"QBR's evolving canon is a splendid way to begin honoring black artists." -Charles Johnson, from the Foreword"From critiques of W. E. B. Du Bois's Black Reconstruction in America to Alex Haley's Roots to Langston Hughes's The Ways of White Folks, these short, trenchant essays stimulate and challenge."-Booklist"A celebration of black literature. . .insightful commentary."-Ebony"A rich and surprising assortment." -Ameri...

I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away. My father was a carpenter, and considered so intelligent and skilful in his trade, that, when buildings out of the common line were to be erected, he was sent for from long distances, to be head workman. On condition of paying his mistress two hundred dollars a year, and supporting himself, he was allowed to work at his trade, and manage his own affairs. His strongest wish was to purchase his childre...

The Souls of Black Folk is a classic work of American literature by W. E. B. Du Bois. It is a seminal work in the history of sociology, and a cornerstone of African-American literary history.The book, published in 1903, contains several essays on race, some of which had been previously published in Atlantic Monthly magazine. Du Bois drew from his own experiences to develop this groundbreaking work on being African-American in American society. Outside of its notable place in African...

The beauty and spirit of Maya Angelou’s words live on in this complete collection of poetry, including her inaugural poem “On the Pulse of Morning”Throughout her illustrious career in letters, Maya Angelou gifted, healed, and inspired the world with her words. Now the beauty and spirit of those words live on in this new and complete collection of poetry that reflects and honors the writer’s remarkable life.Every poetic phrase, every poignant verse can be fo...

Whether Lee Stringer is describing "God's corner" as he calls 42nd Street, or his friend Suzy, a hooker and "past due tourist" whose infant child he sometimes babysits, whether he is recounting his experiences at Street News, where he began hawking the newspaper for a living wage, then wrote articles, and served for a time as muckraking senior editor, whether it is his adventures in New York's infamous Tombs jail, or performing community service, or sleeping in the tunnels below Grand Cent...

New York Times bestselling author and CNBC commenter Keith Boykin expands on the "It Gets Better" project by bringing together 25 essays by men of color on the topic of surviving growing up gay. In 1974, playwright Ntozake Shange published a choreopoem called For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf. The book/play/poetry would go on to inspire legions of women for decades and would later become the subject and title of a hugely popular movie in the fall of 201...

All About Love author bell hooks and other innovative Black thinkers explore ‘coolness’ within Black culture, in this 10th anniversary edition of Rebecca Walker’s visonary essay collection.“[This] slim anthology gives itself a formidable task: pinning down the elusive definitions of ‘Black Cool,’ an aesthetic and a philosophy that echoes across the African diaspora.” —The AtlanticOriginally published in 2012, this collecti...

Electric Arches is an imaginative exploration of black girlhood and womanhood through poetry, visual art, and narrative prose. Blending stark realism with the fantastical, Ewing takes us from the streets of Chicago to an alien arrival in an unspecified future, deftly navigating boundaries of space, time, and reality with delight and flexibility.

The first comprehensive collection of writings by the Black Panther Party founder and revolutionary icon of the black liberation era, The Huey P. Newton Reader combines now-classic texts ranging in topic from the formation of the Black Panthers, African Americans and armed self-defense, Eldridge Cleaver’s controversial expulsion from the Party, FBI infiltration of civil rights groups, the Vietnam War, and the burgeoning feminist movement with never-before-published writings from the Black ...

*Finalist for the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism**A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Literary Criticism and Essays Pick for Spring 2012*The Grey Album, the first work of prose by the brilliant poet Kevin Young, winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction PrizeTaking its title from Danger Mouse's pioneering mashup of Jay-Z's The Black Album and the Beatles' The White Album, Kevin Young's...

This is the second entry in our important African American Heritage series. The history of African Americans is a long, grim history full of injustices and brutality. But it is also filled with courage and perseverance. Gathered here in this omnibus edition are ten books that exemplify courage and a willingness to fight against all odds and at any cost for what is right. These books shed light on a proud people who have been mistreated for hundreds of years, a people who have refused to gi...

The 1990s. African Americans achieved more influence–and faced more explosive issues–than ever before. One word captured those times. One magazine expressed them. Emerge.In those ten years, with an impressive circulation of 170,000 and more than forty national awards to its credit, Emerge became a serious part of the American mainstream. Time hailed its “uncompromising voice.” The Washington Post declared that Emerge “g...