In this week’s episode of Black Art is Lit, host Nykieria Chaney reads the powerful first chapter of Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen, a deeply moving novel exploring the realities of modern Black womanhood.

“Black girls must die exhausted” is something that 33-year-old Tabitha Walker has heard her grandmother say before. Of course, her grandmother (who happens to be white) was referring to the 1950’s and what she observed in the nascent times of civil rights. With a coveted position as a local news reporter, Marc-- a “paper-perfect” boyfriend, and a standing Saturday morning appointment with a reliable hairstylist, Tabitha never imagined how this phrase could apply to her as a black girl in contemporary times – until everything changed.An unexpected doctor’s diagnosis awakens Tabitha to an unperceived culprit, threatening the one thing that has always mattered most - having a family of her own. With the help of her best friends, the irreverent and headstrong Laila and Alexis, the former “Sexy Lexi," Tabitha must explore the reaches of modern medicine and test the limits of her relationships to beat the ticking clock on her dreams of becoming a wife and mother.She must leverage the power of laughter, love, and courageous self-care to bring a healing stronger than she ever imagined - before the phrase “black girls must die exhausted” takes on a new and unwanted meaning in her own life.

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Octavia Butler didn’t just write fiction—she wrote the future. And in Parable of the Sower, that future looks a lot like our present. Economic collapse, climate disaster, political instability—it’s all here.

In this episode of Black Art is Lit, host Nykieria Chaney reads the first three chapters of Butler’s groundbreaking novel and breaks down why this book is more relevant than ever. Whether you’re reading it for the first time or revisiting it, this story demands to be heard.

Book Summary:
In 2024, America is unraveling. Climate change has ravaged the land, the government is powerless, and communities live in fear behind walls that can barely protect them. Amidst this chaos, 15-year-old Lauren Olamina possesses a unique gift—hyper-empathy, the ability to feel the pain of others as if it were her own. But as her home becomes increasingly unsafe, she begins to form a new belief system called Earthseed, built on the idea that "God is Change." As she sets out on a dangerous journey north, Lauren must navigate violence, uncertainty, and the possibility of creating something better from the ashes of the old world.

Nykieria Chaney is a playwright, photographer, and literary curator dedicated to amplifying voices that shape culture, history, and storytelling. As the host of Black Art is Lit, she brings powerful works to life, reading the first chapters and diving deep into their impact.

New episodes drop every Tuesday! Subscribe, share, and join the conversation.

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This week Nykieria covers Sinful by Victor McGlothin

Everybody's got a weakness and Chandelle Hutchins' is a love of material possessions-a love that is causing serious trouble in her marriage. Chandelle's latest object of desire is an expensive new house. Her husband Marvin knows they can't afford it-and he also knows he can't talk Chandelle into giving it up. With their relationship crumbling under a mountain of debt, it may just be easier for Marvin to walk away. But with Chandelle's scheming cousin Dior in town, money may be the least of the couple's problems . . . Dior's weakness is her insatiable appetite for causing trouble-and her latest target is her cousin's marriage. When the time is right, Dior would like nothing more than to seduce Marvin on the rebound. But Dior is being trailed by her own troublemaker: a crazed female employer who refuses to release Dior from her twisted duties as nanny to her children and late night mistress to her kinky husband. Fortunately for everyone involved, the Lord works in mysterious ways. For despite a tangle of lies, manipulation, and mayhem, a series of unexpected events is about to bless everyone with a much needed second chance . . .

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In this episode, Nykieria covers Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America by Joy-Ann Reid

Myrlie Louise Beasley met Medgar Evers on her first day of college. They fell in love at first sight, married just one year later, and Myrlie left school to focus on their growing family.

Medgar became the field secretary for the Mississippi branch of the NAACP, charged with beating back the most intractable and violent resistance to black voting rights in the country. Myrlie served as Medgar’s secretary and confidant, working hand in hand with him as they struggled against public accommodations and school segregation, lynching, violence, and sheer despair within their state’s “black belt.” They fought to desegregate the intractable University of Mississippi, organized picket lines and boycotts, despite repeated terroristic threats, including the 1962 firebombing of their home, where they lived with their three young children.

On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers became the highest profile victim of Klan-related assassination of a black civil rights leader at that time; gunned down in the couple’s driveway in Jackson. In the wake of his tragic death, Myrlie carried on their civil rights legacy; writing a book about Medgar’s fight, trying to win a congressional seat, and becoming a leader of the NAACP in her own right.

In this groundbreaking and thrilling account of two heroes of the civil rights movement, Joy-Ann Reid uses Medgar and Myrlie’s relationship as a lens through which to explore the on-the-ground work that went into winning basic rights for Black Americans, and the repercussions that still resonate today.

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Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. Claudia and Monday have always been inseparable—more sisters than friends. So when Monday doesn’t turn up for the first day of school, Claudia’s worried.

When she doesn’t show for the second day, or second week, Claudia knows that something is wrong. Monday wouldn’t just leave her to endure tests and bullies alone. Not after last year’s rumors and not with her grades on the line. Now Claudia needs her best—and only—friend more than ever. But Monday’s mother refuses to give Claudia a straight answer, and Monday’s sister April is even less help.

As Claudia digs deeper into her friend’s disappearance, she discovers that no one seems to remember the last time they saw Monday. How can a teenage girl just vanish without anyone noticing that she’s gone?

Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.

Then the notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.

It’s hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realizes that there’s a lot more at stake than just her career. Having joined Wagner Books to honor the legacy of Burning Heart, a novel written and edited by two Black women, she had thought that this animosity was a relic of the past. Is Nella ready to take on the fight of a new generation?

“As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.”

Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Isabel Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.

America’s backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. It is the story of the pilgrims on the Mayflower building a new nation. It is George Washington’s cherry tree and Abraham Lincoln’s log cabin. It is the fantastic tale of slaves that spontaneously teleported themselves here with nothing but strong backs and negro spirituals. It is a sugarcoated legend based on an almost true story.

It should come as no surprise that the dominant narrative of American history is blighted with errors and oversights—after all, history books were written by white men with their perspectives at the forefront. It could even be said that the devaluation and erasure of the Black experience is as American as apple pie.

In Black AF History, Michael Harriot presents a more accurate version of American history. Combining unapologetically provocative storytelling with meticulous research based on primary sources as well as the work of pioneering Black historians, scholars, and journalists, Harriot removes the white sugarcoating from the American story, placing Black people squarely at the center. With incisive wit, Harriot speaks hilarious truth to oppressive power, subverting conventional historical narratives with little-known stories about the experiences of Black Americans. From the African Americans who arrived before 1619 to the unenslavable bandit who inspired America’s first police force, this long overdue corrective provides a revealing look into our past that is as urgent as it is necessary. For too long, we have refused to acknowledge that Americanhistory is white history. Not this one. This history is Black AF.