Stories Of Blackness

As a color, black comes in no other shades: it is a single hue with no variation, one half of a dichotomy. But what it symbolizes envelops the entire spectrum of meaning—good and bad. The Story of Black travels back to the biblical and classical eras to explore the ambiguous relationship the world’s cultures have had with this sometimes accursed color, examining how black has been used as a tool and a metaphor in a plethora of startling ways. John Harvey delves into the color’s problematic association with race, observing how white Europeans exploited the negative associations people had with the color to enslave millions of black Africans. He then looks at the many figurative meanings of black—for instance, the Greek word melancholia, or black bile, which defines our dark moods, and the ancient Egyptians’ use of black as the color of death, which led to it becoming the standard hue for funereal garb and the clothing of priests, churches, and cults. Considering the innate austerity and gravity of black, Harvey reveals how it also became the color of choice for the robes of merchants, lawyers, and monarchs before gaining popularity with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century dandies and with Goths and other subcultures today. Finally, he looks at how artists and designers have applied the color to their work, from the earliest cave paintings to Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Rothko. Asking how a single color can at once embody death, evil, and glamour, The Story of Black unearths the secret behind black’s continuing power to compel and divide us.

A new collection of stories from A. S. Byatt is always a winner, and this one takes an unexpected turn, bringing shivers as well as delights. Leaves rustle underfoot in a dark wood: two middle-aged women walk into a forest, as they did when they were girls, confronting their fears and memories and the strange thing they saw in their childhood - or thought they saw - so long ago. A distinguished obstetrician and young woman artist find they have sharply contrasting ideas about body parts, birth and death; an innocent member of an evening class harbours unexpected view on 'raw material'. The stories in this marvellous collection are by turns funny, spooky, sparkling and haunting. The Little Black Book of Stories holds its secrets, adding a dark quality to Byatt's famous skill in mixing folk and fairy tale with everyday life.

Stories of Freedom in Black New York recreates the experience of black New Yorkers as they moved from slavery to freedom. In the early decades of the nineteenth century, New York City's black community strove to realize what freedom meant, to find a new sense of itself, and, in the process, created a vibrant urban culture. Through exhaustive research, Shane White imaginatively recovers the raucous world of the street, the elegance of the city's African American balls, and the grubbiness of the Police Office. It allows us to observe the style of black men and women, to watch their public behavior, and to hear the cries of black hawkers, the strident music of black parades, and the sly stories of black conmen. Taking center stage in this story is the African Company, a black theater troupe that exemplified the new spirit of experimentation that accompanied slavery's demise. For a few short years in the 1820s, a group of black New Yorkers, many of them ex-slaves, challenged pervasive prejudice and performed plays, including Shakespearean productions, before mixed race audiences. Their audacity provoked feelings of excitement and hope among blacks, but often of disgust by many whites for whom the theater's existence epitomized the horrors of emancipation. Stories of Freedom in Black New York brilliantly intertwines black theater and urban life into a powerful interpretation of what the end of slavery meant for blacks, whites, and New York City itself. White's story of the emergence of free black culture offers a unique understanding of emancipation's impact on everyday life, and on the many forms freedom can take.

In this haunting debut collection of short stories, Sam Weller, authorized biographer of the legendary Ray Bradbury, blurs the boundaries between the weird, the outre, the paranormal, the Gothic, and old school punk rock. Dark Black features 20 tales, at turns chilling, melancholy, hilarious, and nightmarish.A marine biologist at the end of his career embarks on his greatest field study to find the mythical sea beast he believes he witnessed as a young man, long ago.A writing professor discovers the Clutter murder house, made infamous in Truman Capote's 1966 classic, In Cold Blood, is available on a vacation rental site. He books the home to finish his latest book with unexpected results.A group of kids use a Ouija board to contact their beloved, deceased friend.A punk rock musician writes a groundbreaking album, collaborating with the ghost of a musical legend.A college student with subtle telekinetic abilities attempts to use her powers in the midst of a horrifying school shooting. Sam Weller worked side by side with Ray Bradbury for over a decade. No surprise, then, that Dark Black is deeply inspired by Bradbury's dark and enduring 1955 collection, The October Country, mashed-up with modern influences, such as anthology television program The Black Mirror" and "American Horror Story." Dark Black 's 20 short stories are made up of evanescent ghosts and inner demons, lost souls and lost love.Featuring striking, original color artwork by renowned artist and printmaker Dan Grzeca, known for his concert prints for The Black Keys, Sharon Van Etten, U2, among others, Dark Black is art object as book, in this case of haunting new American Gothic fiction."

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

"A collection of essays on race"--Provided by publisher.

The Moon is Following Me is about a cautious little boy who’s desperately trying to convince his family that the moon is following him each night. Known to be a bit worrisome and over-imaginative, each family member laughs and dismisses his humorous theories as typical make-believe. The catch? He may be right.