Channel Kindness is a collection of fifty-one stories of kindness, bravery, and resilience from young people all over the world collected by the Born This Way Foundation and introduced by Lady Gaga.

For Lady Gaga, kindness is the driving force behind everything she says and does. The quiet power of kindness can change the way we view one another, our communities, and even ourselves. She embodies this mission, and through her work, brings more kindness into our world every single day.

Lady Gaga has always believed in the importance of being yourself, being kind to yourself and others, no matter who they are or where they come from. With that sentiment in mind, she and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, founded Born This Way Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making the world a kinder and braver place. Through the years, they’ve collected stories of kindness, bravery, and resilience from young people all over the world, proving that kindness truly is the universal language. And now, we invite you to read these stories and follow along as each and every young author finds their voice, just as Lady Gaga has found hers.

Within these pages, you’ll meet young changemakers who found their inner strength, who prevailed in the face of bullies, who started their own social movements, who decided to break through the mental health stigma and share how they felt, who created safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, and who have embraced kindness with every fiber of their being by helping others without the expectation of anything in return.

Individually and collectively, the stories collected here prove that kindness not only saves lives but builds community. Kindness is inclusion, it is pride, it is empathy, it is compassion, it is self-respect and it is the guiding light to love. Kindness is always transformational, and its never-ending ripples result in even more kind acts that can change our lives, our communities, and our world.

Since his professional debut in 1962, Stevie Wonder has recorded sixty-four singles that have made the Billboard top 100, including ten that reached number one. Wonder was one of the first Motown artists to have complete control over the writing, arranging, and recording of his songs, and achieved that stature before he was 20 years old. He has won 17 Grammy awards, was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, and earned the Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. Equally important, his work as a producer, arranger, and instrumentalist on other artists' recordings has put him in the highest rank of musical collaborators. This is the first work of criticism on this important documentarian of American life, as well as the introductory volume in The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection. Through a combination of biography and critical analysis, James Perone's groundbreaking new book reveals the many ways in which Stevie Wonder's body of work emerged, developed, reflected its time, and influenced myriad other artists. After revealing the social, cultural, and political context of Wonder's work, the book provides detailed analysis of his compositions and recordings, with a focus on both his well-known songs and those known only to his hardcore fans. The volume also contains discussions of cover versions of Wonder's compositions, a discography of his recordings, a song title index, an annotated bibliography, and a general index.

Held over three days in August 1969, the Woodstock festival was, for many, the culmination of the counterculture movement. More than 35 years later, the word Woodstock conjures notions of Edenic peace and love, a landmark moment from the Sixties that is both unforgettable and inimitable. In this authoritative reference guide--the first of its kind--historian James E. Perone presents encyclopedic entries on all the performers who played Woodstock, including Joan Baez, Country Joe and the Fist, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Ten Years After, The Who--even Sha Na Na--as well as the organizers and decision makers behind the event, from Michael Langer, governor Nelson Rockefeller, documentary film director Michael Wadleigh, and even the Concerned Citizens Committee who prevented Woodstock Ventures from holding the fair at the original site in Walkill, New York. Historical chapters trace the history of the festival from its inception and planning to its aftermath--including the infamous Altamont concert in December 1969 and the ill-fated 30th anniversary concert held in Rome, New York, in 1999. A wealth of historic photos plus an appendix of recordings and a subject index round out this wonderful reference for any scholar of 20th-century American music, history, and culture.

From the unique voice of Salif Keita and the hard funk of Fela Kuti to the poignant blues of Cesaria Evora and the upbeat swing of South African township jazz, African music has shaken the planet. This book traces its history through thirty portraits. Instead of offering biographical summaries, Tenaille plunges straight to the deepest, most intimate, and most significant aspects of the life and work of each musician. In a compact form, this retrospective imparts all the information essential to understanding these complex pop stars, while putting them in a political and cultural context and spicing up the mix with generous helpings of anecdote.