Collection: Shop Black

THE BONES BENEATH captures what it means to be American, Southern, diasporan, what it means to belong and not to belong, and finding many ways home. It transports readers across place and time, focusing on race and racism, health and healing, Africa and America, and mysticism and incantations. The poems call us to remember the histories we are coaxed to forget and opens pathways to understand our shared humanity. You will not leave this work without being changed and without understanding how and why there is hope for us to be better.

The new edition of a modern classic by New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Mary Monroe!



The riveting first book in the acclaimed God series sweeps readers back to the streets, porches, and parlors of civil rights-era Ohio to bring to life the beginning of an enduring friendship between two girls from opposite sides of the track . . .

"Reminiscent of Zora Neale Hurston." --Publishers Weekly

Annette Goode is a shy, awkward, overweight child with a terrible secret. Frightened and ashamed, Annette withdraws into a world of books and food. But the summer she turns thirteen, something incredible happens: Rhoda Nelson chooses her as a friend.

Dazzling, generous Rhoda, who is everything Annette is not--gorgeous, slim, and worldly--welcomes Annette into the heart of her eccentric family, which includes her handsome and dignified father; her lovely, fragile "Muh'Dear;" her brooding, dangerous brother Jock; and her colorful white relatives--half-crazy Uncle Johnny, sultry Aunt Lola, and scary, surly Granny Goose.

With Rhoda's help, Annette survives adolescence and blossoms as a woman. But when her beautiful best friend makes a stunning confession about a horrific childhood crime, Annette's world will never be the same.

Just in time for the Summer Olympics, this 33rd book in the New York Times bestselling biography series for ages 5 to 9 features one of the greatest runners in track and field history.

Before Jesse Owens was an Olympic gold medalist, he was a poor kid in a big family. When his speed caught the eye of one of his high school teachers, he began to train seriously and his running took him all the way to the Olympics, where he was against fierce competitors and racist assumptions, breaking world records while winning medals.

This friendly, fun biography series inspired the PBS Kids TV show Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum. One great role model at a time, these books encourage kids to dream big.

Included in each book are:

• A timeline of key events in the hero's history
• Photos that bring the story more fully to life
• Comic-book-style illustrations that are irresistibly adorable
• Childhood moments that influenced the hero
• Facts that make great conversation-starters
• A virtue this person embodies: Jesse Owens's drive and perseverance are highlighted

You'll want to collect each book in this dynamic, informative series!

A visual celebration of natural Black hair that highlights the powerful connection between mothers and their children during their wash day rituals.

In this stunning book, documentary photographer Tomesha Faxio explores the power of "wash day," a day that Black women dedicate to washing, detangling, conditioning, and styling their natural hair. The significance of wash day goes far beyond hair care--it's an opportunity for Black women to pour love into their curly, coily locks and, when they have children, pass on this sacred ritual to the next generation.

Wash Day celebrates the unique bonds between Black mothers and their children through intimate photographs of their hair-care routines and insightful stories that detail their natural hair journeys. Faxio brings you into the homes of twenty-six different families, illustrating the many ways that these mothers have used wash day to instill love, acceptance, and confidence in their children about wearing their natural hair. Through hours spent with their children, typically at the kitchen sink, each of these mothers is resisting generations of hair discrimination by creating a space for empowerment, all while finding their own sense of self-acceptance along the way.

Capturing the inherent beauty and diversity of natural hair, Wash Day is a visual homage to Black culture, Black rituals, and the generational bonds that strengthen the Black community.

The inspiring story of a Black doctor deeply affected by the violence in his childhood that plagued his Brooklyn community who was determined to be a force for change and dedicated himself to addressing trauma and violence as public health issues

Rob Gore first encountered violence when he was beaten and robbed as a 10-year old; it was treated as an inevitable fact of life, but after another brush with violence as a teen, he began to reject that prevalent attitude. As he matured and became a doctor, he grew in his determination to find treatments for what he saw not as an unavoidable fact for most people living in vulnerable, underserved neighborhoods especially, but as a public health issue that could be addressed by early intervention and solid support, beginning in the medical community. He also became deeply involved in efforts to diversify the entire field of medicine, starting with the "front lines" in the Emergency Department.

Seeing his brother Angel and close friend Willis fall prey to the epidemic of violence with profound--and in Willis's case--deadly consequences, Rob began seriously researching the issue and went on to found an organization which is one of the models for successful approaches to reducing violence and protecting victims, who are disproportionately BIPOC, living in impoverished neighborhoods, or members of the LGBTQ+ community. Here he provides not only statistics, but stories of what he witnessed in NYC neighborhoods, in Atlanta, Chicago, Buffalo and even in medical work in Haiti and Kenya. His work with the Kings Against Violence Initiate (KAVI) and allied organizations is a blueprint for treating violence not as a police matter, but as a public health crisis, which can and should be addressed and substantially reduced. The people he introduces us to in these pages are not merely victims, but often advocates, paving the way for eliminating the epidemic of violence in our country.

A sweeping, deeply researched narrative history of Black wealth and the economic discrimination embedded in America's financial system through public and private actions that created today's Black-white wealth gap.

The early 2020s will long be known as a period of racial reflection. In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, Americans of all backgrounds joined together in historic demonstrations in the streets, discussions in the workplace, and conversations at home about the financial gaps that remain between white and Black Americans. This deeply investigated book follows the lives of seven Black Americans of different economic levels, ages and professions during the three years following this period of racial reckoning.

Drawing on intimate interviews with these individuals--three of whom are well known and four of whom most readers will learn about for the first time in the book--the authors bring data, research and history to life. Fifteen Cents on the Dollar shows the scores of set-backs that have held the Black-white wealth gap in place--from enslavement to redlining to banking discrimination--and ultimately, the set-backs that occurred in the mid-2020s as the push for racial equity became a polarized political debate.

Fifteen Cents on the Dollar is a comprehensive, deeply human look at Black-white wealth-gap history, told through the lives Black Americans as well as through the development of a new bank intended to help close the Black-white wealth gap. Seasoned journalist-academics Louise Story and Ebony Reed provide crucial insights on American economic equity, Black business ownership, and political and business practices that leave Black Americans behind. In chronicling how these staggering injustices came to be, they show how and why so little progress on the wealth gap has been made and provide insights Americans should consider if they want lasting change.

It's never too early to start learning about college or the career of your dreams. Follow Uche and BJ as they explore what college is. These two students share dialogue on how to prepare for college. This book aims to help elementary students see the big picture.WWW.40GPA.COM

"In his new book of poems, Love House, Frank X Walker invites his readers in and speaks to them with consummate grace and intimacy about the things that matter most: loving, parenting, aging, living, dying, as well as basketball, birds, gardens, and golf. Walker, who is well known for giving voice to historical characters and bringing their stories to life, uses his insight, imagination, and hard-earned wisdom to write about himself and his family, including secrets, fears, and the unsolved mysteries that underlie daily living. Love House is "made of air, poems, books, and art" and real loving people brought to the page by one of today's finest and most prolific poets." - Greg Pape, author of A Field of First Things

For fans of Tara M. Stringfellow's Memphis and Abi Daré's The Girl with the Louding Voice comes a stunning literary debut about one intercultural family's search for home and the power of a lifelong dream.

It is summer 1969 in the Swiss countryside, and the house on the hill is busy. In the kitchen, Mama Eva and her sisters sing along to Congolese rumba, season fish, and pound garlic in preparation for the realization of a childhood dream: the grand opening of her Senegalese restaurant. Upstairs, African American daughter-in-law Bonnie paces across the floorboards, hopelessly waiting for news from the father of her unborn child.

Mansour has been gone for three months. His tour was only meant to last three weeks, but he and his band have yet to return.

In Mansour's absence, the people he left behind reckon with their memories of him: Mama Eva remembers his birth along a riverbank in rural Senegal; his aunt, the first time she saw him begging in the market; his childhood friend, the day he arrived in Paris. As Bonnie's anxieties mount, she plays his melodies in her head, calmed by the ghost of his voice, and putting a plan in action to find him.

Through tales that span generations and continents, these women paint Mansour's life in vivid color, and soon, both the lingering questions of their pasts and the truth of his disappearance are revealed.

Epic in scope but intimate in its portraiture, They Dream in Gold is a kaleidoscopic novel exploring the diasporic hunger for belonging. Moving through the hotbeds of the African Diaspora--from colonial West Africa on the brink of revolution to Brazil during Carnival season--it is a deeply affecting ode to the people and places that shape our identities, and a powerful testament to our shared humanity.

When Sharde M. Davis turned to social media during the summer of racial reckoning in 2020, she meant only to share how racism against Black people affects her personally. But her hashtag, BlackintheIvory, went viral, fostering a flood of Black scholars sharing similar stories. Soon the posts were being quoted during summer institutes and workshops on social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. And in fall 2020, faculty assigned the tweets as material for course curriculum.

This curated collection of original personal narratives from Black scholars across the country seeks to continue the conversation that started with BlackintheIvory. Put together, the stories reveal how racism eats its way through higher education, how academia systemically ejects Black scholars in overt and covert ways, and how academic institutions--and their individual members--might make lasting change. While anti-Black racism in academia is a behemoth with many entry points to the conversation, this book marshals a diverse group of Black voices to bring to light what for too long has been hidden in the shadow of the ivory tower.

Sweeping from the eighteenth century to futurist fabulations, Black Bell harmonizes poetry with performance art practices in an investigation of fugitivity.

Inspired by the nineteenth century image of an enslaved woman wearing iron horns and bells, Alison C. Rollins's Black Bell continues an exploration of cataloging individual experience and collective memory. As Rollins sets out to resuscitate and embody the archive, we see a chorus of historical figures like Eliza Harris, Henry "Box" Brown, and Lear Green; readers can listen in as Phillis Wheatley takes a Turing test or venture through Dante's Inferno remixed with Wu-Tang Clan's 36 Chambers. Poems travel across time and space, between the eighteenth century and futuristic fabulations, vibrating with fugitive frequencies, sounds of survival, and nerve-wracking notes tuned toward love and liberation. Black Bell navigates what it means to be both invisible and spectacle, hidden and on display, allowing lyric language to become the material for fashioning wearable sculptures akin to Nick Cave's "soundsuits." Integrating performance art practices, metalwork, and sonic, Black Bell becomes multimedia meditation on freedom seeking, furthering the possibilities of both the page and the canvas of the poet's body.

Legendary singer and Civil Rights activist Mavis Staples has teamed with an award-winning children's poet to share her rousing life story in this spectacular picture book.

At 85, Mavis Staples is still singing in front of large audiences and sharing her message of love, faith, and justice. She's been performing since age eight as part of her family's gospel group The Staple Singers, and has become one of America's most admired musicians, with multiple Grammys, a Kennedy Center Honor, and a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But Mavis has been more than a thrilling singer; she has also stood alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., at numerous Civil Rights protests where her voice was a rallying cry to the country. Now she and acclaimed author Carole Boston Weatherford bring her story and her inspiring message to young people in this poetic, illuminating book, beautifully illustrated by Steffi Walthall.

This heartfelt picture book from Today show co-anchor Craig Melvin is a tribute to fathers, sons, and the childhood milestones that inspire pride in every parent. Perfect for Father's Day!

I'm proud of you when you try.

I'll be cheering you on.

Always aim for the sky.

Through life's ups and downs, a parent's love is a reassuring constant. Complemented with lively illustrations by Sawyer Cloud, I'm Proud of You is an uplifting depiction of the special bond between dads and sons.

A TV investigative reporter and his sister, a San Francisco PD homicide detective, look into the slayings of Bay Area cops who have shot unarmed African Americans yet faced no repercussions in this debut crime thriller.

"Brian Copeland's thrilling debut novel is a revelation from an excitingly fresh voice 'of color' in the arena of crime fiction . . . He manages to take a 'ripped from the headlines' topic, the shooting of unarmed African Americans by police, and turn it into an exciting and entertaining blend of action, mystery, and social commentary." --New York Times bestselling author JONATHAN KELLERMAN

When San Francisco Police Officer Mickey Driscoll is gunned down in the driveway of his suburban Bay Area home in broad daylight, the suspects are numerous. Was the murder committed by someone close to him? An arrestee seeking revenge? Or was it one of the many rioters, activists, and militant groups harassing his family since he accidentally shot and killed an unarmed African American honor student?

TV investigative reporter Topher Davis, the only Black journalist on that beat, has exactly three weeks to do one final story before his position is eliminated due to corporate budget cuts. Enlisting the aid of his sister, SFPD Homicide Detective Lynn Sloan, he decides to investigate what the families of Blacks killed by police--and the families of the cops themselves--go through when tragic events like this occur. Instead, they find themselves involved in an ever-expanding mystery as more officers who've committed the same offense turn up dead. Weaving their way through a world of grieving mothers and widows, African American militias, dirty cops, and drug dealers, they search for the truth that threatens to leave one . . . or both . . . siblings dead.

In the far east of South Africa, among the rolling hills of Zulu land, life isn't easy for sweet Sindi. In her father's absence, she's treated cruelly by her lazy aunt and cousins. Despite her troubles, Sindi can think of nothing else but the upcoming Reed Dance, an incredible event celebrated by all the maidens in the Zulu kingdom! Though her problems threaten to ruin her chance to go to the dance and to find true love, her grandmother's wisdom, her own courage, and a touch of magic help Sindi discover that she can take charge of her own remarkable journey.