A rooster vows he will not end up in the Mardi Gras community gumbo and warns the animals throughout Acadiana so they too can stay out of the pot. Includes recipe for Gumbo Z'herbes.

A literary rent party to benefit the Hurston/Wright Foundation of African-American fiction, with selections to savor from bestselling authors as well as talented rising stars. Not since Terry McMillan’s Breaking Ice have so many African-American writers been brought together in one volume. A stellar collection of works from more than fifty hot names in fiction, Gumbo represents remarkable synergy. Edited by bestselling luminaries Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris, this collection spans new and previously published tales of love and luck, inspiration and violation, hip new worlds and hallowed heritage from voices such as: • Edwidge Danticat • Eric Jerome Dickey • Kenji Jasper • John Edgar Wideman • Terry McMillan • David Anthony Durham • Bertice Berry …and many, many more Also featuring original stories by Golden and Harris themselves, Gumbo heralds the debut of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards for Published Black Writers (scheduled for October 2002), and all advances and royalties from the book will support the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Combining authors with a variety of flavorful writing, Gumbo will have readers clamoring for second helpings.

This collection of poems is striking in its powerful representation of humanity and its dramatic use of language. Anne Caston explores the inner recesses of the human mind and body, delving into the murky shadows where individuals fear to tread. The poems consider the nature of death, love, brutality, friendship, and much more. Caston plays with different points of view and keeps readers on their toes. The physicality of these moving and disturbing poems is sure to captivate lovers of poetry.

Beyond Poetry: A Journey of Unmasking is about unmasking divided personal Self Consciousness revealing ONE Unified Consciousness and the final dawning of impersonal NONE from which arouse ONE to appear as many. Every mask along the way, Comes from thought that this or that sway. With no trace of words or sound, Absolute Silence can be found, With the reversal of these phrases, Creation emerges into many masks and faces. At the substratum of Existence, There is no resistance! Total spontaneous essence, Appearing as HERE & NOW presence!

In this variation on the traditional song, the narrator's aunt makes repeated trips to Louisiana, returning with a bag of red beans from New Orleans, gumbo from Thibodaux, peaches from Ruston, and so on. Includes sheet music plus facts about the places mentioned in the song.