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It’s official: South Bay High’s finest, Jayd Jackson, and its coolest white boy, Jeremy Weiner, are a couple. And if that’s not enough interracial drama for South Bay’s mostly white, wealthy student body, Jayd and her bold, beautiful crew have more on the way . . .

Friends and teachers at South Bay High may be hating, while Jayd and Jeremy are falling in love, and if anyone has a problem with their happiness, especially an ex who’s back in Jayd’s life aiming to sweep her off her feet—well, that’s no surprise. This is Drama High after all. And Jayd is no stranger to controversy—it’s in her blood, and it seems it’s in her girl Nellie’s blood too.

Homecoming is just around the corner, and South Bay High has never had a black princess, queen, or royalty of any kind for any event. But that’s about to change. The Drama Club is sponsoring Nellie to run for the junior class, hoping to give the Cheerleaders and Athletes a run for their money. If Nellie wins, she’ll make history. In fact, Nellie is so deep in the zone, Jayd’s afraid she’ll forget to watch her back because the students of South Bay are serious about their crowns. As Nellie’s chances for victory heat up, so does the hostility from the smartass opposition. Nellie may be flying too high to notice, but Jayd can see the drama coming. And as usual, she’s on it—with a little help from her magical Mama and her mystical ancestors, of course.

Paper 9.95

“George is an ace at interlacing the real dramas of the world . . . the book’s slim length and flyweight depth could make it an artifact of this particular zeitgeist in American history. Playas and haters and celebrity cameos fuel a novel that is wickedly entertaining while being frozen in time.”
–”Kirkus Reviews”
“This hard-boiled tale is jazzed up with authentic street slang and name-dropping (Biggie, Mary J. Blige, Lil Wayne, and Chuck D) . . . George’s tightly packaged mystery pivots on a believable conspiracy . . . and his street cred shines in his descriptions of Harlem and Brownsville’s mean streets.”
–”Library Journal”
“George is a well-known, respected hip-hop chronicler . . . Now he adds crime fiction to his resume with a carefully plotted crime novel peopled by believable characters and real-life hip-hop personalities.”
–”Booklist”
“The most accomplished black music critic of his generation.”
–”The Washington Post Book World”
“Perhaps one of the greatest books ever written. It has the realness of “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” the warmth “of The Color Purple,” and the page count of “Tuesdays with Morrie.” It’s a must-read.”
–Chris Rock on “City Kid”

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15.95

From Process to Print: Graphic Works by Romare Bearden celebrates the etchings, aquatints, collagraphs, photo projections, lithographs, and screenprints of one of America’s most important twentieth-century artists. More than seventy-five full-color reproductions demonstrate Bearden’s printmaking process as he worked and reworked particular images, themes, and techniques; illuminate how his thinking and approaches were shaped through collaborations with master printmakers, especially Robert Blackburn; and evidence Bearden’s extraordinary facility for weaving into every art form a rich tapestry of literary, biblical, mythological, popular-culture, and Western and non-Western themes shaped by his African American cultural experiences.

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35.00

In paintings, murals, and book illustrations, Aaron Douglas (1899-1979) produced the most powerful visual legacy of the Harlem Renaissance, prompting the philosopher and writer Alain Locke to dub him the “Father of Black American Art.” Working from a politicized concept of personal identity and a utopian vision of the future, the artist made a lasting impact on American art history and on the nation’s cultural heritage. Douglas’s role, as well as that of the Harlem Renaissance in general, in the evolution of American modernism deserves close scholarly attention, which it finally receives in this beautifully illustrated book. Douglas combined Egyptian ideology with angular Cubist rhythms and seductive Art Deco dynamism in portraying African and African American imagery. The result was a radically new utopian visual vocabulary that evoked both current realities and hopes for a better future. Presenting more than ninety illustrations of Douglas’s works and the commentary of leading critics and historians, this book focuses on the artist’s career from the 1920s through the 1940s in relation to American modernism. Its authors argue that Douglas’s bold work opened doors for African American artists in Harlem and beyond, and that it invited a dialogue with modernism that put African American life, labor, and freedom, along with African traditions and motifs, at its center. New information emerges from these pages, reflecting the rich interchange between the visual arts, music, dance, literature, and politics that shaped Douglas’s work and also defined the Harlem Renaissance.

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60.00

Jules Allen

A native of San Francisco, Jules graduated from art school and headed for New York to photograph African-American culture and for many years has taught at Queensborough Community College.

“I wanted to show a culture of activity. I was tired of seeing photographs of Black people sitting on the porch doing nothing, being victimized, being dependent. We do things,” said Mr. Allen in an interview with Davis Gonzales of The New York Times. In the 1980s, Mr. Allen went to be trained in Gleason’s Gym, the oldest, active boxing gym in the country. The story and images found in Double Up are a result of Allen’s work with the renowned boxing, master-trainer, Bobby McQuillen, who also worked with Sugar Ray Robinson, and Muhammad Ali.

He had also trained Miles Davis and Mr. Allen is a huge fan Miles’ coolosity. “That’s all it took for me! He invited me to train. I said, ‘What’s the value in somebody like me training?’ And he said, ‘Son, whatever you do, you’ll do it better if you train with me.’ He told me about what he did, how to breathe, how to move. And then I started seeing a photographic sensibility reveal itself to me.” Double Up is the result of Jules Allen’s keen capture of beauty in black and white photographs of Geason’s.

In one image, a man lifts his pants leg to reveal a revolver in an ankle holster. “That cat did 15 years in the joint for murder,” Mr. Allen said. “He used to tell me, ‘You come here like you’re sophisticated. But you don’t know this world. You’re sophisticated outside, with schoolbooks. But you don’t know what you’re doing here.’ All I could say was, ‘You’re right. You’re right.’” But he learned. His pictures show champions.

Allen, the recipient of numerous grants and awards, has been widely exhibited in the U.S. and abroad. His photographs are included in numerous museums, inclusive of the Museum of Modern Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian, the National Gallery, the Schomburg Center for Culture & Research and others.

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55.00

On the eve of the Civil Rights Movement, while struggling to survive the emotional vacuum of his family, young Gray March escapes into the safe and magical world of his grandmother Makeda’s tiny parlor. There his life is transformed by his visits to the aging matriarch, a woman blind since birth but who has always dreamed in color. She begins to confide in Gray the things she “sees” and remembers from her dream state, and a story starts to emerge, a story that becomes increasingly more detailed, layered with descriptions and historical accuracy beyond the scope of Makeda’s elementary school education. Gradually, Gray begins to make a connection . . . a connection between his grandmother’s dream and the epic life of an African queen described in the Bible. . .
Part coming-of-age story, part spiritual journey, and part love story, Makeda is a universal tale of family, heritage, and the ties that bind. It is about the people who help to shape and mold us, and lead us into the light. Appealing to the deepest sense of who we are, Randall Robinson plumbs the hearts of grandmother Makeda and her grandson, Gray, and summons our collective blood memories, taking the reader on an unforgettable journey of the soul that will linger long after the last page has been turned.

Paper
15.95