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Showing 1 - 20 of 2334 items
By David A. Neel. 2019
David Neel was an infant when his father, a traditional Kwakiutl artist, returned to the ancestors, triggering a series of…
events that would separate David from his homeland and its rich cultural traditions for twenty-five years. When the aspiring photographer saw a mask carved by an ancestor in a Texas museum, the encounter inspired him to return home and follow in his father’s footsteps. Drawing on memory, legend, and his own art, Neel recounts his struggle to reconnect with his culture and become an accomplished Kwakwa_ka_’wakw artist. His memoir is a testament to the strength of the human spirit to overcome great obstacles and to the power and endurance of Indigenous culture and art.By Antonio Michael Downing. 2021
The triumph of Saga Boy is the triumph of Blackness everywhere--the irrepressible instinct for survival in a world where Blacks…
are prey."--Ian Williams, Giller Prize-winning author of ReproductionAn enthralling, deeply personal account of a young immigrant's search for belonging and Black identity amid the long-lasting effects of cultural dislocation.Antonio Michael Downing's memoir of creativity and transformation is a startling mash-up of memories and mythology, told in gripping, lyrical prose. Raised by his indomitable grandmother in the lush rainforest of southern Trinidad, Downing, at age 11, is uprooted to Canada when she dies. But to a very unusual part of Canada: he and his older brother are sent to live with his stern, evangelical Aunt Joan, in Wabigoon, a tiny northern Ontario community where they are the only Black children in the town. In this wilderness, he begins his journey as an immigrant minority, using music and performance to dramatically transform himself. At the heart of his odyssey is the longing for a home. He is re-united with his birth parents who he has known only through stories. But this proves disappointing: Al is a womanizing con man and drug addict, and Gloria, twice abandoned by Al, seems to regard her sons as cash machines. He tries to flee his messy family life by transforming into a series of extravagant musical personalities: "Mic Dainjah," a punk rock rapper, "Molasses," a soul music crooner and finally "John Orpheus," a gold chained, sequin- and leather-clad pop star. Yet, like his father and grandfather, he has become a "Saga Boy," a Trinidadian playboy, addicted to escapism, attention, and sex. When the inevitable crash happens, he finds himself in a cold, stone jail cell. He has become everything he was trying to escape and must finally face himself. Richly evocative, Saga Boy is a heart-wrenching but uplifting story of a lonely immigrant boy who overcomes adversity and abandonment to reclaim his Black identity and embrace a rich heritage.By Nathan Greenfield. 2021
Molly Lamb and Bruno Bobak shot to prominence as war artists during the Second World War. Marrying shortly after the…
end of the war, they moved first to Vancouver and then, in 1960, to Fredericton, where they settled permanently. Molly’s paintings were vibrant and colourful, featuring dynamic crowd scenes and wildflowers that seem to wave on the page. In contrast, Bruno painted near-abstract cityscapes, stunning landscapes, and distorted bodies wracked with inner torment, work that is unique in Canadian art.In this book, acclaimed author Nathan M. Greenfield brings to light the private and public lives of two of the most important figures in 20th century Canadian art. Combining archival research with Molly’s diaries and letters, interviews with friends and contemporaries, and an analysis of paintings by both artists, he develops an intimate portrait of their life and art: their critical acclaim, commercial success, and a turbulent marriage that lasted over fifty years.By Molly Peacock. 2021
Mary fought for a place as a professional artist without having to live as a tragic heroine. She married George…
Reid, Canadian muralist, and while their relationship was more equal than most, this was still the Edwardian age. How do you find time to paint when you need to get to the market to buy a chicken for dinner?By Bill Arnott. 2020
Bill Arnott guides readers on an epic literary odyssey following history’s most feared and misunderstood voyageurs: the Vikings!To “go Viking”…
is to embark on an epic journey. For more than eight years, Bill Arnott journeyed throughout the northern hemisphere, discovering sites Scandinavian explorers raided, traded, and settled – finding Viking history in a wider swath of the planet than most anthropologists and historians ever imagined.With a small pack and weatherproof journal, Bill explores and writes with a journalist’s eye, songwriter’s prose, poet’s perspective, and a comedian’s take on everything else. Prepare yourself for an armchair adventure like no other!From Europe to Asia, the Mediterranean to the British Isles, through Scandinavia to Iceland, Greenland, and the New World, with further excursions around Thor Heyerdahl’s Pacific, Roald Amundsen’s Arctic, and Olaf Crowbone’s stormy North Atlantic, Bill takes readers on a mythic personal adventure in real time – a present-day Viking quest.Dean Worcester’s Fantasy Islands brings to life one of the most significant (but under examined) figures in the history of U.…
S. colonialism in the Philippines. Upon the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Worcester, a scientist who had traveled twice to the Philippines on zoological expeditions, established himself as one of America’s leading experts on the Philippines. Over a fourteen-year career as a member of the U. S. colonial regime, Worcester devoted much of his time and energy to traveling among and photographing non-Christian minority groups in the Philippines. He amassed an archive of several thousand photographs taken by him or by government photographers. Worcester deployed those photographs in books, magazine articles, and lectures to promote his belief that the United States should maintain control of the Philippines for decades to come. While many historians have examined American colonial photography in the Philippines, this book is the first lengthy treatment of Worcester’s role in shaping American perceptions of the Philippines in the early twentieth century.By Mckay Jenkins. 2003
When World War II broke out in Europe, the American army had no specialized division of mountain soldiers. But in…
the winter of 1939–40, after a tiny band of Finnish mountain troops brought the invading Soviet army to its knees, an amateur skier named Charles Minot “Minnie” Dole convinced the United States Army to let him recruit an extraordinary assortment of European expatriates, wealthy ski bums, mountaineers, and thrill-seekers and form them into a unique band of Alpine soldiers. These men endured nearly three years of grueling training in the Colorado Rockies and in the process set new standards for both soldiering and mountaineering. The newly forged 10th Mountain Division finally faced combat in the winter of 1945, in Italy’s Apennine Mountains, against the seemingly unbreakable German fortifications north of the Gothic Line. There, they planned and executed what is still regarded as the most daring series of nighttime mountain attacks in U. S. military history, taking Mount Belvedere and the sheer, treacherous face of Riva Ridge to smash the linchpin of the German army’s lines. Drawing on unique cooperation from veterans of the 10th Mountain Division and a vast archive of unpublished letters and documents, The Last Ridge is written with enormous warmth, energy, and honesty. This is one of the most captivating stories of World War II, a blend of Band of Brothers and Into Thin Air. It is a story of young men asked to do the impossible, and succeeding. From the Hardcover edition.By Franny Moyle. 2009
Their Bohemian lifestyle and intertwined love affairs shockingly broke 19th Century class barriers and bent the rules that governed the…
roles of the sexes. They became defined by love triangles, played out against the austere moral climate of Victorian England; they outraged their contemporaries with their loves, jealousies and betrayals, and they stunned society when their complex moral choices led to madness and suicide, or when their permissive experiments ended in addiction and death. The characters are huge and vivid and remain as compelling today as they were in their own time. The influential critic, writer and artist John Ruskin was their father figure and his apostles included the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the designer William Morris. They drew extraordinary women into their circle. In a move intended to raise eyebrows for its social audacity, they recruited the most ravishing models they could find from the gutters of Victorian slums. The saga is brought to life through the vivid letters and diaries kept by the group and the accounts written by their contemporaries. These real-lie stories shed new light on the greatest nineteenth-century British art.By John Diconsiglio. 2009
By Kim Richardson, David Meissner. 2009
As thousands head north in search of gold, Marshall Bond and Stanley Pearce join them, booking passage on a steamship…
bound for the Klondike goldfields. The journey is life threatening, but the two friends make it to Dawson City, in Canada, build a cabin, and meet Jack London--all the while searching for the ultimate reward: gold! A riveting, true, action-packed adventure, with their telegrams, diaries, and letters, as well as newspaper articles and photographs. An author's note, timeline, bibliography, and further resources encourage readers to dig deeper into the Gold Rush era.Call of the Klondike has been awarded the 2014 Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction.By Rachel Lindsay. 2018
A graphic memoir about the treatment of mental illness, treating mental illness as a commodity, and the often unavoidable choice…
between sanity and happiness.In her early twenties in New York City, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Rachel Lindsay takes a job in advertising in order to secure healthcare coverage for her treatment. But work takes a strange turn when she is promoted onto the Pfizer account and suddenly finds herself on the other side of the curtain, developing ads for an antidepressant drug. She is the audience of the work she's been pouring over and it highlights just how unhappy and trapped she feels, stuck in an endless cycle of treatment, insurance and medication. Overwhelmed by the stress of her professional life and the self-scrutiny it inspires, she begins to destabilize and while in the midst of a crushing job search, her mania takes hold. Her altered mindset yields a simple solution: to quit her job and pursue life as an artist, an identity she had abandoned in exchange for medical treatment. When her parents intervene, she finds herself hospitalized against her will, and stripped of the control she felt she had finally reclaimed. Over the course of her two weeks in the ward, she struggles in the midst of doctors, nurses, patients and endless rules to find a path out of the hospital and this cycle of treatment. One where she can live the life she wants, finding freedom and autonomy, without sacrificing her dreams in order to stay well.By Hilton Als, Bill Cunningham. 2018
The untold story of a New York City legend's education in creativity and styleFor Bill Cunningham, New York City was…
the land of freedom, glamour, and, above all, style. Growing up in a lace-curtain Irish suburb of Boston, secretly trying on his sister's dresses and spending his evenings after school in the city's chicest boutiques, Bill dreamed of a life dedicated to fashion. But his desires were a source of shame for his family, and after dropping out of Harvard, he had to fight them tooth-and-nail to pursue his love. When he arrived in New York, he reveled in people-watching. He spent his nights at opera openings and gate-crashing extravagant balls, where he would take note of the styles, new and old, watching how the gowns moved, how the jewels hung, how the hair laid on each head. This was his education, and the birth of the democratic and exuberant taste that he came to be famous for as a photographer for The New York Times. After two style mavens took Bill under their wing, his creativity thrived and he made a name for himself as a designer. Taking on the alias William J.--because designing under his family's name would have been a disgrace to his parents--Bill became one of the era's most outlandish and celebrated hat designers, catering to movie stars, heiresses, and artists alike. Bill's mission was to bring happiness to the world by making women an inspiration to themselves and everyone who saw them. These were halcyon days when fashion was all he ate and drank. When he was broke and hungry he'd stroll past the store windows on Fifth Avenue and feed himself on beautiful things.Fashion Climbing is the story of a young man striving to be the person he was born to be: a true original. But although he was one of the city's most recognized and treasured figures, Bill was also one of its most guarded. Written with his infectious joy and one-of-a-kind voice, this memoir was polished, neatly typewritten, and safely stored away in his lifetime. He held off on sharing it--and himself--until his passing. Between these covers, is an education in style, an effervescent tale of a bohemian world as it once was, and a final gift to the readers of one of New York's great characters.By Kathleen Thorne-Thomsen. 2014
An engaging, kid-friendly exploration of America's leading architect and his work This revised and updated edition of a longstanding classic,…
Frank Lloyd Wright for Kids, details the life, times, and work of the celebrated architect. Through simple, kid-friendly prose and anecdotes, author Kathleen Thorne-Thomsen describes the influences of Wright's Wisconsin childhood filled with nature, music, and close family ties; his struggles to find work as a young architect; the unique style that led him to the top of his profession; and masterpieces such as the Robie House, Hollyhock House, Fallingwater, the Guggenheim, and many others. Also discussed are Wright's sometimes controversial private and public life and the people and times that influenced him and vice-versa, with new sidebars on topics such as the Chicago and Bauhaus schools of architecture, Friedrich Froebel and his toy blocks that enchanted Wright as a child, and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Budding architects will delve into architectural and design concepts while having fun through 21 hands-on projects, such as creating an edible model of Fallingwater, making a miniature Japanese kite, reading an architectural plan, and much more. A time line, glossary, bibliography, and list of houses to visit are also included.By Michael Elsohn Ross. 2014
The stories of two dozen fascinating female explorers, from a wide range of eras, cultures, races, and economic backgrounds, are…
profiled in this entertaining and educational resource. Each of the women profiled overcame many obstacles to satisfy her curiosity and passions, including Eleanor Creesy, who was a ship's navigator in the 1800s; Kate Jackson, an insatiable investigator of venomous snakes whose work has led her to remote Africa and Latin America; and Constanza Ceruti, the world's only female high-elevation archaeologist, who carries out excavations on the Earth's highest peaks in dangerously thin air and subzero temperatures. Offering not only important historical context but also original interviews with many intriguing modern explorers, this who's who of women explorers will provide inspiration to today's young women interested in nature, science, and a physical challenge.By Kathleen Krull. 2004
By Tom Spurgeon, Jordan Raphael. 2003
Based on interviews with Stan Lee and dozens of his colleagues and contemporaries, as well as extensive archival research, this…
book provides a professional history, an appreciation, and a critical exploration of the face of Marvel Comics. Recognized as a dazzling writer, a skilled editor, a relentless self-promoter, a credit hog, and a huckster, Stan Lee rose from his humble beginnings to ride the wave of the 1940s comic books boom and witness the current motion picture madness and comic industry woes. Included is a complete examination of the rise of Marvel Comics, Lee's work in the years of postwar prosperity, and his efforts in the 1960s to revitalize the medium after it had grown stale.By Janis Herbert. 2000
Join Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's Corps of Discovery as they navigate the muddy Missouri River and begin a great…
adventure set against the background of the vast North American continent. Lewis and Clark for Kids takes children from President Jefferson's vision of an exploratory mission across a continent full of unique plants and animals through their dangerous and challenging journey into the unknown to the expedition's triumphant return to the frontier town of St. Louis. Twenty-one activities bring to life the Native American tribes they encountered, the plants and animals they discovered, and the camping and navigating techniques they used. A glossary of terms and listings of Lewis and Clark sites, museums, and related Web sites round out this comprehensive activity book.By Off Track Planet. 2017
800x600 The editors of Off Track Planet specialize in inspiring the young, sexy masses to get off their asses and…
out into the world. Now, in this completely revised and updated edition of their comprehensive, uncensored travel guide, you have all the tools at your fingertips to do just that. Reignite your sense of adventure by conquering the world's greatest mountains, oceans, and footpaths. Let your passion for food take you across the globe. Party like it's your job and hook up with locals from here to Timbuktu. Let's go see the world. In this guide you will: Find exciting, sexy, and-most importantly-free shit to do in every corner of the worldPlan, pack, and get yourself halfway across the globe on a Cup-O-Noodles budgetDiscover charity projects that let you extend your travel and help a worthy causeAnd more!By John L. Stephens. 1969
Stephens' two expeditions to Mexico and Central America in 1839 and 1841 yielded the first solid information on the culture…
of the Maya Indians. The books in this two-volume set relate his archeological discoveries and exploration of ruined cities, monuments, and temples with penetrating and exciting narrative. Remarkably realistic illustrations by Frederick Catherwood double the appeal of the books.By Amy Mccullough. 2016
The true story of a young couple who quit their jobs and set sail for a year on the ocean…
with no boating experienceAmy and Jimmie were not sailors and their experience on the seas included reading a few books, watching a couple of instructional videos, and boating once a week each year. They were middle-class land-lubbers, audacious and in love, and all they wanted was to be together and do something extraordinary. The Box Wine Sailors tells the true story of a couple's ramshackle trip down the coast with all the exulting highs and terrifying lows of sailing a small boat on the Pacific. From sailing on Thanksgiving morning under spectacular bright blue Californian skies just off the Channel Islands as dolphins raced alongside their boat to the terrifying experience of rounding Punta Gorda and hanging on to the mast for dear life. It also tells the story of two very normal people doing what most people only dream of and settling the argument that if you want something bad enough you can make it happen.