Book Description
Introduction by Arnold Rampersad.
Langston Hughes, born in 1902, came of age early in the 1920s. In The Big Sea he recounts those memorable years in the two great playgrounds of the decade--Harlem and Paris. In Paris he was a cook and waiter in nightclubs. He knew the musicians and dancers, the drunks and dope fiends. In Harlem he was a rising young poet--at the center of the "Harlem Renaissance."
Arnold Rampersad writes in his incisive new introduction to The Big Sea, an American classic: "This is American writing at its best--simpler than Hemingway; as simple and direct as that of another Missouri-born writer...Mark Twain."
Customer Reviews:
"Sometimes life is a ripe fruit too delicious for the taste of man.".......2007-09-30
Published when Hughes was 38, the subject of The Big Sea is the period of his life from 1902-1939. It covers a wide variety of episodes in Hughes' life, with key elements being his travels as a youth, his relationship to his father, and the Harlem Renaissance.
I knew his poetry, of course, from all those years as an English major. I have not had the occasion to read any of his prose, and decided to pick this up after reading the collected works of Nella Larsen.
There was a lot to engage with in The Big Sea. I particularly liked Hughes' description of the Harlem Renaissance. His tone when he talked about it was affectionate and wistful, but still acknowledged the limitations that it had as a lasting solution. There were many great stories ("never hit a woman") and fascinating details-- reproductions of the whist party invitations, for example.
I also really was interested in the way that Hughes discusses his father and the issue of the race. His father left the US (first to Cuba, then to Mexico) in order to avoid race prejudice. His father had nothing but scorn for people of color who stayed in the US and subjected themselves to the inevitabilities of race and class limitations. The anger that this self-imposed exile cost him comes out in his dealings with his son and the way in which he engages with the world around him.
At points, it is as though Hughes is meditating on all the different ways that people around him (including him) have used to address the race problem. It is not the most uplifting of sketches, since none of the various paths seem (according to Hughes) to be a good or lasting solution.
Well-written, interesting, and with many pointers to further reading.
Must read.......2007-05-12
I read this as an assignment in college and found it wonderfully painful in its realism and truth. A must read for every American, regardless of what ethic origin.
The journies of a Hero.......2006-07-17
"On a radio show, he (Hughes) defended the right of trumpeter Louis Armstrong, who had long faced the white world with a broad grin, to vent his racial anger."
Like Armstrong, Hughes also faced the same world with his broad smile. Throughout the BIG SEA and I WONDER AS I WANDER, there in the texts of both autobiographies is the ever smiling Hughes. Other than the people he met and the foreign lands he visited---all making for great and entertaining reading--- very little is revealed about the man he was. His larger than life personae masked a man who was only 5'4 in stature, closeted gay
because being open would have meant a short career and ostracism, especially in the African American community who was a refuge from a racially hostile world and who Hughes loved with an unmatched passion back in his day, and, according to the late Gwendolyn Brooks who had known Hughes since the age of 16 wrote in a New York Times article that when Hughes was subjected to offense and icy treatment because of his race, he was capable of jagged anger - and vengeance, instant or retroactive. She has letters from him that reveal he could respond with real rage when he felt he was treated cruelly by other people.
Both autobiographies do a great job at documenting the world in Hughes' day. The most fascinating thing about the first book of his life is the Harlem Renaissance and the people who moved in it during its illustrious height. Till this day, the BIG SEA provides one of the best sources of this important period in American culture. Few people realized that if not for best friend Arna Bomtemps the autobiography may have never been written. Bontemps encouraged Hughes to write the book. Up to that time, few blacks, especially black males, had seen and done what Hughes managed to do. Plus, the book challenged stereotypes about black America in general. The challenge he had in writing the book was how to write for two audiences, white and black. Characteristically, Hughes did not pander to the white audience, "I do not hate `all' white people," nor did he distance himself from and sacrifice the racial pride his grandmother taught him to have for his people, who he primarily wrote for. In the second autobiography, Hughes is on the road again and much more time is given to his travels, especially in the then Soviet Union. Absent are his communist sympathies. Like many blacks of the day, socialism was preferable to segregation. Blatant is the unspoken critique that in the absence of capitalism, everyone man is "equal." As far as romance is concerned, scholars have noted Hughes'rather perfunctory and insincere rendezvous with the very few woman he talks about in these autobiographies. Quite understandably, Hughes attempts to pass himself off as having all the accoutrements of straight men. His situation with the over zealous Russian woman who he does not portray favorably in I WONDER AS I WANDER is interesting. She is portrayed as the Duboisian woman whose association with black men destroys them. Plus, Hughes did not favor interracial marriage so it is peculiar that he proffered the idea in the text of bring the Russian woman home as a wife as she wanted.
The above quote was from Volume 2 of Arnold Rampersad's biography of Hughes. What made Hughes' defense of Armstrong so intriguing is that Hughes also reveals much about himself and what lied behind the mask he wore. The readers of the BIG SEA and I WONDER AS I WANDER will not see the man behind the mask. They are largely presented surface, a fleeting glimpse of Hughes here and there. A scholar said to really understand Hughes, one must read Rampersad's two biographies. This scholar was partially right. But, don't dismiss these autobiographies! They are worth the read and are a enjoyable read. Time and interest permitting, do read LANGSTON HUGHES Vols. 1 and 2 by Rampersad for balance also read Faith Berry's LANGSTON HUGHES: BEFORE AND BEYOND HARLEM. Reading these latter biographies with the two autobiographies by Hughes, one will be presented the man Langston Hughes was: proudly African American, gay, brave, smart, ambitious, often very angry, and often lonely.
Hughes doesn't reveal much of himself, but his autobiographies are still 5 star ratings because like his work they continue to inspire and for everyone, especially young blacks in the inner city, let them know that they can overcome any obstacle in life so long as the desire and determination is there.
Great!!!!.......2005-09-27
Even though my book got lost in the mail, I was still able to get my money back. Thank you very much. I hope I have the chance to buy another book from you.
A wonderful memoir.......2003-12-04
Langston Hughes was a wonderful poet and story teller so it is not surprising that his autobiography/memoir is a joy to read. He tells the story of his life by giving us delightful episodes that each read like short stories. Each chapter has the structure of a short story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Along the way, the reader has to be amazed at the texture and breadth of his life adventures. He lives for a short time in Mexico with his father, in several cities with his mother and other relatives, and then his wonderful sea going adventures in Europe, Africa, and also his stay in Paris. The reader also gets a first hand glimpse of what it was like to be "Negro" in America as well as in other places in the world. The writing is bright and energetic and the book is very difficult to put down. I highly recommend it to anyone who might be thinking about writing an autobiography or memoir.
Book Description
Over 100 designs from a rare and important early 20th-century portfolio: Bunte Verglasungen. Organic, curvilinear motifs in muted tones of brown, blue, pink, purple, green, yellow, and other colors, are perfectly suited to flowing representations of birds, animals, geometrics, foliage, and flowers.
Customer Reviews:
Inspiring.......2007-01-09
This collection of windows has inspired my creative juices. I have already
used the book to design sidelights and rakehead windows for my front entrance.
Art Nouveau at it's splendid best!.......2004-09-03
Although the designs in this book may not be for the beginning stained glass artist, the color combinations and whimsy incorporated in them will most certainly get your creative juices flowing! I spent several hours just thinking of how I might take just small segments of some of these masterpieces of glasswork to create my own projects. Although Art Nouveau as a whole "look" may be too much for some people, there are certain aspects of these works that are timeless and would fit with nearly any other design genre. Great book for any artisan or craftsperson in search of marvelous design ideas.
Stunning!.......2003-02-18
I absolutely love this book. It's definitely not for beginning stained glass crafters, though - lots of curves and intricacies. I'm looking forward to when I have the expertise to use some of the patterns.
There are 30 pages of some of the best art nouveau patterns I have ever seen. I've already used one of the patterns to create a needlepoint pattern, and I plan on using many more. Even better than I anticipated!
Book Description
The sociology of race relations in America typically describes an intersection of poverty, race, and economic discrimination. But what is missing from the picture-sexual difference-can be as instructive as what is present. In this ambitious work, Roderick A. Ferguson reveals how the discourses of sexuality are used to articulate theories of racial difference in the field of sociology. He shows how canonical sociology-Gunnar Myrdal, Ernest Burgess, Robert Park, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and William Julius Wilson-has measured African Americans' unsuitability for a liberal capitalist order in terms of their adherence to the norms of a heterosexual and patriarchal nuclear family model. In short, to the extent that African Americans' culture and behavior deviated from those norms, they would not achieve economic and racial equality.
Aberrations in Black tells the story of canonical sociology's regulation of sexual difference as part of its general regulation of African American culture. Ferguson places this story within other stories-the narrative of capital's emergence and development, the histories of Marxism and revolutionary nationalism, and the novels that depict the gendered and sexual idiosyncrasies of African American culture-works by Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and Toni Morrison. In turn, this book tries to present another story-one in which people who presumably manifest the dysfunctions of capitalism are reconsidered as indictments of the norms of state, capital, and social science. Ferguson includes the first-ever discussion of a new archival discovery-a never-published chapter of Invisible Man that deals with a gay character in a way that complicates and illuminates Ellison's project.
Unique in the way it situates critiques of race, gender, and sexuality within analyses of cultural, economic, and epistemological formations, Ferguson's work introduces a new mode of discourse-which Ferguson calls queer of color analysis-that helps to lay bare the mutual distortions of racial, economic, and sexual portrayals within sociology.
Roderick A. Ferguson is assistant professor of American studies at the University of Minnesota.
Customer Reviews:
Toward a Queer of Color Critique.......2005-02-23
In this brilliant book, Rod Ferguson interrogates canonical sociologys' regulation of sexual difference as part of its pathologization of African American culture. Sophisticated in its critiques of race, gender, and sexuality within analyses of cultural, economic,and epistemological formations, this book breaks new ground in sociology, American studies, queer theory, and women of color feminism. Great for graduate and undergraduate courses on the problematic history of the discipline of sociology as well as courses on sexuality and queer theory.
Customer Reviews:
Paschal, A Man of Mystery.......2005-01-31
Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician (Suny Series in Western Esoteric Traditions)
"Randolph, Paschal Beverly (8 Oct. 1825 - 29 July 1875), physician, philosopher, and author, was born in New York City , the son of William Beverly Randolph, a plantation owner, and Flora Beverly, a barmaid. At the age of five or seven Randolph lost his mother to smallpox, and with her the only love he had known. Randolph later stated, 'I was born in love, of a loving mother, and what she felt, that I lived.' His father's devotion is questionable. In 1873 Randolph hinted at his own illegitimacy, stating that his parents 'did not stop to pay fees to the justice or to the priest.'"
"Randolph 's mother possessed a strong temperament, unusual physical beauty, and intense passions, characteristics that Randolph inherited. Later many, especially his enemies, perceived Randolph as being of 'Negro descent,' which he denied. Sent to live with his half-sister, Randolph was ignored, unloved, and abused and eventually turned to begging on the streets". Such began the life of Paschal Beverly Randolph.
Although I never had the pleasure of meeting John Patrick Deveney, I did correspond with him in great length while he was writing the aforementioned work. It was about the same time that I was cataloging and indexing the works of Randolph.
I found the book to be an exceptional piece of historical research and an in-depth analysis of a brilliant, self-educated and tortured individual. Although historical in nature, the work by Deveney also presents a psychological and sociological view of a very complicated and controversial African-American.
I, like John, had the extreme pleasure of reading most of Randolph's original works (most in universities and private esoteric collections). It was through these writings that Randolph was able to present the various aspects of his occult, sex magic, free love, abolitionary, civil rights and Rosicrucian beliefs.
Regarding citations and research notation, I would compare the author's feat to that of Montague Summer and Arthur Edward Waite. This is a must for any historian of free love, occult or African-American studies.
Dr. Carl Edwin Lindgren
Professor of Military History
The Ansairetic Mystery, or a New Revelation Concerning SEX!.......2001-10-09
[....]readers should known or probably infer from the esteemed SUNY press W.E.T. series that Deveney cites ALL sources, resultant of some 150 pages of extensive notes which are a worthy and entertaining/informative read in themselves! Also, P.B.R.'s Occult philosophy and practical systems/methodologies are explored in a highly scholarly yet equally accessible manner, and as an appendix are given in their entirety two of PBR's most essential Sexual Magic works, for which I have appropriated the title of this review. Though a scholarly work, as well as an historical one, it is throughout biographically focused on an 19th century Exemplary Mage's Life and Work!
The Ansairetic Mystery, or a New Revelation Concerning SEX!.......2001-10-06
Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825-1875)was one of the first well-known Afro-American Novelists (if not THE FIRST), of whom Frederick Douglas was an admirer, and one of the most famous as well as sincere mediums of the Spiritualist movement, famous for his speeches of whom President Johnson was a fan, and a KEY figure in bridging the gap between that nec-romantic movement flowering dangerously into the European/American Occult Revival of the mid-late 19th century. He grew up an orphan in a murderous section of NYC; had almost no schooling, (yet became a recognized genius by sheer will/determination and self-discipline) who lived in the "(spiritually) Burnt-out" district of upstate NY where he added the abbr. "DR." to his title and sold his Glyphae Battah (Magic Mirrors)and Hashish, love & healing philtres:'snake-oil' basically, and married a part Native-American Indian Woman and tried to raise a family in dire poverty. And this is just the beginning to his life! He was very influential in getting Black soldiers into the US military in the last years of the Civil War(& getting them paid like any good-willing American!)...also, Blavatsky gleaned much from him, I think her writings concerning Randolph evidences, if only his living example of an highly artistic and Original one-man Occult campaign via Randolph's numerous Rosicrucian brotherhoods which The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor would later appropriate nearly ALL of Randolphs ideas to immense practical benefit (see Godwins and Deveneys co-efforts in releasing many key documents in relation to this group), while the Theosophists waged war against that very practicality deeming it black magic basically...later the Surrealists' devoured Randolph's magical works which were circulated widely through the Russian-born Parisian Surrealist Maria de Naglowska efforts...How does a man like this, who entertained at the court of Napoleon and who counted President Lincoln as an acquaintance as well as knew most every influential Occultist/Abolitionist/reformer/Free Love Politician / Spiritualist of his day (Bulwer-Lytton, Hargrave Jennings, Laurence Oliphaunt, Andrew Jackson Davis,et al. ad infinitum)how does such a figure disappear from history? as if suspiciously erased? The question is as tragic as Randolph's life, for it is a pained life full of much suffering, bore throughout with nobility if despairingness at his predicament. He is a beautiful writer--one must allow him that at least---whose sexual magic works serve as a poignant appendix to Deveney's excellent and thorough 600-plus page biography of a life that serves as an intimate magnifying-glass to probe into the goings-ons of an era filled to overflowing with myriad colorful characters and the energy and excitement of endless rounds of ingenious scientific discoveries and religious aspirations/explorations which as the Poet Osip Mandelstam said "if ever there was a golden age surely it was the 19th century!" Wherever you may be John Patrick Deveney, I thank you a thousand times over while reading this and thank you still for giving us this touching biography which served as a means to truly know what it must have been like to have lived in Randolph's day, during an age of 'Romanticism' and later,'Symbolism' in Art, while an Occult revival raged, made up of a noble search for self-knowledge and universal Uptopianist solutions to universal ills, and art finally becoming a RELIGION itself!...Western Esoteric studies should take as an example Deveney's biographical tome, and know the history of the world is in the lives of men and women more than anyplace else, as Jules Michelet pointed out a hundred years ago...I would suggest to anyone interested in gaining a first hand insight into an era & a subject finally lent proper credence to be studied seriously as it should be respected even if despised by "religious realists"...to read this book full of a life lived with such style & grace. Randolph's motto was: "T-R-Y !"...which is what I would say to others here interested in reading a rare work of an even rarer life that hopefully will become part of the American Artistic and Cultural iconography and more widely known literary canon because of Deveney's immense efforts and achievements herein! Bravo Deveney!
---readers should known or probably infer from the esteemed SUNY press W.E.T. series that Deveney cites ALL sources, resultant of some 150 pages of extensive notes which are a worthy and entertaining/informative read in themselves! Also, P.B.R.'s Occult philosophy and practical systems;/methodologies are explored in a highly scholarly yet equally accessible manner; though a scholarly work, as well as an historical one, it is throughout focused on an 19th century Exemplary Mage's Life and Work!
Book Description
The beginning of the twentieth century was a critical time in African-American history. Segregation and discrimination were on the rise. Two seminal African American figures began to debate on ways to combat racial problems. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B
Customer Reviews:
A "reader friendly" analytical survey and presentation.......2003-08-10
Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, And The Struggle For Racial Uplift by Jacqueline M. Moore (Associate Professor of History at Austin College, Sherman, Texas) is an informed and informative depiction of two remarkable and quiet different men who helped shape Black American history. Placing each man's work in historical context, and studying the debate conflict of ideas that both had and alternatives to either one's point of view, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, And The Struggle For Racial Uplift is an intelligently written, scholarly, evenhanded, and "reader friendly" analytical survey and presentation which is strongly recommended for students of Black Studies, as well as non-specialist general readers with an interest in the contributions of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois to American society and culture.
Book Description
The most famous artistic compilation ever made of the great age of the poster, featuring works by nearly 100 artists, among them Cheret, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Mucha, Beardsley, Parrish, Grasset, Penfield, Steinlen, many more. Full color, large format, one poster per page, extensive documentation.
Customer Reviews:
good reference.......2006-03-10
As stated, the book contains all 256 plates. But there is almost no informational material. If you just want to know what was included in this series, this is your reference manual.
a beautiful book!.......2005-08-21
Nice quality with large reproductions, nice heavyweight pages, and great color. Full of inspiring figurative artwork, graphic design, and lettering from a time and place when more work by hand and individual style made it into advertising.
if you can't afford the real posters.......2001-12-31
i collect posters.
i love posters.
for some of the posters, this will be as close as i'll get unless i win the lottery.
a great present to your friends or to yourself.
Who could ask for anything more?.......2000-05-14
An an interior designer and a collector of antique posters, I completely rely on this book. Roger Marx brings to us an amazing selection of posters ranging from whimsical prints to dramatic and romantic pieces as well as thorough information on each piece. Featured on the cover is my most treasured posession.
Average customer rating:
- A Fantastic and Inspiring Book
- AN EXCELLENT READ
- A book for all sports fans and then some
- Baseball History at its Best!
- A True Piece of American History
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Elston and Me: The Story of the First Black Yankee (Sports and American Culture Series)
Arlene Howard , and
Ralph Wimbish
Manufacturer: University of Missouri Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 African-American & Black
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Baseball
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ASIN: 0826213588 |
Customer Reviews:
A Fantastic and Inspiring Book.......2005-04-13
A Fantastic and Inspiring Book. Elston Howard was a great man who had guts and charisma. This is a must read for ALL baseball fans and even non baseball fans! Enjoy!
AN EXCELLENT READ.......2002-10-20
MRS HOWARD AND MR WIMBISH DO A SUPERB JOB IN TELLING THE LIFE AND CAREER OF FORMER YANKEE GREAT ELSTON HOWARD. ELSTON DESERVED A MUCH LONGER LIFE. THIS IS WRITTEN WITH MUCH HONESTY AND SENSITIVTY. . FROM THE JIM CROWE LAWS TO ARROGANCE AND PREJUDICE, ELSTON HOWARD FACED MANY BARRIERS ALONG THE WAY TO STARDOM. HE WAS QUITE A PLAYER AND DESERVED MUCH MORE RECOGNITION. THIS BOOK BEAUTIFULLY DESCRIBES THE TRADGEDY, TURMOIL, AND TRIUMPHS THAT CAME TO HIM AND HIS FAMILY. A MUST READ FOR ALL YANKEE FANS AND HISTORIANS OF BASBALL. A GREAT READ.
A book for all sports fans and then some.......2002-02-17
I enjoyed this book tremendously. It's not just a well written story, but it seems to give true insight to life inside the Yankees during one the franchise's most notable eras. Mickey, Yogi, Elston and company made history together. Arlene stood tall in her role as the first black Yankee wife and Elston prevailed with honor and sportsmanship during these difficult transitional years. Mrs. Howard and Mr. Wimbish's collaboration deserves kudos and more readers. Even long suffering Red Sox fans (just like me!) won't be disappointed.
Baseball History at its Best!.......2002-01-16
The story of Elston Howard's climb through the baseball ranks during the height of the Jim Crowe laws is not to be missed by anyone who likes baseball or history. His widow Arlene sees his great rise and tragic end to a debilitating disease with the eyes of an old-fashioned story-teller: passionate and dispassionate, an actor on the stage and an observer from the audience. A must read for baseball fans, black history buffs, and those who want to know what it was like to live inside a separate America during one of its greatest and worst eras.
A True Piece of American History.......2002-01-11
For those of us who grew up in the 50's with the Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants all in New York, it is a great story evocative of those days told from with a fine eye and keen perspective. A must read for young and old alike - a story that should never be forgotten. Elston Howard's widow is direct and unsparing in this straight forward narrative of their life together with Baseball.
Book Description
In I Wonder as I Wander, Langston Hughes vividly recalls the most dramatic and intimate moments of his life in the turbulent 1930s.
His wanderlust leads him to Cuba, Haiti, Russia, Soviet Central Asia, Japan, Spain (during its Civil War), through dictatorships, wars, revolutions. He meets and brings to life the famous and the humble, from Arthur Koestler to Emma, the Black Mammy of Moscow. It is the continuously amusing, wise revelation of an American writer journeying around the often strange and always exciting world he loves.
Customer Reviews:
A Journey Across Langston's Life.......2006-12-28
When I started writing here on Amazon reviews I was thinking of placing pieces of my memory from books that shaped our family so that my daughter who was reading and living on-line might share a few minutes with me as I reflected back on things that might tell the stories of us. Being very ill it seemed a logical kind of thing to do. One of the reasons I waited until Christmas to write this particular piece was it fits, the title of this story taken from an Appalachian melody of Christmas, among the most beautiful I know for my playing on dulcimer. The tune which inspired his title is just a simple,hill country piece of handiwork. The other reason I waited was having made an Amazon friend who is inspired at a fundamental level by Hughes and who is dear to me, it gave me awhile to think about what to say here of this book. I know he lives in close connection to Hughes spirit and may indeed embody and carry this work and truth. Not an easy thing at all...but the world is better for this. I hate to do it a disservice and I'm inadequate to the task, and yet the book is among my most favorite ever read. I'm surprised that it isn't reviewed by many more here , this volume for me one of the most amazing secrets ever kept. It is an autobiographical journey, a tale from his life; it serves to create inner spaces, visceral visual ones, to consider Hughes and to look upon his perspectives. All I can conclude is something I find tonight as I type, it's daunting to write to the book and do it any real justice. It is worth purchasing for anyone, especially for someone who loves to read of the times of our lives in the 20th century..
Hughes opens the book, which covers time from 1931 to 1938 as a piece to carry on from The Big Sea his first autobiographical work. As I read them out of order I cannot say I am sorry this was my first. It stays solidly in my head. He tells of traveling in a car on a reading tour in the South and the west. On opening the tale of wandering we are where he was reading his work in small often rural settings and revealing black community and his meager circumstances as he was essentially becoming the writer. He becomes involved in a film project and goes to the Soviet Union which is such an amazing thing to read....it is a project that doesn't work out and he stays and continues traveling. Just to know more about this time in history from his perspective in areas we could not know enough about is worth the book....and it is these observations and how he finally returns to the US, I found the most compelling of the narrative. I felt I was wandering, wandering free of some of the limitations of American political shaping, looking at the Soviets as they took on the start of building their country, listening to Hughes describe the adventure, what he sees. Hughes is not given to excessive internal dialog, he is almost remarkably absent of this-which of course is a vehicle he creates-he relates what he sees and it has a kind of universal journey construction...almost ...so perfectly of those times, so completely crafted that I lose my "self" in the pages...I am a train, or a days delicious seafood with boiled bananas and Spanish rice learning to rumba. I am ill equipped to summarize but Hughes is a genius, creating a kind of tableau that for me stands as visually there as the great human artists of these times, this he does so easily. And I feel this trip across Russia as an experience. I think what moves me is that Hughes recounts human interaction, the simplicity, the everyday as it might be felt by myself or was felt by himself. I've spent most all of my life living in teaching in ordinary everyday, poorer worlds by choice learning of the dignity and indignity, suffering, laughing, discovering others, in the valid and real lives of ordinary people. It makes me anecdotal and determined to honor lives. And I note in the book foreword him stating, "I've now cut out all the impersonal stuff down to a running narrative with me in the middle of every page...the kind of intense condensation that, of course, keeps an autobiography from being entirely true, in that nobody's life is pure essence without pulp, waste matter , and rind-which art, of course, throws in the trash can." Ah always genius.
Because I had read a great deal of these times interested in Lillian Hellman and many other figures, his recounting his story with Arthur Koestler was so interesting. Again threaded through this personal anecdote was so much good information and his perspective. He talks of Haiti and I've given these pages many times to friends connected to this country, of Cuba, China and Japan ending in Carmel in an area I lived with close life there for 9 years, which was remarkable for me as I first encountered the book reading it sitting in a bookshop in Carmel and wandering the streets reading and thinking and enjoying thoughts of his times there. These were times of Communism, Marxism, the Scottsboro Boys, and only a bit becomes part of the book though I was discerning much because I did know of the times from my interests, reading and from reading more to understand his times.
I have stated in writing I've done of my teaching life that Hughes lived writing of black America, of politics, of difficult constructs, from his background, then his education, from his broadening views, from traveling, meeting such a wide spectrum, he was writing of the lives of the poor, living the lives, but also a writer, thinker, a man apart. I sense his frustration as much as I can from my inadequacies in trying to speak to these issues of fairness, of poverty, of the travesty of greed, of human lives affected by prejudice and economic and political failure. I write anecdotally of teaching in South Central, in migrant areas trying to reach out and tell the stories of kids hoping those that read can draw conclusions and understand better their real realities. I sense Hughes left to his readers a responsibility to use his journey, his insights, to think about how to make America a fairer place. How to work to create a just world. And to understand how broad a world it is.
I read in the forward about the books reception as "shallow". And I wonder....as I too wander. There is an elegant powerful truth that Hughes carries, a silent power in a poets voice spoken in the face of revealing things no one can hear or will hear. There is a basic return to the voyage as meaning itself, a telling of a life, a looking at life as a movement forward. I just cannot find that shallow. I find Hughes as ever one of the touchstones of my life.
this should be on required reading lists everywhere!!.......2001-09-19
As the sequel to "The Big Sea", Mr.Hughes again speaks the language of a poet so well that he makes the reading of his life seem like a first-person experience. After his travels on several ships and the taste of his first successes(and failures), he simply explores and writes: of Paris, Russia, and Cuba, and shares his experiences with the reader. His writing is so rich and vivid that he makes every location in the world seem like poetry in motion. This book and "The Big Sea" should definitely be on reading lists everywhere-or, if you have a friend or relative who feels like they're a "wandering spirit", these books would make great gifts. Mr.Hughes touches on everything human: from the strained relationship with his father to the blatant racism he encounters everyday; to the women he becomes fond of and his neverending thirst for experience and knowledge; to the countless sights of wonder in the world that one never sees when they are ignorant. Beautiful writing by a true poet.
BRILLIANT, EYE OPENING.......1999-02-02
IN THIS BOOK , MR. HUGHES REALLY OPENS UP AND LETS THE READER INTO HIS WORLD. IT IS NOT HARD TO IMAGINE BEING IN THE PLACES THAT HE DESCRIBES. THE EVENTS AND CHARACTERS POP OUT AT YOU. THIS BOOK IS AN ENJOYABLE READ
Book Description
Could your kids be learning a fourth R at school: reading, writing, 'rithmatic, and race?
Race in the Schoolyard takes us to a place most of us seldom get to see in action¾our children's classrooms¾ and reveals the lessons about race that are communicated there. Amanda E. Lewis spent a year observing classes at three elementary schools, two multiracial urban and one white suburban. While race of course is not officially taught like multiplication and punctuation, she finds that it nonetheless insinuates itself into everyday life in schools.
Lewis explains how the curriculum, both expressed and hidden, conveys many racial lessons. While teachers and other school community members verbally deny the salience of race, she illustrates how it does influence the way they understand the world, interact with each other, and teach children. This eye-opening text is important reading for educators, parents, and scholars alike.
Customer Reviews:
New Insights into How Race Gets Constructed by Schools.......2003-07-08
Race in the Schoolyard adds a new dimension to the literature on race and schooling. It examines how race is understood, produced, reproduced and contested by students, teachers and parents. It provides rich description and profound analysis of the dynamics of race in elementary schools. Its explanations of how race is constructed and dealt with at schools incorporates the examination of micro processes such as teacher practices and macro processes such as residential segregation. It makes a strong statement about how racial categorization is imbued in everyday life at school and even in the most minute or "insignificant" details of school. The book shows how racial categorization leads to behavior toward others that influence their educational opportunities.
Amanda Lewis provides new insights into how race gets constructed by schools. She examines how school as an institution produces racial meanings, in formal and informal ways, that have lasting consequences for students, especially students of color.
Amanda Lewis'work--which was quoted in the University of Michigan affirmative action case--will surely raise controversy and fuel substantial debates. She wrestles with the relative roles of culture and merit in the book. She uses Bourdieu to understand cultural gaps between minority students and the school. She argues that such gaps put minority students at a disadvantage as they are judged, not in terms of "ability or potential," but by "white middle class styles of interaction." In other words, while acknowledging cultural differences, she points out that these differences are not treated neutrally; rather, those of white students tend to be rewarded, and those of students of color are more often treated as illegitimate.
Amanda Lewis' studies of schools is also part of the larger theoretical project of understanding race relations in America. She argues, in the manner of Bobo, Feagin, and Bonilla-Silva, that racism in America has not disappeared but has assumed new, more subtle forms.
Extraordinary book on race and contemporary schooling.......2003-06-24
This book is truly amazing. It deals with a controversial topic in a careful but thought-provoking manner. Having taught in urban and suburban schools for twenty years I can relate to many of the stories that she tells about the inability of teachers, school administrators, and parents to deal effectively with the elephant in the room, race. As she points out in her conclusion we as teachers and Americans cannot "merely close our eyes and try by sheer force of imagination to will ourselves into a color-blind world." In this very readable and well-written book the author reminds us that as teachers we owe it to our students (not just our black and hispanic students) to help them understand how race matters. It is only through direct and honest dialogue that our students will be better prepared to make sure race matters less in the future.
Average customer rating:
- No one knows Morrison's work like herself
- Important companion to Playing in the Dark
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Conversations with Toni Morrison (Literary Conversations Series)
Manufacturer: University Press of Mississippi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
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Paradise (Oprah's Book Club)
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The Aesthetics of Toni Morrison: Speaking the Unspeakable
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Song of Solomon
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Tar Baby
ASIN: 0878056920 |
Customer Reviews:
No one knows Morrison's work like herself.......2000-07-27
Toni Morrison was clearly ahead of her time -- look at her novels. Her interest in myth, history, a decentered narrator, racialized images of self, and aural language were well ahead of most critics and theorists, who are only now recognizing the full worth of her work. These collected interviews allow us to hear from the horse's mouth what her narrative project is. For Morrison fans, it is particularly interesting to see how the various white interviewers grapple with Morrison's insistence on writing about the culture she knows best -- black culture -- and not putting whites front and center. It is also interesting to see how Morrison herself switches positions throughout her career, from an insistence that she writes only for herself (early in her career) to writing for "the [black] tribe" (middle of her career)to writing for seemingly everybody (later career). A particular treat, for me, were references scattered throughout to how "prickly" Morrison can be and how catty she was about not being nominated for a National Book Award for SONG OF SOLOMON.
Important companion to Playing in the Dark.......1999-07-04
The interviews in this book illuminate the forces behind Morrison's scholarly theories about the role of race in American literature. Anyone who has read "Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination" will immediately recognize key themes in many of these interviews, although the strongest distinctions can be found in the last two interviews, each given after publication of "Playing in the Dark." Taken chronilogically, the interviews are a thrillling opportunity to observe how Morrison has evolved as a writer and a scholar. To me, it is clear her novels are a carefully crafted attempt to mirror the racialized signifying she identifies in her scholarly critiques of white writer's work.
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