An exploration of Beat spirituality--seen through excerpts from the writings of the seminal writers of Beat Generation themselves. It’s been said that Jack Kerouac made it cool to be a thinking person seeking a spiritual experience. And there is no doubt that the writers he knew and inspired—iconic figures like Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Gary Snyder, and Michael McClure—were thinkers seeking exactly that. In this re-claiming of their vision, Robert Inchausti explores the Beat canon to reveal that the movement was at heart a spiritual one. It goes deeper than the Buddhism with which many of the key figures became identified. It’s about their shared perception of an existence in which the Divine reveals itself in the ordinary. Theirs is a spirituality where real life triumphs over airy ideals and personal authenticity becomes both the content and the vehicle for a kind of refurbished American Transcendentalism.
"This book covers the year from Springsteen's birth to 1974 - the year before his breakthrough album Born To Run. It explores both the negative factors in his life such as school and Catholicism and the positive ones such as baseball, girls and the guitar, as well as the British Invasion, the civil rights movement and, crucially, his relationship with his father. Springsteen's early bands, the Rogues, the Castiles and Earth, are examined via interviews with ex-members."--Publisher description.
Society is rife with inspirational teachers who have taken on seemingly insurmountable challenges and wrestled victory from the jaws of defeat. Such is the case in A Saint in the City, the touching memoir from Santa Ana High School wrestling coach, Scott Glabb. Glabb's lifestory highlights the rewards of true grit and determination. The students that Glabb helped to save were more than just behaviorally-challenged malcontents; many were from crime-laden backgrounds, and nearly all never saw a reason to hope for anything until he came along. In such situations, the temptation is always to put forth a minimal amount of effort before walking away, frustrated; Glabb, though, not only stared adversity directly in the face, he also pressed on in spite of it. As a result, his story stands out from so many others who tend to give in at the first sign of trouble, as his efforts remind us that the greatest victories are always the hardest fought. Uplifting, inspiring, and with a triumphant tone, A Saint in the City is a supremely encouraging read.
The lives of the saints are either too grisly for little kids or too saccharine for older ones. But this collection appeals to both groups with a combination of gentle humor and frankness – battle-tested at the author’s weekly chapel services at the school where she teaches. It’s organized into two full school years, with each saint’s story falling on or near his or her special day so that each story can be a springboard to a creative seasonal teaching unit or small festival. Saints represent a wide variety of ethnic and geographic backgrounds.
From Jeff VanderMeer, the author of Borne and Annihilation, comes the paperback reissue of his cult classic City of Saints and Madmen. In this reinvention of the literature of the fantastic, you hold in your hands an invitation to a place unlike any you’ve ever visited—an invitation delivered by one of our most audacious and astonishing literary magicians. City of elegance and squalor. Of religious fervor and wanton lusts. And everywhere, on the walls of courtyards and churches, an incandescent fungus of mysterious and ominous origin. In Ambergris, a would-be suitor discovers that a sunlit street can become a killing ground in the blink of an eye. An artist receives an invitation to a beheading—and finds himself enchanted. And a patient in a mental institution is convinced that he’s made up a city called Ambergris, imagined its every last detail, and that he’s really from a place called Chicago . . . By turns sensuous and terrifying, filled with exotica and eroticism, this interwoven collection of stories, histories, and “eyewitness” reports invokes a universe within a puzzle box where you can lose—and find—yourself again.
A Saint in the Cityexamines the elaborate visual culture of the Mourides, a Senegalese Sufi movement based upon the mystical teachings of Sheikh Amadou Bamba (1953-1927). In the boldly visual city of Dakar, images abound despite the fact that Senegal is largely a Muslim country. Vibrant street murals, calligraphy and calligrams, didactic posters, drawings that protect and heal, advertising images, colourful clothing, Web sites, intricate glass paintings, and innovative architecture all attest to the transformative potency that expressive culture has for Mourides. One image is ubiquitous throughout urban Senegal: the portrait of Sheikh Amadou Bamba, based upon a colonial photograph from 1913. Sacred images "work" for Mourides, and as Bamba is a saint (Wali Allah, or "Friend of God" in Arabic), his portrait actively conveys powerful blessings called baraka that help people to address everyday difficulties, challenges, and goals.The Mouride Way is observed by over four million Senegalese and thousands more around the globe including increasing numbers of African Americans and others converting to this most African of Islamic paths. Amadou Bamba's pacifism, dignity, and self-reliance, as well as his emphasis on the sanctity of work, offer a view of Islam quite different from those currently suggested by Western media. Indeed,A Saint in the Cityreminds us that there are many faces of Islam in Africa and throughout the world. It also assists readers to reconsider misconceptions concerning the prohibition of images in Islam in light of the explosion of visual culture derived from a single photograph of Sheikh Amadou Bamba.A Saint in the Citygrows from a decade of interdisciplinary research and focuses upon nine contemporary artists who base their works upon the spiritual teachings of Amadou Bamba, regardless of their particular backgrounds, training, or styles. The book boldly transgresses the boundaries normally enforced between local and global, fine and popular arts, gallery and streets, historical and contemporary circumstances. An emphasis upon Mouride artists' own voices further decenters the narrative.Allen F. Roberts is professor of world arts and cultures and director of the James S. Coleman African Studies Center at UCLA. Mary Nooter Roberts is deputy director and chief curator of the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.
In the summer of 1976 at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Professor Dr. Waclav Soroka invited Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski to be the keynote speaker at the next meeting of the Annual Lectures on Poland. Cardinal Wyszynski was an old friend, and Soroka hoped to shed some light on the plight of the Polish people under Communist rule. However, the Cardinal could not make it, so he made a suggestioninvite the other Polish Cardinal. The other Polish cardinal, as he was known at the time, was Cardinal Karol Wojtyla. Providentially he was attending the International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia that summer and was willing to travel to a small rural city in central Wisconsin to give the academic lecture. Little did anyone know at the time that they would be welcoming a future Pope (John Paul II) as well as a living saint.
Book of SaintsWho are the saints, why are the lives of saints important for children, and what can children learn from lives and actions? In Loyola Kids Book of Saints, the first in the Loyola Kids series, best-selling author Amy Welborn answers these questions with exciting and inspiring stories, real-life applications, and important information about these heroes of the church. This inspiring collection of saints’ stories explains how saints become saints, why we honor them, and how they help us even today. Featuring more than sixty saints from throughout history and from all over the world, Loyola Kids Book of Saints introduces children to these wonderful role models and heroes of the church. Ages 8-12.
An enthralling literary tour-de-force that pays tribute to Detroit's legendary neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports, and politics, Black Bottom Saints is a powerful blend of fact and imagination reminiscent of E.L. Doctorow's classic novel Ragtime and Marlon James' Man Booker Award-winning masterpiece, A Brief History of Seven Killings. From the Great Depression through the post-World War II years, Joseph “Ziggy” Johnson, has been the pulse of Detroit’s famous Black Bottom. A celebrated gossip columnist for the city’s African-American newspaper, the Michigan Chronicle, he is also the emcee of one of the hottest night clubs, where he’s rubbed elbows with the legendary black artists of the era, including Ethel Waters, Billy Eckstein, and Count Basie. Ziggy is also the founder and dean of the Ziggy Johnson School of Theater. But now the doyen of Black Bottom is ready to hang up his many dapper hats. As he lays dying in the black-owned-and-operated Kirkwood Hospital, Ziggy reflects on his life, the community that was the center of his world, and the remarkable people who helped shape it. Inspired by the Catholic Saints Day Books, Ziggy curates his own list of Black Bottom’s venerable "52 Saints." Among them are a vulnerable Dinah Washington, a defiant Joe Louis, and a raucous Bricktop. Randall balances the stories of these larger-than-life "Saints" with local heroes who became household names, enthralling men and women whose unstoppable ambition, love of style, and faith in community made this black Midwestern neighborhood the rival of New York City’s Harlem. Accompanying these “tributes” are thoughtfully paired cocktails—special drinks that capture the essence of each of Ziggy’s saints—libations as strong and satisfying as Alice Randall’s wholly original view of a place and time unlike any other.
