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. “I picked this book up and couldn’t put it down till I’d read every poem and story. Black Summers: Growing Up in the Urban Outdoors is full of joy, wisdom, and righteous resistance. What splendor in these pages!” —Camille Dungy, author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, and America, A Love Story “These stories will hurtle you back to high summer: the slurp of popsicles, the slap of jump ropes on the sidewalk, the squeals and splashes of water from mobile pools, and boats bobbing on the Detroit River. Because Black Summers speaks to the universality of our Black summers everywhere, and to the specificity of Black summers in the authors’ beloved Detroit.” —Karen Grigsby Bates, founding member, of NPR’s Code Switch