Showing results by narrator "Carmen Jewel Jones" in All Categories

What are the politics of nature? Who owns it, where is it, what role does it play in our lives? Does it need to be tamed? Are we ourselves natural? In A Darker Wilderness, a constellation of luminary writers reflect on the significance of nature in their lived experience and on the role of nature in the lives of Black folks in the United States. Each of these essays engages with a single archival object, whether directly or obliquely, exploring stories spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles, traveling from roots to space and finding rich Blackness everywhere.

This is the story of Dr. Geneva Smitherman, aka "Dr. G," the pioneering linguist often referred to as the "Queen of Black Language." In a series of narrative essays, Dr. G writes eloquently and powerfully about the role of language in social transformation and the academic, intellectual, linguistic, and societal debates that shaped her groundbreaking work as a Black Studies O.G. and a Womanist scholar-activist of African American Language.

In Upper Hand, celebrated founder and CEO of The Plug, Sherrell Dorsey, delivers a personal and eye-opening exploration of how to ensure that marginalized communities aren't left behind as technology continues its inexorable march forward. In the book, listeners will learn to think about how we can strategically shape the coming decade to include Black and Brown communities. Upper Hand offers guidelines, insights, and frameworks for navigating the new world of work that is dominated by Silicon Valley-rooted technologies, inaccessible networks, and constant automation.

After suffering a mental breakdown that nearly destroyed her marriage, Nina Taylor works hard to maintain her tenuous hold on sanity and be a good mother to her two young daughters. Despite her best efforts, she questions the possibility of a full recovery.

Birdie Boucher is a woman who lives her life in the shadows of her infamous mother. A powerful voodoo priestess of the south who uses magic to wreak havoc on the lives of anyone who gets in her way. And any woman she believes is the lover of her philandering husband.

Rule number one for Bailey Westmoreland: Never fall for a man who would take her away from her tight-knit family's Colorado home. So why is she following rancher Walker Rafferty all the way to Alaska? When Tessa Noble takes the stage at a charity auction after a sexy makeover, her best friend, Ryan Bateman, must place the winning bid. It's definitely not because he's jealous. Their weekend getaway is a ploy for positive press…or so the rancher tells himself.

When Tessa Noble takes the stage at a charity auction after a sexy makeover, her best friend Ryan Bateman must place the winning bid. It's definitely not because he's jealous. Their weekend getaway is a ploy for positive press… or so the rancher tells himself. But soon things take an unexpected turn from platonic to passionate, catapulting the couple from friends to lovers….

At thirty-six, undefeated rodeo champion AJ Garza is supposed to be retiring, not chasing after an all-new closed-circuit rodeo tour with a million-dollar prize. But with the Houston rodeo program that saved him as a wayward teen on the brink of bankruptcy, he'll enter. And he'll win. Enter Lilian Sorrow Island. Raised by her grandparents on the family ranch in Muskogee, OK, Lil is more a cowboy than city boy AJ will ever be. It shows. She's not about to let him steal the prize that'll save her ranch, even if he is breathtakingly magnificent, in pretty much every way going.

The linked stories in Mama Said are set in Louisville, Kentucky, a city with a rich history steeped in tobacco, bourbon, and gambling, indulgences that can quickly become gripping and destructive vices. Set amid the tail end of the crack epidemic and the rise of the opioid crisis, Mama Said evokes Black family life in all its complexity, following JayLynn, along with her cousins Zaria and Angel, as they come of age struggling against their mothers' drug addictions.

Langston Keith has been my brother's best friend for years, and he's always seen me as the competition. We're both race horse owners, and there's no way I'm letting Langston get that trophy. When my parents threaten to set me up in an arranged marriage with a guy in India, I beg Langston to fake date me to get them off my back. He agrees, and all goes well until the romance starts to feel real.

Patrice McClendon wants to create a signature scent for her family's aromatherapy and day spa this Valentine's Day. The holiday is crucial for the family business, even if Patrice has never been a hearts and flowers kind of girl. But creating the fragrance isn't easy, and Patrice needs help. She gets that and more when she meets successful perfumer Jacques Germain.

When Renee McClendon was a teenager, she made a list of all the qualities her perfect man would have, but no matter how many handsome guys have ticked the boxes, she has yet to find the man for her. She wants a regular guy who's not afraid to get his hands dirty, and she's given herself a deadline. If she doesn't find Mr. Right by New Year's, she's done searching.

Coming from a troubled youth, Morgan Faraday grabs every opportunity to up-level her life. So she definitely plans to keep oil-company heir Sebastian Reid interested...all the way to the altar. He’s brilliant and supportive and is turning his billion-dollar company green to make up for his ancestors’ exploitation. With him, Morgan can have love, money, and the power to make the world better. And securing her future is far more important than the attractive environmental activist she suddenly has unexpected feelings for...

Even strong, fearless, and badass Black teen girls and Black women need empowering words of affirmation. Now more than ever, we must give our minds and bodies the TLC they deserve because Black women empowerment begins with the youth empowerment of Black teen girls. Author of Badass Black Girl M.J Fievre brings you inspirational words of wisdom through famous Black women who have changed the world, including Audre Lorde, Lupita Nyong'o and Angela Davis.

“As far as I know, you can only die once…” But when Aetna Simmons disappears from her lonely Bermuda cottage, she leaves behind not one but ten suicide notes. Ten different suicide notes. And no other trace to speak of, not even a corpse, as if she’d never existed. Drafts of a Suicide Note is the darkly enigmatic love letter of Kenji Okada-Caines, a petty criminal who once exposited on English literary classics and now, marooned on his native isle, nurtures an obsession with Aetna’s writing.

When weapons-grade nuclear materials left over from the Cold War surface in a North African city, Dalton Drake, former CSIS agent, lethal field operator, and confirmed ladies’ man, is hired to track down those responsible. Working with a coalition of intelligence agencies, military branches, and the scientific community, he is tasked with locating and intercepting the terrorists, who are on the move in a stolen cargo ship in the North Atlantic.

After her brother dies under a cloud of suspicion, Alexis Douglas will do whatever it takes to clear his name. Enlisting the help of TJ Roman proves a double-edged sword. Her brother’s onetime best friend, the ex-military PI can’t afford any missteps. Alexis’s safety is all that matters, despite the powerful attraction drawing them closer. Up against a killer desperate to keep the truth buried, TJ must step up his game before he and Alexis are both silenced forever.

The Second Half explores how the second half of life is experienced by women from many different cultures. From a French actress to a British novelist, from an Algerian nomad to a Saudi Arabian doctor, and an American politician, Ellen Warner traveled all over the world to interview women about their lives. She asked them what they learned in the first half that was helpful in the second, and what advice they would give to younger women. Their revealing and inspiring stories are enlightening for all listeners.

Avila Rogers’ mother kicked her out of the house as a teenager when a one night stand left her pregnant. So when her mother passes away and Avila must return to Myrtle Beach to get her mother’s house ready to put on the market, her feelings are complicated, to say the least. Things get even more complicated when she runs into her childhood friend, Trevor, who is now a professor at the nearby HBCU.