(Note: This list was culled from the Lambda Rising database by a good --but not perfect -- search algorithm. Undoubtedly, there are titles that are not included, and it is possible that some listed titles would more appropriately be included on lists of other genres. Use this list as a guide, not a bible.)
ABOUT COURAGE; Fleming, Mickey C.; $3.95; The saga of a child trapped by the circumstances of his birth and how the city of Washington, D.C. directed his upbringing. It is filled with energy, kindness, insight, and laughter, but strewn with the seeds of social disintegration; an explanation, of the genesis of "the Black Underclass." An exciting account of how stumbling blocks can be turned into stepping stones.
AFRICAN CREATIVE EXPRESSIONS OF THE DIVINE; ed. Davis, Kortright and Elias Farajaje-Jones; $19.95; Elias Farajaje-Jones (who is Gay), assured me that gay men and lesbians are an integral and often a very strong part in most African religions. This book covers African images and religious traditions, as well as the transported versions that appear in the Western Hemisphere (Santeria, Candomble, Shango, Voodoo, etc.), and covers the continuing spiritual and cultural linkages between the two worlds.
AIN'T I A WOMAN: BLACK WOMEN AND FEMINISM; hooks, bell; $12.00; Hooks theorizes on the need for an autonomous movement to support the right of Black women and to push for change concerning the issues of racism, sexism and societal oppression that has victimized Black women historically in this country since the days of slavery. Black male attitudes of sexist oppression receive dialogue.
ALL GOD'S CHILDREN NEED TRAVELING SHOES; Angelou, Maya; $9.00; (no description available)
AMEN CORNER; Baldwin, James; $5.99; Vibrant with the music and energy of America's black church and bristling with the pain and anger of America's racial injustice. This is a riveting, unforgettable drama. Razor sharp dialogue peels away the public image of the charismatic preacher Sister Margaret to display a wounded woman's heart.
AMERICAN DREAMS; Sapphire; $10.99; Through a series of prose and poetry works she addresses issues of family violence, urban decay, spiritual renewal, the wilding incident in Central Park as seen through the eyes of the perpetrators, incest, the Latasha Harlan murder in L.A., and other areas of African American life today. Her work transcends these harsh realities and finds hope and inspiration as guiding principles.
AMERICAN SEXUAL POLITICS: SEX, GENDER, AND RACE SINCE THE CIVIL WAR; Fout, John and Maura Tantillo; $17.95; In this collection of sixteen essays, the shifting tensions between sexual reform and repression are seen in historical explorations of men's and women's sexuality, of the sexual-social dynamics of lesbians and gay men, of the violent repression of African-American sexuality. Includes essays by Lillian Faderman on the return of the butch-femme, Arthur Flannigan Saint Aubin on black gay male discourse and Katherine Cummings on teaching AIDS.
ANOTHER COUNTRY; Baldwin, James; $12.00; Baldwin sets the scenes of his novel in Manhatten and Harlem. Men and women, Black and white are shed of class, race, gender, color to reveal raw passion, emotion and sensuality. Considered one of the most revealing hard core and honest portrayals of urban decadence and degradation to ever be portrayed especially by a Black American author.
APARTHEID USA; Lorde, Audre; $3.50; (no description available)
AT THE CLUB; Miller, Alan; $6.00; (no description available)
B.B. AND THE DIVA; Kinnard, Rupert; $6.95; Meet the Brown Bomber, a young African-American superheros and his best friend, a reincarnated African-American, lesbonic vegetarian, feminist educator, as they confront George Bush, the Pope, Jesse Hlems,and others with an ageless form of therapy known as "slapthology," in this lively antidote to the white world of the Sunday comics.
B-BOY BLUES; Hardy, James Earl; $9.95; Mitchell Crawford always wished and dreamed for a Ruffneck, a hiphop loving, street struttin, crotch grabbin brotha. And he finally finds one in Raheim Rivers, who is a vision of lust: six feet tall and 215 pounds of mocha-chocolate muscle. Mitchell know Raheim will take him for a walk on the wild side, especially between the sheets. But he doesn't count on getting behind Raheim's mask and finding someone he can love.
BAILEY'S CAFE; Naylor, Gloria; $11.00; Welcome to the most mythically real eating place in an urban backwater. It draws a wide variety of customers: Sadie, addicted to alcohol and cleanliness; Eve, the fresh flower madame; Peaches, with the marred face and goddess-like body; Jesse, whose love for a woman cannot overcome her love of heroine; Miss Maple, the transvestite who enters contests; and Mariam, the Ethiopian child who may be the bearer of a miracle.
BEST OF SIMPLE; HUGHES,LANGSTON; $9.95; (no description available)
BIG SEA; Hughes, Langston; $14.00; First volume of his autobiography of his first thirty years. From his birth in Joplin, MO, his abandonment by his father, the constant moving with his mother, his years at Columbia, the Lincoln University, living in Paris, and his rise to one of the central figures of Harlem's Black Renaissance.
BLACK BACK-UPS; Rushin, Kate; $8.95; This collection captures the faces, voices, feelings, words, and stories of an African-American family, people in the neighborhood and town where she grew up, as well as the people in her life who have helped to sustain her.
BLACK BOOK; Mapplethorpe, Robert; $24.95; This volume presents an astonishing photo study of black men today. In their diversity, impact, subtlety, technical virtuosity, erotic appeal, and deep humanity, this collection is a stunning celebration of the contemporary black male.
BLACK BUTTERFLIES; Gordon, John; $11.95; Wesley and Floyd were teenage tearaways in South London, best mates with a strong erotic charge sparking just below the surface. Floyd's tragic death brought Wesley together with Sharon, Floyd's girlfriend, each drawn by the other's pain into a marriage based on illusion and self-deceit. As their relationship fails, Wesley flees and meets Paul a young painter trying to overcome his white foster parents and cling to his art.
BLACK HEROES: 7 PLAYS; ed. Hill, Errol; $12.95; Here for the first time in one volume are plays--many of which have been unavailable for decades--which pronounce a black American struggle for freedom, advancement and equality from the days of slavery to the era of civil rights. The full scope of their dramas becomes a tableau vivante of black history.
BLACK LESBIAN IN WHITE AMERICA; Cornwall, Anita; $7.95; A collection of writing analyzing racial and sexual oppression from a political perspective. Written long before current thought. Cornwall is a pioneer.
BLACK LESBIANS:AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY; Roberts, J.R. ; $5.95; Categorizes and describes those books, periodicals, records, and more that make up the core of the black lesbian experience. A valuable addition to any lesbian library.
BLACK LOOKS:RACE AND REPRESENTATION; hooks, bell; $14.00; In these eleven new essays, black feminist author hooks digs ever deeper into the personal and political consequences of contemporary representations of race and ethnicity with a white supremicists culture.
BLACK MEN-WHITE MEN: A GAY ANTHOLOGY; ed. by Smith, Michael J.; $14.95; Blacks and whites as friends and lovers. Short stories as well as poems, art, etc.
BLACK SOUTHERN VOICES; ed. by Killens, John Oliver and Jerry Ward Jr.; $15.00; An anthology of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, drama and critical essays that celebrates the richly textured black voices of the South, their cadences steeped in the sonorous heritage of the oral tradition. It is an exciting collection that brings together dozens of distinguished names from Zora Neale to Nikki Giovanni to Richard Wright.
BLACK THEOLOGY: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY VOL. 2: 1980-1992; Cone, James H. and Gayraud Wilmore; $18.95; A collection of essays discussing black theology and spirituality also includes essays about black gays and lesbians, bisexuality,womanist theology, and other issues of interest today.
BLACK WOMAN'S GUMBO YA-YA: QUOTATIONS BY BLACK WOMEN; Jewell, Terri; $10.95; Thoughts, observations, viewpoints, songs, poetry, dreams, jazz lyrics, and proverbs from 350 black women the world over. These women are survivors, rulers, thinkers, warriors, lovers, and movers and shakers.
BLACK WOMEN: BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME; Prescod-Roberts, Margaret; $2.95; From Barbados to Brooklynm from Jamaica to Bristol, two accounts of girlhood in the West Indies, the upheaval of leaving and the conflicts of being an American immigrant.
BLACK WOMEN TALK POETRY; Black Womantalk; $6.95; Black Womantalk publishing collective proudly presents its first publication, an anthology covering the works of twenty black women.
BLACKBIRD; Duplechan, Larry; $7.95; It was a month to remember for Johnnie Ray Rousseau, a gay black high school boy: it was the month Todd Waterson, high-school hero and all-around hunk, got the baptist minister's daughter pregnant, the month sweet Cherie Barker, his girlfriend, decided the time had come for them to make love, the month he met Marshall MacNeill, surely the sexiest man ever to walk the earth. And, of course, the month of his exorcism.
BLUES FOR MISTER CHARLIE; Baldwin, James; $4.95; Unforgettable contemporary drama of murder and palpable racism. Bristles with fierce intensity, love, and humanity. A piercing vision of our nation, our times, and ourselves.
BOM-CRIOULO: THE BLACK MAN AND THE CABIN BOY; Caminha, Adolfo; $7.95; First English translation of a controversial novel tracing the relationship between a mature black man and a boy of 15, a relationship which develops during their service in the Brazilian navy of the late 19th century.
BREAKING BREAD: INSURGENT BLACK INTELLECTUAL LIFE; hooks, bell and Cornel West; $14.00; In this captivating dialogue, hooks and West grapple with the dilemmas, contradictions, and joys of Black intellectual life. Creating a spiritual, progressive, feminist, and ultimately organic definition of Black intellectuality, they discuss issues ranging from theology and the Left, to contemporary poplar culture.
BROTHER TO BROTHER; Hemphill, Essex; $8.95; "Black men loving Black men is a call to action. . . We Take care of our own kind when the night grows cold and silent."--late editor Joseph Beam.This new anthology of fiction, essays, and poetry by black gay men includes contributions from Assotto Saint, Craig Harris, Melvin Dixon, Marlon Riggs, and many newer writers.
BURST OF LIGHT; Lorde, Audre; $7.95; Audre Lorde - black poet, lesbian, and mother - illuminates living life to the fullest in the presence of death. Courageous, wise, and once again battling cancer, she uses the dailiness of her life as the material for her own transformation.
CANCER JOURNALS; Lorde, Audre; $7.00; 1981 Winner: Gay Book of the Year, American library Association
CAPTAIN SWING; Duplechan, Larry; $15.95; Johnnie Ray Rousseau's life is at its lowest ebb. The love of his life was killed in a hit-and-run, and now he's been called to the deathbed of his hateful, homophobic father. There he meets Nigel, his second cousin, who looks like mortal sin in Levi's and a tank top, and who offers a love that Johnnie is none too sure he ought to accept.
CENTURY OF THE BEST BLACK AMERICAN SHORT STORIES: A CENTURY OF THE BEST; ed. by Clarke, John Henrik; $10.95; A broad collection of writings including Zora Neale, Langston, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, James McPherson, Chester Himes and Frank Yerby.
CEREMONIES; Hemphill, Essex; $10.00; A collection of prose and poetry exploring the experience of being a black gay man, Featuring both published pieces and work that has never before appeared in print, it is the only available collection of writing by one of the gay community's most prominent artists.
CHANGE OF TERRITORY; Dixon, Melvin; $7.95; Dixon's first book of poems covers much ground in historical and personal experiences through the language of exile and return, and a search for love and selfhood.
CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN: COUNSELING STRATEGIES AND COMMUNITY I; Bell, Peter; $4.95; Addiction and community service professionals will find guidance for working with African-American clients and communities in this thought-provoking booklet.
CHILDREN OF APARTNESS; Upton, Elaine; $10.00; a Baltimore poetess who says she is a lesbian and so is her poetry.
COFFEE WILL MAKE YOU BLACK; Sinclair, April; $19.95; A sensitive honest portrayal of young Stevie Stevenson who is experiencing the pangs of being an African-American teenager in the early-to-mid sixties. It is also a time when Stevie is becoming aware of her sexuality and realizing that she is more attracted to the school nurse than the boy she is dating.
COLLECTED POEMS OF LANGSTON HUGHES; Hughes, Langston; $30.00; A complete collection, 8960 poems that sound the heartbeat of black life in America during four turbulent decades.
COLOR OF THE HEART: WRITING FROM STRUGGLE & CHANGE 1959-1990; Sherman, Susan; $10.95; (no description available)
COLOR OF TREES; Parker, Canaan; $8.95; Peter, a black scholarship student from Harlem, takes life too seriously at his new, mostly white boarding school. There he meets T.J., a wellborn but hyperactive imp with little use for clothing. Here, in his first novel, Parker explores the formation of both racial and homosexual identities, and the conflicts created by the narrator's dual allegiance.
COLOR PURPLE; Walker, Alice; $5.99; The wondrous Pulitzer Prize winning novel, now a major motion picture! A story of two sisters, one a missionary in Africa and the other a child wife in the South, that breaks ground in its portrayal of the bonding of women.
COLOR, SEX, AND POETRY; Hull, Gloria T.; $12.95; Biographical study of three Harlem Renaissance poets-Angelina Weld Grimke, Alice Dinbar-Nelson and Georgia Douglas Johnson. Relying on unpublished letters, diaries and manuscripts, this study provides a radical reassessment of these important authors.
COMBAHEE RIVER COLLECTIVE STATEMENT: BLACK FEMINIST ORGANIZING IN THE 70s AND 80; Combahee River Collective; $3.25; (no description available)
COMMON DIFFERENCES: CONFLICTS IN BLACK AND WHITE FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES; Joseph, Gloria and Jill Lewis; $14.00; (no description available)
COMPLETE COLLECTED POEMS OF MAYA ANGELOU; Angelou, Maya; $23.00; This volume collects all of the poems previously published in book form: Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water, Oh Pray My Wings Gonna Fit Me Well, And Still I Rise, Shaker, and many others.
CONCENTRIC CIRCLES; Morgan, Ron; $3.00; Born in Washington, D.C. in 1942 and blind since 1964, Morgan writes historical folklore from city life with a pithy and incisive perception.
COTTON CANDY ON A RAINY DAY; Giovanni, Nikki; $7.00; (no description available)
CRITICAL ESSAYS: GAY AND LESBIAN WRITERS OF COLOR; Nelson, Emmanuel; $19.95; This pioneering work is the first book to systematically explore the literature of gay and lesbian writers of color in the United States. It challenges the marginalization and tokenization of gay men and lesbians of color in the dominant academic discourses by focusing exclusively on the imaginative work of representative Native-, Asian-, Latino(a)-, and African American writers.
DEEP ARE THE ROOTS: MEMOIRS OF A BLACK EXPATRIATE; Heath, Gordon; $25.00; In this delightful and poignant memoir, Heath tells the story of his formative years, from childhood in New York to his awakening homosexuality to his training in the arts. He was an accomplished actor whose career spanned five decades on the major stages.
DEVIL FINDS WORK; Baldwin, James; $4.95; Bette Davis' eyes, Joan Crawford's bitchy elegance, Stepin Fetchit's stereotype, Siudney Poitier's superhuman black man, these are the movie stars and the qualities that influenced Baldwin, and now become part of his incisive look at racism in American movies.
DIARY OF A YOUNG SOUL REBEL; Julien, Isaac and Colin MacCabe; $18.95; Based on the film of the same name, this book includes the movie's full script and a diary the filmmaker recorded during the production of the film. Includes many still shots of movie scenes. The story itself deals with two black disc jockeys, one of whom is dealing with his homosexuality and white lover during a time of racial tensions in 1970's London.
DOUBLE STITCH: BLACK WOMEN WRITE ABOUT MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS; Bell-Scott, Patricia; $12.00; With a notable by Maya Angelou, 47 of America's leading black feminists explore the richness and complexity of black mother-daughter relationships in this monumental work of scholarship, which includes poems, stories, and essays by Alice Walker, bell hooks, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Sonia Sanchez, and others.
DUST TRACKS ON A ROAD: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY; Hurston, Zora Neale; $12.00; (no description available)
EATING HILL; Mitchell, Karen; $8.95; (no description available)
EROTIQUE NOIRE/BLACK EROTICA; ed. by DeCosta-Willis, Miriam and Martin and Roseann Bell; $14.00; African, African-, Latin-, and Caribbean-American men and women, gay and straight, novelists, poets , essayists, and scholars provide a Pandora's box of sexy and sensual delights ranging from the lyrical to the lascivious, from the prurient to the provocative.
EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN; Baldwin, James; $7.95; Using the Wayne Williams/Atlanta child-murder case both as a subject and a springboard, Baldwin covers the whole spectrum of this country's life while focusing on the problems of blacks in white America. What's happened to the American Dream?
EXPERIMENTAL LOVE; Clarke, Cheryl; $8.95; The preeminent African-American lesbian poet writing today, with a heady command of the language, the ability to work in a variety of forms, and an uncompromising Black and queer stance, she continues her thematic explorations of love objects and death subjects.
FEMINIST THEORY: FROM MARGIN TO CENTER; hooks, bell; $11.00; (no description available)
FOR THE LOVE OF MEN: SHIKATA GAI NAI; Bogus, SDiane; $15.00; This is a first collection of poems written by a lesbian to, for, and about gay men. Bogus renders uncommonly tender, empathic, and telling portraits of, and perspectives on, the gay men in her life.
FORBIDDEN POEMS; Birtha, Becky; $10.95; Beginning with poems about confronting racism and her empowerment as an African-American woman and feminist, Birtha proceeds into the realm of personal grief at the loss of a longtime lover.
FORERUNNERS: BLACK POETS IN AMERICA; ed. by King, Jr., Woodie; $6.95; The sixteen black poets included in this anthology form a bridge between the creative optimists of the Renaissance years and the poetic activists of the '60s and '70s. A collection of work by poets who moved beyond a poetry of reaction to a poetry that found its resolutions and meanings in black history.
FORTY-THREE SEPTEMBERS; Gomez, Jewelle; $10.95; These essays weave together the varied strands of experience that contribute to her writing life: Black, lesbian, Native American, raised poor, ex-Catholic, fantasy-fiction authorall are blended here. Exploring her relationship to her grandmother and other women, gay men, coming out, and the political climate, all with a mythic sense of heroism.
FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN; Corbin, Steven; $19.95; Skylar Whyte, a critically acclaimed actor, is the eldest son in a dysfunctional African-American Family. This book explores the dynamics of a family in which the lighter complected child is favored over his darker brother. It examines the subtle and sometimes not so subtle layers of racism within an interracial homosexual couple, and in the gay community at large.
GATHER TOGETHER IN MY NAME; Angelou, Maya; $4.95; (no description available)
GEECHIES; Millard, Gregory; $5.95; "Geechies?/ Back in slavery times/three slaves got off/Massuh's wagon to pee./The wagon rolled on and left/them behind and they were/captured by Cree Indians./Massuh never missed them." This is the real South, from the swamp slime of hatred to the magnolia blossom sweetness of life.
GEMINI; Giovanni, Nikki; $4.95; (no description available)
GETTING IT TOGETHER: THE BLACK MAN'S GUIDE TO GOOD GROOMING AND FASHION; Fields, Mike; $12.95; "Michael's knowledge of grooming and fashion was vital to our looking good on stage and off. We are sure that his book can add something to your life and help you get it together." \QUOTE Gladys Knight and the Pips
GILDA STORIES; Gomez, Jewelle; $9.95; As her black heroine strides across time, listening to the sounds of the world and trying to add her own voice, she learns that immortality is not simple. History offers grand scale cataclysms and everyday horrors, and Gilda's longing for community, for the bonding of kindred spirits, puts hers at particular risk
GIOVANNI'S ROOM; Baldwin, James; $5.99; Desire comes crashing through conventional morality when a young American expatriate in Paris falls in love with a woman and a man. Baldwin's sharp insights create a complex story of passion and death in this gay classic.
GOOD SENSE & THE FAITHLESS; Clinton, Michelle T.; $9.95; These are poems about abuse and survival, finding love amidst madness, and coming of age as a woman of color. Clinton turns inward to explore and explode the myths of her complex sensuality/sexuality/ love.
HARUKO/LOVE POEMS; Jordan, June; $11.99; Expands and redefines the traditional idea of the love poem. In the first half, Jordan writes to Haruko in the style of the Neruda love poems. Taking from the haiku its purity and economy, but giving it her own vision. Following the Haruko poems is a selection by Adrienne Rich and Sara Miles from 20 years of love poems that bear witness to the depth and breadth of June Jordan's poetic brilliance.
HEALING HEART; Hull, Gloria T.; $8.95; "Along with Toni Morrison, Charlotte Carter, and Lois Elaine Griffith, we are blessed with another foreign tongue: the voice of a free, fearsome, sensual and vivid woman of color. Gloria Hull is 'family.' She's one of us. She means to live." /QUOTE Ntozake Shange
HER; Muhanji, Cherry; $8.95; (no description available)
HER BLUE BODY EVERYTHING WE KNOW: EARTHLING POEMS1965-1990 COMPLETE; Walker, Alice; $14.95; An anthology of new and uncollected poems alongside her earlier poetry. Revelatory introductions to the sections become essential threads in the tapestry of the tightly woven poems.
HER HEAD A VILLAGE, AND OTHER STORIES; Silvera, Makeda; $12.95; Told with candor and compassion, these are stories of a mother facing deportation after nine years of struggle and saving, of a lesbian love which persists despite differences of class and color, of the harsh realities of racism and homophobia, and of abiding friendships between women.
HERE TO DARE: 10 GAY BLACK POETS; ed. Westley, Robert; $10.00; Ten fierce and passionate poets often using gritty language that delights and disturbs with rhythms that hit you like winds and waves. Includes works by Arthur T. Wilson, John D. Williams, Robert Westley, Harold McNeil Robinson, Craig A. Reynolds, Cary Alan Johnson, Steve Langley, David Warren Frechette, Don Charles, and Djola Bernard Branner.
HOME GIRLS: A BLACK FEMINIST ANTHOLOGY; Smith, ed. by Barbara; $15.95; A far-reaching collection of essays, poetry and prose on the black feminist experience. Includes contributions by Audre Lorde, Jewelle Gomez, June Jordan, Alice Walker, and many more.
HOMEGIRLS AND HANDGRENADES; Sanchez, Sonia; $10.95; (no description available)
HUMID PITCH: NARRATIVE POETRY; Clarke, Cheryl; $8.95; "Long a recorder of the difficult, juicy moment, the questions of difference, Cheryl Clark gives us acute highlights along a journey traveled with resolve, pain, joy. The best of her language has a singing tautness that is direct and unavoidable, often elegant."-Audre Lorde
HUNDRED DAYS FROM NOW; Corbin, Steven; $18.95; Dexter Baldwin is a celebrated black screenwriter, openly gay in both his personal and private life. When he meets Sergio, a self-made millionaire, they embark on a relationship that seems perfect, but Sergio is closeted, to family and his business. As Sergio's health begins to erode from AIDS, he gambles on an experimental bone marrow transplant that may or may not help. It will take 100 days to see if it works. A hundred days in which Sergio's Catholic family must deal with his illness, his homosexuality, and his lover.
HUNGER SO WIDE AND SO DEEP: AMERICAN WOMEN SPEAK OUT ON EATING PROBLEMS; Thompson, Becky; $17.95; Based on in-depth life history interviews with African-American, Latina, and lesbian women, this book chronicles the effects of racism, poverty, sexism, acculturation, and sexual abuse on women's bodies and eating patterns.
I AM YOUR SISTER; Lorde, Audre; $3.50; (no description available)
I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS; Angelou, Maya; $5.50; (no description available)
I LOVE MYSELF WHEN I AM LAUGHING AND THEN AGAIN WHEN I AM LOOKING; Hurston, Zora Neale; $14.95; Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader
I SHALL NOT BE MOVED; Angelou, Maya; $8.95; A new collection of poems suffused with loss and restoration, with history, love and ferocious courage. In the electrifying writing that has made her one of the foremost voices of the African-American experience, she demonstrates here the artistry and enduring vision that continue to influence our culture and touch our hearts.
I WONDER AS I WANDER; Hughes, Langston; $14.00; This second volume of Hughes' autobiography vividly recalls the most dramatic and intimate moments of his life in the turbulent 30's. It is a continually amusing, wise revelation of an American writer journeying around the often strange and exciting world he loves.
IMAGO; Butler, Octavia E.; $4.95; (no description available)
IN SEARCH OF OUR MOTHERS' GARDENS: WOMANIST PROSE; Walker, Alice; $10.95; This first collection of Walker's nonfiction represents the views of a remarkable writer over a period of years and ranges over a wide variety of topics including nuclear madness, motherhood, and feminism.
IN THE BLOOD; Phillips, Carl; $9.95; Phillips taught high school Latin for eight years before returning to Harvard as a doctoral student in classical philology. This is his first collection of poetry describing what it is to be black and gay.
IN THE COMPANY OF MY SISTERS: BLACK WOMEN & SELF ESTEEM; Boyd, Julia; $18.00; This book explores the familial, personal, and social struggles black women face, and offers guidelines for finding sources of strength, identity, and self-esteem in a difficult world. Boyd analyzes the oppressive stereotypes and destructive myths--especially regarding sexuality--and explores such topics as interracial relationships, bi- and gay sexuality in the black community, and the roles played both by black families and by white culture in black women's lives.
IN THE GAME: A VIRGINIA KELLY MYSTERY; Baker, Nikki; $8.95; This mystery is sharp, funny, and on the mark. It's an auspicious debut of a new Black writer who brings fresh perspective to today's diverse lesbian community. Ginny and Bev have been best of friends since business school, but now Bev's lover has been found murdered behind a lesbian Bar. Was it a hate crime or restitution for embezzlement?
IN THE LIFE: A BLACK GAY ANTHOLOGY; ed. by Beam, Joseph; $8.95; This material was collected after years of frustration with gay literature that had no message for, and little mention of, black gay men. "The bottom line is this: We are black men who are proudly gay." - the editor
IN THE TRADITION: AN ANTHOLOGY OF YOUNG BLACK WRITERS; ed. by Powell, Kevin and Baraka, Ras; $14.00; Contributors to this anthology range in age from 14 to 38 and cover the problems of contemporary life in a candid, tongue in cheek manner: sexism, racism, homophobia, black on black violence, the generation gap, police brutality, and many other issues. These young writers tell it like it is.
INFANTS OF THE SPRING; Thurman, Wallace; $12.95; Possibly the first Black Gay novel ever written! The book was published during and is about the Harlem Renaissance. It acknowledges the homosexuality and the color prejudices that were very much a part of the era.
INVISIBLE LIFE; Harris, E. Lynn; $9.95; In this bold debut novel we are taken into the world of Raymond, a black bisexual male who spends eight years trying alternately to deny and fulfill his passions. Caught between the man he loves and the woman he longs for, he must ultimately make a choice. This is a stunning novel of sexuality, homophobia in the black community, and the search for love in the age of AIDS.
JAMES BALDWIN; Kenan, Randall; $9.95; This biography, written for younger readers, follows Baldwin's incredible personal journey from the streets of Harlem to the dingy apartments and gay bars of Greenwich Village to literary exile in Paris and back to lead the civil rights of the 60's, from teenage preacher to internationally-acclaimed writer, to his death in 1987.
JAMES BALDWIN; Leeming, David; $25.00; Leeming, who was Baldwin's friend for 25 years, brings us close to the complex troubled man who struggled out of Harlem to create a series of works that expose the essential racism of America and the world. He explores every aspect of his personal life, his relationships with the famous, his homosexuality and precarious lifestyle, his expatriate years, his attempts at suicide, and above all his passionate and brilliant battle against the white society's denial of any black sense of identity.
JIMMY'S BLUES; Baldwin, James; $9.95; Haunting lyricism, sometimes quiet and reflective, often bitter or violent, Baldwin's poems echo many of the themes of his novels and essays. This poetry is easily understood, but the emotions behind the works go to the core.
JONESTOWN AND OTHER MADNESS; Parker, Pat; $7.95; Poet and performer Pat Parker writes in this straightforward, no-nonsense book about being Black, female and gay. Her poetry "is shot through with life; it's nothing if not genuine. It's clear, strong, visionary, and unmistakably great." /QUOTE Women's Review of Books
JUST ABOVE MY HEAD; Baldwin, James; $5.95; The stark grief of a brother mourning a brother opens this novel with a stunning, unforgettable experience. Here is a monumental saga of love and rage, Harlem and homosexual passion. This is the story of gospel singer Arthur Hall and his family in a journey into another country of the soul and senses, and a living contemporary history of black struggle in this land
JUST AS I AM; Harris, E. Lynn; $21.95; The follow-up to Invisible Life we see the further adventures of Raymond as he continues to search for love with that perfect man and as he finally comes to terms with fact that he is gay. In vivid prose Harris also tackles the subjects of AIDS, racism, sexism and homophobia within the African American community. It is a moving sequel to the bestselling book and a sassy portrait of contemporary black gay life.
KEEPING SECRETS: A GIANNA MAGLIONE MYSTERY; Mickelbury, Penny; $9.95; DC police Lt. Maglione, head the Hate Crimes Unit, must track down a serial killer. African-American news reporter Mimi Patterson is also investigating the deaths and the rumors that the force is keeping secret the method of death and the victims' sexual orientation. Gianna pleads for secrecy so her force has a chance to track down a killer who has infiltrated the gay community.
KILLING COLOR; Sherman, Charlotte Watson; $8.95; Charlotte Watson Sherman says of her collection of stories, " The stories are words from the migratory mouths of rural dark folk transplanted from the periphery, the marginalized blank space, the shadowy edge of what some of us call history, words sprung from these soft African lips on the pages of our imaginations, full blown."
LAND OF LOOK BEHIND; Cliff, Michelle; $8.95; The Jamaican-born, light-skinned author speaks with a distinctive, commanding voice that is sensual yet unsympathetic. She tries to make a wholeness out of the colonialism that has fragmented her people.
LESBIANS TALK: MAKING BLACK WAVES; Mason-John, Valerie and Ann Khambatta; $8.50; Documents the lives of Black lesbians in Britain. It provides a fascinating record of achievements and struggles, debates and issues. A dynamic and honest book which searches among the embers of the 1990's British culture for a Black lesbian identity. It transcends labels to explore herstory, racism and separatism among the voices of Black lesbians living in Britain today.
LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR DEAD; Kenan, Randall; $10.95; These are stories about blacks and whites, young and old, rich and poor, rural and sophisticated; stories at once grittily down to earth and soaringly fantastical. We meet the folk of Tims Creek, NC. Clarence who receives messages from the grave. Lena who revitalizes her life after a weekend with a teen. Dean who is hired to seduce the richest black man in town and the Reverend doing a eulogy for a woman he enjoyed in the throes of passion.
LIFE OF LANGSTON HUGHES: VOL. 1: 1902-1941; Rampersad, Arnold; $13.95; This extraordinary portrait of Langston Hughes, the most original and revered of black poets, traces the nomadic and yet dedicated spirit that led the young Hughes to Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Africa, Europe, the Soviet Union, China and Japan, as well as all over the US.
LIFE OF LANGSTON HUGHES: VOL. 2: 1941-1967; Rampersad, Arnold; $12.95; Tracing Hughes' life from the humiliations of 1940-41, with his career in jeopardy, to his death in 1967, this book combines with the first volume to offer a matchless panorama of life and culture in America and abroad during the first seventy years of this century.
LINDEN HILLS; Naylor, Gloria; $10.00; Through the eyes of two poets doing odd jobs in a swank, all-black neighborhood, Linden Hills is transformed into a place of lost souls trapped in the American dream. Naylor is quickly ascending to high praise among other contemporary American writers of fiction.
LIVING AS A LESBIAN; Clark, Cheryl; $7.95; Black lesbian feminist poetry that celebrates loving relationships, reminds one of one's past, decries male domination and it's destructive nature, and haunts the reader with touching, simple, and compelling feeling for the way words work.
LIVING BY THE WORD: SELECTED WRITINGS 1973-1987; Walker, Alice; $8.95; A new collection of prose pieces including an account of Walker's relationship to the lesbian and gay community of San Francisco where she currently resides. Walker also discusses the film version of THE COLOR PURPLE, the environment, her struggles to become a vegetarian, and much more.
LIVING ROOM; Jordan, June; $8.95; "Jordan makes us think of Akhmatova, of Neruda. She is among the bravest of us, the most outraged. She feels for all. She is the universal poet." - Alice Walker
LONG GOODBYES: A VIRGINIA KELLY MYSTERY; Baker, Nikki; $9.95; Home for Christmas and a high school reunion, Virginia must deal with buried ghosts, and resurfaced passions. Rosalee, her first love, exhibits new interest, so does a classmate renamed Spike, who determinedly pursues her. A former teacher's wife dies in a mysterious drowning, and now, someone else is about to die
LOVE SPACE DEMANDS; Shange, Ntozake; $9.95; This is the house music of the soul, a love space where we all wear our desires, our t-cells, our hearts on our sleeves, frayed pants, custom limos, and all that comes with wanting to get hold of life, get hold of someone to love, or be left scrambling to get hold to a high.
LOVERS' CHOICE; Birtha, Becky; $10.95; Displaying her talent for charting the course of women's lives with insight and intelligence, Birtha describes the possibilities and problems of claiming an identity in a world that marginalizes lesbians, women, and people of color. She captures the elation of a 14-year-old girl who discovers her lesbianism; the gritty determination of a poor mother taking her family on an all-night bus ride to keep from freezing.
LOVING HER; Shockley, Ann Allen; $7.95; Forced by pregnancy to marry the irresponsible, abusive Perry Lee, Renay, a black pianist at a supper club, is struggling for economic and spiritual survival. With her young daughter she finally flees, and Terry, a wealthy and successful writer, offers protectionand a love beyond all Renay's erotic imaginings. LOVING HERa powerful story of interracial love.
MALCOLM X: IN OUR OWN IMAGE; Wood, Joe; $10.95; Essays on the representation of Malcolm X in American culture. Includes one by Ron Simmons and Marlon Riggs on Sexuality, Television, and Death: A Black Gay Dialogue on Malcolm X.
MARVELOUS ARITHMETICS OF DISTANCE; Lorde, Audre; $8.95; Lorde's final collection of new work, this is a volume of posthumously- published poetry that continues to explore her lifelong themes of love and anger, family politics, sexuality, and the body of the city.
MEDITATIONS ON THE RAINBOW; Sapphire; $7.00; "this book is dedicated to...(text missing)
MEN OF COLOR: AN ESSAY ON THE BLACK MALE COUPLE; Vega Studios; $10.00; Further Subtitled: in Prose, Ilustrations, and Photographs
MOSES, MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN; Hurston, Zora Neale; $12.00; Blends the Moses of the Old Testament with the Moses of black folklore and song to create a powerful novel of the persecution of slavery.
MOTION OF LIGHT IN WATER: SEX AND SCIENCE FICTION WRITING IN THE EAST VILLAGE; Delany, Samuel R.; $12.95; This new version includes all the sex previously edited out of the original text.
MOVEMENT IN BLACK; Parker, Pat; $8.95; (no description available)
MOVING TOWARDS HOME: POLITICAL ESSAYS; Jordan, June; $11.95; This collection gives a manifesto of hope, anger, and visionary power. The scope of her writing over the past twenty-five years bears vivid witness to her intention: police brutality, the poverty of educational opportunity offered to Black ghetto children, witnessing a white man's casual murder of another human being in Mississippi, her mother's death, the viability of Black English, Nicaragua and South Africa, and child abuse-all summon up Jordan's clear voice and unwavering commitment.
MULE BONE; Hughes, Langston & Zora Neale Hurston; $9.95; (no description available)
MULES AND MEN; Hurston, Zora Neale; $11.00; Simple, exciting reading on black folklore and culture, these tales and anecdotes of American injustice to blacks, why the rabbit has a short tail, voodoo, why some people are black and more about the mixing of African and European culture.
MY HOUSE; Giovanni, Nikki; $7.95; A collection of poems both personal and autobiographical rather than political; it is also lively, loving, witty and occasionally tough-minded. She writes of mothers and their children, of childhood memories, of black leaders and black Africa. This is an important book by a black woman written in and of the '70s.
NAMING OUR DESTINY: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS; Jordan, June; $12.95; This collection is the definitive anthology of work by Jordan, compiling poetry from nearly 20 years - including over 50 poems published in the U.S. for the first time. Empathetic to all it encounters, her poetry is a deeply personal music sounded in response to universal concerns. She addresses racism, oppression, and dispossession with a call for justice and for sensitivity to our world.
NARRATIVES: POEMS IN THE TRADITION OF BLACK WOMEN; Clark, Cheryl; $5.50; A gallery of incisive, specific portraits of black women, whose lives, as June Jordan states, are "honestly perceived with a clearly hard-working respect and without affectation." Clark considers her black, lesbian, and feminist identities to be "the filter of her imagination."
NEED: A CHORALE FOR BLACK WOMAN VOICES; Lorde, Audre; $3.50; Poetic response to the murder of 12 black women in Boston that was met with racism, sexism and indifference. The poem challenges both men and women to confront on going realities of violence against women of color.
NO LANGUAGE IS NEUTRAL; Brand, Dionne; $12.95; Elegiac in tone, these poems by the author of SANS SOUCI AND OTHER STORIES give full vent to her feelings as a Black Lesbian in a world dominated by white, heterosexual males.
NO NAME IN THE STREET; Baldwin, James; $4.95; Vivid personal document of the turbulent sixties and early seventies during which time Baldwin saw the murder of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, went to Europe and Hollywood and returned to the American South to confront a violent America face to face.
NOBODY KNOWS MY NAME; Baldwin, James; $10.00; Sparkling prose and intelligence illuminate the American consciousness. Literary and social history with immeasurable significance for our society and our hearts. Describes Baldwin's Harlem childhood, makes a startling assessment of Norman Mailer, and looks back with pain at his alienation of Richard Wright.
NOTES OF A NATIVE SON; Baldwin, James; $11.00; (no description available)
NOW SHEBA SINGS THE SONG; Angelou, Maya; $9.95; A new edition of the seamless collaboration between renowned poet Angelou and award-winning illustrator Tom Feelings, combines verse and sepia-toned illustrations in a beautiful paean to Black women. With a deep admiration, it celebrates the extraordinary ordinary women, their beauty, their presence, and their inner strength.
ON CALL: POLITICAL ESSAYS; Jordan, June; $10.00; (no description available)
ON THE PULSE OF MORNING; Angelou, Maya; $5.00; The inaugural poem the author wrote and read.
OUR DEAD BEHIND US; Lorde, Audre; $9.00; A reprint of the classic collection of poetry. In this collection Audre gave us poems that explored differences as creative tensions, and the melding past strength, pain with future hope, fear; the present being the vital catalyst, the motivating force.
OUT! TO LEAD; Ferebee, Gideon; $12.95; Ferebee does more than explain and define the historical and current paranoia of our homophobic society as created and perpetuated by the dominant white male infrastructure. Initially, one senses his deep anger and frustration, as an African American homosexual, at a system which essentially aims to eliminate his kind. However, as his ideas unfold, he precisely and logically exposes the blatant and subtle hypocrisies inherent in every stratum of American society.
PANTHER AND THE LASH; Hughes, Langston; $10.00; Hughe's last collection of poems explicitly addresses the racial politics of the 1960's. They are a lasting testament of a great American writer who grappled fearlessly and artfully with most compelling issues of his time.
PERVERSIONS; Gonsalves, Roy; $5.95; (no description available)
PIECE OF MY HEART: A LESBIAN OF COLOUR ANTHOLOGY; Silvera, Makeda; $16.95; Stories, poetry, essays, interviews and photographs are combined in this anthology of lesbians of color. It is uncompromising in it's honest. At times humorous, angry, confrontational, erotic and celebratory in it's style, the lives of women out an coming out are revealed.
POEMS (ANGELOU); Angelou, Maya; $4.99; "The wisdom, rue and humor of her storytelling are borne on a lilting rhythm completely her own, the product of a born writer's senses nourished on black church singing and preaching, soft mother talk, and salty street talk, and on literature." - The New York Times Book Review
POSSESSING THE SECRET OF JOY; Walker, Alice; $5.99; The story of Tashi Johnson, a tribal African woman who lives much of her adult life in North America. As a young woman, a misguided loyalty to the customs of her people led her to submit to the tsunga's knife and be genitally mutilated (circumcised). Traumatized by this experience she spends the rest of her life battling madness, trying desperately through psychoanalysis to regain the ability to recognize her own reality.
PRESCRIPTION FOR PREVENTING AIDS: CURE THE BODY POLITIC OF PREJUDICE; Dickerson, Neal; $12.00; This is volume 3 from a six-volume study. This book contains essays on the price of prevention, the politics of prevention, sex-positive prevention programs, HIV prevention and prophylactics, HIV, adolescents, and AIDS education, gay youth and men, Hispanic and HIV, women and reality, HIV in IVDUs and needle exchange, and African-Americans and HIV.
PRESENTINGSISTER NO BLUES; Gossett, Hattie; $8.95; A collection of highly spiced writings detailing the downs and ups of a mature Black urban member of the wild wimmins clan as she ekes out a living as a cleaning person, bar waitress, office temp, foiling the unwanted advances and criminal withholdings of landlords, bosses, lovers and others in the urban jungle.
QUEER KIND OF DEATH (PHAROAH LOVE MYSTERY #1); Baxt, George; $4.95; Originally published in 1966, this mystery has become a modern classic, forerunner to a whole slew of whodunnits. A young actor is found dead in his bath, and NYPD Detective Pharoah Love, a black gay man, steps in to quell the intrigue. With a new introduction by the author.
QUEER KIND OF LOVE: A PHAROAH LOVE MYSTERY; Baxt, George; $20.00; Black gay detective Pharoah Love returns and he's up to his earring in murder! In little Italy someone is murdering members of the Capesi crime family and Vinnie Sasso, Pharoah's friend, suspects its not a simple "family" matter. On the trail of a killer and a teenage gang of carjackers, Pharoah finds himself in the position of helping a mafioso he would just as soon see behind bars.
RACISM 101; Giovanni, Nikki; $20.00; This book indicts higher education for the inequities it perpetuates, contemplates the legacy of the 60's, provides a survival guide for black students on predominately white campuses, and denounces Spike Lee while offering her own ideas for a film about Malcolm X.
RADICAL PERVERSIONS: BLACK FRIDAY?/ CLAPOSIS; Butler, Audrey; $10.95; Butler, a born-again Cape Bretoner now living in Toronto, is skilled at writing about the humor and complexity in relationships between lovers, close friends and community.
RENDER ME MY SONG: AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS FROM SLAVERY TO THE PRESENT; Russell, Sandi; $9.95; In the last decade, black women writers have come into their own; their voices resonate throughout the world. This is the story of the epic struggle of these women to recover their voice and spirit from a past that reached into and through slavery.
RESISTING RACISM: AN ACTION GUIDE; ed. Mallon, Gerald L.; $20.00; This manual to help the gay and lesbian community explore the issue of racism is divided into four parts: workshop outlines, resource material, essays, and bibliographies. The guide provides the reader with NABWMT's position on racism, bar discrimination, and the importance of multi-culturalism in our gay and lesbian society.
RITUALS; Hickman, Craig; $12.95; This book brings together musical verse, unabashed autobiographical writing, short fiction, and seering commentary on being Black and gay in America today. The result is a celebration of life, the trials and tribulations and the triumphs. The author is a writer/performer/ artist and lives in Cambridge, MA.
ROAD BEFORE US (100 BLACK GAY POETS); Saint, Assoto; $10.00; 100 Black gay poets explore every aspect of Black gay life: from tradition to alienation, from the fierce gender bending "vogue" culture to defiant sex and love in the age of AIDS, from historical and political perspectives to personal reflections of future paths. Poets include: Melvin Dixon, Essex Hemphill, Roy Gonsalves, Andre De Shields, Donald Woods, etc.
SACRED COWS... AND OTHER EDIBLES; Giovanni, Nikki; $7.95; In this collection of autobiographical essays and articles, Nikki Giovanni, our most widely read living black poet, takes on some lofty institutions and major life crises and clearly comes out the winner. This is triumphant prose with all the gritty reality of Giovanni's best poetry.
SANCTIFIED CHURCH; Hurston, Zora Neale; $9.95; Now back in print, CHURCH brings together Hurston's most famous essays on Afro-American folklore and legend, and the voodoo base to southern black folk religion.
SANS SOUCI AND OTHER STORIES; Brand, Dionne; $8.95; Born in the Caribbean and living in Toronto for the past eighteen years, Brand presents her first book for the U.S., a beautiful collection of short stories.
SAY JESUS AND COME TO ME; Shockley, Ann Allen; $8.95; Evangelist Myrtle Black holds a powerful sway over her following who do not suspect she is a lesbian. She meets Travis Lee, a successful fast-lane singer, in town for a recording session. To love each other is the ultimate jeopardyTravis's career is at risk, and Myrtle must finally come to terms with the contradictions between her ministry and her lesbian identity.
SCHWARZBLACKNOIR; Hatton, Norman; $39.95; Acclaimed Canadian photographer Hatton focuses his lens on the beauty of black men in this new collection of black and white pictures.
SELECTED POEMS; Jonas, Stephen; $16.95; Since his death in 1970 the man and his work have become legendary. This book brings together an extensive selection of previously unpublished work together with the complete Exercises for Ear, Jonas's best known book. With a biographical and critical introduction by the editor Joseph Torra.
SELECTED POEMS OF LANGSTON HUGHES; Hughes, Langston; $10.00; (no description available)
SERAPH ON THE SUWANEE; Hurston, Zora Neale; $12.00; (no description available)
SERPENT'S GIFT; Lee, Helen Elaine; $21.00; A first novel from a local lesbian writer. Central to this haunting novel are the mothers, a study in contrast in strength and rigidity, Ruby Staples and Eula Smalls, and their children: LaRue Smalls, adventurer and chronicler of his people, his sister Vesta, intimidated by life yet determined to hold her family together, and Ouida Staples, a rare beauty who spends her life with another woman.
SINGIN' AND SWINGIN' AND GETTIN' MERRY LIKE CHRISTMAS; Angelou, Maya; $5.50; (no description available)
SISTER OUTSIDER: ESSAYS AND SPEECHES; Lorde, Audre; $10.95; Covering eight of this black lesbian feminist poet's nonfiction work, here is a collection of essays and theory that speak to our struggles in the modern voice. Includes "Poetry is Not a Luxury," "Uses of the Erotic," and "Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface."
SISTERFIRE: BLACK WOMANIST FICTION AND POETRY; Sherman, Charlotte Watson; $12.00; A powerful collection of original and recent stories and poems by some of today's most notable authors including Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, Sonia Sanchez, ntozake shange and many others speak directly to the lives and concerns of African-American women in the nineties.
SISTERS OF THE YAM: BLACK WOMEN AND SELF-RECOVERY; hooks, bell; $14.00; hooks politicizes the issue of self-recovery by making the connection between our individual efforts to be self-actualized and collective liberation struggles. Tackling such issues as addiction, violence, spirituality, erotic experience, community activism and others. She shares numerous strategies for self-recovery that can heal individuals and empower effective struggles against racism.
SLAVESONG: THE ART OF SINGING; Kwelismith; $8.00; "These poems sing. In them we hear the mythic heart beat under the rhythm of the slave's song: the spiritual jazz, rhythm & blues, rock 'n' roll and even rap. They dig down and release the voice of humor, pain and longing held in bondage in all of our Black souls." Toi Derricotte, poet
SMELL THIS 2: SPRING 91; smell this; $9.95; AN UNDERGRADUATE JOURNAL containing academic and creative works in visual and written forms exclusively by or about women of color. Six lesbians works appear.
SOJOURNER: BLACK GAY VOICES IN THE AGE OF AIDS; Other Countries; $10.95; A powerful collection of poetry, essays, letters, artwork and prose by black gay writers who evoke the full range of human emotions through this passionate, life affirming document. Melvin Dixon, Donald Woods, Assotto Saint, David Frechette, Craig Harris and others confront the realities of AIDS, racism and homophobia.
SOUL MAKE A PATH THROUGH SHOUTING; Cassells, Cyrus; $12.00; Enriched both mythologically and experientially by his own world travels, he draws with equal ease from classical Greek myth, children's rhymes, and African American oral traditions. The result is often hypnotic and rhapsodic interweaving dramatic narratives forming a single whole. Unflinching in its examinations of the Holocaust and AIDs, remarkable in its challenge to received notions of triumph and survival this book is a virtuoso performance.
SPUNK: THE SELECTED SHORT STORIES OF ZORA NEALE HURSTON; Hurston, Zora Neale; $9.95; This now famous collection of the best of Hurston's short stories, many of which are collected here for the first time, focuses on the rural Black community of Batonville, Florida, and on Harlem during the height of the Renaissance, forming a magnificent legacy from a writer whose work has sparked one of the major literary revivals of our time.
STATIONS; Saint, Assotto; $7.00; Saint, whose work has appeared in TONGUES UNTIED, IN THE LIFE: A BLACK GAY ANTHOLOGY, OTHER COUNTRIES: BLACK GAY VOICES, THE JAMES WHITE REVIEW, and numerous other publications, here presents a poetry cycle which traces two gay men's interracial love through the 80's and beyond.
STRANGE BROTHER; Niles, Blair; $12.95; Originally published in 1931, this was one of the first novels to prominently feature a gay male as lead character. Mark Thornton is drawn to the jazz and exotic life in Harlem. His black friends offer him a temporary respite from his world of homosexuality. As the summer wears on, he soon reveals himself, and his new identity begins to close in on him.
SWING LOW, SWEET HARRIET (PHAROAH LOVE MYSTERY #2); Baxt, George; $4.95; This story tells of four women who rose to stardom in the Hollywood musicals of the 30's, and whose careers were ruined with the murder of their producer, famous movie mogul Barclay Mill. Thirty-three years later, Mill's unsolved murder crops up again when one of the women hires Seth Piro to ghost her autobiography. Pharoah Love, Seth's friend, gets the distinct impression that the murderer is not only alive but is part of the Mill circle in Manhattan.
TALKING AT THE GATES: A LIFE OF JAMES BALDWIN; Campbell, James; $12.00; An honest and moving story, it is the biography of the boy preacher who became a great man of letters, of the native son who fled his homeland. A literary biography, it places each work in the context of his life.
TALKING BACK: THINKING FEMINIST, THINKING BLACK; hooks, bell; $11.00; (no description available)
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES; Jordan, June; $12.00; A new collection of essays on a rich variety of contemporary American themes. From growing up in Brooklyn, the perverse myths of race and class, the romance of an artist, to the relationship between poetry and politics.
TELL ME HOW LONG THE TRAINS BEEN GONE; Baldwin, James; $5.95; A successful black actor confronts his personal dilemmas and passions. Baldwin follows him from his childhood in Harlem to his unconventional love affair in a narrative of ringing truth and frankness. Strikes close to the heart.
TELL MY HORSE; Hurston, Zora Neale; $12.00; (no description available)
THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD; Hurston, Zora Neale; $12.00; This extraordinary novel about love between two black people belongs in the category of enduring American literature with that of Faulkner, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. "There is no book more important to me than this one." \QUOTE Alice Walker
THIS BRIDGE CALLED MY BACK: WRITINGS BY RADICAL WOMEN OF COLOR; ed. by Moraga, Cherrie and Gloria Anzaldua; $9.95; Containing prose, poetry, personal narrative, and analyses by Black American, Asian American, Latina, and Native American women, this book presents vivid, thoughtful writing on feminism, radicalism, homophobia, racism, and other topic areas. Includes an excellent third world bibliography.
THOSE WHO RIDE THE NIGHT WINDS; Giovanni, Nikki; $6.95; The title of this collection refers to people who have tried to make changes, people who have gone against the tide, people who were unafraid to test their wings. Long known as the "Princess of Black Poetry," Giovanni is as alive and as vibrant as ever. Her many readers will find once again in this collection the warmth, wit, passion, and caring about people that have always distinguished her work.
THREE PIECES; Shange, Ntozake; $10.95; In these three plays, she brilliantly recasts traditional forms to capture the essences of the lives of black people. Spell #7 is a black magic and variety show; A Photograph: Lovers In Motion, a sensual melodrama of intersecting lives and loves; and Boogie Woogie Landscapes, a stream of consciousness verse play.
THRESHING FLOOR; Burford, Barbara; $7.95; A powerful collection of stories about the lives of Black women. Burford, a Black British lesbian, constructs cruel realities, dream fantasies, bitter escapes, visionary worlds, and day-to-day loves. Deeply etched portraits full of light and shadow.
TO THE CLEVELAND STATION; Douglas, Carol Anne; $6.95; A novel of lesbian lives of a love affair between a black and a white woman.
TONGUES UNTIED; Aaab-Richards, Dirg, et al; $7.95; This book is a glorious outpouring of verse from five gifted black poets: Dirg Aaab-Richards, Craig G. Harris, Essex Hemphill, Isaac Jackson, and Assotto Saint.
TOPSY AND EVIL (PHAROAH LOVE MYSTERY #3); Baxt, George; $4.95; Ostensibly, this mystery is about the murder of the mysterious tycoon Guru Raskalnikov, who is mysteriously bludgeoned to death with the classic blunt instrument. Another part of the problem is finding out exactly what said classic blunt instrument was. The typical Baxtian cast of bizarre characters include Topsy Alcott , Fauna and Flora Fleur, Winnie Ruth Jodo, Archimedes Zoltan, Satan Stagg and others from the first two novels of this Pharoah Love detective trilogy.
TRANQUIL LAKE OF LOVE; Cook, Carl; $8.00; In documenting the nuances of an intense relationship, Cook evokes the passion, pain, sensuality and joy in language that is lyrical and flowing on serene rhythms of completion. This is a thoughtful and sensitive collection of love poetry.
TRIMMINGS; Mullen, Harryette; $7.00; Author is not a lesbian. These prose poems were directly inspires by Gertrude Stein's "Tender Buttons" with a like imagery intertwined between both.
TROUBLE THE WATER; Dixon, Melvin; $8.95; A story of returning home after twenty years away from one's roots, of re-claiming past heritage, and facing the consequences of long absence. A successful young man from Pee Dee, North Carolina returns home to the funeral of his grandmother, and re-encounters his former life. There, he finds a more clear understanding of the troubles of his present lie in his past.
UNDER A SOPRANO SKY; Sanchez, Sonya; $6.95; "Sanchez is undoubtedly one of the most under-appreciated poets writing today. Her pristine lyricism combined with her strong voice and black female themes make her special." /Quote Gloria T. Hull, from Shakespeare's Sisters Feminist Essays on Women Writers
UNDERSONG: CHOSEN POEMS OLD AND NEW; Lorde, Audre; $9.95; "Here are the words of some of the women I have been, am being still, will come to be," writes the author of this volume which brings together many of the most important poems she has written over the past thirty years. Revised and updated edition includes six new poems.
UNFORGETTING HEART: AN ANTHOLOGY OF SHORT STORIES BY AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN; ed. Kanwar, Asha; $9.95; This anthology of short stories by African American women spans 150 years. It includes short stories by Zora Neale Hurston, Ann Allen Shockley, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Alice Walker, Becky Birtha, and many others.
VANISHING ROOMS; Dixon, Melvin; $10.00; Jesse's boyfriend Metro is murdered, he turns to Ruella for comfort and she hopes he will ease her sexual isolation. Lonny wonders aimlessly through life he and his friends commit the gay-bashing. These three solitary voices intertwine in powerful counterpoint as they tell their compelling tales.
VISITATION OF SPIRITS; Kenan, Randall; $9.95; Kenan recounts the complex and sustaining truths of four generations of a black family's life in the South - as well as an urgent new view of the South's future. "Randall Kenan speaks eloquently and with a great deal of courage about personal and communal strife within the black community. But above all, he speaks in the voice of the future that is tinged with bittersweet love." - Gloria Naylor
WAITING ROOMS; Parkerson, Michelle; $5.00; A modest collection of prose and poetry of an experimental nature with a high degree of success in each form. Parkerson addresses lesbianism, being black, and modern moral issues in a down to earth yet universal tone.
WARM DECEMBER; Vega Studios; $9.95; A collection of poetry, illustrations, and photographs which introduce the works of new writers and artists. Rory Buchanan, Carl Cook, Adisa Osei Chionseu and others. The three mediums are delicately weaved together to tell the stories about love empowerment, and survival, in a time of victimization and the need for self-empowerment during the AIDS crisis.
WAYS OF WHITE FOLKS; Hughes, Langston; $9.00; A collection of stories depicting black people colliding humorously and tragically with whites in the 1920's and 30's.
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM: SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK..STILL ON THE JOURNEY; Reagon, Bernice Johnson and Sweet Honey In the Rock; $16.95; Brings the full range of voices and palates of these exciting, dynamic African American women to the page as powerfully as they conquer the concert stage. This book moves with energy and good pacing through the lives and rhythms of the women who make up the group. It includes essays by each member and their support team, historical essays and appreciations by Alice Walker and Angela Davis.
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE: NEW POSITIONS IN BLACK CULTURAL STUDIES; Mercer, Kobena; $17.95; Brings a black perspective to the reading of a wide range of cultural texts, events and experiences in the politics of ethnicity, sexuality and race during the 1980's. Mercer seeks out new hybrid identities that have been forged out of this turbulent period, from Michael Jackson's ethnic androgyny to the homoerotic photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe. Mercer's essays make for a powerful re-reading of the art of postmodernity and the location of Black and Queer cultural art practices within it.
WHITE ON BLACK ON WHITE; Dowell, Coleman; $14.95; Edgar Cayce, a black policeman, is the central figure of the novel. As we read Cayce's memoirs---in fact written by the narrator who is white---we are given a searing picture of racial and sexual prejudice.
WILD SEED; Butler, Octavia E.; $4.99; Doro, a mind force who destroyed the bodies he could inhabit. He wanted to rule all. Anyanwu was a goddess, mother, priestess, medicine-woman. Together they fought a battle of wills.
WISHING FOR WINGS; Saint, Assotto; $10.00; The last collection of poetry from Assotto. This collection revolves around AIDS, African Americans, racism, homophobia, and his late partner.
WOMAN THAT I AM: THE LITERATURE AND CULTURE OF WOMEN OF COLOR; Madison, D. Soyini; $35.00; Gathers works of 126 contemporary authors including Alice Walker, Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, June Jordon, Nikki Giovanni, Ntozake Shange, Maya Angelou, and others.
WOMAN'S MOURNING SONG; hooks, bell; $8.00; Explores the manner in which African Americans celebrate the passing on of the spirit to another world when someone dies. Her pieces ring with a woman's voice and reflect a positive outlook on loss and death that helps to explain the complexities of living.
WOMEN AND THE MEN; Giovanni, Nikki; $6.95; (no description available)
WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACE; Naylor, Gloria; $10.00; Seven women have made their way to Brewster Place, including some who are "that way." Naylor's book "sings of sorrows proudly borne by black women in America."\QUOTE The Washington Post. Made memorable by Oprah Winfrey's two-part television production.
WOULDN'T TAKE NOTHING FOR MY JOURNEY NOW; Angelou, Maya; $5.50; A collection of wisdom, this volume distills her thoughts about how spirit and spirituality move and shape her life. It is about service and grace and giving, and about how she celebrates the spirit of her people and the earthy sensuality of the sisterhood.
YEARNING: RACE, GENDER, AND CULTURAL POLITICS; hooks, bell; $14.00; (no description available)
ZAMI: A NEW SPELLING OF MY NAME; Lorde, Audre; $10.95; Combining elements of history, biography, and myth, Lorde's book tells of her coming of age, and of the strength she has found through "zami - a West Indian term for women who work together as friends and lovers."
All listed titles (and, in fact, virtually every gay and lesbian book in print) can be ordered from Lambda Rising Bookstores. For ordering information, send e-mail to: lambdarising@his.com. Lambda Rising
This compilation and the descriptions included herein are copyright 1994 by Lambda Rising, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint by electronic means is hereby granted providing the file is posted in its entirety (including this notice).
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Last updated: 5 May 1996 by
Chuck Tarver