Other books that might interest you

• 

  Self-Portrait With Family

  Amaan Hyder

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In Self-Portrait With Family, Amaan Hyder traces a personal history of family and queerness. With poems that focus on coming out, the collection depicts the relationship between a son and his parents, and an immigrant family and its community in the diaspora. Featuring snapshots of conversations across dinner tables and phone lines, Hyder's striking and beautifully precise poems bring into relief what is said and not said, the retreat from speech and the longing to hear from another.
  By turns tender and skilfully observed, this collection also looks from the family home to the individual experience of the brown queer man in public spaces, searching for intimate connection whilst experiencing discrimination. Self-Portrait With Family distinctively frames such narratives of closeness and distance, exploring a range of poetic forms to draw together intergenerational familial and gay relationships, English and Urdu, the world of the family home and the world outside of it.

  Show book

• 

  The Merchant of Feathers

  Tanya Shirley

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This second collection of poems confirms why Tanya Shirley is so much in demand for readings. The stories she tells have their finger on the pulse of contemporary Jamaica in all its exuberance and brokenness. She tells these stories with a winning mixture of acute observation, outrage, outrageousness, tenderness and understanding. They present a poetic persona of a woman who is "sometimes dangling from high wires/ but always out in the open". So that whilst there is no one who so wittily skewers the misogynistic, she is also honest about the complicity of women in their own acts of submission, of how "I danced flat-footed in your dense air". There is joy in the energy and delights of the body but also a keen awareness of ageing and the body's derelictions. If there is one overarching vision it is that love is "larger than the space we live in", a love represented by the "merchant of feathers - now a woman/ selling softness in these hard times", or the mother who tends the battered face of her son, the victim of a homophobic beating.
  
  There is scarcely a line without some memorable phrase - the madman who chants his "lullaby of badwords", the father who "became the water within him" - but these are much more than an assembly of sharp images; closer reading shows just how shapely and elegant these poems are.

  Show book

• 

  Girls From the County

  Donna Lynch

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This book is merely a record of dark events, the kind that you can sometimes move on from, yet can’t help but see in every old house, high school, or crumbling bridge. 
  In the county, eerie stillness can be mistaken for stagnation. In the county, rumination on pain and guilt can be confused with omens and curses. In the county, feelings of claustrophobia stem from understanding what the encroaching darkness brings with it. 
  You’ve heard of country girls, and city girls, but what of the forgotten girls from the in-between space of the county? Confronting the things too wild for urban areas, and too methodically malevolent for the countryside, girls from the county are often dismissed by popular narratives, left to solve riddles of grief and rage for themselves. 
  Known for weaving folk horror with confessional poetry, unflinching true crime approaches with myth and fable, contemporary appetites with gothic literature, award-winning author Donna Lynch has composed a lyrical reconstruction for readers to navigate the lives—and deaths—of girls from the county.

  Show book

• 

  The Graduate

  Terry Johnson, Charles Webb,...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  An American classic adapted for the stage, starring Kathleen Turner as Mrs. Robinson and Matthew Rhys as Benjamin Braddock. A fresh-faced college grad returns home, diploma in hand, to seek an answer to that age old question: “Now what?” Lacking any clear career path, he falls prey to the original “cougar”, the predatory Mrs. Robinson, wife of his father's business partner. But it’s Mrs. Robinson’s daughter who captures his heart.Includes and interview with the star of The Graduate, screen legend Kathleen Turner.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring:Kathleen Turner as Mrs. RobinsonMatthew Rhys as Benjamin BraddockBruce Davison as Mr. BraddockJohn Getz as Mr. RobinsonJamison Jones as Hotel Clerk and othersDevon Sorvari as Elaine RobinsonLinda Purl as Mrs. Braddock and othersAdapted for the stage by Terry Johnson, based on the novel by Charles Webb and the screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry. Directed by John Rubinstein.  Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles.

  Show book

• 

  The New Brownies' Book - A Love...

  Charly Palmer, Karida L. Brown

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "[A] heartfelt tribute to young people of color and their 'reflection of resplendent beauty, ancient history ... and irreplaceable value.' It's a standout."—Publishers Weekly, starred review 
   
  Inspired by the groundbreaking work of W. E. B. Du Bois, this beautiful collection brings together an outstanding roster of Black creative voices to honor, celebrate, and foster Black excellence. 
   
  Give yourself a joyful smile as you look at your beautiful skin. Hug yourself. You are as unique as your fingerprints. This is TRUTH.—Halima Taha, “A Love Letter for You” from The New Brownies’ Book 
   
  In 1920, as art and writing flourished during the Harlem Renaissance, W. E. B. Du Bois published The Brownies’ Book: A Monthly Magazine for Children of the Sun—the first periodical for African American youth, collecting original art, stories, letters, and activities to celebrate their identities  
  and inspire their imaginations and ambitions. 
   
  Building upon Du Bois’s mission, esteemed professor and scholar Karida L. Brown and celebrated artist Charly Palmer reimagine the groundbreaking publication with The New Brownies’ Book, gathering the work of more than 50 contemporary Black writers, including Ntozake Shange, Frank X  
  Walker, Danny Simmons, and Alice Faye Duncan. Created by and for Black families today, this anthology is filled with inspiring essays, poems, and short stories reflecting on the joy and depth of the Black experience. 
   
  Delivering delight to adults and children alike, this powerful celebration of twenty-firstcentury Black culture fulfills the promise of its source material by reminding readers of all ages that Black is brilliant, beautiful, and bold.

  Show book

• 

  American Night: The Ballad of...

  Richard Montoya

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In this wild satire, a Mexican immigrant has a feverish dream while studying for his American citizenship exam. He meets a parade of characters ranging from Sacagawea to Teddy Roosevelt to Jackie Robinson, who take him on a mind-bending, hilarious, and poignant trip through American history.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast recording, featuring Keith Jefferson, Richard Montoya, Todd Nakagawa, Sean San José, Kimberly Scott, Herbert Siguenza, Tom Virtue, Libby West, and Caro Zeller. Directed by Shana Cooper. Recorded before a live audience.

  Show book