The bookclub meeting will take place on February 22, 2024 at 7 PM in the Kindred Stories. Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read) but you are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local, state, and federal police attempted to question her about the shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that had claimed the life of a white state trooper. Long a target of J. Edgar Hoover's campaign to defame, infiltrate, and criminalize Black nationalist organizations and their leaders, Shakur was incarcerated for four years prior to her conviction on flimsy evidence in 1977 as an accomplice to murder.

This intensely personal and political autobiography belies the fearsome image of JoAnne Chesimard long projected by the media and the state. With wit and candor, Assata Shakur recounts the experiences that led her to a life of activism and portrays the strengths, weaknesses, and eventual demise of Black and White revolutionary groups at the hand of government officials. The result is a signal contribution to the literature about growing up Black in America that has already taken its place alongside The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the works of Maya Angelou.

Two years after her conviction, Assata Shakur escaped from prison. She was given political asylum by Cuba, where she now resides.

Join us for a poetry reading with Olatunde & friends, Ayokunle Falomo and Joshua Burton!

EVENT DEETS

When: Saturday, March 2 @ 6PM

Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

How: RSVP Only to reserve seats or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your copy of the book and our programming. No refunds.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The irony of transformation often is that we mistake it to have occurred long before it does. Tender Headed takes its time in asserting the realization that growth remains ever ahead of you. Examining the themes of Black identity, accountability, and narration, we encounter a series of revealing snapshots into the role language plays in chiseling possibility and its rigid command of depiction. Olatunde Osinaike's startling debut sorts through the many-minded masks behind Black masculinity. At its center lies an inquiry about the puzzling nature of relationships, how ceaseless wonder can be in its challenge of a truth. In the name of music and self-identity, the speaker weaves their way through fault and how it amends Black life in America.

This is demonstrated best in how the demanding, yet vulnerable tone for the collection is set in "Men Like Me," its restless opening poem. Here, we find the speaker reciting a chronicle of generational neglect from men that became him also. Earnest and sharp, there is a beauty in seeing a poet not shy away from both the melancholy and resolve of rescripting their path while cherishing their steps and missteps along the way. This collection is a panel aching of fathers, sons, uncles, grandfathers, all of whom would do well to join in and confront shared privileges that are typically curtailed or altogether avoided in conversation. Tender Headed entrusts the heart to be a compass, insisting on a journey unto itself and a melodic detour toward tenderness precise with its own footing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Join us to celebrate Tia Williams' newest release, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde!

EVENT DEETS

When: Tuesday, February 20 @7PM

Where: STAGES (800 Rosine Street, HTX, 77019)

How: Grab your tickets! Each ticket will come with a signed copy of A Love Song for Ricki Wilde. No refunds. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

In this enchanting love story from the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Days in June, a free-spirited florist and an enigmatic musician are irreversibly linked through the history, art, and magic of Harlem.

Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing.

Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her.

When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers.

One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.  

Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Celebrate Nia Davenport's young adult debut, Out of Body! 

EVENT DEETS

When: Saturday, February 10 @ 2 PM CST

Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

How: Only book purchased from Kindred Stories will be eligible for signing line.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A high-stakes, propulsive young adult thriller with a body-swap twist thoughtfully explores themes of friendship and identity, perfect for fans of Tiffany D. Jackson.

Seventeen-year-old Megan Allen has been jumping from friend group to friend group in her high school, trying on identities like outfits. Nothing ever seems to fit—until she meets LC, the adventurous, charismatic girl who appears at her favorite coffee shop one day like magic. Finally, Megan feels like she’s becoming the person she’s meant to be: someone like LC.

On the night of their friendiversary, what was supposed to be a bonding experience ends in a waking nightmare. Suddenly, Megan is no longer herself. Too late, she realizes that LC has secrets—dangerous ones. Betrayed by her best friend, thrust into another girl’s life, and targeted by LC’s enemies, she must claim what makes Megan Megan to get her life back . . . or die trying.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

NIA DAVENPORT is the author of the sci-fi fantasy Blood Gift duology. A lover of both science and literature, Nia has taught English and biology to a diverse public school population in Texas. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and now lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and kids. Find out more at nedavenport.com

The bookclub meeting will take place on January 25, 2024 at 7 PM in The Reading Room (inside The Post). Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read) but you are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Disrupt and push back against capitalism and white supremacy. In this book, Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice.

What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too many of us have claimed productivity as the cornerstone of success. Brainwashed by capitalism, we subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine‑level pace –– feeding into the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit.

In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted. Our worth does not reside in how much we produce, especially not for a system that exploits and dehumanizes us. Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it asserts our most basic humanity. We are enough. The systems cannot have us.

Rest Is Resistance is rooted in spiritual energy and centered in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism. With captivating storytelling and practical advice, all delivered in Hersey’s lyrical voice and informed by her deep experience in theology, activism, and performance art, Rest Is Resistance is a call to action, a battle cry, a field guide, and a manifesto for all of us who are sleep deprived, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of Grind Culture.

Join us to celebrate the release of Between Two Brothers! 

EVENT DEETS

When: Sunday, January 28 @3PM

Where: Project Row Houses Community Gallery (2521 Holman Street, HTX, 77004)

How: RSVP to reserve your seat! RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your copy. We are also doing a donation drive that you can learn more about here. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cystal Allen is the author of the middle grade novels How Lamar's Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy, The Laura Line, and the three books in The Magnificent Mya Tibbs series. Her many accolades include the Sid Fleischman Humor Award for The Magnificent Mya Tibbs: The Wall of Fame Game and induction to the Texas Institute of Letters. Crystal is also a committee member of The Brown Bookshelf, the co-director of Kindling Words East, and a faculty member of Highlights for Children. She lives in Texas with her husband, Reggie, and two sons, Phillip and Joshua. Visit her online at www.crystalallenbooks.com

Join us along with ACLU Texas and the Houston Public Library in celebrating Barracoon: Adapted for Young Readers: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"!

EVENT DEETS

When: Saturday, February 3 at 1 PM CST

Where: 500 McKinney Street, HTX, 77002

How: To get your free ticket, please use the following link on the Houston Public Library website. If you would like to donate to support our programming, check out by adding this product to your cart!

ABOUT THE BOOK 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Ibram X. Kendi is a National Book Award–winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author. His books include Antiracist Baby; Goodnight Racism; How to Be an Antiracist; and How to Raise an Antiracist. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. In 2020, Time magazine named Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He has also been awarded a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship.

Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. She wrote four novels (Jonah’s Gourd Vine, 1934; Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1937; Moses, Man of the Mountains, 1939; and Seraph on the Suwanee, 1948); two books of folklore (Mules and Men, 1935, and Every Tongue Got to Confess, 2001); a work of anthropological research, (Tell My Horse, 1938); an autobiography (Dust Tracks on a Road, 1942); an international bestselling nonfiction work (Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” 2018); and over fifty short stories, essays, and plays. She attended Howard University, Barnard College, and Columbia University and was a graduate of Barnard College in 1928. She was born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama, and grew up in Eatonville, Florida.

So many of us have the vision, the intentions, the goals and often, we become stagnate. This workshop is for those who seek to hone new energy and become renewed. 

WORKSHOP DEETS

When: Sunday, January 7 @ 11 AM - 2 PM

Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Garden

How: Purchase tickets here!

ABOUT WORKSHOP 

Raveen Alexis will lead us through guided journaling and meditation. Be sure to bring yourself, a young mat or towel and a journal with a writing utensil.

Pull up on us to meet Dale Walls and get a signed copy of The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay!

EVENT DEETS

When: Saturday, December 23 at 1 PM

Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

How: RSVP to reserve your copy of the book!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Texas native, Dale Walls' debut novel checks all the Gen Z marks - tenderness, tropes, and timeliness - and that makes sense because they wrote the first version while attending High School in Houston

Queer Love. Something Dawn wants, desperately, but does not have. But maybe, if she can capture it, film it, interview the people who have it, queer love will be hers someday. Or, at least, she'll have made a documentary about it. A documentary that, hopefully, will win Dawn a scholarship to film school. Many obstacles stand in the way of completing her film, but her best friends Edie and Georgia are there to help her reach her goal, no matter what it takes. A touching and joyous story of queer friendship and girlhood set in the vibrant city of Houston, THE QUEER GIRL IS GOING TO BE OKAY will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you believe that eventually, everything will be okay.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dale Walls is the author of the forthcoming novel The Queer Girl Is Going to Be Okay. They are currently a graduate student at Stanford University studying art history. When not writing, they can be found creating educational videos about POC artists on their YouTube channel, Art in Color.

Celebrate How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir with journalist, poet, author, Shayla Lawson!

EVENT DEETS

When: Friday, February 9 at 7PM

Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden 

How: RSVP ONLY to save you seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our programming

ABOUT THE BOOK

In their new book, Shayla Lawson reveals how traveling can itself be a political act, when it can be a dangerous world to be Black, femme, nonbinary, and disabled. With their signature prose, at turns muscular and luminous, Lawson explores layered meanings within love, time, and the self.

Through encounters with a gorgeous gondolier in Venice, an ex-husband in The Netherlands, and a lost love on New Year’s Eve in Mexico City, Lawson’s travels bring unexpected wisdom about life in and out of love. They learn the strength of friendships, and the dangers of beauty during a near escape in Egypt. They examine Blackness in post dictatorship Zimbabwe, then take us on a secretive tour of Black freedom movements in Portugal.

Through a deeply insightful journey, Lawson leads readers from a castle in France, to a hula hoop competition in Jamaica, to a traditional theater in Tokyo, to a Prince concert in Minnesota, and finally to find liberation on a beach in Bermuda, exploring each location—and their deepest emotions—to the fullest. In the end, they discover how trials of marriage, grief, and missed connections, can lead to self transformation and unimagined new freedoms.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shayla Lawson (they/them) is the author of This is Major, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle and the LAMBDA Literary Award, and two poetry collections. They have written for New York Magazine, Salon, ESPN, and Paper, and have earned fellowships from Yaddo and the MacDowell Artist Colony. They live in Lexington, Kentucky.

Are you a mental health worker? Come spend a evening diving into your practices and decolonizing them with clinically psychologist, Jennifer Mullan. 

THE DEETS

When: Wednesday, January 10 at 6:30 PM

Where: Virtual Via Zoom

How: Grab your ticket and we'll shoot the Zoom link to you!

ABOUT THE BOOK

A call to action for therapists to politicize their practice through an emotional decolonial lens.

An essential work that centers colonial and historical trauma in a framework for healing, Decolonizing Therapy illuminates that all therapy is—and always has been— inherently political. To better understand the mental health oppression and institutional violence that exists today, we must become familiar with the root of disembodiment from our histories, homelands, and healing practices. Only then will readers see how colonial, historical, and intergenerational legacies have always played a role in the treatment of mental health.

This book is the emotional companion and guide to decolonization. It is an invitation for Eurocentrically trained clinicians to acknowledge privileged and oppressed parts while relearning what we thought we knew. Ignoring collective global trauma makes delivering effective therapy impossible; not knowing how to interrogate privilege (as a therapist, client, or both) makes healing elusive; and shying away from understanding how we as professionals may be participating in oppression is irresponsible.

ABOUT AUTHOR 

Jennifer Mullan, Psy.D is a dynamic international speaker, professor, healer-spiritualist, scholar-activist and widely known as the Rage Doctor ™. Dr. Jennifer Mullan is the author of “Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma & Politicizing Your Practice”.

Trained as a clinical psychologist; Dr. Jennifer Mullan birthed Decolonizing Therapy ®, a psychological evolution that weaves together political, ancestral, therapeutic and global well-being. 

Dr. Mullan is a major disruptor in the mental health industrial complex. Her work is an urgent call to dive to the root of global and generational trauma to unlock the wisdom of our sacred rage. 

Decolonizing Therapy ® catalyzes a growing movement of practitioners who are unlearning colonial methods of psychology. They are co-creating a new liberatory model of mental health.

Dr. Jennifer Mullan received ESSENCE Magazine’s 2020 Essential Hero Award in Mental Health, and was featured on The Today Show, Vox, Cosmopolitan, Allure, GQ, Bloomberg, Heal Magazine, Catalyst and the Calgary Journal, among many others. She currently lives in Northern NJ on land that was stewarded by the Leni Lenape people.

Celebrate what makes Black women powerful, brilliant, and brave with Mind, Body, & Soul: A Self-Care Coloring Book for Black Women! 

EVENT DEETS

When: Friday, January 12 @ 7PM

Where:  2310 Elgin Street, HTX, 77004 (We will be on the first floor in the garden room)

How: Grab a $10 ticket to reserve a seat or grab a $25 ticket to purchase a book with the Mind, Body & Soul: A Self Coloring Book for Black Women! (No refunds)

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Oludara (Dara) Adeeyo is a Los Angeles based mental health therapist, author, and social media content creator who is passionate about encouraging people, especially Black women, to face every day with self-confidence and self-love. 

Her first series of books, published by Adams Media, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, share specific advice and activities designed to help Black women outwardly express their inner joy: Self-Care for Black Women (2022), Affirmations for Black Women: A Journal (2022), and Mind, Body, & Soul: A Self-Care Coloring Book for Black Women (2024). 

Oludara’s accessible approach to writing and talking about mental health is influenced by her previous professional experience in the media industry as a writer and editor where she worked for popular publications such as Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and XXL. Her writing has also appeared in Women’s Health and Wondermind.

As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Oludara has extensive experience with treating mood disorders, personality disorders, and thought disorders for diverse populations. She is currently working to establish her own private practice where she will specialize in helping people of color, especially Black women, manage their stressors, boost their self-confidence, and manifest their desires by releasing people-pleasing impulses.  Oludara holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Southern California (USC) and a Bachelor of Arts in Print Journalism with a Minor in Women’s Studies from Hofstra University. 

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

We're using puzzling as an excuse to be in community with you all!!!

EVENT DEETS

When: Friday, December 8 at 6PM

Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

How: RSVP to reserve your spot!

ABOUT THE EVENT

Join us as we attempt to complete The Gather Together 500 Piece Puzzle from Galison. Maja Tomljanovic’s Gather Together is a joyful, Mediterranean influenced vignette of friends and family gathering together at the table. 

We'll provide the puzzles and trays. We encourage bringing your favorite snacks, beverages or anything to make you feel cozy and comfortable!

Note: This event is intended for adults!

NEW DATE: DECEMBER 12, 2023 @ 7PM

The book club meeting will take place on December 4th at 7 PM in the Kindred Stories Reading Garden. Show up with the book read (or partially read)! All are welcome. 

About the Book 

In a post-apocalyptic Africa, the world has changed in many ways; yet in one region genocide between tribes still bloodies the land. A woman who has survived the annihilation of her village and a terrible rape by an enemy general wanders into the desert, hoping to die. Instead, she gives birth to an angry baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand. Gripped by the certainty that her daughter is different—special—she names her Onyesonwu, which means "Who fears death?" in an ancient language.

It doesn't take long for Onye to understand that she is physically and socially marked by the circumstances of her conception. She is Ewu—a child of rape who is expected to live a life of violence, a half-breed rejected by her community. But Onye is not the average Ewu. Even as a child, she manifests the beginnings of a remarkable and unique magic. As she grows, so do her abilities, and during an inadvertent visit to the spirit realm, she learns something terrifying: someone powerful is trying to kill her.

Desperate to elude her would-be murderer and to understand her own nature, she embarks on a journey in which she grapples with nature, tradition, history, true love, and the spiritual mysteries of her culture, and ultimately learns why she was given the name she bears: Who Fears Death.

We've teamed up with one of our favorite artist/artist-teachers to bring you this special DIY collage bookmark workshop! 

EVENT DEETS

When: Friday, November 17 at 6:30 PM 

Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

How: Grab your $30 ticket now! Space is Limited. Tickets are non-refundable. 

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

We all love a good bookmark but sometimes the market just doesn't do what it's supposed to do. This is the first in a series of bookmark workshops. We'll be using collages as our medium. Get ready to do a little cut and paste between sips. All supplies necessary will be provided. If you want to bring extra magazines, feel free!

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Tay Butler is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Houston, Texas. He received his BFA in Photography  and Digital Media from the University of Houston and recently completed his MFA in the University  of Arkansas’ Photography program. After retiring from the US Army and abandoning a middle-class  engineering career to search for purpose, Butler reignited a rich appreciation for Black history and a  deep obsession with the Black archive. Using past and present images to create a historically-layered  body of work, Tay reorients cultural material from the ever-growing Black experience.  

Butler works with photography, collage, video, and sound exhibitions and installations. His solo  exhibitions and installations include RE.Migrant I & II at Project Row Houses, Houston and We Are  Still Searching at the Louise J. Moran Fine Arts Courtyard, Houston. Group exhibitions of his work  have been featured at ArtPace, San Antonio, the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, and the  Texas Biennial at Fotofest. Performance exhibitions include The Triangle, for The Idea Fund and  CAMH, and Jefferson Pinder’s Fire and Movement for DiverseWorks, Houston. Butler’s awards  include the Individual Artist Fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council, and First Prize in the 2019  Citywide African-American Artists Exhibition at Texas Southern University, Houston. He has  collaborated with the Houston Rockets, Coca-Cola, and many others. Butler currently teaches Art &  Design for San Jacinto College, Houston and has led both private and community workshops for The  Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative, Virginia and Crystal Bridges Museum, Arkansas.  

Web: www.stayclosetay.com 

IG: @stayclosetay

We're taking a deep dive into money with Jessica Norwood, author of Believe-in-You Money: What would It Look Like if the Economy Loved Black People? 

EVENT DEETS

When: Wednesday, November 15 at 7PM 

Where: Project Row Houses Community Gallery (2521 Holman Street, HTX, 77004)

How: RSVP today to attend this free workshop! Support the author and the book by RSVPing with Book. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jessica Norwood is the founder of RUNWAY, a social enterprise that provides startup capital to Black founders. Her innovative work has been profiled on NPR and Bloomberg Television and in Essence magazine, Next City, Fast Company, and Conscious Company, and she has participated in fellowships at Harvard University, Duke University, and Southern University College of Business for emerging leaders. Learn more about Jessica’s leadership and work at www.jessicanorwood.com.

 The Banned Wagon: A Vehicle for Change is road-tripping through the South this #BannedBooksWeek (October 1-7).

The bookclub meeting will take place on October 26, 2023 at 7:30PM in the Kindred Stories Reading Garden. Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read) but you are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Pepper is a rambunctious big man, minor-league troublemaker, working-class hero (in his own mind), and, suddenly, the surprised inmate of a budget-strapped mental institution in Queens, New York. He's not mentally ill, but that doesn't seem to matter. He is accused of a crime he can't quite square with his memory. In the darkness of his room on his first night, he's visited by a terrifying creature with the body of an old man and the head of a bison who nearly kills him before being hustled away by the hospital staff. It's no delusion: The other patients confirm that a hungry devil roams the hallways when the sun goes down. Pepper rallies three other inmates in a plot to fight back: Dorry, an octogenarian schizophrenic who's been on the ward for decades and knows all its secrets; Coffee, an African immigrant with severe OCD, who tries desperately to send alarms to the outside world; and Loochie, a bipolar teenage girl who acts as the group's enforcer. Battling the pill-pushing staff, one another, and their own minds, they try to kill the monster that's stalking them. But can the Devil die?

The Devil in Silver brilliantly brings together the compelling themes that spark all of Victor LaValle's radiant fiction: faith, race, class, madness, and our relationship with the unseen and the uncanny. More than that, it's a thrillingly suspenseful work of literary horror about friendship, love, and the courage to slay our own demons. 

Join us for an evening with Phenderson Djèlí Clark!

EVENT DEETS

When:  Monday, October 2 @ 7:30 PM CST

Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

How: RSVP here for your free ticket or RSVP with book to reserve your book and support our programming

ABOUT THE BOOK

Like a West African and African Diaspora-inspired Spirited Away, Abeni's Song follows a reluctant apprentice witch out of her village and into a world of spirits on a quest to save her friends. This is P. Djèlí Clark's kids' debut.

On the day of the spirits festival, the old woman who lives in the forest appears in Abeni's village with a terrible message:

You ignored my warnings. It’s too late to run. They are coming.

The old woman hasn't come to save them, only to collect one child as payment for her years of service and protection. When warriors with burning blades storm the village and a man with a cursed flute plays an impossibly alluring song, everyone Abeni has ever known and loved is captured and marched toward far-off ghost ships set for even more distant lands.

But not Abeni. Abeni escapes the warriors in the clutches of the old woman, magically whisked into the forest away from all she’s ever known. And there she begins her unwanted magical apprenticeship, her journey to escape the witch, and her impossible mission to bring her people home.

Abeni’s Song is the beginning of a timeless, enchanting fantasy adventure about a reluctant apprentice, a team of spirit kids, and the town they set out to save from the evil Witch Priest who enslaved Abeni’s people.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in New York and raised mostly in Houston, P. DJÈLÍ CLARK spent the formative years of his life in the homeland of his parents, Trinidad and Tobago. He is the author of the novel A Master of Djinn, the novellas Ring Shout, The Black God’s Drums, and The Haunting of Tram Car 015, and a contributor to the #1 New York Times bestseller Black Boy Joy. He has won the Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards and been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Sturgeon Awards. His stories have appeared in online venues such as Tor.com, Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Apex, Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and in print anthologies, including Griots, Hidden Youth, and Clockwork Cairo. He is also a founding member of FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction and an infrequent reviewer at Strange Horizons.

ABOUT THE INTERLOCUTOR

Stevens is a writer, organizer, and archivist. As part of the Kindred Stories family he is the Operations & Community Facilitator, and part-time Adjunct Professor. Stevens' current work and concentration is centered around his social-political analysis and its intersections with the arts, community, and revolutionary politics.

Join us in celebrating one of Houston's most beloved author, Bryan Washington's forthcoming book, Family Meal. 

EVENT DEETS

When: Monday, October 16, 2023 at 7:30 PM

Where: Hogan Brown Gallery in The Eldorado Ballroom at Project Row Houses

How: RSVP ONLY to make sure you get in the door. RSVP WITH BOOK to ensure you leave with a signed copy of Family Meal. You must purchase Family Meal in order to enter the signing line. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Cam is living in Los Angeles and falling apart after the love of his life has died. Kai's ghost won't leave Cam alone; his spectral visits wild, tender, and unexpected. When Cam returns to his hometown of Houston, he crashes back into the orbit of his former best friend, TJ, and TJ's family bakery. TJ's not sure how to navigate this changed Cam, impenetrably cool and self-destructing, or their charged estrangement. Can they find a way past all that has been said - and left unsaid - to save each other? Could they find a way back to being okay again, or maybe for the first time?

When secrets and wounds become so insurmountable that they devour us from within, hope and sustenance and friendship can come from the most unlikely source. Spanning Los Angeles, Houston, and Osaka, Family Meal is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love. With his signature generosity and eye for food, sex, love, and the moments that make us the most human, Bryan Washington returns with a brilliant new novel.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bryan Washington is the author of the story collection Lot and the novel Memorial. He is also the winner of a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award, a New York Public Library Young Lions Award, an Ernest J. Gaines Award, an International Dylan Thomas Prize, a Lambda Literary Award, and was a finalist for the James Tait Black Prize, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, a PEN/Robert W. Bingham prize finalist, a National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize finalist, and the recipient of an O. Henry Award. He is a columnist for the New York Times Magazine and his fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and The Best American Short Stories. He divides his time between Houston and Osaka.

Join for an author talk with award-winning and beloved author, Renee Watson! 

EVENT DEETS

When: Saturday, October 28 at 2PM CST

Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat. RSVP WITH BOOK to grab your seat along with a copy of Renee's newest book, Ways to Build Dreams. There will be additional titles on sale. However, you must purchase her newest book to join the signing line.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award winner Renée Watson continues her bestselling young middle grade series starring Ryan Hart.

Middle school is just around the corner for Ryan Hart, which means it’s time to start thinking about the future—and not just how to prank her brother, Ray!
Ryan wonders who she wants to be and what kind of person her family hopes she’ll become. Ryan has always been known for her sunny outlook, but can she keep hoping even when things seem hopeless? During Black History Month, Ryan learns more about her ancestors and local Black pioneers and their hopes for the future, for her generation. Drawing on the ambitions of those who came before her, and her own goals, Ryan is determined to turn her dreams into reality.
Grow and shine and share with Ryan Hart in this series that brings ever more humor, more love, and more fun.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Her novel, Piecing Me Together, received a Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award. Her books include the Ryan Hart series, Some Places More Than Others, This Side of Home, What Momma Left Me, Betty Before X, cowritten with Ilyasah Shabazz, Watch Us Rise, cowritten with Ellen Hagan, and Love is a Revolution, as well as acclaimed picture books: Places Where Hurricanes Happen, and Harlem’s Little Blackbird, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Renée splits her times between Portland, Oregon and New York City.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR 

Jasminne Mendez is a best-selling Dominican-American poet, translator, playwright and award winning author of several books for children and adults. Including the middle grade novel in verse Aniana del Mar Jumps In (Dial) which was released to four starred reviews. Her other books have received prizes from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Writer’s League of Texas and the International Latino Book Awards. She is an MFA graduate of the creative writing program at the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University and a University of Houston alumni. She is the Program Director for the literary arts non-profit Tintero Projects and she lives and works in Houston, TX.

We're celebrating author, Tarris Marie and her debut book, Blaque Pearle! 

EVENT DEETS

When: Saturday, October 7 at 7PM

Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2034 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

How: Be sure to RSVP ONLY to attend or RSVP with Book to support the Tarris and our bookstore! We're encouraging everyone to bring their own style to an all Black attire. We're also encouraging Black masquerade masks and pearls. When you finish the book, you'll know why!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Tarris Marie’s debut novel intertwines crime, romance, and the ‘90s era. A refreshing new voice for urban romance lovers and women’s crime thriller connoisseurs.

Before her Hollywood dreams were shattered, Pearle Monalise Brown was the tenacious aspiring actress from Compton's unforgiving, scarred streets. Never broken, Pearle switches gears to a fallback plan—resorting to her beauty and acting skills to swindle money and expensive jewels. When she's hired by the Colombian cartel to steal a priceless Basquiat from the debonair kingpin and art collector, Blaque, her talents might not be enough to keep her from falling into a trap she never saw coming. 

Blaque is sagacious and handsome—not to mention the legacy of two powerful organized crime families: the Laurent’s—known dons hailing from Kingston, Jamaica, and the Savage’s—a sophisticated syndicate with criminal enterprises across the U.S. As Blaque and Pearle become passionately entangled, Pearle falls prey to a darker underworld. Time is ticking. Lives are at stake. Will these love outlaws be able to outsmart their enemies, or will they wage an all-out war, leaving the bodies to fall wherever they may?

“Both inspirational and a delight to watch, Tarris Marie is proof that limits and barriers exist only in our minds.” —N’TYSE, national bestselling author and film producer of Trap Soldiers

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kindred Stories is proud to partner with Project Row Houses and Chanecka Williams to present Houston Reads Zora Neale Hurston.

Zora Neale Hurston Meeting Schedule 

November 19 - Jonah’s Gourd (1934)

December 17 - Mules and Men (1935)

January 14 - Their Eyes are Watching God (1937)

February 18 - Tell My Horse (1938)

March 17 - Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939)

April 21 - Dust Tracks on a Road (1942)

May 17 -  Seraph on the Suwanee (1948)

June 23 - I Love Myself When I Am Laughing…Then Again (1979)

July 21 - The Complete Stories (1998)

August 18 - Every Tongue Got to Confess (2001)

September 15 - Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” (2018)

October 20 - Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick (2020)

November 19 - You Don’t Know Us Negros and Other Essays (2022)

Grab the homies come experience the Ode to Hip Hop Trivia Deck and its creator, Kiana Fitzgerald!

EVENT DEETS

When: Sunday, October 8 at 6 PM CST

Where: Kindred Stores Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)

How: Tickets are REQUIRED! Be sure to get yours as tickets are limited. 

ABOUT THE TRIVIA NIGHT

We are hosting a pub style trivia night! Each table is a team. You can bring your friends or family be apart of your team or be prepared to join a team when you get here. You and your team will work together to correctly answer as many questions as possible. Put prepared for a few twists during the night! 

ABOUT THE DECK

This fun and challenging game offers hip-hop listeners 200 questions to test their knowledge of the genre! Set includes:

• Trivia Deck: 50 full-color printed cards filled with trivia questions (4 per card, for a total of 200 questions)
• Range of Eras and Subjects: Questions on hip-hop history cover a range of subjects from iconic album releases to key players to little known facts, from hip-hop's birth in the Bronx through modern day; cards measure 3 x 5 inches
• Keepsake Box: Cards are housed in full-color printed keepsake box with magnetic closure
• Entertain Like a Pro: This game works for solo play as well as groups of 2, 3, or more
• Perfect Gift: A fun and meaningful deck for anyone who appreciates this iconic genre

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kiana Fitzgerald is a freelance music journalist, cultural critic, and DJ. Her writing credits include Billboard, The Cut, NPR, Complex, Nylon Magazine, and Rolling Stone, among other publications. She writes for the world from deep in the heart of Texas.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

The bookclub meeting will take place on September 27, 2023 at 7:30PM in the Kindred Stories Reading Garden. Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read) but you are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

Please support the space and opportunities we create by purchasing the book from our store. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Join us as we celebrate the release of Thieves' Gambit with debut author, Kayvion Lewis! 

EVENT DEETS

When: Thursday, September 28 at 7PM

Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden

How: RSVP ONLY to grab your free seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your copy of Thieves' Gambit and support our programming

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Kayvion Lewis is a young adult author of all things escapist and high-octane. A former youth services librarian, she’s been working with young readers and kidlit since she was sixteen. When she’s not writing, she’s breaking out of escape rooms, jumping out of airplanes, and occasionally running away to mountain retreats to study kung fu. Though she’s originally from Louisiana, and often visits her family in The Bahamas, these days you can find her in New York—at least until she takes off on her next adventure.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Join us as we celebrate Houston's own, Rinny Perkins and her new book, Not Everyone is Going to Like You! 

EVENT DEETS

When: August 22 at 7 PM CST

Where: The Reading Room HTX (401 Franklin St, Houston, TX 77201)

How: RSVP to grab you free ticket or RSVP with book to support the author and our program!

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Rinny Perkins is a performer, multidisciplinary artist, and writer. Her graphic design and installation work nods to '70s ephemera with an emphasis on Black and queer womanhood. Her work has been featured by outlets such as I-D/VICE, Nylon and Teen Vogue.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

deun ivory is a texas-based creative wellness visionary, multidisciplinary artist & photographer whose work centers and celebrates black women. widely known for her ethereal aesthetic & creative ingenuity, ivory curates visual experiences that inspire those who engage with her work to restore and reclaim narratives rooted in self-empowerment, joy & worthiness. ivory draws from the belief that beauty is wellness, which informs her exploration of art, spaces and design as healing mechanisms for marginalized communities. 

as a visionary,  ivory serves as the founder and creative director of two influential brands: the body: a home for love, a 501(c)3 non-profit & black women are worthy, a social impact initiative specializing in conceptual design and immersive art installations. 

ivory has cemented her power and influence as a thought-leader and visual storyteller by working with some of the world’s biggest brands to produce creative projects that have resonated & inspired communities worldwide. some of her clients include: google, facebook, lululemon, HBO, glossier, issa rae, apple, and more. ivory has been featured in vogue, harpers bazaar, essence, glamour magazine and beyond for her impactful contributions & authentic presence in the creative and wellness space. 

ABOUT THE READING ROOM

Founded by Amarie Gipson, The Reading Room is a reference library and creative incubator based in Houston, Texas.

Gipson is a Houston-born art worker, writer and creative entrepreneur. She has held curatorial positions at The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Renaissance Society, the Contemporary Austin and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Independently, her writing has been published in several journals and magazines including Artforum, ARTNews, ARTS.BLACK, Cite, ESSENCE, Gulf Coast, MUD and THE SEEN.

After seven years of travel, Gipson is currently based in her hometown. She created an open-format dance party and community called PHYSICAL THERAPY where she serves as creative director and resident DJ. She is also the former Arts & Culture editor of Houstonia Magazine, where she worked to bring much-needed attention to Houston’s art scene.  

With nearly a decade of experience in the realms of fine art, music and media, Gipson built The Reading Room with a desire to share her deep passion for Black culture. It is a culmination of her professional experience and a labor of love.

The bookclub meeting will take place on August 31, 2023 at 7:30PM in the Kindred Stories Reading Garden. Be sure to show up with the book read (or partially read) but you are always welcome to just come and take up space. 

Please support the space and opportunities we create by purchasing your book from our store. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

We're celebrating Latoya Watkins second book, Holler, Child: Stories! 

EVENT DEETS

When: Thursday, August 31st at 7:30 PM CST

Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Garden

How:  RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and programming. 

ABOUT BOOK

Set in the same Black community in Texas as PERISH, LaToya's debut novel, each story focuses on unique characters that illuminate life in Texas; they offer briliant, heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful perspectives from the women and men in the community, and touch on big themes like race, power, inequality, and more.

In one story, the appearance of a horse in a man's suburban backyard places a former horse breeder in trouble with the police, while in another, following the mass suicide of his entire congregation, the mother of a cult leader tries to honor him in a way she couldn't while he was alive.

Fresh and urgently told, HOLLER, CHILD is a wise follow-up to LaToya's debut novel.- This collection features 11 stories--six of which have been previously published and five of which are entirely new for this collection

ABOUT AUTHOR 

LaToya Watkins’s writing has appeared in A Public Space, The Sun, McSweeney’s, Kenyon Review, The Pushcart Prize Anthology (2015), and elsewhere. She has received grants, scholarships, and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and A Public Space (she was one of their 2018 Emerging Writers Fellows). She holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas. Perish was her debut novel.

ABOUT MODERATOR

Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton is an internationally known writer, educator, activist, and performer and the first Black poet laureate of Houston, Texas. She was formerly ranked the #2 Best Female Performance Poet in the World (PSI). Her recent poetry collection, Newsworthy, garnered her a Pushcart nomination, was named a finalist for the 2019 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award, and received an honorable mention for the Summerlee Book Prize. Its German translation, under the title Berichtenswert, was released in Summer 2021 by Elif Verlag. The opera Marian’s Song, for which she wrote the libretto, debuted in 2020. 

Celebrate the release of Forged by Blood, a Nigerian inspired fantasy novel with debut author, Ehigbor Okosun! 

ABOUT THE EVENT

When: Friday, August 11th at 7:30 PM

Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Garden

How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our programming.

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Come celebrate the new essay collection, Dark Days: Fugitive Essays with National Book Award winner, Roger Reeves! 

EVENT DEETS

When: Friday, August 4 at 7 PM CST

Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden

How:  RSVP ONLY to save your seat or RSVP with ticket to support the author or programming.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A crucial book that calls for community, solidarity, and joy, even in—especially in—these dark days

In his debut work of nonfiction, award-winning poet Roger Reeves finds new meaning in silence, protest, fugitivity, freedom, and ecstasy. Braiding memoir, theory, and criticism, Reeves juxtaposes the images of an opera singer breaking the state-mandated silence curfew by singing out into the streets of Santiago, Chile, and a father teaching his daughter to laugh out loud at the planes dropping bombs on them in Aleppo, Syria. He describes the history of the hush harbor—places where enslaved people could steal away to find silence and court ecstasy, to the side of their impossible conditions. In other essays, Reeves highlights a chapter in Toni Morrison’s Beloved to locate common purpose between Black and Indigenous peoples; he visits the realities of enslaved people on McLeod Plantation, where some of the descendants of those formerly enslaved lived into the 1990s; and he explores his own family history, his learning to read closely through the Pentecostal church tradition, and his passing on of reading as a pleasure, freedom, and solace to his daughter, who is frightened the police will gun them down.

Together, these groundbreaking essays build a profound vision for how to see and experience the world in our present moment, and how to strive toward an alternative existence in intentional community underground. “The peace we fight and search for,” Reeves writes, “begins and ends with being still.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ROGER REEVES is the author of the poetry collections King Me and Best Barbarian. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a 2015 Whiting Award, and Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard University. His essays and poems have appeared in Poetry, the New Yorker, Granta, the Yale Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Austin, Texas.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR