While a small, travel-friendly book from Brown’s Emergent Strategy Series, We Will Not Cancel Us serves as a powerful and timely resource for examining cancel culture. She invites readers to dare to shift away from constant punitive reaction and to consider in what ways call-outs can often (not always) perpetuate harm or do little to interrupt it.

Queenie, by Candice Carty-Williams, is a must-read that not only reflects the reality of police brutality toward Black boys and men, it also reflects the sexual brutality many Black girls face. The book also touches on mental health and finding one's confidence and footing after a great deal of trauma.

Destiny Love Jones, Vol. 1: Sisters and the Plight with Boys by N. R. White is a friendship saga emerging from the aging sisterhood of childhood friends Augustine, Holly, and Pearl. When Augustine pursues a love affair with a boy her father disapproves of, a multilayered drama of death, love, and revenge unfolds.

How much do our childhood experiences influence our behavior as adults? Why are some of our early memories so deeply embedded we cannot seem to escape them? Can a parent, through their actions as a strict disciplinarian and rule-maker, ensure their children will have a better life than the one they had? These questions are at the core of Eric Heard‘s debut book.

In Small Cures, Della Hicks-Wilson shares her collection of poetry that invites readers to tend to and navigate their woundedness. Dedicated to “the unhealed” and her mother, the poetry reads as soothing, explorative, nurturing, and intimate. Her artistry with word flow unfolds into journeys through heartache, loss, grief, boundaries, love, life lessons, and beyond.

Is there really a need to read a book that “isn’t for us”? Deborah Harris thinks so. She reviewed “Uncomfortable Conversations” this week to set the record straight.

If you enjoy a historical read, please do not let the page length keep you from reading this novel. Lawrence Hill has written a wonderfully funny, sensitive, and historically accurate novel that centers on one family—the Canes. Hill weaves the history of the Cane family through their migrations from the United States to where the family settled in Canada. Enjoy this review by one of our newest contributors, Cassandra Veney.

Cernata C. Morse, Ph.D. may not be well-known yet, but her storytelling skills in Beyond the Four Blocks: A Memoir definitely places her in the conversation with up and coming key contributors and influencers of Black Literature. Our contributing writer, Deborah Harris, lends her voice to this review.

The author, Tamara Winfrey Harris, was punching long-held beliefs about Black women right in the face. Through the everyday experiences of Black women, Harris tells our stories from our lens.

Deborah writes a moving review of her experience with Justice Restored: A Series of Writings and Poems From Incarcerated Youth.

I Can’t Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race and Other Reasons I’ve Put My Faith in Beyoncé (2018) is Michael Arceneaux humorous essay collection exploring identity, religion, and fan culture.

makes you laugh and think as it combines a variety of stories stemming from Arceneaux’s life experiences.

Albert recently completed one of the 2019 Booker prize winners, Girl, Woman, Other. “The novel reads like a collection of short stories, with each of the twelve characters being given their own chapter, culminating in a grand reception that craftily threads them together.”

Check out Latonya’s take on the graphic novel, Agents of the Realm by Mildred Louis. It's a fun heroic comic book set in college combining monster fighting with coming of age.