"Let's Deconstruct a Story" featuring Lolita Hernandez
Archive Update! I’m sending over some videos from 2020, so sorry to inundate your email! This discussion took place in 2020 with Wayne State University Press author, Lolita Hernandez.
August 15, 2020
I had so much fun this past month deconstructing stories with Desiree Cooper and Laura Thomas; I ...
"Let's Deconstruct a Story" featuring Desiree Cooper
My guest today is Desiree Cooper, the 2015 Kresge Artist Fellow. Cooper is a former attorney. She is also a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and much-beloved community activist. Originally from Virginia, she currently lives in Virginia. BUT she lived in Detroit for decades and will always be a...
Book Celebrates Intergenerational Joy
Writer Desiree Cooper's new children's book—titled Nothing Special—celebrates the intergenerational friendship between her grandson Jax and her own father. Its lush multimedia illustrations and the story, drawn from Cooper's own life, finds joy in the quiet moments of childhood. We talked to Coop...
Desiree Cooper - Writer and Journalist
This is Ashley Newby and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture worker...
June 30th 2026 - Podcast
Black Authors Matter TV - June 30th Guests: Crystal Forte, Desiree Cooper, Antwan Floyd, Norma DeShields
Crystal Forte - Curator of Melanated Reader BlogDesiree Cooper - Award-Winning Author/SpeakerAntwan Floyd - Crime Fiction Author/Magazine PublisherNorma DeShields - Y.A. Urban Fantasy Author
Desiree Cooper Joins Tavis Smiley
Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, award-winning author, and attorney Desiree Cooper discusses her new book, Black Summers: Growing Up in the Urban Outdoors, a provocative collection of essays, poetry, and graphic stories about how racism shapes life in the urban outdoors.Become a supporter of ...
Desiree Cooper: Finding Nature in the City
Desiree Cooper, a 2015 Kresge Artist Fellow and Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, is the editor of the 2026 anthology Black Summers: Growing Up in Urban Outdoors.
She started the anthology after discovering the forgotten civil rights story of Sarah Ray, a black teenager who was remove...
New book captures Detroit’s summer spirit and asks who its outdoor spaces were really built for
"Black Summers" - a book about growing up in the urban outdoors - is a compilation of writings from Detroiters. In it they detail what it’s like to experience a summer here. But it’s not just about playing tag at the park or barbeques on Belle Isle. The book balances the joys and freedoms that c...
Desiree Cooper & Black Summers
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This episode features our conversation with Desiree Cooper, which was live-streamed on September 8, 2026.
Desiree Cooper is a 2015 Kresge Artist Fellow, Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, former attorney, and editor of the groundbreaking 2026 anthology, Black Summers: Growing u...
Black Summer Joy with Desiree Cooper and the Stories of Memorable Detroit Summers
“When I arrived in Detroit in 1984, I thought I had come to another country.” Desiree Cooper remembers discovering a Detroit the national story rarely showed: Black people owning, leading, creating, gathering, and finding joy. Detroit is Different recorded this special Father’s Day event on Sunda...
