Grace, dignity, and eloquence have long been hallmarks of Maya Angelou’s poetry. Her measured verses have stirred our souls, energized our minds, and healed our hearts. Whether offering hope in the darkest of nights or expressing sincere joy at the extraordinariness of the everyday, Maya Angelou has served as our common voice.
Celebrations is a collection of timely and timeless poems that are an integral part of the global fabric....

"Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir. Jones tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence--into tumultuous relationships with his...

The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) is an anthology by James Weldon Johnson. Alongside some of his own poems, Johnson includes the work of such legendary artists as Paul Laurence Dunbar, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jessie Fauset, and Georgia Douglas Johnson. Carefully selected and supported with a masterful preface by Johnson, the poems herein reflect a range of voices, styles, and subjects drawn from tradition and experience alike. In his preface, Johnson...

"A poetic and raw coming-of-age memoir in essays about blackness, masculinity, and addiction"--

"A personal, social, and intellectual self-portrait of the beloved and enormously influential late Randall Kenan, a master of both fiction and nonfiction. Virtuosic in his use of literary forms, nurtured and unbounded by his identities as a Black man, a gay man, an intellectual, and a Southerner, Randall Kenan was known for his groundbreaking fiction. Less visible were his extraordinary nonfiction essays, published as introductions to anthologies...

"The forthcoming LOA collection, edited by distinguished poet and scholar of American poetry Kevin Young, will embrace the entire wide-ranging tradition of African American poetry from its eighteenth-century beginnings to the present, and will be representative of many styles, schools, periods, and regions. Familiar poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and other acknowledged greats will appear alongside less familiar and...

"A collection of Christmas stories written by African-American journalists, activists, and writers from the late 19th century through the Depression era. Back in print for the first time in over a decade, this landmark collection features writings from well-known writers and activists such as Pauline Hopkins and Langston Hughes, along with gems from rediscovered writers. Written by and about African-Americans and containing little-known stories and...

More than 50 poems and an accompanying CD introduce poetry with a beat.

Overview: Nikki Giovanni's poetry has spurred movements and inspired songs, turned hearts and informed generations. She's been hailed as a healer and as a national treasure. But Giovanni's heart resides in the everyday, where family and lovers gather, friends commune, and those no longer with us are remembered. And at every gathering there is food--food as sustenance, food as aphrodisiac, food as memory. A pot of beans is flavored with her mother's...