{
    "id": 319551,
    "slug": "my-soul-looks-back-jessica-b-harris",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "My soul looks back",
    "subtitle": null,
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": "<p>In this captivating new memoir, award-winning writer Jessica B. Harris recalls a lost era\u0097the vibrant New York City of her youth, where her social circle included Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and other members of the Black intelligentsia.<br /><br />In the Technicolor glow of the early seventies, Jessica B. Harris debated, celebrated, and danced her way from the jazz clubs of the Manhattan's West Side to the restaurants of the Village, living out her buoyant youth alongside the great minds of the day\u0097luminaries like Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison. <em>My Soul Looks Back </em>is her paean to that fascinating social circle and the depth of their shared commitment to activism, intellectual engagement, and each other.<br /> <br />Harris paints evocative portraits of her illustrious friends: Baldwin as he read aloud an early draft of <em>If Beale Street Could Talk</em>, Angelou cooking in her California kitchen, and Morrison relaxing at Baldwin\u0092s house in Provence. Harris describes her role as theater critic for the <em>New York Amsterdam News </em>and editor at then burgeoning<em> Essence </em>magazine<em>; </em>star-studded parties in the South of France; drinks at Mikell\u0092s, a hip West Side club; and the simple joy these extraordinary people took in each other\u0092s company. The book is framed by Harris\u0092s relationship with Sam Floyd, a fellow professor at Queens College, who introduced her to Baldwin.<br /> <br />More than a memoir of friendship and first love <em>My Soul Looks Back</em> is a carefully crafted, intimately understood homage to a bygone era and the people that made it so remarkable.</p>",
    "description": null,
    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": null,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2017-05-01",
    "publication_date_latest": "2017-05-01",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [
        {
            "isbn": "9781501125904",
            "product_form": "BB"
        }
    ],
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    "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:18:02+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-10-29T00:25:10+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 4234,
        "slug": "simon-schuster-us",
        "name": "Simon & Schuster US",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T12:38:52+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:10:09+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [
        {
            "id": 190592,
            "slug": "elle-cosimano",
            "key_names": "",
            "names_before_key": null,
            "prefix_to_key": null,
            "contributor_role": "A01",
            "readable_contributor_role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": []
}