PODCAST · society
Black Market Reads
by The Givens Foundation for African American Literature
Black Market Reads is a menu for Black literary consumption and all of its spin-offs. Featuring Black artists who love to read and write and engage in arts and culture.PRODUCER: The Givens Foundation for African American LiteraturePRODUCTION SERVICES: iDream.tvMUSIC: Sarah White - Through People [M¥K Remix] BMR is made possible through the generous support of our individual donors, Target Foundation, and the voters of Minnesota, through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Episodes
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Episode 111 - Katie Sample, All Things Work Together for Good
In this deeply personal episode of Black Market Reads, host Lissa Jones sits down with revered Twin Cities educator, social worker, author, and community elder Katie Sample to discuss her memoir, All Things Work Together for Good (In Black Ink 2026). Sample reflects on more than nine decades of...
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Episode 110 Literacy and Liberation: Benjamin E. Mays Afrocentric Academy (S12 E4)
In this special episode of Black Market Reads, Lissa Jones turns the conversation from the authors who write our stories to the young readers who will carry them forward. Recorded at Benjamin E. Mays Afrocentric Magnet School in St. Paul, the episode begins with Freedom School scholars sharing…
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Episode 108 - Justin Ellis, The Cruelty of Nice Folks: Why Minneapolis Is the Story of America
In this powerful hometown conversation, journalist Justin Ellis returns to Minneapolis to discuss his debut book, The Cruelty of Nice Folks: Why Minneapolis Is the Story of America. Joined by host Lissa Jones, Ellis unpacks the contradiction at the heart of Minnesota's reputation: how a place...
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Episode 109 - 100 Years of Black Freedom with performance by Phillis Wheatley
To mark the 100th Anniversary of Carter G. Woodson's Black History Month (previously known as Negro History Week) and the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence the community came together to join The Givens Foundation for African American Literature and The Givens Collection of...
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Episode 107 - Kevin Lindsey, Minnesota Humanities Center
Welcome to a very special edition of Black Market Reads, brought to you by the Givens Foundation for African American Literature, in proud partnership with the Minnesota Humanities Center. In 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson introduced Negro History Week to build a durable, year-round engagement with...
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Episode 106 - Michael Richards, Are You Down?
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…
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Episode 105 - Michael Kleber-Diggs, Worldly Things
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…
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Episode 104 - Vanessa Riley, Fire Sword & Sea
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...
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Episode 103 -Antonio Michael Downing, Saga Boy and Black Cherokee
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...
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Episode 102 - Ethelene Whitmire, The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram
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…
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Episode 101 - C.J. Farley - Who Knows You By Heart
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…
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Episode 100: A Landmark Celebration of Black Stories, Voices, and Legacy
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...
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Episode 99 - Debra Stone, The House on Rondo
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...
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Episode 98 - Leila Mottley, The Girls Who Grew Big
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…
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Episode 97 - Valerie Burns, Icing on the Murder
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...
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BONUS EPISODE: Ink, Identity, and Imagination: Literature as a Catalyst for Black Determination
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...
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BONUS EPISODE: Banned Books: The Duchess Harris Collection
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…
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Episode 96 - From Resistance to Resilience, Dr.Luke Wood
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...
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Episode 95 - Rickey Fayne, The Devil Three Times
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...
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Episode 94 - Pearl Cleage, The Nacirema Society
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...
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Episode 93 - Dr. Gail C. Christopher, Rx for Racial Healing: A Guide to Embracing Our Humanity
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...
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Episode 92 - Lisa Williamson Rosenberg, Mirror Me
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...
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Episode 91 - Publishers Roundtable
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...
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Episode 90 - Sarah LaBrie, No One Gets To Fall Apart: A memoir
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...
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Episode 89 - Danez Smith, BLUFF
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...
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Episode 88 -Taiyon J. Coleman, Traveling Without Moving: Essays from a Black Woman Trying to Survive in America
In this episode Lissa and Bukata talk with author Taiyon J. Coleman author of Traveling Without Moving: Essays from a Black Woman Trying to Survive in America ( University of Minnesota Press). In Traveling without Moving, Coleman shares intimate essays from her life: her childhood in...
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Episode 87 - Sarai Johnson, Grown Women
In this episode of Black Market Reads: On Health Lissa and Bukata talk with author Sarai Johnson about her debut novel, Grown Women (Harper Collins 2024). Join us in this lively and thoughtful conversation about what it means to move on—or not move on—from trauma. What it means to ask for...
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BONUS Episode - Karen Nance: Ethel Ray, Living in the White, Gray, and Black
This episode of Black Market Reads was recorded before a live audience at the historic Capri Theater in North Minneapolis. Lissa talks with author Karen Felicia Nance about her latest book Ethel Ray: Living in the White, Gray and Black, the story of her grandmother's contributions to Civil…
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Episode 84 -Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Take My Hand
In this episode Lissa and Bukata talk with Author Dolen Perkins-Valdez about her latest book Take My Hand. As a pre-eminent chronicler of American historical life, Dolen talks about her research, her passion for uplifting the authentic voice and the responsibility we have for the fallout of our...
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Episode 83 -Linda Villarosa, UNDER THE SKIN: The Hidden Toll of Racism on Health in America
In this inaugural episode of Black Market Reads: On Health, Lissa Jones introduces her series co-host Bukata Hayes, Vice President and Chief Equity Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. Together they welcome their guest Linda Villarosa, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist and contributor to the…
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Episode 82 - Rose McGee, Can't Nobody Make a Sweet Potato Pie Like Our Mama
In this episode Lissa welcomes co-host Bukata Hayes as they explore the power of storytelling and the nourishment of soulful food with author Rose McGee. ROSE MCGEE, founder of Sweet Potato Comfort Pie, travels across the United States to deliver pies and nurture relationships. She was featured…
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Episode 81- Dr.Keith Mayes, The Unteachables
How special education used disability labels to marginalize Black students in public schools The Unteachables examines the overrepresentation of Black students in special education over the course of the twentieth century. Excavating the deep-seated racism embedded in both the public school…
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Episode 80 - Seph Rodney, The Personalization of the Museum Visit
More About Seph Rodney Seph Rodney, PhD was born in Jamaica, and came of age in the Bronx, New York. He has an English degree from Long Island University, Brooklyn; a studio art MFA from the University of California, Irvine; and a PhD in museum studies from Birkbeck College, University of London....
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Episode 79 - Rob Eschmann, When the Hood Comes Off: Racism and Resistance in the Digital Age
From cell phone footage of police killing unarmed Black people to leaked racist messages and even comments from friends and family on social media, online communication exposes how racism operates in a world that pretends to be colorblind. In When the Hood Comes Off, Rob Eschmann blends rigorous...
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Episode 78 - Tracy Clark, Fall (2nd in the Detective Harriet Foster series)
Two-time Sue Grafton Memorial Award-winner Tracy Clark introduces readers to FALL (Thomas & Mercer), a hard-boiled, page-turning thriller featuring Chicago Police Detective Harriet Foster, a Black woman in a male-dominated department who, with a new female partner, must stop a killer targeting...
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Episode 77 - Jody Lulich, In the Company of Grace: A Veterinarian's Memoir of Trauma and Healing
Rising to accept a prestigious award, Jody Lulich wondered what to say. Explain how he'd been attracted to veterinary medicine? Describe how caring for helpless, voiceless animals in his own shame and pain provided a lifeline, a chance to heal himself as well? Lulich tells his story in In the...
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Episode 76 - Keith Ellison, Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence
In this episode, presented with a live audience in partnership with Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Lissa talks with Minnesota Attorney General and author, Keith Ellison, about his latest book detailing the trial of Police Officer Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd exploring why this book is…
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Episode 75 - Sherrie Fernandez-Williams, Goddess of the Whole Self
In this episode, Lissa talks with author Sherrie Fernandez-Williams about her latest book, Goddess of the Whole Self, inspirations and origin stories. Go Deeper at www.BlackMarketReads.com
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Episode 74 - Davu Underwood Seru, The Archie Givens, Sr. Collection of African American Literature and Life
In this episode Lissa sits down with Davu Underwood Seru, the newly appointed Curator of the Archie Givens Sr. Collection of African American Literature and Life at the University of Minnesota. This Collection includes novels, poetry, plays, short stories, essays, literary criticism, periodicals,...
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From the Archives: Rachel Howzell Hall
In this previously unpublished episode, Lissa talks with author Rachel Howzell Hall during her visit to the Loft's inaugural Wordplay Festival, exploring issues of crime and passion in her 2019 novel They All Fall Down (Forge Books). Rachel Howzell Hall is a noteworthy author from Los Angeles…
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Episode 73 - Santi Elijah Holley, An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created
In this episode Lissa talks with Santi Elijah Holley about his book An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created. An enlightening history of the rise and lasting impact of Black liberation groups in America, as seen through the Shakurs, one of the movement's most prominent and...
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Episode 72 - Charlayne Hunter-Gault, My People
Charlayne Hunter-Gault is an American civil rights activist, journalist and former foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, CNN, and the Public Broadcasting Service. Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes were the first African-American students to attend the University of Georgia. In this...
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Episode 71 - Shaun M. Anderson, The Black Athlete Revolt: The Sport Justice Movement in the Age of #Black Lives Matter
In this episode Lissa talks with Dr. Shaun M. Anderson, about his debut publication The Black Athlete Revolt: The Sport Justice Movement in the Age of #Black Lives Matter (Rowman and Littlefield, 2023). The Black Athlete Revolt is the first book to take a historical and contemporary look at how...
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Episode 70 - Pearl Cleage, Blues for an Alabama Sky
In this episode Lissa talks with playwright and author Pearl Cleage about Blues for an Alabama Sky, her current work and references to inspirations and influencers including Langston Hughes, Stacey Abrams, Ntozake Shange, Viola Davis, audience development and more. Blues for an Alabama Sky is...
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BONUS EPISODE: Dr. Clarence Lusane returns
In celebration of Black History Month, Lissa was invited by Books and Books to interview Dr. Clarence Lusane about his recent work. Twenty Dollars and Change: Harriet Tubman and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice and Democracy, (City Lights 2023). Join us for this in depth conversation. Link to...
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Episode 69 - Wanda M. Morris, Anywhere You Run
Dripping with Southern atmosphere and blistering suspense, Wanda M. Morris' sophomore outing proves she is a "writer to watch" (Publishers Weekly). About ANYWHERE YOU RUN: It's the summer of 1964 and three innocent men are brutally murdered for trying to help Black Mississippians secure the right...
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Episode 68 - Dr. Clarence Lusane, Twenty Dollars and Change
In Twenty Dollars and Change, Lusane offers a searing examination of what the fight to replace Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the twenty-dollar bill reveals about race, class, and social justice in America today. Lusane gives voice to the millions of Americans who mobilized for the "Tubman...
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Episode 67 - Megan Giddings, The Women Could Fly
Reminiscent of the works of Margaret Atwood, Shirley Jackson, and Octavia Butler, a biting social commentary from the acclaimed author of Lakewood that speaks to our times—a piercing dystopian novel about the unbreakable bond between a young woman and her mysterious mother, set in a world in…
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Episode 66 - Lynn Nottage, Sweat
In this episode Lynn Nottage speaks with BMR Host, Lissa Jones during the run of her play Sweat, performed at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Lynn Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter. She is the first, and remains the only, woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice. Her…
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Episode 65 -Kristin Henning, The Rage of Innocence
Kristin Henning is a nationally recognized legal scholar and activist in juvenile justice reform. As the Blume Professor of Law and Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown, she advocates for reform in the juvenile and criminal legal systems to fight the…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Black Market Reads is a menu for Black literary consumption and all of its spin-offs. Featuring Black artists who love to read and write and engage in arts and culture.PRODUCER: The Givens Foundation for African American LiteraturePRODUCTION SERVICES: iDream.tvMUSIC: Sarah White - Through People [M¥K Remix] BMR is made possible through the generous support of our individual donors, Target Foundation, and the voters of Minnesota, through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
HOSTED BY
The Givens Foundation for African American Literature
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Black Market Reads have?
Black Market Reads currently has 118 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Black Market Reads about?
Black Market Reads is a menu for Black literary consumption and all of its spin-offs. Featuring Black artists who love to read and write and engage in arts and culture.PRODUCER: The Givens Foundation for African American LiteraturePRODUCTION SERVICES: iDream.tvMUSIC: Sarah White - Through People...
How often does Black Market Reads release new episodes?
Black Market Reads publishes regularly with 118 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Black Market Reads?
You can listen to Black Market Reads on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Black Market Reads?
Black Market Reads is created and hosted by The Givens Foundation for African American Literature.
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