An internationally known dancer, choreographer, and gifted anthropologist, Katherine Dunham was born to a black American tailor and a well-to-do French Canadian woman twenty years his senior. This book is Dunham's story of the chaos and conflict that entered her childhood after her mother's early death. In stark prose, she tells of growing up in both black and white households and of the divisions of race and class in Chicago that become the harsh realities of her young life. A riveting narrative of one girl's struggle to transcend the painful confusions of a family and culture in turmoil, Dunham's story is full of the clarity, candor, and intelligence that lifted her above her troubled beginnings. "A Touch of Innocence is an absorbing family chronicle written with a gift for physical detail sometimes too real for comfort. In quietly graphic prose the growing girl, the slightly older brother, the ambitious father and the kind stepmother are pictured in such human terms that when their lives get tied into harder and harder knots beyond their undoing, one can only continue to read helplessly as doom closes in upon the household."—Langston Hughes, New York Herald Tribune "A Touch of Innocence is one of the most extraordinary life stories I have ever read . . . . The content of this book is so heartbreaking that only the strongest artistic skills can keep it from leaking out into sobbing self-pity, but Katherine Dunham's art contains it, understands it and refuses to be overwhelmed by its terrors."—Elizabeth Janeway, New York Times "The first eighteen years of the famous dancer and choreographer's life are brought vividly to the reader in this first volume of her autobiography. She writes of what it is like to be a special, gifted young woman growing up in a racially mixed family in the American Middle West. A beautiful, touching and sometimes discomforting book."—Publishers Weekly "As writing it is honest, searing, graphic and touching, giving us a rather heartbreaking early view of the young American Negro who was later to make a name for herself as a dancer and choreographer."—Arthur Todd, Saturday Review

She believes that dancing involves the development of an entire person and that the rituals and traditions of dance are integral to the study of culture. Throughout her career she has been a living model of the socially responsible artist working to wet cultural appetites and combat social injustice. Building on Dunham's published memoirs. A Touch of Innocence and Island Possessed. Joyce Aschenbrenner's multifaceted portrait blends personal observations based on her own interactions with Dunham, archival documents, and interviews with Dunham's colleagues, students, and members of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company. Integrating these sources, Aschenbrenner characterizes the social, familial, and cultural environment of Dunham's upbringing and the intellectual and artistic community she embraced at the University of Chicago that laid the groundwork for her development as a dancer, anthropologist, and humanitarian.

Just as surely as Haiti is "possessed" by the gods and spirits of vaudun (voodoo), the island "possessed" Katherine Dunham when she first went there in 1936 to study dance and ritual. In this book, Dunham reveals how her anthropological research, her work in dance, and her fascination for the people and cults of Haiti worked their spell, catapulting her into experiences that she was often lucky to survive. Here Dunham tells how the island came to be possessed by the demons of voodoo and other cults imported from various parts of Africa, as well as by the deep class divisions, particularly between blacks and mulattos, and the political hatred still very much in evidence today. Full of the flare and suspense of immersion in a strange and enchanting culture, Island Possessed is also a pioneering work in the anthropology of dance and a fascinating document on Haitian politics and voodoo.

In Jean Stone’s moving novel of what might have been, four very different women with one very powerful thing in common are reunited—with one another, and with the children they gave up for adoption. Jess has led a charmed life, but now that her beautiful teenage daughter is pregnant, all she can think of is the baby she gave away. Susan lost one child years ago, and now, as a divorced college professor, she’s terrified of losing another. P.J. overcame an unwanted pregnancy to become a high-powered art director, but her whirlwind life is halted by an unsettling discovery. Ginny makes an unlikely Hollywood wife, but men, money, and four marriages can’t erase the horrors of her past—or satisfy her need for love. Twenty-five years ago, they met in a home for unwed mothers. At the time, all they had to hold on to was one another. Now Jess, Susan, P.J., and Ginny must find the courage to face the past: The date is set for a reunion with the children they have never known. And no matter what happens, their lives will never be the same. Jess’s story continues in Jean Stone’s Tides of the Heart! Includes a special message from the editor, as well as excerpts from these Loveswept titles: Trying to Score, Long Simmering Spring, and Scarlet Lady.

Emma Holly turns up the heat in this sinfully sensuous story of a family plagued by scandal—and a shy young woman who discovers a passion beyond her wildest dreams… When her beloved father passes away, Florence Fairleigh finds herself alone in the world. All she wants is a man who will treat her kindly and support her financially—and she’s come to London to find him… Edward Burbrooke thinks marriage is the only way to save his brother Freddie—and their family—from scandalous ruin. As head of the family, Edward has vowed to find Freddie a bride—and fast… Thrown together by Edward, Florence and Freddie make a perfect pair—until Edward realizes he has feelings for his brother’s betrothed. The sight of her nubile young body makes his blood burn with lust. The sound of her voice makes his heart warm with love. And the sweet taste of her kiss makes him wonder if he isn’t making a terrible mistake….

This volume is a collection of writings by and about Katherine Dunham, the African American dancer, anthropologist and social activist. It includes articles, her essays on dance and anthropology and chapters from her volume of memoirs, 'Minefields'.

I am a part of you now. The words haunt Piers Veuxfort, and he has only his own recklessness to blame. By touching a magic crystal, he freed the essence of a decidedly wicked Fin Man, who now resides within Piers. If that isn’t bad enough, a surprise for Piers arrives at Falcon’s Craig Castle. A bride. A bride, moreover, who was raised to be a nun, and views him as something just short of the devil. What can he do but send her back? You are a wicked abomination. With that condemnation of her “sight”, Giselle St. Germain’s future is irrevocably altered. Her life in the secluded nunnery is over, and she is thrown into the world, a world that includes betrothal to a man who is unrepentantly devoted to his pleasures, and who increasingly displays a dark, troubling side. What’s a girl to do but cling more tightly to what she knows? The rules have changed. For both of them. And Piers and Giselle are about to discover that sometimes fate delivers a destiny beyond your imaginings. That destiny is theirs to win. Or lose. It will take all the courage that lies within their deepest hearts to seize it, and to find … A Lost Touch of Innocence