Changes at the global, federal, state, and municipal level are pushing forward the reparations movement for people of African descent. The distinguished editors of this volume have gathered works that chronicle the historical movement for reparations both in the United States and around the world.Sharing a focus on reparations as an issue of justice, the contributors provide a historical primer of the movement; introduce the philosophical, political, economic, legal and ethical iss...

The popularity and profile of African dance have exploded across the African diaspora in the last fifty years. Hot Feet and Social Change presents traditionalists, neo-traditionalists, and contemporary artists, teachers, and scholars telling some of the thousands of stories lived and learned by people in the field. Concentrating on eight major cities in the United States, the essays challenges myths about African dance while demonstrating its power to awaken identity, self-worth, ...

The story of Belvie Rooks and Dedan Gills, their journey and their transformation, is “as old as eternity and new as now.” Dedan and Belvie were already activists, mentors, and voices for justice, but in their union, they became an even greater force for compassion and love. Dedan (1945–2015) was a lifelong social justice and human rights activist who viewed himself as a “soulutionary.” His favorite mantra—“Music is my medicine! Kindness is my song!”—was not only the hallmark of his work b...

Discover the Real Revolution Unfolding across AmericaAmerica faces huge challenges'Äîclimate change, social injustice, racist violence, economic insecurity. Journalist Sarah van Gelder suspected that there were solutions, and she went looking for them, not in the centers of power, where people are richly rewarded for their allegiance to the status quo, but off the beaten track, in rural communities, small towns, and neglected urban neighborhoods.She bought a used pickup truck...

The attachments we form shape our experience of the world and our understanding of who we are. 'Hell is other people', wrote Jean-Paul Sartre, his point being less about misanthropy and more about how entwined our self-perception is with the ways in which others perceive us. And alongside our personal relationships - from filial to friendship, from collegiate to romantic - sit the complex emotional connections we form with places, ideas and objects.How do we navigate these varying ...

Winner of the 2023 Best Book Award from American Book FestThey ride horses, rope calves, buck broncos, ride and fight bulls, and even wrestle steers. They are Black cowboys, and the legacies of their pursuits intersect with those of America’s struggle for racial equality, human rights, and social justice.Keith Ryan Cartwright brings to life the stories of such pioneers as Cleo Hearn, the first Black cowboy to professionally rope in the Rodeo Cowboy Associati...

A historic friendship at a unique moment in time."Our sixteenth president is known for many things: he delivered the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address during the Civil War. He was tall and skinny and notoriously stern-looking. And he also had some very strong ideas about abolishing slavery, ideas which brought him into close contact with another very visible public figure: Frederick Douglass. Douglass was born a slave but escaped in 1838 and became one of the cen...

YES! Magazine cofounder Sarah van Gelder sends dispatches from an eighteen-state journey across America, describing how people abandoned by big national institutions are developing creative community-based solutions to environmental and social problems.YES! Magazine cofounder Sarah van Gelder was worried about the current state of American society. Environmental destruction, growing poverty, urban decay, rural decline-it's a long list. Can we turn this around, she wondered? Are the...