Black Market Reads

"Every lie you tell, every secret you keep, is a fragile little thing that must be protected and accounted for…" In this episode Lissa talks with author Wanda M. Morris about her crime thriller, debut novel, All Her Li ttle Secrets Morris is a corporate attorney who has worked in the legal departments for several Fortune 100 companies. An accomplished presenter and leader, Morris has previously se...

In this Special Edition of Black Market Reads, in a live production at the Capri Theater, Lissa Jones sits down with Bukata Hayes to talk about the book he co-authored with Stacy Wells, and then hear from a panel of representatives Nneka Sederstrom /Chief Health Equity Officer Hennepin Health Care, Chaz Sandifer /CEO theNEWmpls, and R.T. Rybak /President and CEO The Minneapolis Foundation. Includi...

Black Girls Must Die Exhausted   Like the lead character featured in her new novel Black Girls Must Die Exhauste d , our guest today knows all about living life as a successful African American woman and self-proclaimed "serial entrepreneur."    This Harvard Law grad is a popular speaker, thought leader, seasoned business executive, and noted author who writes fiction under her chosen nom de plume...

Lissa speaks with Queen of Black Horror Tananarive Due on the re-release of her 1995 debut novel The Between . Due is a leading voice in Black speculative fiction, and teaches about Black horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. She is also the award-winning author of numerous books and executive produced Shudder's groundbreaking documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. For more episodes visit...

In this episode, we hear from LaTanya McQueen about her debut novel, When the Reckoning Comes  which tells the story of Mira, a young Black woman, who travel's home to attend the plantation wedding of a childhood friend and is forced to contend with the traumas of her own childhood - and the historical horrors tied to the place. LaTanya McQueen is also the author of And it Begins Like This , a col...

On this episode, Lissa sits down with Resmaa Menakem, the New York Times bestselling author of My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies. Resmaa is a therapist, trauma specialist, and the founder of Justice Leadership Solutions a leadership consultancy where he works training business, community, and government leaders in the philosophy and practice...

On this episode we're excited to present a conversation with author, historian, and educator Carol Anderson on her recent work The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America . This conversation was recorded as part of a live virtual event in partnership with Magers & Quinn Booksellers  and Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church in Minneapolis. Carol Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Profess...

Essayist, memoirist, and, now, novelist Morgan Jerkins sits down with Lissa Jones. She discusses her inspirations for this story, both from her past (as a teenager she worked in her father's OB/GYN practice) and present (she tells us her character Amara was inspired by Vice President Kamala Harris). Though Caul Baby is a work of fiction with hints of magical realism, it is deeply rooted in the exp...

In this episode, Lissa speaks with Javon Johnson, about his new poetry collection, Ain't Never Not Been Black (Button Poetry, 2020). Javon Johnson, Ph. D. is a poet, performer, professor and recipient of numerous awards. According to poet Rudy Francisco, Dr. Johnson is " is one of the most brilliant writers in the world ". This conversation was recorded on April 19, 2021, the day of closing argume...

Listen to audio of poets reading their work from  Can't Stop, Won't Stop: Poems in the wake of racial injustice from a chapbook published by Rain Taxi, recorded on the site of George Floyd Square in Minneapolis by iDream.tv Apnea and Bruxism  by Michael Kleber Diggs a little glimpse  by keno evol Familiar Fruit  by Sagirah Shahid Homeland, Like the Girl who Sang Soweto by Sherrie Fernandez-William...

One of the defining events of the past year, in Minnesota and around the world, was the murder of George Floyd and the international protests demanding justice. In this episode, Lissa speaks with Mary Moore Easter, editor and poet, and James Bernard Short, a poet who lives near the intersection now known as George Floyd Square. The collection is titled Can't Stop Won't Stop the Rain Taxi Chapbook...

Launching season six of Black Market Reads, Lissa interviews author Claudia Rankine about her latest work Just Us: An American Conversation  (Graywolf Press, 2020). For highlights from the interview, and to listen to past episodes visit www.blackmarketreads.com . If you like the show, leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and tell a friend about the show!

In this episode, author and scholar Dr. Frank B. Wilderson, III on his latest work, Afropessimism. From his youth in Minneapolis to Apartheid South Africa and beyond, Dr. Wilderson has been a committed activist for radical social change. His creative, scholarly, and critical work has been published internationally. He is the author of several books, including Incognegro: Memoir of Exile and Aparth...

Author Carolyn Holbrook discusses her latest work, Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify, a collection of essays published by the University of Minnesota Press (2020). She is the author of several works including Ordinary People, Extraordinary Journeys, as well as co-author of Hope in the Struggle the memoir of Dr. Josie Johnson. She now leads More Than A Single Story, a series of community conver...

In this episode, Ford Foundation President Darren Walker discusses his new book From Generosity to Justice: A New Gospel of Wealth, in which he grapples with the paternalistic roots of American philanthropy and envisions a new approach that seeks to address the causes of inequity, rather than the consequences. He discusses the current state of extreme wealth inequality in America and how this ineq...

In this episode, a conversation with poet and essayist Justin Phillip Reed about his new poetry collection, The Malevolent Volume (2020). His debut collection, Indecency (2018) won the National Book Award for poetry. To learn more about Justin Phillip Reed, visit his website  Check out more interviews and bonus content at BlackMarketReads.com

In celebration of Black History Month, Black Market Reads participated in an exciting event hosted by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, featuring stunning performances from the Grammy Award-winning musical group Sounds of Blackness. In part one, recorded in the museum galleries, Lissa speaks with Esther Callahan and Keisha Williams, members of the curatorial team responsible for the Mapping Black...

In this episode, Lissa speaks with historian Dr. William D. Green, whose works focus on the history of Black people in Minnesota, and specifically the ongoing struggle for civil rights. Dr. Green is a professor of history at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, and serves as Vice President of the Minnesota Historical Society. He has previously served as Superintendent for the Minneapolis Public Sch...

In this special episode, J. Drew Lanham, author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature , speaks with guest-host poet and essayist, Michael Kleber-Diggs. The interview was recorded at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis in 2017. Lanham is an American author, poet and wildlife biologist. Raised in Edgefield, South Carolina, Lanham studied zoology and ecology at Cle...

In this episode, recorded live at the 2019 Twin Cities Book Festival, Lissa speaks with authors about the work, life, and legacy of Toni Morrison. The episode was recorded in partnership with Rain Taxi Review of Books. Featured in the episode: A. Rafael Johnson, Bethany C. Morrow, Lora Hyler, Eric Lorberer, and Dr. Artika Tyner.    

In this episode, Lissa sits down with the poet, performer, and librettist Douglas Kearney. Kearney has published six books, most recently,  Buck Studies  (Fence Books, 2016), winner of the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Award, the  CLMP  Firecracker Award for Poetry and silver medalist for the California Book Award (Poetry).   Kearney teaches creative writing at the University of Minnesota, Twin...

In the Season 5 premier, Lissa sits down with author Kalisha Buckhanon to discuss her new novel Speaking of Summer (COUNTERPOINT, 2019). This episode was recorded live at an event hosted by Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis. Kalisha Buckhanon  is the author of the novels  Solemn ,  Conception , and  Upstate , which was selected as an inaugural National Book Foundation Literature for Justic...

On this episode, Lissa sits down with civil rights icon Dr. Josie R. Johnson and her co-authors Carolyn Holbrook and Arleta Little to discuss Johnson's memoir Hope in the Struggle. Dr. Josie R. Johnson has been an educator, activist, and public servant for more than seven decades. Along with her work for the Urban League and the University of Minnesota, she has been office manager, campaign manage...

In this episode, Lissa speaks with Author and Professor Emily Bernard about her debut collection of personal essays  Black is the Body: stories from my grandmother's time, my mother's time, and mine (Alfred A. Knopf, 2019). Emily was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a B. A. and Ph. D. in American Studies from Yale University. A contributing editor at The American Scholar , Emily...

Minnesota-based writer Debra J. Stone sits down with Lissa Jones for a wide-ranging conversation about writing the stories she wants to read, her upbringing in the Rondo Neighborhood and the Northside, and what it means to be a black woman who loves to bike and camp. Stone's poetry, short-fiction and essays have appeared in many publications and literary journals including About Place , Wild Age P...