Black Art Is Lit | Black Literature, Culture and Iconic Stories

This week on Black Art Is Lit, we’re reading We Listen & We Don’t Judge by Tony Lamair Burks II.

In this episode, we move through the chapter and sit with what it asks of us. Not just what we think—but what we would do when there isn’t enough time, enough information, or an option that satisfies everyone.

We explore:

• what it means to make decisions under pressure

• why there is no such thing as a neutral choice

• how power shows up in adult and student dynamics

• and who we choose to center when it matters most

While rooted in education, this conversation extends far beyond the classroom. These are the same tensions that show up anywhere people are sharing space and making decisions that impact others.

If you’ve ever had to make a call that affected someone else, this episode will sit with you.

Black Art Is Lit is a podcast dedicated to reading, reflecting, and discussing Black literature—one chapter at a time.

What happens when the horrors of history take on a supernatural form?

In this episode of Black Art is Lit, Nykieria Chaney reads the opening chapter of Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark, a powerful work of Black speculative fiction that blends horror, folklore, and history in the American South.

The story opens in downtown Macon, where three Black women quietly observe a Ku Klux Klan rally. But what unfolds next reveals something far more dangerous beneath the surface. Clark reimagines the violence of the past through supernatural storytelling, creating a world where evil is monstrous and Black women stand as the ones willing to confront it.

This episode will resonate with listeners interested in Black literature, Black horror, speculative fiction, historical fantasy, and stories that reclaim the narrative through powerful Black protagonists.

Listen in, slow down, and step inside the story.

Because every story deserves to be heard… Black Art is Lit.

This week on BlackArt Is Lit, we’re reading Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge, ahistorical fiction novel set in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn.

A disciplined Black community. Dangerous medical work. Secrecy as survival.

Libertie is growing up under a respected physician mother who can nearly pass. Libertie cannot. After the rescue of Mr. Ben, the stakes become clear and childhood quietly starts to close.

This episode explores the novel’s opening pages, including themes of colorism, Black identity, generational pressure, Haitian lineage, organized resistance networks, and what it means to inherit a version of freedom that may not fit you.

If you’re reading along:        Pay attention to who has access and who does not

Notice how information is controlled

Consider how skin tone shifts mobility insidethe community

If you’ve already read Libertie:
Did you read the mother as protection or control
When did you first see the fracture forming

Follow the show, share the episode with someone who reads historical fiction or literature, and join the conversation.

In this episode of Black Art Is Lit, Nykieria Chaney introduces Burn Down Master’s House by Clay Cane. This historical novel takes place during American slavery and focuses on power, resistance, and the economic system that supported bondage.

Within the plantation system, human life is measured by productivity and controlled through both force and narrative.  Early tensions around breeding, value, and misinformation surface quickly, revealing how deeply structured this world is.

As the story starts, bigger questions emerge. Why do we remember systems of domination more than the organized movements that fought against them? How has misinformation shaped what is remembered and what is erased? Who controls the story?

This week on Black Art Is Lit, we begin Loving Donovan by Bernice L. McFadden.

The opening chapter introduces us to admiration, alignment, and the quiet power of first impressions. Everything feels measured. Intentional. Almost seamless.

But sometimes desire edits our perception, and first chapters are rarely innocent.

As we read, consider what it means to want stability, to be drawn to polish, to trust what appears composed on the surface. What do we notice when we first meet someone? And what do we unconsciously excuse? Not everything announces itself loudly. Some stories move quietly.

If you enjoy reading book club discussions, thoughtful literary analysis, and reading the first chapter before committing to the full novel, Black Art is Lit podcast invites you to slow down and pay attention to the details.

In this episode of Black Art is Lit, we're diving into the opening chapter of Deesha Philyaw's award-winning collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.

This book resonated with women because it tells the truth about the collision between desire and respectability in church spaces. It's specific, the church mothers, the unspoken rules, the particular texture of shame and grace that shapes Black women's lives. Philyaw gives us permission to see these women as fully human: messy, sexual, faithful, complicated, and real.

This isn't a story that eases you in. It names what we've always felt but never heard said out loud. The secrets. The double lives. The desires that don't fit the narrative we were given about who we're supposed to be.

What does it mean when two women who identify as straight are having sex with each other? When labels matter more than actions? When the rules shaping how you see yourself aren't even your own?

Did the honesty feel freeing or unsettling? Let's talk about it.

This week on Black Art is Lit,we’re reading Straight, No Chaser by Jill Nelson.

Written in a moment when Black womenwere navigating media, work, relationships, and public life under intensescrutiny, this book speaks to pressures that still feel familiar today.Expectations around appearance. Respectability. Who is allowed authority. Whois expected to soften. Who is punished for clarity.

Nelson writes from inside institutionsthat shaped public opinion while quietly limiting who could define it. Hervoice is direct, unsparing, and deeply aware of how power moves. Throughout thebook, personal history sits alongside cultural critique, gender politics,labor, media, and the cost of visibility. 

She also places herself in conversationwith women like Angela Davis, invoking a lineage of Black women whose intellectwas never separate from how their bodies were read, regulated, and politicized.That connection feels especially relevant now, as conversations about voice,image, authority, and dissent continue to shape the political atmosphere in theUnited States. 

Subscribe to Black Art is Lit forweekly readings that trust the listener to think, feel, and decide forthemselves.

In this episode ofBlack Art Is Lit, we open Mama Day by Gloria Naylor and step into the world ofWillow Springs, a Black community shaped by memory, tradition, and spiritualinheritance.

First published in1988, Mama Day explores traditions within the Black community that wereunderstood without needing to be spoken aloud. Naylor writes from a place ofcultural knowing, creating space for community, belief, and responsibilitywithout performance or apology. More importantly, the opening pages teach ushow to listen closely, not just to what is said, but to what is left unsaid.

Each week on Black ArtIs Lit, we read the first chapter of a book that shaped the culture and sharethe conversations it opens. Follow and subscribe for weekly episodes centeredon culture, literature, and the stories that continue to influence how we understandourselves.

In this episode of Black Art is Lit, we dive into Invisible Life, the groundbreaking debut novel by E. Lynn Harris that helped redefine Black literature in the 1990s and beyond.

Invisible Life was self-published in 1991 after repeated industry rejection and went on to become a bestseller, launching an entire series and solidifying E. Lynn Harris as one of the most influential Black novelists of his generation. His work carved out space for Black queer storytelling in mainstream publishing and proved there was a large, loyal audience hungry for these stories long before the industry acknowledged it.

In this episode, we reflect on Harris’s boldness, his cultural impact, and the doors his work opened for future Black and LGBTQ writers. This is a book podcast episode centered on Black authors, Black storytelling, and the power of literature to document the lives and truths that history often ignores.

Black Art is Lit is a podcast dedicated to the stories that shape our culture. Follow the show for weekly readings, literary reflections, and conversations that honor art without watering it down.