By Dr. Brenda M. GreeneAs we read and meditate on our shared history and cultural experiences and on books, art, and images we see, these meditations leave imprints in our dreams and become part of our personal consciousness; however they do not become firmly...
Book Review by Dr. Brenda M. GreeneThe Queen of Sugar Hill:A Novel of Hattie McDanielReShonda Tate. William Morrow,420 pages, 2024.With Love from Harlem: A Novel of Hazel ScottReShonda Tate. William Morrow, 402 pages, 2026
For every woman who has ever felt unseen, whose brilliance was...
Not only did I greatly admire Garvey, but his conviction also represented one of the most poignant examples of the injustice that the law can exert on an individual’s life trajectory and indeed the trajectory of thousands of people who follow that person if...
Book Review by Dr. Brenda M. Greene
“What you need to know for now is that it was just like this. I wasn’t running away. I was running toward myself.”
From The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
We know that spies have always been necessary...
What you need to know for now is that it was just like this. I wasn’t running away. I was running toward myself.”From The American Daughtersby Maurice Carlos Ruffin
We know that spies have always been necessary and crucial to people and countries engaged in...
Everybody talks about how he’ll change race in America. Erase it or whatever. By this they mean he’ll change white people, which if it happened, would be amazing enough. But nobody mentions the better thing, Dave. How he could absolutely abolish, all at once,...
“Families, as my suddenly silenced uncle used to say, expand like ripples in a pond… Family is not only made up of your living relatives. It is elders long buried and generations yet unborn, with stories as bridges and potential portals.”
Edwidge Danticat, We’re AloneEdwidge...
For Gaza’s Children: Black, Brown, and Jewish Writers and Poets Speak OutMarc Lamont Hill, Haki R. Madhubuti and Keith Gilyard, EditorsThird World Press Foundation, 196 pages, 2025.
What they don’t tell youWhat’s not recorded for newsIs the screaming drownedOut by bombs that rattle bonesBurst eardrums...
Remembering Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu
Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, national educational consultant, publisher, and the author of over 30 books that address empowering Black youth through a culturally responsive curriculum, made his transition on April 25, 2025. His books include Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys...
“My alma mater was books, a good library. . . I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.”- Malcolm X
As we mark the May 19th 2025 centennial of the birth of Malcolm X (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz), our renowned Civil...
In his most recent book The Message (One World, 2024), National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates presents readers with his personal journey as he travels and explores the prevalence and impact of racism on peoples throughout the United States, the Middle East, and Africa....
Rita Williams-Garcia, Best-Selling Middle School and Young Adult Author
Award-winning writer Rita Williams-Garcia captures the voices of young Black girls and teens in thirteen books that present the joys, realities and challenges of coming-of-age. Her books underscore the value of the Black family, provide the...
By Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson(A Power Team in Black Writing and Publishing)
The Reckoning by Wade HudsonRandom House Children’s Books, 256 pagesWhen I Hear Spiritualsby Cheryl Wade HudsonIllustrated by London LaddHoliday House, 40 pages.
Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson, authors and founders of...
Nigeria Jones by Ibi Zoboi and Punching the Airby Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
Nigeria Jones by Ibi ZoboiBalzer & Bray, 384 pagesGrand Central Publishing, Hatchette Book Group, Inc. 368 pp.Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef SalaamBalzer & Bray, 400 pages
Ibi Zoboi is...
The ABCs of Democracy (Grand Central Publishing/Hatchett 2024), an intergenerational “picture book” by Leader Hakeem Jeffries, documents the speech that he gave upon delivering the opening remarks of the 118th Congress on January 7, 2023.
Jeffries was elected as the incoming House Minority Leader...
by Ketanji Brown Jackson
Having benefitted from Black educational settings from elementary school through college, my father and mother were united in their determination to start me in a program that they believed would nurture me culturally, foster my sense of curiosity, and put me...
“For the People: The Driving Force Behind Kamala Harris”
Book Review by Dr. Brenda M. GreeneThe Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala HarrisPenguin Press, 368 pp.
In the opening paragraph of her memoir The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, (Penguin Press, 2019) Vice...
Ella: A Novel
In her debut novel, Ella, Diane Richards, Executive Editor of the Harlem Writers Guild and writer, playwright, and music producer, reimagines the origin story of Ella Fitzgerald, American singer, songwriter, and composer. Ella has been called the “Queen of Jazz,” “The First...
The Impact of Environmental Injustice on an African Community
Review by Brenda Greene
Some novels have timeless themes. Imbolo Mbue’s novel, How Beautiful We Were (Random House, 2021) falls into that category. The novel, classified as climate and political fiction, centers on people in the fictional...
Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America.
Book Review by Brenda Greene
Joy-Ann Reid’s Medgar & Myrlie: Medgar Evers and The Love Story That Awakened America (Mariner Books, 2024) is a stirring portrayal of the life of Medgar Wiley Evers and Myrlie Evers-Williams. Readers...
Wayne Powell has a lot to smile about. His daughter LaNice, right, and granddaughter are integral to his successful security business. (Photo: Courtesy of the Powell Family.)
