A collection of short stories inspired by the author's love for her local country park. Insightfully crafted tales of Angels walking amongst us when we visit these beautiful open spaces and we feel inspired or become thoughtful about ourselves and our actions.

The sweeping, unforgettable story of an interracial couple in 1990s New York City who are determined to protect their love against all odds—a reimagining of Romeo and Juliet “Triumphant . . . sensuous, tender, and faceted like cut glass.”—Cathy Park Hong, award-winning author of Minor Feelings Hannah, a Korean American girl from Queens, New York, and Angel, a Puerto Rican boy from Brooklyn, fall in love in the spring of 1993 at a quinceañera: under a torn pink streamer loose as a tendril of hair—lush— his eyes. Darkluminous. Warm. A blush floods her. Hannah sucks in her breath, but can’t pull back. Music fades. A hush ~ he’s a young buck in the underbrush, still in a disco ball dance of shadow & light Their forbidden love instantly and wildly blooms along the Jackie Robinson Expressway. Told across the changing seasons, Angel & Hannah holds all of the tension and cadence of blank verse while adding dynamic and expressive language rooted in a long tradition of hip-hop and spoken word, creating new and magnetic forms. The poetry of Angel and Hannah’s relationship is dynamic, arresting, observant, and magical, conveying the intimacies and sacrifices of love and family and the devastating realities of struggle and loss.

The &“Strong Black Woman&” has been a part of mainstream culture for centuries, as a myth, a goddess, a positive role model, a stereotype, and as a burden. In Fierce Angels, Sheri Parks explores the concept of the Strong Black Woman, its influence on people of all races, and the ways in which black women respond to and are affected by this image. Originating in the ancient Sacred Dark Feminine as a nurturing and fierce goddess, the Strong Black Woman can be found in myths from every continent. Slaves and slave owners alike brought the legend to America, where the spiritual icon evolved into the secular Strong Black Woman, with examples ranging from the slave Mammy to the poet Maya Angelou. She continues to appear in popular culture in television and movies, such as Law and Order and The Help, and as an inspirational symbol associated with the dispossessed in political movements, in particular from Africa. The book presents the stories of historical and living black women who embody the role and puts the icon in its historical and evolutionary context, presenting a balanced account of its negative and positive impact on black culture. This new paperback edition has been revised from the hardcover edition to include two new chapters that expand on the transformative Dark Feminine in alchemy and Western literature and a chapter on the political uses and further potential of the Sacred Dark Feminine in social justice movements in the United States and abroad.

In the summer of 2006, Christina Nordstrom met Bob Wright, known as Homeless Bob, Homeless by Fire, who sat on a milk crate on the sidewalk outside Park Street Church in Boston. Walking to work one morning, rather than avoiding eye contact, she overcame her fear, crossed the street, and greeted him. She learned how to constructively help him and, with friends Sue Straley and Jonathan Margolis, helped facilitate his progress from Park Street to a permanent home. The story charts their evolving friendship as formerly Homeless Bob adjusted to his new home, and about his death and how he is remembered.

America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell. This edition, published alongside the major revival at the National Theatre in 2017, contains both plays, Part One: Millennium Approaches, and Part Two: Perestroika.

Bureaucracy, corruption, self-serving agendas, power politics . . . Is that enough to cause a school administrator to commit suicide? Constance Demetrios is determined to find out exactly what happened as she plunges into the mystery of her bosss death, struggling with a convoluted school system that just isnt about kids anymore. As bizarre events threaten to engulf her, too, Connie comes upon a startling discovery that transforms her own life and shows her how deep the changes need to go to rescue ourselves, our schools, and our kids. Can we wake up in time to save the future? Engaging characters and other literary delights, wrapped in a wonderful puzzle. A great choice for book clubs! -Fran Halpern, Beyond Words on KCLU (NPR) Highly recommended... -Jim Cox, Midwest Book Review "The writing crackles with authenticity, and paints a fascinating word portrait A moving and informative read. -Writers Digest

An exceptional novel from the best-selling author of the modern classic City of Night, Bodies and Souls is a portrait of modern Los Angeles on an epic scale, "the most spiritual and physical of cities." Gorgeous, seedy, and striving, the Los Angeles of Rechy's imagination is a magnetic city that draws to it the nation's brightest and darkest energies--characters that include a female porn superstar; a young Chicano punk-rock fan; a Bel Air matron and her tyrannical husband, a Supreme Court judge; an aging male stripper; a black maid with apocalyptic visions; and a cynical TV anchorwoman. Through this rich tapestry of human struggle, Rechy paints a lush portrait of a paradise lost but also a heroic odyssey in search of redemption.