Books like Earthquakes and Sunrise Missions by Haki R. Madhubuti

Alice Walker's 1982 novel, The Color Purple, won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, exploring the lives of black women in the South and their experiences of abuse and struggle for independence.

In New York’s toughest streets, Winter—gifted, street‑savvy daughter of a Brooklyn drug dynasty—uses her wit and allure to survive a volatile winter of crime and ambition.

A Raisin in the Sun is a seminal American drama about the Younger family's hopes and struggles on Chicago’s South Side as they confront race, housing discrimination, and generational conflict.

The Warmth of Other Suns is a non‑fiction study of the Great Migration, tracing the journey of nearly six million African Americans from the South to northern and western cities between 1915 and 1970.

A collection of Maya Angelou's poetry celebrating life, strength, love, and remembrance.

Indecency is a collection of poems in which Justin Phillip Reed uses language to expose inequity, challenge white supremacy, and critique structures of discrimination, masculinity, sexuality, and the prison industrial complex.

A bold exploration of pregnancy, childbirth, and artistic expression through verse, prose, and dialogue.

In this passionate new collection, Kevin Young takes up a range of African American griefs and passages. He opens with the beautiful “Elegy for Miss Brooks,” invoking Gwendolyn Brooks, who died in 2000, and who makes a perfect muse for the volume: “What the devil / are we without you?” he asks. “I tuck your voice, laced / tight, in these brown shoes.” In that spirit of intimate community, Young gives us a saucy ballad of Jim Crow, a poem about Lionel Hampton's last concert in Paris, an “African Elegy,” which addresses the tragic loss of a close friend in conjunction with the first anniversary of 9/11, and a series entitled “Americana,” in which we encounter a clutch of mythical southern towns, such as East Jesus (“The South knows ruin & likes it / thataway―the barns becoming / earth again, leaning in―”) and West Hell (“Sin, thy name is this / wait―this place― / a long ways from Here / to There”). *For the Confederate Dead* finds Young, more than ever before, in a poetic space that is at once public and personal. In the marvelous “Guernica,” Young’s account of a journey through Spain blends with the news of an American lynching, prompting him to ask, “Precious South, / must I save you, / or myself?” In this surprising book, the poet manages to do a bit of both, embracing the contradictions of our “Confederate” legacy and the troubled nation where that legacy still lingers.

Anjail Rashida Ahmad's powerful exploration of African American women's heritage and pride in language and tradition.

A poetic journey through the Underground Railroad and the pursuit of freedom for African Americans.