On the southern end of the Grand Rue, a major thoroughfare that runs through the center of Port-au-Prince, waits the Haitian capital's automobile repair district. This veritable junkyard of steel and rubber, recycled parts, old tires, and scrap metal might seem an unlikely foundry for art. Yet, on the street's opposite end thrives the Grand Rue Galerie, a working studio of assembled art and sculptures wrought from the refuse. Established by artists Andre Eugene and Celeur in the late 1990s, the Grand Rue's urban environmental aesthetics-defined by motifs of machinic urbanism, Vodou bricolage, the postprimitivist altermodern, and performative politics-radically challenge ideas about consumption, waste, and environmental hazards, as well as consider innovative solutions to these problems in the midst of poverty, insufficient social welfare, lack of access to arts, education, and basic needs. In Riding with Death, Jana Braziel explores the urban environmental aesthetics of the Grand Rue Sculptors and the beautifully constructed sculptures they have designed from salvaged automobile parts, rubber tires, carved wood, and other recycled materials.Through first-person accounts and fieldwork, Braziel constructs an urban ecological framework for understanding these sculptures amid environmental degradation and grinding poverty. Influenced by urban geographers, art historians, and political theorists, the book regards the underdeveloped cities of the Global South as alternate spaces for challenging the profit-driven machinations of global capitalism. Above all, Braziel presents Haitian artists who live on the most challenged Caribbean island, yet who thrive as creators reinventing refuse as art and resisting the abjection of their circumstances.

Exploring the dispersion of populations and cultures across many geographic regions and spheres, diaspora studies has emerged as a vibrant area of research amid rapidly increasing transnationalism and globalization. "Theorizing Diaspora: A Reader" presents in a single volume the most influential and critically well-received essays that have shaped the trajectory of diaspora studies and contemporary theorizations of diaspora as a specific terrain within, and beyond, postcolonial studies.

The book offers classic statements that have defined the field by such scholars as Appadurai, Gilroy, Radhakrishnan, and Hall. Essays tackle a number of subjects and diasporic configurations across the globe: Chinese, Black African, Jewish, South Asian, Latin American, and Caribbean.

Marking multinational and interdisciplinary theorizations of diaspora, and reflecting disciplinary modalities and methodologies of the humanities and social sciences, "Theorizing Diaspora" is a central resource for understanding diaspora as an emergent and contested theoretical space.

"Twenty years after its fall, the wall that divided Berlin and Germany presents a conceptual paradox: on one hand, Germans have sought to erase it completely; on the other, it haunts the imagination in complex and often surprising ways. Similarly, Cold War divisions resonate in the global image of the "New Germany." Several overlapping themes run through the essays: the exportation of German post-wall debates into other cultural contexts and representations of the Wall within non-German settings; the emergence of visual, literary, and psychological imagery derived from the Berlin Wall well beyond its existence; the importance of space, geographical, political, as well as imagined, in the aftermath of the Wall; and the continued artistic as well as socio-historical engagement with East Germany as a state that no longer exists but whose memory reverberates in sometimes unexpected ways not only today but as a projection into the future. "--

Edwidge Danticat’s prolific body of work has established her as one of the most important voices in 21st-century literary culture. Across such novels as Breath, Eyes, Memory, Farming the Bones and short story collections such as Krik? Krak! and most recently Everything Inside, essays, and writing for children, the Haitian-American writer has throughout her oeuvre tackled important contemporary themes including racism, imperialism, anti-immigrant politics, and sexual violence. With chapters written by leading and emerging international scholars, this is the most up-to-date and in-depth reference guide to 21st-century scholarship on Edwidge Danticat’s work. The Bloomsbury Handbook to Edwidge Danticat covers such topics as: · The full range of Danticat’s writing from her novels and short stories to essays, life writing and writing for children and young adults. · Major interdisciplinary scholarly perspectives including from establishing fields fields of literary studies, Caribbean Studies Political Science, Latin American Studies, feminist and gender studies, African Diaspora Studies, , and emerging fields such as Environmental Studies. · Danticat’s literary sources and influences from Haitian authors such as Marie Chauvet, Jacques Roumain and Jacques-Stéphen Alexis to African American authors like Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Caribbean American writers Audre Lorde to Paule Marshall. · Known and unknown Historical moments in experiences of slavery and imperialism, the consequence of internal and external migration, and the formation of diasporic communities The book also includes a comprehensive bibliography of Danticat’s work and key works of secondary criticism, and an interview with the author, as well as and essays by Danticat herself.

Community oriented policing requires increased and improved communication between officers and their community. COP Talk provides officers concrete ways to improve their communication with community members, fellow officers, government agencies, and the media. COP Talk blends proven academic principles with practical skill-building tools tailored to the special needs of police-community interactions. Includes key features to enhance learning and recall: Composite Stories of actual experiences illustrate communication concepts and techniques. Action Clips show how specific communication techniques and strategies have been used successfully in real-life application. Pocket Guides expand on the topic at hand, introduce helpful related information, and summarize complex processes. Activities help officers apply the concepts and practice implementing new techniques. Packed with advice, COP Talk demystifies the art of building relationships, conducting meetings, giving talks, involving the community, problem solving, and getting publicity.

Twenty years after its fall, the wall that divided Berlin and Germany presents a conceptual paradox: on one hand, Germans have sought to erase it completely; on the other, it haunts the imagination in complex and often surprising ways

Edwidge Danticat's prolific body of work has established her as one of the most important voices in 21st-century literary culture. Across such novels as Breath, Eyes, Memory, Farming the Bones and short story collections such as Krik? Krak! and most recently Everything Inside, essays, and writing for children, the Haitian-American writer has throughout her oeuvre tackled important contemporary themes including racism, imperialism, anti-immigrant politics, and sexual violence. With chapters written by leading and emerging international scholars, this is the most up-to-date and in-depth reference guide to 21st-century scholarship on Edwidge Danticat's work. The Bloomsbury Handbook to Edwidge Danticat covers such topics as: * The full range of Danticat's writing from her novels and short stories to essays, life writing and writing for children and young adults. * Major interdisciplinary scholarly perspectives including from establishing fields fields of literary studies, Caribbean Studies Political Science, Latin American Studies, feminist and gender studies, African Diaspora Studies, , and emerging fields such as Environmental Studies. * Danticat's literary sources and influences from Haitian authors such as Marie Chauvet, Jacques Roumain and Jacques-Stephen Alexis to African American authors like Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Caribbean American writers Audre Lorde to Paule Marshall. * Known and unknown Historical moments in experiences of slavery and imperialism, the consequence of internal and external migration, and the formation of diasporic communities The book also includes a comprehensive bibliography of Danticat's work and key works of secondary criticism, and an interview with the author, as well as and essays by Danticat herself.

On the southern end of the Grand Rue, a major thoroughfare that runs through the center of Port-au-Prince, waits the Haitian capital's automobile repair district. This veritable junkyard of steel and rubber, recycled parts, old tires, and scrap metal might seem an unlikely foundry for art. Yet, on the street's opposite end thrives the Grand Rue Galerie, a working studio of assembled art and sculptures wrought from the refuse. Established by artists Andre Eugene and Jean Herard Celeur in the late 1990s, the Grand Rue's urban environmental aesthetics-defined by motifs of machinic urbanism, Vodou bricolage, the postprimitivist altermodern, and performative politics--radically challenge ideas about consumption, waste, and environmental hazards, as well as consider innovative solutions to these problems in the midst of poverty, insufficient social welfare, lack of access to arts, education, and basic needs. In Riding with Death, Jana Evans Braziel explores the urban environmental aesthetics of the Grand Rue sculptors and the beautifully constructed sculptures they have designed from salvaged automobile parts, rubber tires, carved wood, and other recycled materials. Through first-person accounts and fieldwork, Braziel constructs an urban ecological framework for understanding these sculptures amid environmental degradation and grinding poverty. Above all, Braziel presents Haitian artists who live on the most challenged Caribbean island, yet who thrive as creators reinventing refuse as art and resisting the abjection of their circumstances.

From a position of urgent political engagement, this provocative book offers novel and compelling interpretations of several well-known Haitian-born authors, particularly regarding U.S. intervention in their homeland. Drawing on the diasporic cultural texts of several authors, such as Edwidge Danticat and Dany Laferriere, Jana Evans Braziel examines how writers participate in transnational movements for global social justice. In their fictional works they discuss the U.S.'s many interventionist methods in Haiti, including surveillance, foreign aid, and military assistance. Through their work, they reveal that the majority of Haitians do not welcome these intrusions and actively criticize U.S. treatment of Haitians in both countries. Braziel encourages us to analyze the instability and violence of small nations like Haiti within the larger frame of international financial and military institutions and forms of imperialism. She forcefully argues that by reading these works as anti-imperialist, much can be learned about why Haitians and Haitian exiles often have negative perceptions of the U.S.

The majority of the Air Force's stateside utility systems are old, obsolete, and unreliable. The cost to upgrade and repair these systems is currently estimated at over $4 billion. In response, the Air Force began efforts to convey ownership of these utility systems to the private sector through privatization efforts. However, privatization critics believe that newly privatized entities of government will cost the public more money and provide a lower level of service. Therefore, independent audits are a necessity to ensure government initiatives, meet their intended goals. However, the Air Force currently lacks an effective auditing tool to ensure the efficiency and lower cost associated with utility privatization are balanced with the desired increases in quality, reliability, and responsiveness of its utility systems. The Value-Focused Thinking methodology was used to create a multi-objective decision analysis model to determine the effectiveness of Air Force utility privatization efforts by evaluating the performance of privatized utility systems. Consisting of 28 bottom-tier values and 47 measures, the model captures the majority of the Air Force's objectives and concerns regarding its privatized utility systems. Using notational data, the utility systems at eight simulated Air Force installations were evaluated and rank ordered to validate the model. Sensitivity analysis was also performed to provide further insight into the decision making process. The results of this research prove that the model can be an effective decision analysis tool that provides the Air Force insight on the performance of its privatized utility systems.

What can you do when your family harps on you to get married (already ), when your delicious and alluring ex-boyfriend-cheater to the core-believes that you've fallen for another guy and sets out to woo and conquer (again), and when you suddenly realize that you have fallen in love with your best friend, the guy whose shoulder has always been available...but is presently being enjoyed by another woman? In Jamie Lynn Braziel's riotous first novel, Declaring Spinsterhood, she explores the world of 30-something single women, the pressures they face to tie the knot, and what happens when that knot begins to feel more like a noose. In the world of Emma Bailey, nothing is sacred. Including, and most especially, marriage.

An essential read for any marketer looking to understand how blogs, podcasts, social networks and other Web 2.0 tools can help you connect on a deeper level with your customers and prospects.

Jana Evans Braziel examines how Haitian diaspora writers, performance artists, and musicians address black masculinity through the Haitian Creole concept of gwo negs, or "big men." She focuses on six artists and their work: writer Dany Laferriere, director Raoul Peck, rap artist Wyclef Jean, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, drag queen performer and poet Assotto Saint, and queer drag king performer Dred (a.k.a. Mildred Gerestant). For Braziel, these individuals confront the gendered, sexualized, and racialized boundaries of America's diaspora communities and openly resist "domestic" imperialism that targets immigrants, minorities, women, gays, and queers. This is a groundbreaking study at the intersections of gender and sexuality with race, ethnicity, nationality, and diaspora."

"This is an exceptional collection--the subject is of obvious importance, yet terribly undertheorized and unexamined. I know of no other work that offers what this collection provides."--Marcia Millman, author of "Such a Pretty Face: Being Fat in America

." . . A valuable contribution to scholarly debates on the place of excessive bodies in contemporary culture. This book promises to enrich all areas of inquiry related to the politics of bodies."--Carole Spitzack, author of "Confessing Excess: Women and the Politics of Body Reduction

"This anthology includes a wide range of perceptive and original essays, which explore and analyze the underlying ideologies that have made fat "incorrect." Echoing the spirit of the nineteenth-century adage about children who should be neither seen nor heard, some of the authors powerfully remind us that we keep "bodies out of bound" silenced and unseen-unless, of course, we need to peek at the comic or grotesque."--Raquel Salgado Scherr, co-author of "Face Value: The Politics of Beauty

"Through textual analyses, video/film analyses, television theory, and literary theory, this collection demonstrates the various ways in which dominant representations of fat and corpulence have been both demonized and rendered invisible. . . . This volume will be a crucial corollary to work on the tyranny of slenderness; a collection of different perspectives on the fat body is sorely missing in women's studies, communication, and media studies."--Sarah Banet-Weiser, author of "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World: Beauty Pageants and National Identity

How are literary genres racialized? How are definitions of history and historicity predicated on notions of racial difference? How have the arts been constructed on racialized aesthetic foundations, and how have they benefited from institutions of slavery and colonialism? This anthology demonstrates the longstanding, multifarious, and major role that race has played in the formation of knowledge. The authors demonstrate how race theory intersects with other bodies of knowledge by examining discursive records such as travelogues, literature, and historiography; theoretical structures such as common sense, pseudoscientific racism, and Eurocentrism; social structures of class, advancement, and identity; and politico-economic structures of capitalism, colonialism, and law. Editors Joseph Young and Jana Evans Braziel aim to demonstrate the richness that emerges when race is taken into consideration and the misrepresentation of thought that results when it is not.