Basic Books: 1466 books
Considering Genius
Writings on Jazz
Language: English
Release Date: April 27, 2009
Stanley Crouch-MacArthur Genius” Award recipient, co-founder of Jazz at Lincoln Center, National Book Award nominee, and perennial bull in the china shop of black intelligentsia-has been writing about jazz and jazz artists for more than thirty years. His reputation for controversy is exceeded...
The Artificial White Man
Essays on Authenticity
Language: English
Release Date: March 25, 2009
Another dance of the bull through the china shop of cliches, The Artificial White Man proves the correctness of Tom Wolfe's observation that Stanley Crouch is "the jazz virtuoso of the American essay." This time out, Crouch focuses his attention on issues surrounding the often misdirected...
The Trials of Phillis Wheatley
America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers
Language: English
Release Date: April 29, 2009
In 1773, the slave Phillis Wheatley literally wrote her way to freedom. The first person of African descent to publish a book of poems in English, she was emancipated by her owners in recognition of her literary achievement. For a time, Wheatley was the most famous black woman in the West. But Thomas...
Always Too Soon
Voices of Support for Those Who Have Lost Both Parents
Language: English
Release Date: February 24, 2010
While the death of a parent is always painful, losing both is life-altering. When author Allison Gilbert lost both parents at age 32, she could not find any books that spoke to her with the same level of compassion and reassurance that she found in the support group she belonged to, so she decided...
Harlem Nocturne
Women Artists and Progressive Politics During World War II
Language: English
Release Date: September 10, 2013
As World War II raged overseas, Harlem witnessed a battle of its own. Brimming with creative and political energy, Harlem's diverse array of artists and activists launched a bold cultural offensive aimed at winning democracy for all Americans, regardless of race or gender. In Harlem Nocturne, esteemed...
by Michael Eric Dyson
Language: English
Release Date: September 5, 2006
Language: English
Release Date: September 5, 2006
With a new preface by the author. Ten years after his murder, Tupac Shakur is even more loved, contested, and celebrated than he was in life. His posthumously released albums, poetry, and motion pictures have catapulted him into the upper echelon of American cultural icons. In Holler If You Hear Me,...
Know What I Mean?
Reflections on Hip-Hop
Language: English
Release Date: June 19, 2007
Whether along race, class, or generational lines, hip-hop music has been a source of controversy since the beats got too big and the voices too loud for the block parties that spawned them. America has condemned and commended this music and the culture that inspires it. Dubbed the Hip-Hop Intellectual”...
Mercy, Mercy Me
The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye
Language: English
Release Date: August 1, 2008
The best-selling Motown artist of all time, Marvin Gaye defined the hopes and shattered dreams of an entire generation. Twenty years after his tragic death-he was shot by his father-his relevance persists because of the indelible mark his outsized talent left on American culture. A transcendent performer...
Book of Rhymes
The Poetics of Hip Hop
Language: English
Release Date: June 27, 2017
The definitive account of rap and hip hop as forms of American poetry
"Bradley is a visionary critic, skillful and wise.... Book of Rhymes is a tour de force, brilliantly renovating hip hop criticism as [lit] rescues the forgotten vanguard of American poetry." --Henry Louis Gates,...
by Darryl Pinckney
Language: English
Release Date: July 21, 2009
Language: English
Release Date: July 21, 2009
With this appreciation of three very different black writers, novelist Darryl Pinckney reminds us that marginal or neglected literary figures have a lot to tell us about the history of a people who are always "outsiders." Born in Jamaica in 1883, J. A. Rogers was an early member of the Harlem...
Open
Love, Sex and Life in an Open Marriage
Language: English
Release Date: February 10, 2009
Finally, a book about open marriage that grapples with the problems surrounding monogamy and fidelity in an honest, heartfelt, and non-fringe manner. Jenny Block is your average girl next door, a suburban wife and mother for whom married life never felt quite right. While many books on this topic...
Ripples Of Hope
Great American Civil Rights Speeches
Language: English
Release Date: April 21, 2009
Including a never-before published speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., this is the first compilation of its kind, bringing together the most influential and important voices from two hundred years of America's struggle for civil rights, including essential speeches from leaders, both famous and obscure....
Better Than I Ever Expected
Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty
Language: English
Release Date: June 26, 2009
Better Than I Ever Expected is a warm, witty, and honest book that contends with the challenges and celebrates the delights of older-life sexuality. It asserts that women over sixty are at the top of their game when it comes to enjoying sex.
Joan Price’s woman-to-woman straight talk transcends the...
Triangular Road
A Memoir
Language: English
Release Date: March 3, 2009
In Triangular Road, famed novelist Paule Marshall tells the story of her years as a fledgling young writer in the 1960s. A memoir of self-discovery, it also offers an affectionate tribute to the inimitable Langston Hughes, who entered Marshall's life during a crucial phase and introduced her to the...