The Harlem Renaissance was an unprecedented period of vitality in the American Arts. Defined as the years between 1910 and 1927, it was the time when Harlem came alive with theater, drama, sports, dance and politics. Looking at events as diverse as the prizefight between Jack Johnson and Jim 'White Hope' Jeffries, the choreography of Aida Walker and Ethel Waters, the writing of Zora Neale Hurston and the musicals of the period, Krasner paints a vibrant portrait of those years. This was the time when the residents of northern Manhattan were leading their downtown counterparts at the vanguard of artistic ferment while at the same time playing a pivotal role in the evolution of Black nationalism. This is a thrilling piece of work by an author who has been working towards this major opus for years now. It will become a classic that will stay on the American history and theater shelves for years to come.

Rachel Goldenstein continues to lead her group home, but perhaps Earth isn't as safe as she had thought. It is a time for the newly appointed Lady Goldensword to command armies. A time to forge new alliances and to make war against the children of magic. There will be great loss for Rachel... and perhaps a chance to learn the terrible truth behind her shadow magic. “By the light of the gates, she saw her adversaries rise, bearing magical swords and staves. Rachel set down her candle stand and drew her swords. Somewhere, during the skirmish that followed, a flying, severed leg almost toppled her candle stand. She put out a hand to steady it. Some, the less hardy of them, fled at the sight of her. Ever afterwards, there would be a legend of a ghost in a torn white dress drenched in red blood, with crimson hair and a devilish grin. It was a world that could never be the same. A world that a woman would boldly change.”

Tin Pan Alley, once New York City’s songwriting and recording mecca, issued more than a thousand songs about the American South in the first half of the twentieth century. In Reinventing Dixie, John Bush Jones explores the broad impact of these songs in creating and disseminating the imaginary view of the South as a land of southern belles, gallant gentlemen, and racial harmony. In profiles of Tin Pan Alley’s lyricists and composers, Jones explains how a group of undereducated and untraveled writers—the vast majority of whom were urban northerners or European immigrants— constructed the specific and detailed images of the South used in their song lyrics. In the process of evaluating the origins of Tin Pan Alley’s songbook, Jones analyzes these songwriters’ attitudes about North-South reconciliation, ideals of honor and hospitality, and the recurring theme of the yearning for home. Though a few of the songs employed parody or satire to undercut the vision of a peaceful, romantic South, the majority ignored the realities of racism and poverty in the region. By the end of Tin Pan Alley’s era of cultural prominence in the mid-twentieth century, Jones contends that the work of its writers had cemented the “moonlight and magnolias” myth in the minds of millions of Americans. Reinventing Dixie sheds light on the role of songwriters in forming an idyllic vision of the South that continues to influence the American imagination.

Tears are the perfect place for you to start healing. Dealing with the dreaded diagnosis and planning your prognosis. Ovarian cancer is not silent, there are signs and symptoms. Dont own cancer by saying I have cancer or My cancer. Will you go the conventional or the alternative route? Theres a difference between a good doctor and a great doctor. The choices, challenges and changes of chemotherapy treatment. Getting used to bald being beautiful and wearing a wig. Life is like a movie and, temporarily, you may not be in it. If you dont have a wellness programme, you should create one. Do you feel you fit the cancer profile? On a cancer journey, you die to your old life and are born again. Your recovery is individual, it wont fit a schedule. There are things family and friends should know. Try to keep in touch with Champs, no matter what. Youll be showered with gifts from the Universe and friends. Youll be grateful for chemo pals, sisters and carers. It hurts when someone doesnt know how to be there for you. The pain of losing a friend to cancer. Strategies for dealing with depression. Youll be wrapped in light, grace and good energy. In time, you may feel grateful for the cancer journey. Is cancer a gift?

"Eubie Blake tells the story of one of the key composers of 20th century American popular song. Through his music, he rose from the slums of Baltimore to the heights of Broadway success. His show Shuffle Along was the first African-American show to win a major white audience, becoming the tenth most popular show of the 1920s. The show introduced future black stars - including Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson, and Florence Mills - the syncopated chorus line, and introduced jazz-styled music to Broadway.Blake's composing skills were matched by his piano mastery. Even in the Depression, Eubie continued composing of innovative new works. At 61, he studied the Schillinger Method to expand his harmonic knowledge and ability to compose beyond the confines of traditional popular song.Blake's persistence in maintaining his ties to ragtime and Broadway paid off in the late '60s when he was rediscovered due to new recordings and personal appearances. In the last decade of his life he influenced an entirely new generation of pianists and composers from the jazz and classical worlds.This is the first biography to explore the wealth of personal records, interviews, and deep research to illuminate Blake's life and impact on over 100 years of American culture. It tells the true story of African-American performers struggling to achieve recognition and success in the popular music world at a time of deep racism. Blake's career blazed a path for countless others to rise above the limitations previously faced by blacks in the popular music world"--

Minstrel Traditions: Mediated Blackface in the Jazz Age explores the place and influence of black racial impersonation in US society during a crucial and transitional time period. Minstrelsy was absorbed into mass-culture media that was either invented or reached widespread national prominence during this era: advertising campaigns, audio recordings, radio broadcasts, and film. Minstrel Traditions examines the methods through which minstrelsy's elements connected with the public and how these conventions reified the racism of the time. This book explores blackface and minstrelsy through a series of overlapping case studies which illustrate the extent to which blackface thrived in the early twentieth century. It contextualizes and analyzes the last musical of black entertainer Bert Williams, the surprising live career of pancake icon Aunt Jemima, a flourishing amateur minstrel industry, blackface acts of African American vaudeville, and the black Broadway shows which brought new musical styles and dances to the American consciousness. All reflect, and sometimes incorporate, the mass-culture technologies of the time, either in their subject matter or method of distribution. Retrograde blackface seamlessly transitioned from live to mediated iterations of these cultural products, further pushing black stereotypes into the national consciousness. The book project oscillates between two different types of performances: the live and the mediated. By focusing on how minstrelsy in the Jazz Age moved from live performance into mediatized technologies, the book adds to the intellectual and historical conversation regarding this pernicious, racist entertainment form. Jazz Age blackface helped normalize new media technologies and that technology extended minstrelsy's influence within US culture. Minstrel Traditions tracks minstrelsy's social impact over the course of two decades to examine how ideas of national identity employ racial nostalgias and fantasias. This book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers in theatre studies, communication studies, race and media, and musical scholarship

(Applause Books). From the origins of the Negro spiritual and the birth of the Harlem Renaissance to the emergence of a national black theatre movement, The Theatre of Black Americans offers a penetrating look at a black art form that has exploded into an American cultural institution. Among the essays: James Hatch Some African Influences on the Afro-American Theatre; Shelby Steele Notes on Ritual in the New Black Theatre; Sister M. Francesca Thompson OSF The Lafayette Players; Ronald Ross The Role of Blacks in the Federal Theatre.