Givens Foundation | Black Market Reads

Recorded live at Franconia Sculpture Park, this episode of Black Market Reads brings listeners into a powerful, place-based conversation about the life, work, and legacy of artist Michael Richards. Host Lissa Jones is joined by curator Esther Callahan and book editors Alex Fialho and Melissa Levin to explore Are You Down?, Richards' monumental sculpture created during his 2000 residency at Franconia. Grounded in the physical presence of the work and shaped by reflections from Richards' own artist statement—read by his cousin and steward Dawn Dale—the conversation weaves together art, history, race, and responsibility, asking what it means to engage with and carry forward the voice of an artist whose story continues through his work. GO DEEPER visit our website at www.BlackMarketReads.com Black Market Reads is a project of The Givens Foundation for African American Literature produced in partnership with iDream.tv. Our production team for this episode includes co-producers Lissa Jones and Edie French, technica

In this powerful episode of Black Market Reads, host Lissa Jones sits down with award-winning poet Michael Kleber-Diggs to explore the depth and intention behind his collection Worldly Things. Their conversation moves fluidly between poetry, fatherhood, community, and the responsibility of bearing witness, as Diggs reflects on writing as an act of care—rooted in intimacy, empathy, and presence. From reimagining masculinity in his poem "Coniferous Fathers" to interrogating media narratives and honoring lived experience, Diggs invites listeners to slow down and engage more fully with the world and each other. Grounded in the traditions of Black literature and shaped by his work as a mentor and prison writing instructor, this episode is a thoughtful meditation on how small, intentional acts—on and off the page—can ripple outward with profound impact. GO DEEPER https://blackmarketreads.com/ Black Market Reads is a product of The Givens Foundation for African American Literature produced in partnership with iDream

In this episode, recorded during Women's History Month, Lissa talks with author Vanessa Riley about her latest historical novel. Riley—whose works have received high praise from New York Times, NPR, Washington Post, and Entertainment Weekly, among others—pushes historical fiction into bold new territory. She reveals the often-erased stories of Black, Indigenous, and women pirates, weaving in diverse communities of gender expression, sexuality, class, and race too often silenced in traditional narratives. In addition to being a novelist, Vanessa Riley holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and both a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Penn State. GO DEEPER https://blackmarketreads.com/ Black Market Reads is a product of The Givens Foundation for African American Literature produced in partnership with iDream.tv. 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 ins

Antonio Michael Downing is an author, speaker, and musical artist. His memoir Saga Boy was called "singularly dazzling" by Kiese Laymon and "the triumph of Blackness everywhere" by Scotiabank Giller Prize–winner Ian Williams. He is also the author of the children's picture book Stars in My Crown and his debut novel, Black Cherokee. He writes and performs music as John Orpheus. In this Episode Lissa and Antonio travel the world in their far reaching conversation from Trinidad, to Canada, to Brooklyn, to the Cherokee Nation- discussing his memoir Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness and Becoming, his debut novel Black Cherokee, and a broader conversation about lineage and inherited systems. For GO DEEPER content visit www.BlackMarketReads.com Black Market Reads is produced by the Givens Foundation for African American Literature in partnership with iDream.tv. 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

The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram by Ethelene Whitmire tells the true story of Reed Peggram, a brilliant Black, queer Harvard scholar who went to Paris in 1937 and stayed through World War II for love, eventually escaping Nazi-occupied Italy with his partner, Arne Gerdahn Hauptmann, with the help of an all-Black American regiment.  This episode was recorded before a live audience at Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis. Lissa talks with author Whitmire about her research, her quest for untold stories, and the remarkable life of Reed Peggram. For GO DEEPER information about this episode, and to learn more visit www.BlackMarketReads.com Black Market Reads is a project of The Givens Foundation for African American Literature produced in cooperation with iDream.tv. 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.  

Kicking off Season 11 and Black History Month- This conversation could not be more timely. Part social thriller, part modern love story, Who Knows You by Heart by CJ Farley is a sly, witty, and endlessly discussable tale of Big Tech, new money, relationships, race, and discovering what's real in an age of artificial intelligence. C.J. (Christopher John) Farley is a Jamaican-born author, journalist, and editor known for works spanning fiction, YA, and biography, including Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley and Aaliyah: More Than a Woman. A Harvard graduate and former Time and Wall Street Journal editor, his novels often explore race, technology, and culture, such as Game World and Who Knows You By Heart.  Key Details and Accomplishments: Background: Born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in Brockport, New York. He is a Harvard University graduate and former editor of the Harvard Lampoon. Literary Work: Novels: Game World (fantasy adventure), Around Harvard Square (NAACP Image Award winner), Zero O'Cloc

Hosted by Lissa Jones, the 100th episode is an expansive, deeply moving celebration that honors the elders, the artists, the activists, and the community that built—and continues to fuel—the Black literary tradition. Highlights include: • A newly released archival segment featuring J. California Cooper Recorded before the podcast officially launched, this rare conversation hosted by elder storyteller Beverly Cottman with renowned author J. California Cooper offers timeless reflections on writing, wisdom, and the purpose of storytelling. • A segment honoring the legacy of George Floyd through poetry Two Minneapolis poets, Mary Moore Easter and Bernard James, contributors to the anthology Can't Stop, Won't Stop, (Rain Taxi 2021) share excerpts and reflections created in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. Their words capture the grief, urgency, and creative power that shaped Minneapolis and the world in 2020. • Appearances from celebrated past guests The episode revisits powerful moments with Ross Gay, Fran

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

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 oth

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

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 hea

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 episod

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 Foundati

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

In 2021, 83.2 percent of editors in the U. S. were White and less than 5 percent of editors were Black. According to the career website, Zibia, this coincides with only 5.9 percent of published authors being Black. Today, Lissa talks with three prominent publishers in the Twin Cities who believe that Black authors deserve to collaborate with editors who understand and appreciate their work.  Our guests are Rekhet Si-Asar (In Black Ink). Anura Si-Asar (Papyrus Publishing) and Mary Tarris (Strive Publishing & Bookstore).  GO DEEPER www.BlackMarketReads.com

Sarah LaBrie was in her early thirties when her mother was found on a highway outside Houston, screaming at passing cars and paranoid that she would be murdered by invisible assailants. She was ultimately diagnosed with schizophrenia—and in an instant, the entirety of LaBrie’s childhood came into sharp focus. In her harrowing, clear-sighted, and painfully honest debut memoir, NO ONE GETS TO FALL APART (Publication Date: October 22, 2024; $27.99), LaBrie traces a year spent grappling with the enormity of her mother’s diagnosis. With compassion and vulnerability, she reflects on the consequences of being raised by someone with mental illness, processes her own obsessive behavior and unhealthy ambition, and examines her fear of inheriting the disorder or passing it along to her own future children.   In childhood, LaBrie’s relationship with her mother is marked at turns by violence and all-consuming closeness. She’s erratic, easily angered and cruel, but also loving and protective, committed to LaBrie’s educatio

In this episode of Black Market Reads: On Health Lissa and Bukata talk with poet Danez Smith about his latest work, BLUFF. Written after two years of artistic silence, during which the world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Minneapolis became the epicenter of protest following the murder of George Floyd, Bluff is Danez Smith's powerful reckoning with their role and responsibility as a poet and with their hometown of the Twin Cities. This is a book of awakening out of violence, guilt, shame, and critical pessimism to wonder and imagine how we can strive toward a new existence in a world that seems to be dissolving into desolate futures. Smith brings a startling urgency to these poems, their questions demanding a new language, a deep self-scrutiny, and virtuosic textual shapes. A series of ars poetica gives way to "anti poetica" and "ars america" to implicate poetry's collusions with unchecked capitalism. A photographic collage accrues across a sequence to make clear the consequences of America's