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What Becomes of the Brokenhearted

Gene Seymour Bookforum
Reviewer Seymour, in this reappraisal of this 1967 masterpiece of American and African literature, calls this novel "a what’s-it-to-you red cloak brandished in the collective face of white supremacy."

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‘The Man Who Changed Colors’

John Bachtell People's World
Reviewer Bachtell on this "multi-layered working-class suspense thriller," the second novel by this widely respected working class movement leader, activist, and thinker.

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Poetry, Biography, and the Unknowable

Hollis Robbins Los Angeles Review of Books
These books offer two approaches to the life and work of Wheatley, who is a cornerstone figure of the U.S. and African American literary traditions.

How Black Women Writers Got It Done

Marina Magloire The Nation
Claudia Tate’s 1983 collection of interviews is an important look into the trials writers like Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou faced on their way to mainstream acceptance

June Jordan’s Legacy of Solidarity and Love Remains Relevant

Sriram Shamasunder Yes Magazine
We look to our elders to demonstrate another way of being in this broken world, extending our circle of commitment to the person in front of us, or to a group of people, like she did with Palestinian people. June taught us it is important to practice self-love, to show commitment to your community and to extend that care to those struggling for justice around the world.

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The Legacy of a Caged Bird

On Gene Andrew Jarrett’s “Paul Laurence Dunbar” Los Angeles Review of Books
During his lifetime, Paul Laurence Dunbar, an African American, was among the most famous poets in the United States. It is one of the great paradoxes of the early Jim Crow era. This biography sheds new light on the writer's life and work.

Alice Walker Has ‘No Regrets’

Elizabeth A. Harris New York Times
Alice Walker is often an autobiographical writer, even in her fiction; the main character in “The Color Purple,” Celie, is based on her grandmother. Now, by publishing her journals, she has invited the world into some of her most private moments.
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