Daniel, Mary-Alice
Summary: "Mary-Alice Daniel's family moved from West Africa to England when she was a very young girl, leaving behind the vivid culture of her native land in the Nigerian savanna. They arrived to a blanched, cold world of prim suburbs and unfamiliar customs. So began her family's series of travels across three continents in search of places of belonging. A Coastline Is an Immeasurable Thing ventures...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Ecco 2022
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 DANIEL, MARY-ALICE DANHarjo, Joy
Summary: "Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as US poet laureate, invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her 'poet-warrior' road. A musical, kaleidoscopic, and wise follow-up to Crazy Brave, Poet Warrior reveals how Harjo came to write poetry of compassion and healing, poetry with the power to unearth the truth and demand justice. Harjo listens to...
Format: sound recording-nonmusical
Publisher / Publication Date: Findaway World, LLC 2022
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Playaway, Call number: PA 921 HARJO, JOY HARGregson, Susan R.
Summary: Examines the life of Phillis Wheatley, the first African-American woman to publish a book, discussing her early life as a slave in Boston in the 1700s, the education and kind treatment she received from her owners, her experiences after being granted her freedom, and her later years.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Bridgestone Books 2002
Copies Available at Peninsula
1 available in Stacks, Call number: JB WHEATLEY GREHarjo, Joy
Summary: In this lyrical meditation about the why of writing poetry, Joy Harjo reflects on significant points of illumination, experience, and questioning from her fifty years as a poet. Comprised of intimate vignettes that take us through the author's life journey as a youth in the late 1960s, a single mother, and a champion of Native nations, this book offers a fresh understanding of how poetry...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Yale University Press 2022
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 809.9 HARGallagher, Brigid.
Summary: A biography on Langston Hughes, the American poet and playwright.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Heinemann Library 2013
Copies Available at East Bay
1 available in Juvenile Nonfiction, Call number: J 921 HUGWaldstreicher, David
Summary: "Admired by George Washington, ridiculed by Thomas Jefferson, published in London, and read far and wide, Phillis Wheatley led one of the most extraordinary American lives. Seized in West Africa and forced into slavery as a child, she was sold to a merchant family in Boston, where she became a noted poet at a young age. Mastering the Bible, Greek and Latin translations, and the works of Pope...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2023
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 WHEATLEY, PHILLIS WALKeith, Anthony R.
Summary: Poet, writer, and hip-hop educator Tony Keith Jr. makes his debut with a powerful YA memoir in verse, tracing his journey from being a closeted gay Black teen battling poverty, racism, and homophobia to becoming an openly gay first-generation college student who finds freedom in poetry. Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo, George M. Johnson, and Jacqueline Woodson.Tony dreams about life after...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 2024
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in New YA Materials, Call number: YA 921 KEIHarjo, Joy
Summary: Joy Harjo, the first Native American to be appointed Poet Laureate of the United States, details her journey to becoming a poet. Born in Oklahoma, the end place of the Trail of Tears, Harjo grew up learning to dodge an abusive stepfather by finding shelter in her imagination, a deep spiritual life, and connection with the natural world. Narrating the complexities of betrayal and love, grounded...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: W.W. Norton & Company 2012
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 HARJO, JOY HARSlade, Suzanne
Summary: Introduces the life and work of Gwendolyn Brooks, from her early love of poetry and her first published poems as a girl in Chicago through her financial struggles as an adult during the Depression to winning the Pulitzer Prize for her second book.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Abrams Books for Young Readers 2020
Copies Available at Fife Lake
1 available in Juvenile Nonfiction, Call number: J 921 BROCopies Available at Woodmere
2 available in Juvenile Nonfiction, Call number: J 921 BROSummary: "The Kresge Eminent Artist Award honors an exceptional artist in the visual, performing or literary arts for lifelong professional achievements and contributions to metropolitan Detroit's cultural community. Gloria House is the 2019 Kresge Eminent Artist. This monograph celebrates her life and work." -- Title page.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Kresge Foundation 2019
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 HOUSE, GLORIA LIFMerrell, Billy
Summary: "Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, and was raised by his grandmother, who told him many stories of the Black American experience and taught him to be proud of his race from a young age. With her guidance, Langston became a talented writer in high school, creating dramatic plays, poetry, and articles for the school paper. His career as a writer would continue to blossom. Langston...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Penguin Workshop 2024
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Juvenile Nonfiction, Call number: J 921 HUGSummary: This comprehensive guide to modern poetry in English covers 1,500 poets, including poets from Britain, America, New Zealand, Trinidad, and Zimbabwe. Many of the contributors are themselves celebrated poets, including Tom Paulin and Seamus Heaney.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Oxford University Press 1996
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 821 OXFDe Veaux, Alexis
Summary: "During her lifetime, Audre Lorde (1934-1992) created a mythic identity for herself that retains its vitality to this day. Alexis De Veaux demystifies Lorde's iconic status, charting her childhood in Harlem in the conservative household of Caribbean-immigrant parents; her early marriage to a white, gay man with whom she had two children; her emergence as an outspoken, black, feminist, lesbian...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: W.W. Norton 2004
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 LORDE, AUDRE DEVJackson, Angela
Summary: Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks is one of the great American literary icons of the twentieth century, a protégé of Langston Hughes and mentor to a generation of poets, including Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, and Elizabeth Alexander. Her poetry took inspiration from the complex portraits of black American life she observed growing up on Chicago's South Side, a world of kitchenette...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Beacon Press 2017
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 BROOKS, GWENDOLYN JACSmith, Patti.
Summary: In this memoir, singer-songwriter Patti Smith shares tales of New York City : the denizens of Max's Kansas City, the Hotel Chelsea, Scribner's, Brentano's and Strand bookstores and her new life in Brooklyn with a young man named Robert Mapplethorpe--the man who changed her life with his love, friendship, and genius.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Ecco 2010
Copies Available at Fife Lake
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 782.42 SMIHerrera, Juan Felipe
Summary: "When Juan Felipe Herrera was very young, he picked flowers, helped his mama feed the chickens, slept under the starry sky, and learned to say goodbye to his amiguitos each time his migrant family moved on. When he grew up, Juan Felipe Herrera became a poet. His breathtaking poem "Imagine" and Lauren Castillo's evocative illustrations will speak to every reader and dreamer searching for this...
Format: sound recording-nonmusical
Publisher / Publication Date: Library Ideas, LLC] 2019
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Juvenile Audiobooks, Call number: J READ-ALONG HERGrimes, Nikki
Summary: "Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night - and discovered the magic and impact of writing. For many years, Nikki's notebooks were her...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: WordSong, an imprint of Highlights 2019
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Young Adult Non-fiction, Call number: YA 921 GRICopies Available at Interlochen
1 available in Young Adult Collection, Call number: YA 921 Grimes 2019Criswell, Shelby
Summary: "Follow the daily life of one queer artist from Texas as they introduce us to the lives of ten extraordinary people. The author shares their life as a genderqueer person, living in the American South, revealing their own personal struggle for acceptance and how they were inspired by these historical LGBTQIA+ people to live their own truth. Featuring biographies of Mary Jones, We'wha, Magnus...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Street Noise Books 2021
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 306.7 CRIMcCarthy, Cory
Summary: A lyrical biography of the world's third bestselling poet of all time reveals a child immigrant from Lebanon, with a secret hope, who used poetry to bring people together.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Candlewick Press 2022
Copies Available at Peninsula
1 available in Juvenile, Call number: JB GIBRAN MCCAlexander, Kwame.
Summary: Kwame Alexander shares snapshots of a man learning how to love. He takes us through stories of his parents: from being awkward newlyweds in the sticky Chicago summer of 1967, to the sometimes-confusing ways they showed their love to each other, and for him. Alexander attempts to deal with the unraveling of his marriage and the grief of his mother's recent passing while sharing the solace he...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Little, Brown & Company, Hachette Book Group 2023
Copies Available at East Bay
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 ALECopies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 ALEXANDER, KWAME ALECopies Available at Peninsula
1 available in Adult, Call number: B ALEXANDER ALERosenberg, Rosalind
Summary: "Throughout her prodigious life, activist and lawyer Pauli Murray systematically fought against all arbitrary distinctions in society, channeling her outrage at the discrimination she faced to make America a more democratic country. In this definitive biography, Rosalind Rosenberg offers a poignant portrait of a figure who played pivotal roles in both the modern civil rights and women's...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Oxford University Press 2017
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 MURRAY, PAULI ROSCrews, Nina
Summary: "A lyrical picture book biography that tells the story of one of America's most celebrated children's book authors, Virginia Hamilton, the first African American to win the Newbery Medal"--
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: 2024
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Juvenile Nonfiction, Call number: J 921 HAMCalhoun, Ada
Summary: "When Ada Calhoun stumbled upon old cassette tapes of interviews her father, celebrated art critic Peter Schjeldahl, had conducted for his never-completed biography of poet Frank O'Hara, she set out to finish the book her father had started forty years earlier. As a lifelong O'Hara fan who grew up amid his bohemian cohort in the East Village, Calhoun thought the project would be easy, even fun,...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Grove Press 2022
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 921 CALHOUN, ADA CALLawson, Shayla
Summary: This collection of essays that focus on black girl culture features topics such as workplace microaggressions, how to become famous on Twitter, traveling while black, and reversing racist stereotypes.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Harper Perennial 2020