African American Families

Birdwild, shares excerpts from the award-winning poem, Black Cotton, the 2018 Author’s Pick for the “Colorism Healing Anthology of Essays and Poems, Volume 2.” It is a heartwarming story about the true meaning of family and togetherness from the author and educator, Bobbi Simmons. What the main character and protagonist Bree uncovers is that in her own family, skeletal enigmas from the past run deeper than the roots of the tall pine trees that stand along the side of the pastured fields of the Breeze farm, and that all will be unveiled.

When Grandma Mimi comes to visit, she always brings warm hugs, sweet treats...and her purse. You never know what she'll have in there - fancy jewelry, tokens from around the world, or something special just for her granddaughter. It might look like a normal bag from the outside, but Mimi and her granddaughter know that it's pure magic! In this adorable, energetic ode to visits from grandma, Vanessa Brantley Newton shows how an ordinary day can become extraordinary.

Jonah Winters has it all. An Ivy Leaguer born to expatriate parents, he is never in want for money and calls both New York City and Paris his home. Aware that his fortunes are rare for a Black man like himself, he attempts to give back by teaching English at a New York City public school only to be profoundly disillusioned by his apathetic students. When a friend offers Jonah a chance to escape down to South America, he accepts, ready to leave the struggling African American community to solve their own problems.

The story is told primarily through Andre's voice, but we also see things through the voices and points of view of his mother Ruby, a hard-working medical secretary, his older sister Nina, his mostly not-there-usually-drunk-and-high father Eddie, a halfhearted reggae musician, and Reggie and Smoke, the kingpins of competing drug crews.

Un uragano minaccia Bois Sauvage, in Mississippi. In un avvallamento chiamato la Fossa, tra rottami, baracche e boschi, vive la famiglia Batiste: un padre, tre fratelli e Esch, quindici anni, unica ragazzina in un mondo di uomini. Legge e rilegge la storia di Medea e Giasone, è innamorata di Manny, e scopre di essere incinta. Nei dodici giorni che scandiscono l'arrivo della tempesta, il legame tra i fratelli e la fiducia reciproca si rinsaldano, uniche luci nel buio della disgrazia incombente.

Tanya Norwell was a patient and loving wife. She was the type of spouse who would put up with most anything to keep her marriage together. During her 16-year marriage, Tanya often turned a blind eye to her husband's drunkenness and infidelities.

Donte wishes he were invisible. As one of the few Black boys at his school, he feels as if he is constantly swimming in whiteness. Most of the students don't look like him. They don't like him either. Dubbed the 'Black Brother', Donte's teachers and classmates make it clear they wish he were more like his lighter skinned brother, Dre. When an incident with a white student leads to Donte's arrest and suspension, he's sure the only way to get even is to beat the student at the school's most valued game: fencing.

In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis: the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag for her with a few items, and, soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the sack in spare, haunting language. Historian Tiya Miles carefully traces these women's faint presence in archival records, and, where archives fall short, she turns to objects, art, and the environment to write a singular history of the experience of slavery.

Small town science teacher Keith Bradley climbs into a red Tesla with English teacher Talia Ramin for the field trip of a lifetime. At stake is a missing copy of the Scriptures on gold tablets. At risk is the trust of an ancient order sworn to keep the tablets safe. Talia's archaeologist aunt and uncle may have lost their last clue to artifact thieves. A government ultimatum might undo every lesson they have taught their students about keeping the Word safe. from Chapter Eighteen – “Are You So Selfish?” “What?” Keith jumped up. “What are you saying? We’re supposed to take the ...

WILL AN OLD LOVE MAKE IT THIS TIME AROUND? Despite her prestigious professional role, Allontis Baxter’s private life is in shambles. She’s just broken up with her no-good boyfriend, her adopted mother figure is dying in the hospital and now she’s been turned down in an attempt to adopt a child of her own. Plus, Allontis’s old flame Cole Parker has returned to their hometown from New York City, causing her dilemmas to multiply as old feelings are rekindled. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A FAMILY? When a series of chance encounters at work fling her into the middle of a mysterious scandal, ...

This book is an examination of how my family's history is interwoven with that of the history of the United States, in general, and that of North Carolina in particular. Three major 20th century players and historical events are highlighted. These players are my late father, Rev. Dr. Whalen Samuel Jones, as a young participant of the Great Migration; Sergeant Louis Franklin and the Second World War in Europe; and Gastonia Mayor Thebaud Jeffers and the Modern Civil Rights Movement. The 19th century predecessors laid the groundwork, and their roles will be examined in detail.

In this moving book from multi-award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson, a young girl and her grandmother prepare for a very special day - the one day a month they get to visit the girl's father in prison. "Only on visiting day is there chicken frying in the kitchen at 6 a.m., and Grandma in her Sunday dress, humming soft and low".

Daquan loves his wife, Aviana, more than words can explain. Their life isn’t perfect, but it’s theirs, and he wouldn’t change any of it. That is until Aviana doesn’t return home from work one night. Daquan seeks out to find the love of his life, only to find out his wife has a secret life he knew nothing about. Is their love enough to save their marriage? Will it stop Daquan from taking their son and moving on with his life? Only time will tell.

Joy Okafor is overwhelmed. The recently divorced life coach whose phone won’t stop ringing is also the dutiful Nigerian daughter who has planned every aspect of her mother’s seventieth birthday weekend on her own. As the Okafors slowly begin to arrive, Mama Mary goes to take a nap. But when the grandkids try to wake her, they find that she isn’t sleeping after all. Refusing to believe that her sister is gone-gone, Auntie Nancy declares that she has had a premonition: Mama Mary will rise again like Jesus Christ himself on Easter Sunday.

As a boy, George Elliott Clarke knew that a great deal was expected from him and his two brothers. The descendants of a highly accomplished, Virginia-descended family on his father, Bill’s, side, George felt called to live up to the family name. In contrast, his mother, Gerry’s, family were warm, down-to-earth country folk. Such contradictions underlay much of his life and upbringing - Black and White, country and city, outstanding and ordinary, high and low. George interrogates these dualities in Where Beauty Survived and shows us how they shaped him as a poet and thinker.

A 13-year-old girl watches her white best friend totter along the edge of a building roof; a woman who lost her child in its first trimester finds empathy and horror in the waters of a city aquarium; a mother protects her teen daughter from a predatory love interest by taking revenge over a very French supper; and two estranged siblings take a road-trip with their dead father's ashes - rediscovering one another and reckoning with all the ways that trust can be betrayed and love can be redeemed.

~A short Novelette Teen Love Story Love. Lies. Family Secrets. Nyla West, a shy freshman at James Taylor High, never imagined that a simple "What's up?" from Chase Donovan, the tall and charming basketball star, would turn her world upside down. For Nyla, it was love at first sight—something straight out of a high school daydream. But just as their connection starts heating up, a shocking family secret is revealed: Nyla and Chase are cousins. Their mothers forbid them from seeing each other, but Chase isn't ready to let go. Defiant and determined, he continues to pursue Nyla, pulling her ...

What would you do if you were close to hitting rock bottom? Would you exhaust every possible option to better your situation? Or would you accept defeat and throw in the towel? Meet Pete and Terrence. Both fathers are of a similar age and live in the same city, but their lives are profoundly different. Though they share the unquestionable love a father has for their children, what challenges await them? Will they end up making the right decisions or make their situation worse?

Our narrator is a gifted photographer, an uncertain wife, an infertile mother, a biracial woman in an America that's coming undone. As she grapples with a lifetime of ambivalence about motherhood, yet another act of police brutality makes headlines, and this time the victim is Noah, a boy in her photography class. Unmoored by the grief of a recent, devastating miscarriage and Noah's fight for his life, she worries she can no longer chase the hope of having a child, no longer wants to bring a Black body into the world.

Cami has an albatross holding her hostage to the memory of her dead parents: a 1713 golden period Stradivarius violin! Jim has an affinity towards the Strad and a desire to help Camille become a success. Though she is pursued by Jack, a cretin ruffian whom she thinks she loves, will this boaz, Jim, sell everything to keep her safe and protect his most prized possession? Romance, drama, and laughter are very much alive in this coming-of-age novella filled with heart, conscience, and trust.