"Thelonious 'Monk' Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been 'critically acclaimed.' He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited 'some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days.' Meanwhile, Monk struggles...

"Wes Moore's remarkable bestseller The Other Wes Moore ends when Wes completes his journey from a fatherless delinquent to college graduate and heads off to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. But what happens next? Next, he had to figure out the answer to the question: What is your work? More than finding a job, he had to find the work he was meant to do. For the next decade, Wes traced a path through some of the most fascinating and high-pressure workspaces...

Exploring issues of masculinity and patriarchy from both a personal and cultural standpoint through the lens of a Black man, this deeply personal collection of essays, poems and short reflections tackles the complex realities of men's lives today and their significance for society.

Arriving from America to explore Ghana's colonial past, Elton, Vincent and Scott, hoping to experience the country's underground queer scene, find themselves in the grip of two very different people—Kobby, their guide to Accra's privileged queer circles and Nana, the voice of tradition and religious principle.

The legends in this book span centuries and continents, but each one blazed a trail for generations to come. Among these biographies, readers will find aviators and artists, politicians and pop stars, athletes and activists. The exceptional men featured include writer James Baldwin, artist Aaron Douglas, filmmaker Oscar Devereaux Micheaux, lawman Bass Reeves, civil rights leader John Lewis, dancer Alvin Ailey, and musician Prince.

As the United States celebrates the nation's "triumph over race" with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status, much like their grandparents before them. Argues that the War on Drugs and policies...

A collection of works that opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police?a place where suspicion, violence and grief are forgotten and replaced with the safety, love and longevity they deserved here on earth.

Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Richard Wright's novel is just as powerful today as when it was written -- in its reflection of poverty and hopelessness, and what...

Jamel Brinkleys stories, in a debut that announces the arrival of a significant new voice, reflect the tenderness and vulnerability of black men and boys whose hopes sometimes betray them, especially in a world shaped by race, gender, and classwhere luck may be the greatest fiction of all.