Collection: Shop Black

Rica's very best friend is moving away. How can she convince her parents to let her get a pet so she won't be lonely? Friendship and family shine in this engaging young chapter book.

Rica Baptista wants--no, needs--a pet. A llama, a kinkajou, or maybe an iguana? She even has a name picked out: Frederica, her own name, after her Cape Verdean great-great-grandfather. But Rica's parents say no almost faster than their mouths can open. The worst part is that Rica can't tell anyone the real reason she wants a pet, because she's not supposed to know--she overheard that her best friend, Laini, is moving away, and Rica worries about being left behind. Rica and Laini make lists of the benefits of having a pet to convince Rica's parents, and they try all sorts of schemes to raise money to afford one, from party planning to holding a yard sale to entering a poetry contest. But in the end, it might be an act of unselfish kindness and courage that shows that Rica is ready to take on the pet of her dreams. In a rich and amusing story that will appeal to fans of Judy Moody and Ivy and Bean, a sincere and creative protagonist navigates friend and family relationships from funny to frustrating, endearing to insightful.

A classic of politics, murder, and espionage

"Watershed has all the makings of a social thriller...In this novel about water and the struggle for a life free of injustice, the mix doesn't just work, it flows." -- Alan Cheuse, National Public Radio

"It's hard . . . to imagine a novelist today with fresher eyes than Percival Everett."―Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune

On a windswept landscape somewhere north of Denver, Robert Hawks, a feisty and dangerously curious hydrologist, finds himself enmeshed in a fight over Native American treaty rights. What begins for Robert as a peaceful fishing interlude ends in murder and the disclosure of government secrets. Everett mines history for this one, focusing on the relationship between Native American activists and Black Panther groups who bonded over their shared enemies in the 1960s Civil Rights movement.

Watershed is an excellent example of Percival Everett's famed bitingly political narrative style.

How did a working-class young man from Washington, DC, turn the music world on its head and become the "Master Of Jazz"? Find out in this addition to the Who HQ library!

A pivotal fixture of the Harlem Renaissance, Duke Ellington was the bandleader of the historic Cotton Club and a master composer -- writing close to 3,000 songs in his lifetime and capturing the spirit of the Black experience in the Unites States. Over a 50-year career, Ellington became one of the biggest names in jazz as we know it. He went on to win 13 Grammys, a Pulitzer, and receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969. Who Was Duke Ellington? follows the exciting, multifaceted journey of this musical genius and takes a look at what truly makes Ellington an artist "beyond category."

The beautiful cover art, "Shared Knowledge" by Charles Bibbs, frames the anthology These Black Bodies Are.... This collection provides snapshots of the human condition in melanated skin and kinky hair from established and emerging writers and artists in the Inland Empire and Los Angeles area, reaching throughout the diaspora. It is an exploration of eight movements: hopeful, mindful (mental health), mystical, enlightened (education), bodacious, bearing witness, eclectic, and transforming (transitioning). These Black Bodies Are... is a reminder that we can, at any stage and age, liberate and empower.

A celebration of music from beginning to end, The Weary Blues is the debut poetry collection by the foremost Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes.

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, / Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, / I heard a Negro play. / Down on Lenox Avenue the other night / By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light / He did a lazy sway. . .

With these first lines, Hughes invites the reader into an experimental playground that tells the story of a Black man's life in America. Featuring poems such as, "Dream Variations," "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," and "Our Land," Hughes weaves in and out of verse, highlighting the lows of struggle in the face of segregation and racism, but also the highs of creation from the time when, "the Negroes were in vogue."

Now considered to be an American classic, The Weary Blues embodies the feel of the rhythm, improvisation, and soul of Black classical music, pioneered the genre of "jazz poetry," and left an irreplaceable mark in the African-American literary canon.

Professionally typeset with a beautifully designed cover, this edition of The Weary Blues is a sensational reimagining of a Harlem Renaissance staple for the modern reader.

Rica can't wait for Adventure Week with her grandfather! But when Grampy arrives with a sprained ankle, can they make their own fun at home instead?

Rica Baptista is living the good life. Grampy, the best Grampy of all Grampies, is coming to visit, and Adventure Week, the best week of all weeks, is finally here. Rica doesn't yet know if they will bounce on trampolines, go horseback riding, or even tour Fenway Park and watch the Red Sox play, but she knows they will have the best time ever. When Grampy hobbles into the house on crutches, however, Rica worries that this year's Adventure Week will be adventure-less. So she pulls out all the stops with the help of her best friend, Laini (who surely has eaten enough cachupa to be at least part Cape Verdean like Rica), from organizing a family talent show to secretly planning a whole day of playing cards and eating candy. Will it be enough to keep this year's Adventure Week from being a total flop? A sweet story of making memories during an unexpected stay-venture, sprinkled with funny and cute family moments.

Brothers is Nico Slate's poignant memoir about Peter Slate, aka XL, a Black rapper and screenwriter whose life was tragically cut short. Nico and Peter shared the same White American mother but had different fathers. Nico's was White; Peter's was Black. Growing up in California in the 1980s and 1990s, Nico often forgot about their racial differences until one night in March 1994 when Peter was attacked by a White man in a nightclub in Los Angeles.

Nico began writing Brothers with the hope that investigating the attack would bring him closer to Peter. He could not understand that night, however, without grappling with the many ways race had long separated him from his brother.

This is a memoir of loss--the loss of a life and the loss at the heart of our racial divide--but it is also a memoir of love. The love between Nico and Peter permeates every page of Brothers. This achingly beautiful memoir presents one family's resilience on the fault lines of race in contemporary America.

Celebrate the heart connection between adopted children and the forever families who welcome them with kindness, care, and unconditional love in this powerful picture book from the author of Honey Baby Sugar Child.

Carol Olivia Clementine lives with Mama Rose. Mama Rose is everything--tender and sweet. She is also as stern and demanding as any good parent should be. In the midst of their happy home, Carol misses her mother and father. She longs to be with them. But until that time comes around, she learns to surrender to the love that is present. Mama Rose becomes her "home." And Carol Olivia Clementine concludes that she loves Miss Rose, "just like a mama."

This sweet read-aloud is, on the surface, all about the everyday home life a caregiver creates for a young child: she teachers Clementine how to ride a bike, clean her room, tell time. A deeper look reveals the patience, intention, and care little ones receives in the arms of a mother whose blood is not her blood, but whose bond is so deep--and so unconditional--that it creates the most perfect condition for a child to feel safe, successful, and deeply loved.

2020 AMERICAN BOOK AWARD WINNER

"The Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman is the most comprehensive selection of his verse to date, a volume that contains a lot of previously uncollected work. ... this book makes a case for him as a perceptive and eccentric American original, a man who seems to have fallen out of the sky like a meteor."--The New York Times

"The body of work is small but voluminous in intensity, spirit and soul, with a lineage that runs from Charles Baudelaire to Charles Mingus. Kaufman--with his commitment to the art, his surreal eye on the urban experience and beyond it, and his jazz timing--brings San Francisco to life."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Twentieth-century American poetry cannot be fully comprehended without Bob Kaufman. City Lights and the editors do a grand service to literature by publishing Kaufman's poetry in one collection. ... This is a necessary gift for poets and poetry readers."--Booklist

"He was an original voice. No one else talked like him. No one else wrote poetry like him."--Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Bob Kaufman (1925-1986) was one of the most important--and most original--poets of the twentieth century. He is among the inaugurators of what today is characterized as the Afro-Surreal, uniting the surrealist practice of automatic writing with the jazz concept of spontaneous composition. He seldom wrote his poems down and often discarded those he did, leaving them to be rescued by others. He was also a legendary figure of the Beat Generation, known as much for hopping on tables to declaim his poetry as for maintaining a monastic silence for months or even years at a time.

Kaufman produced just three broadsides and three books in his lifetime. In 1967, Golden Sardine was published by City Lights in its famed Pocket Poets Series, and became an instant cult classic. Collected Poems is a landmark poetic achievement, bringing together all of Kaufman's known surviving poems, including an extensive section of previously uncollected work, in a long overdue return to City Lights Books.

Praise for Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman:

"Bob Kaufman volcanically en-veined the Beats as a mirage enveloped Surrealist; not as a formal poet, but one, like Rimbaud, who embodied butane. Following the scent of his butane on one anonymous North Beach afternoon led Philip Lamantia to audibly utter to me that Bob Kaufman as per incandescent singularity is 'our poet.'"--Will Alexander, author of Compression & Purity

"Bob Kaufman is one of our most vulnerable, mysterious, and beautiful poets, a nomadic maudit, surrealist saint of the streets, votary of silence, the consummate Outrider with trickster imagination and visionary power."--Anne Waldman, author of Trickster Feminism

"Uplifting the voice of this under-sung literary master to future's light is the mission of the Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman. This poet's poet on the cliff edge of no ledge is still continuing to foster new surrealizations. Read this bebopian wordsmith, his pen turned saxophone and ink notes that are black tears."--Kamau Daáood, author of The Language of Saxophones

"To call these poems 'surreal' seems, now, to muffle Kaufman's prophetic genius. He saw us, our images in pools of blood, milk, and saxophone spittle. Maybe it was ever our shivering made the ripples that distorted the reflections."--Douglas Kearney, author of Buck Studies

"Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman should finally liberate the kaleidoscopic surrealism of this San Franciscan, and in many respects, secular Franciscan, poet from the shadows of Allen Ginsberg and the other Beats. ... Collected Poems is a memoriam of unmitigated joy and abysmal despair."--Tyrone Williams, author of As iZ

The View cohost and three-time Emmy Award winner Sunny Hostin transports readers to Highland Beach in the captivating third novel of her New York Times bestselling Summer Beach series.

In this awakening, spirited novel, Sunny Hostin celebrates family, friendship, and community and reminds us of the importance of the legacies of our collective past and finding one's way in the world.

Founded in the late 1800s by the son of Frederick Douglass, Highland Beach along the Chesapeake Bay is the oldest Black resort community in America. Inside this proud and secluded beach community of about 100 private homes is Olivia Jones's legacy.

But Oliva's legacy comes with thorns--intertwined are secrets of her aunt's death; a controlling grandmother who is determined to crush anyone or anything that will interfere with her son's political career; and a father who wants to rebuild the family he rejected decades ago.

In the midst of tense family drama, Olivia must decide if she wants to return to the beautiful life she's created in Sag Harbor--with the neighbors and wonderful man who've become central to her happiness--or finally achieve her dream of having a family and home to call her own in Highland Beach.

Penned within The Strength That Stays Morgan Richard Olivier vulnerably shares words of wisdom, strength, and self awareness as she delves into the profound link between pain and purpose and guides readers on their journey of self-discovery, healing, and empowerment.

Placing emphasis on the importance of discernment, discretion, and self development, this poetry and prose collection builds upon the truths presented in her bestselling book The Tears That Taught Me-as it encourages readers to not only seek revelation and apply lessons learned but also receive the peace and power that comes from embracing the refined and resilient people they are today.

In this vulnerable and urgent memoir, Rae Wynn-Grant explores the ever-shifting relationship between humans, animals, and the earth through her personal journey to becoming a wildlife ecologist.

Growing up in the diverse and bustling California Bay Area, renowned wildlife ecologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant always felt worlds away from the white male adventurers she watched explore the wilderness on TV. She dreamed of a future where she could spend sleepless nights under the crowded canopies of the Amazon and the starry skies of the savanna. But as Rae set off on her own expeditions in the wild, she saw nature's delicate balance in a new light.

Wild Life follows Rae on her adventures and explorations in some of the world's most remote locales. Hers is a story about a nearly twenty-year career in the wild--carving a niche as one of very few Black female scientists--and the challenges she had to overcome, expectations she had to leave behind, and the many lessons she learned along the way. An incredible journey spanning the Great Plains of North America to the rainforests of Madagascar, Wild Life sheds light on our pivotal relationship and responsibility to the natural world and the relatives--both human and otherwise--that we share it with.

The main character of Coretta Scott King Award and Caldecott Honor winner Tar Beach returns in this imaginative exploration of words, with illustrations that echo artist Faith Ringgold's famous story quilts.

Join Cassie, the main character from the picture book Tar Beach, as she takes readers on a tour of her home, neighborhood, and school, introducing dozens of new words and their meaning. Young readers will relish the beautifully designed spreads, each with its own quilt motif.

A perfect storytime for kids of all ages, the bright, boldly colored pages will attract even the youngest lookers, while teaching vocabulary and important pre-reading skills to older children.

This guidebook is divided into four main parts. In Part 1: Foundations of Success for Men of Color, the theoretical perspectives undergirding a revised teaching and learning enterprise that prioritizes the success of men of color are discussed. Also explored are common barriers and challenges facing men of color that necessitate enhanced teaching practices. A key focus of these barriers are on environmental factors (external pressures that occur outside of college that influence student success in college) and on the socialization of men of color in education. Parts II and III articulate the promising practices derived from the comprehensive study of faculty. Specifically, Part II: Building Relationships with Men of Color discusses the establishment of personal relationships with men of color as a foundational precursor to efficacious teaching practices. In Part III: Promising Teaching Practices, the authors address the role of relevancy and interactivity (among other factors) in effectively communicating academic content to men of color. The guidebook concludes with Part IV: A Note to Instructional Leaders with strategies that academic leaders can employ to inculcate the values and approaches discussed in this volume in their departments and colleges.

2023 Reprint of 1956 Edition. This volume was published in the Fall of 1956. This series was originated and published by African American mailman Victor Hugo Green from 1936 to 1966, during the era of Jim Crow laws, when open and often legally prescribed discrimination against African Americans especially and other non-whites was widespread. Although pervasive racial discrimination and poverty limited black car ownership, the emerging African American middle class bought automobiles as soon as they could, though they faced a variety of dangers and inconveniences along the road, from refusal of food and lodging to arbitrary arrest. In response, Green wrote his guide to services and places relatively friendly to African Americans, eventually expanding its coverage from the New York area to much of North America, as well as founding a travel agency. Many Black Americans took to driving, in part to avoid segregation on public transportation. As the writer George Schuyler put it in 1930, "all Negroes who can do so purchase an automobile as soon as possible in order to be free of discomfort, discrimination, segregation and insult." Black Americans employed as athletes, entertainers, and salesmen also traveled frequently for work purposes. Shortly after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed the types of racial discrimination that had made the Green Book necessary, publication ceased, and it fell into obscurity. There has been a revived interest in it in the early 21st century in connection with studies of black travel during the Jim Crow era.

Tracy Brown's Single Black Female is a taut, edgy, deftly spun novel about four friends grappling with the dramatic twists and turns of life, love and what it means to "make it" in America.

Ivy Donovan is a successful stylist, entrepreneur, and single mom who has been loyal to her sons' father, Michael, who's serving a lengthy prison sentence. But life has gotten lonely over the years, and Ivy wants more for herself. Michael, however, isn't about to lose his family.

Coco Norris is well-off, single, childless, and struggling with her allegiance to emotionally unavailable men. When she finds a man who seems like he can give her everything she has ever wanted, Coco soon discovers that she has taken on more than she can possibly handle.

Deja Maddox is a real estate agent who is married to Bobby, a police sergeant with the NYPD. They have assimilated, looking down on anything that doesn't fit their buttoned-up, polished life. But Deja isn't as satisfied as she would like everyone to believe. When Deja's past returns with a vengeance, she's forced to face herself as her "perfect" life begins to crumble.

Nikki Diamond is a savvy, self-made businesswoman and social media darling who lives large and with no regrets. She's also Deja's little sister and thinks her sister can have so much more than her ho-hum marriage. And Nikki is all too happy to lend a "helping" hand to make that happen.

Things come to a head when Ivy's youngest son, Kingston, is caught up in a polarizing encounter with the NYPD. Everyone must figure out where they stand, including Bobby, who suddenly has to decide if his "blue life" matters more to him than his Black life and the Black lives of those he loves.

Single Black Female highlights the nuances of Black love, the often tested bonds of Black families, what it means to face the world as a Black man and the joy and pain of being a Black woman.