Ep. 168 Embodying History with Clint Smith

Today we are joined by Clint Smith author of How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. Clint is also a staff writer at The Atlantic and the poet behind Counting Descent. We talk about how Clint’s poetry informs his nonfiction writing, the capacity to be surprised, and the recency of slavery.

The Stacks Book Club selection for June is The Undying by Anne Boyer. We will discuss the book with Mychal Denzel Smith on Wednesday June 30th.

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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find everything we talked about on Amazon.

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Connect with Clint: Twitter | Instagram | Website
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To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Ep. 161 The Tradition by Jericho Brown — The Stacks Book Club (Reginald Dwayne Betts)

On today’s episode of The Stacks we’re talking with poet, lawyer, and activist, Reginald Dwayne Betts about The Tradition by Jericho Brown for The Stacks Book Club. We discuss poems as fact or fiction, what happens when you hear a poem out loud, and the ways different poems can take on different meanings to different people.

Donate to Million Book Drive as part of The Stacks $50,000 fundraising drive.

The Stacks Book Club selection for May is Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, we will discuss the book on Wednesday May 26th.

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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find everything we talked about on Amazon.

Connect with Dwayne: Twitter | Instagram | Website | Million Book Project

Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Apple Podcasts | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Ep. 160 Black People Doing Spectacular Things with Hanif Abdurraqib

On this week’s episode we’re joined by Hanif Abdurraqib. Hanif is an author, poet, music and cultural critic, and the host of the podcast Object of Sound. We talk today about his newest book, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance. We talk today about how Hanif expanded the definition of performance, restraint as a tool in writing, and finding gratitude amidst grief.

Donate to Million Book Drive as part of The Stacks $50,000 fundraising drive.

The Stacks Book Club selection for April is The Tradition by Jericho Brown, we will discuss the book with Reginald Dwayne Betts on Wednesday April 28th.

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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find everything we talked about on Amazon.

Connect with Hanif: Instagram | Twitter | Website | Object of Sound

Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Apple Podcasts | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Ep. 159 Surviving the White Gaze with Rebecca Carroll

Our guest today Rebecca Carroll. Rebecca is a writer, cultural critic, and podcaster. She is the author of multiple books including her memoir which came out in  February and is titled Surviving the White Gaze.  We discuss her life as a Black child adopted into a white family, how she continues to interrogate the white gaze, and her 2020 podcast Come Through with Rebecca Carroll.
There are no spoilers on this episode.

For the month of April, The Stacks is raising $50,000 for Million Book Project to bring books into prisons nationwide. Click here to donate.

The Stacks Book Club selection for April is The Tradition by Jericho Brown, we will discuss the book with Reginald Dwayne Betts on Wednesday April 7th.

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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find everything we talked about on Amazon.

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Connect with Rebecca: Twitter | Instagram | Website | Come Through with Rebecca Carroll

Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Apple Podcasts | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Ep. 158 Reaching for Answers with Reginald Dwayne Betts

On today’s episode we talk with poet, author, activist, and attorney Reginald Dwayne Betts (Felon). In the conversation we explore the ways we police and punish ourselves and the people around us, the conditions of worthiness, and the balance between form and word choice in poetry. Dwayne also shares about his nonprofit, Million Book Project, and the work they do to bring books into prisons.

Click here to be part of The Stacks fundraiser for Million Book Project.

The Stacks Book Club selection for April is The Tradition by Jericho Brown, we will discuss the book with Reginald Dwayne Betts on Wednesday April 7th.

LISTEN NOW

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher

Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find everything we talked about on Amazon.

Books:

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Everything Else:

Connect with Dwayne: Twitter | Instagram | Website | Million Book Project

Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Apple Podcasts | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

The Stacks Book Club — April 2021

April is National Poetry Month so we’re going all in with an award winning poetry collection.

The Tradition by Jericho Brown won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and is our book club pick for April. This collection examines the many intersections of life, safety, ancestry, and Blackness. Brown’s collection has range and moves between the power of the past, the intimacy of the personal, and the strength of the collective. In under 100 pages, Brown is able to ask questions around queerness, Blackness, fatherhood, trauma, legacy, and so much more. It is also worth nothing that this collection shows diversity not only in the content of the poems but in the style choices and form each poem takes one. The Tradition is not to be missed.

We will be discussing The Tradition on Wednesday, April 28th. You can find out who our guest will be by listening to the podcast on April 6th. If you’d like even more discussion around the book consider joining The Stacks Pack on Patreon and participating in The Stacks’ monthly virtual book club.

Order your copy of our March book on Bookshop.org or Amazon.


To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed. For more information click here.

Ep. 157 Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh — The Stacks Book Club (Nic Stone)

It’s time for The Stacks Book Club conversation about our March pick, 2020 National Book Award Finalist, Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh. We are joined by prolific YA author, Nic Stone (Dear Martin, Dear Justyce). Our conversation explores what makes a book “good” or “bad”, the complexity of finding one’s self, and the power and value in our bodies.
There are spoilers on this episode.

Be sure to listen until the end of today’s episode to find out our book club picks for BOTH April and May!

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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find everything we talked about on Amazon.

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Connect with Nic: Instagram | Twitter | Website

Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Apple Podcasts | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Ep. 146 Integrity in Collaboration with Kimberly Drew & Jenna Wortham

Today we welcome Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham to The Stacks. They are the editors of Black Futures, a collection of art, essays, memes, recipes and more that document Blackness. In addition to working on this book together, Kimberly is also the author of This is What I Know About Art, an activist, and curator. Jenna is a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine and the co-host of the Still Processing podcast. Today we talk about collaboration in the creative process, how they built this book, and what trust and integrity can look like in professional relationships.

The Stacks Book Club selection for January is The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans, we will discuss the book with Deesha Philyaw on January 27th.

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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes. You can also find everything we talked about on Amazon.

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Connect with Kimberly: Twitter | Instagram
Connect with Jenna: Twitter | Instagram | Website

Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Apple Podcasts | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. If you prefer to support the show with a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

Ep. 144 Citizen by Claudia Rankine — The Stacks Book Club (Darnell Moore)

It’s The Stacks Book Club day, and we’re joined again by author (No Ashes in the Fire), activist, and podcaster (Being Seen), Darnell Moore to dissect Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine. We talk about how the book, published in 2014 holds up, who gets to express rage and joy, and what Rankine forces her readers to reckon with throughout the book.
There are no spoilers on this episode.

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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

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Connect with Darnell: Twitter | Instagram | Website | Being Seen Podcast
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of this show. If you prefer to do a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.


The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

The Stacks Book Club — December 2020

In a book that combines essays, poetry and visual art, Claudia Rankine has crafted an instant classic with 2014’s Citizen: An American Lyric. The book is a powerful examination of racial aggression, from the types of interactions that are easy to overlook to overt acts of violence against Black bodies. Citizen, like anti-Black racism, does not stick to one tactic or form, instead it shape shifts leaving the reader surrounded by the many insidious ways that white supremacy functions and thrives. Art, sport, police violence, and more are part of this brilliant work of social criticism.

We will be discussing Citizen: An American Lyric on the podcast on Wednesday, December 30th. You can find out who our guest will be by listening to the podcast on December 2nd. If you’d like even more discussion around the book consider joining The Stacks Pack on Patreon and participating in The Stacks’ monthly virtual book club.

Order your copy of our December book on Bookshop.org or Amazon.


To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed. For more information click here.