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Selected Poems is the classic volume by the distinguished and celebrated poet Gwendolyn Brooks, winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, and recipient of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. This compelling collection showcases Brooks's technical mastery, her warm humanity, and her compassionate and illuminating response to a complex world. This edition also includes a special PS section with insights, interviews, and more--including a short piece by Nikki Giovanni entitled "Remembering Gwen."

By 1963 the civil rights movement was in full swing across the United States, and more and more African American writers were increasingly outspoken in attacking American racism and insisting on full political, economic, and social equality for all. In that memorable year of the March on Washington, Harper & Row released Brooks's Selected Poems, which incorporated poems from her first three collections, as well as a selection of new poems.

This edition of Selected Poems includes A Street in Bronzeville, Brooks's first published volume of poetry for which she became nationally known and which led to successive Guggenheim fellowships; Annie Allen, published one year before she became the first African American author to win the Pulitzer Prize in any category; and The Bean Eaters, her fifth publication which expanded her focus from studies of the lives of mainly poor urban black Americans to the heroism of early civil rights workers and events of particular outrage--including the 1955 Emmett Till lynching and the 1957 school desegregation crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The remarkable story of how African Americans transformed Atlanta, the former heart of the Confederacy, into today's Black mecca
 
Atlanta is home to some of America's most prominent Black politicians, artists, businesses, and HBCUs. Yet, in 1861, Atlanta was a final contender to be the capital of the Confederacy. Sixty years later, long after the Civil War, it was the Ku Klux Klan's sacred "Imperial City."

America's Black Capital chronicles how a center of Black excellence emerged amid virulent expressions of white nationalism, as African Americans pushed back against Confederate ideology to create an extraordinary locus of achievement. What drove them, historian Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar shows, was the belief that Black uplift would be best advanced by forging Black institutions. America's Black Capital is an inspiring story of Black achievement against all odds, with effects that reached far beyond Georgia, shaping the nation's popular culture, public policy, and politics.

A Caldecott Honor Book illustrated by Bryan Collier, this picture book true story from Grammy Award nominee Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews is a "well-told and exquisitely illustrated story of a musician with a steep career trajectory will inspire young readers to pursue their passions, despite the challenges." --Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

A Caldecott Honor Book

A Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner

"Who's that playing out there?" Bo Diddley asked the New Orleans crowd. It was a small child who'd been nicknamed "Trombone Shorty" because his trombone was twice as large as he was.

Trombone Shorty was lifted in the air and carried through the audience until he reached the stage with Bo Diddley. He has been onstage ever since. Hailing from the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, where music always floated in the air, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews didn't always have the money to buy an instrument, but he did have the dream to play music.

This is the story of how he made his dream take flight. It's a story that will entertain young readers and their parents and resonate with anyone who has had to overcome obstacles to fulfill their dream. It's sure to be a favorite with jazz and general music lovers, but its message is universal.

Today, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews is a Grammy-nominated musician who tours the world with his band, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. He continues to inspire hope for the next generation in New Orleans and for music lovers everywhere.

You and your children will love having Andrews share his story. Illustrator Bryan Collier brings to life this living legend's narrative with energy and style, making visible the swirling sounds of jazz.

Mic check! Learn your ABCs with Queen Latifah in the Legends of Hip-Hop board book series.

In this accessible series perfectly crafted for babies (and adult fans), music producer Pen Ken and 3x Emmy Award-nominated animation director Saxton Moore introduce mini emcees to some of hip-hop's biggest and brightest luminaries with fun facts about each rapper, organized by a teachable concept.

In this book, children will meet Queen Latifah and learn the entire alphabet!

Check out other books in the series, including Legends of Hip-Hop: 2Pac.

A Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Oprah Magazine - Time - Vogue - Vulture - Essence - Elle - Cosmopolitan - Real Simple - Marie Claire - Refinery 29 - Shondaland - Pop Sugar - Bustle - Reader's Digest

"Nothing short of sublime, and the territory [Mans'] explores...couldn't be more necessary."--Vogue

From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity.

With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, Mans writes to call herself--and us--home. Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America--and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman.

Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing.

"Masterfully written and pitch perfect, Black Girls Must Be Magic is, simply, magic."--Good Morning America

In this highly anticipated second installment in the Black Girls Must Die Exhausted series, Tabitha Walker copes with more of life's challenges and a happy surprise--a baby--with a little help and lots of love from friends old and new.

For Tabitha Walker, her grandmother's old adage, "Black girls must die exhausted" is becoming all too true. Discovering she's pregnant--after she was told she may not be able to have biological children--Tabitha throws herself headfirst into the world of "single mothers by choice." Between her job, doctor's appointments, and preparing for the baby, she's worn out. And that's before her boss at the local news station starts getting complaints from viewers about Tabitha's natural hair.

When an unexpected turn of events draws Marc--her on and off-again ex-boyfriend--back into her world with surprising demands, and the situation at work begins to threaten her livelihood and her identity, Tabitha must make some tough decisions about her and her baby's future. It takes a village to raise a child, and Tabitha turns to the women who have always been there for her.

Bolstered by the fierce support of Ms. Gretchen, her grandmother's best friend, the counsel of her closest friends Laila and Alexis, and the calming presence of her doula Andouele, Tabitha must find a way to navigate motherhood on her own terms. Will she harness the bravery, strength, and self-love she'll need to keep "the village" together, find her voice at work, and settle things with Marc before the baby arrives?

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK FROM: Oprah Daily, Business Insider, Marie Claire, The Seattle Times, Lit Hub, Bustle, and New York Magazine's Vulture

Introduction by New York Times bestselling author Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Spanning more than 35 years of work, the first comprehensive collection of essays, criticism, and articles by the legendary author of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston, showcasing the evolution of her distinctive style as an archivist and author.

"One of the greatest writers of our time."--Toni Morrison

You Don't Know Us Negroes is the quintessential gathering of provocative essays from one of the world's most celebrated writers, Zora Neale Hurston. Spanning more than three decades and penned during the backdrop of the birth of the Harlem Renaissance, Montgomery bus boycott, desegregation of the military, and school integration, Hurston's writing articulates the beauty and authenticity of Black life as only she could. Collectively, these essays showcase the roles enslavement and Jim Crow have played in intensifying Black people's inner lives and culture rather than destroying it. She argues that in the process of surviving, Black people re-interpreted every aspect of American culture--"modif[ying] the language, mode of food preparation, practice of medicine, and most certainly religion." White supremacy prevents the world from seeing or completely recognizing Black people in their full humanity and Hurston made it her job to lift the veil and reveal the heart and soul of the race. These pages reflect Hurston as the controversial figure she was--someone who stated that feminism is a mirage and that the integration of schools did not necessarily improve the education of Black students. Also covered is the sensational trial of Ruby McCollum, a wealthy Black woman convicted in 1952 for killing her lover, a white doctor.

Demonstrating the breadth of this revered and influential writer's work, You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays is an invaluable chronicle of a writer's development and a window into her world and mind.

"Funny, wild, witty, and profound."―Victor LaValle

"A wild and wonderful debut, teeming with music, family and art."--New York Times

"Magical, lyrical, gritty, otherworldly...hype like Bayou Classic in the 90s."--P. Djèlí Clark

One of the Best Fantasy Books of 2022: New York Times; Oprah Daily; Vulture; Gizmodo; Boston Public Library

A fun and fantastical love letter to New Orleans unfolds when a battle for the city's soul brews between two young mages, a vengeful wraith, and one powerful song in this wildly imaginative debut. Nola is a city full of wonders. A place of sky trolleys and dead cabs, where haints dance the night away and Wise Women help keep the order. To those from Away, Nola might seem strange. To Perilous Graves, it's simply home.

Perry knows Nola's rhythm as intimately as his own heartbeat. So when the city's Great Magician starts appearing in odd places and essential songs are forgotten, Perry knows trouble is afoot.

Nine songs of power have escaped from the piano that maintains the city's beat, and without them, Nola will fail. Unwilling to watch his home be destroyed, Perry will sacrifice everything to save it. But a storm is brewing, and the Haint of All Haints is awake. Nola's time might be coming to an end.

Black Cake meets Death at a Funeral in this heartwarming and hilarious novel about three generations of a Nigerian Canadian family grappling with their matriarch's sudden passing while their auntie insists that her sister is coming back--from an author with a "razor-sharp, smart, and tender" (Nafiza Azad, author of The Wild Ones) voice.

Joy Okafor is overwhelmed. Recently divorced, a life coach whose phone won't stop ringing, and ever the dutiful Nigerian daughter, Joy has planned every aspect of her mother's seventieth birthday weekend on her own.

As the Okafors slowly begin to arrive, Mama Mary goes to take a nap. But when the grandkids go to wake her, they find that she isn't sleeping after all. Refusing to believe that her sister is gone-gone, Auntie Nancy declares that she has had a premonition that Mama Mary will rise again like Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.

Desperate to believe that they're about to witness a miracle, the family overhauls their birthday plans to welcome the Nigerian Canadian community, effectively spreading the word that Mama Mary is coming back. But skeptical Joy is struggling with the loss of her mother and not allowing herself to mourn just yet while going through the motions of planning a funeral that her aunt refuses to allow.

Filled with humor and flawed, deeply relatable characters that leap off the page, Pride and Joy will draw you in as the Okafors prepare for a miracle while coming apart at the seams, praying that they haven't actually lost Mama Mary for good, and grappling with what losing her truly means for each of them.

From the author of Curls and Glow comes a joyfully poetic board book that delivers an ode to African American girls as naturally beautiful in our human garden.

those girls bloom
these do too

we bloom like flowers
how about you?

Introduce young readers to the idea of self-love in a simple, playful rhythm with this luminous story where each little girl is as unique and beautiful as a blossoming flower.

A coming-of-age tale about a boy who proves that with superhero courage--and a few great sidekicks--you can take on even the toughest of odds. Adapted from a story that first appeared in Flying Lessons & Other Stories and perfect for fans of The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson.

Isaiah is now the big man of the house. But it's a lot harder than his dad made it look. His little sister, Charlie, asks too many questions, and Mama's gone totally silent.

Good thing Isaiah can count on his best friend, Sneaky, who always has a scheme for getting around the rules. Plus, his classmate Angel has a few good ideas of her own--once she stops hassling Isaiah.

And when things get really tough, there's Daddy's journal, filled with stories about the amazing Isaiah Dunn, a superhero who gets his powers from beans and rice. Isaiah wishes his dad's tales were real. He could use those powers right about now!

Kelly J. Baptist's debut novel explores the indomitable spirit of a ten-year-old boy and the superhero strength it takes to grow up.

A landmark collection of poetry by acclaimed fiction writer, translator, and MacArthur Fellow John Keene, PUNKS: NEW & SELECTED POEMS is a generous treasury in seven sections that spans decades and includes previously unpublished and brand new work. With depth and breadth, PUNKS weaves together historic narratives of loss, lust, and love. The many voices that emerge in these poems--from historic Black personalities, both familial and famous, to the poet's friends and lovers in gay bars and bedrooms--form a cast of characters capable of addressing desire, oppression, AIDS, and grief through sorrowful songs that we sing as hard as we live. At home in countless poetic forms, PUNKS reconfirms John Keene as one of the most important voices in contemporary poetry.

John Keene's PUNKS is utterly brilliant. The range, vision, depth and humanity he brings to the page are as galactic as Banneker's astral wanderings, as crisp as the chordal cutting of a searching horn, as courageous and small as a nose wide open. Keene's masterfully inventive inquiry of self and history is queered, Blackened, and joyously thick with multitudes of voice and valence. Amen to this exploration!--Tyehimba Jess

Poetry. African & African American Studies. LGBTQIA Studies.

Help your little one dream big with a Little Golden Book biography all about the first female Vice President Kamala Harris! The perfect introduction to nonfiction for young readers!

This Little Golden Book about Kamala Harris--the first woman, first African American woman, and first Indian American woman to be elected Vice President of the United States--is an inspiring read-aloud for young girls and boys.

Look for more Little Golden Book biographies:
- Barack Obama
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- Joe Biden
- Sonia Sotomayor
- Dr. Fauci

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - In "one of Morrison's most haunting works" (New York Times) the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the story of a mother and a daughter--a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.

In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North. Despite his distaste for dealing in "flesh," he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives.

CORETTA SCOTT KING AWARD WINNER - CALDECOTT HONOR BOOK - A NEW YORK TIMES BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK

Acclaimed artist Faith Ringgold seamless weaves fiction, autobiography, and African American history into a magical story that resonates with the universal wish for freedom, and will be cherished for generations.

Cassie Louise Lightfoot has a dream: to be free to go wherever she wants for the rest of her life. One night, up on "tar beach," the rooftop of her family's Harlem apartment building, her dreams come true. The stars lift her up, and she flies over the city, claiming the buildings and the city as her own.

As Cassie learns, anyone can fly. "All you need is somewhere to go you can't get to any other way. The next thing you know, you're flying among the stars."

Winner of the 2023 Soft Skull-Kimbilio Publishing Prize, a collection of short stories that elaborate the realities of a diasporic existence, split identities, and the beautiful potency of meaningful connections

Primarily told from the perspective of women and children in the Northeast who are tethered to fathers and families in Puerto Rico, these stories explore the cultural confusion of being one person in two places--of having a mother who wants your father and his language to stay on his island but sends you there because you need to know your family. Loudly and joyfully filled with Cousins, Aunts, Grandparents, and budding romances, these stories are saturated in summer nostalgia, and place readers at the center of the table to enjoy family traditions and holidays: the resplendent and universal language of survival for displaced or broken families.

Refusing to shy away from dysfunction, loss, obligation, or interrogating Black and Latinx heritages "If we flip the channels fast enough, we can turn almost anyone Puerto Rican, blurring black and white into Boricua." Gautier's stories feature New York neighborhoods made of island nations living with seasonal and perpetual displacement. Like Justin Torres' We the Animals, or Quiara Alegria Hudes' My Broken Language, it's the characters-in-becoming--flanked by family and rich with detail--that animate each story with special frequencies, especially for readers grappling split-identities themselves.