What would Mother Earth say if she could speak? Come on a fantastic journey into legend, myth, magic and medicine, as she tells you her story in poetic verse.

"Performing America" provides fresh perspectives on the development of visions of both America and "America"--that is, the actual community and the constructed concept--on a variety of theatrical stages. It explores the role of theater in the construction of American identity, highlighting the tension between the desire to categorize American identity and the realization that such categorical uniformity may neither be desirable nor possible.
The topics covered include the links between politics and the stage during the Federalist period, the appropriation of "Indian" artifacts, an exploration of early gender roles, and the metaphorical connections between the theater and western expansion. Other essays treat vaudeville's artistically colonized cultures; Chautauqua's attempt to homogenize culture and commercialize American ideals; W. E. B. Du Bois's pageant, "The Star of Ethiopia," as a strategy for constructing "African-American" as "Other" in an attempt to promote a vision of black nationalism; and how theater was used to help immigrants form a new sense of community while joining the resident culture.
The collection then turns to questions of how various ethnic minorities through their recent theatrical work have struggled to argue their identities, especially in relation to the dominant white culture. Two final essays offer critiques of contrasting aspects of the American male.
Throughout, the collection addresses questions of marginality and community, exclusion and inclusion, colonialism and imperialism, heterogeneity and homogeneity, conflict and negotiation, repression and opportunity, failure and success, and, above all, the relationship of American stages at large.It will appeal to readers of a wide range of disciplines including history, American culture, gender studies, and theater studies.
Jeffrey D. Mason is Professor of Theatre, California State University, Bakersfield. J. Ellen Gainor is Associate Professor of Theatre Studies and Women's Studies, Cornell University.

The Vine Rhyme Herbal, written and compiled by Jeffrey D. Mason, Master Herbalist, is a masterpiece of poetic enchantment. In the book you will find an electric infusion of legend, myth, magic and medicine as never before presented in the history of herbals. It is an artistic and skillfully crafted record of over 128 plants and other agents for use in magic and medicine. A divinely inspired and fascinating book that promises to transport the reader into a far distant time and place, where legend is king and magic abounds. Truly, the Vine Rhyme Herbal offers a modern scientific understanding of healing plants with all of the rustic charm of legend, myth and magic written in poetic form with delightfully magnificent illustrations of every herb from field to garden. This book is guaranteed to leave the reader with the feel one would expect, had they unearthed and ancient script of magic and medicine, covered in cobwebs and the collection of the millennial dusts of antiquity.