Books

In the early spring of 2011, while taking a rest from a cold bike ride, David Goodrich wandered into a museum. There, he was handed a large brass ring that was once a slave collar. It reminded him of something he knew: one of his ancestors was a ship's captain in the "Triangle Trade." Holding the collar, and acknowledging that "white folks like" him have different ties to slavery than do Black Americans, he yearned to "discover how some... [African] descendants later brought themselves to freedom.

Born to solidly middle-class parents in West Philadelphia, young Will Smith gained a reputation early for being something of a class clown. Though he tried, he was not athletic; instead, his talents lay in helping people have fun. When he met Jeff Townes it was a perfect match: DJ Jazzy Jeff spun the tunes, "Fresh Prince" Smith made the raps.

Lovely blonde-haired Savannah Russet wanted to raise her boys in the town where she grew up but her racist father never stopped making that hard. He figured that Savannah's mistake was falling in love with a Black man; having children by him was even worse. And so, Ted Temple had written Savannah out of his will – partly because his Mama insisted on it.

Jacobovici and Kingsley start out with a tale of three divers, "a story they did not want to hear. And... a dive to a haunted slave wreck they did not want to dive" in Paramaribo, a port city in Suriname. There, 664 Africans were purposely locked in the hold of a sinking ship for reasons that the ship's captain kept to himself.

Formerly a teacher at Joliet Central High School, and now an Amazon best-selling author and TikTok influencer with over 300,000 followers, Crim stresses the importance of teaching Black children to believe in themselves, and to be proud of their history and culture.

Through the years, as a writer of "quirky accounts" of New York City, Sam Roberts has come to know many people whose names have been mostly forgotten – people who, in merely living their lives, made an impact on history, America, and The City That Never Sleeps. Here, Roberts presents thirty-one freshly-awakened tales, beginning with a mystery.

Plainfield North High School Assistant Principal Darnell Weathersby has published his first children’s book, “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made,” which is the first book in The Adventures of Donald the Knight Series.

Chances are that at some point in the past nearly-three years, you got out of bed one morning and you weren't even sure why. It's been a long haul and you're tired but "The Light We Carry" can get you to the next goal, then the next.

“Write Where We Are” collects some of the best examples of the group’s work featuring a broad selection of poetry, essays, and short fiction.

As a young man, Gregory showed a willingness for activism but he was always more interested in comedy: he'd tried entrepreneurship with comedy club that didn't make money and besides, he hated the physical distance from his family that it demanded. He gave that dream up but by then, a different dream, a comedy career, began to take off.