The Walls of Jericho

The Walls of Jericho PDF Author: Rudolph Fisher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
"Lawyer Ralph Merritt buys a house in a white neighborhood bordering Harlem. In their reactions to Merrit and to one another, Fisher's characters—including the prejudiced Miss Cramp, who "takes on causes the way sticky tape picks up lint," Merrit's housekeeper Linda, and Shine, his piano mover—provide an invaluable view of the social and philosophical milieu of the times. Thematically, Fisher focuses on the idea of black unity and the discovery of the self. The biblical tale of Joshua is evoked to illustrate his concern for the black person's search for a "true nature." it is in this spiritual battle that the divergent segments of Harlem are drawn together in order to battle the "establishment" inside the walls of Jericho"--Publisher's description (a later edition).

The Walls of Jericho

The Walls of Jericho PDF Author: Rudolph Fisher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
"Lawyer Ralph Merritt buys a house in a white neighborhood bordering Harlem. In their reactions to Merrit and to one another, Fisher's characters—including the prejudiced Miss Cramp, who "takes on causes the way sticky tape picks up lint," Merrit's housekeeper Linda, and Shine, his piano mover—provide an invaluable view of the social and philosophical milieu of the times. Thematically, Fisher focuses on the idea of black unity and the discovery of the self. The biblical tale of Joshua is evoked to illustrate his concern for the black person's search for a "true nature." it is in this spiritual battle that the divergent segments of Harlem are drawn together in order to battle the "establishment" inside the walls of Jericho"--Publisher's description (a later edition).

The City of Refuge [New and Expanded Edition]

The City of Refuge [New and Expanded Edition] PDF Author: Rudolph Fisher
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826266584
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
One of the premier writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Rudolph Fisher wrote short stories depicting the multifaceted black urban experience that are still acclaimed today for their humor, grace, and objective view of Harlem life. Through his words, wrote the New York Times Book Review, “one feels, smells, and tastes his Harlem; its people come alive and one cares about them.” A definitive collection of Fisher’s short stories, The City of Refuge offers vibrant tales that deal with the problems faced by newcomers to the city, ancestor figures who struggle to instill a sense of integrity in the young, problems of violence and vengeance, and tensions of caste and class. This anthology has now been expanded to include seven previously unpublished stories that take up such themes as marital infidelity and passing for black and also relate the further adventures of Jinx and Bubber, the comic duo who appeared in Fisher’s two novels. This new edition also includes two unpublished speeches and the popular article “The Caucasian Storms Harlem,” describing the craze for black music and dance. John McCluskey’s introduction has been updated to place the additional works within the context of Fisher’s career while situating his oeuvre within the broader context of American writing during the twenties. Fisher recognized the dramatic and comic power in African American folklore and music and frequented Harlem’s many cabarets, speakeasies, and nightclubs, and at the core of his work is a strong regard for music as context and counterpoint. The City of Refuge now better captures the sounds of the city experience by presenting all of Fisher’s known stories. It offers a portrait of Harlem unmatched in depth and range by Fisher’s contemporaries or successors, celebrating, as Booklist noted, “the complexity of black urban life in its encounter with the dangers and delights of the city.” This expanded edition adds new perspectives to that experience and will enhance Fisher’s status for a new generation of readers.

“Polar noir”: Reading African-American Detective Fiction

“Polar noir”: Reading African-American Detective Fiction PDF Author: Collectif
Publisher: Presses universitaires François-Rabelais
ISBN: 2869065132
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Curiosity and the desire to grasp the specificity of an abundantly read African American genre born as the 20th century was beginning are the research intentions that inspire this volume. Indeed, only recently has African-American detective fiction drawn the attention of scholars in spite of its very diverse blossoming since the 1960s. Diverse, because it has moved out of its birth place, East coast cities, and because female novelists have contributed their own production. At the heart of this popular genre, as novelists BarbaraNeely, Paula Woods and Gar Haywood tell us, is black existence: black memory, black living places and the human environments that build the individual - hence a détour to the French Caribbean.

Working Conjure

Working Conjure PDF Author: Hoodoo Sen Moise
Publisher: Weiser Books
ISBN: 1633410692
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
"Working Conjure is a blessing. With the increasing commodification of African American and African Diasporic traditions, books about our practices that are simple, direct, and useful seem few and far between. Hoodoo Sen Moise manages to balance a solid delivery on the practice of Conjure with just enough theory to create a foundation to do this spiritual work—which is not, as he also reminds us, spiritual easy—and to continue the work given to us by our ancestors to heal each other and the world we share."—Mambo Chita Tann, author of Haitian Vodou Conjure, also known as Hoodoo or Rootwork, is an old and powerful system of North American folk magic. Its roots derive primarily from West and Central African spiritual traditions but it developed during the slave trade and its purpose at that time was to help ease the terrible oppression experienced by the slaves. Working Conjure explores the history, culture, principles, fundamentals, and ethics of Conjure, while simultaneously serving as a practical how-to guide for actually doing the work. Author Hoodoo Sen Moise has been a practitioner for nearly forty years. In Working Conjure, his first book, he shares the techniques and lessons that will bring Hoodoo alive to those who are new to the practice as well as useful and enlightening information for the adept. In the book he: Explores the primary materials used in Conjure Features spells, rituals, and workings for various purposes Guides readers to learn how to bring this profound school of magic to life “Conjure,” writes Hoodoo Sen Moise, “is not a religion or spiritual path, per se, but rather magic/spiritual work that is done to bring about change in a situation. Whether that situation is a relationship, money, a job, revenge, healing, or cleansing, the fundamental tenet of Conjure is to do work that changes the circumstance.”

Harlem Renaissance: Four Novels of the 1930s (LOA #218)

Harlem Renaissance: Four Novels of the 1930s (LOA #218) PDF Author: Rafia Zafar
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1598531018
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
HARLEM RENAISSANCE: Four Novels of the 1930s traces the flowering of the Renaissance in diverse genres and forms. It opens with Langston Hughes's Not Without Laughter (1931), an elegantly realized coming-of-age tale that follows a young man from his rural origins to the big city. Suffused with childhood memories, it is the poet's only novel. George S. Schuyler's Black No More (1931), a satire founded on the science fiction premise of a wonder drug permitting blacks to change their race, skewers public figures white and black alike in a raucous, carnivalesque send-up of American racial attitudes. Considered the first detective story by an African American writer, Rudolph Fisher's The Conjure-Man Dies (1932) is a mystery that comically mixes and reverses stereotypes, placing a Harvard-educated African "conjureman" at the center of a phantasmagoric charade of deaths and disappearances. Black Thunder (1936), Arna Bontemps's stirring fictional recreation of Gabriel Prosser's 1800 slave revolt, which, though unsuccessful, shook Jefferson's Virginia to its core, marks a turn from aestheticism toward political militancy in its exploration of African American history. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Dark Ladies

Dark Ladies PDF Author: Fritz Leiber
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312869724
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
In Conjure wife, Norman Saylor learns that his wife is a sorceress. In Our Lady of Darkness, horror writer Franz Westen searches for the paranormal in San Francisco.

Cotton Comes to Harlem

Cotton Comes to Harlem PDF Author: Chester Himes
Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
ISBN: 0307803244
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
From “the best writer of mayhem yarns since Raymond Chandler” (San Francisco Chronicle) comes a hard-hitting, entertaining entry in the trailblazing Harlem Detectives series about two NYPD detectives who must piece together the clues of the scam of a lifetime. Flim-flam man Deke O’Hara is no sooner out of Atlanta’s state penitentiary than he’s back on the streets working a big scam. As sponsor of the Back-to-Africa movement, he’s counting on a big Harlem rally to produce a massive collection—for his own private charity. But the take is hijacked by white gunmen and hidden in a bale of cotton that suddenly everyone wants to get his hands on. As NYPD detectives “Coffin Ed” Johnson and “Grave Digger” Jones face the complexity of the scheme, we are treated to Himes’s brand of hard-boiled crime fiction at its very best.

In The Shadow Of The Banyan

In The Shadow Of The Banyan PDF Author: Vaddey Ratner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1849837619
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
A stunning, powerful debut novel set against the backdrop of the Cambodian War, perfect for fans of Chris Cleave and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. Soon the family's world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus. Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labour, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood - the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival. Displaying the author's extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyanis testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience. 'In the Shadow of the Banyanis one of the most extraordinary and beautiful acts of storytelling I have ever encountered' Chris Cleave, author of The Other Hand 'Ratner is a fearless writer, and the novel explores important themes such as power, the relationship between love and guilt, and class. Most remarkably, it depicts the lives of characters forced to live in extreme circumstances, and investigates how that changes them. To read In the Shadow of the Banyan is to be left with a profound sense of being witness to a tragedy of history' Guardian 'This is an extraordinary debut … as beautiful as it is heartbreaking' Mail on Sunday

A Beautiful Place to Die

A Beautiful Place to Die PDF Author: Malla Nunn
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416586202
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
Screenwriter Nunn draws on her true-life experience growing up in Africa to create this darkly romantic crime novel set in 1950s apartheid South Africa. Detective Emmanuel Cooper is caught up in a time and place where racial tensions and the raw hunger for power make for dangerous times.

The Modern Book of the Dead

The Modern Book of the Dead PDF Author: Ptolemy Tompkins
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451616538
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
A modern, all-encompassing exploration of what happens after death combines spirituality with philosophy, history, and science, all of which guide readers toward the timeless truth that human consciousness lives on after death.