Shine Bright Botany she learns that she has

she learns that she has been chosen to lead a dangerous mission to avert an apocalypse brought about by the terrifying masquerade

informing the people of Texas that all enslaved people were now free

”—The New York Times Book Review“A story that kept me tied to the page

On a rainy day when the house smells like cinnamon and Papa and Luca are still asleep

Ramón Montez always achieves his goals

Shine Bright Botany she learns that she hasFrom one of the preeminent cultural critics of her generation, a radiant weave of memoir, criticism, and biography that tells the story of black women in music from the Dixie Cups to Gladys Knight to Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey as the foundational story of American pop. Black women have borne a double burden of oppression in the United States from its founding but from the bottom of the country's punishing social hierarchy they