Celebrating My Africanness

In this book Celebrating My Africanness, he looks at a continental attitude that has caused millions to waste their lives and gifts, glued to past pains and failing to move ahead with their lives. The book encourages citizens of the continent to appreciate themselves and begin to value who they are and build their lives on that. Unless you change your attitude toward you, you will not see much success. No one disqualifies you more than you yourself. You are hindered by how you treat yourself.

In this book Celebrating My Africanness, he looks at a continental attitude that has caused millions to waste their lives and gifts, glued to past pains and failing to move ahead with their lives. The book encourages citizens of the continent to appreciate themselves and begin to value who they are and build their lives on that. Unless you change your attitude toward you, you will not see much success. No one disqualifies you more than you yourself. You are hindered by how you treat yourself.

South African film culture, like so much of its public life, has undergone a tremendous transformation during its first decade of democracy. Filmmakers, once in exile, banned, or severely restricted, have returned home; subjects once outlawed by the apparatchiks of apartheid are now fair game; and a new crop of insurgent filmmakers are coming to the fore. This extraordinary volume presents twenty-five in-depth interviews with established and emerging South African filmmakers, collected and edited by Audrey Thomas McCluskey. The interviews capture the filmmakers’ spirit, energy, and ambition as they attempt to give birth to a film culture that reflects the heart and aspirations of their diverse and emergent nation. The collection includes a biographical profile of each filmmaker, as well an introductory essay by McCluskey, pointing to the themes, as well as creative differences and similarities, among the filmmakers.

This book presents accounts of African diaspora literacy in action in school settings. Focusing specifically on the language, history, politics, economics, and cultural traditions of people in the African diaspora, the authors illuminate critical information missing from schools, teacher education, and English curricula.

Understanding Humanism is an easy-to-read and informative overview of the beliefs, practices, and values of humanism as a non-religious worldview. This short and lively book explores humanism both as a broad historical tradition of thought and as a stance embodied in organised institutions. It sets out clearly and systematically the beliefs and values of humanism as well as the reality and personal experience of living as a humanist today. Questions discussed in this book include: How do humanists see the relation between science and religious belief? Is humanism wedded to science as the only valid form of knowledge? What value do humanists place on the arts, and can they value religious art? Does the emphasis on human responsibility depend on an untenable belief in 'free will', and is this undermined by psychology and neuroscience? Do humanists think that life is sacred? What account would humanists give of the basis of human rights, and why they are important? Does humanism entail that human life is meaningless and pointless? Can humanists meet the challenge of nihilism? Understanding Humanism provides a reliable and easily digestible introduction to the field. By exploring these questions and inviting readers to engage with the arguments, it serves as the ideal textbook for those approaching the topic of humanism for the first time.

This book, Finding Common Ground: Selected Newspaper Columns of Ian Boxill, 1993-2000, literally represents the best articles written by Ian Boxill over a period of seven years (March 1993 to August 2000) on the opinion page of the Daily Gleaner in Jamaica. The book seeks – more so than the individual articles themselves, which were written with the general public in mind – to help graduates across the Caribbean region fulfil that obligation ... to become habitual readers (and writers). The hope is that they will not only read on matters relating to their own training and work, but also on issues of interest and concern to society in general and to the world today. In particular, the book also targets pre-university and first-year university students – especially those enrolled in degrees that involve basic or advanced expository or argumentative writing. In addition, it lends itself to 6th form students, those in community colleges, teacher- training colleges and other tertiary level institutions, who are learning to formulate and express a personal but informed opinion, in speech or writing, on topical events. - From the Editor’s Preface

"Where are you from?" "What is your nationality?" "I didn't know you were..." "I'm not racist, but..." "It's just a joke." "What does a white person know about racism?" "Some of my best friends are..." James and Shadd's enormously popular Talking About Difference (BTL, 1994) has been thoroughly revised and expanded and makes a fine introduction to dozens of key issues involving all of us in Canadian society. Some of these issues include ethnic, racial, class and social identity. All the authors provide analysis as well as personal reflections. The book also shows the rich experiences and many ways of growing up, immigrating to, and living in Canada.

Inspired by her transgender son, activist Jodie Patterson explores identity, gender, race, and authenticity to tell the real-life story of a family’s history and transformation. “A courageous and poetic testimony on family and the self, and the learning and unlearning we must do for those we love.”—Janet Mock In 2009, Jodie Patterson, mother of five and beauty entrepreneur, has her world turned upside down when her determined toddler, Penelope, reveals, “Mama, I’m not a girl. I am a boy.” The Pattersons are a tribe of unapologetic Black matriarchs, scholars, financiers, Southern activists, artists, musicians, and disruptors, but with Penelope’s revelation, Jodie realizes her existing definition of family isn’t wide enough for her child’s needs. In The Bold World, we witness Patterson reshaping her own attitudes, beliefs, and biases, learning from her children, and a whole new community, how to meet the needs of her transgender son. In doing so, she opens the minds of those who raised and fortified her, all the while challenging cultural norms and gender expectations. Patterson finds that the fight for racial equality in which her ancestors were so prominent helped pave the way for the current gender revolution. From Georgia to South Carolina, Ghana to Brooklyn, Patterson learns to remove the division between me and you, us and them, straight and queer—and she reminds us to celebrate her uncle Gil Scott Heron’s prophecy that the revolution will not be televised. It will happen deeply, unequivocally, inside each and every one of us. Transition, we learn, doesn’t just belong to the transgender person. Transition, for the sake of knowing more and becoming more, is the responsibility of and gift to all. The Bold World is the result, an intimate and exquisite story of authenticity, courage, and love. Praise for The Bold World “In The Bold World, Jodie Patterson makes a case for respecting everyone’s gender identity by way of showing how she came to accept her son, Penelope. In tying that struggle to the struggle for race rights in this country during her own childhood, she paints a vivid picture of the permanent work of social justice.”—Andrew Solomon, bestselling author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree