Collection: Shop Black

A lost midcentury classic--the farcical misadventures of a queer Black teen sharing a house with two adoptive mothers, a lascivious cook, and a reticent ghost.

In a small Michigan town, in the late 1950s, the widow Etta Klein--wealthy and Jewish--has for more than thirty years relied for aid, comfort, and companionship on her Black housekeeper Harriet Gibbs. Between "Aunt Harry" and Etta, a relationship has developed that is closer than a friendship, yet not quite a marriage. They are inseparable, at once absurdly unequal and defined by a comic codependence.

Forever mourning the early death of her favorite son, Sargent, Etta has all but adopted Aunt Harry's nephew, the precocious, gay seventeen-year-old Oliver, who has been raised by both women. Oliver is facing down his departure to college--and fending off the advances of Etta's cook, Nella Mae--when the household is disrupted by the arrival of a self-proclaimed "warlock," one Maurice LeFleur, who has convinced Etta and Harry that he might be able to contact Sargent in the afterlife . . .

Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes was the debut of the extraordinary Henry Van Dyke, whose witty and outrageous novels look back to the sparkling, elaborate comedies of Ronald Firbank and forward to postmodern burlesques like Fran Ross's Oreo. There is nothing else quite like them in American fiction.

This extraordinary New York Times bestseller reexamines a pivotal event of the civil rights movement--the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till--"and demands that we do the one vital thing we aren't often enough asked to do with history: learn from it" (The Atlantic).

* A New York Times Notable Book * A Washington Post Notable Book * Longlisted for the National Book Award * Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award *An NPR, Los Angeles Times, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution Best Book of the Year *

In 1955, white men in the Mississippi Delta lynched a fourteen-year-old from Chicago named Emmett Till. His murder was part of a wave of white terrorism in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared public school segregation unconstitutional. Only weeks later, Rosa Parks thought about young Emmett as she refused to move to the back of a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Five years later, Black students who called themselves "the Emmett Till generation" launched sit-in campaigns that turned the struggle for civil rights into a mass movement. Till's lynching became the most notorious hate crime in American history.

But what actually happened to Emmett Till--not the icon of injustice, but the flesh-and-blood boy? Part detective story, part political history, The Blood of Emmett Till "unfolds like a movie" (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), drawing on a wealth of new evidence, including a shocking admission of Till's innocence from the woman in whose name he was killed. "Jolting and powerful" (The Washington Post), the book "provides fresh insight into the way race has informed and deformed our democratic institutions" (Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Carry Me Home) and "calls us to the cause of justice today" (Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, president of the North Carolina NAACP).

"Forty years of tireless activism coupled with and fueled by flawless art." --Toni Morrison

Some of Us Did Not Die brings together the seminal essays of June Jordan, the widely acclaimed Black American writer known for her fierce commitment to human rights and political activism. Spanning the length of her extraordinary career, and including her last writings, the essays in this collection reveal Jordan as an incisive analyst of injustice, democracy, and literature. Willing to venture into the most painful contradictions of culture and politics, Jordan comes back with lyrical honesty, wit, and wide-ranging intelligence that resonates sharply to this day.

Weatherford Award Winner, Nonfiction

A personal remembrance from the preeminent chronicler of Black life in Appalachia.

The Harlan Renaissance is an intimate remembrance of kinship and community in eastern Kentucky's coal towns written by one of the luminaries of Appalachian studies, William Turner. Turner reconstructs Black life in the company towns in and around Harlan County during coal's final postwar boom years, which built toward an enduring bust as the children of Black miners, like the author, left the region in search of better opportunities.

The Harlan Renaissance invites readers into what might be an unfamiliar Appalachia: one studded by large and vibrant Black communities, where families took the pulse of the nation through magazines like Jet and Ebony and through the news that traveled within Black churches, schools, and restaurants. Difficult choices for the future were made as parents considered the unpredictable nature of Appalachia's economic realities alongside the unpredictable nature of a national movement toward civil rights.

Unfolding through layers of sociological insight and oral history, The Harlan Renaissance centers the sympathetic perspectives and critical eye of a master narrator of Black life.

A wife has had enough of her husband's cheating ways, but he isn't willing to let her go without a fight.

Paula Smith Harris has learned that the man she thought was her true love isn't exactly who he vowed to be. After enduring countless affairs, among other things, Paula decides that it is time to move on. However, getting away from her crazy, obsessed husband isn't going to be as easy as she hoped it would be.

Meanwhile, Michael is fighting for his right to stay married. With the secrets that have been revealed and the pain that was caused, is there any chance for a reconciliation?

Here are over 800 haiku by Richard Wright, one of the early forceful and eloquent spokesmen for black Americans, author of the acclaimed Native Son and Black Boy.

Wright discovered the haiku in the last eighteen months of life. He attempted to capture, through his sensibility as an African-American, the elusive Zen discipline and beauty in depicting man's relationship, not only to his fellow man as he had in the raw and forceful prose of his fiction, but to the natural world. In all, he wrote over 4,000 haiku.

Here are the 817 he personally chose; Wright's haiku, disciplined and steeped in beauty, display a universality that transcends both race and color without ever denying them. Wright wrote his haiku obsessively--in bed, in cafes, in restaurants, in both Paris and the French countryside. They offered him a new form of expression and a new vision: with the threat of death constantly before him, he found in them inspiration, beauty, and insights.

Fighting illness and frequently bedridden, deeply upset by the recent loss of his mother, Ella, Wright continued, as his daughter notes in her introduction, "to spin these poems of light out of the gathering darkness."

"That is the archaeology I am unearthing: the specter of police violence and state control over the bodies of young Black and brown people all over the world." -Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence features a new body of paintings and sculptures by American artist Kehinde Wiley confronting the legacies of colonialism through the visual language of the fallen figure. It expands on a subject the artist first explored in his 2008 series Down--a group of large-scale portraits of young Black men inspired by Wiley's encounter with Hans Holbein the Younger's The Dead Christ in the Tomb (1521-22) at the Kunstmuseum Basel. Holbein's painting triggered an ongoing investigation into the iconography of death and sacrifice in Western art that Wiley traced across religious, mythological and historical subjects. An Archaeology of Silence extends these considerations to include men and women around the world whose senseless deaths, often unacknowledged or silenced, are transformed into a powerful elegy of global resistance against state-sanctioned violence. The resulting paintings of Black bodies struck down, wounded or dead, all referencing iconic historical paintings of slain heroes, martyrs or saints, offer a haunting meditation on the violence against Black and brown bodies through the lens of European art history.
Kehinde Wiley (born 1977) is a world-renowned visual artist. Working in the mediums of painting, sculpture and video, Wiley is best known for his vibrant portrayals of contemporary African American and African-diasporic individuals that subvert the hierarchies and conventions of European and American portraiture. Wiley became the first African American artist to paint an official US Presidential portrait for former US President Barack Obama. Wiley has held solo exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally, and his works are included in the collections of over 40 public institutions worldwide. He lives and works in Beijing, Dakar and New York.

The breakthrough modern sports novel The Contender shows readers the true meaning of being a hero.

This acclaimed novel by celebrated sportswriter Robert Lipsyte, the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in YA fiction, is the story of a young boxer in Harlem who overcomes hardships and finds hope in the ring on his path to becoming a contender.

Alfred Brooks is scared. He's a high-school dropout, and his grocery store job is leading nowhere. His best friend is sinking further and further into drug addiction. Some street kids are after him for something he didn't even do.

So Alfred begins going to Donatelli's Gym, a boxing club in Harlem that has trained champions. There he learns it's the effort, not the win, that makes the boxer--that before you can be a champion, you have to be a contender.

ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults * ALA Notable Children's Book * New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age

In his latest poetry collection, Anis Mojgani goes into the persistent shadow of grief.

With an eloquent and delicate hand, Mojgani skillfully navigates the intricate terrain of carrying grief without allowing it to become an overwhelming burden, where joy and pain become interconnected threads in the intricate tapestry of life.

Renowned for his ability to conjure surreal imagery and lay bare his raw vulnerability, Mojgani infuses each poem with a profound and unfiltered honesty, In the Pockets of Small Gods serves as a vessel for the human experience.

Through Mojgani's masterful artistry, readers embark on a journey that traverses the landscape of human emotion, where grief intertwines with hope, and where the echoes of loss are softened by the embrace of memory. The collection stands as a testament to the remarkable capacity of poetry to articulate the nuanced complexities of existence, guiding us through the intricacies of navigating our shared journey with both resilience and compassion.

Learn about amazing Black women in science--15 fascinating biographies for kids 9 to 12

Throughout history, Black women have blazed trails across the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Black Women in Science brings something special to black history books for kids, celebrating incredible Black women in STEM who have used their brains, bravery, and ambition to beat the odds.

Black Women in Science stands out amongst other Black history books for kids―featuring 15 powerful stories of fearless female scientists that advanced their STEM fields and fought to build a legacy. Through the triumphs of these amazing women, you'll find remarkable role models.

Black Women in Science goes where Black history books for kids have never gone before, including:

• Above and beyond―Soar over adversity with Mae Jemison, Annie Easley, and Bessie Coleman.
• Part of the solution―Discover the power of mathematics with Katherine Johnson and Gladys West.
• The doctor is in―Explore a life of healing with Mamie Phipps Clark, Jane Cooke Wright, and many more.

Find the inspiration to blaze your own trail in Black Women in Science―maybe your adventure will be the next chapter in Black history books for kids.

An electric essay collection about Blackness, art, and dreaming of new possibilities in a time of constriction

This collection of innovative, penetrating, and lively essays features swimming pools and poets, road trips and museums, family dinners and celebrity sightings. In a voice that is at once piercing, mournful, and slyly comic, Aisha Sabatini Sloan inhabits several roles: she is an art enthusiast in Los Angeles during a city-wide manhunt; a daughter on a road trip with her father; a professor playing with puppets in the wilds of Vermont; an interloper on a police ride-along in Detroit; a collector of the dreams of scientists at a biostation. As she watches cell phone video recordings of murder and is haunted in her sleep by the news, she reflects on her formative experiences with aesthetic and spiritual discovery, troubling those places where Blackness has been conflated with death.

Sabatini Sloan's lively style is perfectly suited to the way she circles a subject or an idea before cinching it tight. The curiosity that guides each essay, focusing on the period between the 2016 election and the onset of the pandemic, is rooted in the supposition that there is an intrinsic relationship between the way we conceptualize darkness and our collective opportunity for awakening.

Affordable paperback of volume honored as one of Library Journal's "Poetry Books of the Year."

Saving the school -- one con at a time. (And in paperback!)

"A political heist page-turner set in middle school? Is that even possible? Varian Johnson shows us how it's done." - Gordon Korman, author of SWINDLE "Do yourself a favor and start reading immediately." - Rebecca Stead, author of WHEN YOU REACH ME Jackson Greene swears he's given up scheming. Then school bully Keith Sinclair announces he's running for Student Council president, against Jackson's former friend Gaby de la Cruz. Gaby wants Jackson to stay out of it -- but he knows Keith has "connections" to the principal, which could win him the presidency no matter the vote count. So Jackson assembles a crack team: Hashemi Larijani, tech genius. Victor Cho, bankroll. Megan Feldman, science goddess. Charlie de la Cruz, reporter. Together they devise a plan that will take down Keith, win Gaby's respect, and make sure the election is done right. If they can pull it off, it will be remembered as the school's greatest con ever -- one worthy of the name THE GREAT GREENE HEIST.

By the groundbreaking author of the award-winning Monster-a visionary who influenced and inspired a generation-this fast-paced and poignant story reveals the fierce underworld of sports.

All eyes are on seventeen-year-old Lonnie Jackson while he practices with his team for a city-wide basketball Tournament of Champions. His coach, Cal, knows Lonnie has what it takes to be a pro basketball player, but warns him about giving in to the pressure. Cal knows because he, too, once had the chance--but sold out.

As the tournament nears, Lonnie learns that some heavy bettors want Cal to keep him on the bench so that the team will lose the championship. As the last seconds of the game tick away, Lonnie and Cal must make a decision. Are they willing to blow the chance of a lifetime?

An ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults

AWARDS FOR WALTER DEAN MYERS:
New York Times Bestselling Author
3-Time National Book Award Finalist
Michael L. Printz Award
5 Coretta Scott King Awards
2 Newbery Honors
National Ambassador for Young People's Literature (2012-2013)
Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement
Children's Literature Legacy Award

Mallory

The first time I kissed Christopher Johnson, I knew he would be my biggest mistake. It didn't stop me from wanting him though, and when the ghosts from my past came barging into the present, it didn't stop me from agreeing to let him help.

It was supposed to be a simple business arrangement, a few months of playing a role that came far too easily to the both of us, but it wasn't long before it became more.

Love. Devotion. Heartbreak in its truest form.

Some people say life is for the living, but I say life is for the prepared. For the planners who know that controlling every piece on the board is the only way to get the result you want.

To avoid unfortunate complications like having your heart broken by a man past experiences taught you, you never should have trusted in the first place.

Christopher

There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do for Mallory Kent.

I think I knew it the first time I laid eyes on her, and it's remained one of my unspoken truths for the two years that I've known her. But I never thought I'd get the opportunity to do anything about it because Mallory is one of those people who doesn't need anyone.

She's strong, serious, and always in control of every situation around her, which is why the second I see her looking panicked and uncertain in the arms of a figure from her past, I don't think. I just act.

I had no idea that one small decision would lead to this. A fake relationship-designed to solve her problems and mine-turned real. An earth shattering love torn apart by the very forces that led to its conception. Forces that turned me into the source of our destruction.

There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do for Mallory Kent, including break her heart to save her soul.

Love from the Vortex & Other Poems (Kaleidoscope Vibrations, LLC), is poet and scholar-activist Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz's first full-length collection. An archaeological exploration on love and intimacy, the book charts her journey of finding and losing love over the span of three decades with six different men who came into her life at various times, but also offers a universal take on what can happen when one seeks love and connection with others, and the lessons that follow when that connection and love is lost. Revealing moments of happiness, fantasy, frustration, and eventually dealing with the dissolution of relationships, the book moves beyond these anticipated stages to moments of grace and beauty that come with the discovery and practice of self love, and a more fuller understanding of what it means to truly love someone as you love yourself.