Rarely does a book cover a historically and culturally important topic that has never been written about before. Yet Lights of the Spirit: Historical Portraits of Black Bahá'ís in North America, 1898-2000 accomplishes precisely this through an absorbing collection of glimpses into the lives of some extraordinary individuals who devoted themselves to a common cause and made outstanding contributions toward building a unified society.

Edited by Gwendolyn Etter-Lewis, a professor of English at Miami University in Ohio, and Richard Thomas, a professor of history at Michigan State University, the book brings to light the stories of a diverse group of people including attorney Louis Gregory, poet Robert Hayden, jazz great Dizzy Gillespie, Broadway actress Dorothy Champ, and Canadian singer Eddie Elliot, to name a few.

Lights of the Spirit is divided into two sections. Part one offers a helpful introduction to the Bahá'í Faith and six highly readable essays that comprehensively describe the black experience in the North American Baha'i community. Chapters by Etter-Lewis, Thomas, and others address African-Americans and the development of the Faith in the U.S. and Canada, contributions of African-American women, and the role African-Americans in the global expansion of the Baha'i Faith.

Part two contains documents from nine historically prominent African-American Bahá'ís, providing insights into how these remarkable individuals perceived themselves and the larger communities in which they lived. Here, readers will find creative and social commentaries, letters, and family histories. Many of the documents are previously unpublished. Written from a first-person point of view, they preserve a largely unknown history that expands our notions of African-American religious traditions.

The unique content of the book will appeal to readers interested in Black history, race relations, and the history of religion in North America.

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The Bahá’í International Community (BIC) has published a book compiling three decades of its statements to the UN on gender equality. In Full Partnership is part of global “Beijing+30” initiatives reflecting on commitments, challenges, and progress around advancing gender equality over three decades. In Full Partnership is intended as a resource as well as an invitation for collective action and consultation on practical steps that could lead to lasting gender equality and justice.

The release of In Full Partnership aligns with the international community’s assessment of the persistent challenges and setbacks faced by the gender equality movement—including rising political polarization and entrenched patriarchal attitudes. At the same time, the publication underscores significant achievements, offering hopeful and practical examples from Bahá’í communities in over 100,000 localities worldwide, working alongside friends, co-workers, government officials, and like-minded organizations to promote societies that embody the principle of gender equality.

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"The exceptional character of Táhirih in the secular and sacred history of humanity is increasingly being discovered and disclosed. Táhirih’s transcendental and transformative universal love, expressed in her poetry, announces the onset of a new era in human civilization. Sparks of Fire, the fourth volume containing original poems of Táhirih and their English translation by Hemmat and Hatcher, is one of the most wonderful scholarly events of the twenty-first century. It is most unfortunate that the publication of Hemmat and Hatcher’s previous volumes translating Táhirih’s poetry—'The Poetry of Táhirih, Adam’s Wish,' and 'The Quickening'—has been largely met with silence or disbelief from scholars in the field. The fact is that these volumes are so amazing and wonderful that even experts in the field find it difficult to believe that their publication can be a real event, but the time has come to enthusiastically embrace, recite, and loudly celebrate the exceptional treasure of this historical and spiritual gift." —Nader Saiedi, Retired Professor of Sociology and Iranian Studies at Carleton College and UCLA, and author of Gate of the Heart: Understanding the Writings of the Báb

"Táhirih’s poetry is a window to her profound insights on the station and mission of the Báb. Hatcher and Hemmat’s eloquent English translations of her verse convey the fire and sublime beauty of those insights. Their introduction and commentary aids readers to appreciate Táhirih’s ecstatic faith and understand the depth and profundity of her knowledge. Sparks of Fire is a must-read for anyone interested in the potential of art and the power of language to challenge the status quo and proclaim the dawn of a new age. —Omid Ghaemmaghami, Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton, and co-editor of “‘From the Seed of Love We Sow’: Further Research on Tahirih Qurrat al-Ayn” (Hawwa, vol. 21, no. 4)

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