Ain't Nothin' Like ‘Em


Book Description

Aint Nothin Like Em has taken years in the making. It is the inspiration of many eventspersonal and historical passages in life. The poet sees the world, as Bob Kaufman says, as a fish with frogs eyes. The soul kitchenthe battle hymnsthe heartbeatsthe reflections/dedications are the openings of doors to her soul. Enter, enjoy, and reflect. Aint Nothin Like Em is a book of poetry written in the Tradition of Grandma/ Mother/Daughter/Sister Speak. Roomed with the ritual aromas of yams, collards and seasoned to perfection chicken: Sunday Supper preparations, the poems are a Gathering of Kitchen Table Comfort, found only in the sharing of Wimmin Words. Tell it Like it T.I. IS. and Yeah Girl, Been There Before Conversations and Revelations, are served up straightening comb hot. A resilience that she beckons to us to strut proudly on our Wimmin tongues with a sway as gentle and graceful as our rounded hips. - Nikki Williams, Author/Artist, Brown Women Who Fly, Beautiful, Also, are the Souls of My People Kamernebti Mer Amons writings in Aint Nothin Like Em tells a story of African American family life from Sunday morning biscuits to loving your mate, to language of struggle for Black family survival. An intimate read. John Watusi Branch Executive Director, Afrikan Poetry Theatre




A Hero Ain't Nothin But a Sandwich


Book Description

Benjie can stop using heroin anytime he wants to. He just doesn't want to yet. Why would he want to give up something that makes him feel so good, so relaxed, so tuned-out? As Benjie sees it, there's nothing much to tune in for. School is a waste of time, and home life isn't much better. All Benjie wants is for someone to believe in him, for someone to believe that he's more than a thirteen-year-old junkie. Told from the perspectives of the people in his life-including his mother, stepfather, teachers, drug dealer, and best friend-this powerful story will draw you into Benjie's troubled world and force you to confront the uncertainty of his future.







Speaking of Alabama


Book Description

Informative and entertaining essays on the accents, dialects, and speech patterns particular to Alabama Thomas E. Nunnally’s fascinating volume presents essays by linguists who examine with affection and curiosity the speech varieties occurring both past and present across Alabama. Taken together, the accounts in this volume offer an engaging view of the major features that characterize Alabama’s unique brand of southern English. Written in an accessible manner for general readers and scholars alike, Speaking of Alabama includes such subjects as the special linguistic features of the Southern drawl, the “phonetic divide” between north and south Alabama, “code-switching” by African American speakers in Alabama, pejorative attitudes by Alabama speakers toward their own native speech, the influence of foreign languages on Alabama speech to the vibrant history and continuing influence of non-English languages in the state, as well as ongoing changes in Alabama’s dialects. Adding to these studies is a foreword by Walt Wolfram and an afterword by Michael B. Montgomery, both renowned experts in southern English, which place both the methodologies and the findings of the volume into their larger contexts and point researchers to needed work ahead in Alabama, the South, and beyond. The volume also contains a number of useful appendices, including a guide to the sounds of Southern English, a glossary of linguistic terms, and online sources for further study. Language, as presented in this collection, is never abstract but always examined in the context of its speakers’ day-to-day lives, the driving force for their communication needs and choices. Whether specialist or general reader, Alabamian or non-Alabamian, all readers will come away from these accounts with a deepened understanding of how language functions between individuals, within communities, and across regions, and will gain a new respect for the driving forces behind language variation and language change.




Ain’t Nothin’ Like That


Book Description

We all, for the most part, inherently know how to flow with it, cut loose (i.e. have fun/be happy), or strut our stuff when we have reason to believe we are invincible or that goodness and justice will surely prevail. Ain’t Nothin’ Like That, along with some other books by Nightshade, explores the analysis of when we learn the polar opposite of what we believed of the world is actually the true version. This typically occurs when/if we discover that if perchance what we’ve got (figuratively) glows or is special on any level and “If they can see it they will take it,” should opportunistic opportunity strike. The perpetual how(s) and why(s) of the sheople/the most common deciding class: As for the remainder of the true minority status, in typical response we think if we can find the answers or prove the truth then we can make it all right in a manner as out of touch with reality, for many of us, as the idea of clicking the heels of magical ruby slippers together to get back home to the farm where things are beautiful and maybe there is a fresh baked apple or blueberry pie in the oven. We believe in a simplified way or simplified explanation that if we can find one and then the other one or whatever the specific numbers in the mystery are for us and then also figure out there is a plus sign between those two ones, for example: one plus one equals two. Two is the answer. If we can find the answer, whichever answer applies to us then we can stop the horror or even reverse it or find a way to reverse it/make it right and maybe sometimes some of us can find that answer. Thereafter there remains the wildcard, which seems always to be the free-will of humans, including those humans beyond us comprised of the predators, the sheople, preconceived notions, judgments, invalidations, campfire stories which wander farther away from the truth with each warped telling, the cookie-cutter one size fits all, pigeon hole categorizations, Inoculation Theory, and the rampant naysayers (i.e. “No that cannot be the answer for you because it is not the answer for me and others I know, so no you cannot have that answer or try that answer out at all, but we will give you another serving of that proverbial dog that bit you or the Achilles’ Tendon Factor assault that caused this because that’s what we say will fix it.”). Onward it likely goes forever this way. The very comprehension of these thinking patterns as well as others linked to these distinct patterns could save so many a great deal; if the lesson are learned on time. Ain’t Nothin’ Like That.




It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues


Book Description

This sizzling revue of the blues and blues infused songs that changed the way the world hears the human heartbeat took New York by storm. Ravishing songs trace the evolution of the blues from Africa to Mississippi to Memphis to Chicago.




Disappearing Acts


Book Description

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Terry McMillan comes an honest look at a modern romance, from love at first sight to painful reality to working toward a happy ending.... Franklin Swift was a sometimes-employed construction worker and a not-quite-divorced dad of two. Zora Banks was a teacher, singer, and songwriter. They met in a Brooklyn brownstone, and there could be no walking away.... In this funny, gritty love story, Franklin and Zora join the ranks of fiction’s most compelling couples as they move from Scrabble to sex, from layoffs to the limits of faith and trust. Disappearing Acts is about the mystery of desire and the burdens of the past. It’s about respect—what it can and can’t survive. And it’s about the safe and secret places that only love can find.







The Judge


Book Description