African Urban

If there is one thing Constance Hawkins is good at, it's working hard. Her dad was in a car accident that paralyzed his legs, and her sister Charley is in her sophomore year of college. With her mother not in the picture, Constance started working to help her family at a young age. Now, at twenty-six years old, she has a good job working at a bank. Until her awful boss, Sandy, decides to let Constance go because of cutbacks.

For more than a century, the city of Atlanta has been associated with Black achievement in education, business, politics, media, and music, earning it the nickname "the Black Mecca." Atlanta's long tradition of Black education dates back to Reconstruction, and produced an elite that flourished in spite of Jim Crow, rose to leadership during the civil rights movement, and then took power in the 1970s by building a coalition between White progressives, business interests, and Black Atlantans. But Atlanta's political leadership has consistently mishandled the Black poor.

Dixyn Greene has it all. She is a hustler's wife and the mother of a beautiful girl and owns a townhouse and a nice car - she's living the life. But when the feds arrest her man, Dixyn's whole world begins to crumble. Things quickly go from bad to worse, and, as the bills begin to mount, her ability to maintain her lavish lifestyle is put to the test. She becomes strapped for cash, and her good intentions lead to bad decisions. Enter Brian Winters, B-Dub, her one saving grace - or so she initially believes.

Some might say that Khalil Patterson is living his best life. Kendrick Nance and Jack Dandridge are both dead, and he is now the boss. But he still has what’s left of Kojo's operation, which is being run by Shanice Hardaway, to worry about. Now that he is running things, it’s time to turn his attention and firepower to shutting her down and taking over her market.

On the surface, Riverview High School looks like the post-racial ideal. Serving an enviably affluent, diverse, and liberal district, the school is well-funded, its teachers are well-trained, and many of its students are high achieving. Yet Riverview has not escaped the same unrelenting question that plagues schools throughout America: why is it that even when all of the circumstances seem right, black and Latino students continue to lag behind their peers?

Around the Way Girls 11 is a fast-paced look at the lives of some street-smart women who think they know it all, but are about to get the lessons of their lives. "Meal Ticket" by Treasure Hernandez: After the tragic death of Yanna's husband at the home of his longtime mistress, Yanna's teenage son is forced to step up and fill his father's shoes as the household's sole meal ticket. The straight-laced student soon links up with an unlikely partner in crime. Also featuring "Party Girls" by Clifford "Spud" Johnson and "Do or Die" by India Johnson-Williams.

Kayla thought that her best friends, Evelyn and Trina, were supposed to always have her back, but when she discovers that Evelyn has been creeping with her husband, Cedric, and Trina has known about the ongoing affair for quite some time, Kayla is ready to cut ties and leave her so-called friends behind. Their actions have shown how scheming they truly are. Meanwhile Cedric lies in a hospital bed, clinging to life. He may not be able to utilize his joystick for a while, but his millions are still in play, and Evelyn wants them.

"Black Is Blue" by Victor L. Martin delves into the life of a corporate woman who falls in love with a thug and finds out just how easy it is to stray from the straight and narrow.

Eighteen and hungry, Wiz's only addiction to drugs is the money it makes. But Crystal changes all of that and shows him just how powerful a woman can be, in "The P is Free" by LaShonda Sidberry-Teague.

Simone, Te'Nae, and Shay are picture perfect wives and career women. Although they're able to juggle prestigious jobs, motherhood, and wifely duties with ease, they share a dark secret that, if exposed, could ruin everything they've worked hard to maintain. They will only get one chance to figure out if their families and marriages are worth more than the risks they're taking. They better hope they make the right decision, because once good wives go bad, there is no turning back, and the consequences can be major.

Sand Cove is a beautiful secret haven tucked away from the city, entirely off-limits to everyone except for its residents. Sand Cove seems like the picture-perfect place to live, but when Luca Moretti is found dead in his home, FBI agents Tyler and Stanton expose the residents' deepest secrets to find his killer.

Shawn Harrington returned to Marshall High School as an assistant coach years after appearing as a player in the iconic basketball documentary film Hoop Dreams. In January of 2014, Marshall's struggling team was about to improve after the addition of a charismatic but troubled player. Everything changed, however, when two young men opened fired on Harrington's car as he drove his daughter to school. Harrington was struck and paralyzed. The mistaken-identity shooting was followed by a series of events that had a devastating impact on Harrington and Marshall's basketball family.

When Desiree Johnson receives an unexpected call from her brother, Ernest, Jr., about their father, she and her 16-year-old son, Tyree, pack up and rush to her family's summer home in Idlewild. Desiree hasn't been to Michigan in over 17 years, but when her family calls, she feels she has no choice but to answer. As the summer heats up, Desiree struggles to balance the joy of returning to the community that shaped her childhood with the overwhelming memories of the love and pain she suffered the last summer she spent there,

I was marrying the love of my life, only he didn't see me in the same way. Falling for my fiance hadn't been the plan, but when did things ever go as planned? They were promised to one another before birth. Their marriage will solidify an alliance more than a decade in the making. Neither expected for love to find its way into their hearts well before they said I do. She craved his heart and he was more than willing to give it.

Revealing how seemingly race-neutral urban sites contain hidden racial assumptions and imperatives, Lipsitz examines the ways in which urban space and social experience are racialized and emphasizes that aggrieved communities do not passively acquiesce to racism. He recognizes the people and communities that have re-imagined segregated spaces in expressive culture as places for congregation.

When the identity of the traitor in Kiam's clique is revealed, justice is served swiftly - and with no mercy - sending a message to the others that betrayal will be met with death. But has Kiam really uncovered the treacherous one in his midst, or is the true culprit of disloyalty and larceny still hidden behind her beauty and guile, sacrificing her sister to save herself?

Lyle DeLeone has always had the mentality of a hustler. Having grown up with a weak, drug-addicted mother and an ignorant, misogynistic father, she had to learn early on to protect herself and handle her own. Unfortunately, her ways caused those around her to deem her unlovable. So, it was no surprise that when she met the handsome Rashawn, she quickly snatched him up, hoping to prove that she, in fact, could be loved by a man. Married life with Rashawn isn't bad, but it isn't good either.

Grandmaster Caz is a pioneering legend who can genuinely be credited as one of the inventors of rap. Caz is perhaps best known as the writer of Big Bang Hank's rhyme in Rappers Delight. The lyrics were stolen from him and he has never been credited or paid a dollar for writing the words to possibly the most famous rap record ever. Caz went on to form the legendary Coldcrush Brothers whose party rocking style would greatly influence many of rap's commercial breakthrough artists.

Auben Mutze has more vices than he can deal with - six to be exact - each branded down his arm for the world to see. They mark him as a lesser twin in society, as inferior, but there’s no way he’ll let that define him. Intelligent and outgoing, Auben’s spirited antics make him popular among the other students at his underprivileged high school. So what if he’s envious of his twin Kasim, whose single vice brand is a ticket to a better life, one that likely won’t involve Auben. Then Auben starts hearing voices that speak to his dangerous side - encouraging him to perform evil deeds....

Nikki Turner, Queen of Hip-Hop Lit, is back with one of her gutsiest female characters yet, a glamorous chick with a high-end hustle that can rival any man’s game. As the respected, renowned concierge for a luxury hotel chain, Beijing Lee caters to the wealthy and famous. Whether it’s securing a dinner reservation, a fleet of limos, or a record deal, or protecting her clients from the paparazzi, there’s nothing Beijing can’t do. She’s stacked up an impressive pile of IOUs from the world’s elite - and one day she decides it’s time to start cashing in.

A rebellious boy's journey through the wilds of urban America and the shrapnel of a self-destructing family - this is the riveting story of a generation told through one dazzlingly poetic new voice. MK Asante was born in Zimbabwe to American parents: a mother who led the new nation's dance company and a father who would soon become a revered pioneer in Black studies. But things fell apart, and a decade later MK was in America, a teenager lost in a fog of drugs, sex, and violence on the streets of North Philadelphia.