Hailed as "a dreadlocked dervish of words...the Bob Marley of American poets" (Esquire), Saul Williams is a gifted young poet who is opening up this literary art form to a new generation of readers. Like his writing -- a fearless mix of connecting rhythms and vibrant images -- Saul Williams is unstoppable. He received raves for his performance as an imprisoned street poet in the Trimark Pictures release Slam, winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes and the Grand Jury prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. The consummate spoken-word performance artist, Williams has also been signed by producer Rick Rubin to record a CD of his poetry. 

#2

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#3

 
Title:  She
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Author: Saul Stacey Williams
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She is a fascinating and unique collection of interconnected poems by this multi-talented star -- and marks the beginning of an incredible and totally original artistic career. 

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#4

The MIS-Education of the Negro
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by Carter G. Woodson

Format: Paperback, 215pp.
ISBN: 086543171X
Publisher: Africa World Press
Pub. Date: November  1990

Excerpted from the book Scared Fire
Carter G. Woodson has been called the Father of Modern Black History. He was a central, commanding figure in the study, writing, and teaching of African American history and the first historian to successfully use sound scholarship to refute the prevailing myths and racist views about black Americans and their history. Among his contributions to American life is Black History Month (originally dubbed Negro History Week), which Woodson established to promote the study of African American history.

Woodson's 205-page monograph, The Mis-education of tbe Negro, reflects his profound concern for setting the record straight. His thesis, as outlined in his Preface, could well apply today: "The so-called modern education, with all its defects, however, does others so much more good than it does the Negro, because it has been worked out in conformity to the needs of those who have enslaved and oppressed weaker people."

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#5

 
The Isis [Yssis] Papers: The Keys to the Colors
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by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, M.D.

Format: Paperback, 1st ed., 302pp.
ISBN: 0883781042
Publisher: Third World Press
Pub. Date: November  1990

"This work is dedicated to the victims of the global system of white supremacy (racism), all non-white people worldwide, past and present, who have resolved to end this great travesty and bring justice, then peace to planet Earth."

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#6

Their Eyes Were Watching God
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by Zora Neale Hurston with an afterword by Henry Louis Gates

Format: Paperback, 1st ed., 219pp.
ISBN: 0060931418
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, Incorporated
Pub. Date: November  1998

"There is no book more important to me than this one". ~Alice Walker

This novel about a proud, independent black woman was first published in 1937 and generally dismissed by reviewers. It was out of print for nearly 30 years when the University of Illinois Press reissued it in 1978, at which time it was instantly embraced by the literary establishment as one of the greatest works in the canon of African-American fiction.

Mesmerizing in its immediacy and haunting in its subtlety, Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Crawford—fair-skinned, long-haired, dreamy woman—who comes of age expecting better treatment than what she gets from her three husbands and community. Then she meets Tea Cake, a younger man who captivates Janie's heart and spirit, and offers her the chance to relish life without being one man's mule or another man's adornment.

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#7

 
Topaz
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by Beverly Jenkins

Format: Mass Market Paperback, 370pp.
ISBN: 0380786605
Publisher: Morrow,William & Co
Pub. Date: July  1997

Reporter Kate Love will do anything to expose a stock swindler, including getting engaged to the cad. However, her plans go awry and she is nearly killed when Deputy Marshall Dix Wild Horse, a Black Seminole, rescues her. Her plan has put her at risk, so Dix suggests marriage in order to get Kate away from her Philadelphia enemies. With no alternative, Kate accepts. Soon the city girl and the country boy are locking horns as man and wife.

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#8

 
Casting the First Stone

by Kimberla Lawson Roby

Format: Hardcover, 320pp.
ISBN: 1575664895
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Pub. Date: December  1999

Excerpted from Black College Today
Casting the First Stone listens in on the heart of a woman torn between loving who her husband was and hating who has become. Roby weaves a fast-paced story about faith's challenges in a world made up of material desires and other physical temptations. Roby's newest novel leads here heroine into a new bond with her church—at peach with her spiritual life. An electrifying read.

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#9

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#10

Set in Harlem and Philadelphia, Satin Doll tells the story of a woman living in two worlds, and feeling comfortable in neither. The lovely Regina sips cocktails in Greenwich Village with the literary elite one night, and goes barhopping with her Harlem homegirls the next. There’s Yvonne, who discovers the lawyer she is dating is married, but decides to steal him away from his wife. Tamika, who finds out the prison inmate she’s been loyal to for three years has married a white woman while behind bars. And Puddin’, a cocaine sniffing good-time girl who will snatch off her wig to fight at the drop of a hat.

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