Sweet Dreams Radio

Author Esi Edugyan introduces us to the life of eleven-year-old George Washington Black—or Wash—a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, who is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master’s brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human.

In this imaginative sci-fi novel, author Rivers Solomon introduces us to Aster who lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot--if she's willing to sow the seeds of civil war.

In her debut novel, author Margaret Wilkerson Sexton captures the emotional changes of one family spanning across three generations in New Orleans - a city impacted by segregation and economic inequality. The book highlights the societal forces at work to undermine Black success and the family unit but sheds light on the enduring love amidst the struggle.

Author Langston Hughes, a powerhouse of the Harlem Renaissance and best known for his poetry, published this debut novel in 1930. 

This stirring coming-of-age tale unfolds in 1930s rural Kansas. A poignant portrait of African-American family life in the early twentieth century, it follows the story of young Sandy Rogers as he grows from a boy to a man. It is a vivid exploration of growing up in a racially divided society, with an absentee father, and strong female figures. A rich and important work, it masterfully echoes the black American experience.

Bringing together fourteen African-American women, author Marita Golden has compiled saucy and spicy essays that serve as an exploration into the contemporary black female psyche.  These essays - nine of which were written expressly for this book - range in style and content from Audre Lorde's now-classic polemic on eroticism to Miriam DeCosta-Willis's moving essay about her husband to Audrey B. Chapman's hopeful "Black Men Do Feel About Love." 

In this novel, author Octavia Butler explores the dynamics and dilemmas of antebellum slavery from the sensibility of a time-traveling late 20th-century black woman, who is aware of its legacy in contemporary American society. 

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South where she has encounters with her ancestors and becomes entangled in the plantation community. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous. 

Author Tanisha Alston captures the literal (and sometimes not so literal) varying ranges of emotion of the title in this collection of eight short stories.

Bringing to life rich characters experiencing various degrees of love, loss, and being found, Love, Loss, Found weaves together stories that take the reader on an emotional journey. Characters shine and envelop the reader in stories that highlight the discovery and loss of love, the mourning of old lives left behind, revelations of new lives to be found, and enduring the delicate, difficult layers of grief.

Tanisha's work has appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia City Paper, and featured on Allhiphop.com and HipHopDx.com. She lives in the Philadelphia area; this is her first short story collection.

In this award-winning novel, Jamaican author Nicole Dennis-Benn explores the lives of two sisters who are fifteen years apart, with eldest sister Margot working to help make a better life for the youngest by becoming a sex worker. Thandi, the younger sister battles with what's expected of her versus what she really wants for her life moving forward. The sisters' tales intertwine with the story of their abusive mother, Delores. This novel deals with the intricacies of love, race, colorism, wealth inequality, and the tourism industry on the beautiful island of Jamaica. 

In this novel, loosely based on the life of Willie Francis, a young Black man twice sentenced to the electric chair, author Ernest J. Gaines poses the question - Knowing we're going to die, how should we live? It's the story of an uneducated young black man named Jefferson, accused of the murder of a white storekeeper, and Grant Wiggins, a college-educated native son of Louisiana, who teaches at a plantation school. These two men, named for presidents, discover a friendship that transforms at least two lives.

Gains was born into a sharecropper family on a plantation in Pointe Coupe Parish, Louisiana. His upbringing would become the backdrop for several of his later works, including 'A Lesson Before Dying'. An award-winning author, Gaines served as the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Louisiana Lafayette for nearly twenty years and also taught a creative writing class at the University of Rennes in France. 

Colin Channer is a Jamaican born author, musician, and philanthropist. His writing style taps into spiritual, sensual, and social themes presented from a literary perspective, and as such, he has been referred to as "Bob Marley with a pen". 

In Satisfy My Soul, Carey McCullough is a playwright, whose life undergoes a dramatic change when he meets Frances, a former singer and member of a mystical African tribe. A one night stand quickly binds them not only by love and attraction but by history. 

This read is for adult ears only!