African American Life Series
Series Editor: Melba Joyce Boyd, Wayne State University
The African American Life Series publishes scholarship representative of the historical, social, cultural, and economic experiences of African Americans. Because Wayne State University Press is located in Detroit, the series has a particular interest in topics related to urban life and culture.
Pages
On Rhetoric and Black Music
How Black musicians and composers used their craft to define and influence public discourse.
Printed Paper Cased
Paperback
eBOOK

WINNER
Nothing Special
Lively illustrations depict the close bond between grandfather and grandson during a child’s summer visit to the South.
Hardback
ISBN: 9780814349731
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814349755
The Spook Who Sat by the Door, Second Edition
An explosive, award-winning novel in the black literary tradition, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is both a satire of the civil rights problems in the United States in the late 1960s and a serious attempt to focus on the issue of black miltancy.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814349571
The Spook Who Sat by the Door, Second Edition
An explosive, award-winning novel, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is a 50-year-young classic that provides commentary on the racial inequities in the US in the late 1960s - and today.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814349571
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814349977

WINNER
The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough
An American Journey from Slavery to Scholarship
An important autobiography that reveals the story of William Sanders Scarborough who rose out of slavery to become a renowned classical philologist and African American icon.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814332252
Hardback
ISBN: 9780814332245
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814348895
"Black People Are My Business"
Toni Cade Bambara's Practices of Liberation
Exploration of Bambara’s practices of liberation that encourage resistance to oppression and solidarity.
Printed Paper Cased
ISBN: 9780814346075
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814344293
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814344316
Bearing Witness to African American Literature
Validating and Valorizing Its Authority, Authenticity, and Agency
An interdisciplinary, code-switching, critical collection by revisionist African American scholar and activist Bernard W. Bell.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814337141
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814337158
If We Must Die
From Bigger Thomas to Biggie Smalls
Investigates a variety of texts in which the self-image of poor, urban black men in the U.S. is formed within, by, and against a culture of racial terror and state violence.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814334133
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814336656
From Bourgeois to Boojie
Black Middle-Class Performances
Examines how generations of African Americans perceive, proclaim, and name the combined performance of race and class across genres.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814334683
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814336427
Pages from a Black Radical's Notebook
A James Boggs Reader
Collects nearly four decades’ worth of writings by Detroit political and labor activist James Boggs.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814332566
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814336410
Keepin' It Hushed
The Barbershop and African American Hush Harbor Rhetoric
Examines the barbershop as a rhetorical site in African American culture across genres, including fiction, film, poetry, and theater.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814333488
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814336458
Roses and Revolutions
The Selected Writings of Dudley Randall
Collects significant poetry, short stories, and essays by celebrated African American poet and publisher Dudley Randall.
Hardback
ISBN: 9780814334454
The Golden Underground
New from accomplished poet Anthony Butts, a collection of modern free verse with an attention to formal syntax and a keen religious sensibility.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814333891
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814335468

WINNER
Race and Remembrance
A Memoir
Memoir of respected Detroit civic and civil rights leader Arthur L. Johnson.
Hardback
ISBN: 9780814333709
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814337493

WINNER
When the Church Becomes Your Party
Contemporary Gospel Music
A look at the innovations of contemporary performers of modern gospel music and their roots in the African American Christian church.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814332184
Dear Chester, Dear John
Letters between Chester Himes and John A. Williams
A revealing collection of correspondence between Chester Himes and John A. Williams, two prominent twentieth-century African American novelists.
Hardback
ISBN: 9780814333556
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814338506
Your Average Nigga
Performing Race, Literacy, and Masculinity
An engrossing autobiographical exploration of black masculinity as a mode of racial and verbal performance.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814332481
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814335765
Just for a Thrill
Poems
A breakthrough collection of poetry from a distinctive new urban voice.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814332900
eBOOK
ISBN: 9780814335635
"Look for Me All Around You"
Anglophone Caribbean Immigrants in the Harlem Renaissance
This anthology is the first to fully integrate the political and literary writings of Anglophone Caribbean authors in the Harlem Renaissance.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814329870
Manipulating the Sacred
Yorùbá Art, Ritual, and Resistance in Brazilian Candomblé
The first art historical study of Yoruba-descended African Brazilian religious art based on an author's long-term participation in and observation of private and public rituals.
Paperback
ISBN: 9780814328521