Wicked Queen Malice has cast a spell on Summer's storybook and unleashed all the fairytale baddies into the Secret Kingdom. Ellie, Summer and Jasmine are excited about attending the annual Phoenix Festival fireworks display, but when they get there they discover that a nasty wizard is controlling the fireworks - and he's kidnapped King Merry! Can the girls rescue their friend and get the wizard back in the book?
Through speculative fiction, five interlocking novelettes explore the possible realities of our climate future. What is the future of our climate? Given that our summers now regularly feature Arctic heat waves and wildfire blood skies, polar vortex winters that reach all the way down to Texas, and “100-year” storms that hit every few months, it may seem that catastrophe is a done deal. As grim as things are, however, we still have options. Combining fiction and nonfiction and employing speculative tools for scholarly purposes, Our Shared Storm explores not just one potential climate future but five possible outcomes dependent upon our actions today. Written by speculative-fiction writer and sustainability researcher Andrew Dana Hudson, Our Shared Storm features five overlapping fictions to employ a futurist technique called “scenarios thinking.” Rather than try to predict how history will unfold—picking one out of many unpredictable and contingent branching paths—it instead creates a set of futures that represent major trends or counterposed possibilities, based on a set of climate-modeling scenarios known as the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). The setting is the year 2054, during the Conference of the Parties global climate negotiations (a.k.a., The COP) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Each story features a common cast of characters, but with events unfolding differently for them—and human society—in each alternate universe. These five scenarios highlight the political, economic, and cultural possibilities of futures where investments in climate adaptation and mitigation promised today have been successfully completed, kicked down the road, or abandoned altogether. From harrowing to hopeful, these stories highlight the choices we must make to stabilize the planet. Our Shared Storm is an experiment in deploying practice-based research methods to explore the opportunities and challenges of using climate fiction to engage scientific and academic frameworks.
The nationally recognized Roosevelt Row Artists' District in downtown Phoenix originated during the platting of the Churchill Addition in 1888, when fewer than 4,000 people called the city home. The Evans and Churchill Additions enjoyed vibrant, walkable mixed-use growth until the suburban sprawl of the 1950s pulled people and resources away from the downtown city core. Significant decline fell upon the area for decades, until artists began to imagine new possibilities in the 1990s. Few urban areas in the United States have undergone such rapid and dramatic revitalization as Roosevelt Row. In 2000, the area's affordability attracted artists who began to transform underutilized structures and vacant lots into a vibrant, diverse, welcoming community. Iconic events, live music, unique performances, and temporary public art have made it one of the largest monthly art walks in the county, and USA Today recently named Roosevelt Row "one of the ten best city arts districts" in the country.
In Great British Music Festival, Edith Bowman packs her wellies and braves the unpredictable weather to explore some of the country's best- and lesser-known music festivals. From the muddy fields of Glastonbury, to the warmer climes of the Isle of Wight, Edith travels the length of the UK in the search for the ultimate festival experience. With detailed guides and histories of the most celebrated musical events in the UK - including Bestival, Greenman, and Latitude - this is the must-have book for both the seasoned festival-goer or anyone looking to have their first festival experience. Includes exclusive behind-the-scenes photography from Edith's personal collection. Features exclusive digital content with interviews from high profile musicians.
