Why Do We Eat Popcorn at the Movies?
The movie theater’s most popular concession wasn’t always associated with the movies—in fact, it used to be explicitly banned. Natasha Geiling, Smithsonian Mag
We Are LIT is excited to host Octavia Mingerink, the Grand Rapids-based multidisciplinary artist behind Pretty in Ink Press, for an artist talk on Saturday, October 1 at The Arts Marketplace at Studio Park! The event begins at 3:30.
Octavia Ink is a local illustrator, printmaker, muralist and graphic designer. She uses her artwork as a fundraiser for marginalized groups around the city, but also to push positive affirmations and liberation. Octavia has illustrated work for Penguin Random House, Baker Publishing Group, Simon & Schuster and more, including local businesses and foundations.
We Are LIT’s bookshop owner Kendra will be in conversation with Octavia about her work in the book publishing industry as an illustrator, favorite book covers she's designed, and her passion for art and community.
“Never judge a book by its cover.” But, most book lovers do! This artist talk is free to attend and will coincide with the release of We Are LIT’s newest addition to its curated book collections, Cover Envy, a vibrant collection of work across all genres that celebrates the book cover art that catches a readers eye and their heart!
Light refreshments will be available while they last. We encourage attendees to stick around and checkout The Arts Marketplace at Studio Park!
“I love experimenting with different mediums and watching my art style evolve and BLOOM!” -Octavia
This event will be held at The Arts Marketplace at Studio Park and is free to attend. 121 Ionia Avenue NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503.
]]>Pandemic supply chain disruptions continue with labor shortages in publisher warehouses, printing capacity limitations, shipping delays, and a host of other issues. Shop early and shop local--in person or online--then sit back and relax with a good book (or two) for the holidays.
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We Are LIT launched in 2017 as an eCommerce bookshop selling new, multicultural books across all genres. The following year it expanded its platform by hosting recurring pop-ups inside the City’s best venues for art, culture, and entertainment. The bookshop currently services readers nationwide across 39 states.
We Are LIT owner, Kendra McNeil (Photo Credit: Doug Sims Photography)
“We Are LIT turned three this month, and it is exciting to celebrate its growth by opening of a physical bookshop,” said founder and curator Kendra McNeil. “A bookshop cannot survive without the support of its local community, and our expansion would not be possible without all who have supported We Are LIT in its mission to create a culture around books in West Michigan,” McNeil said. “Whether through sales, connections to resources, or providing space to pop-up,” she continued, “The ongoing support from patrons near and afar – plus, relationships with organizations, educators, and community leaders such as George Bayard, has created opportunities for the bookshop to grow.”
GRAAMA's Executive Director, George Bayard (Photo Credit: Kendra McNeil)
Through his work around art, culture, and community activism, the Museum’s founder and executive director, George Bayard, is committed to spotlighting historical contributions and memorabilia from local African Americans.
“The goal of GRAAMA has always been to uplift and educate the community,” said Bayard. “We Are LIT helps us expand this goal by exposing more patrons to the Museum while supporting another local Black-owned business.” “The bookshop is a welcome addition to GRAAMA,” he continued, “And as it looks ahead to expanding next year, we hope We Are LIT will join us.”
Likewise, “Besides the ability to collaborate and feature Grand Rapids commerce such as We Are LIT,” said GRAAMA’s board director, Michael Curtis, “From an educational perspective, reading and writing are essential building blocks.” “GRAAMA is an advocate for all literature,” Curtis continued, “Especially the selections offered through McNeil’s bookshop.”
The opening of We Are LIT on Monroe Center will mark the first time Downtown Grand Rapids has had a general bookshop since Schuler Books and Music closed its 7,000 square foot shop on Fountain St. eight years ago. While We Are LIT will be a smaller operation, it plans to feature the highly curated collections it has become known for, such as its popular Children’s LIT collection.
The bookshop is officially open for business; however, in light of recent State of Michigan orders restricting indoor gatherings due to the resurgence of COVID-19, its Grand Opening event will take place at a later date.
We Are LIT is a proud member of the American Booksellers Association. To learn more about the bookshop, its owner, and its mission, visit www.wearelitgr.com.
Photos courtesy Doug Sims Photography
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On Bookmarks, celebrity readers such as Common and Lupita Nyong'o will share children's books by Black authors to spark kid-friendly conversations about empathy, equality, self-love and antiracism.
Only on Netflix. September 1.
]]>Antiracist Baby was first released as board book on June 16, but quickly sold out and spent its subsequent weeks on back-order. Due to the high demand, the book was re-published July 14 in picture book format with added discussion prompts to help readers recognize and reflect on bias in their daily lives.
Order a copy today from We Are LIT!
With bold art and thoughtful yet playful text, Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest readers and the grown-ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism. Providing the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age, Antiracist Baby is the perfect gift for readers of all ages dedicated to forming a just society.
IBRAM X. KENDI is one of America’s foremost historians and leading antiracist voices. He is a National Book Award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. Kendi is a contributor writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News correspondent. He will become the 2020-2021 Frances B. Cashin Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for the Advanced Study at Harvard University.
(Photo courtesy ibramxkendi.com)]]>University of South Carolina Press $24.95, We Are LIT
"In Popped Culture, Andrew F. Smith tests such legends against archaeological, agricultural, culinary, and social findings. While debunking many myths, he discovers a flavorful story of the curious kernel's introduction and ever-increasing consumption in North America." (University of South Carolina Press)
The movie theater’s most popular concession wasn’t always associated with the movies—in fact, it used to be explicitly banned. Natasha Geiling, Smithsonian Mag
"Unlike other culinary fads of the nineteenth century, popcorn has never lost favor with the American public. Smith gauges the reasons for its unflagging popularity: the invention of "wire over the fire" poppers, commercial promotion by shrewd producers, the fascination of children with the kernel's magical "pop," and affordability."
"To explain popcorn's twentieth-century success, he examines its fortuitous association with new technology-radio, movies, television, microwaves-and recounts the brand-name triumphs of American manufacturers and packagers. His familiarity with the history of the snack allows him to form expectations about popcorn's future in the United States and abroad. Smith concludes his account with more than 160 surprising historical recipes for popcorn cookery, including the intriguing use of the snack in custard, hash, ice cream, omelets, and soup."
About Andrew F. Smith Andrew F. Smith is a writer and lecturer on food and culinary history. He serves as the general editor for the Edible Series, published by Reaktion Press. He also teaches Food Studies at the New School University in New York.]]>On March 19, 2019 shortly after the release of the book, Dr. Love joined Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, associate professor of English education at Teachers College, and Genevieve DeBose Akinnagbe, a former New York City Public School teacher in a conversation live from the Schomburg Center around her thoughts on how educators can teach children to thrive.
Dr. Bettina L. Love is an award-winning author and Associate Professor of Educational Theory & Practice at the University of Georgia. Dr. Love is one of the field’s most esteemed educational researchers in the area of Hip Hop education. Her research focuses on the ways in which urban youth negotiate Hip Hop music and culture to form social, cultural, and political identities to create new and sustaining ways of thinking about urban education and intersectional social justice. Her work is also concerned with how teachers and schools working with parents and communities can build communal, civically engaged schools rooted in intersectional social justice for the goal of equitable classrooms.
]]>As Jason Reynolds' put it, "we are who we are! And to be hip-hop, truly be it, we must remember that we are also funk, jazz, soul, folktale, and poetry."
]]>“Explore The Roots of Rap in this stunning, rhyming, triple-timing picture book!” On sale now at We Are LIT!
“The roots of rap and the history of hip-hop have origins that precede DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash. Kids will learn about how it evolved from folktales, spirituals, and poetry, to the showmanship of James Brown, to the culture of graffiti art and break dancing that formed around the art form and gave birth to the musical artists we know today.”
“Written in lyrical rhythm by award-winning author and poet Carole Boston Weatherford and complete with flowing, vibrant illustrations by Frank Morrison, this book beautifully illustrates how hip-hop is a language spoken the whole world 'round, it and features a foreward by Swizz Beatz, a Grammy Award winning American hip-hop rapper, DJ, and record producer.”
When did you fall in love with hip-hop?
“A generation voicing
stories, hopes, and fears
founds a hip-hop nation.
Say holler if you hear.”
Carole Boston Weatherford is an award-winning nonfiction children's book author. Her books have received numerous accolades, including a Caldecott Honor for Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, a Coretta Scott King Award Honor for Becoming Billie Holiday, and both a Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor for Freedom in Congo Square, as well as the NAACP's Image Award. She is currently a professor of English at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina where she created a hip-hop course. Find out more about her at cbweatherford.com.
]]>#JustMercy
]]>One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Foxx), who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the fact that the main testimony against him came from a criminal with a motive to lie. In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings, as well as overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds—and the system—stacked against them.
Based on Bryan Stevenson’s best-selling book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, this is an intimate and unforgettable narrative journey into the broken American criminal justice system. Releases nationwide January 10, 2020.
]]>The Beautiful Ones is the story of how Prince became Prince—a first-person account of a kid absorbing the world around him and then creating a persona, an artistic vision, and a life, before the hits and fame that would come to define him. The book is told in four parts. The first is the memoir Prince was writing before his tragic death, pages that bring us into his childhood world through his own lyrical prose. The second part takes us through Prince’s early years as a musician, before his first album was released, via an evocative scrapbook of writing and photos. The third section shows us Prince’s evolution through candid images that go up to the cusp of his greatest achievement, which we see in the book’s fourth section: his original handwritten treatment for Purple Rain—the final stage in Prince’s self-creation, where he retells the autobiography of the first three parts as a heroic journey.
The book is framed by editor Dan Piepenbring’s riveting and moving introduction about his profound collaboration with Prince in his final months—a time when Prince was thinking deeply about how to reveal more of himself and his ideas to the world, while retaining the mystery and mystique he’d so carefully cultivated—and annotations that provide context to the book’s images.
This work is not just a tribute to an icon, but an original and energizing literary work in its own right, full of Prince’s ideas and vision, his voice and image—his undying gift to the world.
*Content courtesy of the book's publisher.
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He pairs each cook with a song that he feels best captures their unique creative energy. The result is not only an accessible, entertaining cookbook, but also a collection of Questlove’s diverting musical commentaries as well as an illustration of the fascinating creative relationship between music and food.
Questlove is best known for his achievements in the music world, but his interest in food runs a close second. He has hosted a series of renowned Food Salons and conversations with some of America’s most prominent chefs. With his unique style of hosting dinner parties and his love of music, food, and entertaining, this book will give readers unexpected insights into the relationship between culture and food.
]]>From the Schomburg Center: Rakim reigns as one of hip-hop’s most transformative artists. Along with his partner Eric B., he recorded 1987’s Paid in Full, the landmark recording that MTV named "the greatest hip-hop album of all time." Rakim’s inimitable style lyrics, has drawn comparisons to jazz icon Thelonious Monk. Sweat the Technique by Rakim is part memoir, part practical writing guide shows anyone how to write better, while entertaining them with rich, engaging stories from Rakim’s life that shaped him as a writer. Join us for a conversation with Rakim and Ralph McDaniels, pioneering TV host and hip-hop historian.
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The goal of the partnership between Edim, the ABA, and its member bookstores is to “amplify diverse voices and support emerging writers of color.” To support this goal and build upon its own mission, We Are LIT, through its WRBG Summer Series, seeks to unite Black Women who make up West Michigan's literary community to foster connections and create a culture around books.
February 1, 2019. University of Texas Press. On sale now at We Are LIT Grand Rapids.
"How does one pay homage to A Tribe Called Quest? The seminal rap group brought jazz into the genre, resurrecting timeless rhythms to create masterpieces such as The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders. Seventeen years after their last album, they resurrected themselves with an intense, socially conscious record, We Got It from Here . . . Thank You 4 Your Service, which arrived when fans needed it most, in the aftermath of the 2016 election."
"Seeking the deeper truths of A Tribe Called Quest; poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib digs into the group's history and draws from his own experience to reflect on how its distinctive sound resonated among fans like himself. Abdurraqib traces the Tribe's creative career, from their early days as part of the Afrocentric rap collective known as the Native Tongues, through their first three classic albums, to their eventual breakup and long hiatus. Their work is placed in the context of the broader rap landscape of the 1990s, one upended by sampling laws that forced a reinvention in production methods, the East Coast–West Coast rivalry that threatened to destroy the genre, and some record labels’ shift from focusing on groups to individual MCs."
WATCH! Hanif Abdurraqib reads a heartfelt excerpt from his upcoming book Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest during a keynote address to booksellers from across the country.
"What people might not understand, is that there is no mercy like the mercy that comes with being loved in a violent place. If you are vital to the fabric of even the most vital place, that place will keep you alive for as long as it can."
"Throughout the narrative Abdurraqib connects the music and cultural history to their street-level impact. Whether he’s remembering The Source magazine cover announcing the Tribe’s 1998 breakup or writing personal letters to the group after bandmate Phife Dawg’s death, Abdurraqib seeks the deeper truths of A Tribe Called Quest; truths that—like the low end, the bass—are not simply heard in the head, but felt in the chest." (Publisher book marketing in quotations)
On sale now at We Are LIT Grand Rapids bookshop.
]]>Damon Young is regarded as an "rising star and one of the most closely watched and respected writers about race, class, and gender of our generation." His debut book, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker releases March 26, 2019 and is available to pre-order from We Are LIT!
]]>"From the cofounder of VerySmartBrothas.com, and one of the most read writers on race and culture at work today, a provocative and humorous memoir-in-essays that explores the ever-shifting definitions of what it means to be Black (and male) in America"
"For Damon Young, existing while Black is an extreme sport. The act of possessing black skin while searching for space to breathe in America is enough to induce a ceaseless state of angst where questions such as “How should I react here, as a professional black person?” and “Will this white person’s potato salad kill me?” are forever relevant.
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker chronicles Young’s efforts to survive while battling and making sense of the various neuroses his country has given him. It’s a condition that’s sometimes stretched to absurd limits, provoking the angst that made him question if he was any good at the “being straight” thing, as if his sexual orientation was something he could practice and get better at, like a crossover dribble move or knitting; creating the farce where, as a teen, he wished for a white person to call him a racial slur just so he could fight him and have a great story about it; and generating the surreality of watching gentrification transform his Pittsburgh neighborhood from predominantly Black to “Portlandia … but with Pierogies.”
“Damon Young is one of the most fearless and important young writers today. A devastatingly funny critique of racism, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker is a humorous and deep dive into the culture and a life lived in that precarious state we call blackness.” - Michael Eric Dyson, author of What Truth Sounds Like
And, at its most devastating, it provides him reason to believe that his mother would be alive today if she were white. From one of our most respected cultural observers, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker is a hilarious and honest debut that is both a celebration of the idiosyncrasies and distinctions of Blackness and a critique of white supremacy and how we define masculinity."
"Damon Young is a co-founder and editor-in-chief of VerySmartBrothas, a senior editor at The Root, and a columnist for GQ. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, Al-Jazeera, Slate, Salon, The Guardian, New York magazine, Jezebel, Complex, EBONY, Essence, USA Today, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazett"
]]>From one of our greatest writers, James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk is a profoundly moving novel about love in the face of injustice that is as socially resonant today as it was when it was first published. Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned.
Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions—affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.
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Here are two books from Chozak's list that We Are LIT also recommends: Turning Pages by Sonia Sotomayor and What Can A Citizen Do by Dave Eggers. Plus! We're adding a title of our own! We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor tells her own story for young readers for the very first time! As the first Latina Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor has inspired young people around the world to reach for their dreams. But what inspired her? For young Sonia, the answer was books! They were her mirrors, her maps, her friends, and her teachers. They helped her to connect with her family in New York and in Puerto Rico, to deal with her diabetes diagnosis, to cope with her father’s death, to uncover the secrets of the world, and to dream of a future for herself in which anything was possible.
In Turning Pages, Justice Sotomayor shares that love of books with a new generation of readers, and inspires them to read and puzzle and dream for themselves. Accompanied by Lulu Delacre’s vibrant art, this story of the Justice’s life shows readers that the world is full of promise and possibility—all they need to do is turn the page.
This is a book about what citizenship—good citizenship—means to you, and to us all. Empowering and timeless, What Can a Citizen Do? is the latest collaboration from the acclaimed duo behind the bestselling Her Right Foot: Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris. This is a book for today's youth about what it means to be a citizen.
Across the course of several seemingly unrelated but ultimately connected actions by different children, we watch how kids turn a lonely island into a community—and watch a journey from what the world should be to what the world could be.
In We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, fifty of the foremost diverse children’s authors and illustrators—including Jason Reynolds, Jacqueline Woodson, and Kwame Alexander—share answers to the question, “In this divisive world, what shall we tell our children?” in this beautiful, full-color keepsake collection, published in partnership with Just Us Books.
What do we tell our children when the world seems bleak, and prejudice and racism run rampant? With 96 lavishly designed pages of original art and prose, fifty diverse creators lend voice to young activists. Featuring poems, letters, personal essays, art, and other works from such industry leaders as Jacqueline Woodson (Brown Girl Dreaming), Jason Reynolds (All American Boys), Kwame Alexander (The Crossover), Andrea Pippins (I Love My Hair), Sharon Draper (Out of My Mind), Rita Williams-Garcia (One Crazy Summer), Ellen Oh (co-founder of We Need Diverse Books), and artists Ekua Holmes, Rafael Lopez, James Ransome, Javaka Steptoe, and more, this anthology empowers the nation’s youth to listen, learn, and build a better tomorrow.
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"Nearly a half century before it became a battle cry prompted by the police killing of Eric Garner, Ronald Fair made We Can’t Breathe a ringing declaration of intent." ~Jabari Asim
What emerges is a rich portrait of a community and culture that has resisted, survived, and flourished despite centuries of racism, violence, and trauma. These thought-provoking essays present a different side of American history, one that doesn’t depend on a narrative steeped in oppression but rather reveals black voices telling their own stories. (Macmillan Publishers)
In the chapter Getting it Twisted, Asim brilliantly uses his own analysis of the 1972 fictional autobiography 'We Can't Breathe' (read a New York Times 1972 book review) by writer Ronald Fair to flash forward to the current state of America:
[Ernie, the author’s alter ego, continues to face bitter circumstances but regards them with a defiant glare. “I was extremely cold, but my mind was occupied with a story that I wanted to write about the North,” he confides, “a story that I felt no one would believe or take seriously. Undoubtedly, it was something that had happened to someone’s cousin or uncle or brother or father, and was told over the years from black neighborhood to neighborhood, from city to city, north and south, until I finally heard it. I don’t remember having been told the whole story, only certain aspects of it. I knew it would be good, and I also knew that the truth of this story would be denied by whites. But I was going to write it anyway.” Nearly a half century before it became a battle cry prompted by the police killing of Eric Garner, Ronald Fair made We Can’t Breathe a ringing declaration of intent.]
Published October 16, 2018, Jabari Asim's latest essay collection is perfect for readers of Bunk by Kevin Young and We Gon' Be Alright by Jeff Chang. Available at We Are LIT!
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In Theaters October 19, 2018. Starr Carter is constantly switching between two worlds: the poor, mostly black, neighborhood where she lives and the rich, mostly white, prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressures from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what's right.
THE HATE U GIVE movie is based on the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller by Angie Thomas and stars Amandla Stenberg as Starr, with Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Issa Rae, KJ Apa, Algee Smith, Sabrina Carpenter, Common and Anthony Mackie.]]>
Dreamers is a celebration of what migrantes bring with them when they leave their homes. It’s a story about family. And it’s a story to remind us that we are all dreamers, bringing our own gifts wherever we roam. Beautiful and powerful at any time but given particular urgency as the status of our own Dreamers becomes uncertain, this is a story that is both topical and timeless.
The lyrical text is complemented by sumptuously detailed illustrations, rich in symbolism. Also included are a brief autobiographical essay about Yuyi’s own experience, a list of books that inspired her (and still do), and a description of the beautiful images, textures, and mementos she used to create this book. A parallel Spanish-language edition, Soñadores, is also available.
Photo Credit: Antonio Turok
"Born in Xalapa, Mexico, where she currently resides, Yuyi Morales lived for many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she still maintains close relations with booksellers and librarians. Professional storyteller, dancer, choreographer, puppeteer, and artist, she has won the prestigious Pura Belpré Award for Illustration five times, for Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book (2003), Los Gatos Black on Halloween (2006), Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book (2008), Niño Wrestles the World (2013), and Viva Frida (2014), also a Caldecott Honor Book."
]]>THE GREAT AMERICAN READ is an eight-part series that explores and celebrates the power of reading, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels chosen in a national survey. It investigates how and why writers create their fictional worlds, how we as readers are affected by these stories, and what these 100 different books have to say about our diverse nation and our shared human experience.
Americanah Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion--for each other and for their homeland.
Another Country Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country is a novel of passions--sexual, racial, political, artistic--that is stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, depicting men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime. In a small set of friends, Baldwin imbues the best and worst intentions of liberal America in the early 1970s.
Beloved Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe's new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.
Bless Me, Ultima Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. She is a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic. Under her wise wing, Tony will probe the family ties that bind and rend him, and he will discover himself in the magical secrets of the pagan past-a mythic legacy as palpable as the Catholicism of Latin America. And at each life turn there is Ultima, who delivered Tony into the world...and will nurture the birth of his soul.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who--from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister--dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú--a curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA.
The Coldest Winter Ever Ghetto-born, Winter is the young, wealthy daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family. Quick-witted, sexy, and business-minded, she knows and loves the streets like the curves of her own body. But when a cold Winter wind blows her life in a direction she doesn't want to go, her street smarts and seductive skills are put to the test of a lifetime. Unwilling to lose, this ghetto girl will do anything to stay on top.
The Color Purple This is the story of two sisters--one a missionary in Africa and the other a child wife living in the South--who sustain their loyalty to and trust in each other across time, distance, and silence. Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this classic novel of American literature is rich with passion, pain, inspiration, and an indomitable love of life.
The Intuitionist It is a time of calamity in a major metropolitan city's Department of Elevator Inspectors, and Lila Mae Watson, the first black female elevator inspector in the history of the department, is at the center of it. Lila Mae is an Intuitionist and, it just so happens, has the highest accuracy rate in the entire department. But when an elevator in a new city building goes into total free fall on Lila Mae's watch, chaos ensues. It's an election year in the Elevator Guild, and the good-old-boy Empiricists would love nothing more than to assign the blame to an Intuitionist. But Lila Mae is never wrong.
Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for 16 weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood, " and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.
The Joy Luck Club In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan's debut novel--now widely regarded as a modern classic--examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between these four women and their American-born daughters.
One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, and alive with unforgettable men and women--brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul--this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.
Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years due largely to initial audiences rejection of its strong black female protagonist Hurston s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature."
Things Fall Apart is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s; it explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political and religious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order.
White Teeth Set against London's racial and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire and into the past as it barrels toward the future and at the center of this invigorating novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. Veterans of World War II, Archie and Samad and their families become agents of England's irrevocable transformation. A second marriage to Clara Bowden, a beautiful, albeit tooth-challenged, Jamaican half his age, quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life, and produces Irie, a knowing child whose personality doesn't quite match her name. Samad's late-in-life arranged marriage produces twin sons whose separate paths confound Iqbal's every effort to direct them, and a renewed, if selective, submission to his Islamic faith.
More About The Great American Read
The television series features entertaining an informative documentary segments, with compelling testimonials from celebrities, authors, notable Americans and book lovers across the country. It is comprised of a two-hour launch episode in which the list of 100 books is revealed, five one-hour theme episodes that examine concepts common to groups of books on the list, and a finale, in which the results are announced of a nationwide vote to choose America’s best-loved book. The series is the centerpiece of an ambitious multi-platform digital, educational and community outreach campaign, designed to get the country reading and passionately talking about books.
Shop the collection: Great American Reads
]]>"When black Colorado Springs Police Officer Ron Stallworth was assigned to protect Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke in 1979, he sought a subtle revenge against him for his racism. Asking to take a photo, he surprised Duke at the last second by placing his arm around him, ensuring the pair would look like friends." ~Larry Getlen, NY Post
In 1979, black Colorado Springs Police Officer Ron Stallworth was assigned to protect Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. As a subtle revenge against Duke for his racism, Stallworth placed his arm around him during a photo to ensure they looked friendly. As reported in the original New York Post article, Duke was steamed! However, what he did not know was for two months, Stallworth had been a part of an undercover operation to collect intelligence on the Ku Klux Klan organization. Stallworth, a detective in the Intelligence Unit had been posing as a white supporter of the KLAN, speaking to Duke and others by phone and getting them to reveal their plans and secrets.
After the photo incident, the undercover investigation was shutdown, to which Stallworth believed was due to the police chief's fear of a public relations fiasco; however, he saved most of the files, which became the basis for the book released June 5, 2018. *Story originally reported by Larry Getlen, New York Post, June 2, 2018
"Black Klansman is an amazing true story that reads like a crime thriller, and a searing portrait of a divided America and the extraordinary heroes who dare to fight back."
From the publisher: When detective Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, comes across a classified ad in the local paper asking for all those interested in joining the Ku Klux Klan to contact a P.O. box, Detective Stallworth does his job and responds with interest, using his real name while posing as a white man. He figures he'll receive a few brochures in the mail, maybe even a magazine, and learn more about a growing terrorist threat in his community.
A few weeks later the office phone rings, and the caller asks Ron a question he thought he'd never have to answer, "Would you like to join our cause?" This is 1978, and the KKK is on the rise in the United States. Its Grand Wizard, David Duke, has made a name for himself, appearing on talk shows, and major magazine interviews preaching a "kinder" Klan that wants nothing more than to preserve a heritage, and to restore a nation to its former glory.
Ron answers the caller's question that night with a yes, launching what is surely one of the most audacious, and incredible undercover investigations in history. Ron recruits his partner Chuck to play the "white" Ron Stallworth, while Stallworth himself conducts all subsequent phone conversations. During the months-long investigation, Stallworth sabotages cross burnings, exposes white supremacists in the military, and even befriends David Duke himself.
Black Klansman was published on June 5, 2018 and is the basis for an upcoming major motion picture written and directed by Spike Lee. Order a copy of the book from We Are LIT!
Ron Stallworth is a 32-year, highly decorated, law enforcement veteran, who worked undercover narcotics, vice, criminal intelligence and organized crime beats in four states. As the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, Ron overcame fierce racial hostility to achieve a long and distinguished career in law enforcement.
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"Mandela Day calls on us all, every day, to make the world a better place. Each year on 18 July we look back on what has been done, and forward to what will be done. Making every day a Mandela Day celebrates Madiba’s life and legacy in a sustainable way that will bring about enduring change."
July 18th marked 100 years since Nelson Mandela’s birth and We Are LIT joined in the celebration of his centenary with Six Audiobooks to listen to that honor his life and legacy.
1. Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
In classically elegant and engrossing prose, Nelson Mandela tells of his early years as an impoverished student and law clerk in Johannesburg, of his slow political awakening, and of his pivotal role in the rebirth of a stagnant ANC and the formation of its Youth League in the 1950s. He describes the struggle to reconcile his political activity with his devotion to his family, the anguished breakup of his first marriage, and the painful separations from his children. He brings vividly to life the escalating political warfare in the fifties between the ANC and the government, culminating in his dramatic escapades as an underground leader and the notorious Rivonia Trial of 1964, at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
With a foreword by President Barack Obama, Conversations with Myself draws on Mandela's personal archive of never-before-seen materials to offer unique access to the private world of an incomparable world leader. Journals kept on the run during the anti-apartheid struggle of the early 1960s; diaries and draft letters written in Robben Island and other South African prisons during his twenty-seven years of incarceration; notebooks from the post-apartheid transition; private recorded conversations; speeches and correspondence written during his presidency—a historic collection of documents archived at the Nelson Mandela Foundation is brought together into a sweeping narrative of great immediacy and stunning power.
The long-awaited second volume of Nelson Mandela’s memoirs, left unfinished at his death and never before available, are here completed and expanded with notes and speeches written by Mandela during his historic presidency, making for a moving sequel to his worldwide bestseller Long Walk to Freedom.
4. The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela
An unforgettable portrait of one of the most inspiring historical figures of the twentieth century, published on the centenary of his birth. Arrested in 1962 as South Africa's apartheid regime intensified its brutal campaign against political opponents, forty-four-year-old lawyer and African National Congress activist Nelson Mandela had no idea that he would spend the next twenty-seven years in jail. During his 10,052 days of incarceration, Mandela wrote hundreds of letters to unyielding prison authorities, fellow activists, government officials, and most memorably to his courageous wife, Winnie, and his five children. Now, 255 of these letters, a majority of which were previously unseen, provide the most intimate portrait of Mandela since Long Walk to Freedom.
The first-ever book to tell Nelson Mandela's life through the eyes of the grandson who was raised by him, chronicling Ndaba Mandela's life living with, and learning from, one of the greatest leaders and humanitarians the world has ever known. In Going to the Mountain, Ndaba tells how he came to live with Mandela shortly after he turned eleven--having met each other only once, years before, when Mandela was imprisoned at Victor Verster Prison--and how the two of them slowly, cautiously built a relationship that would affect both their lives in extraordinary ways.
Narrated by Forest Whitaker, this is the story of a young boy who grew up to become president of South Africa. His lifelong quest was to establish equality for people of all colors. Written by Kadir Nelson.
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Watch! Forever President Barack Obama Speaks At Mandela Day. In his first major speech since leaving public office, former President Barack Obama delivered the 2018 Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Madiba’s light shone so brightly ... that in the late seventies he could inspire a young college student on the other side of the world to re-examine my own priorities – to reconsider the small role that I might play in bending the arc towards justice." ~Barack Obama
]]>1. Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper
Eloquent rage keeps us all honest and accountable. It reminds women that they don't have to settle for less. When Cooper learned of her grandmother's eloquent rage about love, sex, and marriage in an epic and hilarious front-porch confrontation, her life was changed. This book argues that ultimately feminism, friendship, and faith in one's own superpowers are all we really need to turn things right side up again.
2. I'm Still Here by Austin Channing
In a time when nearly all institutions claim to value "diversity" in their mission statements, I'm Still Here is a powerful account of how and why our actions so often fall short of our words. Austin writes in breathtaking detail about her journey to self-worth and the pitfalls that kill our attempts at racial justice, in stories that bear witness to the complexity of America's social fabric--from Black Cleveland neighborhoods to private schools in the middle-class suburbs, from prison walls to the boardrooms at majority-white organizations.
3. In the Shadow of Statues by Mitch Landrieu
The New Orleans mayor who removed the Confederate statues confronts the racism that shapes us and argues for white America to reckon with its past. A passionate, personal, urgent book from the man who sparked a national debate.
4. No Ashes in the Fire by Darnell Moore
When Darnell Moore was fourteen, three boys from his neighborhood tried to set him on fire. They cornered him while he was walking home from school, harassed him because they thought he was gay, and poured a jug of gasoline on him. He escaped, but just barely. It wasn't the last time he would face death. Three decades later, Moore is an award-winning writer, a leading Black Lives Matter activist, and an advocate for justice and liberation. In No Ashes in the Fire, he shares the journey taken by that scared, bullied teenager who not only survived, but found his calling.
5. The Heritage by Howard Bryant
The Heritage is the story of the rise, fall, and fervent return of the athlete-activist. Through deep research and interviews with some of sports' best-known stars--including Kaepernick, David Ortiz, Charles Barkley, and Chris Webber--as well as members of law enforcement and the military, Bryant details the collision of post-9/11 sports in America and the politically engaged post-Ferguson black athlete.
6. The Soul of America by Jon Meacham
In The Soul of America Meacham shows us how the "better angels of our nature" have repeatedly won the day. Painting surprising portraits of various presidents, and illuminating the courage of such influential citizen activists as Martin Luther King, Jr., early suffragettes Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt, civil rights pioneers Rosa Parks and John Lewis, Meacham brings vividly to life turning points in American history.
7. What Truth Sounds Like by Michael Eric Dyson
A stunning follow up to New York Times bestseller Tears We Cannot Stop, What Truth Sounds Like examines the events surrounding the 1963 meeting between Robert F. Kennedy and James Baldwin in New York City, as well as its impact on race relations in the United States from then to now. What Truth Sounds Like exists at the tense intersection of the conflict between politics and prophecy - of whether we embrace political resolution or moral redemption to fix our fractured racial landscape. The future of race and democracy hang in the balance.
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]]>The first three novels in Tahereh Mafi's New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series (Shatter Me, Unravel Me, and Ignite Me) are available together for the first time in a box set collection!
"No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight for herself--and for a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever."
The Shatter Me series, which New York Times bestselling author Ransom Riggs called "a thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love," is perfect for fans who crave action-packed novels like Veronica Roth's Divergent, Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, and Marie Lu's Legend. Ages 14 and up
Don't miss Restore Me, the electrifying fourth installment of this New York Times bestselling series, available now!
]]>In his new book, "What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation about Race in America,” Dyson examines the events surrounding an infamous 1963 meeting between Robert F. Kennedy and James Baldwin in New York City and its impact on race relations in the United States from then to now.
"Michael Eric Dyson has finally written the book I always wanted to read. I had the privilege of attending the meeting he has insightfully written about, and it's as if he were a fly on the wall. Not only does he capture the spirit and substance of our gathering, but he brilliantly teases out the implications of that historic encounter for us today. What Truth Sounds Like is a tour de force of intellectual history and cultural analysis, a poetically written work that calls on all of us to get back in that room and to resolve the racial crises we confronted more than fifty years ago." -Harry Belafonte
From the publisher, In 1963 Attorney General Robert Kennedy sought out James Baldwin to explain the rage that threatened to engulf black America. Baldwin brought along some friends, including playwright Lorraine Hansberry, psychologist Kenneth Clark, and a valiant activist, Jerome Smith. It was Smith's relentless, unfiltered fury that set Kennedy on his heels, reducing him to sullen silence. Kennedy walked away from the nearly three-hour meeting angry that the black folk assembled didn't understand politics, and that they weren't as easy to talk to as Martin Luther King. But especially that they were more interested in witness than policy. But Kennedy's anger quickly gave way to empathy, especially for Smith. "I guess if I were in his shoes...I might feel differently about this country." Kennedy set about changing policy; the meeting having transformed his thinking in fundamental ways.
Learn more about the book and order your copy today from We Are LIT!
]]>Moderated by Dr. Cheryl Sterling, Associate Professor, Director of Black Studies Program at City College of New York; the panel included: Deborah G. Plant, Zora Neale Hurston scholar and literary critic; Glory Edim, founder of Well-Read Black Girl and editor of forthcoming anthology of black women writers (Ballentine Books); and Dr. Sylviane Diouf, an award-winning historian of the African Diaspora, author of Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship “Clotilda” and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America (Oxford University Press). Read more to watch this extraordinary conversation on a major literary event!
]]>Join us for this conversation as we delve into the significance of Hurston’s record of Kossola’s life within the larger context of slave narratives, and the impact of Hurston’s training as anthropologist and ethnographer on her literary works of fiction and non-fiction.
Panelists included Deborah G. Plant, Zora Neale Hurston scholar and literary critic; Glory Edim, founder of Well-Read Black Girl and editor of forthcoming anthology of black women writers (Ballentine Books); and Dr. Sylviane Diouf, an award-winning historian of the African Diaspora, author of Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship “Clotilda” and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America (Oxford University Press). Moderating the conversation is Dr. Cheryl Sterling, Associate Professor, Director of Black Studies Program at City College of New York."
Presented in partnership with the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery @SchomburgCenter #Barracoon #ZoraNealeHurston
]]>From our Women's History Collection, "the newly released anthology, "Radical Reproductive Justice," illustrates the ways in which the battle for reproductive rights is fundamentally linked to combating systemic oppression rooted in sexism and white supremacy."
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