"Like a great conversation, [this] book is provocative and inspiring...The integration of scholarship and accessible conversation rests largely in Rose's curiosity, her delight in discovery."
- Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Newsweek

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Longing to Tell
Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy

The Sexual Lives of Black Women, In Their Own Words

"Heartbreaking, inspiring, and brutally honest...as compelling as it is sorely needed."
- Publisher's Weekly

"A powerful and pioneering work. For the first time we hear the painful and poignant voices of black women in all their humanity and complexity. Do not miss this path-blazing book!"
- Cornel West, University Professor, Princeton University

In a culture driven by sexual and racial imagery, very few honest conversations about race, gender, and sexuality actually take place. In their absence, commonly held perceptions of black women as teenage mothers, welfare recipients, mammies, or exotic sexual playthings remain unchanged. for fear that telling their stories will fulfill society's implicit expectations about their sexuality, most black women have retreated into silences. Tricia Rose seeks to break this silence and jump-start a dialogue by presenting, for the first time, the sexual testimonies of black women. Spanning a broad range of ages, levels of education, and socioeconomic backgrounds, twenty women, in their own words, talk with starling honesty about sex, love, family, relationships, and intimacy. Their stories dispel prevailing myths and provide revealing insights into how black women navigate the complex terrain of sexuality. Nuanced, rich, and powerful, Longing to Tell will be required reading for anyone interested in issues of race and gender.

"Black Noise is by far the finest thing ever written on hip hop and rap music ... Rose locates the origins of the music and message(s) in the lived experience of African-American youth."
- Robin D. G. Kelley

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Black Noise
Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America

Rap recordings are discussed almost everywhere today, from schoolyards and subways to the U.S. Senate and Supreme Court. Rose thoroughly analyzes several facets of the musical genre and provides an effective antidote to the severely flawed hip-hop coverage in mainstream media. She accurately traces rap's sonic history (proving thereby that music does not require conventional melody or harmony) and gives substantial information about the innovative rhythmic manipulations made possible by the techniques of sampling. She also makes clear the connections between rap's beginnings and the political turmoils that afflicted black and Latino urban neighborhoods throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In discussing what is probably rap's most controversial aspect--lyrics supposedly advocating "cop killing"--Rose vividly delineates the social conditions that bring about such fierce responses to real-life police brutality. Finally, she examines the often neglected role of women in rap in rewarding depth. Fans, scholars, and detractors alike stand to learn a great deal by studying Rose's commendable treatise. (Aaron Cohen, Booklist)