Having lost her one true love, the mature but stunning Isabella marries the starchy but well-respected pediatrician Langley Morrison, hoping he will care for her and her young daughter, Desiree. For years, things look perfect from the outside for the Morrison women, but cracks in the surface appear when Desiree, now a thirty-something, single but sassy professional, holds secrets that affect her relationships with her parents and with men. Armed with the dismal marriage prospect statistics for African American women, Desiree decides that she needs to help God out by embarking upon a dangerous online dating escapade. Isabella wonders if her faith can withstand her own broken marriage, revelations from her daughter, and a devastating diagnosis. Desiree questions if God really will give her the desires of her heart. Through it all, the mother and daughter journey to find the strength to push beyond the pain of the past, into an uncertain future with an all-knowing God.

Every Closed Eye Ain't Sleep examines the origins and perpetuation of the achievement gap from the perspective of the African American community.

Doll was a high-heel wearing, sophisticated, comilla of a woman who moved next door to the Kirby's. Without a thought, Louise fell for Doll's glitz and city ways. Unbeknowned to Louise, what she was falling for was a man's best friend.

Every Closed Eye Ain't Sleep: African American Perspectives on the Achievement Gap examines the origins and perpetuation of the achievement gap from the perspective of the African American community. Instead of accepting the achievement gap as an inevitable matter of fact, Every Closed Eye Ain't Sleep questions the fundamental beliefs that perpetuate the gap. Drawing on dialogue with African American community members, Teresa Hill advances a framework for understanding a predominant African American view of the educational process. She then juxtaposes this framework with the norms perpetrated by the educational establishment to demonstrate how disagreements about the roles and responsibilities of parents, teachers and students affect community members' experiences in schools. Every Closed Eye Ain't Sleep opens a dialogue about the achievement gap on different terms, analyzes the gap as an issue of social justice, and provides educational leaders and policymakers with ways to engage in the productive dialogue necessary to improve education for African American children.

A collection of postwar African-American poetry showcases the works of such poets as Derek Walcott, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, Gwendolyn Brooks, Audre Lorde, and others.

Dancing through the Storm focuses on these concepts: You can recognize and resist abuse in relationships. Love can only be expressed properly through knowing God intimately and knowing yourself. A healthy relationship doesnt just happen. It is the fruit resulting from heeding the promptings of the Holy Spirit and applying Gods Word in every situation. Marriage is a God thing, created by God before sin entered the world. A blessed marriage is a synthesis of three not two because Christ is to be the head. Through Christ, you can fully recover from an abusive situation.

a word from . . . Karama SadakaSometimes even the greatest of ideas can suffer from lack of planning and flawed execution. This was NOT the case however with The Poetic Idol Competition. From the competitors themselves all the way over to the judges, everyone gave it their all from the moment the mic was first opened allowing us to share and be inspired. Some of us called in from the road, our jobs and even from the hospital (yikes!). We laughed, we cried, screamed and shouted, but we all came away each week feeling like we truly shared a moving experience. In the end, it was something I personally won't forget anytime soon and I have no doubt it will be even better next "season". Please enjoy the offerings from our community presented here.Karama Sadaka

"Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity ... An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now ... neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming"--Amazon.com.

Dead. Some evils are so great that they transcend death. In Brandon Massey's "The Patriarch," a young writer travels to the hushed backwoods of Mississippi, where dangerous secrets surface as a generations-old feud comes to bone-chilling new life. . . Buried. The souls of the mistreated always find a way to be heard. In L.A. Banks's "Ev'ry Shut Eye Ain't Sleep," violent visions haunt a man--until he's handed an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past and prevent unspeakable acts from occurring once again. . . Forgotten. When horrors are covered up and lost, our ancestors must find a way--even in death--to tell their tales. In Tananarive Due's "Ghost Summer," ancestors haunt the nights of two children. And when a grisly discovery is made, these ancestors will make their mark on both the dead and the living. . . "Massey ventures into areas unexplored by most other black novelists. The result is artful and stunning." --Chicago Tribune "Tananarive Due is creating classics." --Tina McElroy Ansa "Banks's writing is lush and detailed, fully bringing her characters to life (or unlife), weaving a complex world of Good vs. Evil with its own intricate hierarchy." --Fangoria Magazine