Like Roses Rising From Concrete

These fifty-two spiritual reflections cover a variety of topics that will be of interest to the spiritually curious who want to know more about Christ, the Black Church, Urban America, and even, the late rapper, poet, and actor, Tupac Shakur. Some entries are autobiographical testimonies; others are short theological essays. Most offer the reader ways to apply biblical truth to life’s situations; and more than a few include a social critique of the worst elements of American culture, coupled with references to noteworthy people and events in African American history. Each entry will provide food for the mind, heart, and soul. The title of this book was inspired by the powerful metaphor depicted in Shakur’s famous poem about a rose that resiliently grows up above unyielding forces—forces meant to suppress its potential. These essays originally were crafted through the author’s weekly discipline of preparing spiritual reflections for publication in his congregation’s Sunday morning worship bulletin. What is presented here are expanded or modified versions of these weekly entries. Though none were, or are sermons, together, they are presented in the chronology and thematic focus that Pastor Bryant normally lifts up during the cycle of a year of preaching. The themes reflect those liturgical celebrations that are recognized in many African American mainline congregations from January to December: Epiphany, Black History Month, Lent, Easter, Mother’s Day, Pentecost, Father’s Day, Women’s Day, Ordinary Time, Youth Sunday, Stewardship Month, Senior’s Day, Friends and Family Sunday, Men’s Day, Advent, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Watch Night. It is the author’s hope that these pastoral essays, each one like a rose ascending and pushing upward, will exalt the beauty of Christ, the strength of faith, the power of the Word of God, and the fascinating story of what God has done and is doing in the world, especially through the lives of those who have been, in the words of the Negro Spiritual, “buked and scorned...and talked about as sure as you were born.”

A collection of verse by the late hip-hop star Tupac Shakur includes more than one hundred poems confronting such wide-ranging topics as poverty, motherhood, Van Gogh, and Mandela.

International phenomenon Angie Thomas revisits Garden Heights seventeen years before the events of The Hate U Give in this searing and poignant exploration of Black boyhood and manhood. A Printz Honor Book! If there’s one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it’s that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad’s in prison. Life’s not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav’s got everything under control. Until, that is, Maverick finds out he’s a father. Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. But it’s not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world where he’s expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he’s different. When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can't just walk away. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. He’ll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man.

"Math For the Folks: Slow to Anger Quick to Rise" is a composition of essays, poems, and sermons covering my own perilous journey with the mathematical craft over the last few years. It is not a mathematics textbook, per say, and as such, I hope that the reader remains "undaunted" and therefore inspired by the various avenues of my thought process that go far beyond mathematics and into other areas of life. Further, staying true to my own childhood beliefs and conceptions, I pray that this book reads like a journal that outlines many themes of the American experience, among which are sports, family, math, music, politics, and most importantly, my relationship to myself, others, and a God placed high above me. Enjoy! There will be much more to come!

The concept of the avant garde is highly contested, whether one consigns it to history or claims it for present-day or future uses. The first volume of The Idea of the Avant Garde – And What It Means Today provided a lively forum on the kinds of radical art theory and partisan practices that are possible in today’s world of global art markets and creative industry entrepreneurialism. This second volume presents the work of another 50 artists and writers, exploring the diverse ways that avant-gardism develops reflexive and experimental combinations of aesthetic and political praxis. The manifest strategies, temporalities, and genealogies of avant-garde art and politics are expressed through an international, intergenerational, and interdisciplinary convocation of ideas that covers the fields of film, video, architecture, visual art, art activism, literature, poetry, theatre, performance, intermedia and music.

This comprehensive collection of chapters is written by leading researchers in psycholinguistics from a wide array of subfields.

Each issue includes also final data for preceding month.

Alan Amos’ comprehensive collection of poems represents a lyrical journey where emotions find release through the potent power of words. Years of Poetry chronicles the unexpected voyage of an ordinary individual who finds solace and escape in crafting poems, never anticipating the profound impact they would wield. Trapped in the enigmatic interplay between reality and dreamlike states, the poet explores heartache, joy, and the indomitable spirit that arises from genuine expression. Within these pages you will discover a haven where every line is an intimate whisper, each stanza a sanctuary, inviting you to find your own respite amidst the ebbs and flows of life’s relentless motion.