Virtuosic in his use of literary forms, nurtured and unbounded by his identities as a Black man, a gay man, an intellectual, and a Southerner, Randall Kenan was known for his groundbreaking fiction. Less visible were his extraordinary nonfiction essays, published as introductions to anthologies and in small journals, revealing countless facets of Kenan's life and work. Flying under the radar, these writings were his most personal and autobiographical: memories of the three women who raised him-a grandmother, a schoolteacher great-aunt, and the great-aunt's best friend; recollections of his boyhood fear of snakes and his rapturous discoveries in books; sensual evocations of the land, seasons, and crops-the labor of tobacco picking and hog killing-of the eastern North Carolina lowlands where he grew up; and the food (oh the deliriously delectable Southern foods!) that sustained him. Here too is his intellectual coming of age; his passionate appreciations of kindred spirits as far-flung as Eartha Kitt, Gordon Parks, Ingmar Bergman, and James Baldwin. This powerful collection is a testament to a great mind, a great soul, and a great writer from whom readers will always wish to have more to read.

This book provides a fresh and contemporary take on the study of men and masculinity. It highlights new and exciting approaches to sexuality, desire, men and masculinity in East Asian contexts, focusing on the interconnections between them. In doing so, it re-examines the key concepts that underpin studies of masculinity, such as homophobia, homosociality and heteronormativity. Developing new ways of thinking about masculinity in local contexts, it fills a significant lacuna in contemporary scholarship. This thought-provoking work will appeal to students and scholars of gender studies, cultural studies and the wider social sciences.

This book examines the formation of identity of the Nagas in northeast India in light of the proselytizing efforts by the Americans and the colonization by the British in their search for control over areas inhabited by the Nagas which were perfect for tea plantations. The author explores the westernization of Naga culture, its effect on the Naga Nationalist movement, and how it has led to the formation of modern Naga identity. As a unique indigenous group, the colonization of the Naga people offers fresh insights into our understanding of the processes and effects of colonization in India, as well as its long-term negative effects, particularly with regards to the preservation of traditional beliefs and customs.

The debate over race in this country has of late converged on the contentious issue of affirmative action. Although the Supreme Court once supported the concept of racial affirmative action, in recent years a majority of the Court has consistently opposed various affirmative action programs.

The Law of Affirmative Action provides a comprehensive chronicle of the evolution of the Supreme Court's involvement with the racial affirmative action issue over the last quarter century. Starting with the 1974 "DeFunis v. Odegaard" decision and the 1978" Bakke" decision, which marked the beginnings of the Court's entanglement with affirmative action, Girardeau Spann examines every major Supreme Court affirmative action decision, showing how the controversy the Court initially left unresolved in DeFunis has persisted through the Court's 1998-99 term.

Including nearly thirty principal cases, covering equal protection, voting rights, Title VII, and education, The Law of Affirmative Action is the only work to treat the Court decisions on racial affirmative action so closely, tracing the votes of each justice who has participated in the decisions. Indispensable for students and scholars, this timely volume elucidates reasons for the 180 degree turn in opinion on an issue so central to the debate on race in America today.

Black conservatism is no oxymoron. Recent polls have indicated that an increasing number of black Americans identified themselves as conservatives, favoring smaller government, lower taxes, tougher crime laws, welfare reform, and personal initiative. While applauding the moral and legal victories of the Civil Rights Movement, the conservative spokespeople in this dynamic new collection reject the claims of inequities and what they consider to be the self-serving agenda of the present civil rights establishment. National leaders such as Justice Clarence Thomas and former Representative Gary Franks and writers such as Shelby Steele and Glenn Loury appear either as contributors or as subjects in this volume. They emphasize the grassroots aspects of black conservatism with a reliance on common sense and common humanity. The strength of the black conservative voice lies in the growth of its numbers and social influence. As more African-Americans shift to the right and embrace conservative ideology, they are signalling what may be one of the most politically significant trends in American public life as the 20th century draws to a close. This provocative collection of essays shatters the myth that black Americans are uniformly left of center and that conservatism is an ideology with a white face. Unique in its personal and political portrait of black conservatives in America, this book shows the remarkable diversity of ideas from one of the most talked-about political movements to emerge in recent years.

Literary and Sociopolitical Writings of the Black Diaspora in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries traces the historiography of literary and sociopolitical movements of the Black Diaspora in the writings of key political figures. It comparatively and dialogically examines such movements as Pan-Africanism, Garveyism, Indigenisme, New Negro Renaissance, Negritude, and Afrocriollo. To study the key ideologies that emerged as collective black thought within the Diaspora, particular attention is given to the philosophies of Black Nationalism, Black Internationalism, and Universal Humanism. Each leader and writer helped establish new dimensions to evolving movements; thus, the text discerns the temporal, spatial, and conceptual development of each literary and sociopolitical movement. To probe the comparative and transnational trajectories of the movements while concurrently examining the geopolitical distinctions, the text focuses on leaders who psychologically, culturally, and/or physically traveled throughout Africa, the Americas, and Europe, and whose ideas were disseminated and influenced a number of contemporaries and successors. Such approach dismantles geographic, language, and generation barriers, for a comprehensive analysis. Indeed, it was through the works transmitted from one generation to the next that leaders learned the lessons of history, particularly the lessons of organizational strategies, which are indispensable to sustained and successful liberation movements.

From his groundbreaking book Speech Acts to his most recent studies of consciousness, freedom and rationality John Searle has been a dominant and highly influential figure amongst contemporary philosophers. This systematic introduction to the full range of Searle's work begins with the theory of speech acts and proceeds with expositions of Searle's writings on intentionality, consciousness and perception, as well as a careful presentation of the so-called Chinese Room argument. The volume considers Searle's recent work on social ontology and his views on the nature of law and obligation. It concludes with an appraisal of Searle's spirited defense of truth and scientific method in the face of the criticisms of Derrida and other postmodernists. This is the only comprehensive introduction to Searle's work, and as such it will be of particular value to advanced undergraduates, graduates and professionals in philosophy, psychology, linguistics, cognitive and computer science and literary theory.

Goddess Pages: Honey, Full Moons and Daggers is as much a journey through womanhood, as it is an exquisitely written book of poetry. Through words, Shepsa courses through the faces of the Goddess; seductively sensual, heroically maternal, and radically rebellious. Goddess Pages is a feast of words that will make you want to make love, have a baby and plan the revolution.

This volume focuses on the challenges faced by Black children in the post-modern age. The authors integrate clinical and developmental psychology with history and culture to address contemporary issues in the field. The issues confronting African American children and parents are unique to this era of unparalleled prosperity. Simultaneous patterns of racial inequality and disparities continue to exist in almost all areas of human activity despite these prosperous times. This book offers an in-depth look at issues and challenges affecting African American children in the 21st century. Topics addressed include quantifying normal behavior, racial identity, racial socialization, acting white, teen fatherhood, poverty, violence, and Black males and sports. This book will be of interest to both academics and professionals in clinical development and family psychology and those involved with legal and social services for Black children.

A must read book for the 21st Century. The journey of an ordinary black man, who fights an unpopular war as a young man and confronted with death becomes disillusioned with society until he is almost a statistic. Subsequently, he manages to come to a better understanding of life experiences and their impact upon his future through the "school of hard knocks." Realizing that he is his own worst enemy and a change must be made, shaped by his parents and a community, embarks on a path that takes him half way around the world and home again.

Compared to the early decades of the 20th century, when scholarly writing on African Americans was limited to a few titles on slavery, Reconstruction, and African American migration, the last thirty years have witnessed an explosion of works on the African American experience. With the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s came an increasing demand for the study and teaching of African American history followed by the publication of increasing numbers of titles on African American life and history. This volume provides a comprehensive bibliographical and analytical guide to this growing body of literature as well as an analysis of how the study of African Americans has changed. In essays written by scholars from the fields of history, literature, religion, political science, sociology, psychology, music, and religion, the book spotlights the historiographical trends associated with the evolving study of African American life and history. Students and scholars, as well as general readers, will find the guide to be a useful tool in identifying secondary materials for study, class use, and scholarly research.

A richly illustrated celebration of the paintings of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama From the moment of their unveiling at the National Portrait Gallery in early 2018, the portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama have become two of the most beloved artworks of our time. Kehinde Wiley's portrait of President Obama and Amy Sherald's portrait of the former first lady have inspired unprecedented responses from the public, and attendance at the museum has more than doubled as visitors travel from near and far to view these larger-than-life paintings. After witnessing a woman drop to her knees in prayer before the portrait of Barack Obama, one guard said, "No other painting gets the same kind of reactions. Ever." The Obama Portraits is the first book about the making, meaning, and significance of these remarkable artworks. Richly illustrated with images of the portraits, exclusive pictures of the Obamas with the artists during their sittings, and photos of the historic unveiling ceremony by former White House photographer Pete Souza, this book offers insight into what these paintings can tell us about the history of portraiture and American culture. The volume also features a transcript of the unveiling ceremony, which includes moving remarks by the Obamas and the artists. A reversible dust jacket allows readers to choose which portrait to display on the front cover. An inspiring history of the creation and impact of the Obama portraits, this fascinating book speaks to the power of art-especially portraiture-to bring people together and promote cultural change. Published in association with the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

The rich history of encounters prior to World War I between people from German-speaking parts of Europe and people of African descent has gone largely unnoticed in the historical literature-not least because Germany became a nation and engaged in colonization much later than other European nations. This volume presents intersections of Black and German history over eight centuries while mapping continuities and ruptures in Germans' perceptions of Blacks. Juxtaposing these intersections demonstrates that negative German perceptions of Blackness proceeded from nineteenth-century racial theories, and that earlier constructions of "race" were far more differentiated. The contributors present a wide range of Black-German encounters, from representations of Black saints in religious medieval art to Black Hessians fighting in the American Revolutionary War, from Cameroonian children being educated in Germany to African American agriculturalists in Germany's protectorate, Togoland. Each chapter probes individual and collective responses to these intercultural points of contact.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Why have the struggles of the African Diaspora so resonated with South Pacific people? How have Maori, Pasifika and Pakeha activists incorporated the ideologies of the African diaspora into their struggle against colonial rule and racism, and their pursuit of social justice? This book challenges predominant understandings of the historical linkages that make up the (post-)colonial world. The author goes beyond both the domination of the Atlantic viewpoint, and the correctives now being offered by South Pacific and Indian Ocean studies, to look at how the Atlantic ecumene is refracted in and has influenced the Pacific ecumene. The book is empirically rich, using extensive interviews, participation and archival work and focusing on the politics of Black Power and the Rastafari faith. It is also theoretically sophisticated, offering an innovative hermeneutical critique of post-colonial and subaltern studies. The Black Pacific is essential reading for students and scholars of Politics, International Relations, History and Anthropology interested in anti-colonial struggles, anti-racism and the quests for equality, justice, freedom and self-determination.

By the mid-1920s, the Harlem Renaissance was underway. As an effort to secure economic, social, and cultural equality with white citizens, the Renaissance years were a proving period for black composers and performers. Black Music in the Harlem Renaissance explores black music in the United States and England during the 1920s and its relationship to other arts of the time. The first collection on the subject, Black Music in the Harlem Renaissance seeks to revise previous assumptions about music during this era. The book features essays on various subjects including musical theatre, Duke Ellington, black music and musicians in England, concert singers and the interrelationships between black painters and music. In addition, the book includes a music bibliography of works composed during the period.