16 Books Published by Thunder’s Mouth Press on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

Barnett, a professor of African studies at Sarah Lawrence College, transcribes lively, occasionally formulaic interviews she’s conducted with 20 black women songwriters as iconic as Nina Simone (before her death in 2003) and as hip as Tokunbo Akinro of the European band Tok Tok Tok. Barnett aims at revealing the sources of their songwriting inspiration, as Abbey Lincoln opines divinely: I learned early on that this work is not about me. I am inspired by a holy muse and my ancestors. Many of the women used singing and performing as a means of expressing conflicting identities, such as Chaka Khan, whose initial work with Rufus explored black pride, sexual liberation and second-wave feminism. Dianne Reeves is inspired to write songs by reading great books by black women; Dionne Warwick has lived in Brazil for years because in America the elements of respect and caring and loving are so far removed from a lot of the music we are surrounded with today; and gospel legend Shirley Caesar is also a pastor of a church in Raleigh, N.C. Joan Armatrading, Toshi Reagon, Miriam Makeba, Narissa Bond and Nona Hendryx, among international greats, speak beautifully about their complex musical makeup, beautifully encapsulated in this mightily useful volume. —Reed Business Information

In this book of life lessons culled from hip-hop culture, author Felicia Pride examines a wide range of hip-hop songs and artists, interpreting life through their lenses. Growing up with hip-hop, Pride has come to realize the way it shaped how she thinks, writes, and reacts, making her the person she is today. By incorporating her own experiences and reflections with the rapper’s message, she focuses on the positive, motivational influence hip-hop has on its audience. With each life lesson aptly titled after a hip-hop song, such as Kanye West’s "Jesus Walks" or GangStarr’s "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow," The Message explores spirituality, success, love, business, and more through hip-hop. Pride infuses these essential truths with examples from rappers’ lives and music, providing positive reflections on hip-hop culture. For example, she tells you how to study how those with staying power, such as Missy Elliott and Russell Simmons, handle their business and how to incorporate similar tactics into your own life: be creative, diversify, handle your business. The Message shares the wisdom that Pride has learned from hip-hop, creating what is essentially a soundtrack to the hip-hopper’s life.

This is the dramatic and inspirational first-person story of theoretical physicist, Dr. Ronald Mallett, who recently discovered the basic equations for a working time machine that he believes can be used as a transport vehicle to the past. Combining elements of Rocket Boys and Elegant Universe, Time Traveler follows Mallett’s discovery of Einstein’s work on space-time, his study of Godel’s work on a solution of Einstein’s equation that might allow for time travel, and his own research in theoretical physics spanning thirty years that culminated in his recent discovery of the effects of circulating laser light and its application to time travel. The foundation for Mallett’s historic time-travel work is Einstein’s theory of general relativity, a sound platform for any physicist. Through his years of reading and studying Einstein, Mallett became a buff well before he had any notion of the importance of the grand old relativist’s theories to his own career. One interesting subtext to the story is Mallett’s identification with, and keen interest in, Einstein. Mallett provides easy-to-understand explanations of the famous physicist’s seminal work.

In a style that is hers alone, Sonia Sanchez brings politics and poetry together as she passionately relates scenes from the lives of poor blacks. Sanchez is a remarkable writer … this is s book in which the whole adds up to far more than the parts.

Robert Jones has got a lot going for him - a steady job, a steady relationship and plenty of prospects - until a white woman accuses him of rape and, all of a sudden, his prospects seem a lot less bright.

A college student doing research about the Black Panther Party for a thesis learns about the origins of the group, and a secret plot to flood the ghetto with drugs to politically neutralize the Black community

Two siblings, who have been both helped and hindered by their mother’s forceful character, pay her a deathbed visit in what PW called ``a tense novel about the imprint of discrimination upon a vivid, stormy family of black Americans.

Uses interviews and thousands of declassified government documents to show that the CIA conspired to monitor, manipulate, and finally silence the black nationalist leader in line with a worldwide plan to eliminate African and Arab leaders.

A collection of works by Neal, who was a leader in the Black Arts Movement during the 1960s and 1970s

Autographed Copy

In my native village … the is a sing we always sing … it’s called ‘The Click Song’ by the English because they cannot say !CLICK !CLOCK !CWLUNG” —Miriam Mekeba

In this fiercely authentic tale from the author of The Man Who Cried I Am, a gifted novelist confronts the powerfully entrenched, profit-motivated forces of corporate racism

When his military service ends at the close of World War II—a period that will continue to haunt him throughout his life—Cato Douglass resolves to pursue a writing career and follows his dream to New York City. Soon, his first novel is published, and it appears his dream has been fulfilled, enabling him to travel the world, fall in love, marry, and start a family. But despite possessing a talent that shines brighter than that of many of his literary contemporaries, Cato discovers that he is trapped within a racist system. Only a handful of black writers receive the support of white editors and critics, and because Cato’s work pushes the boundaries set by the publishing industry, he is doomed to a life of obscurity.

The Chicago Sun-Times proclaimed !Click Song “a major novel by one of America’s finest living writers.” Winner of the 1983 American Book Award, John A. Williams’s enthralling chronicle of a writer’s lifelong struggle to matter is a blistering tale of art, industry, family, and race.

This book: Cruelty/Killing Floor by Ali is a gem. This classic reprint series make available Ai’s first two classic collection, including the Lamont Poetry Selection Killing Floor, in one volume Her poems are crystal clear, immediately engaging and often apocalyptic.

It’s the pre-Vietnam era, and America is intervening in the affairs of Pandemi, a small West African nation that has built a nuclear reactor with the help of its neighboring country, Temian. Under false pretenses of renegotiating diplomatic relationships with Pandemi, the U.S. appoints Major Jake Henry as ambassador there. Having spent his boyhood years in Pandemi where his parents were missionaries, Henry is familiar with the people and their customs. But Chuma Fasseke, Henryt’s boyhood friend who now is President of Pandemi, is strongly opposed to wWestern interference and displays an openness toward Russian and Chinese aid. Early on, Henry realizes that his appointment is a ruse to mask the CIAt’s plans to destroy the nuclear reactor and to assassinate both Fasseke and the president of Temian.

Touted as a novel of international intrigue, Jacobt’s Ladder fails to elicit excitement or suspense. Williams uses it as a platform to preach contempt for Western aggression and imperialism in Africa and to grapple with the issue of black survival in a white society, but in the process his novel misses its mark as a political thriller. —Reed Business Information, Inc.

Originally published in 1967

Generally recognized as one of the most important novels of the tumultuous 1960s, The Man Who Cried I Am vividly evokes the harsh era of segregation that presaged the expatriation of African-American intellectuals. Through the eyes of journalist Max Reddick, and with penetrating fictional portraits of Richard Wright and James Baldwin, among other historical figures, John A Williams reveals the hope, courage, and bitter disappointment of the civil-rights era. Infused with powerful artistry, searing anger, as well as insight, humanity, and vision, The Man Who Cried I Am is a classic of postwar American literature.

A Black expat writer uncovers a sinister plot to destroy the American civil rights movement in this exceptionally powerful novel.

On a warm spring afternoon in 1964, Max Reddick sits at an outdoor café in Amsterdam, nursing a glass of Pernod. Along with the large doses of morphine running through his veins, the alcohol allows him to forget the painful disease ravaging his body, but it also prompts him to reflect on the circumstances that have brought him to this point—made him who he is today.

From the streets of New York City to the jazz clubs of Paris and Amsterdam, from the battlefields of World War II to the Oval Office, Max’s journey as an African American author and journalist has brought him into the nexus of hypocrisy and duplicity surrounding segregation and civil rights time and again. But nothing he has encountered could have prepared him for the devastating and dangerous truth he now faces.

Through the eyes of Max, with penetrating fictional portraits of Richard Wright, James c, and Malcolm X, among other historical figures, author John A. Williams reveals the hope, courage, and bitter disappointment of African American intellectuals in the postwar era. Infused with powerful artistry and searing anger, as well as insight, humanity, and vision, The Man Who Cried I Am is a modern American classic.

Great collection of Jayne Cortez’s early poetry, from the early 70s to the early 80s. Contains selections from the books Scarification, Mouth on Paper, and Firespitter.

Her poetry is rhythmic, vernacular, surreal, political, honest. This is what spoken word ought to sound like.

There It Is
by Jayne Cortez

And if we don’t fight
if we don’t resist
if we don’t organize and unify and
get the power to control our own lives
Then we will wear
the exaggerated look of captivity
the stylized look of submission
the bizarre look of suicide
the dehumanized look of fear
and the decomposed look of repression
forever and ever and ever And there it is

In fact
poetry
will not
strike
lightning
through
any
convoy of chickens

Today poems are like flags
flying on liquor store roof
poems are like baboons
waiting to be fed by tourists

& does it matter
how many metaphors
reach out to you
when the sun
goes down like
a stuffed bird in
tropical forest
of your solitude

In fact
poetry
will not
sing jazz
through
constricted mouth
of an anteater
no matter how many
symbols survive
to see the moon
dying in saw dust
of your toenail

Book by Plumpp, Sterling