The book that revealed the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his slave-mistress Sally Hemings and ignited a national controversy.

Sally Hemings
by Barbara Chase-Riboud

If one is to accept the thesis that the ideal historical novel consists primarily of plausible artistic license taken within a faithful reconstruction and knowledge of historical setting, this novel about the love affair between Thomas Jefferson and one of his slaves nearly approximates that ideal. Besides being well crafted....>>> [Read More About This Book]

Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
by Samuel Delany

In his newest book, "Times Square Red, Times Square Blue," Samuel Delany, weighs in with two essays on the controversy surrounding the redevelopment of New York City's Times Square, once infamous for its plethora of sex oriented businesses, into upper-middle-class dwellings, tourist hotels, and theaters. Delany's view is based on over thirty years of his being a habitué of the area and its businesses.>>> [Read More About This Book]
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Just Above My Head
by James Baldwin

Just Above My Head is the long anticipated novel by James Baldwin. The book has arrived to rave reviews and is currently on the best seller list, as would be expected for a work by one of America's most famous writers. There is no simplistic way to explain the plot, for there is no "plot"......>>> [Read More About This Book]
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Dhalgren
by Samuel Delany

Science fiction is generally considered the exclusive domain of White authors. The characters that people that domain are usually White heterosexual males with 20th century values and attitudes projected into a futuristic or exotic setting. Women, people of color, and members of sexual minorities, if present at all, are usually portrayed in a stereotypical manner. Because of this, it's a special pleasure to discover Black authors who have taken on the challenge of writing science fiction. And, while still a small minority in the field, Black authors are liberating science fiction by introducing fresh social concepts, new rhythms, and even new languages to the genre. Two members of this rare breed are Samuel R. Delaney and Octavia Butler.... >>> [Read More About This Book]

Mind of My Mind
by Octavia Butler

Mental telepathy has been a favorite subject of science fiction writers for a long time. But few have explored this phenomenon as extensively or as clearly as Octavia Butler does in "Mind of My Mind." Butler has developed an intricate and entertaining narrative about a telepathic network in contemporary times. Some 4,000 years ago, during the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, Doro, the child of Nubian farmers, discovers that he is immortal. By feeding on the life essence of another person, Doro can occupy that person's body. He also discovers that he has latent telepathic powers.>>> [Read More About This Book]

"Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman"
by Michele Wallace

A book that has been both praised and condemned is "Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman" by Michele Wallace. Comments have ranged from "a stunning achievement" to "a divisive, fractious tract ... devoid of competent scholarship." Prior to publication, the book was heavily promoted, something that is unusual for books by Black authors. Her publisher sent out a four-color folder announcing the book's imminent arrival. "Ms." magazine, a White feminist publication, featured Ms. Wallace on the cover of its January 1979 issue, accompanied by the statement, "The book that will shape the 1980's." A long excerpt from the book was included inside. Impressive. But who is Michele Wallace and what is it she has written that would "change history?">>> Read More About This Book]

I Love Myself When I Am Laughing...
by Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, editor

There are few things in life more satisfying than a good read. However, the read I have in mind is the action in which you are presently a participant, the moving of your eyes across a printed page. We could benefit from reading the classic literature written by such artists as Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry, Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston. Zora who? Zora Neal Hurston, whom, as stated in the introduction of "I Love Myself When I Am Laughing..." was "The most prolific Black woman writer in America." Yet many Black people are unaware that this talented woman ever existed....>>> [Read More About This Book]

The Living Is Easy
by Dorothy West

The Living Is-Easy, first published in 1948, is a spare narrative about the costs of "passing" and the other side of upward social mobility. Set in Boston around World War it is a story of that city's black upper class and of one woman, Cleo Judson, who seeks admission to it. "The Living Is Easy" has the ring of tragedy; it contains a hero Cleo, who cannot see where her schemes are leading her, and an outside world that is oblivious to her efforts. So many people are warped and broken in this novel that the reading is anything but easy...>>> [Read More About This Book]

Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism
by bell hooks

No question about it, this powerful book is essential reading for women of all colors, particularly those involved in the researching and writing of feminist hystory. Ain't I a Woman teaches us new questions to ask and new ways to perceive bwhat has been lying under our noses. It is a consciousness raiser, for every feminist who thought she already knew the basic story.....>>> [Read More About This Book]

Common Differences: Conflicts in Black and White Feminist Perspectives
by Gloria L Joseph and Jill Lewis

Common- Differences is, the interesting product of a collaboration of two feminists, one black, (Joseph) and one white (Lewis), both socialist-feminist and academic. Each has contributed one or two essays to each of the three sections: "Black Women's and White Women's Liberation," "Mothers, and Daughters,'.' and "Sexuality and Sexual Attitudes." The book is most effective when the authors speak for themselves and when, particularly in Jospeh's essays on mothers and daughters and "Styling, Profiling, and Pretending," the voices of interviewees and survey respondents come through. >>> [Read More About This Book]

Don't Explain
by Alexis De Veaux

If the closest you have come to experiencing Billie Holiday is Diana Ross in "Lady Sings the Blues," then you are due to read "Don't Explain,” a new biography of the legendary Lady Day by Alexis De Veaux. Billie Holiday captivated audiences with her jazz from the first time she sang in a club at the age of fifteen...>>> [Read More About This Book]

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
by Audre Lorde

Of her friends among the "gaygirls" of New York City in the 1950s, Audre Lorde writes, "Many of us wound up dead or demented, and many of us were distorted by the many fronts we had to fight upon. But when we survived, we grew up strong." >>>[Read More About This Book]
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Naked at the Feast: A Biography Of Josephine Baker
by Lynn Haney (The Crossing Press)

Let me make one thing clear at the start to a generation whose idea of a "star" is Diana Ross.

Josephine Baker was not a star.

She transcended that genre early, in her career. She was a phenomenon. A trendsetter decades ahead of her time, she achieved international acclaim without the benefit of hit records or multi-million dollar movies. She was and is a legend. >>>[Read More About This Book]



Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond Harlem
by Faith Berry

During the 1920's, African American writers enjoyed a rare and relatively receptive national and international audience. This emerging generation of Black writers, which included Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, was to be the first to reflect the folk culture of African Americans in strong, realistic terms. Perhaps the most prolific and certainly one of the most important writers of this "New Negro" movement in literature was Langston Hughes, the subject of a biography by scholar Faith Berry. >>>[Read More About This Book]