Black Summers: Growing Up in the Urban Outdoors

A triumphant, cross-generational exploration of Black joy and resilience.

Remember frolicking outside during the long, jubilant days of summer? This vibrant collection invites readers to breathe deeply and return to that "carefree" season. From riding bikes with friends through the neighborhood, to hopping the ferry to Boblo Island, catching catfish along the river, dancing on warm nights to Afrobeats and jazz music, and cooling off in the Swimmobile, those sun-drenched memories were often clouded by racism for the Detroiters in this evocative anthology. These emerging and award-winning creators of all ages recount the struggles and triumph of staking their claim to public spaces. Ranging from poetry to essay, creative nonfiction to comics, this collection blends nostalgia with struggle and resilience. Arising from the iconic city of the African American experience comes this exploration of Black joy in the urban outdoors.

Desiree Cooper is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and 2015 Kresge Artist Fellow. Her essays and fiction have appeared in publications from The New York Times to the Norton collection Flash Fiction America. Cooper is the author of Nothing Special, which won the 2023 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People and the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Award for Most Original Concept, and Know the Mother, a Michigan Notable Book (both Wayne State University Press). She currently serves as a series editor for the Made in Michigan Writers Series. Contributors: Tommye Blount, Justin Boggués, Isaiah Chambers, Esperanza Cintrón, Zig Zag Claybourne, Nandi Comer, Desiree Cooper, Bridgett M. Davis, Kahn Santori Davison, Jean Alicia Elster, shannon garth-rhodes, D'Nae Hearn, Stephen Henderson, Charisma Holly, Xavier Jackson, Mic Jennings, Luther Keith, Angela Atabex Lugo-Thomas, MARS. Marshall, Chace Morris, Keith A. Owens, Pamela Hilliard Owens, Kamron Reynolds, Brittany Rogers, Satori Shakoor, Renee Simms, Cassandra Spratling, Lillien Waller, Rochelle Wilson-Ellis.