"Ralph Ellison may be the preeminent African-American author of the twentieth century, though he published only one novel, 1952's Invisible Man. He enjoyed a highly successful career in American letters, publishing two collections of essays, teaching at several colleges and universities, and writing dozens of pieces for newspapers and magazines, yet Ellison never published the second novel he had been composing for more than forty years. A 1967 fire...

The Grammy Award-winning recording artist and actor shares the story of his life, from his youth on Chicago's South side and rise in the hip-hop industry to his movie appearances and the lessons he has learned as a son and a father.

Rap has emerged as one of the most influential cultural forces of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In this work, the editors demonstrate that rap is also a wide reaching and vital poetic tradition born of beats and rhymes. This pioneering anthology brings together more than three hundred lyrics written over thirty years, from the "old school" to the "golden age" to the 2000s. Rather than aim for encyclopedic coverage, the editors render through...