Fiction
Sula
Toni Morrison
Two childhood friends take divergent paths in a hillside Ohio neighborhood.
Explore books
Explore the collection
Search the shelves by title, writer, subject, period, or connection to the Lyric.
113 books
Music history
Sweet Soul Music
Peter Guralnick
Musicians, producers, and studios tell the story of Southern soul across a network of regional scenes.
Essays
Teaching to Transgress
bell hooks
hooks brings classroom experience to questions about freedom, authority, and participation in education.
History
The 1619 Project
Nikole Hannah-Jones
Essays, poems, and fiction explore slavery’s place in American institutions and historical memory.
History
The American Negro Theatre and the Long Civil Rights Era
Jonathan Shandell
A history of Harlem’s American Negro Theatre traces artists, audiences, and a new space for Black theatre.
Memoir
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Malcolm X, Alex Haley
Malcolm X recounts the institutions, encounters, and journeys that transformed his political and religious life.
Memoir
The Big Sea
Langston Hughes
Hughes remembers childhood, travel, and the artists and arguments around the Harlem Renaissance.
Fiction
The Birds of Opulence
Crystal Wilkinson
Generations of women in a Kentucky community live with losses and knowledge that are carried through families.
History
The Black Arts Movement
James Edward Smethurst
A study of the Black Arts Movement examines regional networks and the connection between artistic practice and political action.
Fiction
The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison
Pecola Breedlove’s longing for blue eyes makes a community’s hierarchies painfully visible.
Music history
The Chitlin' Circuit
Preston Lauterbach
Lauterbach follows the promoters, musicians, and venues that sustained Black touring circuits.
Poetry
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
An expansive collection follows Hughes across vernacular forms, music, and political imagination.
Fiction
The Color Purple
Alice Walker
Celie’s letters trace a life altered by sisterhood, creativity, and independence.
History
The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935
James D. Anderson
A study of who built, financed, and contested Black education across the post-emancipation South.
Speculative fiction
The Fifth Season
N. K. Jemisin
In a world of recurring geological catastrophe, people who can control the earth face relentless persecution.
Essays
The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin
Two essays examine faith, racial power, and the obligations Americans owe one another.
Music history
The Gospel Sound
Anthony Heilbut
The history of gospel performance follows singers and ensembles from church settings to the road.
Essays
The Ground on Which I Stand
August Wilson
Wilson considers artistic control and the institutional conditions Black theatre needs to flourish.
History
The Half Has Never Been Told
Edward E. Baptist
A study of slavery’s expansion and the role coerced labor played in American economic growth.
Memoir
The Heart of a Woman
Maya Angelou
Angelou recalls work in the arts and civil rights organizing while raising her son.
Music history
The History of the Blues
Francis Davis
A critical history moves among regional blues scenes, recordings, and debates over musical authenticity.
Biography
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
The story of HeLa cells follows the collision of biomedical research, consent, and one family’s search for answers.
Reference
The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia
Gerald L. Smith, Karen Cotton McDaniel, John A. Hardin
A reference work brings together people, institutions, and events in Black Kentucky history.
Essays
The Mis-Education of the Negro
Carter G. Woodson
Woodson asks what schooling teaches Black students to believe about themselves and their history.