Jewtina Journals


Book Description

Although we are all on different paths, we have more similarities than differences. Jewtina Journals is a collection of poems portraying the pain, process, progress and purpose of a misunderstood Latina from New York City. Jewtina Journals gives an inside look on a unique experience involving a pen, a pad and a poet.




Journals and Journeys of a Writer/Rider


Book Description

The Journals and Journeys of a Writer/Rider is about the one journey we all have in common; Life. The tests, tasks, trials, trails, travels, tribulations, testimonies and treats life has to offer. As I ride out this life's journey, I write it out as well. With our memories, stories, voices, pens and pads, our mental journals and journeys can come to life. These are mine. Let the journey begin.




Matryoshki in Two Worlds


Book Description




Channel Kindness: Stories of Kindness and Community


Book Description

A New York Times Bestseller For Lady Gaga, kindness is the driving force behind everything she says and does. The quiet power of kindness can change the way we view one another, our communities, and even ourselves. She embodies this mission, and through her work, brings more kindness into our world every single day. Lady Gaga has always believed in the importance of being yourself, being kind to yourself, and being kind to others, no matter who they are or where they come from. With that sentiment in mind, she and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, founded Born This Way Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making the world a kinder and braver place. Through the years, they've collected stories of kindness, bravery and resilience from young people all over the world, proving that kindness truly is the universal language. And now, we invite you to read these stories and follow along as each and every young author finds their voice just as Lady Gaga has found hers. Within these pages, you’ll meet young changemakers who found their inner strength, who prevailed in the face of bullies, who started their own social movements, who decided to break through the mental health stigma and share how they felt, who created safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, and who have embraced kindness with every fiber of their being by helping others without the expectation of anything in return. In one story, you’ll read about a young person with an autoimmune disease, who after being bullied at school, learned how to practice self-love and started an organization with the mission of educating others about the importance of self-love, too; and in another story, you’ll meet a young person who decided to start a movement to help eliminate the stigma surrounding mental health and encouraged others to talk about their feelings openly and honestly, a reminder that kindness and mental wellness go hand in hand. Not only were we moved by these individual acts of kindness, but we were also touched by the many stories of organizations, neighborhoods, and entire communities that fully dedicated themselves to helping those in need and found new, innovative ways to make our world a kinder and braver place. Individually and collectively, these stories prove that kindness not only saves lives but builds community. Kindness is inclusion, it is pride, it is empathy, it is compassion, it is self-respect and it is the guiding light to love. Kindness is always transformational, and its never-ending ripples result in even more kind acts that can change our lives, our communities, and our world.




Textual Time Capsules


Book Description

In Textual Time Capsules, each poem captures a moment in time. It reflects stories, scars, sacrifices, and lessons learned from sages, strangers, family, friends, lovers, and liars. These vulnerable experiences are necessary for growth. Crossing paths with one another is no coincidence."Karina Guardiola-López's poems are redirected rhythms for the righteous. Requiems offering relief from the grief and greed of a globe gone astray. When chaos is at a premium we need poets to create slivers of solitude where words win and truth can once again stand for something..."- reg e gaines, Tony award-winning playwright, poet, and director"Karina Guardiola-López's poetry in Textual Time Capsules attests to how ancestors through their teachings, lead the way. She the poet listens and pays it forward."-Vanessa Chica, Founder of The Word Box, poet, and playwright"Karina Guardiola-López's poetry blurs the lines between time and space. Each poem transports readers into the bittersweet, intimate moments between family, friends, lovers, and liars and asks us to focus on the fine details of a life worth living."-Peggy Robles-Alvarado, BRIO award winner, poet, and director




Country Soul


Book Description

In the sound of the 1960s and 1970s, nothing symbolized the rift between black and white America better than the seemingly divided genres of country and soul. Yet the music emerged from the same songwriters, musicians, and producers in the recording studios of Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, and Muscle Shoals, Alabama--what Charles L. Hughes calls the "country-soul triangle." In legendary studios like Stax and FAME, integrated groups of musicians like Booker T. and the MGs and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section produced music that both challenged and reconfirmed racial divisions in the United States. Working with artists from Aretha Franklin to Willie Nelson, these musicians became crucial contributors to the era's popular music and internationally recognized symbols of American racial politics in the turbulent years of civil rights protests, Black Power, and white backlash. Hughes offers a provocative reinterpretation of this key moment in American popular music and challenges the conventional wisdom about the racial politics of southern studios and the music that emerged from them. Drawing on interviews and rarely used archives, Hughes brings to life the daily world of session musicians, producers, and songwriters at the heart of the country and soul scenes. In doing so, he shows how the country-soul triangle gave birth to new ways of thinking about music, race, labor, and the South in this pivotal period.




Live Big Girl


Book Description

"Live Big Girl" is a Poetic play about 3 women and their different and not so different experiences of living in a body that is not celebrated. There is root deep digging towards self-awareness, Self acceptance, and self-love. Fierceness comes when truths are shared.




The Social Justice Torah Commentary


Book Description

What does the Torah have to say about social justice? As the contributors to The Social Justice Torah Commentary demonstrate, a great deal. A diverse array of authors delve deeply into each week's parashah, drawing lessons to inspire tikkun olam. Chapters address key contemporary issues such as racism, climate change, mass incarceration, immigration, disability, women's rights, voting rights, and many more. The result is an indispensable resource for weekly Torah study and for anyone committed to repairing the world. Published by CCAR Press, a division of the Central Conference of American Rabbis




Social Work Artfully


Book Description

The past two decades have witnessed a vigorous challenge to social work. A growing global convergence between the market and the public sector means that private sector values, priorities, and forms of work organization increasingly permeate social and community services. As challenges facing people and communities become more layered and complex, our means of responding become more time-bound and reductionist. This book is premised on the belief in the revitalizing power of arts-informed approaches to social justice work; it affirms and invites creative responses to personal, community, and political struggles and aspirations. The projects described in the book address themes of colonization, displacement and forced migration, sexual violence, ableism, and vicarious trauma. Each chapter shows how art can facilitate transformation: by supporting processes of conscientization and enabling re-storying of selves and identities; by contributing to community and cultural healing, sustainability and resilience; by helping us understand and challenge oppressive social relations; and by deepening experiences, images, and practices of care. Social Work Artfully: Beyond Borders and Boundaries emerges from collaboration between researchers, educators, and practitioners in Canada and South Africa. It offers examples of arts-informed interventions that are attentive to diversity, attuned to various forms of personal and communal expression, and cognizant of contemporary economic and political conditions.




The Divine Comic


Book Description

"The Divine Comic is an engrossing, powerful descent into the agony of American Jews trying to come to grips with a shattered dream. It's a close study of a family with a past rooted in radical, anarchist and communist politics, haunted by the Nazi mass murders, and wrestling with their dismay over Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. The narrator, who travels to the Middle East to meet Israelis and Palestinians, reaches the conclusion that she must reject Israel's occupation and Zionism but she has to reach out to her sister who has a history of angry rejections and whose own anguish pushes her close to suicide. The conflict unfolds, as it often does, at each Passover as the family comes together"--