A historical novel containing the interwoven stories of a father and son, each wrestling with his identity at a different time in a world full of hatred. Born amid the bigotry of the Deep South, mixed-race Joseph is a slave in all but name. Separated from his mother at birth, he yearns to run away from his loveless home and find her. It’s a journey that will take him from plantation to plantation and hardship to hardship, yielding joy, sorrow, and love along the way. Years later, Joseph’s son, Isaiah, faces his own journey: coming to terms with his homosexuality. But society is still slow to accept change, and Isaiah fears rejection from even those closest to his heart. From 1940s Mississippi to the civil rights era of the ’60s and the push for LGBT equality, the story follows three generations of a family fighting for liberation. J. C. Villegas paints an eye-opening story that will inspire readers to open their hearts to love. Though her characters face different types of discrimination, they all draw strength from love and from their faith in God. Can Joseph find the mother he has never met? Can Isaiah survive injustice and adversity? And can they each learn to love themselves in the face of a world that challenges their right to exist? “This Southern tale is filled with charm and is a beautiful journey . . . The reader constantly feels a connection to the main characters, who are fighting not only for their lives but, just as importantly, their dignity.” —Robin McGhee, co-founder and former co-director of GetEQUAL “A riveting tale of man’s struggle with identity and survival.” —PopSugar

S. Earl Wilson III is the author of eight books prior to this one. All his previous books, with the exception of two, have been fiction. In this book, this Mississippi writer, a Morehouse College graduate, pens a uniquely loveable and humorous recollection of the travels and adventures of the renowned Cotton Blossom Singers of the Piney Woods School of Piney Woods, Mississippi, during the fifties. Here, he invites you to travel along, sing, endure the hardships and pain, and rejoice in the success of these six special young girls as they pave the road for the benefit of others. This story is not a must-read––it is a should-read. You’ll be elated if you do and sorry if you don’t!

In the first half of the twentieth century, a number of American theatres and theatre artists fostered interracial collaboration and socialization on stage, behind the scenes, and among audiences. In an era marked by entrenched racial segregation and inequality, these artists used performance to bridge America’s persistent racial divide and to bring African American, Latino/Latina, Asian American, Native American, and Jewish American communities and traditions into the nation’s broader cultural conversation. In Experiments in Democracy, edited by Cheryl Black and Jonathan Shandell, theatre historians examine a wide range of performances—from Broadway, folk plays and dance productions to scripted political rallies and radio dramas. Contributors look at such diverse groups as the Theatre Union, La Unión Martí-Maceo, and the American Negro Theatre, as well as individual playwrights and their works, including Theodore Browne’s folk opera Natural Man, Josefina Niggli’s Soldadera, and playwright Lynn Riggs’s Cherokee Night and Green Grow the Lilacs (the basis for the musical Oklahoma!). Exploring the ways progressive artists sought to connect isolated racial and cultural groups in pursuit of a more just and democratic society, contributors take into account the blind spots, compromised methods, and unacknowledged biases at play in their practices and strategies. Essays demonstrate how the gap between the ideal of American democracy and its practice—mired in entrenched systems of white privilege, economic inequality, and social prejudice—complicated the work of these artists. Focusing on questions of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality on the stage in the decades preceding the Civil Rights era, Experiments in Democracy fills an important gap in our understanding of the history of the American stage—and sheds light on these still-relevant questions in contemporary American society.

In a remote kingdom hidden in the Himalayas, there is a trail said to be the toughest trek in the world—twenty-four days, 216 miles, eleven mountain passes, and enough ghost stories to scare an exorcist. In 2007 Kevin Grange decided to acquaint himself with the country of Bhutan by taking on this infamous trail, the Snowman Trek. He was thirty-three, at a turning point in life, and figured the best way to go at a crossroad was up. Against a backdrop of Buddhist monasteries and soaring mountains, Grange ventured beyond the mapped world to visit time-lost villages and sacred valleys. In the process, recounted here with a blend of laugh-out-loud humor, heartfelt insight, and acute observation, he tested the limits of physical endurance, met a fascinating assortment of characters, and discovered truths about faith, hope, and the shrouded secret of blossom rain. Beneath Blossom Rain, Grange's account of his journey, packs an adventure story, a romantic twist, and a celebration of group travel into a single entertaining book. The result is the ultimate journey for any traveler, armchair or otherwise. Along with high adventure, it delivers an engaging look at Bhutan—a country that governs by a policy of Gross National Happiness and that many regard as the last Shangri-La.

A young black girl relates the daily events of her family's migrant life in the cotton fields of central California.

A gunslinger gets bloody payback in this western from USA Today bestselling author Ralph Compton. Nathan Stone experienced the horror of Civil War battlefields. But the worst lies ahead. When he returns to Virginia, to the ruins of what was his home, he discovers his father butchered and his mother and sister stripped, ravished, and slain. The seven renegades who did it rode away to the West. Half-starved and afoot, he takes to their trail. Nathan Stone’s deadly oath—blood for blood—will cost him seven long years, as he rides the lawless trails of an untamed frontier. His skill with a Colt will match him with the likes of the Jameses and the Youngers, Wild Bill Hickok, John Wesley Hardin, and Ben Thompson. Nathan Stone will become the greatest gunfighter of them all, shooting his way along the most relentless vengeance trail a man has ever ridden to the savage end…and this is how it all begins. More Than Six Million Ralph Compton Books In Print!

More than 300 colorful photos and behind-the-scenes details reveal the fascinating story of Japan's cotton and indigo, and their enormous contribution to fiber arts worldwide. Learn how Japan and its top fabric designers, quilters, scientists, and artists combinetradition and high tech to weave the thread, fabrics, and stunningdesigns that are so coveted in today's fiber art world. Take a tour of Japan's elite textile printing mills to understand why Japan is considered the world's finest producer of quilting cotton. Learn where all this cotton comes from, and its close connection to another prized plant, indigo. Dozens of beautiful fabric designs and quilts by Shizuko Kuroha, Keiko Goke, Yoshiko Jinzenji, Yoko Saito, and others are featured, as well as cotton and indigo folk textiles through the ages. This journey gives a deeper understanding of the connection between contemporary textile art and Japan's cotton, indigo, and traditions.