Opening the Door to Our Hearts


Book Description

Prose and poetry written by students of Marshall Middle School, Janesville, Wisconsin.




Wild Hundreds


Book Description

Wild Hundreds is a long love song to Chicago. The book celebrates the people, culture, and places often left out of the civic discourse and the travel guides. Wild Hundreds is a book that displays the beauty of black survival and mourns the tragedy of black death.




The BreakBeat Poets


Book Description

A first-of-its-kind anthology of hip-hop poetica written for and by the people.




SLIFE


Book Description

SLIFE: What Every Teacher Needs to Know helps readers deepen their understanding of Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE). Because of their limited, greatly interrupted, or sometimes nonexistent participation in formal education, SLIFE face challenges in the classroom that go beyond language and content. Often SLIFE need to develop basic literacy skills and foundational subject-area knowledge, as well as to learn how to engage in the discourse and practices of formal educational settings. So what can teachers do to help these students succeed and to recognize and honor their knowledge, skills, and cultural capital? SLIFE: What Every Teacher Needs to Know centers around four guidelines for teaching SLIFE: question assumptions, foster two-way communication, explicitly teach school tasks and academic ways of thinking, and promote project-based learning. Discussion of the Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm (MALP), is also included.




YES...1st Book of Poetry


Book Description

I lovingly, fondly, affectionately, and respectfully dedicate Y E S . . . my 1st Book of Poetry to my Mother and to my Father, Mario Hilton Penick. Of all the stars in the Universe of God’s creations, my Mother and Father are at the pinnacle of the brightest shining stars. I cannot imagine anyone more deserving of praise and a justified sleep than my parents who stood by me through thick and through thin, nor my outstanding group of 4 Film Editors who taught me much of what I needed in order to begin my illustrious career in the swarming sea of life of the motion picture business in the United States. I worked with 4 Academy Award Winners in the Film Editing profession on multiple assignments: Henry Berman, Ralph E. Winters, Michael Kahn, and Evan Lottman. I was fortunate to have known them as they were quite blessed to have known me. An abundance of blessings continues to cascade on me and around me as the years roll by. The enviable opportunity to work on a Paddy Chayefsky, Ken Russell of England picture, Altered States, was superseded by highly enjoyable moments spent in the company of Gordon Parks, Sr. on Leadbelly for Paramount Pictures, and the aptly named cult classic masterpiece, The Spook Who Sat by the Door, directed by the warm welcoming genius of Ivan Dixon. Life could not get much better than that, one would think. However, the years continue to roll aces and diamonds as I experience even greater satisfactions, from time to time, as an English tutor of adorable South Korean elementary, high school, and college students as a Saturday Book Discussion Leader. The names of Estee, Eun Hye, Ha Yeon, Joo Young, Jenny, Johnny of South Pasadena, as well as all of the other eager students will always remain with me as the moments of yesterday turn into the signposts of today, smoothly segueing into the milestones of tomorrow via the International Performing Arts Academy, founded by the legendary pianist Yeon Chang. Consequently, I have no choice but to say it simply, loudly, firmly, and clearly. My objective is to win the Pulitzer Prize in Letters: Poetry for the year 2012. My plan is to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for 4 straight years starting from 2012-2015. Thomas Penick's Review: Thom, I'm surprised on many levels. First, you did what said you would do and that was to publish by the end of the year. You are a man of many gifts. To do what you did in that time span takes a prodigious amount of talent and concentration. You put together a collection of unique works that are mostly biographical that presents a portrait of you and your family and all who are close to you. They are all original pieces that are rich and revealing. They make for good reading and the book should be in everyone's library. Best, Charles Burnett




Look Both Ways


Book Description

"A collection of ten short stories that all take place in the same day about kids walking home from school"--




Finna


Book Description

Sharp, lyrical poems celebrating the Black vernacular—its influence on pop culture, its necessity for familial survival, its rite in storytelling and in creating the safety found only within its intimacy “Terrific . . . illuminates life in this country in a strikingly original way.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • The New York Public Library • Tordotcom Definition of finna, created by the author: fin·na /ˈfinə/ contraction: (1) going to; intending to [rooted in African American Vernacular English] (2) eye dialect spelling of “fixing to” (3) Black possibility; Black futurity; Blackness as tomorrow These poems consider the brevity and disposability of Black lives and other oppressed people in our current era of emboldened white supremacy, and the use of the Black vernacular in America’s vast reserve of racial and gendered epithets. Finna explores the erasure of peoples in the American narrative; asks how gendered language can provoke violence; and finally, how the Black vernacular, expands our notions of possibility, giving us a new language of hope: nothing about our people is romantic & it shouldn’t be. our people deserve poetry without meter. we deserve our own jagged rhythm & our own uneven walk towards sun. you make happening happen. we happen to love. this is our greatest action.




Humanities


Book Description




Iep Jaltok


Book Description

"Iep jāltok is a collection of poetry by a young Marshallese woman highlighting the traumas of her people through colonialism, racism, forced migration, the legacy of nuclear testing by America, and the impending threats of climate change"--Provided by publisher.