Rhythms Of Dignity

“Akwasi Aidoo’s Rhythms of Dignity is a remarkable, bold first collection. There is a rich diversity in range of form, expressiveness, experience, and passion. Reading through this work is a journey through the undercurrents of experience that reflect on living through the charged realities of the ‘post-colonial’ decades of our modern African not only with an intimate Pan-African awareness of history but also with a poignant sensibility of brotherhood, sisterhood and belonging. Clearly evocative of the age the poet has lived through, these poems have both a sharp clear eye on history, and an abiding tender trust in human relationships.” – Abena P.A. Busia, professor of literature, poet, and Ghanaian ambassador to Brazil. “Akwasi Aidoo weaves together in warm and passionate verses our timeless dreams of freedom, dignity and humanity which shall neither be deferred nor deterred regardless of what they say and what their SAPs (‘sanitize African passion’!) and Davos prescribe. Enjoy the dreams of ‘life and joy’ that is the Rhythms of Dignity. Akwasi is one of Africa’s foremost poets. Akwasi, you make us proud as Africans and as a part of humanity in what you sing and what you pen. May your Rhythms continue to inspire us and light the road to freedom.” – Issa Shivji, Emeritus Professor, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. “In this collection of poems covering Africa, meditation and memory and everything in between, we hear Akwasi Aidoo’s voice mingled with the voices of our ancestors, our past and our future, calling to us to reflect as ‘life streaming hurriedly to us’. Woven within the lyricism of the words, the poems are a political and social commentary on life that evoke Langston Hughes and reminds us of the stories we tell and are told about us. Buy it, read it and be discomfited and comforted in turn.” – Ayisha Osori, author of Love Does Not Win Elections.

This invaluable source book offers guidance, support and advice for those contemplating or involved in academic careers. The contributions provide rich, personal, sometimes poignant and often humorous accounts of shared and unique experiences of those in the world of academia.

During the Great Depression, California became a wellspring for some of the era's most inventive and imaginative political movements. In response to the global catastrophe, the multiracial laboring populations who formed the basis of California's economy gave rise to an oppositional culture that challenged the modes of racialism, nationalism, and rationalism that had guided modernization during preceding decades. In Rebel Imaginaries Elizabeth E. Sine tells the story of that oppositional culture's emergence, revealing how aggrieved Californians asserted political visions that embraced difference, fostered a sense of shared vulnerability, and underscored the interconnectedness and interdependence of global struggles for human dignity. From the Imperial Valley's agricultural fields to Hollywood, seemingly disparate communities of African American, Native American, Mexican, Filipinx, Asian, and White working-class people were linked by their myriad struggles against Depression-era capitalism and patterns of inequality and marginalization. In tracing the diverse coalition of those involved in labor strikes, citizenship and immigration reform, and articulating and imagining freedom through artistic practice, Sine demonstrates that the era's social movements were far more heterogeneous, multivalent, and contested than previously understood.

Georg Philipp Telemann gave us one of the richest legacies of instrumental music from the eighteenth century. Though considered a definitive contribution to the genre during his lifetime, his concertos, sonatas, and suites were then virtually ignored for nearly two centuries following his death. Yet these works are now among the most popular in the baroque repertory. In Music for a Mixed Taste, Steven Zohn considers Telemann's music from stylistic, generic, and cultural perspectives. He investigates the composer's cosmopolitan "mixed taste"--a blending of the French, Italian, English, and Polish national styles-and his imaginative expansion of this concept to embrace mixtures of the old (late baroque) and new (galant) styles. Telemann had an equally remarkable penchant for generic amalgamation, exemplified by his pioneering role in developing hybrid types such as the sonata in concerto style ("Sonate auf Concertenart") and overture-suite with solo instrument ("Concert en ouverture"). Zohn examines the extramusical meanings of Telemann's "characteristic" overture-suites, which bear descriptive texts associating them with literature, medicine, politics, religion, and the natural world, and which acted as vehicles for the composer's keen sense of musical humor. Zohn then explores Telemann's unprecedented self-publishing enterprise at Hamburg, and sheds light on the previously unrecognized borrowing by J.S. Bach from a Telemann concerto. Music for a Mixed Taste further reveals how Telemann's style polonaise generates musical and social meanings through the timeless oppositions of Orient-Occident, urban-rural, and serious-comic.

Students of language, politics, religion, and philosophy have always turned to Aristotle, attributed with one of the greatest intellectual minds that ever lived, for answers and the dissection of seemingly natural phenomena. Aristotle and his contemporaries considered rhetorical skills-the ability to give speeches and make persuasive arguments-one of the most important a scholar could possess. In his famous essay Rhetoric, Aristotle outlines the three basic elements of the rhetorical arts: logos, pathos, and ethos; or logic, emotion, and ethics (truth). This pyramid makes up the tenets of rhetoric which are still taught today, along with Aristotle's examinations on how to interpret and compose effective speeches and presentations. Aristotle (384 Bi322 Be was a member of the triad of great Greek philosophers: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great, Aristotle is considered the authority originator of many philosophical ideas and teachings. Famous today for works such as Politics, Poetics, Rhetoric, and Metaphysics, his many writings cover a wide range of subjects, ranging from literature, art, music, and politics to physics, zoology, biology, and the scientific method.

What does your marriage look like in your wildest dreams? You know those couples who seem to truly thrive? The lucky ones who are somehow still wildly in love after decades of marriage? As it turns out, that kind of marriage isn’t just meant for a select few. The healthiest, happiest marriages share a transformational secret: intentional rhythms. In The Rhythm of Us, Chris and Jenni Graebe invite you to discover what those core essential rhythms are, how they work, and the results they can have on your relationships if you choose to practice them. With real life examples and inspirational guidance, you’ll learn how to envision the marriage you long for, identify the ruts that are keeping you stuck, and bring your deepest passions and priorities to life in your relationship. You don’t have to settle for a marriage that’s just skimming by. Starting today, you can create a rich, passionate, thriving marriage that will last a lifetime. “It only takes a few minutes to realize that Jenni and Chris have a special relationship, and their advice and intentionality are a gift to other marriages. I’m so grateful for a resource that I can confidently pass along to others, knowing that it will quickly become a favorite!” —Angie Smith, bestselling author of Seamless “This isn’t just another marriage book. This is an invitation . . . of the thriving marriage you long for. Chris and Jenni have placed some incredibly powerful tools in the hands of the reader, life-saving questions, practices, and rhythms that will have you dreaming of the marriage you desire and what it looks like to pursue that dream in the here and now.” —Christy Nockels, worship leader, songwriter, author of The Life You Long For

This book begins by noting some of the diverse ways in which the term rhetoric is currently used and shows some of the relationships between these uses. The chapters which follow seek to elucidate these relationships by means of the fortunes of rhetoric. From a study of the rise and development of rhetorical theory and practice in Greek and Roman times, the book goes on to survey the impact of rhetoric on literature (chiefly English literature) down to the present day, paying particular attention to the importance of rhetoric in education, and to the rhetorical aspects of Elizabethan and seventeenth century literature. Some account is taken of the hostility to rhetoric which began to gather force from about 1660 onwards ; the final chapter indicates some of the ways in which the study of rhetoric has recently been revived and remodeled, and its bearings on the practice and theory of literary criticism.