Celebrated Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson is the director and editor of the Martin Luther King Papers Project; with thousands of King's essays, notes, letters, speeches, and sermons at his disposal, Carson has organized King's writings into a posthumous autobiography. In an early student essay, King prophetically penned: "We cannot have an enlightened democracy with one great group living in ignorance.... We cannot have a nation orderly and sound with one group so ground down and thwarted that it is almost forced into unsocial attitudes and crime." Such statements, made throughout King's career, are skillfully woven together into a coherent narrative of the quest for social justice. The autobiography delves, for example, into the philosophical training King received at Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University, where he consolidated the teachings of Afro-American theologian Benjamin Mays with the philosophies of Locke, Rousseau, Gandhi, and Thoreau. Through King's voice, the reader intimately shares in his trials and triumphs, including the Montgomery Boycott, the 1963 "I Have a Dream Speech," the Selma March, and the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. In one of his last speeches, King reminded his audience that "in the final analysis, God does not judge us by the separate incidents or the separate mistakes that we make, but by the total bent of our lives." Carson's skillful editing has created an original argument in King's favor that draws directly from the source, illuminating the circumstances of King's life without deifying his person. --Eugene Holley Jr.
Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Book for 1999 Born of a shared revulsion against the horrors of the Holocaust, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has become the single most important statement of international ethics. It was inspired by and reflects the full scope of President Franklin Roosevelt's famous four freedoms: "the freedom of speech and expression, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear." Written by a UN commission led by Eleanor Roosevelt and adopted in 1948, the Declaration has become the moral backbone of more than two hundred human rights instruments that are now a part of our world. The result of a truly international negotiating process, the document has been a source of hope and inspiration to thousands of groups and millions of oppressed individuals.
Malcolm X's life dealt with in four parts.
The moving, inspiring memoir of one of the great women of our times, Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and advocate for the oppressed, whose spirit has remained strong in the face of political persecution and despite the challenges she has faced raising a family while pursuing her work. Best known in this country as the lawyer working tirelessly on behalf of Canadian photojournalist, Zara Kazemi – raped, tortured and murdered in Iran – Dr. Ebadi offers us a vivid picture of the struggles of one woman against the system. The book movingly chronicles her childhood in a loving, untraditional family, her upbringing before the Revolution in 1979 that toppled the Shah, her marriage and her religious faith, as well as her life as a mother and lawyer battling an oppressive regime in the courts while bringing up her girls at home. Outspoken, controversial, Shirin Ebadi is one of the most fascinating women today. She rose quickly to become the first female judge in the country; but when the religious authorities declared women unfit to serve as judges she was demoted to clerk in the courtroom she had once presided over. She eventually fought her way back as a human rights lawyer, defending women and children in politically charged cases that most lawyers were afraid to represent. She has been arrested and been the target of assassination, but through it all has spoken out with quiet bravery on behalf of the victims of injustice and discrimination and become a powerful voice for change, almost universally embraced as a hero. Her memoir is a gripping story – a must-read for anyone interested in Zara Kazemi’s case, in the life of a remarkable woman, or in understanding the political and religious upheaval in our world.
A moving account of Mandela's life from his childhood to his inauguration as president of South Africa in May 1994. Awards: BL Editors' Choice.
A richly illustrated exploration of Ai Weiwei's installation and architecture projects, focusing on the artist's use of space. Outspoken, provocative, and prolific, the artist Ai Weiwei is an international phenomenon. In recent years, he has produced an astonishingly varied body of work while continuing his role as activist, provocateur, and conscience of a nation. Ai Weiwei is under "city arrest" in Beijing after an 81-day imprisonment; he is accused of tax evasion, but many suspect he is being punished for his political activism, including his exposure of shoddy school building practices that led to the deaths of thousands of children in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2009, he was badly beaten by the police during his earthquake investigations. Ai Weiwei's work reflects his multiple artistic identities as conceptual artist, architect, filmmaker, designer, curator, writer, and publisher. This monumental volume, developed in association with the artist, draws on the full breadth of Ai Weiwei's architectural, installation, and activist work, with a focus on his use of space. It documents a huge range of international projects with drawings, plans, and photographs of finished work. It also includes excerpts from Ai Weiwei's famous blog (shut down by Chinese authorities in 2009), in which he offers pithy and scathing commentary on the world around him. Essays by leading critics and art historians and interviews with the artist, drawing out his central concerns, accompany the 450 beautifully reproduced color illustrations of his work.
Narrative of Sojourner Truth is one of the most important documents of slavery ever written, as well as being a partial autobiography of the woman who became a pioneer in the struggles for racial and sexual equality. With an eloquence that resonates more than a century after its original publication in 1850, the narrative bears witness to Sojourner Truth's thirty years of bondage in upstate New York and to the mystical revelations that turned her into a passionate and indefatigable abolitionist. In this new edition, which has been edited and extensively annotated by the distinguished scholar and biographer of Sojourner Truth, Margaret Washington, Truth's testimony takes on added dimensions: as a lens into the little-known world of northern slavery; as a chronicle of spiritual conversion; and as an inspiring account of a black woman striving for personal and political empowerment.
In Saga of Chief Joseph, Helen Addison Howard has written the definitive biography of the great Nez Perce chief, a diplomat among warriors. In times of war and peace, Chief Joseph exhibited gifts of the first rank. Even though he was a leader for peace and tribal liberty, he was destined to see the defeat of his people in the Nez Perce War of 1877 and the loss of all that was important to them--their lands, their horses, and their independence. The struggle of the Nez Perces for the freedom they considered paramount in life constitutes one of the most dramatic episodes of Indian history. This completely revised edition of the author's earlier War Chief Joseph presents in exciting detail the full story of Chief Joseph, with a reevaluation of the five bands engaged in the Nez Perce War, objectively told from the Indian, the white military, and the settlers' points of view. Especially valuable is the reappraisal, based on significant new material from Indian sources, of Joseph as a war leader. Of War Chief Joseph, reviewers said: "A priceless contribution to the history of a great and noble race" (Los Angeles Times); "A stirring and dramatic biography of a great man (Montreal Star); "This work . . . is a standard in the field" (Choice Books for College Libraries).
Juxtaposed with contemporary reports and biographical essays, the words of this legendary suffragist reveal Susan B. Anthony as a loyal, caring friend, and an eloquent, humorous crusader. "More than a collection of well-arranged quotations, the work informs, inspires, and gives historical perspective."--The Houston Post. 33 photos & illustrations.
Most Americans assume that the United States provides a gold standard for human rights--a 2007 survey found that 80 percent of U.S. adults believed that "the U.S. does a better job than most countries when it comes to protecting human rights." As well, discussions among scholars and public officials in the United States frame human rights issues as concerning people, policies, or practices "over there." By contrast, the contributors to this volume argue that many of the greatest immediate and structural threats to human rights, and some of the most significant efforts to realize human rights in practice, can be found in our own backyard. Human Rights in Our Own Backyard examines the state of human rights and responses to human rights issues, drawing on sociological literature and perspectives to interrogate assumptions of American exceptionalism. How do people in the U.S. address human rights issues? What strategies have they adopted, and how successful have these strategies been? Essays are organized around key conventions of human rights, focusing on the relationships between human rights and justice, the state and the individual, civil rights and human rights, and group rights versus individual rights. The contributors are united by a common conception of the human rights enterprise as a process involving not only state-defined and implemented rights but also human rights from below as promoted by activists.
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE In this intimate memoir of survival, a former captive of the Islamic State tells her harrowing and ultimately inspiring story. Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon. On August 15th, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to become sex slaves. Six of Nadia's brothers were killed, and her mother soon after, their bodies swept into mass graves. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into the ISIS slave trade. Nadia would be held captive by several militants and repeatedly raped and beaten. Finally, she managed a narrow escape through the streets of Mosul, finding shelter in the home of a Sunni Muslim family whose eldest son risked his life to smuggle her to safety. Today, Nadia's story--as a witness to the Islamic State's brutality, a survivor of rape, a refugee, a Yazidi--has forced the world to pay attention to an ongoing genocide. It is a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war.
A mature novel that is a fictionalized treatment of the life of the German industrialist who saved the lives of many Jews during World War II.
The narrative of a boy who lived through Auschwitz and Buchenwald provides a short and terrible indictment of modern humanity.
"I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea, and that I escaped from North Korea." Yeonmi Park has told the harrowing story of her escape from North Korea as a child many times, but never before has she revealed the most intimate and devastating details of the repressive society she was raised in and the enormous price she paid to escape. Park's family was loving and close-knit, but life in North Korea was brutal, practically medieval. Park would regularly go without food and was made to believe that, Kim Jong Il, the country's dictator, could read her mind. After her father was imprisoned and tortured by the regime for trading on the black-market, a risk he took in order to provide for his wife and two young daughters, Yeonmi and her family were branded as criminals and forced to the cruel margins of North Korean society. With thirteen-year-old Park suffering from a botched appendectomy and weighing a mere sixty pounds, she and her mother were smuggled across the border into China. I wasn't dreaming of freedom when I escaped from North Korea. I didn't even know what it meant to be free. All I knew was that if my family stayed behind, we would probably die--from starvation, from disease, from the inhuman conditions of a prison labor camp. The hunger had become unbearab≤ I was willing to risk my life for the promise of a bowl of rice. But there was more to our journey than our own survival. My mother and I were searching for my older sister, Eunmi, who had left for China a few days earlier and had not been heard from since. Park knew the journey would be difficult, but could not have imagined the extent of the hardship to come. Those years in China cost Park her childhood, and nearly her life. By the time she and her mother made their way to South Korea two years later, her father was dead and her sister was still missing. Before now, only her mother knew what really happened between the time they crossed the Yalu river into China and when they followed the stars through the frigid Gobi Desert to freedom. As she writes, "I convinced myself that a lot of what I had experienced never happened. I taught myself to forget the rest." In In Order to Live, Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea--and to freedom. Still in her early twenties, Yeonmi Park has lived through experiences that few people of any age will ever know--and most people would never recover from. Park confronts her past with a startling resilience, refusing to be defeated or defined by the circumstances of her former life in North Korea and China. In spite of everything, she has never stopped being proud of where she is from, and never stopped striving for a better life. Indeed, today she is a human rights activist working determinedly to bring attention to the oppression taking place in her home country. Park's testimony is rare, edifying, and terribly important, and the story she tells in In Order to Live is heartbreaking and unimaginable, but never without hope. Her voice is riveting and dignified. This is the human spirit at its most indomitable.
Human rights, no matter how much they may differ across cultures, mean the same thing; human beings need things that are justifiably sound. Editor Jacqueline Langwith has compiled a number of fantastic essays that debate human rights. Her collection of essays answer what rights are, what we should do to stop abuse of human rights, and what the U.S. needs to do to support human rights. Should human rights be universal? Does Islamic law threaten human rights? Should the U.S. intervene in Darfur? Does the U.S. do enough to uphold the rights of women? These hard-hitting queries are evenly and emphatically debated through essays that state a viewpoint and back it up with facts. Your reader's critical thinking skills are activated, allowing them to develop intelligent viewpoints of their own. Essay sources include Faisal Kutty, Azam Kamguian, Louay M. Safi, the Integrated Regional Information Networks, U.S. State Department, and the Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China.
"The issues of South Africa and the nuclear bomb and theologies of liberation have for some time spotlighted the question of violence and non-violence. The strength or weakness of Gandhian non-violence often comes up in discussions on the subject. This manuscript analyzes Gandhian non-violence. The analysis is able, thorough and-this is what I most respond to-marked both by rigorous Western-style scrutiny and a familiarity with Gandhi's philosophical and religious roots. He provides a strong theoretical basis for the instinctive reactions of many of Gandhi's non-violence, for the widespread and commonsense belief that in general non-violence is sound and beneficial but that non-violent extremism may not be. His treatment of Gandhian non-violence in the context of Indian philosophy and metaphysics is of high calibre. His approach is both fresh and successful." - Rajmohan Gandhi "Borman shows in great detail where Gandhi's thought arises from the Upanisads, The Bhagavad Gita, and a few other ancient documents. He also shows clearly where Gandhi deviates from his sources. As to argument, Borman uses a close-grained approach characteristic of analytic philosophy. Borman claims that Gandhi's principles are extreme and unsupportable, and eventually lead to contradiction. It is not an intellectual biography, and it does not deal with the development of Gandhi's thought. Rather it analyzes the logic of his position, and shows how he came to defend it from new angles in different circumstances. The text is well related to historical events, but does not pretend to history." - Robert C. Neville "The manuscript is not, and does not pretend to be, a historical analysis of Mahatma Gandhi's experience. Its notable strength lies in its unique and commendable examination of Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence, and in this particular respect it is the best study of the subject that I have read among the hundreds of books that deal with aspects of Gandhi's contribution to our understanding of non-violence." - Dennis Dalton "It is refreshing to read an author who has a basis for understanding Gandhi since so many writers fail to understand or appreciate the spiritual essentials that form the core of Gandhi's life and message. This book rings with clear, accurate, insightful understandings of Gandhi. It explores fully Gandhi's philosophy of action and brings in scriptural sources for concepts that Gandhi practiced in his everyday affairs. I think the Western reader will gain a much needed clarification of Gandhian philosophy, methods, and actions, and especially of the source of his inspiration and intentions." - Jean B. Mann
From two of our most fiercely moral voices, a passionate call to arms against our era's most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope. They show how a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad. That Cambodian girl eventually escaped from her brothel and, with assistance from an aid group, built a thriving retail business that supports her family. The Ethiopian woman had her injuries repaired and in time became a surgeon. A Zimbabwean mother of five, counseled to return to school, earned her doctorate and became an expert on AIDS. Through these stories, Kristof and WuDunn help us see that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women's potential. They make clear how so many people have helped to do just that, and how we can each do our part. Throughout much of the world, the greatest unexploited economic resource is the female half of the population. Countries such as China have prospered precisely because they emancipated women and brought them into the formal economy. Unleashing that process globally is not only the right thing to do; it's also the best strategy for fighting poverty. Deeply felt, pragmatic, and inspirational, Half the Sky is essential reading for every global citizen.
This book asks whether human rights, since the 9/11 attacks and the 'war on terror,' are a luxury we can no longer afford, or rights that must always remain a fundamental part of democratic politics, in order to determine the boundary between individual freedom and government tyranny. This volume brings together leading international lawyers, policy-makers, scholars and activists in the field of human rights to evaluate the impact of the 'war on terror' on human rights, as well as to develop a counter-terror strategy which takes human rights seriously. While some contributors argue that war is necessary in defense of liberal democracy, others assert that it is time to move away from the war model towards a new paradigm based upon respect for human rights, an internationally-coordinated anti-terror justice strategy, and a long-term political vision that can reduce the global tensions that generate a political constituency for terrorists.
Lincoln Shot So begins this intimate portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Conceived as a one year anniversary edition of a newspaper, dated April 14, 1866, strongly evocative of the time and the nation's mood. The moment-by-moment recital of the events of the day that ended in assassination holds readers enthralled awaiting the tragic end. The account of the flight, capture, and hanging of some of the conspirators is riveting. From there, Denenberg moves to the log cabin in Kentucky and Lincoln's life unfolds. The boy, the man, the husband and the father is portrayed as a trifle clumsy, often unsure of himself, and plagued by dark moods. Denenberg's Lincoln is ambitious and modest. He struggles with his role as leader as the Civil War nears. In the third part of the book, the year-by-year account of the Civil War is seen through Lincoln's eyes. Every defeat and every victory deepens his struggle and resolve. Award-winning artist Christopher Bing evokes an 1866 newspaper with pen-and-ink scenes from Lincoln's life: Lincoln wrestling Jack Armstrong, Lincoln taking vows with Mary Todd, Grant and Lee at Appomattox, and Booth shooting Lincoln. Rich Deas, book designer, has folded Bing's art and sourced archival images into layouts that are undistinguishable for 1866 newspaper design. Every facet of design, from frames to advertisements, has been exactingly molded to evoke the era. The oversized vertical trim underscores the newspaper look and feel. Meticulously researched and exquisitely designed,Lincoln Shot is a uniquely inviting and accessible tribute to Lincoln, whose birth bicentennial is February 12, 2009.
The second volume plunges into the White House years and the Great Depression, the time when Eleanor exerted enormous influence over the course of the country. In the thirties, Eleanor becomes even more surprising and multifaceted. A loyal wife, a devoted mother, a woman who courted romance and adventure, Eleanor Roosevelt was America's most compelling, charismatic, and visionary First Lady. She ran a virtual parallel administration that championed civil rights, affordable housing, and a New Deal for women. She took unpopular stands and often countered her husband's policies, particularly a concerning racial justice, women's rights, the plight of refugees, and approaches to Fascism and the Spanish Civil War. The book closes in 1938, as Europe moves toward war.This is an unparalleled presentation of a woman whose life was filled with passionate commitment and who struggled for personal fulfillment. It is a book for all readers of American history and politics, and as the New Deal comes underassault today, a book for readers who care about a decent future for all people.
The unnamed, Blackfeet narrator returns to his family's ranch on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana to come to terms with his past and rearrange his present. He pretends not to care about his family and their ranch, but when he comes home, his actions tell a different story.
A fierce saga of three generations of Indian women, beset by hardship and torn by angry secrets, yet inextricably joined together by the indissoluble bonds of kinship.
This anthology collects over twenty trickster stories, in graphic novel format, from various Native American traditions, including tales about coyotes, rabbits, ravens, and other crafty creatures and their mischievous activities. All cultures have tales of the trickster, a crafty creature or being who uses cunning to get food, steal precious possessions, or simply cause mischief. He disrupts the order of things, often humiliating others and sometimes himself. In Native American traditions, the trickster takes many forms, from coyote or rabbit to raccoon or raven. This graphic anthology of Native American trickster tales brings together Native American folklore and the world of comics. More than twenty Native American tales are adapted into comic form. Each story is written by a different Native American storyteller who worked closely with a selected illustrator, a combination that gives each tale a unique and powerful voice and look. Ranging from serious and dramatic to funny and sometimes downright fiendish, these tales bring tricksters back into popular culture in a very vivid form.
A unique autobiography unparalleled in American Indian literature, and a deeply moving account of a woman's triumphant struggle to survive in a hostile world. This is the powerful autobiography of Mary Brave Bird, who grew up in the misery of a South Dakota reservation. Rebelling against the violence and hopelessness of reservation life, she joined the tribal pride movement in an effort to bring about much-needed changes. Now a major movie from TNT.
Bones evolves from an earlier volume of Native writing, Genocide of the Mind which documented the attempts at forced assimilation of indigenous peoples into the broader American culture. This new collection explores how those same groups have nonetheless managed to maintain individual identities. [This book] focuses on the key role that writers and visual artists have played in the struggle of native peoples to retain their separate identities. In personal essays, memoir, and historical reflections, these writers explore the ways in which they arrived at their work, and how they have retained their tribal identities in that work. Taken as a whole, [this book] is a testimony to the resilience of indigenous cultures, and the integral contributions artists make to that survival.-Back cover.
Whether looking back to a troubled past or welcoming a hopeful future, the powerful voices of Indigenous women across North America resound in this book. #Not Your Princess presents an eclectic collection of poems, essays, interviews, and art that combine to express the experience of being a Native woman. Stories of abuse, humiliation, and stereotyping are countered by the voices of passionate women making themselves heard and demanding change. Sometimes angry, often reflective, but always strong, the women in this book will give teen readers insight into the lives of women who, for so long, have been virtually invisible.
An autobiography by Mark Monroe a Native American, who discusses the poverty, racism, and alcoholism that linger constantly at the edges of the Native American world, and his struggle out of these traps.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold almost four million copies and has been translated into seventeen languages. For this elegant thirtieth anniversary hardcover edition, Brown has contributed an incisive new preface. Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows the great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was really won.
In the early 1930s, Karl and his sister Mary Adare, arrive by boxcar in Argus, a small off-reservation town in North Dakota. Orphaned, they look to their mother's sister Fritzie and her husband for refuge.
While the term "Indians" stems from the faulty geography of Columbus, that name and the images it has come to suggest have endured for five centuries, not only obscuring the true identity of the original Americans but serving as an ideological weapon in their subjugation. This text documents the self-serving stereotypes--ranging from Noble savage to bloodthirsty redskin--that Europeans and white Americans have concocted about the "Indian."
"Inside Dazzling Mountains provides fresh new translations of Native oral literatures of the Southwest, a region of vital and varied cultures and languages. The collection features songs, stories, chants, and orations from the four major language groups of the Southwest: Yuman, Nadíne (Apachean), Uto-Aztecan, and Kiowa-Tanoan. It combines translations of recordings made in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with a rich array of newly recorded and produced materials, attesting to the continued vitality and creativity of contemporary Native languages in the Southwest. For southwestern linguistic and cultural traditions to be more widely recognized and appreciated, retranslations of older works have been sorely needed. Original translations were often flawed and culturally biased and made use of literary conventions that were familiar to Anglo-Americans but foreign to the Native tribes themselves. Inside Dazzling Mountains corrects these flaws and celebrates the diversity of Native languages spoken in the Southwest today. Skillfully edited and translated by David L. Kozak, who offers a wealth of editorial tools for interpreting songs, song sets, myths, stories, and chants of the Southwest, past and present, this volume contributes to the continued vitality and cultural complexity of the region."--Publisher's website.
"Dawnland Voices calls attention to the little known but extraordinarily rich literary traditions of New England's Native Americans. This pathbreaking anthology includes both classic and contemporary literary works from ten New England indigenous nations: the Abenaki, Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Mohegan, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Schaghticoke, and Wampanoag. Through literary collaboration and recovery, Siobhan Senier and Native tribal historians and scholars have crafted a unique volume covering a variety of genres and historical periods. From the earliest petroglyphs and petitions to contemporary stories and hip-hop poetry, this volume highlights the diversity and strength of New England Native literary traditions. Dawnland Voices introduces readers to the compelling and unique literary heritage in New England, banishing the misconception that "real" Indians and their traditions vanished from that region centuries ago."-- Provided by publisher.
"When Europeans first arrived on this continent, Algonquian languages were spoken from the northeastern seaboard through the Great Lakes region, across much of Canada, and even in scattered communities of the American West. The rich and varied oral tradition of this Native language family, one of the farthest-flung in North America, comes brilliantly to life in this remarkably broad sampling of Algonquian songs and stories from across the centuries. Ranging from the speech of an early unknown Algonquian to the famous Walam Olum hoax, from retranslations of "classic" stories to texts appearing here for the first time, these are tales written or told by Native storytellers, today as in the past, as well as oratory, oral history, and songs sung to this day. An essential introduction and captivating guide to Native literary traditions still thriving in many parts of North America, Algonquian Spirit contains vital background information and new translations of songs and stories reaching back to the seventeenth century. Drawing from Arapaho, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Cree, Delaware, Maliseet, Menominee, Meskwaki, Miami-Illinois, Mi'kmaq, Naskapi, Ojibwe, Passamaquoddy, Potawatomi, and Shawnee, the collection gathers a host of respected and talented singers, storytellers, historians, anthropologists, linguists, and tribal educators, both Native and non-Native, from the United States and Canada--all working together to orchestrate a single, complex performance of the Algonquian languages."--Publisher.
Hate crimes against Native Americans are a common occurrence, Barbara Perry reveals, although most go unreported. In this eye-opening book, Perry shines a spotlight on these acts, which are often hidden in the shadows of crime reports. She argues that scholarly and public attention to the historical and contemporary victimization of Native Americans as tribes or nations has blinded both scholars and citizens alike to the victimization of individual Native Americans. It is these acts against individuals that capture her attention. Silent Victims is a unique contribution to the literature on hate crime. Because most extant literature treats hate crimes--even racial violence--rather generically, this work breaks new ground with its findings.
Sometimes the losses of childhood can be recovered only in the flight of the dragonfly. Native American children have long been subject to removal from their homes for placement in residential schools and, more recently, in foster or adoptive homes. The governments of both the United States and Canada, having reduced Native nations to the legal status of dependent children, historically have asserted a surrogate parentalism over Native children themselves. Children of the Dragonfly is the first anthology to document this struggle for cultural survival on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border. Through autobiography and interviews, fiction and traditional tales, official transcripts and poetry, these voices Seneca, Cherokee, Mohawk, Navajo, and many others weave powerful accounts of struggle and loss into a moving testimony to perseverance and survival. Invoking the dragonfly spirit of Zuni legend who helps children restore a way of life that has been taken from them, the anthology explores the breadth of the conflict about Native childhood.
After passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, tens of thousands of American Indians were relocated from the American Southeast. Yet, as the editors of this volume amply demonstrate, a significant Indian population remained behind after those massive relocations. The first anthology to focus on the literary work of Native Americans who trace their ancestry to "people who stayed" in southeastern states after 1830, this volume represents every state and every genre, including short stories, excerpts from novels, poetry, essays, plays, and even Web postings. Although most works are contemporary, the collection covers the entire post-Removal era. Some of the contributors are well known, while others have only recently emerged as important literary voices. All of the writers in The People Who Stayed affirm their Indian ancestry, though many live outside the Southeast today. As this anthology demonstrates, indigenous Southeastern writing engages the local and the global, the traditional and the modern. While many speak to the prospects and perils of acculturation, all the writers bear witness to the ways, oblique or straightforward, that they and their families continue to honor their Indian identities despite the legacy of removal. In an introduction to the volume and in headnotes on each contributor, the editors provide historical context and literary insight on the diversity of writing and lived experiences found in these pages. All readers, from students to scholars, will gain newfound understanding of the literature--and the human experience--of Native people of the American Southeast.
House Made of Dawn tells the story of a young American Indian named Abel, home from a foreign war and caught between two worlds: one his father's, wedding him to the rhythm of the seasons and the harsh beauty of the land; the other of industrial America, a goading him into a compulsive cycle of dissipation and disgust.
How do we explain not just the survival of Indian people in the United States against very long odds but their growing visibility and political power at the opening of the twenty-first century? Within this one story of indigenous persistence are many stories of local, regional, national, and international activism that require a nuanced understanding of what it means to be an activist or to act in politically purposeful ways. Even the nearly universal demand for sovereignty encompasses multiple definitions that derive from factors both external and internal to Indian communities. Struggles over the form and membership of tribal governments, fishing rights, dances, casinos, language revitalization, and government recognition constitute arenas in which Indians and their non-Indian allies ensure the survival of tribal community and sovereignty. Whether contesting termination locally, demanding reparations for stolen lands in the federal courts, or placing their case for decolonization in a global context, American Indians use institutions and political rhetorics that they did not necessarily create to their own ends.
"[The] essays in this new volume on Native performing arts bring much deserved critical attention to a fabulous and diverse group of Native performers and performances. The scope is exciting, both in what the essays focus on -- contemporary Native plays, an early 20th century Sun Dance opera, punk rock band musicians, turn-of-the-century jazz bands, contemporary modern dance -- and also in the issues the authors raise and consider. These include ways of acknowledging the spiritual power of Native performance in contemporary settings, as well as tendencies to exotify; the power of performance to transform, and the difference between this and concepts of theatricality as mimesis; tribally specific rhetorics for reading and staging works previously filtered through other frames; appropriation and encroachment, codes of conduct in Native theater production, and the possibilities of Native/non-Native collaboration. Discussion of some commonalities that many Native performances share weave throughout, such as the close interconnections among place, time, memory and language; Indigenous cosmologies; ancestral connections; incisive political critique; sly and wry humor"--Pub. info.
A collection of activities based on the songs and dances of the Native American culture.
The intertribal pow-wow is the most widespread venue for traditional Indian music and dance in North America. Heartbeat of the people is an insider's journey through the dances and music, the traditions and regalia, and into the functions and significance of these vital cultural events. Tara Browner comes to the pow-wow as a participant--she is a dancer of Oklahoma Choctaw heritage--as well as a scholar. Focusing on the Northern pow-wow, which derives from the northern Great Plains and Great Lakes region, Browner presents an in-depth discussion of the pow-wow's roots and traditions, protocols, and order of events. She also describes footwork, styles of singing, and the diversity of participants' regalia. Browner centers her discussion of the Northern-style pow-wow around the Lakota Sacred Hoop and the Anishnaabeg Sacred Fire. Browner traces the history of specific events such as the Grass and Jingle Dress dances and distinguishes among various dance types, including Traditional, Fancy, and "special" exhibition dances as well as ceremonial honor dances, giveaways, and memorials. She also discusses women's changing roles within pow-wow performance and thoughtfully examines how continually changing musical repertories, dance styles and regalia, and customs foster a vibrant state of transformation that coexists, often uneasily, with more traditional Native mores. She closes her study with a series of interviews with members of two families of pow-wow dancers, one Lakota and one Anishnaabeg.
"Be a more effective human service provider when working with native peoples! Voices of First Nations People contains extensive information on how issues such as gambling, drinking, homelessness, health, and parenting affect Native Americans. This text will help you more effectively provide and direct services, administer programs, develop policies, and conduct research on topics that are relevant to native peoples. Through research and case studies, this book explores the specific needs of Native Americans and aids human service professionals in creating more successful services for these clients.
Since practitioner effectiveness relies on the awareness of cultural identity, this text gives you insight into factors that form the Native American identity to help you understand Native Americans' emotional and social interactions. With this knowledge, you will be able to offer the most appropriate services possible. Voices of First Nations People illustrates many of the challenges concerning Native Americans and discusses significant research findings in these areas.
This book covers many related issues, including: the gambling habits of adolescents and the relationship revealed between gambling, other high-risk behaviors, and self-esteem the components of alcohol recovery for Native American women The Seventh Generation Program, an intervention program that blends mainstream alcoholism prevention approaches with American Indian culture for urban American Indian youth the deleterious effects out-of-home placement has on children, such as psychiatric disorders, trauma, and alcohol abuse and dependence how cultural factors contribute to resiliency among oppressed populations and using the Ethnic, Culture, and Religion/Spirituality Questionnaire (ECR) Scale the effects of historical trauma on parenting skills of particular tribes and two intervention methods--facilitating parental awareness to life span and communal trauma across generations and reattaching the individual to traditional tribal values the differences between urban Native Americans' acculturation styles and identity attitudes Voices of First Nations People also gives you insight into the specific health problems of Native Americans, including the increasing mortality rates due to alcohol and drug abuse, suicide, homicide, motor vehicle accidents, cancer, and child abuse and neglect. With suggestions on how you can help combat and alleviate the causes of these problems, Voices of First Nations People will help you successfully provide culturally sensitive services to Native Americans."--Pub. desc.
"While the success of higher education and student affairs is predicated on understanding the students we serve, the reality is, where the Native American population is concerned, that this knowledge is generally lacking. This lack may be attributed to this population's invisibility within the academy - it is often excluded from institutional data and reporting, and frequently noted as not statistically significant - and its relegation to what is referred to as the "American Indian research asterisk." The purpose of this book is to move beyond the asterisk in an effort to better understand Native students, challenge the status quo, and provide an informed base for leaders in student and academic affairs, and administrators concerned with the success of students on their campuses. The authors of this book share their understanding of Native epistemologies, culture, and social structures, offering student affairs professionals and institutions a richer array of options, resources, and culturally-relevant and inclusive models to better serve this population. The book begins by providing insights into Native student experiences, presenting the first-year experience from a Native perspective, illustrating the role of a Native living/learning community in student retention, and discussing the importance of incorporating culture into student programming for Native students as well as the role of Native fraternities and sororities. The authors then consider administrative issues, such as the importance of outreach to tribal nations, the role of Tribal Colleges and Universities and opportunities for collaborations, and the development of Native American Student Services Units. The book concludes with recommendations for how institutions can better serve Native students in graduate programs, the role that Indigenous faculty play in student success, and how professional associations can assist student affairs professionals with fulfilling their role of supporting the success of Native American students, staff, and faculty. This book moves beyond the asterisk to provide important insights from Native American higher education leaders and non-Native practitioners who have made Native students a priority in their work. While predominantly addressed to the student affairs profession - providing an understanding of the needs of the Native students it serves, describing the multi-faceted and unique issues, characteristics and experiences of this population, and sharing proven approaches to developing appropriate services - it also covers issues of broader administrative concern, such as collaboration with tribal colleges; as well academic issues, such as graduate and professional education. The book covers new material, as well as expanding on topics previously addressed in the literature, including Native American Greek organizations, incorporating Native culture into student programming, and the role of Native American Special Advisors. The contributors are themselves products of colleges and universities where Native students are too often invisible, and who succeeded despite the odds. Their insights and the examples they provide add richness to this book. It will provide a catalyst for new higher education practices that lead to direct, and increased support for, Native Americans and others who are working to remove the Native American asterisk from research and practice."--Publisher's website.
Native Americans are disproportionately represented as offenders in the U.S. criminal justice system. However, until recently there was little investigation into the reasons. Furthermore, there has been little acknowledgment of the positive contributions of Native Americans to the criminal justice system--in rehabilitating offenders, aiding victims, and supporting service providers. This book offers a valuable and contemporary overview of how the American criminal justice system impacts Native Americans on both sides of the law. Contributors--many of whom are Native Americans--rank among the top scholars in their fields. Some of the chapters treat broad subjects, including crime, police, courts, victimization, corrections, and jurisdiction. Others delve into more specific topics, including hate crimes against Native Americans, state-corporate crimes against Native Americans, tribal peacemaking, and cultural stresses of police officers. Separate chapters are devoted to women and juveniles.
Since the time of Columbus, Indian slavery was illegal in much of the American continent. Yet, as Andrés Reséndez illuminates in this book, it was practiced for centuries as an open secret. There was no abolitionist movement to protect the tens of thousands of natives who were kidnapped and enslaved by the conquistadors, then forced to descend into the "mouth of hell" of eighteenth-century silver mines or, later, made to serve as domestics for Mormon settlers and rich Anglos. Reséndez builds the incisive case that it was mass slavery, more than epidemics, that decimated Indian populations across North America. New evidence, including testimonies of courageous priests, rapacious merchants, Indian captives, and Anglo colonists, sheds light too on Indian enslavement of other Indians -- as what started as a European business passed into the hands of indigenous operators and spread like wildfire across vast tracts of the American Southwest. The Other Slavery reveals a key missing piece of American history. For over two centuries we have fought over, abolished, and tried to come to grips with African-American slavery. It is time for the West to confront an entirely separate, equally devastating enslavement we have long failed truly to see.
Lake-Thom, who has studied with the elders of many tribes, explains the significance of animal figures as manifestations of good or evil, and shows how we can develop our own powers of awareness and intuition. The first book of its kind, this practical and enlightening resource includes dozens of fascinating animal myths and legends, as well as exercises and activities that draw upon animal powers for guidance, healing, wisdom, and the expansion of spiritual influences in our lives. You'll discover here how animals, birds, and insects act as signs and omens; the significance of vision quests; how to make and use a medicine wheel; the role of spirit symbols - and how they affect the unconscious; exercises for creative dreaming; the power of the earth-healing ceremony; how to increase your spiritual strength and create sacred spaces; and more.
The year is 1872. The place, the Apache nations, a region torn apart by decades of war. The people, like Goyahkla, lose his family and everything he loves. After having a vision, the young Goyahkla approaches the Apache leader Cochise, and the entire Apache nation, to lead an attack against the Mexican village of Azripe. It is this wild display of courage that transforms the young brave Goyakhla into the Native American hero Geronimo. But the war wages on. As they battle their enemies, lose loved ones, and desperately cling on to their land and culture, they would utter, "Indeh," or "the dead." When it looks like lasting peace has been reached, it seems like the war is over. Or is it?
Discovering a cache of valuable Native American artifacts while appraising an estate in New Hampshire, Faye Travers investigates the history of a ceremonial drum, which possesses spiritual powers and changes the lives of people who encounter it.
"An overview of efforts by Native Americans to regain cultural and genetic patrimony and the conditions needed for traditional spiritual practices, including tribal histories, analysis of changes to nutrition, economy, and physical environment, and actions taken toward pollution abatement, dam removal, land and cultural reclamation, and alternative energy production"--Provided by publisher.
This pioneering work, first published in 1986, documents the continuing vitality of the American Indian tradition and of women's leadership within that tradition. In her new preface to this edition, Allen reflects on the remarkable resurgence of American Indian pride and culture in recent times.
In 1870 the Lone Eaters, a small band of Pikuni (or Blackfeet) Indians, are living in the Two Medicine Territory of Montana. The extinction of the Pikuni way of life is ominously in sight. Only the form of that end is in question.
"In this beautiful and devastating book, part tribal history, part lyric and intimate memoir, Deborah Miranda tells both the stories of her Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen family and the experience of California Indians as a whole through oral histories, newspaper clippings, anthropological recordings, personal reflections, and poems. Reassembling the shards of her people's past, she creates a work of literary art that is wise, angry, and playful all at once, one that will break your heart and teach you to see the world anew"--Back cover.
"Roofwalker evokes a world in which spirits and the living commingle and Sioux culture and modern life collide with disarming power, humor, and joy. The characters grapple with potent forces of family, history, and belief - forces that at times dare them to do more to feed their identity, and at times simply paralyze them. Rich with women who do things, this book gives voice to characters who make space for contradictions in their lives with varying success and, by extension, live the "Indian way" to varying degrees."--Jacket.
Bitsui's poetry returns things to their basic elements and voice in a flowing language rife with illuminating images. A great reading experience for those who like serious and innovative poetry."--Library Journal Drawing upon Navajo history and enduring tradition, Sherwin Bitsui leads us on a treacherous, otherworldly passage through the American Southwest. Fluidly shape-shifting and captured by language that functions like a moving camera, Dissolve is urban and rural, past and present in the haze of the reservation. Bitsui proves himself to be one of this century's most haunting, raw, and uncompromising voices.
Ancient wisdom and modern science are combined to shed light on who were America's first people.
"Primal Mind" explores the differences in how American Indians and people of European heritage experience themselves and their environments and identifies important destinctions between a mind rooted in respect for nature, sacred myths and rituals, and a mind that strives toward achievement, order and the desire to rise above nature. "Native Land" traces the path of the nomads who discovered the Americas and created the complex civilizations of the Aztecs, Incas and other South American tribes through ritual dance, drama and storytelling.
"An exhilarating voyage through the rich world of contemporary native music of the Americas"--Case.
Ceremonial, social and contemporary music of Native Americans, who present ancient, living traditions long with innovations and crossovers to Euro-American musics. Recordings of music are from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bolivia.
A riveting memoir and a fascinating investigation of the history, uses, and controversies behind lithium, an essential medication for millions of people struggling with bipolar disorder. It began in Los Angeles in 1993, when Jaime Lowe was just sixteen. She stopped sleeping and eating, and began to hallucinate--demonically cackling Muppets, faces lurking in windows, Michael Jackson delivering messages from the Neverland Underground. Lowe wrote manifestos and math equations in her diary, and drew infographics on her bedroom wall. Eventually, hospitalized and diagnosed as bipolar, she was prescribed a medication that came in the form of three pink pills--lithium. In Mental, Lowe shares and investigates her story of episodic madness, as well as the stability she found while on lithium. She interviews scientists, psychiatrists, and patients to examine how effective lithium really is and how its side effects can be dangerous for long-term users--including Lowe, who after twenty years on the medication suffers from severe kidney damage. Mental is eye-opening and powerful, tackling an illness and drug that has touched millions of lives and yet remains shrouded in social stigma. Now, while she adjusts to a new drug, her pursuit of a stable life continues as does her curiosity about the history and science of the mysterious element that shaped the way she sees the world and allowed her decades of sanity. Lowe travels to the Bolivian salt flats that hold more than half of the world's lithium reserves, rural America where lithium is mined for batteries, and tolithium spas that are still touted as a tonic to cure all ills. With unflinching honesty and humor, Lowe allows a clear-eyed view into her life, and an arresting inquiry into one of mankind's oldest medical mysteries.
Many recognized geniuses had creative capacities that were driven by bouts of manic intensity followed by the depths of mind-numbing despair. From Plato, who originated the idea of inspired mania, to Beethoven, Dickens, Newton, Van Gogh, and today's popular creative artists and scientists who've battled manic depression, this intriguing work examines creativity and madness in mystery, myth, and history. Demonstrating how manic depression often becomes the essential difference between talent and genius, Hershman and Lieb offer valuable insights into the many obstacles and problems this illness poses for highly creative people. Lieb critiques the wave of new books on depression as well as those on creativity to determine how far we have come in our understanding of this complex illness. The authors also explode the myth that suffering is essential to creativity. Guides for the manic depressive are suggested to reduce emotional pain and personal problems while increasing productivity. Julian Lieb, a psychiatrist in private practice and former director of the Dana Psychiatric Clinic at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and D. Jablow Hershman authored Brotherhood of Tyrants: Manic Depression and Absolute Power.
The personal and societal effects of the unheralded epidemic of social isolation in America In our culture it's more socially acceptable to be depressed than to be lonely. Yet loneliness is the inevitable byproduct of our frenetic contemporary lifestyle. In this marvelously acute critique of how we live, psychiatrists Jacqueline Olds and Richard S. Schwartz show how the American lifestyle leads to social isolation. With a work ethic that emphasizes productivity over personal relationships and a multiplying menu of electronic diversions and distractions, Americans are responding by isolating themselves from an overstimulating world. But even as people seek respite from public life, they are shocked to find themselves feeling left out. Research shows that when people feel socially excluded, their cognition deteriorates and they become self-destructive and hostile. These ideas have been neglected in the world of psychology and psychiatry, but a socially isolated core population has now grown too large to be ignored. Calling on their extensive clinical experience, new social surveys (including the 2004 General Social Survey and the Pew Internet and American Life Project), and recent research on the physiological and cognitive effects of social exclusion, Olds and Schwartz uncover the ripple effects of social isolation in areas as varied as physical health, children's emotional problems, substance abuse, violent crime--even global warming. They conclude that electronic connection is no substitute for face-to-face interaction.
In the tradition of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Noonday Demon, a moving, eye-opening exploration of PTSD Just as polio loomed over the 1950s, and AIDS stalked the 1980s and '90s, posttraumatic stress disorder haunts us in the early years of the twenty-first century. Over a decade into the United States' "global war on terror," PTSD afflicts as many as 30 percent of the conflict's veterans. But the disorder's reach extends far beyond the armed forces. In total, some twenty-seven million Americans are believed to be PTSD survivors. Yet to many of us, the disorder remains shrouded in mystery, secrecy, and shame. Now, David J. Morris -- a war correspondent, former Marine, and PTSD sufferer himself -- has written the essential account of this illness. Through interviews with individuals living with PTSD, forays into the scientific, literary, and cultural history of the illness, and memoir, Morris crafts a moving work that will speak not only to those with the condition and to their loved ones, but also to all of us struggling to make sense of an anxious and uncertain time.
Refreshing poems by an American poet who died while still very young.
A Special Hardcover Edition to Commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Publication of Sylvia Plath's Remarkable Novel Sylvia Plath's shocking, realistic, and intensely emotional novel about a woman falling into the grip of insanity Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under--maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even rational--as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.
A daring, deeply affecting third novel by the author ofA Home at the End of the WorldandFlesh and Blood. InThe Hours, Michael Cunningham, widely praised as one of the most gifted writers of his generation, draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair. The narrative of Woolf's last days before her suicide early in World War II counterpoints the fictional stories of Samuel, a famous poet whose life has been shadowed by his talented and troubled mother, and hislifelong friend Clarissa, who strives to forge a balanced and rewarding life in spite of the demands of friends, lovers, and family. Passionate, profound, and deeply moving, this is Cunningham's most remarkable achievement to date. The Hours is the winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He's about to take his first-ever trip to Iran, and it's pretty overwhelming-especially when he's also dealing with clinical depression, a disapproving dad, and a chronically anemic social life. In Iran, he gets to know his ailing but still formidable grandfather, his loving grandmother, and the rest of his mom's family for the first time. And he meets Sohrab, the boy next door who changes everything. Sohrab makes sure people speak English so Darius can understand what's going on. He gets Darius an Iranian National Football Team jersey that makes him feel like a True Persian for the first time. And he understand that sometimes, best friends don't have to talk. Darius has never had a true friend before, but now he's spending his days with Sohrab playing soccer, eating rosewater ice cream, and sitting together for hours in their special place, a rooftop overlooking the Yazdi skyline. Sohrab calls him Darioush-the original Persian version of his name-and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he's Darioush to Sohrab. When it's time to go home to America, he'll have to find a way to be Darioush on his own.
Depression is an experience known to millions. But arguments rage on aspects of its definition and its impact on societies present and past: do drugs work, or are they merely placebos? Is the depression we have today merely a construct of the pharmaceutical industry? Is depression under- orover-diagnosed? Should we be paying for expensive "talking cure" treatments like psychoanalysis or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?Here, Clark Lawlor argues that understanding the history of depression is important to understanding its present conflicted status and definition. While it is true that our modern understanding of the word "depression" was formed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the conditionwas originally known as melancholia, and characterised by core symptoms of chronic causeless sadness and fear. Beginning in the Classical period, and moving on to the present, Lawlor shows both continuities and discontinuities in the understanding of what we now call depression, and in the way ithas been represented in literature and art. Different cultures defined and constructed melancholy and depression in ways sometimes so different as to be almost unrecognisable.Even the present is still a dynamic history, in the sense that the "new" form of depression, defined in the 1980s and treated by drugs like Prozac, is under attack by many theories that reject the biomedical model and demand a more humanistic idea of depression - one that perhaps returns us to aform of melancholy.
The #1 New York Times bestseller. A brilliant and brave investigation into the medical and scientific revolution taking place around psychedelic drugs--and the spellbinding story of his own life-changing psychedelic experiences When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third. Thus began a singular adventure into various altered states of consciousness, along with a dive deep into both the latest brain science and the thriving underground community of psychedelic therapists. Pollan sifts the historical record to separate the truth about these mysterious drugs from the myths that have surrounded them since the 1960s, when a handful of psychedelic evangelists inadvertently catalyzed a powerful backlash against what was then a promising field of research. A unique and elegant blend of science, memoir, travel writing, history, and medicine, How to Change Your Mind is a triumph of participatory journalism. By turns dazzling and edifying, it is the gripping account of a journey to an exciting and unexpected new frontier in our understanding of the mind, the self, and our place in the world. The true subject of Pollan's "mental travelogue" is not just psychedelic drugs but also the eternal puzzle of human consciousness and how, in a world that offers us both suffering and joy, we can do our best to be fully present and find meaning in our lives.
Too often American veterans return from combat and spiral into depression, anger and loneliness they can neither share nor tackle on their own. Military Mental Health Care: A Guide for Service Members, Veterans, Families, and Community seeks to aid our troubled, returning forces by dissecting the numerous mental health problems they face upon arriving stateside. Don Philpott and Cheryl Lawhorne-Scott, co-authors with Janelle Hill of the highly successful Wounded Warrior Handbook, detail not only each issue's symptoms, but also discuss what treatments are available, and the best ways for veterans to access those treatments while readjusting to civilian life. In addition, they connect and explain many alarming trends, such as joblessness, poverty and addiction, appearing in our nation's veteran population on a broader scale. PTSD and struggles with anxiety affect far more than veterans themselves, as sobering phenomena like homelessness, suicide, domestic violence and divorce too often become realities for those returning from war. Military Mental Health Care is both a resource for struggling veterans and a useful tool for their loved ones, or anyone looking for ways to support the veterans in their lives.
"Emily X.R. Pan's brilliantly crafted, harrowing first novel portrays the vast spectrum of love and grief with heart-wrenching beauty and candor. This is a very special book."--John Green, bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down A stunning, heartbreaking debut novel about grief, love, and family, perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson and Celeste Ng. An APALA Honor Book A Walter Award Honor Book Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird. Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. And as she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, Axel, her mother was taking her own life. Alternating between real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a stunning and heartbreaking novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love.
Cartoonist Ellen Forney explores the relationship between "crazy" and "creative" in this graphic memoir of her bipolar disorder, woven with stories of famous bipolar artists and writers. Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Flagrantly manic and terrified that medications would cause her to lose creativity, she began a years-long struggle to find mental stability while retaining her passions and creativity. Searching to make sense of the popular concept of the crazy artist, she finds inspiration from the lives and work of other artists and writers who suffered from mood disorders, including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe, William Styron, and Sylvia Plath. She also researches the clinical aspects of bipolar disorder, including the strengths and limitations of various treatments and medications, and what studies tell us about the conundrum of attempting to "cure" an otherwise brilliant mind. Darkly funny and intensely personal, Forney's memoir provides a visceral glimpse into the effects of a mood disorder on an artist's work, as she shares her own story through bold black-and-white images and evocative prose.
The paperback edition of the beloved, bestselling novel about Dolores Price and her heartbreakingly comical coming-of-age journey. "Mine is a story of craving: an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered...." Meet Dolores Price. She's thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly up. In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years. At once a fragile girl and a hard-edged cynic, so tough to love yet so inimitably lovable, Dolores is as poignantly real as our own imperfections. She's Come Undone includes a promise: you will never forget Dolores Price.
In Prozac Nation, Wurtzel describes her harrowing battle with clinical depression before she was finally treated with Prozac. In a society plagued by divorce, economic instability, and AIDS, Wurtzel depicts the growing number of depressed and overmedicated people in America.
From the best-selling author ofAn Unquiet Mind: the first major book in a quarter century on suicide, with a particular focus on its terrible pull on the young.Night Falls Fastis both compelling and timely: in the United States and across the world there has been a frightening surge in suicides committed by children, adolescents and young adults. It is the third major cause of death in 19- to 24-year-olds, and the second in college students. Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, an internationally recognized authority on depressive illnesses and their treatment, knows this subject firsthand. At the age of 28, after years of struggling with manic-depression, she attempted to kill herself. Her survival marked the beginning of a life's work to investigate both mental illness and self-inflicted death. Weaving together a psychological and scientific exploration of the subject with personal essays about individual suicides, Dr. Jamison in this book brings not only her compassion and literary skill, but all of her knowledge, research and clinical experience to bear on this devastating problem. In tracing the network of reasons that underlie suicide, Dr. Jamison gives us astonishing examples of the methods and places people have chosen to kill themselves, and a startling look at their journals, drawings and farewell notes. She also brings us vivid insight into the most recent findings from hospitals and laboratories across the world; the critical biological and psychological factors that interact to cause suicide; the new strategies being evolved to combat them; and the powerful, but insufficiently used treatments from modern medicine. Night Falls Fastdispels the silence and shame that too often surround suicide; it helps us to understand the suicidal mind, to better recognize the person at risk, and to comprehend the profound and disturbing loss created in those left behind.
Inside Out and Outside In has established itself as a foundational book for mental health practitioners in a variety of disciplines who work with clients in complex social environments. It is unique in its focus on the forces that shape people from within and also from their social worlds, with sensitivity to race, gender, sexuality, and class. The fourth edition features new material and revisions throughout while maintaining the respectful and accessible style for which the book is known. A new chapter on DSM-5 explains its history, social construction, and the most significant changes, such as the configurations of personality disorders and schizophrenia. A new chapter on Cognitive Behavioral Theory and Practice explains the rise in CBT practice, strengths and weaknesses in the approach, and how practitioners can weave it with other theories successfully. In addition to the new chapters, this edition contains new content on gay, lesbian, and transgender people; new case studies representing differences in age, class, culture, race, sexual orientation, and gender; examples on treating clients individually and in groups; new material on infant development; new research on neurobiology and mindfulness, such as mindfulness and survivor guilt; and more. The fourth edition of Inside Out and Outside In is an up-to-date and essential resource for mental health professionals and students practicing in today's increasingly complex environment.
This international volume offers new perspectives on social and psychological aspects of the complex dynamic of depression. The twenty-one contributors from thirteen countries - Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Haiti, India, Israel, Nepal, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Scotland, and theUnited States - represent contexts with very different histories, political and economic structures, and gender role disparities.Authors rely on Silencing the Self theory, which details the negative psychological effects when individuals silence themselves in close relationships and the importance of the social context in precipitating depression. Specific patterns of thought about how to achieve closeness in relationships(self-silencing schema) are known to predict depression. This book breaks new ground by demonstrating that the linkage of depressive symptoms with self-silencing occurs across a range of cultures. We offer a new view of gender differences in depression situated in the formation and consequences ofself-silencing, including differing motivational aims, norms of masculinity and femininity, and the broader social context of gender inequality.The book offers evidence regarding why women's depression is more wide-spread than men's and why the treatment of depression lies in understanding that a person's individual psychology is inextricably related to the social world and close relationships. Authors examine not only gender differencesin depression but also related aspects of mental and physical illness, including treatments specific to women. Several chapters describe the transformative possibilities of community-driven movements for disadvantaged women that support healing through a recovery of voice, and describe the need forsystemic and structural changes to counter violations of human rights as a means of reducing women's risk of depression. Bringing the work of these researchers together in one collection furthers international dialogue about critical social factors that affect the rising rates of depression aroundthe globe.
Headcase is a groundbreaking collection of personal reflections and artistic representations illustrating the intersection of mental wellness, mental illness, and LGBTQ identity, as well as the lasting impact of historical views equating queer and trans identity with mental illness. The featured pieces offer personal views from both providers and clients, often one and the same, about their experiences. In the anthology, readers will access the inner thoughts of contributors who collectively document the difficulty of navigating flawed healthcare systems that limit affordable access to genuinely affirming, effective services. Traversing boundaries of race and ethnic identity, age, gender identity, and socioeconomic status, Headcase appeals to LGBTQ communities and, specifically, LGBTQ mental health consumers and their friends, families, and comrades.
With uncommon humanity, candor, wit, and erudition, award-winning author Andrew Solomon takes the reader on a journey of incomparable range and resonance into the most pervasive of family secrets. His contribution to our understanding not only of mental illness but also of the human condition is truly stunning.The Noonday Demon examines depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms. Drawing on his own struggles with the illness and interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policymakers and politicians, drug designers and philosophers, Solomon reveals the subtle complexities and sheer agony of the disease. He confronts the challenge of defining the illness and describes the vast range of available medications, the efficacy of alternative treatments, and the impact the malady has had on various demographic populations around the world and throughout history. He also explores the thorny patch of moral and ethical questions posed by emerging biological explanations for mental illness.The depth of human experience Solomon chronicles, the range of his intelligence, and his boundless curiosity and compassion will change the reader's view of the world.
THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER **THE BOOK THAT STARTED IT ALL, NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES** "Eerie, beautiful, and devastating." --Chicago Tribune "A stealthy hit with staying power. . . . thriller-like pacing." --The New York Times "Thirteen Reasons Why will leave you with chills long after you have finished reading." --Amber Gibson, NPR's "All Things Considered" You can't stop the future. You can't rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play. Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker--his classmate and crush--who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why. Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah's recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever. Need to talk? Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) anytime if you are in the United States. It's free and confidential. Find more resources at 13reasonswhy.info. Find out how you can help someone in crisis at bethe1to.com.
The critically acclaimed, award-winning, modern classicSpeak is now a stunning graphic novel. "Speak up for yourself--we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless--an outcast--because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. Through her work on an art project, she is finally able to face what really happened that night: She was raped by an upperclassman, a guy whostill attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. With powerful illustrations by Emily Carroll, Laurie Halse Anderson'sSpeak: The Graphic Novelcomes alive for new audiences and fans of the classic novel. This title has Common Core connections.
"What is going on in the brain of a person suffering a debilitating psychological disorder?" So begins Scott Kraly's explanation of how brain chemistry affects behavior. While we continue to learn about the complexities of neurobiology, and our "quick fix" drug therapy mentality continues to gain popularity, the brain remains a largely uncharted frontier, where questions outnumber answers. But Kraly effectively demystifies the field of neuroscience, offering a brisk, digestible narrative of how malfunctioning neurons and neurochemicals can result in psychological disorders, and, in turn, how pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy can help repair various mental health disorders. Also available in hardcover as Brain Science and Psychological Disorders: New Perspectives on Psychotherapeutic Treatment.
Each year, millions of men and women fall prey to depression. While the disorder has been called "psychiatry's most treatable condition," less than one in five get help. In recent years, the silence surrounding depression in women has begun to lift, but only now, with this powerful groundbreaking work, does psychotherapist Terrence Real expose a virtual epidemic of the disorder in men. Twenty years of experience treating men and their families has convinced Terrence Real that there are two forms of depression: "overt" and "covert." Feeling the stigma of depression's unmanliness," many men hide their condition not only from family and friends but even from themselves. Attempts to escape depression fuel many of the problems we think of as typically male -- difficulty with intimacy, workaholism, alcoholism, abusive behavior, and rage. By directing their pain outward, depressed men hurt the people they love, and, most tragically, pass their condition on to their children. A master storyteller, Terrence Real mixes penetrating analysis with poignant, compelling tales of the men and women whom he treats. He writes with passion and searing clarity about his own experiences with depression, as the son of a depressed, violent father, and the father of two young sons. Peggy Papp of the Ackerman Family Institute calls this book "a pathway out of the darkness." Real teaches us how men can unearth their pain, heal themselves, restore relationships, and break the legacy of abuse. I Don't Want to Talk About It offers great wisdom, hope, and practical guidance to men and their families. This is one of the most important and straightforward books ever written about men.
In Mad in America, medical journalist Robert Whitaker reveals an astounding truth: Schizophrenics in the United States fare worse than those in poor countries, and quite possibly worse than asylum patients did in the early nineteenth century. Indeed, Whitaker argues, modern treatments for the severely mentally ill are just old medicine in new bottles and we as a society are deluded about their efficacy. Tracing over three centuries of "cures" for madness, Whitaker shows how medical therapies-from "spinning" or "chilling" patients in colonial times to more modern methods of electroshock, lobotomy, and drugs-have been used to silence patients and dull their minds, deepening their suffering and impairing their hope of recovery. Based on exhaustive research culled from old patient medical records, historical accounts, and government documents, this haunting book raises important questions about our obligations to the mad, what it means to be "insane," and what we value most about the human mind.
In his most extraordinary book, "one of the great clinical writers of the twentieth century" (The New York Times) recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. Oliver Sacks's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents. If inconceivably strange, these brilliant tales remain, in Dr. Sacks's splendid and sympathetic telling, deeply human. They are studies of life struggling against incredible adversity, and they enable us to enter the world of the neurologically impaired, to imagine with our hearts what it must be to live and feel as they do. A great healer, Sacks never loses sight of medicine's ultimate responsibility: "the suffering, afflicted, fighting human subject."
A graphic memoir of eating disorders, abuse andrecovery. Like most kids, Katie was a pickyeater. She'd sit at the table in silent protest, hide uneaten toast in herbedroom, listen to parental threats that she'd have to eat it for breakfast. But in any life a set of circumstance cancollide, and normal behavior might soon shade into something sinister, somethingdeadly. One day you can find yourself being told you have two weeks tolive. Lighter Than My Shadow is a hand-drawnstory of struggle and recovery, a trip into the black heart of a taboo illness,an exposure of those who are so weak as to prey on the weak, and an inspirationto anybody who believes in the human power to endure towardshappiness.
milk and honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. The book is divided into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. milk and honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.
Depression, once a subfield of neurosis, has become the most diagnosed mental disorder in the world. Why and how has depression become such a topical illness and what does it tell us about changing ideas of the individual and society? Alain Ehrenberg investigates the history of depression and depressive symptoms across twentieth-century psychiatry, showing that identifying depression is far more difficult than a simple diagnostic distinction between normal and pathological sadness - the one constant in the history of depression is its changing definition. Drawing on the accumulated knowledge of a lifetime devoted to the study of the individual in modern democratic society, Ehrenberg shows that the phenomenon of modern depression is not a construction of the pharmaceutical industry but a pathology arising from inadequacy in a social context where success is attributed to, and expected of, the autonomous individual. In so doing, he provides both a novel and convincing description of the illness that clarifies the intertwining relationship between its diagnostic history and changes in social norms and values. The first book to offer both a global sociological view of contemporary depression and a detailed description of psychiatric reasoning and its transformation - from the invention of electroshock therapy to mass consumption of Prozac - The Weariness of the Self offers a compelling exploration of depression as social fact.
George Bailey is not having a good day. His life in the sleepy little town of Bedford Falls has been thrown off track, perhaps never to recover. His business has failed, he's wanted by the police, and he's had a fight with his beloved wife Mary. On this disastrous day, his responsibilities and frustrations overwhelm him, leading him to a bridge and serious contemplation of suicide. It's up to an angel named Clarence to convince George that his life has been one of worth and that it's still worth living. After taking a long look at George's life, the angel offers a portrait of what life in Bedford Falls would be like if George had never been born. This classic, sentimental favorite has become a Christmas tradition.
The true story of a troubled Princeton mathematician who is able to overcome years of suffering from schizophrenia to win the Nobel Prize.
"Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) celebrate their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of Justine's sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland). Despite Claire's best efforts, the wedding is a fiasco with family tensions mounting and relationships fraying. Meanwhile, a planet called Melancholia is heading directly towards Earth threatening the very existence of humankind"--Container.
A high school freshman, always watching from the sidelines, is taken under the wings of two seniors who welcome him to the real world.-- (Source of descriptions not identified).
The story of a man whose rebelliousness pits him against the head nurse of a mental ward and the full spectrum of institutional repression.
Ely Library Stacks - PS3557 .A355 L47 1993
Ely Library Stacks - HV6439 .U7 L77 1993
Education Resources Collection - PZ1000 .R414 Tan 2005
Ely Library Stacks - PS3563 .O8749 B4 1988
Ely Library Stacks - HQ77.9 .K85 2014
Ely Library Stacks - PS3551 .N27 B5
Ely Library Stacks - PR6015 .U9 B73 1991
Education Resources Collection - PZ7.7 .T45 Dr 2012
Popular Reading - PZ7 .R79613 El 2013
Popular Reading - PN6727 .B3757 Z46 2007
Education Resources Collection - PZ7 .G576 Geo 2015
Education Resources Collection - PZ7 .R79835
Popular Reading - PZ7 .R79835
Education Resources Collection - HQ77.7 .H467 2014
Education Resources Collection - HQ53 .H37 1994
Education Resources Collection - PZ7 .G8233 Lo 2005
Ely Library Stacks - PN6747 .S245 P4713 2003
Ely Library Stacks - PS3552 .U745 Z477 2002
Education Resources Collection - HQ53 .S55 2015
Ely Library Stacks - PS3563 .O8749 .S6 1987
Education Resources Display - PZ7 .A382 Ab 2007
Ely Library Stacks - E185.97 .L5 A3 2015
Ely Library Stacks - PS3563 .O8749 B55 1994
Popular Reading - PZ7 .H1165 Cu 2004
Ely Library Stacks - D810 .J4 F715 1952b
Education Resources Collection - CT4300 .W35 W36 2005
Ely Library Stacks - PQ8090.1 .L54 C313 1986
Ely Library Stacks - PS3553 .I78 H6 2009
Popular Reading - PS3608 .O525 K58 2005
Popular Reading - PS3553 .H3469 P47 2012
Popular Reading - PZ7 .A76 Th 2007
Popular Reading - PZ7.7 .T355 Th 2014
Ely Library Stacks - PS3562 .E353 T6 1995
Spanish language edition - PS3562 .E353 T618 2015
Popular Reading - PZ7 .L5786 Tw 2015
Popular Reading - PZ7.1. T448 Hat 2018
G530 .E77 P45 2001
chosen by Amber Monroe, User Experience Librarian
"If you like the concept of Moby Dick without all of the extra symbolism, this might be the book for you. Based on the same events that inspired Melville’s work, In the Heart of the Sea is a gripping tale of survival on the open sea. In addition to providing an in-depth history of whaling, this book speaks to the complexity and resilience of the human spirit."
TR680 .M2956 2019
chosen by Becca Brody, Head of Library Collections and Content
"This is simply the most beautiful book of portraits I’ve seen."
From the Introduction:
“The very best of his portraits open up and out and into the souls of the people who looked back at him. His studio was like a safe zone, the equivalent of a watering hole in a desert, a place where races and classes and genders gathered to be photographed by a man they trusted- a smiling fox of a man who radiated empathy and ease.”
F128.3 .N66 2016
chosen by Sarah Loudenslager, Research and Instruction Librarian
"I find this book really fascinating! I discovered it after enjoying some of Solnit’s other works. There are 26 maps (but not just ordinary maps; some are works of art!) and accompanying essays that cover a wide range of topics and offer different perspectives from the multiple contributors. There’s probably something for everyone in this book. It’s fun to browse or jump from essay to essay, and impossible to walk away from without learning something new."
R726.8 .G39 2017
chosen by Erin Donahue, Library Assistant, Access Services
"'Old age is not a battle. Old age is a massacre.' At first, Being Mortal is a punch-in-the-gut sort of wake-up call to the injustices of aging, the failures of geriatric care, and the ways in which dying (and our fear of it) have shaped cultures. At its core, though, it's a story of a life--of all lives--and the magic that makes living a precious, boring, unknown wonder."
ML3534 .H93 2016
chosen by Lori Carrier, Library Assistant, Access Services
"I wasted a good deal of my teens and early twenties arguing that the Beatles are far superior to the Rolling Stones. Silly? Yes. Because even if it is an objective truth (wink), musical taste is ultimately subjective. If you are curious why people lay so much importance on rivalries or how the human tendency toward team think will ultimately destroy your happiness, read this book."
(Note: Photo taken at an event in which my Polish family gets together to make sauerkraut from scratch. Yes, that is a leaf of cabbage on my head.)
CT220.5 .H39 2017
chosen by Suzanne Tiranno, Library Assistant, Access Services/Interlibrary Loan
"Reading Insomniac City made me fall in love with Bill Hayes, Oliver Sacks, and New York City, all equally. It's the type of book you want to move through slowly, but then find yourself inhaling every page. A beautiful, compassionate, stunning, and captivating love letter."
HD6067.2. U6 M66 2018
chosen by Karen Canary, Library Assistant, Technical Services/Archives
"This story of corporate greed and ignorance is a heartbreaking read due to the suffering that took place, but the strength these women had to overcome both their illness and the company that did not want to help them is truly amazing. At a time when radium was believed to be a healthful ingredient for the body, these women used their lips to get points on the brushes they used to paint radium on clock faces popular during World War I and used by soldiers to see the time in the dark. It is so painful to realize how long it took to bring the truth about radium to light. This is a chilling account of the struggle against illness, time, and greed."
E99. Y3 C29 1971
chosen by Oliver Zeff, Information Instruction Coordinator
"Carlos Castaneda recounts an apprenticeship under a Yaqui Shaman, including, among other things, a spiritual awakening aided by the use of hallucinogenic plants."
"Extraordinary in every sense of the word." (The New York Times)
"An unparalleled breakthrough… Remarkable.” (Los Angeles Times)
Education Resources Collection - KF4550 .Z9 L475 2019
chosen by Corinne Ebbs, Head, Education Resources Center
"How many times have you heard 'The Constitution says this, or The Constitution says that?' This quick and up-to-date read uses recent political incidents to illustrate what the official Constitution of the United States actually says and what the impact of the times in which it was written had on the chosen language (ex.: 'Meanwhile, Back in 1787'). 'So What’s the Big Problem?' Read this book to find out.
"Full disclosure: I normally stay away from stuff like this—but found it riveting!"
Popular Reading - PS3560 .O38167 P96 2011
chosen by Annie Searle, Library Assistant, Access Services
"'If we can identify how the pathology of Whiteness was constructed, then we can learn how to dismantle it.'
"This is the goal of Jaynes’ story, which is introspective and provocative while also being a hilarious social satire and modern fantasy. Armed with evidence that may prove Edgar Allan Poe’s only novel was, in fact, a true story, ex-professor Chris Jaynes leads an all-black crew to Antarctica. The possible truths of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket include a tropical island near Antarctica populated with black natives isolated from the rest of the world and mysterious hominid-like creatures living under the ice, enormous and entirely white."
NA8201 .H8 1984
chosen by Tom Raffensperger, Dean of Academic Information Services and Library Director
"This isn't a new book, but is essential for anyone interested in the history of New England. This book traces the history of New England farms from the first English settlers to the early 20th century and explains why our farmhouses and barns look the way they do. In doing so, it also traces a cultural history of change, from small self-sufficient farms designed to feed a family to farms in the late 1800s producing commercial quantities of food for America's growing cities."
PS3525 .A83 S5
Also available as an e-book in our online catalogue.
chosen by Robin Hassig, Reference Librarian (not pictured)
"The Dead in their Graves share their Stories of Life in Spoon River."
“When Spoon River Anthology was published in 1915, Edgar Lee Masters shattered the myth of small-town America as the bastion of American virtue. In his thinly veiled fictional town of Spoon River, situated in central Illinois near Lewistown, where Masters grew up, the honest, hardworking, chaste, and churchgoing live amidst corrupt bankers, abusive husbands, unfulfilled wives, sexual deviants, and failed dreamers.” - Wolff Scanlan, Laura. “How the Once-Banned Spoon River Anthology Made a Comeback in Lewistown: Poetic justice in small-town America.” Humanities, v. 36, n. 6, Dec./Nov. 2015. National Endowment for the Humanities, https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/novemberdecember/statement/how-the-once-banned-spoon-river-anthology-made-comeback-i
NX553 .L69 2016
chosen by Beth Gamble, Library Assistant, Technical Services (not pictured)
Featured painting from the book: Documents Concerning the Treasury of the City of Amsterdam, Cornelis Brise, 1656, 19x24 cm, Amsterdam Museum, p. 82
The story of a transgender child based on the real-life experience of Jazz Jennings, who has become a spokesperson for transkids everywhere "This is an essential tool for parents and teachers to share with children whether those kids identify as trans or not. I wish I had had a book like this when I was a kid struggling with gender identity questions. I found it deeply moving in its simplicity and honesty."--Laverne Cox (who plays Sophia in "Orange Is the New Black") From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl's brain in a boy's body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn't feel like herself in boys' clothing. This confused her family, until they took her to a doctor who said that Jazz was transgender and that she was born that way. Jazz's story is based on her real-life experience and she tells it in a simple, clear way that will be appreciated by picture book readers, their parents, and teachers.
Stonewall Book Award Winner--Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children's & Young Adult Literature Award YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist One teenager in a skirt. One teenager with a lighter. One moment that changes both of their lives forever. If it weren't for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a black teen, lived in the crime-plagued flatlands and attended a large public one. Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But one afternoon on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned, and Richard charged with two hate crimes and facing life imprisonment. The case garnered international attention, thrusting both teenagers into the spotlight.
In her dreams, Bailey is a young girl. Every night she dreams about magical dresses. Unfortunately, when Bailey wakes up, nobody wants to hear about her beautiful dreams. This is because Bailey is a boy and shouldn't be thinking about dresses at all. However, Bailey meets an older girl who is touched and inspired by Bailey's dreams and courage. Eventually they start making dresses together that represent Bailey's dreams coming to life.
Winner of a 2019 Stonewall Book Award In an exuberant picture book, a glimpse of costumed mermaids leaves one boy flooded with wonder and ready to dazzle the world. While riding the subway home from the pool with his abuela one day, Julián notices three women spectacularly dressed up. Their hair billows in brilliant hues, their dresses end in fishtails, and their joy fills the train car. When Julián gets home, daydreaming of the magic he's seen, all he can think about is dressing up just like the ladies in his own fabulous mermaid costume: a butter-yellow curtain for his tail, the fronds of a potted fern for his headdress. But what will Abuela think about the mess he makes -- and even more importantly, what will she think about how Julián sees himself? Mesmerizing and full of heart, Jessica Love's author-illustrator debut is a jubilant picture of self-love and a radiant celebration of individuality.
A bright, bold debut about a girl who was born a boy, but refuses to let that stand in the way of her dream. More than anything else, George wants to play Charlotte in her fourth-grade class's production of Charlotte's Web. The problem is, her teacher won't let her, because George is a boy. But George isn't about to let that squash her dream. With the help of her best friend, George must learn to stand up for her wish - and brave a few bullies along the way. Transcending all categories and genres,George is a pertinent and poignant middle-grade read for kids of all backgrounds.
There has never been a more important time for students to understand sexism, gender, and sexuality--or to make schools nurturing places for all of us. The thought-provoking articles and curriculum in this life-changing book, will be invaluable to everyone who wants to address these issues in their classroom, school, home, and community.
Following the success of Mark Seliger's In My Stairwell and Listen, this beautiful photography book celebrates the transgender community in the heart of New York's Greenwich Village. The photographs reveal a visual discourse about sexuality and the constant ebb and flow of the transgender world. Best-known for his portraits of celebrities and artists, photographer Mark Seliger takes to the most famous street in the Village--Christopher Street--to see where lines of gender identity are dramatically blurred. What he captures is the theater and colorful characters of a famous, but vanishing neighborhood.
There are fantastical stories with actual transgender characters, some for whom that is central and others for whom that isn't. And there are stories without transgender characters, but with metaphors and symbolism in their place, genuine expressions of self through such speculative fiction tropes as shapeshifting and programming. Transgender individuals see themselves in transformative characters, those outsiders, before seeing themselves as human protagonists. Those feelings are still valid. But though the stories involve transformation and outsiders, sometimes the change is one of self-realization. This anthology will be a welcome read for those who are ready to transcend gender through the lens of science fiction, fantasy, and other works of imaginative fiction.
As with the first volume of Transcendent, Lethe Press has worked with a wonderful editor to select the best work of genderqueer stories of the fantastical, stranger, horrific, and weird published the prior year. Featuring stories by Merc Rustad, Jeanne Thornton, Brit Mandelo, and others, this anthology offers time-honored tropes of the genre--from genetic manipulation to zombies, portal fantasy to haunts--but told from a perspective that breaks the rigidity of gender and sexuality. A winner for the Lambda Literary Award for Best Transgender Fiction
People who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) experience subtle forms of discrimination, also known as microaggressions. Microaggressions are commonplace interactions that occur in a wide variety of social settings, including school or the workplace, among friends and family, and even among other LGBT people. These accumulated experiences are associated with feelings of victimisation, suicidal thinking, and higher rates of substance abuse, depression, and other health problems among members of the LGBT community. In this book, Kevin Nadal provides a thought-provoking review of the literature on discrimination and microaggressions toward LGBT people. The generous use of case examples makes the book ideal for gender studies courses and discussion groups. Each case is followed by analysis of the elements involved in microaggressions and discussion questions for the reader to reflect upon. This book includes advice for mental health practitioners, organisational leaders, educators, and students who want to adopt LGBT-accepting worldviews and practices. It has tips for how to discuss and advocate for LGBT issues in the realms of family, community, educational systems, and the government.
Essays explore the contemporary contexts, activism, and cultural productions of queer youth and their communities.
In this extraordinary book, based on 150 in-depth interviews, Lori B. Girshick, a sociologist and social justice activist, brings together the voices of sex- and gender-diverse people who speak with absolute candor about their lives. Girshick presents transpeople speaking in their own voices about identity, coming out, passing, sexual orientation, relationship negotiations and the dynamics of attraction, homophobia (including internalized fears), and bullying. She exposes the guilt and the shame that "gender police" use in their attempts to exert control and points out the many ways transpeople are discriminated against in daily life, from filling out identification documents to gender-segregated bathrooms. By showing us a variety of descriptions of diverse real lives and providing a thorough exploration of the embodied experiences of gender variant people, Girshick demonstrates that there is nothing inherently binary about gender, and that the way each of us experiences our own gender is, in fact, normal and natural.
New York Times Bestseller * Winner of the 2015 WOMEN'S WAY Book Prize * Goodreads Best of 2014 Semi-Finalist * Books for a Better Life Award Finalist * Lambda Literary Award Finalist * Time Magazine "30 Most Influential People on the Internet" * American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book In her profound and courageous New York Times bestseller, Janet Mock establishes herself as a resounding and inspirational voice for the transgender community--and anyone fighting to define themselves on their own terms. With unflinching honesty and moving prose, Janet Mock relays her experiences of growing up young, multiracial, poor, and trans in America, offering readers accessible language while imparting vital insight about the unique challenges and vulnerabilities of a marginalized and misunderstood population. Though undoubtedly an account of one woman's quest for self at all costs, Redefining Realness is a powerful vision of possibility and self-realization, pushing us all toward greater acceptance of one another--and of ourselves--showing as never before how to be unapologetic and real.
Literary Nonfiction. LGBTQIA Studies. Transgender History. Finalist for a 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction. "[They] said I couldn't live as a gay man, but it looks like I'm going to die like one." Good Midwestern girls did not grow up to be gay men and die from AIDS. Unless they were transgender pioneer Lou Sullivan (1951-1991). In this heart-wrenching inspirational biography, Brice D. Smith reclaims one of the most tragically overlooked people in LGBT history. Sullivan marched for Civil Rights, embraced the 1960s counterculture, came of age in the gay liberation movement, transformed medical treatment of trans people, institutionalized trans history, forged an international female-to-male (FTM) transgender community and died from AIDS at the epicenter of the crisis. He overcame tremendous obstacles to be who he was and dedicated his life to helping others do the same. An activist to the end, Sullivan inspired a generation to rethink gender identity, sexual orientation and what it means to be human.
In the 15 years since the release of Gender Outlaw, Kate Bornstein's groundbreaking challenge to gender ideology, transgender narratives have made their way from the margins to the mainstream and back again. Today's transgenders and other sex/gender radicals are writing a drastically new world into being. In Gender Outlaws, Bornstein, together with writer, raconteur, and theater artist S. Bear Bergman, collects and contextualizes the work of this generation's trans and genderqueer forward thinkers -- new voices from the stage, on the streets, in the workplace, in the bedroom, and on the pages and websites of the world's most respected mainstream news sources. Gender Outlaws includes essays, commentary, comic art, and conversations from a diverse group of trans-spectrum people who live and believe in barrier-breaking lives.
Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. Chapters cover the transsexual and transvestite communities in the years following World War II; trans radicalism and social change, which spanned from 1966 with the publication of The Transsexual Phenomenon, and lasted through the early 1970s; the mid-'70s to 1990-the era of identity politics and the changes witnessed in trans circles through these years; and the gender issues witnessed through the '90s and '00s. Transgender History includes informative sidebars highlighting quotes from major texts and speeches in transgender history and brief biographies of key players, plus excerpts from transgender memoirs and discussion of treatments of transgenderism in popular culture.
There is no one way to be transgender. Transgender and gender non-conforming people have many different ways of understanding their gender identities. Only recently have sex and gender been thought of as separate concepts, and we have learned that sex (traditionally thought of as physical orbiological) is as variable as gender (traditionally thought of as social).While trans people share many common experiences, there is immense diversity within trans communities. There are an estimated 700,000 transgendered individuals in the US and 15 million worldwide. Even still, there's been a notable lack of organized information for this sizable group.Trans Bodies, Trans Selves is a revolutionary resource - a comprehensive, reader-friendly guide for transgender people, with each chapter written by transgender or genderqueer authors. Inspired by Our Bodies, Ourselves, the classic and powerful compendium written for and by women, Trans Bodies,Trans Selves is widely accessible to the transgender population, providing authoritative information in an inclusive and respectful way and representing the collective knowledge base of dozens of influential experts. Each chapter takes the reader through an important transgender issue, such as race,religion, employment, medical and surgical transition, mental health topics, relationships, sexuality, parenthood, arts and culture, and many more.Anonymous quotes and testimonials from transgender people who have been surveyed about their experiences are woven throughout, adding compelling, personal voices to every page. In this unique way, hundreds of viewpoints from throughout the community have united to create this strong and pioneeringbook. It is a welcoming place for transgender and gender-questioning people, their partners and families, students, professors, guidance counselors, and others to look for up-to-date information on transgender life.
The inspiring true story of a transgender girl, her identical twin brother, and an ordinary American family's extraordinary journey to understand, nurture, and celebrate the uniqueness in us all, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning science reporter for The Washington Post When Wayne and Kelly Maines adopted identical twin boys, they thought their lives were complete. But it wasn't long before they noticed a marked difference between Jonas and his brother, Wyatt. Jonas preferred sports and trucks and many of the things little boys were "supposed" to like; but Wyatt liked princess dolls and dress-up and playing Little Mermaid. By the time the twins were toddlers, confusion over Wyatt's insistence that he was female began to tear the family apart. In the years that followed, the Maineses came to question their long-held views on gender and identity, to accept and embrace Wyatt's transition to Nicole, and to undergo an emotionally wrenching transformation of their own that would change all their lives forever. Becoming Nicole chronicles a journey that could have destroyed a family but instead brought it closer together.
A groundbreaking twentieth-century history of transgender children With transgender rights front and center in American politics, media, and culture, the pervasive myth still exists that today's transgender children are a brand new generation--pioneers in a field of new obstacles and hurdles. Histories of the Transgender Child shatters this myth, uncovering a previously unknown twentieth-century history when transgender children not only existed but preexisted the term transgender and its predecessors, playing a central role in the medicalization of trans people, and all sex and gender.Beginning with the early 1900s when children with "ambiguous" sex first sought medical attention, to the 1930s when transgender people began to seek out doctors involved in altering children's sex, to the invention of the category gender, and finally the 1960s and '70s when, as the field institutionalized, transgender children began to take hormones, change their names, and even access gender confirmation, Julian Gill-Peterson reconstructs the medicalization and racialization of children's bodies. Throughout, they foreground the racial history of medicine that excludes black and trans of color children through the concept of gender's plasticity, placing race at the center of their analysis and at the center of transgender studies.Until now, little has been known about early transgender history and life and its relevance to children. Using a wealth of archival research from hospitals and clinics, including incredible personal letters from children to doctors, as well as scientific and medical literature, this book reaches back to the first half of the twentieth century--a time when the category transgender was not available but surely existed, in the lives of children and parents.
When Deborah Rudacille learned that a close friend had decided to transition from female to male, she felt compelled to understand why. Coming at the controversial subject of transsexualism from several angles–historical, sociological, psychological, medical–Rudacille discovered that gender variance is anything but new, that changing one’s gender has been met with both acceptance and hostility through the years, and that gender identity, like sexual orientation, appears to be inborn, not learned, though in some people the sex of the body does not match the sex of the brain. Informed not only by meticulous research, but also by the author’s interviews with prominent members of the transgender community,The Riddle of Genderis a sympathetic and wise look at a sexual revolution that calls into question many of our most deeply held assumptions about what it means to be a man, a woman, and a human being. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Violence against lesbians and gay men has increasingly captured media and scholarly attention. But these reports tend to focus on one segment of the LGBT community--white, middle class men--and largely ignore that part of the community that arguably suffers a larger share of the violence--racial minorities, the poor, and women. In Violence against Queer People, sociologist Doug Meyer offers the first investigation of anti-queer violence that focuses on the role played by race, class, and gender. Drawing on interviews with forty-seven victims of violence, Meyer shows that LGBT people encounter significantly different forms of violence--and perceive that violence quite differently--based on their race, class, and gender. His research highlights the extent to which other forms of discrimination--including racism and sexism--shape LGBT people's experience of abuse. He reports, for instance, that lesbian and transgender women often described violent incidents in which a sexual or a misogynistic component was introduced, and that LGBT people of color sometimes weren't sure if anti-queer violence was based solely on their sexuality or whether racism or sexism had also played a role. Meyer observes that given the many differences in how anti-queer violence is experienced, the present media focus on white, middle-class victims greatly oversimplifies and distorts the nature of anti-queer violence. In fact, attempts to reduce anti-queer violence that ignore race, class, and gender run the risk of helping only the most privileged gay subjects. Many feel that the struggle for gay rights has largely been accomplished and the tide of history has swung in favor of LGBT equality. Violence against Queer People, on the contrary, argues that the lives of many LGBT people--particularly the most vulnerable--have improved very little, if at all, over the past thirty years.
Despite significant advances for gay and transgender persons in the United States, the public school environment remains daunting, even frightening, as evidenced by numerous high-profile incidents of discrimination, bullying, violence, and suicide. Yet efforts to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students and educators, or to enhance curricula to better reflect the experience of differing sexual orientations and gender identities, are bitterly opposed in the courtroom, at the ballot box, and especially in the schools themselves.The Right to Be Out begins with a cogent history and analysis of the dramatic legal developments concerning the rights of LGBT persons since 1968. Stuart Biegel then turns to what K-12 schools should do-and in many cases have already done-to implement right-to-be-out policies. He examines recent legal and public policy changes that affect LGBT students and educators in the K-12 public school system. Underlying all of these issues, he shows, is an implicit tension about the right to be out, a right that is seen as fundamental within LGBT communities today and, legally, draws on both the First Amendment right to express an identity and the Fourteenth Amendment right to be treated equally. Biegel addresses the implications of asserting and protecting this right within the hotly contested terrain of America's public schools.This book is a valuable resource for K-12 school administrators, parents, teacher organizations, mental health professionals and school counselors, LGBT advocacy groups, and the legal community. A safe and supportive educational environment for all students is possible, Biegel concludes, if built on shared values and a belief in the strength of our pluralistic society.
WINNER of 2017 AERA DIVISION J OUTSTANDING PUBLICATION AWARD This is both a personal book that offers an account of the author's own trans* identity and a deeply engaged study of trans* collegians that reveals the complexities of trans* identities, and how these students navigate the trans* oppression present throughout society and their institutions, create community and resilience, and establish meaning and control in a world that assumes binary genders. This book is addressed as much to trans* students themselves - offering them a frame to understand the genders that mark them as different and to address the feelings brought on by the weight of that difference - as it is to faculty, student affairs professionals, and college administrators, opening up the implications for the classroom and the wider campus. This book not only remedies the paucity of literature on trans* college students, but does so from a perspective of resiliency and agency. Rather than situating trans* students as problems requiring accommodation, this book problematizes the college environment and frames trans* students as resilient individuals capable of participating in supportive communities and kinship networks, and of developing strategies to promote their own success. Z Nicolazzo provides the reader with a nuanced and illuminating review of the literature on gender and sexuality that sheds light on the multiplicity of potential expressions and outward representations of trans* identity as a prelude to the ethnography ze conducted with nine trans* collegians that richly documents their interactions with, and responses to, environments ranging from the unwittingly offensive to explicitly antagonistic. The book concludes by giving space to the study's participants to themselves share what they want college faculty, staff, and students to know about their lived experiences. Two appendices respectively provide a glossary of vocabulary and terms to address commonly asked questions, and a description of the study design, offered as guide for others considering working alongside marginalized population in a manner that foregrounds ethics, care, and reciprocity.
The provocative bestseller She’s Not There is the winning, utterly surprising story of a person changing genders. By turns hilarious and deeply moving, Jennifer Finney Boylan explores the territory that lies between men and women, examines changing friendships, and rejoices in the redeeming power of family. Told in Boylan’s fresh voice, She’s Not There is about a person bearing and finally revealing a complex secret. Through her clear eyes, She’s Not There provides a new window on the confounding process of accepting our true selves. “Probably no book I’ve read in recent years has made me so question my basic assumptions about both the centrality and the permeability of gender, and made me recognize myself in a situation I’ve never known and have never faced . . . The universality of the astonishingly uncommon: that’s the trick of She’s Not There. And with laughs, too. What a good book.” —Anna Quindlen, from the Introduction to the Book-of-the-Month-Club edition.
Society does not make it easy for young people, regardless of their sexual orientation, to find accurate, nonjudgmental information about homosexuality. It makes it even more difficult for young homosexuals to find positive role models in fiction either written or published expressly for them or--if published for adults--relevant to them and their lives. The Heart Has Its Reasons examines these issues and critically evaluates the body of literature published for young adults that offers homosexual themes and characters. Cart and Jenkins chart the evolution of the field of YA literature having GLBTQ (gay/lesbian/bisexual, transgendered, and/or queer/questioning) content. They identify titles that are remarkable either for their excellence or failures, noting the stereotypic, wrongheaded, and outdated books as well as the accurate, thoughtful, and tactful titles. Useful criteria for evaluating books with GLBTQ content are provided. Books and resources of all types are reviewed based on a model that uses the category descriptors of Homosexual Visibility, Gay Assimilation, and Queer Consciousness/Community. An annotated bibliography and a number of author-title lists of books discussed in the text arranged by subject round out this valuable reference for teachers, librarians, parents, and young adults.
Two-Spirit people, identified by many different tribally specific names and standings within their communities, have been living, loving, and creating art since time immemorial. It wasn't until the 1970s, however, that contemporary queer Native literature gained any public notice. Even now, only a handful of books address it specifically, most notably the 1988 collection Living the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology. Since that book's publication twenty-three years ago, there has not been another collection published that focuses explicitly on the writing and art of Indigenous Two-Spirit and Queer people. This landmark collection strives to reflect the complexity of identities within Native Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Two-Spirit (GLBTQ2) communities. Gathering together the work of established writers and talented new voices, this anthology spans genres (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and essay) and themes (memory, history, sexuality, indigeneity, friendship, family, love, and loss) and represents a watershed moment in Native American and Indigenous literatures, Queer studies, and the intersections between the two. Collaboratively, the pieces in Sovereign Erotics demonstrate not only the radical diversity among the voices of today's Indigenous GLBTQ2 writers but also the beauty, strength, and resilience of Indigenous GLBTQ2 people in the twenty-first century. Contributors: Indira Allegra, Louise Esme Cruz, Paula Gunn Allen, Qwo-Li Driskill, Laura Furlan, Janice Gould, Carrie House, Daniel Heath Justice, Maurice Kenny, Michael Koby, M. Carmen Lane, Jaynie Lara, Chip Livingston, Luna Maia, Janet McAdams, Deborah Miranda, Daniel David Moses, D. M. O'Brien, Malea Powell, Cheryl Savageau, Kim Shuck, Sarah Tsigeyu Sharp, James Thomas Stevens, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, William Raymond Taylor, Joel Waters, and Craig Womack
Headcase is a groundbreaking collection of personal reflections and artistic representations illustrating the intersection of mental wellness, mental illness, and LGBTQ identity, as well as the lasting impact of historical views equating queer and trans identity with mental illness. The featured pieces offer personal views from both providers and clients, often one and the same, about their experiences. In the anthology, readers will access the inner thoughts of contributors who collectively document the difficulty of navigating flawed healthcare systems that limit affordable access to genuinely affirming, effective services. Traversing boundaries of race and ethnic identity, age, gender identity, and socioeconomic status, Headcase appeals to LGBTQ communities and, specifically, LGBTQ mental health consumers and their friends, families, and comrades.
Returning home to a small town in Montana for her high school reunion, filmmaker Kimberly Reed hopes for reconciliation with her long-estranged adopted brother, Marc. But along the way she uncovers stunning revelations, including a surprise relationship to Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, intense sibling rivalries and unforeseeable twists of plot and gender that force them to face challenges no one could imagine. Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Best Documentary Jury Prize at NewFest, and Special Jury Prizes for Fearless Filmmaking at the Florida Film Festival and Bravery in Storytelling at the Nashville Film Festival, Prodigal Sons is a raw and provocative examination of one family's struggle to come to terms with its past and present. "Filmmaker Kimberly Reed dives headfirst into an unflinching portrait of her family that is absolutely engrossing and marks her coming-out, in more ways than one. Returning home to a small town in Montana for her high school reunion, Reed hopes for reconciliation with her long-estranged adopted brother. But along the way PRODIGAL SONS uncovers stunning revelations, including a blood relationship with Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, intense sibling rivalries and unforeseeable twists of plot and gender. Reed's rare access delicately reveals not only the family's most private moments, but also an epic scope as the film travels from Montana to Croatia, from jail cell to football field, from deaths to births. Kim Reed's compassionate vérité style of filmmaking captures the lives of her family in such an organic way that their exceptional and challenging stories puncture the surface of our expectations. Questions of sexual orientation, identity, severe trauma and family love are effortlessly explored as the subjects freely open up their lives to the camera.
A personal and culture-driven exploration of the most pressing questions facing the transgender community today, from a leading activist, musician, and academic In Trans Like Me, CN Lester takes readers on a measured, thoughtful, intelligent yet approachable tour through the most important and high-profile narratives around the trans community, turning them inside out and examining where we really are in terms of progress. From the impact of the media's wording in covering trans people and issues, to the way parenting gender variant children is portrayed, Lester brings their charged personal narrative to every topic and expertly lays out the work left to be done. Trans Like Me explores the ways that we are all defined by ideas of gender--whether we live as he, she, or they--and how we can strive for authenticity in a world that forces limiting labels.
There has been dramatic social change with respect to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights around the world in the last decade. Yet legal protection and inclusion remain limited for LGBT youth. The context of schooling is especially important-schools remain the primarysocietal institution to which most youth have access and in which nearly all youth spend some significant portion of their lives. LGBT youth are at risk for some of the greatest difficulties experienced by adolescents, and many of those problems have been traced directly to negative schoolexperiences. Research shows that anti-LGBT school victimization results in poor academic performance and negative school attitudes, mental health, and risk behaviors. New studies have identified characteristics of schools that are associated with inclusion and safety for LGBT students, includingpractices and policies that are associated with positive school climate and student wellbeing.Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Schooling brings together contributions from a diverse group of researchers, policy analysts, and education advocates from around the world to synthesize the practice and policy implications of research on sexual orientation, gender identity, and schooling.The book is interdisciplinary, as studies of LGBT students and schooling have emerged across disciplines including education, clinical, school, and developmental psychology; sociology; and public health. Included are syntheses of key areas of research; examples of new international models foreducational practice; case studies of transformational policy and practice; and specific examples of the nexus of research, practice, and policy. The fundamental goal of this book is to advance social justice related to sexual orientation and gender identity through strengthening the relationshipbetween research, practice, and policy to support LGBT students and schools. It will be of interest to school, developmental, and clinical psychologists, educators and school administrators, and LGBT scholars.
College is often a place for dramatic self-invention. What could be a more dramatic than a sex change? This mini-series follows four transsexuals, two male-to-female and two female-to-male, as they negotiate the twin minefields of college and gender-reassignment surgery. Gabbie at the University of Colorado, Lucas at Smith College, Raci at Cal State Los Angeles, and Fulbright Scholar T.J., a Michigan State University grad student, are all exceptionally smart people. All four run into problems as various as their personalities, although a common thread is their volatile, complex relationships with their parents. What TransGeneration wants most is a world where people like Lucas, T.J., Raci, and Gabbie are not whispered about, but are welcomed with open minds and open arms
Based on extensive research, recent events, and numerous first-person accounts, this revealing book illuminates both the challenges and triumphs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, and offers effective strategies for combating LGBT marginalization in our nation's schools and communities. * More than 80 real-life narratives, drawn from the stories of 100 people, including students, family members, educators, and community leaders * A "Queerossary" of dozens of key terms, including multiple definitions for terms with specific meanings within the LGBT community * A bibliography of academic, policy, and news materials related to LGBT issues * More than 50 action steps readers can use to create safe spaces for LGBT youth * Reflection Points provide questions and statements that offer readers an opportunity to reflect upon the ways a particular topic or issue relates to their lives * An appendix listing LGBT resources
Goes beyond transgender to question the need for gender classification. Beyond Trans pushes the conversation on gender identity to its limits: questioning the need for gender categories in the first place. Whether on birth certificates or college admissions applications or on bathroom doors, why do we need to mark people and places with sex categories? Do they serve a real purpose or are these places and forms just mechanisms of exclusion? Heath Fogg Davis offers an impassioned call to rethink the usefulness of dividing the world into not just Male and Female categories but even additional categories of Transgender and gender fluid. Davis, himself a transgender man, explores the underlying gender-enforcing policies and customs in American life that have led to transgender bathroom bills, college admissions controversies, and more, arguing that it is necessary for our society to take real steps to challenge the assumption that gender matters. He examines four areas where we need to re-think our sex-classification systems: sex-marked identity documents such as birth certificates, driver's licenses and passports; sex-segregated public restrooms; single-sex colleges; and sex-segregated sports. Speaking from his own experience and drawing upon major cases of sex discrimination in the news and in the courts, Davis presents a persuasive case for challenging how individuals are classified according to sex and offers concrete recommendations for alleviating sex identity discrimination and sex-based disadvantage. For anyone in search of pragmatic ways to make our world more inclusive, Davis' recommendations provide much-needed practical guidance about how to work through this complex issue. A provocative call to action, Beyond Trans pushes us to think how we can work to make America truly inclusive of all people.
An intimate portrait of a new generation of transmasculine individuals as they undergo gender transitions Award-winning sociologist Arlene Stein takes us into the lives of four strangers who find themselves together in a sun-drenched surgeon's office, having traveled to Florida from across the United States in order to masculinize their chests. Ben, Lucas, Parker, and Nadia wish to feel more comfortable in their bodies; three of them are also taking testosterone so that others recognize them as male. Following them over the course of a year, Stein shows how members of this young transgender generation, along with other gender dissidents, are refashioning their identities and challenging others' conceptions of who they are. During a time of conservative resurgence, they do so despite great personal costs. Transgender men comprise a large, growing proportion of the trans population, yet they remain largely invisible. In this powerful, timely, and eye-opening account, Stein draws from dozens of interviews with transgender people and their friends and families, as well as with activists and medical and psychological experts. Unbound documents the varied ways younger trans men see themselves and how they are changing our understanding of what it means to be male and female in America.
