"In this evocative memoir, Cassandra Lane deftly uses the act of imagination to reclaim her ancestors’ story as a backdrop for telling her own. The tradition of Black women’s storytelling leaps forward within these pages—into fresh, daring, and excitingly new territory." —Bridgett M. Davis, author of The World According to Fannie Davis When Cassandra Lane finds herself pregnant at thirty-five, the knowledge sends her on a poignant exploration of memory to prepare for her entry into motherhood. She moves between the twentieth-century rural South and present-day Los Angeles, reimagining the intimate life of her great-grandparents Mary Magdelene Magee and Burt Bridges, and Burt's lynching at the hands of vengeful white men in his southern town. We Are Bridges turns to creative nonfiction to reclaim a family history from violent erasure so that a mother can gift her child with an ancestral blueprint for their future. Haunting and poetic, this debut traces the strange fruit borne from the roots of personal loss in one Black family—and considers how to take back one’s American story.
A GRIPPING, FEARLESS EXPLORATION OF MASCULINITY The effects of traditionally defined masculinity have become one of the most prevalent social issues of our time. In this engaging and provocative new book, beloved actor, director, and social activist Justin Baldoni reflects on his own struggles with masculinity. With insight and honesty, he explores a range of difficult, sometimes uncomfortable topics including strength and vulnerability, relationships and marriage, body image, sex and sexuality, racial justice, gender equality, and fatherhood. Writing from experience, Justin invites us to move beyond the scripts we’ve learned since childhood and the roles we are expected to play. He challenges men to be brave enough to be vulnerable, to be strong enough to be sensitive, to be confident enough to listen. Encouraging men to dig deep within themselves, Justin helps us reimagine what it means to be man enough and in the process what it means to be human.
When a faded picture from a by-gone era sets in motion a perilous quest for five young men, they not only encounter harrowing danger in the forbidden, historical laden Niagara Gorge, but are forced to confront the swirling illusions of the world they knew changing their lives forever. "The day we decided to go down into the gorge of Niagara Fallsto walk on the ice bridgehad started out normal enough but quickly showed itself as anything but normal " Living in the City of Niagara Falls in the early 1960s, winters were simple for teenagers - like snowball fights and warm-ups at Ol Gordys general store, arguing about his wall of pictures. Its become a ritualsipping Cokes while studying the old photographs listening to Ol Gordys tales of adventure from long ago. "Ol Gordy was obsessed with Niagara and talked about it with anyone who would listenand with those who wouldnt, too. He knew everything there was to know about the Falls, especially from back in those old days, and he steered every discussion back to the times represented by those old dusty pictures." An ice ball to Kevins face, coupled with one picture in particular, sets them off on a journey to stand on the ice bridge of Niagara Falls, despite or perhaps because of Ol Gordy warnings that its not only extremely dangerous but against the law. The 'ice-bridge' of Niagara Falls steeped in history - fraught with tragedy - challenged by daredevils, bootleggers and tourists alike, lures them from the world they know down into the mysterious Niagara Gorge in the dead of winter. As in a time machine, they enter an exhilarating world of massive ice sculptors, impassable rapids and unassailable walls of ice. After a face-to-face encounter with the mighty Niagara Falls itself, from the bottom up, they find themselves in a rush to avoid being rescued while facing a series of life and death struggles with a Niagara they never knew existed. Peeling back time, we meet the hermit who lived on the Falls and who achieved his quest - to become one with it; we experience the day the Falls stopped and explore a riverbed never before exposed to human footprints until the water returns in a frenzy; through the eyes of a runaway girl we witness the cruelty of slavery as she rides the Underground Railroad with her mammy and pappy - paying the fare to ride that train to freedom and we feel the deception and hatred clashing between cultures when the path of a British drummer boy converges with that of an Iroquois brave at the Devils Hole massacre on the top of the escarpment. Bridges is much more than a simple tale of camaraderie and teenage exploits. Author d k LeVick creates a fascinating and engaging tale that is rich in both historical fact and ingenious fiction, as he weaves stories of long-ago, bringing together a series of unique historical events in a twist of mystery and revelation with the group of 1962 teenagers caught up in the complexities of a changing world around them. LeVicks narrative is so evocative that you will feel youre along on the various expeditions; his attention to detail is so precise that you might just hear the ice crack and feel a tremor beneath your feet. Bridges takes you on a kaleidoscope journey of adventure and history exploring the questions confronting people of all ages through all times.
Exploring Masculinities: Identity, Inequality, Continuity, and Change is a comprehensive and contemporary reader for the growing field of men's and masculinities studies. It takes a conceptual approach by covering the wide range of scholarship being done on masculinities beyond the model of hegemonic masculinity. C.J. Pascoe and Tristan Bridges extend the boundaries of the field and provide a new framework for understanding masculinities studies. Rather than taking a topics-based approach to masculinity, Exploring Masculinities offers an innovative conceptual approach that enables students to study a given phenomenon from a variety of perspectives. It divides up the field in ways that provide accessible introductions to complex debates and key intra- and interdisciplinary distinctions. The book provides a portable set of conceptual tools on which scholars and students can rely to analyze masculinities in different contexts, time periods, and embodiments.
Stirring text-and-picture tribute to over 75 New York City bridges — among them the Brooklyn Bridge, Throgs Neck, Verrazano Narrows, Whitestone, George Washington, and other splendid structures.
