Major Health Crisis Among Black Women Generated from Systemic Racism "Marita Golden's The Strong Black Woman busts the myth that Black women are fierce and resilient by letting the reader in under the mask that proclaims 'Black don't crack.'" Karen Arrington, coach, mentor, philanthropist, and author of NAACP Image Award-winning Your Next Level Life Sarton Women's Book Award #1 New Release in Reference Meet Black women who have learned through hard lessons the importance of self-care and how to break through the cultural and family resistance to seeking therapy and professional mental health care. The Strong Black Woman Syndrome. For generations, in response to systemic racism, Black women and African American culture created the persona of the Strong Black Woman, a woman who, motivated by service and sacrifice, handles, manages, and overcomes any problem, any obstacle. The syndrome calls on Black women to be the problem-solvers and chief caretakers for everyone in their lives never buckling, never feeling vulnerable, and never bothering with their pain. Hidden mental health crisis of anxiety and depression. To be a Black woman in America is to know you cannot protect your children or guarantee their safety, your value is consistently questioned, and even being "twice as good" is often not good enough. Consequently, Black women disproportionately experience anxiety and depression. Studies now conclusively connect racism and mental health and physical health. Take care of your emotional health. You deserve to be emotionally healthy for yourself and those you love. More and more young Black women are re-examining the Strong Black Woman syndrome and engaging in self-care practices that change their lives. Hear stories of Black women who: Asked for help Built lives that offer healing Learned to accept healing If you have read The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health, The Racial Healing Handbook, or Black Fatigue, The Strong Black Woman is your next read.

Raising Black Teen Boys in Turbulent Times "It is always heartening to see women step up to the writer's table. When the results are as adroit and affecting as Marita Golden's work, it is more than satisfying; it is a cause for celebration."-Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate Two decades ago, Marita was the first Black writer to address the horrifying statistic that haunts all Black mothers: the leading cause of death among Black males under twenty-one is homicide. Today, police brutality rages on as millions call for the reformation of our broken law enforcement in the wake of the traumatic murders of Black teen boys like Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Daunte Wright. Read an intimate account of a mother's efforts to save her son. Writing her son's story against the backdrop of a society plagued by systemic racism, economic inequality, and mass incarceration, Golden offers a form of witness and testimony in a time of crisis for Black Americans. Learn how to grapple with the realities of Black America. Join Golden as she confronts the root causes of violence inflicted upon Black teen boys and reassesses the legacy of her own generation's struggle for civil rights. Explore Black boys' difficult road to adulthood in the U.S. and learn why single Black mothers are often wrongly blamed for their sons' actions. Gain invaluable advice and knowledge from trustworthy sources. In Saving Our Sons, Golden documents her conversations with psychologists, writers, and young Black males themselves. This book is designed to help you: Discuss and unpack generational trauma with loved ones Gain deeper insight into the injustices Black children face in the U.S. Recognize the importance of community for the success of Black teen boys If you liked Decoding Boys, Mother & Son: Our Back & Forth Journal, The Boy Crisis or Boy Mom, you'll love Saving Our Sons.

Healthy Habits to Become the Strong Black WomenMarita Golden, a prominent interviewee of Oprah Winfrey, wrote this mental and physical health guide for women to learn who they are, to set healthy boundaries, and to jump into health related fitness practices to balance out their daily lives. Know Yourself. Jump start your relationship with yourself. Renowned author Marita Golden goes in-depth on how using meditation, silence, prayer, affirmations, and reflections allows for internal trust and confidence to blossom in your daily life.  Set Boundaries. Setting boundaries can be difficult but they are necessary to living life as a strong woman in today’s world. Everyone else’s burdens are not yours to carry and no, you don’t have to fix everyone you come across! Learn how to set emotional boundaries, physical boundaries, and other boundaries to live freely. Inside, you’ll find: Healthy habits to reconnect with your inner self, your body, and those around you An empowering book for women to learn how to take back their lives one day at a time A mental health guide for women, black women affirmations, and reflection points to develop holistic wellness If you're looking for mental health books for young adults and/or the strong black women in your life, this book is for you! If you enjoyed Set Boundaries, Find Peace, How we Heal, This Is How You Heal or You Are Your Best Thing, you’ll love The New Black Woman.

In The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen, whose career flamed brightly but briefly in the 1920s, we rediscover one of the most gifted writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

Nella Larsen's subject is the struggle of sensitive, spirited heroines to find a place for themselves in a hostile world. Passing is the story of a light-skinned beauty who, after spending years passing for white, finds herself dangerously drawn to an old friend's Harlem neighborhood. In Quicksand, a restless young mulatto tries desperately to find a comfortable place in a world in which she sees herself as a perpetual outsider. Race and marriage offer few securities here or in the other stories in a collection that is compellingly readable, rich in psychological complexity, and imbued with a sense of place that brings Harlem vibrantly to life.

A collection of essays that comprise a literary memoir, how Marita Golden became a successful author and the personal and professional influences on her writer's journey.

In her long-awaited fifth novel, acclaimed writer Marita Golden takes another unflinching look into the face of family, race, love and identity.
For twelve years Carson Blake inhabited a world of his own creation. Scorned by the father who was incapable of showing him affection and nearly consumed by the mean streets of Prince George's County, Maryland, Carson did what no one else could: he saved himself.
After joining the police force and building a family with his wife, Bunny, Carson is finally in control of his life in the enclave where African American wealth and privilege shares the same zip code with black American crime and tragedy. Both Carson and his wife have great careers and three beautiful children: Roslyn, Roseanne, and Juwan. Carson is a devoted father, determined not to be the father that Jimmy Blake was to him. But while Juwan's astounding artistic talent is his father's pride, the boy's close relationship with classmate Will conjures up emotions and questions in Carson that threaten to spill over and poison the entire Blake family.
And then, one night in March, nearing the end of a routine shift, Carson stops a young black man for speeding. He orders Paul Houston to exit the car and drop to his knees. But when Houston retrieves something from his waistband and turns to face Carson, three shots are fired, one man loses his life and two families are wrenched from everything that came before and hurled into the haunting future of everything that will come after. When it is revealed that Paul, a son of educators and a teacher in Southeast D.C., was only holding a cell phone, Carson's carefully woven world begins to unravel.
"After" is a penetrating work of discovery for a man whose life careens more than once off the edge of disaster. Golden's astounding prose" "will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.

""Don't play in the sun. You're going to have to get a light-skinned husband for the sake of your children as it is."
"In these words from her mother, novelist and memoirist Marita Golden learned as a girl that she was the wrong color. Her mother had absorbed "colorism" without thinking about it. But, as Golden shows in this provocative book, biases based on skin color persist-and so do their long-lasting repercussions.
Golden recalls deciding against a distinguished black university because she didn't want to worry about whether she was light enough to be homecoming queen. A male friend bitterly remembers that he was teased about his girlfriend because she was too dark for him. Even now, when she attends a party full of accomplished black men and their wives, Golden wonders why those wives are all nearly white. From Halle Berry to Michael Jackson, from Nigeria to Cuba, from what she sees in the mirror to what she notices about the Grammys, Golden exposes the many facets of "colorism" and their effect on American culture. Part memoir, part cultural history, and part analysis, Don't Play in the Sun also dramatizes one accomplished black woman's inner journey from self-loathing to self-acceptance and pride.

A literary rent party to benefit the Hurston/Wright Foundation of African-American fiction, with selections to savor from bestselling authors as well as talented rising stars.

Not since Terry McMillan’s Breaking Ice have so many African-American writers been brought together in one volume. A stellar collection of works from more than fifty hot names in fiction, Gumbo represents remarkable synergy. Edited by bestselling luminaries Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris, this collection spans new and previously published tales of love and luck, inspiration and violation, hip new worlds and hallowed heritage from voices such as:

• Edwidge Danticat
• Eric Jerome Dickey
• Kenji Jasper
• John Edgar Wideman
• Terry McMillan
• David Anthony Durham
• Bertice Berry
…and many, many more

Also featuring original stories by Golden and Harris themselves, Gumbo heralds the debut of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards for Published Black Writers (scheduled for October 2002), and all advances and royalties from the book will support the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Combining authors with a variety of flavorful writing, Gumbo will have readers clamoring for second helpings.

Single motherhood and the children of single mothers have been the subject of overwhelmingly negative statistical analysis. Male children raised in single parent homes perform less well in school and have more trouble with the law; girls raised in single-parent homes more frequently get pregnant in their teens and often have problems bonding emotionally with men. But, Marita Golden asks in her inspiring new book, where is the complementary data? Where are the studies that analyze single-parent families for the strengths of the mothers, the positive coping and adaptive skills learned by the children, the support systems that help these families work?

"A Miracle Every Day" offers a close-up on the faces that inhabit the positive side of the numbers game, the people who defy the stereotypes. A collection of inspirational anecdotes, this uplifting book sends a positive message to single mothers and all those who have cast such a negative eye on them for so long. What Girlfriends did for friendship, Marita Golden does for flourishing single-mother families in "A Miracle Every Day", gathering these families' stories from her interviews and identifying the major internal and external resources they share. In so doing, she bestows a sense of self-esteem and confidence to her reader-mothers who often internalize the negative attitudes and prejudices of a society that barely gives them a chance.

In this fiercely lyrical and revealing narrative, the author of Wild Women Don't Wear No Blues has created a work of profound and lasting importance--a book that sensitively and uniquely addresses the problems of boyhood and emerging manhood. "Golden's complex and heartfelt understanding of life in the 'hood will stir your soul".--Entertainment Weekly.

"An engaging saga of unconditional friendship, love, and foregiveness...Golden's style is modern, refreshing and accurately captures a slice of African-American life."
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
In the exciting, yet frightening days of Freedom Summer in 1963, two very different African-American women meet, each to discover in the other an elegant completion of herself. Jessie, running from her sexually abusive father and distant mother, is a born actress. In the movement she discovers an unknown world of personal freedom that could shape her into an extraordinary talent or destroy her from within. Macon, beautiful, fearless, and brilliant, knows she is too good to settle for less than she's worth, but her activism threatens the man she loves.
In a vital time of politics and passion, dedication and distress, two women struggle to recreate themselves and their world--and learn to love the fight.

Bringing together fourteen African-American women, Marita Golden has compiled saucy and spicy essays that serve as an exploration into the contemporary black female psyche. Ranging in style from Audre Lorde's classic polemic on eroticism to Miriam DeCosta Willis's deeply moving essay on her husband's last years, "every single one of these essays is terrific." -- The Washington Post

Critically acclaimed Black writers reveal how books have shaped their personal lives--in often unexpected ways.
In these thirteen strikingly candid interviews, bestselling authors, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, and writers picked by Oprah's Book Club discuss how the acts of reading and writing have deeply affected their lives by expanding the conceptual borders of their communities and broadening their sense of self.
Edwidge Danticat movingly recounts the first time she encountered a Black character in a book and how this changed her worldview forever; Edward P. Jones speaks openly about being raised by an illiterate mother; J. California Cooper discusses the spiritual sources of her literary inspiration; Nathan McCall explains how reading saved his life while in prison; Pearl Cleage muses eloquently about how other people's stories help one make one's own way in the world; and world-renowned historian John Hope Franklin--in one of the last interviews he gave before his death--touchingly recalls his childhood in the segregated South and how reading opened his mind to life's greater possibilities.
The stories that emerge from these in-depth interviews not only provide an important record of the creative life of leading Black writers but also explore the vast cultural and spiritual benefits of reading and writing, and they support the growing initiative to encourage people to read as both a passion and a pastime.