Biography
Duke
Terry Teachout
The life of Duke Ellington opens onto the daily business of maintaining a touring orchestra.
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Search the shelves by title, writer, subject, period, or connection to the Lyric.
138 books
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.
Picture book
Firebird
Misty Copeland
A young dancer imagines what practice and encouragement might make possible.
Literary criticism
Free Within Ourselves
Rudine Sims Bishop
A study of Black children’s literature follows its publishing history, creators, and evolving traditions.
Oral history
Freedom on the Border
Catherine Fosl, Tracy E. K'Meyer
Kentuckians’ oral histories illuminate the work of challenging segregation across the state.
History
From Slavery to Freedom
John Hope Franklin
A broad historical survey provides context for the institutions and struggles behind local stories.
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.
Picture book
Hair Love
Matthew A. Cherry
A father and daughter work through the everyday adventure of styling her hair.
Poetry
Head Off & Split
Nikky Finney
Finney’s poems move between family, public history, and the language that mediates what people see.
History
Heart and Soul
Kadir Nelson
A family-story voice and paintings guide readers through major chapters in African American history.
History
Hidden Figures
Margot Lee Shetterly
Black women mathematicians navigate segregated workplaces while doing work central to American aviation and spaceflight.
History
How the Word Is Passed
Clint Smith
Visits to historic sites and memorials ask how public institutions tell the story of American slavery.
Memoir
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou
Angelou revisits a childhood divided among homes, shaped by Southern segregation and the struggle to speak.
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.
Memoir
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Harriet Jacobs
Jacobs recounts exploitation, years spent in hiding, and her efforts to secure freedom for her children.
Fiction
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
An unnamed narrator moves through Southern schooling and Harlem politics, questioning who gets to define him.
Poetry
Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride
Frank X Walker
A poetry sequence approaches the life of the celebrated Black jockey through imagined voices.
Fiction
Jazz
Toni Morrison
A Harlem love triangle unfolds through a shifting narrative shaped by musical improvisation.
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.
Speculative fiction
Kindred
Octavia E. Butler
A Black writer is repeatedly pulled from twentieth-century California to a Maryland plantation.