Join us on a journey through 21st Century politics... We love the traditional Japanese haiku format of 17 syllables on 3 lines: 5-7-5. It is very symmetrical, terse and disciplined. However, these are not your great grandfather’s haiku. This is Modern American Haiku. We do keep the fundamental format, but that’s all. For one thing, we give them titles, which we believe helps the reader focus on the punch in each haiku. Second, there is word play. Third, there is the extra dimension of the images in which the haiku are embedded or by which they are framed. We believe the reader will be amazed at how well the illustrations deepen the haiku. Ted and Patricia

Taking to heart Ralph Ellison's remark that much in American life is "jazz-shaped," The Jazz Cadence of American Culture offers a wide range of eloquent statements about the influence of this art form. Robert G. O'Meally has gathered a comprehensive collection of important essays, speeches, and interviews on the impact of jazz on other arts, on politics, and on the rhythm of everyday life. Focusing mainly on American artistic expression from 1920 to 1970, O'Meally confronts a long era of political and artistic turbulence and change in which American art forms influenced one another in unexpected ways. Organized thematically, these provocative pieces include an essay considering poet and novelist James Weldon Johnson as a cultural critic, an interview with Wynton Marsalis, a speech on the heroic image in jazz, and a newspaper review of a recent melding of jazz music and dance, Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk. From Stanley Crouch to August Wilson to Jacqui Malone, the plurality of voices gathered here reflects the variety of expression within jazz. The book's opening section sketches the overall place of jazz in America. Alan P. Merriam and Fradley H. Garner unpack the word jazz and its register, Albert Murray considers improvisation in music and life, Amiri Baraka argues that white critics misunderstand jazz, and Stanley Crouch cogently dissects the intersections of jazz and mainstream American democratic institutions. After this, the book takes an interdisciplinary approach, exploring jazz and the visual arts, dance, sports, history, memory, and literature. Ann Douglas writes on jazz's influence on the design and construction of skyscrapers in the 1920s and '30s, Zora Neale Hurston considers the significance of African-American dance, Michael Eric Dyson looks at the jazz of Michael Jordan's basketball game, and Hazel Carby takes on the sexual politics of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith's blues. The Jazz Cadence offers a wealth of insight and information for scholars, students, jazz aficionados, and any reader wishing to know more about this music form that has put its stamp on American culture more profoundly than any other in the twentieth century.

Frank Marshall Davis was a prominent poet, journalist, jazz critic, and civil rights activist on the Chicago and Atlanta scene from the 1920s through 1940s. He was an intimate of Langston Hughes and Richard Wright and an influential editor at the Chicago Evening Bulletin, the Chicago Whip, the Chicago Star, and the Atlanta World. He renounced his writing career in 1948 and moved to Hawaii, forgotten until the Black Arts Movement rediscovered him in the 1960s. Because of his early self-exile from the literary limelight, Davis's life and work have been shrouded in mystery. Livin' the Blues offers us a chance to rediscover this talented poet and writer and stands as an important example of black autobiography, similar in form, style, and message to those of Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. "Both a social commentary and intellectual exploration into African American life in the twentieth century."—Charles Vincent, Atlanta History

In "Baseball Karma and The Constitution Blues," Ronnie Norpel provides a play-by-play, behind-the-scenes account of a young woman's education in life, luck, love and superstition while working for her hometown major league baseball team. The book is steeped in authenticity from Norpel's days as a front office rep for the Philadelphia Phillies. Norpel's ficto-memoir brims with insider insight, detailing the fastballs, curve balls and errors experienced by main character Mary Katharine "Mick" Carmichael when she gets involved with a rookie on the Constitution Blues team. "Baseball Karma and The Constitution Blues" overflows with heart and humor, without glossing over the despair of karmic growing pains for both Mick and the Blues. Underneath it all, we discover how one woman's real-life curse changed destiny-until it was finally lifted for good. Norpel's rookie novel is must-read for all superstitious fans who worship at the Church of Baseball!

"... this volume offers work on an array of cultural moments which express the liminal nature of Taiwan's cultural life on the fault-lines of Asia and the West. The chapters offer a snapshot of the limits of what counts as 'Taiwan' and what is becoming Taiwan studies." -- p. 18.

Stanley Crouch-MacArthur "Genius" Award recipient, co-founder of Jazz at Lincoln Center, National Book Award nominee, and perennial bull in the china shop of black intelligentsia-has been writing about jazz and jazz artists for more than thirty years. His reputation for controversy is exceeded only by a universal respect for his intellect and passion. As Gary Giddons notes: "Stanley may be the only jazz writer out there with the kind of rhinoceros hide necessary to provoke and outrage and then withstand the fulminations that come back." In Considering Genius, Crouch collects some of his best loved, most influential, and most controversial pieces (published in Jazz Times, The New Yorker, the Village Voice, and elsewhere), together with two new essays. The pieces range from the introspective "Jazz Criticism and Its Effect on the Art Form" to a rollicking debate with Amiri Baraka, to vivid, intimate portraits of the legendary performers Crouch has known.

In this book, some of our most prominent cultural critics explore the relationships between culture and politics as played out in the world of novels, television, museums, and even fashion. The authors - John Simon, Greil Marcus, Arthur C. Danto, and other well-known commentators from across the political spectrum - examine the arts in their relation to democracy and consider whether and how they serve one another.

This is a non fiction book about the law . It is about what i believe to be the correct identification , interpretation and application of the constitution of the United Kingdom and international law.

This volume systematically examines how the basic constitutional structure of governments affects what they can accomplish. At a time when Americans are more and more disillusioned about government's fundamental ability to reach solutions for domestic problems, and when countries in the former Soviet block and around the world are rewriting their constitutions, the relationship between government and constitution is especially important. Political economist Dennis Mueller illuminates the links between the structure of democratic government and its outcomes by drawing comparisons between the American system and other systems around the world. Working from the "public choice" perspective in political science, the book analyzes electoral rules, voting rules, federalism, citizenship, and separation of powers, making it a valuable resource for anyone curious about the world's political environment.

The rise of populism in the West and the rise of China in the East have stirred a rethinking of how democratic systems work—and how they fail. The impact of globalism and digital capitalism is forcing worldwide attention to the starker divide between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” challenging how we think about the social contract. With fierce clarity and conviction, Renovating Democracy tears down our basic structures and challenges us to conceive of an alternative framework for governance. To truly renovate our global systems, the authors argue for empowering participation without populism by integrating social networks and direct democracy into the system with new mediating institutions that complement representative government. They outline steps to reconfigure the social contract to protect workers instead of jobs, shifting from a “redistribution” after wealth to “pre-distribution” with the aim to enhance the skills and assets of those less well-off. Lastly, they argue for harnessing globalization through “positive nationalism” at home while advocating for global cooperation—specifically with a partnership with China—to create a viable rules-based world order. Thought provoking and persuasive, Renovating Democracy serves as a point of departure that deepens and expands the discourse for positive change in governance.