Betweener Talk

In this literary, co-constructed narrative, two Brazilian scholars explore the spaces “in-between” their biographies and work looking to decolonize scholarship and promote social justice.

In this literary, co-constructed narrative, two Brazilian scholars explore the spaces “in-between”—between their own biographies, one raised privileged, the other poor; between the experience of being raised in Brazil and finding acceptance in United States universities; between their lives in the academic establishment and their studies of poverty in Latin America; between the constraints of apolitical scholarship and the need to promote social justice; between contrasting styles of researching, theorizing, and writing. Their dialogue seeks to decolonize the world of American scholarship and promote the use of research toward inclusive social justice.

Published in conjunction with an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, Talk to Me thrives on an important late 20th-century cultural development in design: a shift from the centrality of function to that of meaning. From this new perspective, objects contain information that goes well beyond their immediate use or appearance, providing access to complex systems and networks and acting as gateways and interpreters. Whether openly and actively, or in subtle, subliminal ways, things talk to us, and designers write the initial script that lets us develop and improvise the dialogue. Talk to Me focuses on objects that involve direct interaction, such as interfaces, information systems, communication devices, and projects that establish a practical, emotional or even sensual connection between their users and entities such as cities, companies, governmental institutions, as well as other people. The featured objects range in date from the early 1980s - beginning with the first Graphic User Interface, developed by Xerox Parc in 1981 - with particular attention given to projects from the last five years and to several ones currently in development. Included are a diverse array of examples, from computer and machine interfaces to websites, video games, devices and tools, and installations. Organized thematically, Talk to Me features essays by Paola Antonelli, Jamer Hunt, Alexandra Midel, Kevin Slavin, and Koi Vinh. By introducing design practices that are becoming increasingly crucial to our world, the book presents a highly distilled sample of today's best design production that uses technology in creative and unexpected ways, showing how rich and deep design's influence will be on our future.

How do we persuade people that we all have common experiences and hopes? That we are ever more dependent on each other in times of globalization via technology, commerce, climate change, and overpopulation? How do we move from an "Us and Them" mentality to simply "Us"? In this book, a follow-up to their first book Betweener Talk, the authors share autoethnographies about being and doing scholarship as betweeners searching for inclusivity. The authors have witnessed an escalation of division in their native Brazil and in the USA, as well as in South America more broadly and Europe – places that had been making steady, albeit slow, progress toward greater inclusion. The book explores identity, interactions, existence, and possibilities in the spaces between "Us" and "Them" to help current and future generations imagine a more inclusive way of living – as Us. It is about how two Third World scholars think the Postcolonial/Decolonizing discourse – with a performance studies lens – can further notions of inclusive social justice through scholarship borne out of lived oppression and the struggle for humanization. It is a union of two authors who, in their own words "have been close friends since our youth, both captivated by Paulo Freire’s notion of education and social transformation through a praxis of conscientização (conscientization), but who experienced life growing up at opposite ends of the social class spectrum. Early through love and later through theory, we have come to viscerally inhabit and embrace our betweener identities in scholarship and daily lives, breaking the distance between us and the paradigms that attempt to separate political, personal, and professional life." The authors’ hope is that their own and other betweener autoethnographies can contribute to the larger qualitative inquiry global movement and its central goal: marching together toward ever greater social justice.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

A paradigm-shifting book in the vein of Sapiens that brings a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability—and offers a new template for living. As an indigenous person, Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from a unique perspective, one tied to the natural and spiritual world. In considering how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation, he raises important questions. How does this affect us? How can we do things differently? In this thoughtful, culturally rich, mind-expanding book, he provides answers. Yunkaporta’s writing process begins with images. Honoring indigenous traditions, he makes carvings of what he wants to say, channeling his thoughts through symbols and diagrams rather than words. He yarns with people, looking for ways to connect images and stories with place and relationship to create a coherent world view, and he uses sand talk, the Aboriginal custom of drawing images on the ground to convey knowledge. In Sand Talk, he provides a new model for our everyday lives. Rich in ideas and inspiration, it explains how lines and symbols and shapes can help us make sense of the world. It’s about how we learn and how we remember. It’s about talking to everyone and listening carefully. It’s about finding different ways to look at things. Most of all it’s about a very special way of thinking, of learning to see from a native perspective, one that is spiritually and physically tied to the earth around us, and how it can save our world. Sand Talk include 22 black-and-white illustrations that add depth to the text.

Learn the art of effective communication with skill-building strategies and tools Effective communication doesn't come naturally to everyone, but the good news is you can get better at it with practice and the right tools. Big Talk, Small Talk (and Everything in Between) is filled with strategies to help you build communication skills and put them into practice in everyday interactions with friends, family, work colleagues, acquaintances, and even strangers. Communicating effectively can create opportunities in your life, foster relationships that wouldn't have existed otherwise, and smooth over awkward or stressful interactions. Learn how to make engaging small talk and incisive big talk, translate body language and facial expressions, and improve visual and written skills. You'll find practical tips that help you get the most out of each strategy, scenarios that illustrate each technique in practice, and more. This book for building effective communication skills includes: Communication 101—Learn about the social importance of effective communication skills and the different ways we communicate. 46 Skill-building strategies—Discover a wide range of tips and tools to help you establish communication skills for any social situation. Real-life scenarios—Explore a variety of common situations where effective communication skills are important, like sparking up a conversation with a stranger or letting someone know they hurt your feelings. Build strong communication skills with Big Talk, Small Talk (and Everything in Between).

Lymphocytes constantly survey the lymph nodes in search for potential infection by a pathogen. They enter the afferent lymphatic vessel that serves as a conduit to transport the motile lymphocytes to the draining lymph node. Lymphatic vessels (LVs) are present in most vascularized tissues. They are traditionally regarded as passive conduits for soluble antigens and leukocytes. Afferent LVs begin as blind ended capillaries, which give rise to collecting vessels that merge and connect with draining lymph nodes (dLNs). Initial lymphatic capillaries are composed of Lymphatic Endothelial Cells (LECs) connected by discontinuous cell junctions, which join to form larger collecting lymphatic vessels, and ultimately feed into the LN subcapsular sinus. Within the LN, LECs are localized to the subcapsular, cortical, and medullary sinuses, where they interact with incoming and exiting leukocytes. LECs, and in general LN stromal cells, have emerged in the recent years as active players in the immune response. In support to this,studies have shown that the immune response generated during inflammation and under pathologic conditions is accompanied by modeling of the LVs and generation of new lymphatics, a process known as lymphangiogenesis. These facts strongly suggest that LECs and stromal LN cells in general, are not inert players but rather are part of the immune response by organizing immune cells movement, exchanging information and supplying survival factors. The purpose of this research topic is to review the role of the LECs during immune homeostasis and cancer. Considering the critical role of lymphangiogenesis in many pathologies like chronic and acute inflammation, autoimmunity, wound healing, graft rejection, and tumor metastasis, it is important to understand the molecular mechanisms that govern the cross talks between the LECs and immune cells during homeostasis and inflammation.

One of the fundamental challenges in rethinking and remaking development in Africa from a Pan African perspective is that too much mere talk and blame game have played out at the expense of real action. The blame game and mere talk on Africas poverty and underdevelopment jam have remained printed in bold on the face of the continent, yet Africas dire situation warrants nothing less than real emphatic action. This book focuses on the empirics of the production and reproduction of poverty and underdevelopment across Africa in a fashion that warrants urgent pragmatic policy attention and quest for workable homegrown solutions to persistent predicaments. The volume advances the need to recognise the realities of global inequalities and move swiftly in a most informed and transparent manner to address the poverty and underdevelopment conundrum. The book sets the tempo and pace on the need for praxis and pragmatism on the African situation. It is handy to students and practitioners in African studies, poverty and development studies, global studies, policy studies, economics and political science.