Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. With this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison transfigures the coming-of-age story as audaciously as Saul Bellow or Gabriel García Márquez. As she follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family's origins, Morrison introduces an entire cast of strivers...

A biography of the Canadian-born black American who studied engineering in Scotland and patented over fifty inventions despite the obstacles he faced because of his race.

A definitive selection of Audre Lorde's intelligent, fierce, powerful, sensual, provocative, indelible prose and poetry, for a new generation of listeners. Self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet" Audre Lorde is an unforgettable voice in twentieth-century literature, and one of the first to center the experiences of black, queer women. This essential collection showcases her indelible contributions to intersectional feminism, queer...

This lush and haunting novel tells of a city steeped in decadent pleasures and of a man, proud and defiant, caught in a web of murder and betrayal. It is 1833. In the midst of Mardi Gras, Benjamin January, a Creole physician and music teacher, is playing piano at the Salle d'Orléans when the evening's festivities are interrupted-by murder. The ravishing Angelique Crozat, a notorious octoroon who travels in the city's finest company, has been strangled...

Explores the dance traditions of African Americans, from their origins in the expressive dances that the slaves brought from Africa through the development of jazz and tap to modern dance and ballet.

This work features short biographies of eighty-four prominent black women.

A brief biography of Oseola McCarty, a hard-working washerwoman who, without a formal education herself, donated a portion of her life savings to the University of Southern Mississippi to endow a scholarship fund for needy students. Oseola McCarty worked all her life washing and ironing other people's clothes. She didn't earn much, but she always saved her money. Her one regret was that she had little education, for she had quit school to help out...

Ths volume captures the enormous talent and passion of black writers such as Maya Angelou, Langston Huges, Alice Walker and Phyllis Wheatley.