In 1970, Kenneth Gibson was elected as Newark, New Jersey’s first African-American mayor, a position he held for an impressive sixteen years. Yet even as Gibson served as a trailblazer for black politicians, he presided over a troubled time in the city’s history, as Newark’s industries declined and its crime and unemployment rates soared.This book offers a balanced assessment of Gibson’s leadership and his legacy, from the perspectives of the people most deeply immersed in 1970s an...

Yes, there is barbecue, but that’s just one course of the meal. With Vinegar and Char the Southern Foodways Alliance celebrates twenty years of symposia by offering a collection of poems that are by turns as sophisticated and complex, as vivid and funny, and as buoyant and poignant as any SFA gathering.The roster of contributors includes Natasha Trethewey, Robert Morgan, Atsuro Riley, Adrienne Su, Richard Blanco, Ed Madden, Nikky Finney, Frank X Walker, Sheryl St. Germain,...

Probing Eyes is a collection of 156 poems written over a period of 60 years by a Christian professor of English literature. The first and largest section is called “Scriptural Extensions,” and it seeks to throw fresh light on various Scriptural situations by either projecting the personality of a character though a dramatic monologue or offering a fresh slant on the events depicted. These poems proceed from asking the question, “I wonder what this biblical character was thinking i...

Shattered Dreams--But Hope by Drs. Laquita and Elton Higgs, is a book of both testimony and advice: testimony born out of the school of trial and suffering, and advice born out of practical experience in being long-term caregivers. Laquita and Elton have for the last 26 years been caregivers to two adopted daughters with early onset Huntington’s Disease (HD), which is hereditary, and they offer a gripping account of their extended experience in adjusting to the challenges of long-...

Elton John: Fifty Years On looks at the impact songwriting partners Elton John and Bernie Taupin have had on popular music and culture, and also discusses every song on all thirty albums, plus his work on Broadway, in movies, and elsewhere.Part 1 is a bullet-pointed look at every released song, complete with insights, trivia, and meanings, including musical insights—like Elton’s favorite chord progressions, or the most notable melodies in his discography.Pa...