As I left the milongas, the sentiments that stayed in my heart melt into colors and lines, weaved themselves together and urged me to draw. I simply obeyed, as I obeyed the divine sound of a beautiful song. This book is a dance. It is a dance that contains everything that I have felt, loved, and treasured in my tango journey.
The authoritative guide to cosplay written by a legend in the community, and packed with step-by-step advice and fascinating investigations into every aspect of the art. Cosplay—a portmanteau combining "costume" and "play"—has become one of the hottest trends in fandom . . . and Yaya Han is its shining superstar. In this guide to cosplaying, Han narrates her 20-year journey from newbie fan to entrepreneur with a household name in geekdom, revealing her self-taught methods for embodying a character and her experiences in the community. Each chapter is information-packed as she covers everything from the history of cosplay, to using nontraditional materials for costumes, to transforming your hobby into a career—all enhanced with expert advice. Illustrated throughout and easy to use, this practical manual also delights with fascinating stories from the past decades' global cosplay boom. It's the perfect gift for anyone interested in learning (or improving their skills in) the art of cosplay.
Yaya’s Story is a book about Yaya Harouna, a Songhay trader originally from Niger who found a path to America. It is also a book about Paul Stoller—its author—an American anthropologist who found his own path to Africa. Separated by ethnicity, language, profession, and culture, these two men’s lives couldn’t be more different. But when they were both threatened by a grave illness—cancer—those differences evaporated, and the two were brought to profound existential convergence, a deep camaraderie in the face of the most harrowing of circumstances. Yaya’s Story is that story. Harouna and Stoller would meet in Harlem, at a bustling African market where Harouna built a life as an African art trader and Stoller was conducting research. Moving from Belayara in Niger to Silver Spring, Maryland, and from the Peace Corps to fieldwork to New York, Stoller recounts their separate lives and how the threat posed by cancer brought them a new, profound, and shared sense of meaning. Combining memoir, ethnography, and philosophy through a series of interconnected narratives, he tells a story of remarkable friendship and the quest for well-being. It’s a story of difference and unity, of illness and health, a lyrical reflection on human resiliency and the shoulders we lean on.
Twin sisters Hassana and Husseina have always shared their lives. But after a raid on their village in 1892, the twins are torn apart. Taken in different directions, far from their home in rural West Africa, each sister finds freedom and a new start. Hassana settles in in the city of Accra, where she throws herself into working for political and social change. Husseina travels to Salvador, Brazil, where she becomes immersed in faith, worshipping spirits that bridge the motherland and the new world. Separated by an ocean, they forge new families, ward off dangers, and begin to truly know themselves. As the twins pursue their separate paths, they remain connected through their shared dreams. But will they ever manage to find each other again? “Uplifting . . . sizzles with sister-love and magic. What an incredible storyteller!”—Yaba Badoe, author of A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars
Patricia Buckley is a down-to-earth mystic � gentle, funny and practical. In the last decade, through her joyous embrace of the angels in her life, she has been able to give hope to countless wounded souls who have come to her seeking guidance. From as early as she can remember, Patricia took for granted that she could speak to angels and dead people. And though her childhood was blighted by poverty, neglect and abuse, the spirit world made her feel secure and cherished. However, after many tough years � during which she was committed to a mental ward, was nearly killed by an abusive boyfriend and eventually became homeless � she gave up on that part of her life. Patricia found love in a good marriage and joy in the birth of her children. And yet for twenty years she remained fragile and dependent on tranquillisers. That was until a chance encounter woke up her hidden spiritual energies and revived her passion for living. The time had come to share her gifts with the world. Now, Patricia shares her story in My Journey with the Angels � a heart-breaking memoir of a Dublin childhood, a moving account of how she came to accept her extraordinary gifts, and an inspirational guide � full of examples from her life and work � to the wisdom of the angels.
Young Aspirations/Young Artists (YA/YA), Inc., is the phenomenal New Orleans nonprofit arts organization started by the painter Jana Napoli in 1988. It is part school, part community center, part gallery, part working studio. But it is the commercial-art students - primarily African Americans - from nearby L. E. Rabouin Career Magnet High School in the city's central business district who breathe life into that entity. They are the YA/YAs. The YA/YAs came to the attention of the outside world through their painted chairs. Napoli first had them depict their dreams and fears on secondhand furniture and then arranged an exhibit at Lincoln Center in New York. It was a success that launched the young artists into an upward spiral of fame. In YA/YA! - a combination history, collective memoir, and guidebook - former YA/YA director Claudia Barker conveys with infectious enthusiasm the hip, happening creativity that thrives at YA/YA. She follows the trajectory of eight original YA/YAs from their early doubts and trials to their triumphal status as senior Guild members and mentors to succeeding YA/YA "generations". The group's spirit is mirrored in the book's free-form design: comments from staff and students, including deeply felt statements about their ideas and work, and scores of color photographs approximating the visual impact of the YA/YAs' art combine with Barker's own reflective narrative. By reviewing the path that YA/YA has traveled in raising funds, getting publicity, defining its purpose, and striving for harmony, she outlines a model for similar programs in other communities.
Journey for Justice combines autobiography with law and political memoirs to provide a fascinating account of growing up in rural Gambia and of the author's recollections of, involvement in, and reflections on some of the major social, legal, and political issues in the Gambia during his tenure of public office in that country. This is valuable reading for all those with a serious interest in the history, politics, governance, and development of law and legal institutions in the Gambia, and indeed beyond.
Play hide-and-seek with Instagram’s favorite border collie, hiding in every page of this New York Times best-selling book of beautiful landscape photography. Momo and his best buddy Andrew Knapp travel all over—through fields, down country roads, across cities, and into yards, neighborhoods, and spaces of all sorts. The result is a book of spectacular photography that’s also a game for kids or adults of all ages. Perfect for fans of coffee table books, a must-have for kids on a long car trip, and a great dog lover gift.
You know how some people learn lessons the hard way? Meet Yaya. She is a brown- haired, brown-eyed girl who chose to land on earth in the spandex-and- boy-band- infused-80's with her chosen perfectly fucked up family, so she may learn, heal, and embrace it all. Are you ready to join her on a wild ride from the nargile cafes in Istanbul, to art cars in Burning Man, underground Brooklyn, to the souks of Morocco to knee-deep in quick-sand in the jungles of Ecuador? After 80 countries, many festivals and lots of tv segments, the most heroic journey is the one she takes looking within, with the help of plant medicine, a hot yoga practice and other tantric tools, peeking behind the curtain of her own codependency and trauma and BPD diagnosis and unleashing her sexual desires. Come with Yaya for this mystical voyage around the world and finding peace at home again-within herself.
This collection of essays, edited by leading scholars in the field, focuses on how expressive genres such as music, dance and poetry are of enduring significance to social organization. Research from New Guinea, Indonesia and Taiwan is used to assess how historical changes modify these forms of expression to adjust to the social and political needs of the moment. The volume is unique in exploring the significance of expressive genres for the social processes of coping with and adjusting to change, either from outside forces or from internal ones. The contributions detail first-hand fieldwork, often conducted over a period of many years, and with each contributor bringing their experience to bear on both the aesthetic and the analytical aspects of their materials. Comparative in scope, the volume covers Austronesian and non-Austronesian speakers in the wider Indo-Pacific region.