Kindred by
Adapted by celebrated academics and comics artists Damian Duffy and John Jennings, this graphic novel powerfully renders Butler's mysterious and moving story, which spans racial and gender divides in the antebellum South through the 20th century. Butler's most celebrated, critically acclaimed work tells the story of Dana, a young black woman who is suddenly and inexplicably transported from her home in 1970s California to the pre-Civil War South. As she time-travels between worlds, one in which she is a free woman and one where she is part of her own complicated familial history on a southern plantation, she becomes frighteningly entangled in the lives of Rufus, a conflicted white slaveholder and one of Dana's own ancestors, and the many people who are enslaved by him. Held up as an essential work in feminist, science-fiction, and fantasy genres, and a cornerstone of the Afrofuturism movement, there are over 500,000 copies of Kindred in print. The intersectionality of race, history, and the treatment of women addressed within the original work remain critical topics in contemporary dialogue, both in the classroom and in the public sphere. Frightening, compelling, and richly imagined, Kindred offers an unflinching look at our complicated social history, transformed by the graphic novel format into a visually stunning work for a new generation of readers.
Native Son by
"Follows Bigger Thomas, a young black man who is trapped in a life of poverty in the slums of Chicago. Unwittingly involved in a wealthy woman's death, he is hunted relentlessly, baited by prejudiced officials, charged with murder and driven to acknowledge a strange pride in his crime."
Seed to Harvest by
The complete Patternist series-the acclaimed science fiction epic of a world transformed by a secret race of telepaths and their devastating rise to power. In the late seventeenth century, two immortals meet in an African forest. Anyanwu is a healer, a three-hundred-year-old woman who uses her wisdom to help those around her. The other is Doro, a malevolent despot who has mastered the power of stealing the bodies of others when his wears out. Together they will change the world.
Things Fall Apart by
Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political and religious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order.
Black Panther by Christopher Priest by
Black Panther reinvented as a sharp and witty political satire? Believe it! T'Challa is the man with the plan, as Christopher Priest puts the emphasis on the Wakandan king's reputation as the ultimate statesman, as seen through the eyes of the U.S. government's Everett K. Ross. As the Panther investigates a murder in New York, Ross plays Devil's Advocate in an encounter with Mephisto, and a new regime seizes control in Wakanda.
Brown Girl in the Ring by
The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways--farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother. She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends.
Communion by
A criminal and an infant usher in an era of peace on Earth. Together, they are the avatar -- Ka. The Ka enjoys only a short life when its two forces explode apart and forget their identities. The Earth falls back into alienation, chaos, and apathy. Communion tells the story of how Rosha and Danzuro rediscover their identities, unravel the flaws of the united Ka, and confront the architect of the world's new suffering. It is top-notch fantasy writing in a gripping, stream-of-consciousness style.
Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora by
This volume introduces black science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction writers to the generations of readers who have not had the chance to explore the scope and diversity among African-American writers.
Dark Princess by
The problem of "the color line," W.E.B. Du Bois's ever-present polemical theme, is at the core of this novel of sensual love, radical politics, and the quest for racial justice. Toward the end of his life he ranked it as his favorite of all his works. For the fantastical storyline, heavy with propagandist overtones, Du Bois depicts 1920s America as a racist nation primed for radical protest and terrorism.
Geoffrey Thorne's DREAMNASIUM by
HURRY! HURRY! HURRY!ESHU... A lonely god at the end of the universe? Sounds like a party.DR. EIDLING... A scientist with a physics problem that just might be murder.ANTIOPE... A young girl with a secret bundle, monsters in the dark woods? Not your grandmother's fairy tale.Geoffrey Thorne, author of Star Trek: Titan: Sword of Damocles, assembles these tales and many more under one tent for the first time.
Long Hidden by
In 1514 Hungary, peasants who rose up against the nobility rise again - from the grave. In 1633 Al-Shouf, a mother keeps demons at bay with the combined power of grief and music. In 1775 Paris, as social tensions come to a boil, a courtesan tries to save the woman she loves. In 1838 Georgia, a pregnant woman's desperate escape from slavery comes with a terrible price. In 1900 Ilocos Norte, a forest spirit helps a young girl defend her land from American occupiers. These gripping stories have been passed down through the generations, hidden between the lines of journal entries and love letters. Now 27 of today's finest authors - including Tananarive Due, Sofia Samatar, Ken Liu, Victor LaValle, Nnedi Okorafor, and Sabrina Vourvoulias - reveal the people whose lives have been pushed to the margins of history.
My Soul to Keep by
When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost. Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami. Instead, David vows to invoke a forbidden ritual to keep Jessica and his daughter with him forever.
Niobe by
Niobe: She is Life collects the 4 issue comic series written by creator Sebastian A. Jones and actress Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games) and illustrated by Ashley A. Woods.
Niobe Ayutami. Half human, half elf. Half Ujoan, half Isintarrian. Half goddess, half devil.
Niobe is a child of prophecy. Destined to be a queen and on the run since birth, Niobe was first introduced in The Untamed: A Sinner's Prayer. Now a teenager and out on her own for the first time, Niobe must find her way in a world that wants her dead.
After fleeing the vampire lord, Essessa, Niobe arrives at the sacred elven grounds of her ancestors, but she finds no welcome from her kind. She does, however, meet a fellow outcast in a half orc boy who is accused of murder. But Niobe's quest to prove his innocence may expose her own past sins.
Niobe: She is Life is a beauty and the beast love story threaded with murder and mystery that leads to all out war with the fate of Asunda hanging in the balance.
Shadowshaper by
Cassandra Clare meets Caribbean legend in this action-packed urban fantasy from a bold new talent. Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season.
The Shadow Speaker by
When 15-year-old Ejii witnesses her father's beheading, her world shatters. In an era of mind-blowing technology and tantalising magic, she embarks on a mystical journey to track down her father's killer. With a newfound friend by her side, Ejii comes face-to-face with an earth turned inside out. But she soon discovers that her travels across the sands of the Sahara have a greater purpose. Her people need to be protected from a force seeking to annihilate them. A futuristic, fantastical adventure heralding a bright new talent in young adult fiction.
The Winged Histories by
Four women, soldier, scholar, poet, and socialite are caught up on different sides of a violent rebellion. As war erupts and their families are torn apart, they fear they may disappear into the unwritten pages of history. Using the sword and the pen, the body and the voice, they struggle not just to survive, but to make history. Praise forThe Winged Histories: "Like an alchemist, Sofia Samatar spins golden landscapes and dazzling sentences.... a fantasy novel for those who take their sentences with the same slow, unfolding beauty as a cup of jasmine tea, and for adventurers like Tav, who are willing to charge ahead into the unknown."--Shelf Awareness (starred review) "A highly recommended indulgence." --N.K. Jemisin,New York Times Book Review "Above all, it's a story about love--the terrible love that tears lives apart. Doomed love; impossible love; love that requires a rewriting of the rules, be it for a country, a person, or a story."--Jenn Northington, Tor.com "An imaginative, poetic, and dark meditation on how history gets made." --Hello Beautiful Sofia Samatar is the author of the novelsA Stranger in Olondria andThe Winged Histories and a collection,Tender: Stories. She has written for theGuardian, Strange Horizons, New Inquiry, Believer, andClarkesworld, among others, and has won the John W. Campbell Award, the Crawford Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the World Fantasy Award. She lives in Virginia and her website is sofiasamatar.com.
African Fractals by
Fractals are characterized by the repetition of similar patterns at ever-diminishing scales. Fractal geometry has emerged as one of the most exciting frontiers on the border between mathematics and information technology and can be seen in many of the swirling patterns produced by computer graphics. It has become a new tool for modeling in biology, geology, and other natural sciences. Anthropologists have observed that the patterns produced in different cultures can be characterized by specific design themes. In Europe and America, we often see cities laid out in a grid pattern of straight streets and right-angle corners. In contrast, traditional African settlements tend to use fractal structures-circles of circles of circular dwellings, rectangular walls enclosing ever-smaller rectangles, and streets in which broad avenues branch down to tiny footpaths with striking geometric repetition. These indigenous fractals are not limited to architecture; their recursive patterns echo throughout many disparate African designs and knowledge systems. Drawing on interviews with African designers, artists, and scientists, Ron Eglash investigates fractals in African architecture, traditional hairstyling, textiles, sculpture, painting, carving, metalwork, religion, games, practical craft, quantitative techniques, and symbolic systems. He also examines the political and social implications of the existence of African fractal geometry. His book makes a unique contribution to the study of mathematics, African culture, anthropology, and computer simulations.
Afrofuturism by
2014 Locus Awards Finalist, Nonfiction Category In this hip, accessible primer to the music, literature, and art of Afrofuturism, author Ytasha Womack introduces readers to the burgeoning community of artists creating Afrofuturist works, the innovators from the past, and the wide range of subjects they explore. From the sci-fi literature of Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, and N. K. Jemisin to the musical cosmos of Sun Ra, George Clinton, and the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am, to the visual and multimedia artists inspired by African Dogon myths and Egyptian deities, the book's topics range from the "alien" experience of blacks in America to the "wake up" cry that peppers sci-fi literature, sermons, and activism. With a twofold aim to entertain and enlighten, Afrofuturists strive to break down racial, ethnic, and social limitations to empower and free individuals to be themselves.
Black Comics by
Winner of the 2014 Will Eisner Award for Best Scholarly/Academic WorkBringing together contributors from a wide-range of critical perspectives, Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation is an analytic history of the diverse contributions of Black artists to the medium of comics. Covering comic books, superhero comics, graphic novels and cartoon strips from the early 20th century to the present, the book explores the ways in which Black comic artists have grappled with such themes as the Black experience, gender identity, politics and social media. Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation introduces students to such key texts as: The work of Jackie Ormes Black women superheroes from Vixen to Black Panther Aaron McGruder's strip The Boondocks
Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans by
What do the comic book figures Static, Hardware, and Icon all have in common? Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans gives an answer that goes far beyond "tights and capes," an answer that lies within the mission Milestone Media, Inc., assumed in comic book culture. Milestone was the brainchild of four young black creators who wanted to part from the mainstream and do their stories their own way. This history of Milestone, a "creator-owned" publishing company, tells how success came to these mavericks in the 1990s and how comics culture was expanded and enriched as fans were captivated by this new genre. Milestone focused on the African American heroes in a town called Dakota. Quite soon these black action comics took a firm position in the controversies of race, gender, and corporate identity in contemporary America. Characters battled supervillains and sometimes even clashed with more widely known superheroes. Front covers of Milestone comics often bore confrontational slogans like "Hardware: A Cog in the Corporate Machine is About to Strip Some Gears." Milestone's creators aimed for exceptional stories that addressed racial issues without alienating readers. Some competitors, however, accused their comics of not being black enough or of merely marketing Superman in black face. Some felt that the stories were too black, but a large cluster of readers applauded these new superheroes for fostering African American pride and identity. Milestone came to represent an alternative model of black heroism and, for a host of admirers, the ideal of masculinity. Black Superheroes gives details about the founding of Milestone and reports on the secure niche its work and its image achieved in the marketplace. Tracing the company's history and discussing its creators, their works, and the fans, this book gauges Milestone alongside other black comic book publishers, mainstream publishers, and the history of costumed characters.
Freedom Dreams by
Kelley unearths freedom dreams in this exciting history of renegade intellectuals and artists of the African diaspora in the twentieth century. Focusing on the visions of activists from C. L. R. James to Aime Cesaire and Malcolm X, Kelley writes of the hope that Communism offered, the mindscapes of Surrealism, the transformative potential of radical feminism, and of the four-hundred-year-old dream of reparations for slavery and Jim Crow. From'the preeminent historian of black popular culture' (Cornel West), an inspiring work on the power of imagination to transform society.
Looking for a Face Like Mine by
Superman, Spiderman, and the X-Men. To Professor William H. Foster III, comic books are serious stuff and definitely not just for kids. Though many fantastic tales have been told through the pages of comic strips and comic books, some of the most interesting and least told stories, according to Foster, are about the changing image of Black people in American society.If art imitates life, cartoon and comic art might seem an unusual mirror in which to view society. But to Professor Foster, a long time historian, lecturer, and fan, comics are a source of scholarly research and just plain fun.This book represents a collection of his published essays, articles, and interviews that explore the historical portrayal of people of color in the world of comics.
Venus in the Dark by
In this second edition of the remarkable, and now classic, cultural history of black women¿s beauty, Venus in the Dark, Janell Hobson explores the enduring figure of the "Hottentot Venus" and the history of critical and artistic responses to her by black women in contemporary photography, film, literature, music, and dance. In 1810, Sara Baartman was taken from South Africa to Europe, where she was put on display at circuses, salons, museums, and universities as the "Hottentot Venus." The subsequent legacy of representations of black women¿s sexuality¿from Josephine Baker to Serena Williams to hip-hop and dancehall videos¿refer back to her iconic image. Via a new preface, Hobson argues for the continuing influence of Baartman¿s legacy, as her image still reverberates through the contemporary marketization of black women¿s bodies, from popular music and pornography to advertising. A brand new chapter explores how historical echoes from previous eras map onto highly visible bodies in the twenty-first century. It analyzes fetishistic spectacles of the black "booty," with particular emphasis on the role of Beyonc¿nowles in the popularization of the "bootylicious" body, and the counter-aesthetic the singer has gone on to advance for black women¿s bodies and beauty politics. By studying the imagery of the "Hottentot Venus," from the nineteenth century to now, readers are invited to confront the racial and sexual objectification and embodied resistance that make up a significant part of black women¿s experience.
