Service Alert
Delay in delivery of Direct to Player materials
You may experience a delay in delivery of Direct to Player materials. All requests for materials will be delivered as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
You may experience a delay in delivery of Direct to Player materials. All requests for materials will be delivered as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
Showing 1 - 20 of 3167 items
By Lakshmi D. Bulathsinghala. 2024
This book explores the development of Sinhala stylistic drama from its earliest manifestations to the post-independence era.Bulathsinghala examines the impact…
of indigenous and imported folk theatrical forms on the work of the most significant postcolonial stylistic dramatists and on key plays that they produced. In the process, the book explores a number of myths and misunderstandings regarding Sri Lanka’s folk heritage and seeks to establish more reliable information on the principal indigenous Sri Lankan folk dramatic forms and their characteristics. At the same time, by drawing connections between folk drama and the post-independence stylistic theatrical movement, the author demonstrates the essential role of the former in Sinhala culture prior to the advent of Western and other influences and shows how both continue to inflect Sri Lankan drama today.This book will help to open the field of South Asian drama studies to an audience consisting not only of scholars and students but also of general readers who are interested in the fields of drama and theatre and Asian studies.A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas and their fifty-year sisterhood,…
a legacy erased from history—until now.&“This is the kind of history I wish I learned as a child dreaming of the stage!&” —Misty Copeland, author of Black Ballerinas: My Journey to Our Legacy &“Utterly absorbing, flawlessly-researched…Vibrant, propulsive, and inspiring, The Swans of Harlem is a richly drawn portrait of five courageous women whose contributions have been silenced for too long!&” —Tia Williams, author of A Love Song for Ricki WildeAt the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lydia Abarca was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company—the Dance Theatre of Harlem, a troupe of women and men who became each other&’s chosen family. She was the first Black company ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover star; she was cast in The Wiz and in a Bob Fosse production on Broadway. She performed in some of ballet&’s most iconic works with other trailblazing ballerinas, including the young women who became her closest friends—founding Dance Theatre of Harlem members Gayle McKinney-Griffith and Sheila Rohan, as well as first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells.These Swans of Harlem performed for the Queen of England, Mick Jagger, and Stevie Wonder, on the same bill as Josephine Baker, at the White House, and beyond. But decades later there was almost no record of their groundbreaking history to be found. Out of a sisterhood that had grown even deeper with the years, these Swans joined forces again—to share their story with the world.Captivating, rich in vivid detail and character, and steeped in the glamour and grit of professional ballet, The Swans of Harlem is a riveting account of five extraordinarily accomplished women, a celebration of both their historic careers and the sustaining, grounding power of female friendship, and a window into the robust history of Black ballet, hidden for too long.By Sanghamitra Misra. 2024
This book is an enquiry into the elision of the figure of the sovereign, cotton-producing Garo in the colonial archive…
and its savage transformation into imperialism’s quintessential ‘primitive’ in the period between 1760 CE and 1900 CE.The precolonial political economy of hill cotton produced by the Garos, its unhinging from the exercise of Garo sovereignty and its eventual commodification twined with the deterritorialization of the community as it made way for elephant mehals and reserved forests form the kernel of the book. This history is seen as participating in and mirroring analogous processes of colonization across vast contiguous swathes of India, including Mymensingh, Chittagong, Bhagalpur, the Khasi hills and the Cachar valley. A central theme explored is the long history of Garo rebellions and their rationality, examined in conjunction with contiguous polities such as that of the Khasis; even as the book follows the growing arc of colonial power in eastern and northeastern India as it converted territory and revenue appropriated through conquest, into dominium.The book makes an original contribution to the historiography of the colonial state, the ‘tribe’ and primitivism by making a case for the welded histories of war, ethnogenesis, revenue extraction and anthropological knowledge otherwise often studied as disparate fields of scholarship. It therefore also offers a new interpretation of the history of the colonization of eastern and northeastern India. The book will be of interest to academics and researchers of these regions and of empire and political economy, law and ‘primitivism’, and anthropology and colonial revenue.By Nasser Abu Srour. 2022
This passionate autobiography—at once history lesson, prison memoir, metaphysical inquiry, love story, and cry for justice—provides insights into the Israeli…
occupation and the struggle of the Palestinian people.One of more than 5,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons before October 7, 2023, Nasser Abu Srour serves a life sentence with no possibility of parole. From the Nakba to the disastrous consequences of the Oslo Accords, he explains with great acumen how the Intifada of the Stones (1987–1993) ultimately provided the only option for young Palestinians in refugee camps to infuse meaning into their lives, especially as they faced a constant threat of humiliation and manipulation by Israeli intelligence. This uprising leads to Abu Srour&’s incarceration, after he was forced to confess, under torture, to involvement in the killing of a Shin Bet officer who recruited his cousin as an informant.Within his cell, Abu Srour turns the Wall that has deprived him of freedom into his interlocutor and the source of stability that allows him to endure a chaotic, hopeless existence. The limitations of this survival strategy—and singular literary device—become painfully evident when falling in love causes Abu Srour to lose his grip on the Wall. Only by writing the story of his imprisonment and the story of his love does Abu Srour find his way back. In doing so, he has created a work of art that transcends his pain while shining a glaring light on the ongoing tragedy of the Palestinian situation.By Ryan Serhant. 2018
This national bestseller is a lively and practical guide on how to sell anything and achieve long-term success in business.…
Ryan Serhant was a shy, jobless hand model when he entered the real estate business in 2008 at a time the country was on the verge of economic collapse. Just nine years later, he has emerged as one of the top realtors in the world and an authority on the art of selling. Sell It Like Serhant is a smart, at times hilarious, and always essential playbook to build confidence, generate results, and sell just about anything. You'll find tips like: The Seven Stages of Selling How to Find Your Hook; Negotiating Like A BOSS; How to Be a Time Manager, Not a Time Stealer; and much more!Through useful lessons, lively stories, and vivid examples, this book shows you how to employ Serhant's principles to increase profits and achieve success. Your measure of a good day will no longer depend on one deal or one client, wondering what comes next; the next deal is already happening. And Serhant's practical guidance will show you how to juggle multiple deals at once and close all of them EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Whatever your business or expertise, Sell It Like Serhant will make anyone a master at sales. Ready, set, GO!Sell It Like Serhant is a USA Today Bestseller, Los Angeles Times Bestseller, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller.By Null Aziza Shanazarova. 2024
Through revealing the fascinating story of the Sufi master Aghā-yi Buzurg and her path to becoming the 'Great Lady' in…
sixteenth-century Bukhara, Aziza Shanazarova invites readers into the little-known world of female religious authority in early modern Islamic Central Asia, revealing a far more multifaceted gender history than previously supposed. Pointing towards new ways of mapping female religious authority onto the landscapes of early modern Muslim narratives, this book serves as an intervention into the debate on the history of women and religion that views gender as a historical phenomenon and construct, challenging narratives of the relationship between gender and age in Islamic discourse of the period. Shanazarova draws on previously unknown primary sources to bring attention to a rich world of female religiosity involving communal leadership, competition for spiritual superiority, and negotiation with the political elite that transforms our understanding of women's history in early modern Central Asia.Since at least the high point of the civil rights movement, African American Christianity has been widely recognized as a…
potent force for social change. Most attention to the political significance of Black churches, however, focuses on domestic protest and electoral politics. Yet some Black churches take a deep interest in the global issue of Israel and Palestine. Why would African American Christians get involved—and even take sides—in Palestine and Israel, and what does that reveal about the political significance of “the Black Church” today?This book examines African American Christian involvement in Israel and Palestine to show how competing visions of “the Black Church” are changing through transnational political engagement. Considering cases ranging from African American Christian Zionists to Palestinian solidarity activists, Roger Baumann traces how Black religious politics transcend domestic arenas and enter global spaces. These cases, he argues, illuminate how the meaning of the ostensibly singular and unifying category of “the Black Church”—spanning its history, identity, culture, and mission—is deeply contested at every turn. Black Visions of the Holy Land offers new insights into how Black churches understand their political role and social significance; the ways race, religion, and politics both converge and diverge; and why the meaning of overlapping racial and religious identities shifts when moving from national to global contexts.By Dorsey Nunn. 2024
A decade behind bars spurs fifty powerful years of political and legal battles for freedom and human rights."Whoever wants to…
assuage their doubts that radical change is possible—from the level of the individual to that of law, culture, and society—should make time to read Dorsey Nunn's extraordinary memoir." —Angela Y. Davis, political activist and author of Are Prisons Obsolete?, Abolition Democracy, and Freedom Is a Constant Struggle"Dorsey Nunn is one of the grand love warriors and freedom fighters of his generation! Don't miss his powerful and poignant story of tragedy and triumph!" —Cornel West"So much of what I've come to know and understand over the years about the second-class status imposed upon people labeled 'criminals' or 'felons' I've learned from Dorsey and the people who comprise All of Us or None, an organization he cofounded. Although I have fancy degrees and Dorsey does not, there’s never been a time in our friendship in which he hasn't been schooling me—not so much in theory, but in practice." —From the foreword by Michelle AlexanderWhen Dorsey Nunn shuffled, shackled like a slave, into the California State carceral system at age nineteen, he could barely read. While caged he received an education he never could have anticipated. His first lesson: Prison had a color scheme, and it didn’t match the larger society. On the inside, guards stoked racial warfare among prisoners while on the outside the machinery of the criminal legal system increasingly targeted poor Black and Brown communities with offenses, real or contrived. Nunn emerged from San Quentin after ten years behind bars, radicalized by his experience and emboldened by the militant wisdom of the men he met there. He poured his heart and mind into liberating all those he left behind, building a nationwide movement to restore justice to millions of system-impacted Americans.In this poignant, wry, and powerful memoir, Nunn links the politics of Black Power to the movements for Black lives and dignified reentry today. His story underscores the power of coalition building, persistence in the face of backlash, and the importance of centering the voices of experience in the fight for freedom—and proves, once and for all, that jailbirds can fly.By Dmitri Alperovitch, Garrett M. Graff. 2024
The leading national security expert who predicted Putin&’s intention to invade Ukraine argues that China&’s Xi Jinping is preparing to…
conquer Taiwan in the coming years—with dire stakes for America and the world if he is not deterred We are fully in the midst of Cold War II, this time with China. Taiwan is a new West Berlin, a perilous strategic flashpoint where localized events could trigger a devastating war between nuclear powers. But this outcome is far from inevitable. Laying out the grand strategy for the United States and allies to avoid this fate, the highly respected security analyst Dmitri Alperovitch reveals key actions that could enable America to win the race for the twenty-first century. This sharp, timely book is the essential blueprint for preventing a catastrophe.By Julia Lawrinson. 2024
Some people are born into bad situations, some people have bad situations thrust upon them, and some people find bad…
situations through their dodgy choices, lack of information and personal idiosyncrasies. Julia' s life sits at the intersection of all three. From high school dropout on a psych ward to card-carrying lesbian on a motorbike, from enduring a controlling relationship with her ex-lover' s brother to being chased by a media scrum outside a Perth court, the life of beloved children' s author Julia Lawrinson is stranger than fiction – and she draws on all her power as a storyteller to turn a life of intense headlines into a wild, marvellous tale.By Gerard McCann. 2024
Raw and compelling, Anatomy of a Secret bravely shares long silenced, unspoken truths.As a boy, Gerard was sexually abused by…
a Catholic priest at his local church. As a grown man, he confronts the trauma of what he suffered and the psychological aftermath of his experience, grappling with shame, guilt and the devastating impact it had on his family, relationships and sense of self. Despite what he endured, Gerard' s story is one of hope and healing, of acknowledging pain and seeking support, of honesty and justice.By Sami Nouri. 2022
À l'âge de 5 ans, Sami Nouri fuit avec sa famille le régime des talibans, trouvant refuge en Iran puis…
en Europe dans des conditions particulièrement éprouvantes. À 14 ans, il arrive seul en France, ne parle pas la langue, est déplacé de foyer en foyer. Un jour, son talent de couturier est découvert. À 27 ans, il est styliste et a fondé sa propre maison de haute coutureBy Charles Haroche. 2021
Revenant sur la vie et la carrière de Roger Federer, l'auteur explique comment et pourquoi le tennisman est devenu un…
véritable mythe, convoquant au passage des références mythologiques, cinématographiques, religieuses, philosophiques, littéraires, artistiques ou psychologiquesBy Erin Frankel. 2024
Jos©♭ Andr©♭s's love of cooking began as a young boy in Spain as he gathered the wood to make the…
fire that would cook the paella just right. Jos©♭ loved everything about it: the sizzling olive oil, the mounds of chopped vegetables, and the smell of saffron. When he left home, he realized he wanted to tell stories with food. And tell them he did, creating magic with the seeds of ripe tomatoes and pomegranates and cheese. His dreams grew until they were as big as the stars in the sky. He thought No one should ever go hungry. I want to help feed the world—and World Central Kitchen was born. From the earthquake in Haiti to the war in Ukraine and the Covid pandemic, Jos©♭ and his team at World Central Kitchen have been at the frontlines, serving more than 200 million meals and counting, and bringing comfort and hope in the darkest times. With its lyrical text, this biography about a world-renowned humanitarian and chef is sure to inspire a new generation of community helpersBy Christian Tétreault. 2023
Un criminaliste flamboyant, les pires bandits de l'histoire judiciaire du Québec: Bienvenue dans l'univers Maranda. Avocat de génie qui tétanisait…
la partie adverse et imposait le respect aux juges les plus coriaces, ardent défenseur des droits et libertés fasciné par le parcours des hors-la-loi qu'il représentait, homme respectable que l'amour a traîné sur le banc des accusés: Léo-René Maranda (1932-2012) était la complexité faite homme. Découvrir l'univers Maranda, c'est plonger dans une époque révolue où les figures mythiques de Brian Erb, Richard Foley, Monica-la-mitraille, Gérard Fontaine, Donald Côté et Alain Charron couraient encore les rues, protégées par la verve de leur éblouissant défenseurBy Jill Biden. 2022
Mémoires de l'épouse de Joe Biden, qu'elle épouse en secondes noces en 1977. Enseignante d'anglais et d'histoire au lycée, elle…
conserve son métier lors de la vice-présidence de son mari sous les mandats d'Obama puis lorsque Biden accède lui-même au bureau ovale. Elle retrace son parcours, ses liens avec son mari et les enfants issus de son premier mariage, dont Beau, décédé en 2015By Ariane Lacoursière. 2023
"J'ai défendu des milliers de gens dans ma carrière. Dont certains avaient des revenus modestes. Dans ce contexte-là, j'ai rencontré…
beaucoup de gens qui ont été pour moi des gens extraordinaires et significatifs en termes de personne. Chacune de ces personnes et de ces groupes a été pour moi tout au long de mon parcours professionnel une véritable inspiration qui m'a soutenue dans les moments difficiles lorsque j'affrontais des adversaires plus redoutables que les autres. Sans eux pour m'inspirer et me soutenir, je ne pense pas que j'aurais eu autant de satisfaction à pratiquer mon métier.'' Discours de Jean-Pierre Ménard lors de la remise de la Médaille du Barreau, en avril 2022By Benny Morris. 2008
This history of the foundational war in the Arab-Israeli conflict is groundbreaking, objective, and deeply revisionist. A riveting account of…
the military engagements, it also focuses on the war's political dimensions. Benny Morris probes the motives and aims of the protagonists on the basis of newly opened Israeli and Western documentation. The Arab sidewhere the archives are still closedis illuminated with the help of intelligence and diplomatic materials. Morris stresses the jihadi character of the two-stage Arab assault on the Jewish community in Palestine. Throughout, he examines the dialectic between the war's military and political developments and highlights the military impetus in the creation of the refugee problem, which was a by-product of the disintegration of Palestinian Arab society. The book thoroughly investigates the role of the Great PowersBritain, the United States, and the Soviet Unionin shaping the conflict and its tentative termination in 1949. Morris looks both at high politics and general staff decision-making processes and at the nitty-gritty of combat in the successive battles that resulted in the emergence of the State of Israel and the humiliation of the Arab world, a humiliation that underlies the continued Arab antagonism toward Israel.By Candice Bergen. 2015
In this New York Times bestseller, acclaimed actress Candice Bergen “shows how to do a memoir right...The self-possessed, witty, and…
down-to-earth voice that made Bergen’s first memoir a hit when it was published in 1984 has only been deepened by life’s surprises” (The New York Times Book Review).“Candice Bergen is unflinchingly honest” (The Washington Post), and in A Fine Romance she describes her first marriage at age thirty-four to famous French director Louis Malle; her overpowering love for her daughter, Chloe; the unleashing of her inner comic with Murphy Brown; her trauma over Malle’s death; her joy at finding new love; and her pride at watching Chloe blossom. In her decidedly nontraditional marriage to the insatiably curious Louis, Bergen takes readers on world travels to the sets where each made films. Pregnant with Chloe at age thirty-nine, this mature primigravida also recounts a journey through motherhood that includes plundering the Warner Bros. costume closets for Halloween getups and never leaving her ever-expanding menagerie out of the fun. She offers priceless, behind-the-scenes looks at Murphy Brown, from caterwauling with Aretha Franklin to the surreal experience of becoming headline news when Dan Quayle took exception to her character becoming a single mother. Bergen tackles familiar rites of passage with moving honesty: the rigors of caring for a spouse in his final illness, getting older, and falling in love again after she was tricked into a blind date. By the time the last page is turned, “we’re all likely to be wishing Bergen herself—funny, insightful, self-deprecating, flawed (and not especially concerned about that), and slugging her way through her older years with bemused determination—was living next door” (USA TODAY).By Angel Au-Yeung, David Jeans. 2023
A Financial Times best business book of 2023In 1998, at the age of 24, Tony Hsieh sold his first company…
to Microsoft for $265 million.In 2009, at the age of 35, he sold his e-commerce company, Zappos, to Amazon for $1.2 billion.In 2020, at the age of 46, he died.Tony Hsieh revolutionized both the tech world and corporate culture. He was a business visionary. He was also a man in search of happiness. So why did it all go so wrong?Tony Hsieh’s first successful venture was in middle school, selling personalized buttons. At Harvard, he made a profit compiling and selling study guides. From there, he went on to build the billion-dollar online shoe empire of Zappos.The secret to his success? Making his employees happy.At its peak, Zappos’s employee-friendly culture was so famous across the tech industry that it inspired copycats and earned a cult following. Then Hsieh moved the Zappos headquarters to Las Vegas, where he personally funded a nine-figure campaign to revitalize the city’s historic downtown area. But as Hsieh fell deeper into his struggles with mental health and drug addiction, the people making up his inner circle began changing from friends to enablers.Drawing on hundreds of interviews with a wide range of people whose lives Hsieh touched, journalists Angel Au-Yeung and David Jeans craft a rich portrait of a man who was plagued by his eternal search for happiness and ultimately succumbed to his own demons.