Enslaved African Americans longed for freedom, and that longing took many forms including music. Drawing on biblical imagery, slave songs both expressed the sorrow of life in bondage and offered a rallying cry for the spirit. Like a Bird brings together text, music, and illustrations by Coretta Scott King Award-winning illustrator Michele Wood to convey the rich meaning behind thirteen of these powerful songs.

Presents the legends, songs, and sayings of Uncle Remus, following the text of the first edition of Joel Chandler Harris' attempt to record traditional black stories of his time.

The entire field of American folk poetry covering more than one hundred songs, including both words and music, is represented in this collection.

In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary, part music film, part historical record, created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture, and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was largely forgotten,...

A tale inspired by true events traces the experiences of a talented singer who wants to escape her all-white community before catching the attention of an R&B star who gives her access to fame and luxury in exchange for unscrupulous sacrifices.

First published in 1867, Slave Songs of the United States represents the work of its three editors, all of whom collected and annotated these songs while working in the Sea Islands of South Carolina during the Civil War, and also of other collectors who transcribed songs sung by former slaves in other parts of the country. The transcriptions are preceded by an introduction written by William Francis Allen, the chief editor of the collection, who provides...

Dorinda's dance teacher tells her that she's got what it takes to audition as a back-up dancer for the singing sensation Money Monique. This is Dorinda's chance to really make it. But since Dorinda has always been the best dancer in the Cheetah Girls, she's been the one to make up the group's phat" dance moves. If she gets chosen to tour with Money Monique, she'll have to leave the Cheetah Girls and Mrs. Bosco, her foster mother, behind.

Elizabeth Cotten was only a little girl when she picked up a guitar for the first time. It wasn't hers (it was her big brother's), and it wasn't strung right for her (she was left-handed). But she flipped that guitar upside down and backwards and taught herself how to play it anyway. By age eleven, she'd written "Freight Train," one of the most famous folk songs of the twentieth century. And by the end of her life, people everywhere from the sunny...

"Empowering and encouraging, this picture book biography of the first nationally known African American fashion designer, who dressed millionaires and movie stars, details her creative process as well as the obstacles she overcame to become the best"--

"Black American jazz drummer William Henry "Chick" Webb led one of the big bands of the swing era, earning him the nickname the "King of the Savoy.""--