination of history, economics, politics, and class structures. REVIEWS ﻿“A razor-sharp reassessment of American history. . . . Entertainingly colloquial and impressively erudite, this meticulous survey of the American past is an invaluable resource.” -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) 'Fresh eyes and bold, entertaining language combine in this authoritative, essential work of U.S. history.' -- Kirkus Reviews “A stirring correction of U.S. history. . . . Emphasizing Black survival and resistance, Harriot simplifies complex issues into easily understandable, digestible bites. . . . With blunt, entertaining, irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes laugh-out-loud statements, Harriot provocatively explains how the United States came to be and how money-focused, self-serving intentions made it what it is today.” -- Library Journal “Michael Harriot has done it. Written a book that evokes the full range of human emotions. Laughter. Rage. Sadness. Love (of Black resistance). Hate (of anti-Blackness). More laughter. Constant thinking and connecting and discovering. What an experience. But how can this book be anything less when it is Black AF History.” -- Ibram X. Kendi, Award-winning author “This is history as it should be told: straight, no chaser; unvarnished and unembossed. Michael Harriot, the Samuel L. Jackson of the written word, strikes again, weaving fascinating facts, scathing humor and pieces of his own life story to detail the stony road we trod.” -- Joy Reid, Host of The ReidOut on MSNBC [H] Dey Street Books / September 19, 2023 1.57" H x 9.06" L x 5.98" W (1.36 lbs) 432 pages

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America /// Michael Harriot /// new

Black Appetite. White Food. invites educators to explore the nuanced manifestations of white privilege as it exists within and beyond the classroom. Renowned speaker and author Jamila Lyiscott provides ideas and tools that teachers, school leaders, and professors can use for awareness, inspiration, and action around racial injustice and inequity. Part I of the book helps you ask the hard questions, such as whether your pedagogy is more aligned with colonialism than you realize and whether you are really giving students of color a voice. Part II offers a variety of helpful strategies for analysis and reflection. Each chapter includes personal stories, frank discussions of the barriers you may face, and practical ideas that will guide you as you work to confront privilege in your classroom, campus, and beyond. BIO Jamila Lyiscott is an author, a community-engaged scholar, and a nationally acclaimed speaker. She serves as an assistant professor of Social Justice Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she is the founding co-director of the forthcoming Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research. Her scholarship and activism work together to explore, assert, and defend the value of Black life throughout and beyond the field of education. Jamila’s current research focuses on the power of youth-led social research and activism to foster racial healing across schools and communities. She is most well-known for being featured on Ted.com where her video, "3 Ways to Speak English," was viewed over 4.6 million times. Learn more about Jamila at jamilalyiscott.com and @jamila_lyiscott on Twitter and Instagram. [P] Routledge / May 21, 2019 0.3" H x 8.7" L x 5.9" W (0.35 lbs) 90 pages

Black Appetite. White Food.: Issues of Race, Voice, and Justice Within and Beyond the Classroom /// Jamila Lyiscott

Meet our Issue 23 cover star, Sohla El-Waylly! Sohla is a video star, recipe developer, and author of one of the most anticipated cookbooks of the fall, Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook. Throughout her career and especially with her debut book, the culinary instructor wants to help her audience gain confidence in the kitchen and be equipped to tackle any recipe. In our exclusive Sohla portfolio, you’ll find new photos by Jennifer Livingston, an interview by Cherry Bombe founder Kerry Diamond, and two recipes from Start Here. This issue also includes our Future Of Food 50 List, which celebrates 50 forward-thinking folks who are making the food world a more interesting space and shaping what’s to come. Plus, there are great recipes and stories on the growing mocktail movement, restaurant robots, and more. As always, this issue of Cherry Bombe is printed on beautiful paper by Meridian Printing in Rhode Island and features gorgeous full-page color photos. Cover photo by Jennifer Livingston

Issue Nº 23: The Future Of Food /// Cherry Bombe /// new

Magazine

In October 2022, Ross Gay gave us a book of essays — Inciting Joy. Little did we know it was a generous, uplifting and inspiring bridge between 2019s The Book of Delights and 2023’s The Book of (More) Delights. Taken all together this trilogy of titles that help us understand each other, the world, and our place in it. Honestly, the mini essays contained within The Book of (More) Delights give us pause to consider the day ahead. It’s our life. Let’s live it. Thank you Ross Gay for these gifts. The New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Delights and Inciting Joy is back with exactly the book we need in these unsettling times. “Keenly observed and delivered with deftness, these essays are a testament to the artfulness of attention and everyday joy.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) In Ross Gay’s new collection of small, daily wonders, again written over the course of a year, one of America’s most original voices continues his ongoing investigation of delight. For Gay, what delights us is what connects us, what gives us meaning, from the joy of hearing a nostalgic song blasting from a passing car to the pleasure of refusing the “nefarious” scannable QR code menus, from the tiny dog he fell hard for to his mother baking a dozen kinds of cookies for her grandchildren. As always, Gay revels in the natural world—sweet potatoes being harvested, a hummingbird carousing in the beebalm, a sunflower growing out of a wall around the cemetery, the shared bounty from a neighbor’s fig tree—and the trillion mysterious ways this glorious earth delights us. The Book of (More) Delights is a volume to savor and share. BIO Ross Gay is an American poet, essayist, and professor who won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his 2014 book Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, which was also a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry. REVIEWS "Ross Gay is back, better than ever . . . This time he swings his basket higher, slower, for a whole new bevy of brainy and witty noticings."​ -- Garden & Gun"Another startling, sensuous collection of miniature essays... again and again, joy wins out over despair as Gay pays tribute to a world of people "'bumbling, flailing, hurting, failing, changing.'"-- Booklist“Keenly observed and delivered with deftness, these essays are a testament to the artfulness of attention and everyday joy.” -- Kirkus Reviews“Gay's work never sugar coats the difficulties or fragility of life, but it is still so hopeful.” -- USA Today“Enormously delightful. Gay is a master at amplifying the delights all around us” -- Literary Hub [H] Algonquin Books / September 19, 2023 1.03" H x 7.28" L x 5.25" W (0.67 lbs) 304 pages

The Book of (More) Delights: Essays /// Ross Gay /// new

Featuring 117 full-color photos and eight breathtaking essays on a force that fuels Black life all around the globe, this is Humans of New York meets The Black Book "A patchwork quilt of visually stunning images, captured moments of triumph, antidotes to trauma narratives and rich, ebullient emotional and verbal spice for the soul." – Michael W. Twitty, culinary and cultural historian, and author of The Cooking Gene and Koshersoul Black Joy is everywhere. From the bustling streets of Lagos to hip-hop blasting through apartment windows in the Bronx. From the wide-open coastal desert of Namibia to the lush slopes of Jamaica’s Blue Mountains. From the thriving tradition of Candomblé in Bahia to the innovative and trendsetting styles of Soweto, and beyond, Black Joy is present in every place that Black people exist. Now—at last—is a one-of-a-kind celebration of this truth and a life-giving testament to one of the most essential forces that fuels Black life: The Black Joy Project. International in the scale, fist-raising in the prose, and chockfull of gorgeous works by dozens of acclaimed artists, The Black Joy Project does what no other book has ever done. In words and art, it puts joy on the same track as protest and resistance … because that is how life is actually lived. Uprisings in the street, with music as accompaniment. Heartbreaking funerals followed by second line parades. Microaggressions in the office, then coming home to a warm hug and a garden of lilacs. The list goes on. Black Joy is always held in tension with broader systemic wounds. It is a powerful, historically important salve that allows us to keep going and reimagine new ways of being. The Black Joy Project captures these dual realities to incredible, unforgettable effect. The brainchild of educator and activist Kleaver Cruz, The Black Joy Project is an extension of a real-world initiative of the same name. It has become a source of healing and regeneration for Black people of all backgrounds and identities. Long overdue and somehow still worth the wait, The Black Joy Project is a necessary addition for any book lover, art enthusiast, or freedom fighter. And begs the question, What does Black Joy mean to you? BIO Kleaver Cruz (they/them) is a Black, queer, Dominican-American writer and educator from New York City. Cruz is the creator of The Black Joy Project, a digital and real-world affirmation that Black Joy is resistance. The Black Joy Project has been featured in British Vogue, Vibe.com, the Huffington Post and various other publications in print and online. Cruz is a member of We Are All Dominican, a U.S.-based, grassroots collective that works in solidarity with movements led by Dominicans of Haitian descent fighting for inclusion and citizenship rights in the Dominican Republic. Cruz is also an alum of the Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA) Foundation’s Emerging Writers Non-Fiction Workshop and the Kenyon Review Writers Fiction Workshop. REVIEWS 'A bath and a balm. Powerful words accompanied by vibrant images affirm a joy that is not only palpable but possible. A promise and a prayer. Kleaver Cruz reminds us of all the ways that we've already experienced it and all the ways we are guaranteed to experience it again. As brilliant as it is beautiful, The Black Joy Project shows us, literally, that joy is ours for the naming.' -- Yaba Blay, author of One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race 'What a book! What a wonder-full reckoning. A well of resistance, reclamation, and restorative splendor! I ate up The Black Joy Project in one grateful gulp and plan to return to these pages again and again.' -- Camille T. Dungy, author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden 'The Black Joy Project is a material expression of the everyday reverberations of Black ebullience that are often glossed over and characterized as less critical than rage. Black joy is a disruptive force, however, which upends the power of anti-Blackness and fortifies the collective spirit of Black people. Kleaver Cruz knows that to be true and has offered us this gift of a book that won't soon be forgotten for its beauty and power.' -- Darnell L. Moore, author of No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America 'Through exquisite essays and soul-grabbing art, Kleaver Cruz shows the majesty and many meanings of Black joy in the African Diaspora. The Black Joy Project is a gift that must be shared.' -- Jasmin Hernandez, author of We Are Here: Visionaries of Color Transforming the Art World [H] Mariner Books | December 26, 2023 224 pages

The Black Joy Project: A Literary and Visual Love Letter to How We Thrive /// Kleaver Cruz /// pre

This book unearths a food story buried deep within the soil of American civil rights history. Drawing on archival research, interviews, and oral histories, Bobby J. Smith II re-examines the Mississippi civil rights movement as a period when activists expanded the meaning of civil rights to address food as integral to sociopolitical and economic conditions. For decades, white economic and political actors used food as a weapon against Black sharecropping communities in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, but members of these communities collaborated with activists to transform food into a tool of resistance. Today, Black youth are building a food justice movement in the Delta to continue this story, grappling with inequalities that continue to shape their lives. Drawing on multiple disciplines including critical food studies, Black studies, history, sociology, and southern studies, Smith makes critical connections between civil rights activism and present-day food justice activism in Black communities, revealing how power struggles over food empower them to envision Black food futures in which communities have the full autonomy and capacity to imagine, design, create, and sustain a self-sufficient local food system. BIO ﻿Bobby J. Smith II is assistant professor of African American studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. REVIEWS "[Smith] shows how the struggles of the region’s Black communities laid the groundwork for the modern food justice movement. Sadly, access to fresh, unprocessed meals still elude many Black Americans today, but this little-known narrative reconstructed by Smith offers key lessons that could inform the current challenges." -- Civil Eats "Smith's pathbreaking and interdisciplinary work recovers a food focus that has often been muted in the historical retelling of the movements of the civil rights and Black Power era. Food Power Politics provides a perspective on history, on food justice, and on the fight for civil and human rights that offers important lessons for how we understand food sovereignty." -- Monica M. White, University of Wisconsin "The civil rights movement operated on a series of registers that made it a multilayered and nuanced mass of movements. Here, Bobby Smith II examines the layer providing bodily sustenance and how food, politics, and race operated together. Food was weaponized in modes of oppression but also used to shield and protect communities as an expression of freedom. With four case studies in Mississippi’s civil rights movement, Smith underlines the power of local histories and local people to tell national structural stories while celebrating the resilience of Black folk in the wake of white supremacist tactics to literally starve Black progress." -- Françoise N. Hamlin, author of Crossroads at Clarksdale: The Black Freedom Struggle in the Mississippi Delta after World War II [P] University of North Carolina Press / August 29, 2023 0.49" H x 9.21" L x 6.14" W (0.74 lbs) 216 pages

Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement /// Bobby J. Smith II /// new

A collection of personal essays that grapples with Ziwe's (mis)understanding of identity, by comedy’s most iconic voice Ziwe made a name for herself staring interviewees in the eye and asking, “How many Black friends do you have?” She is an expert at making people squirm by coming right out and asking the tough questions. In Black Friend, she turns her incisive perspective on the culture at large. Throughout the book, Ziwe combines pop-culture commentary and her own personal stories. From a hilarious case of mistaken identity via a Jumbotron to a terrifying fight-or-flight encounter in the woods, Ziwe raises difficult questions for comedic relief. BIO Ziwe is a comedian, writer, and actor. She was the executive producer and star of the eponymous late-night variety show ZIWE on Showtime. She has also written for Desus & Mero, Dickinson, and Our Cartoon President. She lives in New York City. [H] Abrams Image / October 17, 2023 ﻿192 pages

Black Friend: Essays /// Ziwe /// pre

What fuels and sustains activism and organizing when it feels like our worlds are collapsing? Let This Radicalize You is a practical and imaginative resource for activists and organizers building power in an era of destabilization and catastrophe.Longtime organizers and movement educators Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes examine some of the political lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the convergence of mass protest and mass formations of mutual aid, and consider what this confluence of power can teach us about a future that will require mass acts of care, rescue and defense, in the face of both state violence and environmental disaster.The book is intended to aid and empower activists and organizers as they attempt to map their own journeys through the work of justice-making. It includes insights from a spectrum of experienced organizers, including Sharon Lungo, Carlos Saavedra, Ejeris Dixon, Barbara Ransby, and Ruth Wilson Gilmore about some of the difficult and joyous lessons they have learned in their work. BIO Kelly Hayes is a Menominee author, organizer, movement educator, and photographer. She is also the host of Truthout’s podcast Movement Memos. Hayes is a cofounder of the Lifted Voices collective and the Chicago Light Brigade. Her written work is featured in numerous publications and multiple anthologies, including Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States (Haymarket Books, 2016), Education in Movement Spaces: Standing Rock to Chicago Freedom Square (Routledge, 2020), and The Solidarity Struggle: How People of Color Succeed and Fail at Showing Up for Each Other in the Fight for Freedom (BGD Press, 2016). Hayes also coauthored an essay with Mariame Kaba in Kaba’s book We Do This ’Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice (Haymarket Books, 2021). Hayes’s movement photography is featured in the Freedom and Resistance exhibit of the DuSable Museum of African American History. Mariame Kaba is an organizer, educator, librarian, and prison industrial complex (PIC) abolitionist who is active in movements for racial, gender, and transformative justice. Kaba is the founder and director of Project NIA, a grassroots abolitionist organization with a vision to end youth incarceration. Mariame co-leads the initiative Interrupting Criminalization, a project she co-founded with Andrea Ritchie in 2018. Kaba is the author of the New York Times Bestseller We Do This Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice (Haymarket Press 2021), Missing Daddy (Haymarket 2019), Fumbling Towards Repair: A Workbook for Community Accountability Faciltators with Shira Hassan (Project NIA, 2019), See You Soon (Haymarket, March 2022) and No More Police: A Case for Abolition with Andrea Ritchie (The New Press, Aug 2022). REVIEWS "This is a prophetic work, one that will be pressed with great urgency into the palms of friends and comrades, kin and colleagues, and anyone else ready to rise up against machineries of mass death. With great clarity and generosity, Hayes and Kaba model how participants in movements can be tough on systems while being gentle with one another and themselves, nurturing a "counterculture of care" as an integral part of building the next world." -- Naomi Klein, author, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal“In this time of perpetual crisis, when too many of our movements are imploding and the work often feels soul crushing, Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba have turned decades of collective wisdom and experience into the text we desperately need right now. This book will radicalize even the ‘radicals’ by reminding us that to be radical is not to have all the answers or some special portal into transcendent knowledge. It is about seeing and moving differently in the world. It means having the courage to imagine, make mistakes, to trust, listen, learn, think, and rethink; to resist punditry, pedestals, and perfection; to reject cynicism and embrace critical analysis; to plot, to hold on, to care and commune, to show up, to love. They teach us to mourn and organize, and that we who believe in freedom have to rest. And they understand better than anyone what Dr. King meant when he called on us to ‘rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world.’” -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination“Let This Radicalize You is a rich treasury of practical lessons and insights from organizers and activists across many of today’s most important sites of struggle. Through deeply moving storytelling, Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba share a stirring vision of commitment and collaboration that is rooted in love, reality, and solidarity—and one that doesn’t shy away from the challenges we face inside and outside our movements or the high stakes. This book is a gift for everyone, no matter their level of political engagement, interested in building the new worlds of care and mutual flourishing that we need.” -- Astra Taylor, author, Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions [P] Haymarket Books / May 16, 2023 0.8" H x 8.4" L x 5.5" W (0.85 lbs) 296 pages

Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care /// Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba, foreword by Maya Schenwar, afterword by Harsha Walia

An award-winning historian illuminates the adversities and joys of the Black working class in America through a stunning narrative centered on her forebears. There have been countless books, articles, and televised reports in recent years about the almost mythic “white working class,” a tide of commentary that has obscured the labor, and even the very existence, of entire groups of working people, including everyday Black workers. In this brilliant corrective, Black Folk, acclaimed historian Blair LM Kelley restores the Black working class to the center of the American story. Spanning two hundred years—from one of Kelley’s earliest known ancestors, an enslaved blacksmith, to the essential workers of the Covid-19 pandemic—Black Folk highlights the lives of the laundresses, Pullman porters, domestic maids, and postal workers who established the Black working class as a force in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Taking jobs white people didn’t want and confined to segregated neighborhoods, Black workers found community in intimate spaces, from stoops on city streets to the backyards of washerwomen, where multiple generations labored from dawn to dusk, talking and laughing in a space free of white supervision and largely beyond white knowledge. As millions of Black people left the violence of the American South for the promise of a better life in the North and West, these networks of resistance and joy sustained early arrivals and newcomers alike and laid the groundwork for organizing for better jobs, better pay, and equal rights. As her narrative moves from Georgia to Philadelphia, Florida to Chicago, Texas to Oakland, Kelley treats Black workers not just as laborers, or members of a class, or activists, but as people whose daily experiences mattered—to themselves, to their communities, and to a nation that denied that basic fact. Through affecting portraits of her great-grandfather, a sharecropper named Solicitor, and her grandmother, Brunell, who worked for more than a decade as a domestic maid, Kelley captures, in intimate detail, how generation after generation of labor was required to improve, and at times maintain, her family’s status. Yet her family, like so many others, was always animated by a vision of a better future. The church yards, factory floors, railcars, and postal sorting facilities where Black people worked were sites of possibility, and, as Kelley suggests, Amazon package processing centers, supermarkets, and nursing homes can be the same today. With the resurgence of labor activism in our own time, Black Folk presents a stirring history of our possible future. BIO Blair LM Kelley is the director of the Center for the Study of the American South and co-director of the Southern Futures initiative at the University of North Carolina. Her first book, Right to Ride, won the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize, and she received a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant to support her writing of Black Folk. She lives in Durham, North Carolina. REVIEWS "Black Folk is a revelation, indeed one of the most important works of history to come across my desk in a long time. . . . Far from a small nameless and faceless group, the Black working class has been and continues to be the very heart of dignified working America and the animating force behind so much of our unique American culture." -- Michael Eric Dyson "Kelley's indictment of the systemic barriers that have affected countless Black families in work, housing, and more begins with her own family history of enslaved ancestors . . . [Black Folk] explores the topic of the Black working class in America by following a clear chronology, adding a necessary subtopic to the field of contemporary labor studies." -- A.E. Siraki, Booklist, starred review "Brings a dazzling blend of compassion, storytelling, and deep research to a subject that is vital to anyone aiming to understand the future direction of American politics and the nation itself." -- Martha S. Jones, author of Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All "Black Folk is at once a love song, a blues, and an epic account of the Black working class in the United States. In lyrical prose, Blair LM Kelley draws on her own family history to tell the story of how Black laborers built, fed, repaired, served, cleaned, cared for, enriched, and worked to democratize this country. By tracing the roots of the Black working class, Kelley reveals the history of the whole nation. The toils of ‘Black folk’ made the soul of America." -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination [H] Liveright Publishing / June 13, 2023 1.4" H x 8.9" L x 6.2" W (1.3 lbs) 352 pages

Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class /// Blair LM Kelley

With echoes of Educated and Born a Crime, How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing, ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood, to find her own voice as a woman and poet.Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he forbade almost everything. In place of pants, the women in her family were made to wear long skirts and dresses to cover their arms and legs, head wraps to cover their hair, no make-up, no jewelry, no opinions, no friends. Safiya’s mother, while loyal to her father, nonetheless gave Safiya and her siblings the gift of books, including poetry, to which Safiya latched on for dear life. And as Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father’s beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence. As Safiya’s voice grows, lyrically and poetically, a collision course is set between them.How to Say Babylon is Sinclair’s reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her; it is her reckoning with patriarchy and tradition, and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke, How to Say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know how to name, Rastafari, but one we know little about. BIO Safiya Sinclair was born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is the author of the poetry collection Cannibal, winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award in Literature, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. Cannibal was selected as one of the American Library Association’s Notable Books of the Year, was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Seamus Heaney First Book Award in the UK, and was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize. REVIEWS ﻿“Dazzling. Potent. Vital. A light shining on the path of self-deliverance.” -- Tara Westover, author of Educated “With strikingly stunning prose, How to Say Babylon crackles with both urgency and intimacy. Sinclair is a gifted and poetic voice whose lyrical story of personal reclaiming will inspire generations.” -- Tembi Locke, author of From Scratch “Sinclair recounts her harrowing upbringing in Jamaica in this bruising memoir…. In dazzling prose … she examines the traumas of her childhood against the backdrop of her new life as a poet in Babylon…. Readers will be drawn to Sinclair’s strength and swept away by her tale of triumph over oppression. This is a tour de force.” -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "How to Say Babylon is a narrative marvel, the testimony of an artist who literally writes her way out of a life of repression, isolation and abuse into one of art, freedom, love and wonder. To read it is to believe that words can save, words can heal, and words can imbue us with near divine power." -- Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings, winner of the Man Booker Prize and Black Leopard, Red Wolf "Safiya Sinclair possesses a rare gift: her prose is gorgeous and lush but she has such exemplary control of her craft that not a word is wasted. Every sentence sings. This is the coming of age story of an artist born to parents who yearned to be free of the legacies of slavery and colonialism in Jamaica, and who sought that freedom through faith and resistance. Sinclair finds her own freedom through a brilliant imagination and deep moral courage. With this book, she joins the pantheon of great writers of the Caribbean literary tradition, standing alongside authors like Paule Marshall, Edwidge Danticat and Jamaica Kincaid. Simply stunning.”-- Imani Perry, author of South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, Winner of the National Book Award [H] 37 Ink / October 03, 2023 1.15" H x 9.0" L x 6.13" W (1.06 lbs) 352 pages

How to Say Babylon: A Memoir /// Safiya Sinclair /// pre

A memoir penned with one good finger, Ndopu writes about being profoundly disabled and profoundly successful Global humanitarian Eddie Ndopu was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare degenerative motor neuron disease affecting his mobility. He was told that he wouldn’t live beyond age five and yet, Ndopu thrived. He grew up loving pop music, lip syncing the latest hits, and watching The Bold and the Beautiful for the haute couture, and was the only wheelchair user at his school, where he flourished academically. By his late teens, he had become a sought after speaker, travelling the world to address audiences about disability justice. Ndopu was ecstatic when he was later accepted on a full scholarship into one of the world's most prestigious schools, Oxford University. But he soon learns that it's not just the medical community he must thwart— it's the educational one too. In Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw, we follow Ndopu, sporting his oversized, bejewelled sunglasses, as he scales the mountain of success, only to find exclusion, discrimination, and neglect waiting for him on the other side. Like every other student, Ndopu tries to keep up appearances—dashing to and from his public policy lectures before meeting for cocktails with his squad, all while campaigning to become student body president. Privately, however, Ndopu faces obstacles that are all too familiar to people with disabilities, yet remain unnoticed by most people. With the revolving door of care aides, hefty bills, and a lack of support from the university, Ndopu feels alienated by his environment. As he soars professionally, sipping champagne with world leaders, he continues to feel the loneliness and pressure of being the only one in the room. Determined to carve out his place in the world, he must challenge bias at the highest echelons of power and prestige. But as the pressure mounts, Ndopu must find his stride or collapse under the crushing weight of ableism.Written with his one good finger, this evocative, searing, and vulnerable prose will leave you spellbound by Ndopu’s remarkable journey to reach beyond ableism, reminding us of our own capacity for resilience. BIO Described by TIME magazine as “one of the most powerful disabled people on the planet,” Eddie Ndopu is an award-winning global humanitarian and social justice advocate. He serves as one of the UN Secretary-General’s SDG Advocates and sits on the board of the United Nations Foundation. Ndopu has been featured in Forbes, Global Citizen, Rolling Stone, Guardian, OkayAfrica, and more. He lives in New York City. REVIEWS "As Ndopu deftly shares his life story, he chronicles memorable moments of awe and inspiration as well as dismay and embarrassment at the persistent ways that ableism has made his rise so difficult. One of Ndopu’s greatest strengths as an author is his ability to carry any reader as a collaborator and confidant without neglecting the appropriate indictments of the countless slights, assumptions, and micro- and macroaggressions that he faces. . . . An unflinching memoir of determined self-actualization.” -- Kirkus“Sipping Dom Perignon Through a Straw is essential reading for anyone who’s ever wondered how they can do right and do better by disabled people. Eddie has provided a template for allyship while remaining uncompromising in his self-worth. He is a masterful writer poised for even more great success.” -- Forest Whitaker“I have seen Eddie when he was still a teenager and walked alongside him as he demonstrated to the world that one need not yield their extraordinary power to the limits placed on their ability. Now, as an author, Eddie brings us into his reality—one filled fun and love yet oversaturated with barriers and challenges. Nestled in these expressive pages is a crucial lesson on the importance of humanity, the need for radical, comprehensive person-first care.” -- Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum“As this gripping tale unfolds, readers will fall in love with the fabulous Eddie Ndopu as they witness the power of sustained advocacy and the beauty of community. Sparkling with wit and wisdom, Eddie Ndopu’s book is a gift for us all.” -- Haben Girma, award-winning disability justice advocate and author of Haben [H] Legacy Lit / August 01, 2023 ﻿240 pages

Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw: Reimagining Success as a Disabled Achiever /// Eddie Ndopu

A stunning work of popular history—the story of how a crop transformed the history of slavery “Lewis’s work fuses powerful storytelling and authoritative historical research, and she is adept at framing local events against a global backdrop.” —the Whiting Award Committee on Slaves for Peanuts Finalist, James Beard Foundation Book Award for Reference, History, and Scholarship Americans consume over 1.5 billion pounds of peanut products every year. But few of us know the peanut’s tumultuous history, or its intimate connection to slavery and freedom. Lyrical and powerful, Slaves for Peanuts deftly weaves together the natural and human history of a crop that transformed the lives of millions. Author Jori Lewis reveals how demand for peanut oil in Europe ensured that slavery in Africa would persist well into the twentieth century, long after the European powers had officially banned it in the territories they controlled. Delving deep into West African and European archives, Lewis recreates a world on the coast of Africa that is breathtakingly real and unlike anything modern readers have experienced. Slaves for Peanuts is told through the eyes of a set of richly detailed characters—from an African-born French missionary harboring runaway slaves, to the leader of a Wolof state navigating the politics of French imperialism—who challenge our most basic assumptions of the motives and people who supported human bondage. At a time when Americans are grappling with the enduring consequences of slavery, here is a new and revealing chapter in its global history. BIO Jori Lewis is an award-winning journalist who writes about agriculture and the environment. Her reports have appeared on PRI’s The World and in Discover Magazine, Pacific Standard, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. She is also a contributing editor of Adi, a literary magazine about global politics. In 2018, she received the prestigious Whiting Grant for Creative Nonfiction. Lewis splits her time between Illinois and Senegal, and Slaves for Peanuts (The New Press) is her first book. REVIEWS “Within these pages, you’ll encounter plagues and palace intrigues, adventures and misadventures, kingmakers and kingbreakers, fortunes won and lost—all wrapped around the mighty peanut! In well-researched, engaging prose, Jori Lewis unravels the intimate connections between this major export crop, enslavement, and abolition on Senegambian soil. The wars fought over it, and the history that surrounds it. This work is an important contribution to African historiography.” -- Sandra Jackson-Opoku, author of The River Where Blood Is Born and co-editor of Revise the Psalm “Slaves for Peanuts is a revelation. With elegant prose and engaging details, Lewis uncovers a vital history that promises to transform our understanding of slavery and colonialism. Though focused on a single crop, this terrain is vast and deep. I highly recommend this outstanding work. ” -- Imani Perry, Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies, Princeton University, and author of Breathe “Slaves for Peanuts is an extraordinary and often tender work of meticulous research that spans time and continents, an insightful and captivating narrative of how slavery in Africa supported industrialization in the West, and how enslaved people took back their freedom. I am in awe of the authoritative care with which Jori Lewis lays out the entangled relationships between white supremacy, capitalism, food, and the indefatigable human agency. A must-read that illustrated the long-standing history of the many ways in which the African continent has been for centuries paying the price for the comforts of the Global North.” -- Anna Badkhen, author of Fisherman’s Blues [H] New Press / April 19, 2022 1.4" H x 9.2" L x 6.0" W (1.4 lbs) 352 pages

Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History /// Jori Lewis

NEW YORK TIMES • 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2021New York Times • Times Critics Top Books of 2021New York Times BestsellerBest Books of the Year • Washington Post, TIME, NPR, Oprah Daily, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Kansas City Independent, Los Angeles Public Library, Washington Independent Review of Books, Spy, Audile, Biblioracle, AbeBooks The essential, sweeping story of Juneteenth’s integral importance to American history, as told by a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and Texas native. Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed’s On Juneteenth provides a historian’s view of the country’s long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured in the century since, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow and beyond. All too aware of the stories of cowboys, ranchers, and oilmen that have long dominated the lore of the Lone Star State, Gordon-Reed—herself a Texas native and the descendant of enslaved people brought to Texas as early as the 1820s—forges a new and profoundly truthful narrative of her home state, with implications for us all. Combining personal anecdotes with poignant facts gleaned from the annals of American history, Gordon-Reed shows how, from the earliest presence of Black people in Texas to the day in Galveston on June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger announced the end of legalized slavery in the state, African-Americans played an integral role in the Texas story. Reworking the traditional “Alamo” framework, she powerfully demonstrates, among other things, that the slave- and race-based economy not only defined the fractious era of Texas independence but precipitated the Mexican-American War and, indeed, the Civil War itself. In its concision, eloquence, and clear presentation of history, On Juneteenth vitally revises conventional renderings of Texas and national history. As our nation verges on recognizing June 19 as a national holiday, On Juneteenth is both an essential account and a stark reminder that the fight for equality is exigent and ongoing. BIO Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. The author of Pulitzer Prize–winning The Hemingses of Monticello, she lives in New York and Cambridge. REVIEWS "Pulitzer Prize winner Annette Gordon-Reed renders a perfectly quilted work of history seen through the eyes of an African American family in Texas." -- Christian Science Monitor, 'Best Books of May' "Pulitzer Prize winner Annette Gordon-Reed renders a perfectly quilted work of history seen through the eyes of an African American family in Texas." -- Christian Science Monitor, 'Best Books of May' "Gordon-Reed is the textbook definition of public intellectual; and yet she gets personal in this slender, evocative memoir, blending gorgeous details from her small-town Texas girlhood with the unofficial celebration of slavery’s demise and the broader canvas of race in America." -- Oprah Daily, 'Best Books to Pick Up This May' "Gordon-Reed offers a book that is both profound and personal in its exploration of the ways history shapes our lives and becomes distorted and reinvigorated over time." -- TIME, 'The Best Books of 2021 So Far' [H] Liveright Publishing Corporation / May 04, 2021 0.6" H x 7.6" L x 4.7" W (0.5 lbs) 152 pages

On Juneteenth /// Annette Gordon-Reed

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR • A hilarious new essay collection from #1 New York Times bestselling unabashed fan-favorite Samantha Irby invites us to share in the gory particulars of her real life, all that festers behind the glitter and glam.“In case you haven’t wet yourself laughing recently…. One of our culture’s greatest humorists is back with another collection.” —Glamour“Has anyone else written so movingly about Trader Joes?” —The New York TimesSamantha Irby’s career has taken her to new heights. She dodges calls from Hollywood and flop sweats on the red carpet at premieres (well, one premiere). But nothing is ever as it seems online, where she can crop out all the ugly parts.Irby got a lot of weird emails about Carrie Bradshaw, and not only is there diarrhea to avoid, but now—anaphylactic shock. She is turned away from restaurants for being inappropriately dressed and looks for the best ways to cope, i.e., reveling in the offerings of QVC and adopting a deranged pandemic dog. Quietly Hostile makes light as Irby takes us on another outrageously funny tour of all the gory details that make up the true portrait of a life behind the screenshotted depression memes. Relatable, poignant, and uproarious, once again, Irby is the tonic we all need to get by. BIO Samantha McKiver Irby is an American comedian, essayist, blogger, and television writer. She is the creator and author of the blog bitches gotta eat, where she writes humorous observations about her own life and modern society more broadly. REVIEWS “Reading Irby’s work is like you’re belly up at a bar, shooting the s–t and peeling off the layers of your humanity with a hilarious confidant in a judgment-free zone.” -- Shondaland “In true Irby fashion, as you work your way through the collection, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll begin to think about popular culture in a new and exciting way.” -- Elle “Uproariously funny. . . . To read Irby . . . is to discover a secret chronicler of our private humiliations and small joys. . . . No line is overwrought; each unflinching thought unravels like a gift in your favorite group chat. -- Mother Jones “Deeply funny and consistently self-deprecating, Irby explores familiar and fantasy-based subjects with a confessional directness that’s the textual equivalent of a breath of fresh air.” -- Houston Chronicle “Nonchalant yet authoritative. . . . [Irby] races back and forth between self-deprecation and scalding humor, never once missing a stroke. . . . Quietly hostile, sure, but also loudly irresistible.” -- NPR [P] Vintage / May 16, 2023 0.8" H x 7.9" L x 5.1" W (0.5 lbs) 304 pages

Quietly Hostile: Essays /// Samantha Irby

In this disarming and candid memoir, cultural critic Clarkisha Kent unpacks the kind of compounded problems you face when you’re a fat, Black, queer woman in a society obsessed with heteronormativity. There was no easy way for Kent to navigate personal discovery and self-love. As a dark-skinned, first-generation American facing a myriad of mental health issues and intergenerational trauma, at times Kent’s body felt like a cosmic punishment. In the face of body dysmorphia, homophobia, anti-Blackness, and respectability politics, the pursuit of “high self-esteem” seemed oxymoronic. Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto is a humorous, at times tragic, memoir that follows Kent on her journey to realizing that her body is a gift to be grown into, that sometimes family doesn’t always mean home, and how even ill-fated bisexual romances could free her from gender essentialism. Perfect for readers of Keah Brown’s The Pretty One, Alida Nugent’s You Don’t Have to Like Me, and Stephanie Yeboah’s Fattily Ever After, Kent’s debut explores her own lived experiences to illuminate how fatphobia intertwines with other oppressions. It stresses the importance of addressing the violence scored upon our minds and our bodies, and how we might begin the difficult—but joyful—work of setting ourselves free. BIO Clarkisha Kent is a Nigerian American writer and critic. Her writing has been featured in outlets like Entertainment Weekly, Essence, The Root, BET, Paper, HuffPost, MTV News, Refinery29, and more. She is also the creator of #TheKentTest, a media litmus test designed to evaluate the quality of representation that exists for Black women and other women of color in film and other media. REVIEWS “A frank, fierce, and funny memoir and social critique.” -- Kirkus “I’ll read anything pop culture critic Clarkisha Kent writes, and now I have the pleasure of reading a whole damn book.” -- The Mary Sue “In her inspiring, no-holds-barred memoir, Clarkisha Kent puts her story out there for all to witness. Her writing is hilarious and intimate, like you’re talking to your best friend over drinks at the bar. Kent’s debut is a celebration of intersectional identity, heralding a bright, essential new voice.” -- Gabrielle Union, actress and author of You Got Anything Stronger? “Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto is funny and smart as hell. Kent’s personal story is steeped in an incisive analysis of fatphobia, misogynoir, colorism, racism, sexism, and ableism. As always, listen to Black women, especially Clarkisha Kent.” -- Alice Wong, author of Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life “Heartbreaking, honest, and still somehow wryly hilarious, Clarkisha Kent challenges readers in Fat Off, Fat On to not only read about her life but to think about their own. Whether you relate to the pop culture, the family dynamics, or the awkwardness of sex and dating, Kent reaches deep into herself to show her audience a mirror, and in many ways a lifeline, to find the words for their own stories. This is a book you will read and reread as you come to terms with your history and your future.” -- Mikki Kendall, author of Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot “Screaming, crying, and cackling are just a few of the words I can use to describe what reading Fat Off, Fat On was like. Clarkisha Kent artfully weaves together years of love, loss, joy, and sorrow into a tear-jerking, smile-inducing memoir that perfectly chronicles all the things that make life worth living and leaves you wanting more even as you reach the last page.” -- Keshav Kant, executive director of Off Colour [P] Feminist Press / March 07, 2023 0.9" H x 8.4" L x 5.4" W (0.8 lbs) 264 pages

Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto /// Clarkisha Kent

Named a top book of 2019 by TIME, New York Times Book Review, New York Public Library, Chicago Tribune, and moreFinalist, National Book AwardWinner of the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize As featured by The Daily Show, NPR, PBS, CBC, Time, VIBE, Entertainment Weekly, Well-Read Black Girl, and Chris Hayes, “incisive, witty, and provocative essays” (Publishers Weekly) by one of the “most bracing thinkers on race, gender, and capitalism of our time” (Rebecca Traister), now in paperback “Thick is sure to become a classic.” —The New York Times Book Review In eight highly praised treatises on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom—award-winning professor and acclaimed author of Lower Ed—is unapologetically “thick”: deemed “thick where I should have been thin, more where I should have been less,” McMillan Cottom refuses to shy away from blending the personal with the political, from bringing her full self and voice to the fore of her analytical work. Thick “transforms narrative moments into analyses of whiteness, black misogyny, and status-signaling as means of survival for black women” (Los Angeles Review of Books) with “writing that is as deft as it is amusing” (Darnell L. Moore). This “transgressive, provocative, and brilliant” (Roxane Gay) collection cements McMillan Cottom’s position as a public thinker capable of shedding new light on what the “personal essay” can do. She turns her chosen form into a showcase for her critical dexterity, investigating everything from Saturday Night Live, LinkedIn, and BBQ Becky to sexual violence, infant mortality, and Trump rallies. Collected in an indispensable volume that speaks to the everywoman and the erudite alike, these unforgettable essays never fail to be “painfully honest and gloriously affirming” and hold “a mirror to your soul and to that of America” (Dorothy Roberts). BIO Tressie McMillan Cottom is an associate professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth Universityand the author of Lower Ed. Her work has been featured by The Daily Show, the New York Times, the Washington Post, PBS, NPR, Fresh Air, and The Atlantic, among others. In 2020, McMillan Cottom was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She lives in Richmond, Virginia. REVIEWS ﻿"Thick is sure to become a classic of black intellectualism, one that ought to be read not only in African-American and gender studies departments across the country, although its lens is irrefutably and irresistibly black and feminist. It should be required reading for anyone interested in making 'trust black women' more than a hollow social media mantra." -- The New York Times Book Review"Cottom's intersectionality is merely the work of a writer seeing the world clearly and deeply, and connecting the dots in fresh and revealing ways." -- Chicago Tribune"Thick confirms McMillan Cottom as one of our most fearless public intellectuals and one of the most vital." -- Literary Hub, "The 10 Best Essay Collections of the Decade" "Thick gets into the messiness of US culture, exposing what Americans want to say but are sometimes too afraid or too unaware to say. . . . In essence, this book is about the compromises we make for the sake of control." -- Christian Century"Incisive, witty, and provocative essays. . . . The collection showcases McMillan Cottom's wisdom and originality and amply fulfills her aim of telling powerful stories that become a problem for power." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) [P] New Press / October 01, 2019 ﻿0.8" H x 8.4" L x 5.4" W (0.65 lbs) 256 pages

Thick: And Other Essays /// Tressie McMillan Cottom

An examination of African Americans' historical relationship with the natural world With a basis in environmental history, this groundbreaking study challenges the idea that a meaningful attachment to nature and the outdoors is contrary to the black experience. The discussion shows that contemporary African American culture is usually seen as an urban culture, one that arose out of the Great Migration and has contributed to international trends in fashion, music, and the arts ever since. But because of this urban focus, many African Americans are not at peace with their rich but tangled agrarian legacy. On one hand, the book shows, nature and violence are connected in black memory, especially in disturbing images such as slave ships on the ocean, exhaustion in the fields, dogs in the woods, and dead bodies hanging from trees. In contrast, though, there is also a competing tradition of African American stewardship of the land that should be better known. Emphasizing the tradition of black environmentalism and using storytelling techniques to dramatize the work of black naturalists, this account corrects the record and urges interested urban dwellers to get back to the land. BIO Dianne D. Glave teaches in the department of history at Morehouse College. She is the coeditor of To Love the Wind and the Rain: African Americans and Environmental History. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia. REVIEWS "This will interest young readers studying environmental history; an important addition for all library collections." -- Library Journal"Draws on personal perspectives and oral and recorded histories to detail the ways that the history of Africans in America is rooted in the earth." -- Booklist"I love it! Especially the juicy first-person accounts from enslaved and free black people that convey the depth of the relationship between them and the land . . . [The author] has done our country and the world an incredible service." -- Audrey Peterman, coauthor, with Frank Peterman, Legacy on the Land: A Black Couple Discovers Our National Inheritance and Tells Why Every American Should Care"In reclaiming the black heritage of the American landscape, Rooted in the Earth takes us beyond the hurt and struggle of people and nature and leaves us clean for the continuing journey like bare feet in the soil, fresh fruit, and sassafras leaf stems chewed like gum as a kid." -- Jarid Manos, author, Ghetto Plainsman; founder/CEO, Great Plains Restoration Council"This book is a compelling look at American history and its impact on African Americans and their relationship to the natural world. As part of the up and coming majority it is their influence and political power that will determine the sustainability of America's environmental protection policies, which influence an entire planet." -- Dudley Edmondson, author, Black & Brown Faces in America's Wild Places"For those who have felt that Blacks are unduly disconnected from the land, this book is both a roadmap and a welcome home sign." -- Majora, urban revitalization strategist and host, Eco-Heroes and The Promised Land [P] Lawrence Hill Books / August 01, 2010 0.5" H x 9.0" L x 6.0" W (0.63 lbs) 178 pages

And if you haven’t yet, join our mailing list below!

Join the BEM Mailing List!