The Black Hush

Examines the barbershop as a rhetorical site in African American culture across genres, including fiction, film, poetry, and theater.

Ebony, a twenty-eight-year-old Black woman living in Texas, was going through a divorce, living with her mom in poverty, and finding it hard to make ends meet. After years of working dead end jobs, she received a phone call from a temp agency that changed her life in the best way, and also the worst way. A call that began her six-figure career in higher education, and her descent into Racial Discrimination Hell. The temp assignment was at Daebrun Career Institute, a popular, for-profit college with several campuses in the State of Texas. And after only two short months, Daebrun hired Ebony permanently, and she was thrilled to have a chance to live the American dream. But the American dream, the dream that made her believe she could have the same opportunities given to White employees, became a living nightmare, after Ebony's boss resigned, and was replaced with a racist one.Over the course of five years, Ebony's bosses changed, but the racism didn't as each one tried to break her, like she was a wild horse they were determined to tame. She was degraded and dehumanized with threats and fear, humiliated on a daily basis, and stripped of all dignity, confidence, and strength. The environment she was forced to work in was so hostile she considered killing her boss, or herself, to escape the torment.After years of suffering, Ebony found courage through faith and the love of her mom, learned how to fight back through trial and error, and made the transition from racial discrimination victim to racial discrimination victor by proving the existence of systemic racism in her workplace, obtaining a six-figure settlement from her employer to buy her silence, and maintaining her employment for several more years.

In this "dazzling anthology" (Publishers Weekly), Daryl Cumber Dance has collected the often hard-hitting, sometimes risqué, always dramatic humor that arises from the depth of black women's souls and the breadth of their lives. The eloquent wit and laughter of African American women are presented here in all their written and spoken manifestations: autobiographies, novels, essays, poems, speeches, comic routines, proverbial sayings, cartoons, mimeographed sheets, and folk tales. The chapters proceed thematically, covering the church, love, civil rights, motherly advice, and much more.

Sixteen-year old Nora finds forbidden love with a fallen angel, the New York Times Bestseller, now in paperback!

A powerfully moving novel from a three-time Newbery Honor-winning author Evie Thomas is not who she used to be. Once she had a best friend, a happy home and a loving grandmother living nearby. Once her name was Toswiah. Now, everything is different. Her family has been forced to move to a new place and change their identities. But that's not all that has changed. Her once lively father has become depressed and quiet. Her mother leaves teaching behind and clings to a new-found religion. Her only sister is making secret plans to leave. And Evie, struggling to find her way in a new city where kids aren't friendly and the terrain is as unfamiliar as her name, wonders who she is. Jacqueline Woodson weaves a fascinating portrait of a thoughtful young girl's coming of age in a world turned upside down A National Book Award Finalist

I've come to learn there is no escaping your past. It doesn't matter what you do, it will follow like a phantom—haunting you—reminding you.

"A new novel from John Hart"--

The colors are drained and the shadows come alive in this stark take on a dark classic! Presented in its original pencils and ink artwork by industry legend Jim Lee, BATMAN NOIR: HUSH highlights the grim, gritty atmosphere of Batman and Gotham City, and pits the Dark Knight against a city overrun with its legendary villains. As the likes of the Joker, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy and more throw Batman's life into chaos, little do they know they have become pawns to the enigmatic Hush in an elaborate game of revenge against Bruce Wayne. This truly unforgettable story by two of comics' top talents, writer Jeph Loeb (BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN, SUPERMAN/BATMAN) and artist Jim Lee (JUSTICE LEAGUE: ORIGINS, SUPERMAN UNCHAINED), presents the Caped Crusader's most personal case yet in stark black and white! Collects BATMAN #609-619 in black and white.

The Shadow's legendary debut novel is paired with one of his most memorable cases by Walter B. Gibson writing as "Maxwell Grant," in an extra-length spectacular commemorating the 80th anniversary of both The Shadow Magazine and the modern single-character hero magazine. Plucked from a suicidal leap by a sinister cloaked rescuer, Harry Vincent is recruited into an international crime-crushing organization by The Living Shadow. Then, the Dark Avenger battles merciless foes who wield the night itself as a weapon in The Black Hush. This instant collectors' item features one of George Rozen's greatest cover paintings, the classic interior illustrations by George H. Wert and Tom Lovell and commentary by popular-culture historians Anthony Tollin and Will Murray. (Sanctum Books) Softcover, 7x10, 144 pages, B&W, $14.95