No Jewels is the first book from poet, singer & creative director Tai Allen. The chapbook narrates a young life that was loved well, loved wrong and, sometimes, not loved at all. Sadly, this tale is not an aberration or an oddity. There are numerous #NoJewels scenarios in every locale; and, there you find false-love victims who encounter abuse & control. This book of lines, devices, spaces, forms and stanzas hopes to serve them all. The poems speaks of both the deeds and the emergence from them, with admirable self-love to preserve sanity and soul. Ambitious but possible. Purchase the book but do not forget the soundtrack -- Amazon, Apple, Tidal, Bandcamp, Spotify and taiallen.com. The companion is not a reading of the poems over music but an album of soul music inspired by the poems -- songs of revelation and emergence. Tunes that make you dance, nod your head or allow you space to just be.

Inspired by memories of her beloved grandmother, photographer and author Alysia Burton Steele -- picture editor on a Pulitzer Prize-winning team -- combines heart-wrenching narrative with poignant photographs of more than 50 female church elders in the Mississippi Delta. These ordinary women lived extraordinary lives under the harshest conditions of the Jim Crow era and during the courageous changes of the Civil Rights Movement. With the help of local pastors, Steele recorded these living witnesses to history and folk ways, and shares the significance of being a Black woman -- child, daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandmother in Mississippi -- a Jewel of the Delta. From the stand Mrs. Tennie Self took for her marriage to be acknowledged in the phone book, to the life-threatening sacrifice required to vote for the first time, these 50 inspiring portraits are the faces of love and triumph that will teach readers faith and courage in difficult times.

One of the most respected artists in popular music today, Jewel is much more than a music industry success with her debut album selling more than 10 million copies. Before her gifted songwriting comes an even more individual art: Poetry. Now available in paperback, A Night without Armor highlights the poetry of Jewel taken from her journals which are both intimate and inspiring, to be embraced and enjoyed. Writing poems and keeping journals since childhood, Jewel has been searching for truth and meaning, turning to her words to record, to discover, and to reflect. In A Night Without Armor, her first collection of poetry, Jewel explores the fire of first love, the lessons of betrayal, and the healing of intimacy. She delves into matters of the home, the comfort of family, the beauty of Alaska, and the dislocation of divorce. Frank and honest, serious and suddenly playful, A Night Without Armor is a talented artist's intimate portrait of what makes us uniquely human.

Almost everyone would agree that there's some point where enough jewelry is enough. Well, what is that point? In this book, Doug Batchelor challenges you to find out for yourself what God's Word says on this fascinating subject.