With “Cowboy Carter,” her eighth studio album, Beyoncé not only explores the longed-for and carelessly and/or intentionally erased Black past in country music, but also moves the genre forward into a hopefully more expansive future.

This historic and traditional music reflects the experience, thoughts, sorrows, joys and spirituality of our enslaved and free ancestors.

'Nothing But Love in God's Water,' by Robert Darden

What better way to introduce our readers to more black Catholic writers than to ask a selection of black Catholic intellectuals to tell us about their favorite books by their fellow writers?