African Urban

Sixteen-year-old Andre Young was naive to think his life couldn’t be turned upside down in a matter of days. But hearing the words “Have you gone to the hospital yet?” made everything real. Standing next to his father’s coffin reinforced the impact. Luckily, his loving stepmother stood by his side in his time of need. The one who’s always despised him and who wanted him out of the house just days before the funeral.

Heir to the infamous DeLuca drug cartel fortune, Angel DeLuca walked away from it all for a normal life - until a wrenching betrayal shattered his belief in anything but saving his family's hard-won legacy. He's come back to lead the DeLuca empire - no matter the cost. But his most dangerous rival is the one woman whose fierce determination he can't resist....

Looking for a warm and fuzzy tale about a colorful preacher and his congregation of lively church folk? How about a feel-good story full of life lessons, good morals, and happy endings? Well, keep looking because this isn't it. Reverend Cash is the story of a street hustler turned preacher from the mean streets of the south side of Memphis, TN. Reverend Cash is a player, a pimp, and a preacher all rolled into one. To him the pulpit is just another hustle. He hits the big time when he hijacks the helm of a megachurch in Atlanta, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction.

Gutta Mamis includes four novellas featuring cold-hearted women who get ahead in America's grimiest underworld: "Twisted Loyalty" by Kai, "Three the Hard Way" by C. J. Hudson, "The Face of Death" by Brandie Davis, and "Chasers" by N'Tyse.

Atlanta's mayor, The Honorable Josiah J. Bishop, has an addiction to his wife, Mink, that is just as powerful as her toxic love affair with heroin. As her life spirals out of control due to her obsession with the needle, his love and devotion to her is slowly shredding his soul into tiny pieces. But he just can't let her go. The brotha's loyalty to the love of his life and the mother of his two young, adorable daughters is deeper than any ocean.

Considered an unlikely pair, Marcus, the reformed dope boy, and Nikki, the pampered princess, have undeniable chemistry. Problems arise when only one of them is willing to be honest and acknowledge the obvious attraction. Because she doesn't feel that he fits into her world or the plan she has mapped out for her life, Nikki curves Marcus without hesitation from their first encounter. Unable to see past her fears, she doesn't realize that rejecting him just may cost her the man she was meant to spend her life with.

Dawn and Reese Spencer just can't get ahead. Between her desperate desire to start a family and his gambling debts, they barely keep afloat, even with well-paying Norfolk International port jobs. But their calculating co-worker has the perfect plan: help him smuggle containers of precious, illegal - human - cargo past US Customs. Reese persuades Dawn that no one will get hurt. Then several immigrants turn up dead on arrival. Now the Feds and cold-blooded loan sharks are closing in, as the real brains behind the operation start killing off loose ends.

After many years of misery, Zen Brooks is finally free. Free from her cheating husband, free from a dead-end job, and free from more than 100 pounds of weight that she worked hard to lose. Now, she is enjoying life and determined not to ever go back to being the person she was. Josh Miller had the world in the palm of his hands. Once one of the top players in the NBA with millions of dollars in his bank account, there was nothing in this world that he wanted and couldn't have. But his world and career came crashing down because of bad habits, bad choices, and a bad attitude.

President Stephen C. Jefferson is back. Now that his mistress has been put on ice, he and First Lady Raynetta Jefferson seem to be back on track. She has managed to hurdle over her husband's affairs, but her mother-in-law continues to be the real thorn in her side. The two women want the president to choose whose side he's on, but President Jefferson has his mind on his job. The president is riding high from multiple accomplishments until he's told about a son he never knew he had, who has been classified as a terrorist.

Dr. Antonio "Tone" Ortiz is an ordinary single father in Miami, trying to ignore what flows through his veins, until his daughter, Jewel, goes missing. With all his options failing, it's up to Tone to find his daughter by any means necessary, even if that means signing his soul over to the devil himself: his father, Caltrone Orlando. Co-parenting has never been easy, and Kenya Gates will learn just how hard it is with the kidnapping of her daughter, Jewel. Even through all the sacrifices, secrets, lost love, drama, pain, and manipulation, these two fighting parents will come together.

What if the last hope to save your family is the person who broke it up to begin with? Michelle and her little siblings Cass and Denny are African-American and living on the poverty line in urban Baltimore, struggling to keep it together with their mom in jail and only Michelle’s part-time job at the Taco Bell to sustain them. Leah and her stepbrother Tim are White and middle class from suburban Maryland, with few worries beyond winning lacrosse games and getting college applications in on time.

Ntozake Shange’s most beloved novel, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, is the story of three “colored girls,” three sisters and their mama from Charleston, South Carolina. Sassafrass, the oldest, is a poet and a weaver like her mother, gone north to college and living with other artists in Los Angeles, trying to weave a life out of her work, her man, her memories, and her dreams.

When G Double D, the founder of the gangsta rap label Explicit Content, seduces her singing partner, Leila "Fatal Beauty" Aponte, into splitting up their act to pursue solo stardom, Cassie Rivers is driven to find her own path to success, but her competitive nature could lead to danger when she uncovers dark secrets about G and his Explicit Content company.

The love/hate relationship between Diane and Kendra Williams takes mother-daughter drama to entirely different level. Diane is a single mother who prides herself on being a master manipulator. She has no problem using anything or anyone to get what she wants. Whether it’s treating her sister, Celia, as her personal ATM or seducing unlikely, unsuspecting men, she will do whatever it takes to get ahead.

Meet Marcel and Sabrina, a hitman and a bookkeeper for the Mob. The couple should have never met, let alone fallen in love. When they decide to go against the grain, all hell breaks loose. Somebody wants them dead; they just don't know who. It could be Leo, Marcel's jealous older brother; Othello, Sabrina's crooked father; or it could be The Family, a roundtable of the top contenders in the underworld. There is no honor amongst thieves. Marcel and Sabrina will find the old adage to be true the hard way.

For Black Americans, the food system is broken. When it comes to nutrition, Black consumers experience an unjust and inequitable distribution of resources. Black Food Matters examines these issues through in-depth essays that analyze how Blackness is contested through food, differing ideas of what makes our sustenance "healthy", and Black individuals' own beliefs about what their cuisine should be.

Baltimore is the setting for (and typifies) one of the most penetrating examinations of bigotry and residential segregation ever published in the United States. Antero Pietila shows how continued discrimination practices toward African Americans and Jews have shaped the cities in which we now live. Eugenics, racial thinking, and white supremacist attitudes influenced even the federal government's actions toward housing in the 20th century, dooming American cities to ghettoization.

Written with exclusive access to Outlaw himself, Charles Barber’s Citizen Outlaw is the unforgettable story of how a gang leader became the catalyst for one of the greatest civic crime reductions in America, and an inspiring argument for love and compassion in the face of insurmountable odds.

Adonis "Drayko" Loving had been trouble since he learned to walk. Living a risky lifestyle finally catches up with him, forcing him to suddenly leave Ohio and find a fresh start elsewhere. After relocating, he finds himself struggling with adjusting to his new surroundings. Living a single, drama-free life by getting money and staying out of the way comes to an abrupt end when Nyoka crosses his path. Her slanted, sly eyes pull him in and make him rethink and reevaluate his entire life.

Narcotics Detective Carl Malease earned the nickname of Malice because of his relentless drive on the job. Motivated by walking in his legendary father's footsteps drives him to make the biggest bust in New York city. The problem with that is he is the lone good apple in a bushel of bad ones. His ambition and integrity put him at odds not only with his crooked supervisor but his entire unit. A miscalculation gives them the fuel they need to burn his stellar career to the ground. It also puts him in the cross hairs of the most dangerous mobster in the city.