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28 Days of Literary Blackness with VSB | Day 10: Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Publisher Synopsis: Go back to bed, baby, please, baby, please. Not on your HEAD, baby baby baby, please!… From moments fussy to fond, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, producer Tonya Lewis Lee, present a behind-the-scenes look at the chills, spills, and unequivocal thrills of bringing up baby! Vivid illustrations from celebrated artist…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 9: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Publisher Synopsis: Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family’s struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice. And it is also Cassie’s story—Cassie Logan, an independent girl who discovers over the course of an important year why having…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 5: Every Little Step: My Story by Bobby Brown With Nick Chiles
Publisher Synopsis: In Every Little Step, Brown will for the first time tell the full story of his life and set the record straight, particularly about his relationship with Whitney Houston. Bobby Brown has been one of the most compelling American artists of the past 30 years, a magnetic and talented figure who successfully crossed…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 4: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Publisher synopsis: Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 3: Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class by Lawrence Otis Graham
Publisher Synopsis: Debutante cotillions. Million-dollar homes. Summers in Martha’s Vineyard. Membership in the Links, Jack & Jill, Deltas, Boule, and AKAs. An obsession with the right schools, families, social clubs, and skin complexion. This is the world of the black upper class and the focus of the first book written about the black elite by…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 2: Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
Publisher Synopsis: Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. Claudia and Monday have always been inseparable—more sisters than friends. So when Monday doesn’t turn up for the first day of school, Claudia’s worried. When she doesn’t show for the second day, or second week, Claudia knows that something is wrong. Monday wouldn’t…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 1: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Today is the first day of Black History Month, the annual celebration in these here United States of America where schools make kids learn about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Sprinkle in a few facts about a black person being the first person to do this or that, and before you know it,…
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26 Is Too Young to Die
My life changed on Sunday, July 16, 2000. Even though the official reports, the newspaper, and the family story all say July 17, my big cousin never saw Monday. After going to see the recently released film, Scary Movie, my younger cousin (his little sister) and I pulled into the driveway of my grandmother’s house…
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Dear Writers, What Do You Have Saved in Your Drafts?
If you’re somebody who writes for a living or as a hobby or because it’s not that you won’t stop, it’s that you can’t stop, then there’s a really good chance you use some sort of publishing platform to share your thoughts with the world. Many of us started out on Blogspot or whatever came…
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I Don't Know How We're Going to Make It Through This Campaign Season Y'all
I’m typically a pretty optimistic person. For instance, I believe the children are our future. I believe in miracles. I even believe in magic. Despite my penchant for seeing a glass half-full, I’m not sure we gon’ make it through this campaign season y’all. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said “I may not get…
