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My Soul to Keep
My Soul to Keep Tananarive Due Excerpt Even now, alone, Dawit knew he was being watched. One of the Searchers had found him, perhaps months before. He’d noticed a cigarette butt half bur...
Holding Pattern
Holding Pattern Jeffery Renard Allen Excerpt Black flutter, Mamma flashed about the room, workbound, her shiny knee-length black leather boots working against the wood floor like po...
Zora Neale Hurston: A Life In Letters by Carla Kaplan
Zora Neale Hurston: A Life In Letters by Carla Kaplan Zora Neale Hurston Excerpt Chapter 1 “DE TALKIN’ GAME” The Twenties (and Before) First and foremost a storyteller, with ...
Forbidden Fruit
Forbidden Fruit Stanley Gazemba Excerpt The air over the village that evening was pregnant with tension. A thick dark cloud loomed heavy above the grey colored thatch huts that dotted the steep green...
Mama Rocks the Empty Cradle
Mama Rocks the Empty Cradle Nora Deloach Excerpt Carrie Smalls shrugged. "I reckon you think ’cause your job throw you to be with her that you know her better than anybody else. My questi...
Introduction and Chapter 9 – B. C. Franklin
Introduction and Chapter 9 – B. C. Franklin Carlos Moreno Excerpt Introduction and Chapter 9 – B. C. Franklin “Time is an enormous, long river, and I’m standing in it, just as yo...
From Presence to Power: How to Take On the Fights That Matter—and Win
From Presence to Power: How to Take On the Fights That Matter—and Win Rashad Robinson Excerpt 1 Presence Is Not Enough Definition: Presence is about visibility, the ability to make something—a ...
Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter
Notes of Artistic Freedom Fighter Marvin X Excerpt INTRODUCTION By Dr. Nathan Hare With the return of “white nationalism” to the international stage and the White House and new th...
Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin’ with Mother Nature
Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: Cookin’ with Mother Nature Dick Gregory Excerpt 1Warning: The Author Has Determined That Not Reading the Following Pages Is Dangerous to Your Health ...
On My Journey Now: Looking At African-American History Through The Spirituals
On My Journey Now: Looking At African-American History Through The Spirituals Nikki Giovanni Excerpt America was looking for very, very, very cheap labor, because they wanted workers who were e...
Wolf Hustle
Wolf Hustle Cin Fabré Excerpt Introduction The hustle has always been with me. Once I discovered the stock market I became infected with the delirious joy that comes from a successful speculative ...
Prince and Me: His #1 Fan: My Minneapolis Memories
Prince and Me: His #1 Fan: My Minneapolis Memories Andrea Foy Excerpt NEW YEAR’S EVE, PART 1 I spent New Year’s Eve 1992 in Minneapolis with friends I met from the Controversy Fan Clu...
A Thug’s Redemption 3: The Wrath of Andre
A Thug’s Redemption 3: The Wrath of Andre Yani Excerpt Tiffany disconnected the phone and paced the living room. Jamal had a second phone with only one number in it that went to a man who seemed to ...
Chapter 7: Why Did Rosa Parks Hug Me?
Chapter 7: Why Did Rosa Parks Hug Me? Nita Wiggins Excerpt Chapter 7: Why Did Rosa Parks Hug Me? In my next job, at WTVM-TV in Columbus, Georgia, I landed a position that came with a prestigious t...
Brothers, Lust, and Love: Thoughts on Manhood, Sex, and Romance
Brothers, Lust, and Love: Thoughts on Manhood, Sex, and Romance William July II Excerpt SBF Seeking Mr. Right. Must be 6’3", 215, have a mustache, degree in law or medicine from Ivy Leagu...
After
After Marita Golden Excerpt The bullets discharge from the muzzle of officer Carson Blake’s sixteen round Beretta with the tinny explosive popping sound of a toy gun. He will not remember exact...
Haint Blue
Haint Blue Katherine Dempsey Excerpt Go On Girl! Book Club’s 2021 Unpublished Writers Award Winner Haint BlueChapter One March 2021 “My brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rus...
A leap of Faith
A leap of Faith Anita L. Helm Excerpt PREFACE For some time now, I have wanted to write a story about my life—I’m still living, so this is my capture of my first half. I hope the stories...
Table of Contents <em>Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice</em>
Table of Contents Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice Nkechi Taifa Excerpt Table of Contents Black Power, Black Lawyer: Memoir of Nkechi Taifa Prologue—“Judge Not” Red Ba...
Everything Fades Away
Everything Fades Away Zane Excerpt An Excerpt (expletives redacted) Lust is the benefit of self at the expense of others. Love is the benefit of others at the expense of self. The first lick...
The Unmaking Of The Black Man
The Unmaking Of The Black Man Gibran Tariq and Gregory S. Jones Excerpt THE OTHER END OF THE STICK The social revolution for the control of the black image had a profound impact on the sistas as w...
Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way
Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way Helon Habila and Kadija Sesay Excerpt Chapter 1 When she was just five years old, Ssanyu Lukoma fell in love with a book called Rosa, an inspiring chi...
The End of Race Politics
The End of Race Politics Coleman Hughes Excerpt Chapter 1Race, Anti-racism, and Neoracism For most of my life, I saw my mother as neither black nor white. Her Puerto Rican father was darker-skinned ...
Food and the City
Food and the City Ina Yalof Excerpt Alexander SmallsThe Cecil Daylight floods his Harlem apartment, an eclectic space crammed with old and new mementos from a well-traveled, well-lived life. The...
The Future Has a Past
The Future Has a Past J. California Cooper Excerpt A Shooting Star Now, you don’t know me. And, I know that you know that nobody knows everything. But a person does have to go by whatever ...
Black Man’s Version to Exhale
Black Man’s Version to Exhale Akie F. Davis Excerpt Introduction We know all too well of the frustrating encounters that many Black women have had when dealing with Black men. However, little h...
Coming Forth by Day
Coming Forth by Day Kakwasi Somadhi Excerpt Excerpt from Chapter Seven When Loretha showed up with Solly that hot July evening, the village was already crowded. Men and women with Afros as big as ...
His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice
His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa Excerpt Chapter 1 An Ordinary Day “It’s Memorial Day. Y&rsq...
A Family Affair
A Family Affair ReShonda Tate Billingsley Excerpt Prologue Everyone that had ever crossed paths with Adele Wells knew that she was not a woman to be crossed. In the nine years that Lorrai...
Archangels of Funk
Archangels of Funk Andrea Hairston Excerpt CINNAMON HAIR ON FIRE “Who’s afraid of the future?” Cinnamon Jones sucked a deep breath and raced downhill in the dark on fast hy...
The Other Side of the Game
The Other Side of the Game Anita Doreen Diggs Excerpt CHAPTER 5 EVELYN Phil is taking me to B.B. King’s blues club in Manhattan so I’m trying to find the right pair ...
Table of Contents <em>Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice</em>
Table of Contents Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice Patrice Lawrence Excerpt Chapter 1 Al I’m hungry. Really hungry. I want to fill the biggest bowl with cornflakes and ...
Death in the City
Death in the City Keith Kareem Williams Excerpt “Where I’m from, if you get shot you don’t tell. If you survive the bullets, you find the shooter yourself and get your revenge. ...
Chapters 1 and 2
Chapters 1 and 2 Harlow Giles Unger Excerpt Chapters 1 and 2 Chapter 1College Is Not for Everyone So your kid says he or she wants to go to college. “All my friends are going!&rdq...
Tuff: A Novel
Tuff: A Novel Paul Beatty Excerpt Now on this, the last cool night of summer, Brooklyn was short three more niggers for Winston to hate. Although he addressed all black men as “God,” Ch...
Standing at the Scratch Line
Standing at the Scratch Line Guy Johnson Excerpt LeRoi picked up the rifle that was leaning against a root with its stock in the water. He checked the barrel carefully for obstructions, then mounted ...
Into Africa: A Personal Journey
Into Africa: A Personal Journey Yvonne Blackwood Excerpt “On Sunday afternoon Adamson and I returned to Labadi Beach. I did a double take when we entered the gate. The empty stretch of beach I&...
Polo Cowboy Chapter 1
Polo Cowboy Chapter 1 G. Neri Excerpt Preface: Mama is fuming. “Say that again.” I swallow and take a deep breath. “I ain’t goin’ back to Detroit.” Five m...
Gone Fishin’
Gone Fishin’ Walter Mosley Excerpt Gone Fishin' CHAPTER ONE Mouse had changed. Before he announced his engagement to EttaMae he was a happy man, full of himself. It's true that he...
Journey To Justice
Journey To Justice Johnnie Cochran Excerpt WHY I WANTED TO BE A LAWYER I have often been asked why I wanted to be a lawyer. One of the most important things that happened to me during ...
Life, Love & Loneliness
Life, Love & Loneliness Crystal Lacey Winslow Excerpt CHAPTER 3 - LYRIC DEVANEY At 11:00 am sharp, Richard’s black Mercedes- Benz arrived. His driver got out and opened the door and Richard ...
Black Girl You Are Atlas
Black Girl You Are Atlas Renée Watson Excerpt at•las | \ ’at-les \ from Merriam-Webster Dictionary 1 capitalized: a Titan who for his part in the Titans’ revolt against the gods ...
Chapters <a href="#1">1</a> & <a href="#12">12</a>: The Fund by Kevin P. Chavous
Chapters 1 & 12: The Fund by Kevin P. Chavous Kevin P. Chavous Excerpt Chapter 1 𝒥ackson Lowery was in trouble. The man was coming at him again. Jackson was much taller, but the shorter man w...
Chapters <a href="#1">1</a> & <a href="#12">12</a>: The Fund by Kevin P. Chavous
Chapters 1 & 12: The Fund by Kevin P. Chavous Kevin P. Chavous Excerpt Chapter 1 𝒥ackson Lowery was in trouble. The man was coming at him again. Jackson was much taller, but the shorter man w...
Preface
Preface Kekla Magoon Excerpt Preface: When people talk about the Black Panthers, sometimes they speak in hushed tones, as if history itself could overhear. As if the Panthers are a secret no one s...
Author: The Portraits of Beowulf Sheehan
Author: The Portraits of Beowulf Sheehan Beowulf Sheehan Excerpt Photographing Gregory Pardlo, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, at his home was an exercise in seeing love in the tactile. ...
I Can’t Wait on God
I Can’t Wait on God Albert French Excerpt Chapter One Pittsburgh, 1950 Summer night air was always sticky kind of air, had that stinkin mill smoke stuck all in it. Them old freight trains ...
Provenance: A Novel
Provenance: A Novel Donna Drew Sawyer Excerpt Prologue Park Place, Virginia - Fall 1909 “Hank, run!” was the last thing he heard Junior say. Deputies struggled to hold and handcuff ...
Dippin My Spoon
Dippin My Spoon Nina Foxx Excerpt BACK IN AUSTIN, Amber was sure of one thing; she didn’t want anything from Tyler. He could have everything, except her car. She knew she didn’t want ...
Morning Drive to Midnight
Morning Drive to Midnight Renee Prewitt Killingsworth Excerpt After working together awhile, Adrienne and Selena developed a bond that transcended simple friendship. Adrienne used to say they clicke...
A Lesson Before Dying
A Lesson Before Dying Ernest J. Gaines Excerpt I was not there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial, I did not hear the verdict, because I knew all the time what it would be. Still,...
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass Excerpt PREFACE In the month of August 1841, I attended an anti-slavery convention in Nantucket, at which it was my happiness to beco...
Killens Review of Arts & Letters
Killens Review of Arts & Letters Clarence V. Reynolds Excerpt Fiction Excerpt: “Lynched” by Kim-Marie Walker When mother named me Madame Augusta Nero in 1920, she intended whites aroun...
American Wings
American Wings Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein Excerpt PROLOGUE A Dream Takes Flight Omaha, Nebraska, 1919 It was going to cost three dollars to ride—about $50 in 2023, but the wo...
Chapter One
Chapter One Catherine Joy White Excerpt Silence This thread of gold that ties me to my mother, my grandmother, and the women who came before looks a lot like the color purple. Like the purple hibi...
Black Wings & Blind Angels: Poems
Black Wings & Blind Angels: Poems Professor Griff Excerpt Breaking Karma #5 i It is like a scene in a play. His bald spot shines upward between dark tufts of hair. We are sitting in a pool of...
Street Sweeper
Street Sweeper Ronin Ro Excerpt I was trying to get him to look me in the eye. But he wouldn’t. Not even when I got one inch from his nose. Nothing. No reaction. That’s the thing abou...
Space Funk
Space Funk Milton J. Davis Excerpt The Right Stuff ByLynette S. Hoag Senator Lyndon took a seat behind the enormous mahogany desk. The desk wasn’t his. It belonged to the Head Administrat...
Grandpa! Tell Us a Story Drinking from Ancient Wells the Story of the Game Black People Play/Trilogy Book One: The Game’s Soul
Grandpa! Tell Us a Story Drinking from Ancient Wells the Story of the Game Black People Play/Trilogy Book One: The Game’s Soul Orchester Benjamin Excerpt If you dig deep en...
Adultery
Adultery Paulo Coelho Excerpt Every morning, when I open my eyes to the so-Âcalled “new day,” I feel like closing them again, staying in bed, and not getting up. But I can’t do t...
Dear G-Spot: Straight Talk About Sex and Love
Dear G-Spot: Straight Talk About Sex and Love Zane Excerpt Chapter One: Sexual Addiction Sexual addiction is a topic very near and dear to my heart. When I first decided to write my novel Add...
The Savion Sequence
The Savion Sequence D. Amari Jackson Excerpt PROLOGUE “How could this be?” marveled the wide-eyed Nubian, removing the protective mask covering his nose and mouth so his partner could ...
The Savion Sequence
The Savion Sequence D. Amari Jackson Excerpt PROLOGUE “How could this be?” marveled the wide-eyed Nubian, removing the protective mask covering his nose and mouth so his partner could ...
Chapter 3 Jonathan Fraiser
Chapter 3 Jonathan Fraiser J. A. Faulkerson Excerpt Mr. Black led me down a spiral, granite staircase surrounded by granite walls with more ornate carvings on them. When we reached the...
To Find You
To Find You Cerece Rennie Murphy Excerpt Part I: In The Beginning I wait for him here, at the place where the night sky and the earth become lovers. In the tall grass of our homeland, between two k...
Juneteenth
Juneteenth Ralph Ellison Excerpt After Ellison’s death on April 16, 1994, speculation about the existence of the second novel reignited. In an article in the New York Times, William Grimes asse...
The Quest of the Silver Fleece
The Quest of the Silver Fleece W.E.B. Du Bois Excerpt The entire novel is available at Project Gutenberg OneDREAMS Night fell. The red waters of the swamp grew sinister and sullen. The tall pines...
The Selling of Joseph
The Selling of Joseph Dieudonne Mayi Excerpt Dedication To African slaves in the Americas, Caribbean, and Europe, the silent and unknown black slave… Your treatment was so in...
You Are Free: Stories
You Are Free: Stories Danzy Senna Excerpt What’s the Matter with Helga and Dave? When I married Hewitt, I didn’t realize — among other things — that I would become a member...
Chapter One
Chapter One Ibram X. Kendi Excerpt Chapter One Definitions Racist: One who is supporting a racist policy through their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea. Antiracist: One who is...
Chicken on a Leash: Lessons in Strength of Mind
Chicken on a Leash: Lessons in Strength of Mind Dorothea Grimes-Frederick Excerpt Even Dogs Cry August 25, 196 Dear Diary, The only thing bad about living next door to a rent-subsidize...
Alain Locke: An Introduction
Alain Locke: An Introduction Charles Molesworth Excerpt ALAIN LOCKE: AN INTRODUCTION(Part 1) Alain Locke established his intellectual brilliance by a lifetime of study ...
Faith in the Valley: Lessons for Women on the Journey to Peace
Faith in the Valley: Lessons for Women on the Journey to Peace Iyanla Vanzant Excerpt Chapter 1 The Valley of Light Teaches us the lesson of stillness, through the imposition of a state of so...
A Long Way from Home
A Long Way from Home Connie Briscoe Excerpt Chapter One Clara sat up on the edge of her pallet and rubbed her eyes with her fists. She could tell it was awfully late by the wa...
Passing By Samaria
Passing By Samaria Sharon Ewell Foster Excerpt With just a second’s pause, Alena stepped into the strange green world. Entranced, she walked further in amongst the trees. She did not look bac...
All I Want For Christmas
All I Want For Christmas Joyce A. Brown, Princess F.L. Gooden, Terri Ann Johnson, Sonia Johnston, Patricia Woodside, Cryssy Dee, Candy Jackson, and others Excerpt An excerpt from Terri Ann Johnson&rs...
Done in the Dark
Done in the Dark Tamara Morgan Excerpt Though she knew she should take comfort that Mama Ella was going to ‘a better place,’ despite her grandmother’s efforts Karina’s faith i...
Done in the Dark
Done in the Dark Tamara Morgan Excerpt Chapter 1 Though she knew she should take comfort that Mama Ella was going to ‘a better place,’ despite her grandmother’s efforts Karina&rsqu...
Chapter 1: The Throne of Thought OPENING PRAYER
Chapter 1: The Throne of Thought OPENING PRAYER Iyanla Vanzant Excerpt Beloved Presence of All That Is, Anchor me now in Your peace and perfect wisdom. Today, I call forth the s...
Zone One: A Novel
Zone One: A Novel Colson Whitehead Excerpt A 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Nominated Book He always wanted to live in New York. His Uncle Lloyd lived downtown on Lafayette, and in the long s...
Waiting in Vain
Waiting in Vain Colin Channer Excerpt On the day he met Sylvia, Fire woke up in Blanche’s arms with a numbness in his soul. It was his ninetieth day of celibacy, and the night before had almo...
Church Boy
Church Boy Connie Barrett Excerpt Chapter One: His mind raced as he maneuvered his way behind Charlie’s store ’ past the dumpsters, the broken crates, over the scrap heap. He had...
Jelani’s Key Chapter II
Jelani’s Key Chapter II D. Amari Jackson Excerpt Chapter II The Bully of Benning Road
Nobody Else Is Better Than You
Nobody Else Is Better Than You Katherine Johnson, Joylette Hylick, and Katherine Moore Excerpt Chapter 1: Nobody Else Is Better Than You The serious look in Daddy’s eyes told me his words w...
Topaz
Topaz Beverly Jenkins Excerpt Chicago May 1884 Under the cover of the darkness, Katherine Love stood with her back pressed closely against the outside wall of the warehouse, hoping she couldn&r...
WHEN MINORITIES LEAD IN AMERICA: A Black Theologians Political Journey
WHEN MINORITIES LEAD IN AMERICA: A Black Theologians Political Journey Herman J. Fountain Jr. Excerpt Growing up in the fifties in Louisville, Kentucky, I wondered how much I was like the other kids ...
Foreword Justice for Marcus Garvey
Foreword Justice for Marcus Garvey Julius Garvey Excerpt Foreword Excerpt by Ta-Nehisi Coates “I grew up in a household where Malcolm X was Jesus, and I guess that would make Garvey God. Gar...
Satin Doll: A Novel
Satin Doll: A Novel Karen E. Quinones Miller Excerpt Bang! The sound was loud, but not quite jarring enough to register instant recognition in her reefer-dulled brain. It could have been a fire...
Of One Blood
Of One Blood Pauline Hopkins Excerpt Chapter One The recitations were over for the day. It was the first week in November and it had rained about every day the entire week; now freezing temperatur...
Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008
Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008 Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Excerpt Introduction Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Ind...
The First
The First Kipjo K. Ewers Excerpt CHAPTER 1 Monday 11:30 PM, Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, prisoner 28301:014 stared at her prison door as if she was watching a movie. She barely touched h...
Embracing the Horror
Embracing the Horror Darline Dorce-Coupet Excerpt San Juan although very beautiful was a blur, as I contemplated the mysteries of the powerful desire I was experiencing. So completely absorbed by m...
No Man’s Compass
No Man’s Compass S. D. Hines Excerpt Michael Healy carried a sidearm, a .45 colt revolver. As the two men ran towards the boy, Michael gasped to his brother, "Get the boy…to safety…I...
Fifteen Years Delayed
Fifteen Years Delayed Angelia Vernon Menchan Excerpt Prologue Damn… there she is after fifteen years, still, even button-upped, a living breathing wet dream in the flesh. Feeling breath o...
In West Mills
In West Mills De’Shawn Charles Winslow Excerpt Part One In October of ’41, Azalea Centre’s man told her that he was sick and tired of West Mills and of the love affair she was having w...
The Fisher King: A Novel
The Fisher King: A Novel Paule Marshall Excerpt Chapter 1 "Had the brass-face to come round me playing the Sodom and Gomorrah music!" The old woman they said was his g...
A Thug’s Redemption
A Thug’s Redemption Yani Excerpt Shawn, Jamal and Maurice headed over to Erie Avenue to check out a basketball game in a nearby playground. Shawn was scoping out the competition to see who he would ...
The Root of All Evil
The Root of All Evil Gibran Tariq and Gregory S. Jones Excerpt Chapter One November 1942 It was one thing to be cold, but quite another to be freezing. Not long ago, Paul Madsen, had been warm ...
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother James McBride Excerpt CHAPTER ONE Dead I’m dead. You want to talk about my family and here I been dead to them for fifty y...