Contradictory to its core, the sitcom—an ostensibly conservative, tranquilizing genre—has a long track record in the United States of tackling controversial subjects with a fearlessness not often found in other types of programming. But the sitcom also conceals as much as it reveals, masking the rationale for socially deviant or deleterious behavior behind figures of […]
A seminal work that expands how we talk about the natural world and the environment as National Book Critics Circle Criticism finalist Camille T. Dungy diversifies her garden to reflect her heritage. In Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden […]
This book analyzes two pieces by American composer George Crumb (1929-2022) as artifacts of American collective memory of war. *Black Angels* (1970) has long been associated with the Vietnam War, even though its relationship to the war specifically has changed over time. *Winds of Destiny* (2004) is specifically about the Civil War and shows how […]
The Selected Literary Letters of Paul Laurence Dunbar is a collection of 250 letters, transcribed and annotated, that reveal the personal and literary life of one of the most highly regarded African American writers and intellectuals. Editors Cynthia C. Murillo and Jennifer M. Nader highlight Dunbar not just as a determined author and master of […]
In the antebellum United States, formerly enslaved men and women who told their stories and advocated for abolition helped establish a new genre with widely recognized tropes: the slave narrative. This book investigates how enslaved black Africans conceived of themselves and their stories before the War of American Independence and the genre’s development in the […]
With the publication of the 1619 Project by The New York Times in 2019, a growing number of Americans have become aware that Africans arrived in North America before the Pilgrims. Yet the stories of these Africans and their first descendants remain ephemeral and inaccessible for both the general public and educators. This groundbreaking collection […]
In this book, author Dr. Tom Cavanagh shares insights into the theories and thinking that are the foundation of his work. This work is dedicated to helping schools create a Culture of Care, based on restorative justice principles and practices and culturally appropriate relationships.
The title “Six Essays in Search of our Demystification” maintains parodic relationships with those of two other quite famous books: one by Pedro Henríquez Ureña (“Six Essays in Search of our Expression”) and another by José Carlos Mariátegui (“Seven Essays of Interpretation of the Peruvian Reality “). Since it is clearly a deliberate decision, it […]
Carceral spaces—such as neighborhood zones of police surveillance and plantation prisons that exploit incarcerated labor—reflect and reproduce systems of oppression that are also present in the food system. The state regularly polices poverty instead of addressing how racial capitalism perpetuates the lack of access to basic needs like healthy food. Conversely, the food system relies […]
From hipster coffee shops to upscale restaurants, a bustling local food scene is perhaps the most commonly recognized harbinger of gentrification. A Recipe for Gentrification explores this widespread phenomenon, showing the ways in which food and gentrification are deeply—and, at times, controversially—intertwined. Contributors provide an inside look at gentrification in different cities, from major hubs […]
