"This is where the covert war begins on a very subconscious level, in the spirit of a people who have been robbed and spoiled. Robbed of the classical spiritual teachings of our ancestors and spoiled by trading our god for the enemies' wealth. More discussions about the soul are in my book 'The meta-physical God-estry of the soul of hip hop'"--P. 2.
"This is where the covert war begins on a very subconscious level, in the spirit of a people who have been robbed and spoiled. Robbed of the classical spiritual teachings of our ancestors and spoiled by trading our god for the enemies' wealth. More discussions about the soul are in my book 'The meta-physical God-estry of the soul of hip hop'"--Page 2.
Hip Hop - you already know the history, now uncover the mystery. Warning! This book is not for everyone. If you feel that there's nothing wrong with the current state of Hip Hop, then this book is not for you. If you feel that gangsta rap, pimpin hos, violence, drugs, thug activity, and half naked women in videos have elevated Hip Hop as an art form; then this book is definitely not for you. If, on the other hand, you feel that listening to the same songs over and over on the radio that are laced with negative lyrics, watching soft porn or graphically violent videos, while reading the watered down Hip Hop magazines that endorse this way of life has shaped the minds of our youth, and are collectively being used as part of a mind control operation to mentally and spiritually enslave our future generations; then welcome to... "Hip Hop Decoded:" From Its Ancient Origin to Its Modern Day Matrix.
A Warrior's Tapestry is a cultural tool for parents, teachers, coaches, guidance counselors and mentors as a guide that can be incorporate into any "Rites Of Passage" program.These tools will aid in the process for black youth in their adolescent to adulthood transition from one developmental stage to the next in a healthy, centered, family community-supported way. Being made aware of the great and rich history that they will inherit through the legacy of leaders that they see in themselves.These healthy yet necessary life-affirming, and meaningful resources they will need to accompany them as they navigate through their own experiences understanding codes and cultural protocol. As they incorporate these life lessons which will serve as the the building blocks, which are fabric that will make them Who they were meant to be (mentally, physically, emotionally and most of all spiritually).
J-Rod moves like a small tank on the court, his face mean, staring down his opponents. "I play just like my father," he says. "Before my father died, he was a problem on the court. I'm a problem." Playing basketball for him fuses past and present, conjuring his father's memory into a force that opponents can feel in each bone-snapping drive to the basket. On the street, every ballplayer has a story. Onaje X. O. Woodbine, a former streetball player who became an all-star Ivy Leaguer, brings the sights and sounds, hopes and dreams of street basketball to life. He shows that big games have a trickster figure and a master of black talk whose commentary interprets the game for audiences. The beats of hip-hop and reggae make up the soundtrack, and the ballplayers are half-men, half-heroes, defying the ghetto's limitations with their flights to the basket. Basketball is popular among young black American men but not because, as many claim, they are "pushed by poverty" or "pulled" by white institutions to play it. Black men choose to participate in basketball because of the transcendent experience of the game. Through interviews with and observations of urban basketball players, Onaje X. O. Woodbine composes a rare portrait of a passionate, committed, and resilient group of athletes who use the court to mine what urban life cannot corrupt. If people turn to religion to reimagine their place in the world, then black streetball players are indeed the hierophants of the asphalt.
This book examines the construction and articulation of diasporic cultural identity among the Turkish working-class youth in Kreuzberg (Little Istanbul), Berlin. This work primarily suggests that the contemporary diasporic consciousness is built on two antithetical axes: particularism and universalism. The presence of this dichotomy derives from the unresolved historical dialogues that the diasporic youths experience between continuity and disruption, essence and positionality, tradition and translation, homogeneity and difference, past and future, 'here' and 'there', 'roots' and 'routes', and local and global.
A joint biography of John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, who led the United States into an unseen war that decisively shaped today's world During the 1950s, when the Cold War was at its peak, two immensely powerful brothers led the United States into a series of foreign adventures whose effects are still shaking the world. John Foster Dulles was secretary of state while his brother, Allen Dulles, was director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this book, Stephen Kinzer places their extraordinary lives against the background of American culture and history. He uses the framework of biography to ask: Why does the United States behave as it does in the world? The Brothers explores hidden forces that shape the national psyche, from religious piety to Western movies—many of which are about a noble gunman who cleans up a lawless town by killing bad guys. This is how the Dulles brothers saw themselves, and how many Americans still see their country's role in the world. Propelled by a quintessentially American set of fears and delusions, the Dulles brothers launched violent campaigns against foreign leaders they saw as threats to the United States. These campaigns helped push countries from Guatemala to the Congo into long spirals of violence, led the United States into the Vietnam War, and laid the foundation for decades of hostility between the United States and countries from Cuba to Iran. The story of the Dulles brothers is the story of America. It illuminates and helps explain the modern history of the United States and the world. A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2013
