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 Haiki 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. 

Mitchell and Madhubuti have a deep connection which spans a number of years, starting when Mitchell first moved to Chicago, and sought employment at Madhubuti's Third World Press. In sum, Mitchell says: "I feel there is an immediate connection between Madhubuti's words and what we are going through today, so I thought it was important to make them assessable to people that my not find his books."