After moving from small-town USA to Hawaii at the tender age of 14, SCUBA diving introduced Tony to a fascinating new world of thrills and adventure that would shape the course of his life forever. He never let the fact that he was the only black kid involved deter him in his quest to explore the underwater world. This autobiography describes the exciting, true, and oftentimes humorous story of how he overcame being the product of a broken family, stereotyping, numerous challenges, several close calls, and countless other eye-opening events to become the only black American commercial deep sea diver to work in the demanding offshore oilfields in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa in the a80s and a90s, where, at the slightest mistake, the rich oil companies were ready to send a diver packing his bags and heading back to shore, never to be hired again.

Twin sisters Hassana and Husseina have always shared their lives. But after a raid on their village in 1892, the twins are torn apart. Taken in different directions, far from their home in rural West Africa, each sister finds freedom and a new start. Hassana settles in in the city of Accra, where she throws herself into working for political and social change. Husseina travels to Salvador, Brazil, where she becomes immersed in faith, worshipping spirits that bridge the motherland and the new world. Separated by an ocean, they forge new families, ward off dangers, and begin to truly know themselves. As the twins pursue their separate paths, they remain connected through their shared dreams. But will they ever manage to find each other again? “Uplifting . . . sizzles with sister-love and magic. What an incredible storyteller!”—Yaba Badoe, author of A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars

Horror fiction--in literature, film and television--display a wealth of potential, and appeal to diverse audiences. The trope of "the black man always dies first" still, however, haunts the genre. This book focuses on the latest cycle of diversity in horror fiction, starting with the release of Get Out in 2017, which inspired a new speculative turn for the genre. Using various critical frameworks like feminism and colonialism, the book also assesses diversity gaps in horror fictions, with an emphasis on marketing and storytelling methodology. Reviewing the canon and definitions of horror may point to influences for future implications of diversity, which has cyclically manifested in horror fictions throughout history. This book studies works from literature, film and television while acknowledging that each of the formats are distinct artforms that complement each other. The author compares diverse representation in novels like The Castle of Otranto, Frankenstein, Fledgling, Broken Monsters and Mexican Gothic. Horror films like Bride of Frankenstein, It Comes at Night, Us and Get Out are also examined. Lastly, the author emphasizes the diverse horror fictions in television, like The Exorcist, Fear the Walking Dead, The Twilight Zone and Castle Rock.

"This is the first book-length project to examine the relationship between blackness, queerness, and hip hop. Using aesthetics as its organizing lens, Hip Hop Heresies attends to the ways that hip hop cultural production in New York City from the 1970s through the first fifteen years of the 21st century produced hip hop cultural products (film, visual art, and music) that offer "queer articulations" of race, gender, and sexuality that are contrary to hegemonic ideas and representations of those categories in hip hop production, as well as in writing about hip hop culture"--

In the early 1970s, César Alvarez enlists in the navy to escape a life of crime; while the decision saves him from the streets, it also lands him amid volatile racial tensions at a crucial moment in US history. "Skillfully blending his fictional hero’s coming-of-age story with a real-life racial confrontation aboard ship, Carter’s tale is a winning combination of military procedural, suspense, and Black history." —Booklist, Starred Review "Taking its title from a nautical term for a conundrum, the novel is a coming-of-age and redemption story about two young Black men going through boot camp, training school and their first assignments in an early 1970s Navy struggling with racism and sexism." —The Oregonian The Vietnam War is raging, the US Navy has only recently begun the process of integration, and the country is reeling from racial turmoil and unrest. So why does César, a street-tough kid of Afro-Cuban descent, enlist in the navy? He is on the run from a life of crime and from Mr. Mike, a charismatic, sociopathic gangster who was once a mentor but has now turned on him. Escaping into a navy wrestling with its history of racism and sexism, César soon sees the absurdity of certain prejudices that seem as old as the US Armed Forces. When he is deployed aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, racial tensions are high and are moving quickly toward violence. Through it all, César’s ever-growing sense of honor and self-worth force him to make moral decisions he never knew he was capable of. It’s a fortitude he will desperately need.

The Civil War stands vivid in the collective memory of the American public. There has always been a profound interest in the subject, and specifically the participation of black Americans in and reactions to the war and the war's outcome. Almost 200,000 African-American soldiers fought for the Union in the Civil War. Although most were illiterate ex-slaves, several thousand were well-educated, free black men from the northern states. The 176 letters in this collection were written by black soldiers in the Union army during the Civil War to black and abolitionist newspapers. They provide a unique expression of the black voice that was meant for a public forum. The letters tell of the men's experiences, their fears and their hopes. They describe in detail their army days - the excitement of combat and the drudgery of digging trenches. Some letters give vivid descriptions of battle; others protest against racism; still others call eloquently for civil rights. Many describe their conviction that they are fighting not only to free the slaves but to earn equal rights as citizens. These letters give an extraordinary picture of the war and also reveal the bright expectations, hopes, and ultimately the demands that black soldiers had for the future - for themselves and for their race. As first-person documents of the Civil War, the letters are strong statements of the American dream of justice and equality, and of the human spirit.

When Satan Comes to New Jersey … A quaint coastal community that prides itself on it's piety, the good people of oceanside Heights shudder collectively at word of the newest fad among local teens: devil worship! Despite rumors that old scratch himself has appeared at their beachside revels, the kids' late-night antics seem more ditsy than dangerous—until ghostwriter Anne Hardway happens upon the corpse of young, would-be witch Abby Podowski. All hell breaks loose … Though a seasoned hand at crime-solving, Anne doesn't want to touch this case. But when the prime murder suspect—an apprentice witchling and grandniece of an elderly friend—disappears, Anne is pulled, against her better judgment, into an eerie, arcane world of black magic. And before a "witch hunt fever" worthy of Salem infects the Heights, she's going to unravel the dark web of murderous secrets and lies that surrounds the satanic activities of the Oceanside young—even if there's the devil to pay.