Picture book
Alvin Ailey
Andrea Davis Pinkney
A picture-book biography introduces Ailey’s childhood and the movement language he brought to the stage.
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Search the shelves by title, writer, subject, period, or connection to the Lyric.
37 books
Memoir
Assata
Assata Shakur
Shakur recounts her upbringing, political organizing, imprisonment, and experiences with the legal system.
Memoir
Bone Black
bell hooks
Fragmentary memories trace the making of a writer in a Black Southern family.
History
Caste
Isabel Wilkerson
Wilkerson compares inherited hierarchies across societies to examine how inequality is made durable.
Biography
Duke
Terry Teachout
The life of Duke Ellington opens onto the daily business of maintaining a touring orchestra.
Music history
Feel Like Going Home
Peter Guralnick
Profiles of performers and record makers offer a listener’s path into blues and early rock and roll.
Drama
Fences
August Wilson
A Pittsburgh family negotiates the consequences of one man’s disappointments, decisions, and obligations.
Literary criticism
Free Within Ourselves
Rudine Sims Bishop
A study of Black children’s literature follows its publishing history, creators, and evolving traditions.
Fiction
Giovanni's Room
James Baldwin
An American expatriate confronts desire, shame, and his capacity for betrayal in Paris.
Fiction
Go Tell It on the Mountain
James Baldwin
A Harlem teenager’s encounter with the church opens onto the private histories of his family.
Fiction
If Beale Street Could Talk
James Baldwin
Tish and Fonny’s plans for a life together are upended by a wrongful accusation.
Essays
In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens
Alice Walker
Walker locates artistic inheritance in the everyday work and imagination of Black women.
Fiction
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
An unnamed narrator moves through Southern schooling and Harlem politics, questioning who gets to define him.
Biography
John Coltrane: His Life and Music
Lewis Porter
Porter places Coltrane’s musical practice and innovations alongside the events and relationships of his life.
Biography
Katherine Dunham
Joyce Aschenbrenner
Dunham’s work in anthropology and choreography illuminates a major exchange between research and performance.
Biography
King of the Blues
Daniel de Visé
B. B. King’s life connects rural beginnings, touring labor, and the international reach of electric blues.
Memoir
Miles
Miles Davis, Quincy Troupe
Davis recounts the bands, relationships, and musical changes that shaped his career.
Biography
Moanin' at Midnight
James Segrest, Mark Hoffman
Howlin’ Wolf’s biography follows his path from Mississippi to the Chicago electric blues scene.
Memoir
Mom & Me & Mom
Maya Angelou
Angelou looks back on the complicated reunion and enduring bond with her mother, Vivian Baxter.
Folklore
Mules and Men
Zora Neale Hurston
Hurston collects folktales and practices from Florida and New Orleans, listening to the people who keep them alive.
Memoir
Music Is My Mistress
Duke Ellington
Ellington remembers the musicians, places, and collaborations behind his work as a bandleader.
Essays
Notes of a Native Son
James Baldwin
Baldwin brings personal grief and cultural criticism into conversation across these early essays.
Biography
Respect
David Ritz
A biography examines the gospel inheritance and recording career behind Franklin’s public sound.
Fiction
Song of Solomon
Toni Morrison
Milkman Dead follows family stories south in a novel about inheritance, naming, and flight.