Books, Movies, & More

The inspirational story of Akeelah Anderson, an eleven-year-old girl from south Los Angeles with a gift for words. Despite the objections of her mother Tanya, Akeelah enters various spelling contests, for which she is tutored by the forthright Dr. Larabee; her principal Mr. Welch and the proud residents of her neighborhood. …More

A chronicle of the early fighting days of Cassius Clay before he became Muhammed Ali. …More

Guided by a determined Navy psychiatrist, a troubled sailor embarks on an inspiring, emotional journey to confront his past and connect with the family he never knew. …More

Three friends struggle to survive in South Central Los Angeles where friendship, pain, danger and love form a true picture of life in the hood. …More

Claudine tries to provide for her six children in Harlem while on welfare. She has a romance with Roop, a cheerful garbageman she meets while working on the side as a maid. …More

Spike Lee effectively combines humor and drama in this critically acclaimed film that traces the course of a scorching day on a block in the Bedford-Stuyevesant area of Brooklyn. …More

Sixty-year-old Earl Pilcher Jr. has just been informed that his real mother was black and he has a half-brother he never knew existed. Setting out to find and get to know his brother, their first encounter is awkward and fraught with tension, mistrust, anger and prejudice.…More

Five guys mix song and dance and find rhythm-and-blues fame in the 1960s. Directed by Townsend. …More

A controversial figure, challenging the social mores of the time, Professor Melvin Tolson (Washington) used unconventional and ferocious teaching methods to shape a debate team at Wiley College, a small African American university in Texas during the 1930s. …More

Based on a true story, middleweight boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's career and future is destroyed when he is wrongly convicted of three murders. Years later, convinced of his innocence, an African-American boy and his Canadian mentors doggedly pursue Hurricane's freedom. …More

From the director of "The Karate Kid" and "Rocky," comes the true story of Joe Lewis Clark, the baseball bat-wielding principal who vows to clean up gang infested and drug ridden Eastside High with a tough love approach. …More

Precious Jones, an inner-city high school girl, is illiterate, overweight, and pregnant... again. Nave and abused, Precious responds to a glimmer of hope when a door is opened by an alternative-school teacher. She is faced with the choice to follow opportunity and test her own boundaries. …More

The Kid fights his rival for a singer and Minneapolis rock-club success. Oscar for best original song score. …More

The true story of American musical legend Ray Charles. Ray is born into poverty in rural Georgia and loses his sight at the age of seven, but his adversity, and his determined mother, provide him with the necessary motivation to succeed. …More

A healthy Brooklyn woman juggles three boyfriends. Directed by Spike Lee, who plays Mars. …More

Sunday dinner at Mother Joe's is a mouth-watering, 40-year tradition. As seen through the eyes of her grandson Ahmad, love and laughs are always on the menu, despite the usual rivalries simmering between his mom Maxine and her sisters Teri and Bird.

After the death of his younger brother, a troubled 19-year-old street dancer from Los Angeles goes on a quest for a new life by enrolling in Truth University, an historically Black college in Atlanta, Georgia. …More

Relationships preoccupy Phoenix friends: divorcee Bernadine, careerist Savannah, popular Robin, and Gloria, whose ex-husband is gay. …More

She began her life as Anna Mae Bullock and met Ike Turner in St. Louis. Together, with Ike, she shot to the top of the music world. But she paid the price and eventually had to find the courage to leave it all behind and start her life and her singing career all over again. …More