Dramatist Yvette Heyliger delivers power-packed full-length plays for leading women, each prefaced by an artistic statement. Her instincts for comic relief are genius." Backstage West "Heyliger has a solid flair for dialogue and a good ear for comedy." Park LaBrea News Bridge to Baraka (Excerpt) Yvette X appeared in a dashiki and huge Afro to bring the 60s Black Arts Movement to the present womens struggle in her side-splitting and astute Bridge to Baraka. The Dramatist White House Wives: Operation Lysistrata! Playwright Yvette Heyliger, herself African American and female (a combination not seen enough in American theatre, particularly when commenting on the nations political landscape) takes advantage of her position and writes dialogue that brings her unique perspective to light. Theatre is Easy Hillary and Monica: The Winter of Her Discontent It's more absurd than any Saturday Night Live sketch on the same subject, but it has more to say about ambition and the reasons behind one's actions than your average comedy routine... you'll end up having a hearty laugh. NYTheatre.com What Would Jesus Do? "Talk about great plays, this powerful drama depicting AIDS and its cover-up is as important as those Larry Kramer plays in the early stages of the dreaded scourge. Listen up theatre producers, this play should make it to Broadway, where it belongs." Celebrity Society Fathers Day A profound psychological drama with hard-hitting, solid characters and realistic dialogue; a tour de force for directors and actors The BCS Experience, GoProRadio Homegirl "A fresh and vivid comedy that connects the political to the personal, American history to Roanetta's story with a light touch and a warm heart." Los Angeles Times

The book in overview is historical and instructional in content, with the focus being on the Biblical text in terms of its original form and language and in consideration of its full and proper context linguistically, textually, historically, culturally, and literarily. It stresses the importance of moving from a knowledge of the Bible to an understanding of its life-giving instructions, being studied in its entirety as a gift to mankind from a loving creator, Elohim. The thrust of the book is accordingly threefold: An indictment of two of mans religious systems (Judaism and Christianity) for syncretism, corruption of Elohims written Word of truth, and abuses of religious authority, plus promulgation of religious traditions not aligned with the whole truth of Elohims Word. A call to return to the one source of truththe written Word of Elohim understood in its originally written form and in its full and proper context. Providing the equipping and study tools necessary to move from a mere knowledge of the Word to an understanding of its life-giving instructionshow to live a redeemed life as Elohim intended for all mankind.

What emerges in this second book of the trilogy is that the very “ground” and content of experience is richer than what can be reduced to a particular account of it. As such, dialogue develops from the “natural” diversity of what is “of” faith and what is “of” reason. Neither faith nor reason, however, originates “from” experience; rather, both are “witnessed” in experience. In other words, taking up questions about the nature of man, whether philosophically, psychologically or in terms of social structures, manifests both a variety of points of departure and, at the same time, the manifold conversations that are possible in the “field of culture”.Focusing particularly on the work of St. John Paul II, the first essay examines the answer of reason and the answer of faith to the same question: What is man? Conversion, too, entails an “unexpected” relationship to natural truth, which, in its own way, is both adequate and inadequate to salvation. Communication, as it were, runs throughout these essays; however, in particular, there is a need to enrich our human understanding of the process of “coming to ourselves” with the insights of spiritual discernment. Axiomatically, however, it is possible to say that just as we come to exist through a relationship to others, so our healing and holiness are manifest through our relationship to others in the “Other”. Furthermore, while it is ultimately true that we exist as individually rooted in the social structure of our origin and the times in which we live, we need to critically participate in the dialogue which identifies our common “reality” and not live our lives covered in “psycho-social” labels of one kind or another.As a whole, then, there is an incomparable range and depth to “dialogue”. Indeed, given the many critical situations in the world, it is increasingly indispensable and essential that humanity choose the incredible wealth of dialogue in contrast to the possibility of a “polarised” and “conflictual” structure between people and peoples.

Virtually all theories of satire define it as a criticism of contemporary society. Some argue that satire criticizes the present in favor of a standard of values that has been superseded, and thus that satire is generally backward-looking and conservative. While this is often true of poetic satire, in this study Frank Palmeri asserts that narrative satire performs a different function, that it parodies both the established view of the world and that of its opponents, offering its own distinctive critical perspective. This theory of satire builds on the idea of dialogical parody in the work of Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, while revising Bakhtin's estimate of carnival. In Palmeri's view, the carnivalesque offers only an inverted mirror image of authoritative discourse, while parodic narrative satire suggests an alternative to both the official world and its inverted opposite. Palmeri applies this theory of narrative satire to five works of world literature, each of which has generated sharp controversy about the genre to which it rightly belongs: Petronius' Satyricon, Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub, Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Herman Melville's The Confidence-Man, and Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. He analyzes the features that link these works and shows how the changing pairs of alternatives that are parodied in these satires reflect changes in the terms of social and cultural oppositions. Satire in Narrative will appeal to comparatists, specialists in eighteenth-century and American literature, and others interested in theories of genre and the relations between literary forms and social history.

W. E. B. Du Bois was a public intellectual, sociologist, and activist on behalf of the African American community. He profoundly shaped black political culture in the United States through his founding role in the NAACP, as well as internationally through the Pan-African movement. Du Bois's sociological and historical research on African-American communities and culture broke ground in many areas, including the history of the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. Du Bois was also a prolific author of novels, autobiographical accounts, innumerable editorials and journalistic pieces, and several works of history. Black Reconstruction in America tells and interprets the story of the twenty years of Reconstruction from the point of view of newly liberated African Americans. Though lambasted by critics at the time of its publication in 1935, Black Reconstruction has only grown in historical and literary importance. In the 1960s it joined the canon of the most influential revisionist historical works. Its greatest achievement is weaving a credible, lyrical historical narrative of the hostile and politically fraught years of 1860-1880 with a powerful critical analysis of the harmful effects of democracy, including Jim Crow laws and other injustices. With a series introduction by editor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and an introduction by David Levering Lewis, this edition is essential for anyone interested in African American history.

The Akshaya Patra series is written as a book to augment books of philosophical inquiry; and to assist true inquiry in such a way, so as to inspire the Mysteries that unfold on the path of initiation. Let us begin by breaking bread together, by this first step, that we may destroy the tome of ignorance with that first principle in prayer saying; "A house that is loved is always satisfied." This house is the Temple of Self; inspired by life and the touch of nature, the Akshaya Patra throughout is filled with inner depth and determination. These first works of the Akshaya Patra, were inspired by, and dedicated to, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, whose influence was, and still is, too vast for words; and whose love has satisfied the genius in this Tomb and Tome of Time. This first book of Volume ONE begins, with the features of introductory, for taking the earliest footsteps, on the path of sacred life; dedicated to Self-Transformation. As a Tree of Knowledge is planted, its roots fan out thru many traditions, and its branches stretch to provide shelter and protection over all. Its leaves call for all to come and take their share of comfort beneath the shadows in its shade; delighted and lighted by the sun by day, and with night fascinated to discover the ringlets of the moon and stars that gave first light in the residence of space. We are THAT Time, we are that Space; we are that Consciousness. "Tat Twam Asi" ... the pursuant in pursuant search, in the sea, of supreme reality. Self-Mastery is a personal journey and there is only one friend; and that is the sacred messenger, who comes to life as the resident within. There are many years involved in coming to this writing of the Akshaya Patra Series. The examinations here have taken us to this first place in the writing; that is nothing more than the satisfaction of ethical journey, working forward from the true beginning. There are many more volumes and books to follow for us, in order to reach our destination in this vast work of self-transformation. Are we ready? Are we deserving? We have been fooled by fools maybe, and we are, or are we, the fools to dream that we are more than this fool we have come to be. We come to this knowing that we have not come to terms with our true identity. Maybe we have fed ourselves unwisely, and only broken bread that is dry, tasteless, and come unsatisfied, from drink before a shallow empty well. The Akshaya Patra Volume ONE Book ONE; entitled Manasa Bhajare: Worship in the Mind; means to satisfy. The Mind will be the first portal passed; before transitioning thru its own death and resurrection. It is here in this first book of Volume ONE that we are first entertained; breaking down our traditions that take shape into something immaterial but tangible. In all, Volume ONE alone will consist of nine books. More to be published. This is Book ONE. Seven Volumes are written and every day these are maturing waiting for release. Currently there are hiding behind this Volume ONE Book ONE about 17 books written... It is to unfold the culmination of a lifetime of work. Each Volume evolves thru seven stages of Initiation; as if passing thru seven days labor on the path towards liberation. In this it is like the Bhagavata. Our purpose, objective and ends may be summed up in the advice given in these words of Sai Baba: (True knowledge) instructs you to reform yourself first. After transforming yourself, try to reform others. That is the advice offered by Vidya (True Knowledge). The delusive attachment to the objective world can be uprooted by means of selfless service rendered as worship to the Lord. Genuine devotion is characterized by LOVE FOR ALL, at all times, everywhere. Sai Baba

Drawing on recent theories of digital media and on the materiality of words and images, this fascinating study makes three original claims about the work of William Blake. First, Blake offers a critique of digital media. His poetry and method of illuminated printing is directed towards uncovering an analogical language. Second, Blake's work can be read as a performative. Finally, Blake's work is at one and the same time immanent and transcendent, aiming to return all forms of divinity and the sacred to the human imagination, stressing that 'all deities reside in the human breast,' but it also stresses that the human has powers or potentials that transcend experience and judgement: deities reside in the human breast. These three claims are explored through the concept of incarnation: the incarnation of ideas in words and images, the incarnation of words in material books and their copies, the incarnation of human actions and events in bodies, and the incarnation of spirit in matter.

The Introspective Art of Mark Twain is a major new assessment of a towering American writer. Seeking to trace the development of Mark Twain's imagination, Douglas Anderson begins near the end of Twain's life, with the long dialogue What Is Man? that Twain published anonymously in 1906. In Twain's view, the little-read What Is Man? lies at the heart of his creative life. It is the central aesthetic testament that he employed to tell the story of his artistic evolution. Anderson follows the contours of that story as it unfolds over Twain's career. The portrait that emerges addresses the full scope of Twain's achievement, drawing on his autobiographical and travel writings, as well as the published and unpublished works of fiction that are by now deeply embedded in the world literary canon. “Steer by the river in your head,” Mark Twain's master pilot, Horace Bixby, once advised him, when the opaque atmosphere of the outer world made it impossible to see the actual Mississippi through which Twain was trying to guide his steamboat. For the purposes of this book, the river in one's head is not a mental construct of the physical world but the riverine networks of consciousness itself: the river that is the mind. The detailed discussions of individual books that structure each chapter direct the attention of Mark Twain's students and admirers, through inward rather than outward channels, toward a fuller appreciation for his legacy.