In Episode #99 Lissa talks with Author Debra J Stone about her new middle grade novel, The House on Rondo (University of Minnesota Press).

Rooted in the lived histories of Minnesota's Black communities, The House on Rondo offers a deeply personal window into the destruction of a thriving neighborhood through the eyes of a young Black girl coming of age during an era of national civil rights protests. As Zenobia joins forces with her neighbor, the unforgettable former cowgirl Mrs. Ruby Pearl, to fight against the demolition of her grandparents' home to make way for the new interstate highway, readers witness not just the heartbreak of displacement but also the power of community, protest, and memory.

Our production team for this episode includes co-producers Lissa Jones and Edie French, technical director Paul Auguston, the voice Yo Derek, and our artist of inspiration Ta-coumba T. Aiken. Black Market Reads is produced by The Givens Foundation for African American Literature in partnership with iDream.tv.

For more information and context visit https://blackmarketreads.com/

Adela Woods is sixteen years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother's home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, who weighs an abortion in the heart of the South; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone's red truck.

In this episode Lissa talks with author Leila Mottley about her latest novel The Girls Who Grew Big (Alfred Knopf 2025).

Leila Mottley is the author of the novel Nightcrawling, an Oprah's Book Club pick and New York Times best seller, and the poetry collection woke up no light. Her sophomore novel, The Girls Who Grew Big, is forthcoming in June 2025. She was also the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate. She was born and raised in Oakland, where she continues to live.

For GO DEEPER information about Leila and other topics visit www.BlackMarketReads.com

Looking forward to an intriguing summer read, Lissa talks with author Valerie Burns about her latest work.

Packed with a delicious mix of cake, chaos, and crime, Icing on the Murder is a page-turner that's sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats and leave them craving more!

In this fourth installment of the Baker Street Mystery series, influencer-turned-bakery-owner Maddy Montgomery is preparing for her dream wedding, but before she can say "I do" to her fiancé, veterinarian Michael Portman, she must first solve a murder that threatens to ruin her big day.

When world-renowned wedding planner Serafina is found impaled by one of Baby Cakes Bakery's wedding cake skewers, Maddy and her trusted crew—along with a little help from her 250-pound Mastiff, Baby—take on the case. But can they unmask the killer in time for wedding bells to ring?

Learn more: www.BlackMarketReads.com

Ink, Identity, and Imagination: Literature as a Catalyst for Black Determination was the plenary discussion for From Resistance to Resilience: The Evolution of African American Reading, The Givens Foundation's Annual Conference held June 3, 2025 at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

Moderator: Gevonee Ford, founder of the Network for the Development of Children of African Descent

Panelists: Dr. Duchess Harris, scholar, author and curator of The Duchess Harris Collection, Dr. Ebony Aya, founder of the Aya Collective, and Tish Jones, poet and Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks

Enjoy additional conference recordings and highlights:

Duchess Harris, professor and author, was a presenter at From Resistance to Resilience: The Evolution of African American Reading, The Givens Foundation for African American Literature's annual conference, held on June 3, 2025 at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

In this engaging workshop, Dr. Harris addresses The Unwritten Curriculum: How Erasure in Literature Fuels Inequity, as she talks about her trajectory as an author, and the banning of her books.

Visit BlackMarketReads.com to hear from conference Keynote Dr. Luke Wood, President of Sacramento State University and creator of the first Black Honors College.

Dr. Luke Woods was the Keynote speaker at the Givens Foundation's annual conference conference,

Dr. Luke Wood returned to his alma mater, Sacramento State to become its ninth president on July 16th, 2023. A nationally renowned scholar on racial equity with a specific focus on early childhood education and community colleges.

Dr. Wood has authored or co-authored 16 books and published nearly 200 articles, focusing on racial inequity in education. Dr. Woods' bold vision for the university includes 23 strategic action items, including the creation of the Nation's First Black Honors College, which welcomed its inaugural class of scholars in the fall of 2024.

President Wood holds a bachelor's degree in Black history and Politics and a Master's degree in higher education leadership from Sacramento State and a master of Education in Early Childhood Education, and a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies with a higher education concentration from Arizona State University.

"From Resistance to Resilience: The Evolution of African American Reading," was an extraordinary opportunity to champion literacy, cultural equity, and social justice. Held on June 3, 2025, this event was made possible through the generous support of the Minnesota Humanities Center.

In this episode Lissa talks with author Rickey Fayne about deep philosophical questions inspired by his latest novel The Devil Three Times (Hachette Book Group, May 2025). Rickey Fayne is a fiction writer from rural West Tennessee whose work has appeared in American Short Fiction, Guernica, The Sewanee Review, and The Kenyon Review, among other magazines. He holds an MA in English from Northwestern University and an MFA in Fiction from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. His writing embodies his Black, Southern upbringing in order to reimagine and honor his ancestors' experiences. This episode was recorded at Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis, MN.

Visit www.BlackMarketReads.com

Our production team for this episode includes co-producers Lissa Jones and Edie French, technical director Paul Auguston, the voice Yo Derek, and our artist of inspiration Ta-coumba T. Aiken. We thank Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota for supporting this series focusing on the intersection of health, race, and culture.

In this episode, Lissa Jones welcomes playright Pearl Cleage back to Black Market Reads as they talk about her play The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First 100 Years, playing at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis April 19-May 29, 2025.

SYNOPSIS Grande dames Grace Dunbar and Catherine Green prepare for the Nacirema Society's 1964 centennial cotillion — the event of the season in Montgomery, Alabama. The elegant African American debutantes include Grace's granddaughter Gracie, escorted by Catherine's grandson Bobby, and the two grandmothers hope the young couple will soon be engaged. But Gracie and Bobby have other ideas. As the young ladies prepare for their debuts, a blackmail scheme brews behind the scenes and subterfuges unfold, all under the nose of a skeptical reporter covering the ball. Featuring clever storytelling and scandalous plots, this lighthearted comedy winds its way to an ending as charming as its characters.

Our production team for this episode includes co producers Lissa Jones and Edie French, technical director Paul Auguston, the voice Yo Derek, and our artist of inspiration Ta-coumba T. Aiken. We thank Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota for supporting this series focusing on the intersection of health, race, and culture. This is Black Market Reads.

In this episode Lissa talks with Dr. Gail C. Christopher —a nationally recognized leader in health equity, a pioneer in integrative medicine, and the visionary architect behind the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation initiative (TRHT). Dr. Christopher has spent decades designing and leading national programs that advance racial healing, community well-being, and policy change—including her role as Senior Advisor and Vice President at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. She is also the Executive Director of the National Collaborative for Health Equity. She joins us today to discuss her new book, Rx Racial Healing: A Guide to Embracing Our Humanity—a guidebook, a meditation, and a call to action all in one.

For GO DEEPER information, Visit: www.BlackMarketReads.com

Our production team for this episode includes co producers Lissa Jones and Edie French, technical director Paul Auguston, the voice Yo Derek, and our artist of inspiration Ta-coumba T. Aiken. Black Market Reads is a production of the Givens Foundation for African American Literature produced in cooperation with iDream.tv. We thank Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota for supporting this series, focusing on the intersection of health, race, and culture. This is Black Market Reads. The struggle continues.

Join Lissa and Lisa as they delve into subjects psycological and literary.

Lisa Williamson Rosenberg is the author of Embers on the Wind and Mirror Me (Little A Publishing 2024). She is a former ballet dancer and psychotherapist specializing in depression, developmental trauma, and multiracial identity. Her essays have appeared in Literary Hub, Longreads, Narratively, Mamalode, and The Common. Her fiction has been published in the Piltdown Review and in Literary Mama, where Lisa received a Pushcart nomination. A born-and-raised New Yorker and mother of two college students, Lisa now lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband and dog.

Mirror Me is her second novel.

Synopsis: Eddie Asher arrives at Hudson Valley Psychiatric Hospital panicked that he may have murdered his brother's fiancée, Lucy, with whom he shared a profound kinship. He can't imagine doing such a terrible thing, but Eddie hasn't been himself lately.

Eddie's anxiety is nothing new to Pär, the one Eddie calls his Other, who protects Eddie from truths he's too sensitive to face. Or so Pär says. Troubled by Pär's increasing sway over his life, Eddie seeks out Dr. Richard Montgomery, a specialist in dissociative identities. The psychiatrist is Eddie's best chance for piecing together the puzzle of what really happened to Lucy and to understanding his inexplicable memories of another man's life.

But Montgomery's methods trigger a kaleidoscope of memories that Pär can't contain, bringing Eddie closer to an unimaginable truth about his identity.