I know that change is difficult but it is possible. I keep thinking that I will do something tomorrow and then tomorrow comes and I can't remember what it was I said that I was going to do, so I end up doing something else. For example, this collection of thoughts is years in the making. There were days that I was just too afraid to write about what I was dealing with, so I would put it off for another day. Then at the end of the day I realize what I was supposed to be doing. So then one day becomes two just like that. It is similar to standing on the sideline waiting for your turn at jump rope. I would make all the movements to jump in but kept waiting for the best time to jump in. Does anyone else know what that feels like?

What I have learned about death is that every experience brought with it a new set of emotions in a different way. Sometimes it brought loneliness, other times it brought joy. Sometimes it brought sadness, other times it brought peace. Sometimes nothing came and that is when I hear the voice. The voice reminded me that for everything there is a season. A time to be born and a time to die. It is in this time of nothingness that I am finally able to accept the passing and have the ceremonial burial in my spirit.

Reflections What I Know to Be True will take you on a journey that you will want to share with your spouse, sisters and friends. Jema has a unique way of telling a story that will allow you to see yourself in it and to grow from it.

As the flames of revolution scour the Tearmoon Empire, its ever-selfish princess, Mia Luna Tearmoon, meets her doom by way of public beheading...only to wake up in the past as her twelve-year-old self! It’s time to shape up, recruit some allies, and exploit her knowledge of the future to save her empire! Is she up to the task? No, not even slightly! But it’s her only choice if she hopes to spare herself from yet another gruesome end at the blade of the guillotine!

What could be harder than saving an empire from oncoming calamities and escaping the looming threat of a bloodthirsty revolution? Doing all that while keeping up with your social life at a new school! And if that wasn’t enough, some of Mia Luna Tearmoon’s classmates are her greatest enemies from the timeline she was executed in! Plus, she needs to find a partner for the school dance without provoking the ire of anyone important in the process. What could possibly go wrong?

Beyond the Rope is an interdisciplinary study that draws on narrative theory and cultural studies methodologies to trace African Americans' changing attitudes and relationships to lynching over the twentieth century. Whereas African Americans are typically framed as victims of white lynch mob violence in both scholarly and public discourses, Karlos K. Hill reveals that in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries African Americans lynched other African Americans in response to alleged criminality, and that twentieth-century black writers envisaged African American lynch victims as exemplars of heroic manhood. By illuminating the submerged histories of black vigilantism and consolidating narratives of lynching in African American literature that framed black victims of white lynch mob violence as heroic, Hill argues that rather than being static and one dimensional, African American attitudes towards lynching and the lynched black evolved in response to changing social and political contexts.

This undergraduate textbook examines environmental pollution ranging from our homes to the global environment. Completely updated and with over 50% new and rewritten material, this new edition assesses the international scope of pollution, including water, climate change, acidification, energy, solid and hazardous waste, persistent chemicals, and pesticides. The pollutants of current major concern are examined, including plastics and electronic waste. Both the impacts and the sources of pollution are addressed, as well as governmental, corporate, and personal responsibility for pollution. Pollution prevention is emphasized throughout, but students will come to see that prevention is not enough. The text moves on to examine a circular economy with closed-loop systems, where by-products are reused, wastes become raw materials, water is recycled, and energy is recovered from waste energy. Understanding Environmental Pollution engages students with the idea that humanity holds the tools to confronting the daunting pollution issues by considering a circular economy.

On August 19, 1958, Clara Luper and thirteen Black youth walked into Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City and sat down at the lunch counter. When they tried to order, they were denied service. As they sat in silence, refusing to leave, the surrounding white customers unleashed a torrent of threats and racial slurs. This first organized sit-in in Oklahoma—almost two years before the more famous sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina—sparked other demonstrations in Oklahoma and other states. Behold the Walls is Luper’s engrossing firsthand account of how the movement she helped launch ended legal racial segregation. First published in 1979, Behold the Walls now features a new introduction and 33 newly selected historical photos. Luper’s direct, unvarnished account captures the immediacy of the events she witnessed. As a Black woman, Luper refused to let either her race or her gender deter her from stepping forth as a leader. Born in 1923, Clara Luper taught history in Oklahoma public schools and led the NAACP Youth Council. The students who sat in at Katz Drug and other businesses belonged to that organization. Luper highlights the contributions of others, especially young people, in breaking down the walls of segregation in Oklahoma through numerous demonstrations, marches, and voter registration campaigns. This commemorative edition of Luper’s eye-opening autobiography, published near what would have been her 100th birthday, as well as the 65th anniversary of the sit-ins, offers invaluable insight into the history of protest in the early years of the civil rights movement. With racial inequality still at the forefront of national debate, Behold the Walls places Luper’s efforts in the larger national context of the struggle to resist injustice and inspire positive change.

In 1921 Tulsa's Greenwood District, known then as the nation's 'Black Wall Street,' was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. But on May 31 of that year, a white mob, inflamed by rumors that a young Black man had attempted to rape a white teenage girl, invaded Greenwood. By the end of the following day, thousands of homes and businesses lay in ashes, and perhaps as many as three hundred people were dead. Tulsa, 1921 shines new light into the shadows that have long been cast over this extraordinary instance of racial violence. With the clarity and descriptive power of a veteran journalist, author Randy Krehbiel digs deep into the events and their aftermath and investigates decades-old questions about the local culture at the root of what one writer has called a white-led pogrom. Krehbiel analyzes local newspaper accounts in an unprecedented effort to gain insight into the minds of contemporary Tulsans. In the process he considers how the Tulsa World, the Tulsa Tribune, and other publications contributed to the circumstances that led to the disaster and helped solidify enduring white justifications for it. Some historians have dismissed local newspapers as too biased to be of value for an honest account, but by contextualizing their reports, Krehbiel renders Tulsa's papers an invaluable resource, highlighting the influence of news media on our actions in the present and our memories of the past. The Tulsa Massacre was a result of racial animosity and mistrust within a culture of political and economic corruption. In its wake, Black Tulsans were denied redress and even the right to rebuild on their own property, yet they ultimately prevailed and even prospered despite systemic racism and the rise during the 1920s of the second Ku Klux Klan. As Krehbiel considers the context and consequences of the violence and devastation, he asks, Has the city - indeed, the nation - exorcised the prejudices that led to this tragedy?

Vanguard follows their hit Frazetta: The Definitive Reference with Jeffrey Jones: The Definitive Reference. Legendary artist Frank Frazetta once called Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award winner Jones "the great living painter." Jones and Frazetta were the top two heroic fantasy book cover artists of the 1960's and '70's. As well as sci-fi and fantasy, Jones famously contributed to 1972-75 issues of National Lampoon with the innovative comics feature "Idyl," and was a member of The Studio in New York City with contemporaries, Barry Windsor-Smith, Bernie Wrightson, and Michael Wm, Kaluta. The Studio became the subject of a landmark book from Dragon's Dream in 1979. By the '80s Jones relocated to the Woodstock area to pursue Fine Art. This is not an art monograph or biography but is a profusely illustrated reference book, gathering together the most detailed information on every known, first-publication image by Jones from magazines, books, comics, postcards, and every other artifact one can imagine -- the absolute completists' guide to Jeffrey Jones

With the school dance finished (and with only a moderate number of injuries and kidnappings having occurred over the course of it), Mia's stay at Saint-Noel Academy has finally begun in earnest! That's right--it's time for her to sit back, relax, and enjoy a luxurious and leisurely school life filled with... Wait, what do you mean, "lessons"? Indeed, not even the children of nobility can escape the myriad horrors of schoolwork. Fortunately for Mia, she's been through all of this once before! Unfortunately for Mia, her memory is, shall we say, not her strongest asset. But hey--Mia's survived worse, and compared to saving an empire from imminent doom, tricking her classmates into thinking she's academically gifted should be a cakewalk! Besides, it's not like she'll have any conspirators to punish, connections to forge, or charming princes to woo in the meantime...right?

In 1921 Tulsa's Greenwood District, known then as the nation's "Black Wall Street", was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. But on May 31 of that year, a white mob, inflamed by rumors that a young black man had attempted to rape a white teenage girl, invaded Greenwood. By the end of the following day, thousands of homes and businesses lay in ashes, and perhaps as many as three hundred people were dead. Tulsa, 1921 shines new light into the shadows that have long been cast over this extraordinary instance of racial violence. With the clarity and descriptive power of a veteran journalist, author Randy Krehbiel digs deep into the events and their aftermath and investigates decades-old questions about the local culture at the root of what one writer has called a white-led pogrom. Krehbiel analyzes local newspaper accounts in an unprecedented effort to gain insight into the minds of contemporary Tulsans. In the process he considers how the Tulsa World, the Tulsa Tribune, and other publications contributed to the circumstances that led to the disaster and helped solidify enduring white justifications for it. Some historians have dismissed local newspapers as too biased to be of value for an honest account, but by contextualizing their reports, Krehbiel renders Tulsa's papers an invaluable resource, highlighting the influence of news media on our actions in the present and our memories of the past. The Tulsa Massacre was a result of racial animosity and mistrust within a culture of political and economic corruption. In its wake, black Tulsans were denied redress and even the right to rebuild on their own property, yet they ultimately prevailed and even prospered despite systemic racism and the rise during the 1920s of the second Ku Klux Klan. As Krehbiel considers the context and consequences of the violence and devastation, he asks, Has the city - indeed, the nation - exorcised the prejudices that led to this tragedy?

Bare your blades, students of Saint-Noel! The biannual swordsmanship tournament has arrived, and the competition is as fierce as the stakes are high! Can Prince Abel prevail in a battle of wills against his chauvinistic brother? Can anyone stop Prince Sion’s meteoric rise through the ranks? When the day is finally won, who will emerge victorious as the academy’s finest swordsman? And most importantly, will Mia’s culinary genius secure Abel’s affection, or will Keithwood’s incessant nitpicking and idea-quashing ruin everything?