In 2014, Mitchell was commissioned by the Jazz Institute of Chicago to write music inspired by the poetry of Haki Madhbuti. Liberation Narratives, the latest release by composer, flautist and conceptualist Nicole Mitchell, will be released by the notable African-American publisher, Third World Press. The founder and director of Third World Press is named Haki R. Madhubuti. The album features Madhubuti reading his own poetry spanning his entire career from the 1960s to the present. Known formerly as Don L. Lee, he was a protege of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African-American poet to receive the Pulitzer Prize.

A spoken word audio CD that features Haki Madhubuti and the Afrikan Liberation Arts Ensemble.

An Africa-centered framework unifies these essays about misconceptions in standard accounts of the evolution of black music. Topics are cross-disciplinary and include Africa and the African diaspora, American black popular music, black consciousness and art, black message music, and the future of rap. Also included are poems by Nicole Sealey and Sandra Turner-Barnes; personal narratives by gospel music scholar James E. Adams and blues musician Byard Lancaster; and interviews with Katherine DeChavis, Kenny Gamble, Wynton Marsalis, Trudy Pitts, Shirley Scott, Ira Tucker, and McCoy Tyner. Rare archival photographs of musical pioneers complete this collection that leads to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the rich traditions of black music.

Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) first came in contact with Agyei Akoto Kehembe, Tuck, Ron Anderson, and Aiedo Mamadi in 1971 while teaching at Howard University. Madhubuti was teaching a course entitled Worldview: Toward a New Consciousness, which attracted many brothers and sisters from the Washington, D.C. community. The music and poetry on this collection is the result of that encounter.