Fiction
Sula
Toni Morrison
Two childhood friends take divergent paths in a hillside Ohio neighborhood.
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Search the shelves by title, writer, subject, period, or connection to the Lyric.
37 books
Picture book
Tar Beach
Faith Ringgold
A child flying above a Harlem rooftop turns the city into a map of wishes for her family.
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.
Fiction
The Birds of Opulence
Crystal Wilkinson
Generations of women in a Kentucky community live with losses and knowledge that are carried through families.
Fiction
The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison
Pecola Breedlove’s longing for blue eyes makes a community’s hierarchies painfully visible.
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.
Music history
The Gospel Sound
Anthony Heilbut
The history of gospel performance follows singers and ensembles from church settings to the road.
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.
Fiction
The Street
Ann Petry
Lutie Johnson struggles to build security for herself and her son in wartime Harlem.
Fiction
The Vanishing Half
Brit Bennett
Twin sisters leave their Southern hometown and build separate lives shaped by different choices about racial identity.
Fiction
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
Janie Crawford tells the story of three marriages and the hard-won authority to describe her own life.