Through the extensive use of interviews, The Hallowed Eve offers a fascinating look at the various customs, both past and present, that mark the celebration of the holiday. Looking through the lenses of gender, ethnicity, and religious affiliation, Jack Santino examines how the traditions exist in a nonthreatening, celebratory way to provide a model of how life could be in Northern Ireland.

Electric Arches is an imaginative exploration of black girlhood and womanhood through poetry, visual art, and narrative prose. Blending stark realism with the fantastical, Ewing takes us from the streets of Chicago to an alien arrival in an unspecified future, deftly navigating boundaries of space, time, and reality with delight and flexibility.

Eve of the Festival is a study of Homeric myth-making in the first and longest dialogue between Penelope and Odysseus (Odyssey 19). The author makes a case for seeing virtuoso myth-making as an essential part of this conversation, a register of communication which provides the speakers with a coded way of exchanging their thoughts. At the core of the book is a detailed examination of several myths in the dialogue to understand what is being said and to what effect. The dialogue is interpreted as an exchange of performances which have for their occasion the eve of Apollo's festival and which amount to activating, and even enacting, the myth corresponding within the Odyssey to this ritual event. --Book Jacket.

“Failing schools. Underprivileged schools. Just plain bad schools.” That’s how Eve L. Ewing opens Ghosts in the Schoolyard: describing Chicago Public Schools from the outside. The way politicians and pundits and parents of kids who attend other schools talk about them, with a mix of pity and contempt. But Ewing knows Chicago Public Schools from the inside: as a student, then a teacher, and now a scholar who studies them. And that perspective has shown her that public schools are not buildings full of failures—they’re an integral part of their neighborhoods, at the heart of their communities, storehouses of history and memory that bring people together. Never was that role more apparent than in 2013 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced an unprecedented wave of school closings. Pitched simultaneously as a solution to a budget problem, a response to declining enrollments, and a chance to purge bad schools that were dragging down the whole system, the plan was met with a roar of protest from parents, students, and teachers. But if these schools were so bad, why did people care so much about keeping them open, to the point that some would even go on a hunger strike? Ewing’s answer begins with a story of systemic racism, inequality, bad faith, and distrust that stretches deep into Chicago history. Rooting her exploration in the historic African American neighborhood of Bronzeville, Ewing reveals that this issue is about much more than just schools. Black communities see the closing of their schools—schools that are certainly less than perfect but that are theirs—as one more in a long line of racist policies. The fight to keep them open is yet another front in the ongoing struggle of black people in America to build successful lives and achieve true self-determination.

From award-winning author Eve L. Ewing comes an illustrated middle grade novel about a forgotten homemade robot who comes to life just when aspiring fifth-grade scientist Maya needs a friend -- and a science fair project. Maya's nervous about fifth grade. She tries to keep calm by reminding herself she knows what to expect. But then she learns that this year won't be anything like the last. For the first time since kindergarten, her best friends Jada and MJ are placed in a different class without her, and introverted Maya has trouble making new friends. She tries to put on a brave face since they are in fifth grade now, but Maya is nervous! Just when too much seems to be changing, she finds a robot named Ralph in the back of Mr. Mac's convenience store closet. Once she uses her science skills to get him up and running, a whole new world of connection opens up as Ralph becomes a member of her family and Maya begins to step into her power. In this touching novel, Eve L. Ewing melds together a story about community, adapting to change, and the magic of ingenuity that reminds young readers that they can always turn to their own curiosity when feeling lost.

This meticulously edited collection contains the essential books of the Jewish faith, the most sacred text of Judaism, history books, as well as philosophical and theological writings concerning Jewish faith._x000D_ Contents:_x000D_ Religious Texts:_x000D_ "Tanakh" – The Hebrew Bible_x000D_ "Talmud" – The Central Text of Rabbinic Judaism _x000D_ "Torah – Bilingual (English/Hebrew)" – Five Books of Moses_x000D_ "Tales and Maxims from the Midrash" – Biblical exegesis by ancient Judaic authorities_x000D_ "The Kabbalah Unveiled" – Translations and commentaries of the Books of Zohar_x000D_ "The Sepher Ha-Zohar" – Zohar, or Splendor is the most important text of Kabbalah._x000D_ "Siddur – The Standard Prayer Book" – The Authorized Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations_x000D_ "The Union Haggadah" – Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder._x000D_ History:_x000D_ The Jewish Wars (Flavius Josephus)_x000D_ Antiquities of the Jews (Flavius Josephus)_x000D_ History of the Jews (Heinrich Graetz)_x000D_ The Legends of the Jews (Louis Ginzberg)_x000D_ Philosophical Works:_x000D_ Kitab al Khazari (Kuzari) (Judah Halevi)_x000D_ The Guide for the Perplexed (Moses Maimonides)_x000D_ Ancient Jewish Proverbs (Abraham Cohen)

“A literary experience unlike any I’ve had in recent memory . . . a blueprint for this moment and the next, for where Black folks have been and where they might be going.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) What does it mean to be Black and alive right now? Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham have brought together this collection of work—images, photos, essays, memes, dialogues, recipes, tweets, poetry, and more—to tell the story of the radical, imaginative, provocative, and gorgeous world that Black creators are bringing forth today. The book presents a succession of startling and beautiful pieces that generate an entrancing rhythm: Readers will go from conversations with activists and academics to memes and Instagram posts, from powerful essays to dazzling paintings and insightful infographics. In answering the question of what it means to be Black and alive, Black Futures opens a prismatic vision of possibility for every reader.