Rinnie Gardener's life looks like a perfect painting from the outside, a loving family and a beautiful house, but when the paint is stripped away, this dream dissolves to dust. Her parents divorce. Her father treats her like a stranger. Her mother, looming like a black cloud, treats her worse. Painful words become painful bruises. Rinnie's own body becomes a source of self-punishment. As her life seemingly falls apart, Rinnie struggles to find the courage to pick up the pieces. In a brilliantly unique style and voice, Rinnie tells her story, a search for identity, love, and healing. She must look in the darkest places to repaint the canvas of her life. She must face the monster.

In the rhythm of a familiar folk song, a child cannot resist adding one more dab of paint in surprising places.

Heather Marie Fry was pretty, vivacious, popular, smart, and witty. Everybody in town knew her and loved her. She was the pride of her teachers and as loving and kind as she was talented. But she was starting to get headaches, and they were rapidly growing worse. When her mother took her to the doctor, she was told that Heather was fine, but Heather's health continued to deteriorate. Finally, they found someone who had the answer. Heather had a brain tumor. It was inoperable. Heather was twelve at the time. The doctors found the answer but not a solution. The best they could do was keep Heather as comfortable as possible for as long as possible. Family and friends rallied around Heather and Debra for support.Paint Me Black All Over is the story of a mother's quest to find the best help possible for her ill daughter and her struggle to keep her family together. Debra Tolar recounts the last year in the life of her daughter, Heather; the multiple bouts of radiation and chemotherapy; and all the pain and sorrow that went along with it. But amidst all the sorrow, Debra also relates a message of hope and joy, of the friends and support she found, and of the never-ending strength of her daughter. Paint Me Black All Over is a heart-wrenching account of childhood cancer that will inspire others in similar situations to never give up the fight.

Another glimpse into the life of poet, Krissi Lyn Mazon. This collection details events the occured both during previous publications and works as new as April 2012. It regains the dark edge of 'Lies Told to Liquintine', losing some of the happier jots like those in 'Melt'. There's also the bonus of sequel poems such as 'Ovation (Recaptured). People who have enjoyed Mazon's past works are enjoying this new installment.

The sheer exuberance of language that pours forth in Dael Orlandersmith's plays has dazzled critics and audiences alike. In these three pieces, the award-winning writer and performer celebrates the power of words to rescue the young black women she portrays from their constricted worlds. In the Obie Award-winning play "Beauty's Daughter," Diane yearns to free herself from her soul-deadening surroundings, where people drown their unfulfilled aspirations in drugs and alcohol. In "Monster," Theresa imagines a life in the rock-'n'-roll poetry bohemia of Manhattan's Lower East Side and away from her home in East Harlem, where she is scorned as a misfit. And in "The Gimmick," Alexis escapes her brutal reality among the library bookshelves, where she dreams of becoming a writer in Paris. Charged with fearless wisdom, these three electrifying plays transform rage-filled ghetto experience into a triumph of rhapsodic expression.

Acclaimed author Margaret George tells the story of the legendary Greek woman whose face "launched a thousand ships" in this New York Times bestseller. The Trojan War, fought nearly twelve hundred years before the birth of Christ, and recounted in Homer's Iliad, continues to haunt us because of its origins: one woman's beauty, a visiting prince's passion, and a love that ended in tragedy. Laden with doom, yet surprising in its moments of innocence and beauty, Helen of Troy is an exquisite page-turner with a cast of irresistible, legendary characters—Odysseus, Hector, Achilles, Menelaus, Priam, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon, as well as Helen and Paris themselves. With a wealth of material that reproduces the Age of Bronze in all its glory, it brings to life a war that we have all learned about but never before experienced.

For as much as he ever wanted to do the right thing, it seemed Tad Kaphar never could. With a life of gangs, drugs, and alcohol came a rash of subsequent consequence. Waking up every morning after to the realities of whatever aftermath he was faced with did nothing to change him. The hurt of a cheating wife, the pain of losing his children, and the depth of sorrow that lay deeply embedded within his emptiness served only to keep him stuck in the muck of life. Knowing that only he held the key to his having a better life, Tad realized that he would have to overcome personal demons disguised as emotions, reconstruct a negative self-concept that was built by others, and learn how to deal with the mountain of guilt he was storing inside. Dealing with difficulties head-on was never his style before, but that all changed when he realized that this, in fact, was the key he was searching for.

A collection of one-hundread and forty-six traditions (myths) of the Arapaho of the Southern and Northern Arapaho Indians collected by Dorsey and Kroeber.

Abstracts : p. 419-475.