African Urban

Inner-city Black America is often stereotyped as a place of random violence; in fact, violence in the inner city is regulated through an informal but well-known code of the street. How you dress, talk, and behave can have life-or-death consequences, with young people particularly at risk. The most powerful force counteracting this code and its reign of terror is the strong, loving, decent family, and we meet many heroic figures in the course of this narrative.

The past few months have been a living hell for Persia. Seemingly overnight, she has fallen from grace and found herself scraping rock bottom, all in the name of two lovers - Chucky and cocaine. One was supposed to love her and the other take away the pain, but they've both fallen short on their promises. The last time she saw either one of them was the night she almost lost her life.

Impassioned antislavery rhetoric made antebellum Boston famous as the nation’s hub of radical abolitionism. In fact, the city was far from a beacon of equality. In No Right to an Honest Living, historian Jacqueline Jones reveals how Boston was the United States writ small—a place where the soaring rhetoric of egalitarianism was easy, but justice in the workplace was elusive. Highlighting the everyday struggles of ordinary Black workers, this book shows how injustice in the workplace prevented Boston—and the United States—from securing true equality for all.

Lynch mobs, chain gangs, and popular views of black Southern criminals that defined the Jim Crow South are well known. We know less about the role of the urban North in shaping views of race and crime in American society. Chronicling the emergence of deeply embedded notions of black people as a dangerous race of criminals by explicit contrast to working-class whites and European immigrants, this fascinating book reveals the influence such ideas have had on urban development and social policies.

Award-winning novelist Tayari Jones delivers a story based on the 1979-1980 Atlanta child murders. Told from the perspective of three fifth-grade classmates, Leaving Atlanta is a vividly disturbing, but hopeful novel.

The children we meet through the deepening friendships that evolve between Janathan Kozol and their families defy the stereotypes of urban youth too frequently presented on TV and in newspapers. Tender, generous, and often religiously devout, they speak with painful clarity about the poverty and racial isolation that have wounded but not hardened them. "It's not like being in a jail," says 15-year-old Isabel. "It's more like being hidden."

All he ever wanted to be was a good son. Shai Clark was an all-American basketball player with aspirations of one day making it to the NBA, but that all changed when his father was viciously murdered and he found himself thrust into the role of the new head of his family's criminal enterprise.

Womanizer Antoine Moore believed that women were only good for one thing: lying on their backs. However, the professional bachelor’s wild exotic journeys are brought to a halt when one of his former flings leaves their daughter, Angel, on his doorstep. Forced to raise her, he struggles to balance fatherhood and his passion for women. Antoine quickly realizes Angel’s ability to attract the opposite sex - so he uses her as bait. Angel develops into a sexy young lady and begins to display Antoine’s destructive behavior....

In Juliana Goodman's powerful young adult debut The Black Girls Left Standing, Beau Willet will stop at nothing to clear her sister's name. Sixteen-year-old Beau Willet has dreams of being an artist and one day leaving the Chicago projects she’s grown up in. But after her older sister, Katia...

Read by “Da Brat” DuPart and her wife Judy DuPart Hip-hop legend “Da Brat” DuPart and her wife Judy DuPart, stars of WEtv’s highly rated reality series Brat Loves Judy, share their journey to the altar and parenthood in this candid relationship guide and marriage memoir. Hip-hop legend...

Legendary King lives up to his name: a true legend and a king in the streets. His life was perfect with his dream woman by his side. That was until tragedy struck, causing him to lose it all and end up behind bars. His only plan when he gets out is to get back to the life that he worked so hard to build, but it doesn't take him long to realize nothing will ever be the same. He's haunted by the night that changed his life, and simple tasks, like breathing, prove to be difficult. He does all he can to shake the nightmare, but nothing helps. That is until he comes across the rough beauty.

Azu Wilson gave his oldest daughter the name Snow because she was born amongst his snowfall on the city of Gary, Indiana in 2001. Then, Azu had just began to drop tons kilos of coke on the city, starting the birth of his empire. Fast forward 18 years later, Snow is Azu's favorite girl and only daughter. She has been doted on by her father. Now, she is off to college with her best friends, Tristan and Bae. They hope that their move out of the violent streets of Chicago to Tallahassee will bring positive change to the brutally savage lives they have lived.

Gaza was born and raised in McGregor Gully, one of Jamaica's grittiest housing projects in the slums of East Kingston. Growing up in poverty, he was exposed to robbery and murder at a tender age. In order to stay alive, he quickly adapted to a life of crime. Now he is one of the coldest killers and richest kingpins to ever walk the streets of Kingston. Whoever comes into contact with him and his crew either loves them, fears them, or wants to see them dead. The entrance of Catherine into his life just might change everything.

Urban Books' popular Girls from da Hood series is back, bringing listeners more dramatic tales about the lives of some tough, resourceful women who can hold their own when things get rough on the streets. This time, Redd, Nikki-Michelle, and Erick S. Gray deliver the stories with their trademark flair. Like a hood-rich Bonnie and Clyde, Candy and Raynail have their hands on all of the drugs that run through the veins of Westwood. When Raynail is set up to take the fall for a crime he didn't commit, Candy goes on a mission to take down everyone involved.

A prequel to Ashley and JaQuavis' New York Times best-selling Cartel series, this story follows the rise of notorious gangster Carter Diamond, taking listeners through his days on the mean streets of Michigan to his becoming the biggest drug lord Miami has ever seen. Before the cartel was ever created, he stood alone.

Veteran authors Ashley and JaQuavis offer up their first solo efforts, and they're hotter than ever! Along with Ayana Ellis, they introduce listeners to some "real sistas" who know how to get what they want at all costs. For these women, if it's dangerous it just means the payout will be that much sweeter.

Imagine coming home to find a farewell note, an empty refrigerator, a disconnect notice from the electric company, and an eviction letter giving you 30 days to vacate the premises - all without a job to fall back on. Well, that's what happened to Africa Evans, a shy, insecure woman without a backup plan. From one bad choice to another, Africa leans on love as an escape from her dilemma. But for this girl from da hood, tough love may prove detrimental to her well-being.

Once I was released from prison, I thought that all of the heartache was over. I was back with my family, and I assumed that the nightmare had come to an end. Little did I know, the nightmare had actually just begun. Everybody around me was keeping secrets that would send me right back to a dark place, a place way worse than the prison that I had just emerged from. This time of my life was supposed to be my "happily ever after the bullshit." In fact, I was so happy that I didn't see the deceit that was happening right under my nose.

Apparently, I had been naive the entire time that I was with King. Who knew that he had been keeping such a secret from me? Just my luck, as I hid from him to gather my thoughts and deal with the pain, yet another crushing blow to my happiness was revealed. I then realized that I could no longer live for King; it was time to live for Kennedy. Little did I know, Jada was suffering the same heartbreak that I was. Dolla had torn her heart into two. My girl was miserable, but she didn’t run as I did; she was trying her best to inflict the same pain on Dolla as he had on her.

Jacari Thomson has had it all until she didn't. Upon learning her father's poor investments have ruined the stability of her family and the advancement of her career, Jacari's disparity kicks in. What started out as an All-Star weekend centered around enjoyment turns into a devious plan to trap a baller and at the very least, clout. What she didn't expect was to catch feelings in the middle of her target catching a case.