Bustin’ Outta Brooklyn


Book Description

When author Francis Chester-Cestari was born, his mothers friend proudly held him up and proclaimed, This day a farmer has been born. But as Chester-Cestari grew older, he realized that Brooklyn, New York, was not conducive to farming; he dreamed of the day he could break out and be free to farm. In this memoir, Chester-Cestari narrates a story of faith, hope, and determination. Bustin Outta Brooklyn traces his familys Italian roots, follows his path through a succession of Catholic schools, and details his entrepreneurial efforts beginning at age ten when he started his own farming business. Bustin Outta Brooklyn provides colorful insight into Chester-Cestaris life as he struggled to do the right thing while growing his business as a shepherd with Cestari farms and wool mill owner and through a fifty-year career as an attorney. This memoir illustrates that through hard work, dedication, and resolve, anyone can indeed achieve lifes dreams.







A 2 Z


Book Description

Rap fans and word lovers can enjoy this alphabetized collection of today's most current terms used in "the poetry of the streets". From ace to base, buddah to zooted, this book not only provides definitions, but offers examples and sources. Includes a discography of classic rap albums and a bibliography of source material.




Triple Threat


Book Description

Tough, street-wise Bronx cop Sissy Dickerson and her best friend, April Davis, pursue a ruthless serial killer known as the Pink Heart Murderer with a penchant for cruel and unusual crimes.




The Alcalde


Book Description

As the magazine of the Texas Exes, The Alcalde has united alumni and friends of The University of Texas at Austin for nearly 100 years. The Alcalde serves as an intellectual crossroads where UT's luminaries - artists, engineers, executives, musicians, attorneys, journalists, lawmakers, and professors among them - meet bimonthly to exchange ideas. Its pages also offer a place for Texas Exes to swap stories and share memories of Austin and their alma mater. The magazine's unique name is Spanish for "mayor" or "chief magistrate"; the nickname of the governor who signed UT into existence was "The Old Alcalde."




When Rock Met Disco


Book Description

Disco began as a gay, black, and brown underground New York City party music scene, which alone was enough to ward off most rockers. The difference between rock and disco was as sociological as it was aesthetic. At its best, disco was galvanizing and affirmative. Its hypnotic power to uplift a broad spectrum of the populace made it the ubiquitous music of the late '70s. Disco was a primal and gaudy fanfare for the apocalypse, a rage for exhibitionism, free of moralizing. Disco was an exclamatory musical passageway into the future. 1978 was the apex of the record industry. Rock music, commercially and artistically, had never been more successful. At the same time, disco was responsible for roughly 40% of the records on Billboard's Hot 100, thanks to the largest-selling soundtrack of all time in Saturday Night Fever. The craze for this music by The Bee Gees revived The Hustle and dance studios across America. For all its apparent excesses and ritual zealotry, disco was a conservative realm, with obsolete rules like formal dress code and dance floor etiquette. When most '70s artists "went disco," it was the relatively few daring rockers who had the most impact, bringing their intensity and personality to a faceless phenomenon. Rock stars who "went disco" crossed a musical rubicon and forever smashed cultural conformity. The ongoing dance-rock phenomenon demonstrates the impact of this unique place and time. The disco crossover forever changed rock.




Gay and Lesbian Americans and Political Participation


Book Description

A groundbreaking volume surveying the contributions that gay and lesbian Americans have made to the democratic process. In 1969, when lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people first participated as a group in the political process, they faced an imposing array of obstacles. Everything from personal rejection and violence; state anti-sodomy laws; exclusion from the armed forces; and legal discrimination in employment, housing, credit, consumer service, and public accommodations. Nevertheless, by the end of the millennium, LGBT people had transformed themselves into a well-organized and begrudgingly respected political force. In the process, they dramatically changed laws and attitudes across the nation. This new volume tells the story of the rapid growth and remarkable successes of the LGBT movement—a record that makes it one of the most successful social movements in U.S. history and, ironically, the least studied.




Sh-Boom!


Book Description

A rip-snorting rock ‘n’ roll memoir from the legendary disc jockey who’s been called “the missing link to the Sixties.” There was a small sliver of time between Bebop and Hip-Hop, when a new generation of teenagers created rock ‘n’ roll. Clay Cole was one of those teenagers, as the host of his own Saturday night pop music television show. Sh-Boom! is the pop culture chronicle of that exciting time, 1953 to 1968, when teenagers created their own music, from swing bands and pop to rhythm and blues, cover records, a cappella, rockabilly, folk-rock, and girl groups; from the British Invasion to the creation of the American Boy Band. He was the first to introduce Chubby Checker performing “The Twist”; the first to present the Rolling Stones, Tony Orlando, Dionne Warwick, Neil Diamond, Bobby Vinton, the Rascals, the Ronettes, the Four Seasons, Dion, and dozens more; the first to introduce music video clips, discotheque, go-go girls and young unknown standup comedians Richard Pryor, George Carlin, and Fannie Flagg to a teenage television audience. But after fifteen years of fame, Clay walked away from his highly popular Saturday night show at the age of thirty—and remained out of the spotlight for over forty years. Well, he’s missing no longer; he’s back with a remarkable story to tell. Brimming with the gossip, scandal and heartbreak of the upstart billion-dollar music biz, Sh-Boom! is a breezy, behind-the-scenes look at “live” television, mom-and-pop record companies, and a boozy, Mafia-run Manhattan during the early days of rock ‘n’ roll.




Super Freak


Book Description

Rick James played with Neil Young, self-produced his first album (later picked up by Motown), crossed rock and funk to come up with one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s, became one of the biggest pop stars of the era, turned a young white woman named Teena Marie into an R&B superstar, displayed an outrageously sex- and drug-filled lifestyle, was tried and found guilty of assaulting and imprisoning a young woman, went on to record new music that was compared to the Beatles' White Album, and ended his life as a punch line for Dave Chappelle. James attempted to tell his own story—in two different books—but left out many incidents that reflected badly on his character. Now, based on court records, newspaper archives, and extensive interviews with dozens of family members, band members, friends, and lovers, here is the definitive biography of Motown's most controversial superstar.




From Honolulu to Brooklyn


Book Description

Arguably the most famous baseball team outside of the major leagues in the early twentieth century, the Travelers from Hawaiʻi barnstormed the American mainland from 1912 to 1916. During their journeys and after, team leader and star Buck Lai and his teammates encountered racism and colonialism while asserting their humanity in a variety of ways.




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