From a dazzling array of well-known African American women, short fiction, poems, and personal essays that describe with warmth and humor their experiences as mothers and as daughters. A sparkling anthology devoted to exploring the lives of African American mothers, Rise Up Singing presents the stories and reflections of such beloved and respected artists, journalists, and authors as Alice Walker, Faith Ringgold, Marita Golden, Martha Southgate, Tananarive Due, Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, Deborah Roberts, Rita Dove, and others. It features original and previously published writings, organized by editor Cecelie Berry by themes—mothering, work, family, children, community, and love—that illuminate the multiple roles of black mothers at home, in the neighborhood, and in the world as a whole. Rise Up Singing brings together the perspectives of women of different ages, backgrounds, and accomplishments. What shines through in their writings are the hopes shared by all mothers. As Marian Wright Edelman writes in the Foreword: “The mothers writing in this anthology speak in a range of voices. They are joyful, stressed, grateful, ambivalent, determined, disappointed, and, in bad ways and good, overwhelmed. But over and over again . . . we see mothers struggling with the push: striving to give their children their best and to make sure the world gives their children its best, hard as that fight may be.”

Wake Up Singing is the story of Mary Helen Richards and her revolutionary approach to teaching, Education Through Music. Written after her death by her husband, Cedric Ricky Richards, and edited by their children, it is a both a love story and a history. It tells the story of their lives over the course of more than half a century together as they worked and played, suffered and rejoiced through the birth, growth and development of their children and their work, ETM and the Richards Institute of Education and Research. To Rickys long narrative, written during the four years before he too moved on to join his beloved Mary Helen, their children have added some of Mary Helens and Rickys personal writings about the years before they met, as well as love letters from their courtship, and an epilog about the last years of their lives. Telling the story of the dedication and love of life that made their work possible, this book is a testimony to the way a shining intent can unfold through doubt and delight, anguish and adventure, into reconciliation and beyond

Musician and music historian Craig Harris tells the compelling stories of contemporary Indigenous musicians of North America in their own words.

This volume analyses the narration of the social through music and the seismographic function of music to detect social problems and envision alternatives. Beyond state-driven attempts to link musical production to the official narrative of the nation, mass musical movements emerged during the 20th century that provided countercultural and alternative narratives of the prevailing social context. The Americas contain numerous examples of the strong connection between music and politics; Woody Guthrie’s "This Land is Your Land" envisioned a socialist transformation of the U.S., the Chilean Nueva Canción created a narrative and affective frame for the recognition of popular culture as a central element of the cultural politics of the Chilean way to socialism, and Reggae emerged as a response to British colonialism, drawing inspiration and guidance from the pan-Africanist visions of Marcus Garvey. Providing a significant contribution to the study of music and politics/social movements from an inter-American perspective, this book will appeal to students and scholars of U.S. and Latin American Cultural Studies, Transnational Studies, History and Political Studies, Area Studies, and Music Studies. For additional information, please see the authors' Sonic Politics webpage: https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/cias/sonicpolitics/index.html

One part mixtape, one part disorientation guide, and one part career retrospective, Kyle "Guante" Tran Myhre's debut looks you directly in the eye and doesn't let you flinch. Ranging from justice to love, community action to personal reflection, A Love Song, A Death Rattle, A Battle Cry is a dedication to craft. Clocking in before the rest of us are even awake, the book wastes no time. It does the work and beckons you to follow. A compilation of poems, lyrics and essays from the UN presenter, MC, and two-time National Poetry Slam champion, this book is a love song tucked into a grenade, a necessary call that demands a response.

Dare believe in big dreams, ideals grand and vast; Dare believe in infinite nature of thine own thought, And possibilities, opportunities on the morrow, harness; For as thou believe, thou surely shall receive, surely attain; Amenhotep XVI believes in following exquisite dreams, pursuing perfection and splendor, and plucking the watercress of one’s destiny from the dark depths. Within three hundred inspirational poems and prayers shared to spur and inspire all to embrace the divine magic of their preordained nature, he lyrically encourages others to actualize their God-given talents; awaken their true identity as the creator of their life; harness and harvest the power of imagination; cultivate the ardent mind; keep the embers of great hope alive; and move past obstacles with courage, resilience, perseverance, persistence, and the fortitude of a threshing ox. Throughout his diverse collection, Amenhotep provides gentle reminders to not only live a life full of deep meaning, virtue, and true purpose, but also with joy and full felicity as heaven decreed. The 18th Letter is a collection of poems and prayers inspired by the wisdom provided within the three books of Holy Scripture.

From the author of the National Book Award longlisted epic The Great Offshore Grounds, here is the debut novel that launched her career—a story of activism, police violence, and white guilt in a not so distant dystopian America. “An ambitious encapsulation of our modern times, Zazen tackles counterculture hipsters, geology, Buddhism, consumerism, terrorism, veganism, family drama, and, above all, love." —Judges' Citation, PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize The world is on fire, and Della doesn’t know what, if anything, she should do about it. The country is poised on the brink of war. Curfews and other restrictions give the police an excuse for violence. Customers at the vaguely vegan cafe where Della is working after dropping out of grad school debate which foreign countries are the best to flee to: Costa Rica? Bali? Della’s parents—former revolutionaries—are more excited at the idea of her brother and his Black wife giving them biracial grandbabies than in engaging in any new actions; her nominally activist coworkers are mostly devoted to planning a massive sex party. Della floats between them, lost and numb. Then a bomb goes off: some shallow place of capitalistic worship demolished. Inspired, for reasons not entirely clear to herself, Della calls in a second—fake—bomb threat. But a bomb goes off there, too, and soon Della finds herself pulled in by a group of people who, for once, are promising to actually do something. No matter the consequences. Prescient when it was first published, Vanessa Veselka’s debut novel is even more revolutionary now. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL.