Janelle Monaes The Archandroid

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Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid

Author : Alyssa Favreau
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1501355724
Total Pages : 153 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid by : Alyssa Favreau

Download or read book Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid written by Alyssa Favreau and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021-09-09 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Janelle Monáe's full-length debut, the science fiction concept album The ArchAndroid, the android Cindi Mayweather is on the run from the authorities for the crime of loving a human. Living in 28th century Metropolis, Cindi fights for survival, soon realizing that she is in fact the prophesied ArchAndroid, a robot messiah meant to liberate the masses and lead them toward a wonderland where all can be free. Taking into account the literary merit of Monáe's astounding multimedia body of work, the political relevance of the science fictional themes and aesthetics she explores, and her role as an Atlanta-based pop cultural juggernaut, this book explores the lavish world building of Cindi's story, and the many literary, cinematic, and musical influences brought together to create it. Throughout, a history of Monáe's move to Atlanta, her signing with Bad Boy Records, and the trials of developing a full-length concept album in an industry devoted to the production of marketable singles can be found, charting the artist's own rise to power. The stories of Monáe and of Cindi are inextricably entwined, each making the other more compelling, fantastical, and deeply felt.

Janelle Monáe's The ArchAndroid

Author : Alyssa Favreau
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781501355738
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (557 download)

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Book Synopsis Janelle Monáe's The ArchAndroid by : Alyssa Favreau

Download or read book Janelle Monáe's The ArchAndroid written by Alyssa Favreau and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Monáe's full-length debut, The Archandroid, is a science fiction concept album that tells the story of the android Cindi Mayweather, a citizen of 28th century Metropolis who is on the run from the authorities for daring to love a human. As she fights for survival, Cindi realizes that she is in fact the prophesied Archandroid, a robot messiah meant to liberate the masses and lead them toward a wonderland where all can be free. This book takes into account the literary merit of Monáe's astounding multimedia body of work, the political relevance of the science fictional themes and aesthetics she explores, and her role as an Atlanta-based pop cultural juggernaut. The exploration of the lavish world building present in Cindi's story, and the many literary, cinematic, and musical influences brought together to create it, will blend with a history of Monáe's move to Atlanta, her signing with Bad Boy Records, and the trials of developing of a full-length concept album in an industry overwhelmingly devoted to the production of marketable singles. The stories of Cindi and Janelle are inextricably entwined, each making the other more compelling, fantastical, and deeply felt"--

The Memory Librarian

Author : Janelle Monáe
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0063070898
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (63 download)

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Book Synopsis The Memory Librarian by : Janelle Monáe

Download or read book The Memory Librarian written by Janelle Monáe and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2022-04-19 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestseller! In The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, singer-songwriter, actor, fashion icon, futurist, and worldwide superstar Janelle Monáe brings to the written page the Afrofuturistic world of one of her critically acclaimed albums, exploring how different threads of liberation—queerness, race, gender plurality, and love—become tangled with future possibilities of memory and time in such a totalitarian landscape…and what the costs might be when trying to unravel and weave them into freedoms. Whoever controls our memories controls the future. Janelle Monáe and an incredible array of talented collaborators have crafted a collection of tales comprising the bold vision and powerful themes that have made Monáe such a compelling and celebrated storyteller. Dirty Computer introduced a world in which thoughts—as a means of self-conception—could be controlled or erased by a select few. And whether you were human, AI, or other, your life and sentience were dictated by those who’d convinced themselves they had the right to decide your fate. That was until Jane 57821 decided to remember and break free. Expanding from that mythos, these stories fully explore what it’s like to live in such a totalitarian society . . . and what it takes to get out of it. Building off the tradition of speculative fiction writers such as Octavia E. Butler, Ted Chiang, Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor—and filled with powerful themes and Monáe’s emblematic artistic vision—The Memory Librarian serves to readers tales that dissect the human trials of identity expression, technology, and love, reaching through to the worlds of memory and time, and the stakes and power that pulse there.

Janelle Monáe's Queer Afrofuturism

Author : Dan Hassler-Forest
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
ISBN 13 : 1978826702
Total Pages : 187 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (788 download)

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Book Synopsis Janelle Monáe's Queer Afrofuturism by : Dan Hassler-Forest

Download or read book Janelle Monáe's Queer Afrofuturism written by Dan Hassler-Forest and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2022-05-13 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Singer. Dancer. Movie star. Activist. Queer icon. Afrofuturist. Working class heroine. Time traveler. Prophet. Feminist. Android. Dirty Computer. Janelle Monáe is all these things and more, making her one of the most fascinating artists to emerge in the twenty-first century. This provocative new study explores how Monáe’s work has connected different media platforms to strengthen and enhance new movements in art, theory, and politics. It considers not only Monáe’s groundbreaking albums The ArchAndroid, The Electric Lady, and Dirty Computer, but also Monáe’s work as an actress in such films as Hidden Figures and Antebellum, as well as her soundtrack appearances in socially-engaged projects ranging from I May Destroy You to Us. Examining Monáe as a cultural icon whose work is profoundly intersectional, this book maps how she is actively reshaping discourses around race, gender, sexuality, and capitalism. Tracing Monáe’s performances of joy, desire, pain, and hope across a wide range of media forms, it shows how she imagines Afrofuturist, posthumanist, and postcapitalist utopias, while remaining grounded in the realities of being a Black woman in a white-dominated industry. This is an exciting introduction to an audacious innovator whose work offers us fresh ways to talk about identity, desire, and power.

How Long 'til Black Future Month?

Author : N. K. Jemisin
Publisher : Orbit
ISBN 13 : 0316491357
Total Pages : 378 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (164 download)

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Book Synopsis How Long 'til Black Future Month? by : N. K. Jemisin

Download or read book How Long 'til Black Future Month? written by N. K. Jemisin and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2018-11-27 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three-time Hugo Award winner and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption that sharply examine modern society in her first collection of short fiction, which includes never-before-seen stories. "Marvelous and wide-ranging." -- Los Angeles Times"Gorgeous" -- NPR Books"Breathtakingly imaginative and narratively bold." -- Entertainment Weekly Spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes. A black mother in the Jim Crow South must save her daughter from a fey offering impossible promises. And in the Hugo award-nominated short story "The City Born Great," a young street kid fights to give birth to an old metropolis's soul.

Secret Life

Author : Theo Ellsworth
Publisher : Drawn & Quarterly
ISBN 13 : 1770465707
Total Pages : 186 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Secret Life by : Theo Ellsworth

Download or read book Secret Life written by Theo Ellsworth and published by Drawn & Quarterly. This book was released on 2022-03-28 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An uncanny and eye-opening journey into a mysterious building, adapted from a short story by Jeff VanderMeer To the west: trees. To the east: a mall. North: fast food. South: darkness. And at the centre is The Building, an office building wherein several factions vie for dominance. Inside, the walls are infiltrated with vines, a mischief of mice learn to speak English, and something eerie happens once a month on the fifth floor. In Secret Life, Theo Ellsworth uses a deep-layered style to interpret Nebula award-winning author Jeff VanderMeer’s short story. What emerges is a mind-bending narrative that defamiliarizes the mundanity of office work and makes the arcane rituals of The Building home. When his manager borrows his pen for a presentation, a man is driven to unspeakable acts as he questions the role the pen has played in his workplace success. The despised denizens of the second floor develop their own tongue, incomprehensible to everyone else in The Building. A woman plants a seed of insurgency that quickly permeates every corner of the building with its sweet, nostalgic perfume. With deft insight, Secret Life observes the sinister individualism of bureaucratic settings in contrast with an unconcerned natural world. As the narrative progresses you may begin to suspect that the world Ellsworth has brought to life with hypnotic visuals is not so secret after all; in fact, it’s uncannily similar to our own.

Peaces

Author : Helen Oyeyemi
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0593192389
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (931 download)

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Book Synopsis Peaces by : Helen Oyeyemi

Download or read book Peaces written by Helen Oyeyemi and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Enchanting . . . the most surprising, confounding, and oddly insightful couple’s trip in recent literary history.” —Entertainment Weekly The prize-winning, bestselling author of Gingerbread; Boy, Snow, Bird; and What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours returns with a vivid and inventive new novel about a couple forever changed by an unusual train voyage. When Otto and Xavier Shin declare their love, an aunt gifts them a trip on a sleeper train to mark their new commitment—and to get them out of her house. Setting off with their pet mongoose, Otto and Xavier arrive at their sleepy local train station, but quickly deduce that The Lucky Day is no ordinary locomotive. Their trip on this former tea-smuggling train has been curated beyond their wildest imaginations, complete with mysterious and welcoming touches, like ingredients for their favorite breakfast. They seem to be the only people on board, until Otto discovers a secretive woman who issues a surprising message. As further clues and questions pile up, and the trip upends everything they thought they knew, Otto and Xavier begin to see connections to their own pasts, connections that now bind them together. A spellbinding tale from a star author, Peaces is about what it means to be seen by another person—whether it’s your lover or a stranger on a train—and what happens when things you thought were firmly in the past turn out to be right beside you.

Donna Summer's Once Upon a Time

Author : Alex Jeffery
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1501355473
Total Pages : 145 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Donna Summer's Once Upon a Time by : Alex Jeffery

Download or read book Donna Summer's Once Upon a Time written by Alex Jeffery and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021-05-06 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contradicting assumptions that disco albums are shallow and packed with filler, Donna Summer's double album Once Upon A Time stands out as a piece that delivers on its promise of an immaculately crafted journey from start to finish. A new interpretation of the Cinderella story, it is set in the then contemporary world of New York disco and takes the listener on a journey from urban isolation and deep despair to joy and vindication, all filtered through the mind of its naïve and fantasy-prone protagonist. As well as charting the production of the album within the legendary Munich Machine in Germany, this book digs deep into the album's rich themes and subtexts. Approaching the book from inventive angles, the four essays within the book act as a prism connecting the reader to the classical aspirations of Eurodisco, the history of the black fairy tale and a queer knowledge that reads Summer's Cinderella tale in some surprising ways.

Maria Callas's Lyric and Coloratura Arias

Author : Ginger Dellenbaugh
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1501379038
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Maria Callas's Lyric and Coloratura Arias by : Ginger Dellenbaugh

Download or read book Maria Callas's Lyric and Coloratura Arias written by Ginger Dellenbaugh and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021-10-21 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 40 years after her death, the legend of Maria Callas, “La Divina Assoluta,” remains unsurpassed. Much has been written about her sensational opera career and fraught private life, from her definitive mastery of iconic opera roles to her love affairs and tantrums. The prototype for the 20th century celebrity diva, Callas emblematizes the cliche of tormented talent – genius in the ring with catastrophe. Her extraordinary voice, in particular, has become an object of cult-like adoration and cultural significance almost with a life of its own: as fetish object, as sophisticated sonic signifier, and most recently, as the lifeblood for a Callas hologram. Such adoration is not without consequences. When Callas is transformed into a vessel for such transcendent magic, it overshadows what is perhaps her most superhuman ability – the masterful technique she deployed to shape and craft her astounding instrument. Singing bodies are working bodies, enacting an intimate and complex form of artistic labor and cultural signification. Using one of Callas's first recital recordings from 1954, this book envisions each aria as a lens to examine various aspects of vocalization and cultural reception of the feminized voice in both classical and pop culture, from Homer's Sirens to Star Trek. With references to works by Marina Abramovic, Charles Baudelaire, Michel Chion, Wayne Koestenbaum, Greil Marcus, and Farah Jasmine Griffin, as well as films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jonathan Demme, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, each chapter explores phenomena unique to the singing voice, including the operatic screaming point, the politics of listening, and the singing simulacrum.

Roxy Music's Avalon

Author : Simon A. Morrison
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 150135535X
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Roxy Music's Avalon by : Simon A. Morrison

Download or read book Roxy Music's Avalon written by Simon A. Morrison and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021-05-06 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Having designed Roxy Music as an haute couture suit hand-stitched of punk and progressive music, Bryan Ferry redesigned it. He made Roxy Music ever dreamier and mellower-reaching back to sadly beautiful chivalric romances. Dadaist (punk) noise exited; a kind of ambient soft soul entered. Ferry parted ways with Eno, electric violinist Eddie Jobson, and drummer Paul Thompson, foreswearing the broken-sounding synthesizers played by kitchen utensils, the chance-based elements, and the maquillage of previous albums. The production and engineering imposed on Avalon confiscates emotion and replaces it with an acoustic simulacrum of courtliness, polished manners, and codes of etiquette. The seducer sings seductive music about seduction, but decorum is retained, as amour courtois insists. The backbeat cannot beat back nostalgia; it remains part of the architecture of Avalon, an album that creates an allusive sheen. Be nostalgic, by all means, but embrace that feeling's falseness, because nostalgia-whether inspired by medieval Arthuriana or 1940s film noir repartee or a 1980s drug-induced high-deceives. Nostalgia defines our fantasies and our (not Ferry's) essential artifice.

Straight

Author : Hanne Blank
Publisher : Beacon Press
ISBN 13 : 080704444X
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Straight by : Hanne Blank

Download or read book Straight written by Hanne Blank and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's surprising that the term "heterosexuality" is less than 150 years old and that heterosexuality's history has never before been written, given how obsessed we are with it. In Straight, independent scholar Hanne Blank delves deep into the contemporary psyche as well as the historical record to chronicle the realm of heterosexual relations--a subject that is anything but straight and narrow. Consider how Catholic monasticism, the reading of novels, the abolition of slavery, leisure time, divorce, and constipation of the bowels have all at some time been labeled enemies of the heterosexual state. With an extensive historical scope and plenty of juicy details and examples, Straight provides a fascinating look at the vagaries, schisms, and contradictions of what has so often been perceived as an irreducible fact of nature.

Janelle Monáe’s "Dirty Computer"

Author : Dan Hassler-Forest
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030906531
Total Pages : 110 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (39 download)

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Book Synopsis Janelle Monáe’s "Dirty Computer" by : Dan Hassler-Forest

Download or read book Janelle Monáe’s "Dirty Computer" written by Dan Hassler-Forest and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-11 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an in-depth analysis of Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer, an Afrofuturist project that appeared simultaneously as a concept album and a visual album or “emotion picture” in spring 2018. In the previous decade, Janelle Monáe has developed into a global media personality who effortlessly unites speculative world-building with social and political activism. Across the intersecting album and film that together make up Dirty Computer, Monáe brings together the science-fictional themes that informed her previous work, resulting in a powerfully focused artistic and political statement. While the music on the album can be enjoyed as an accessible collection of pop tracks, the accompanying film, music videos, and media paratexts add layers of meaning that combine speculative world-building with anti-racist activism. This unique convergence of energies, ideas, and media platforms has made Dirty Computer a new classic of Afrofuturist science fiction.

Coke Machine Glow

Author : Gordon Downie
Publisher : Vintage Canada
ISBN 13 : 0307368947
Total Pages : 112 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis Coke Machine Glow by : Gordon Downie

Download or read book Coke Machine Glow written by Gordon Downie and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2014-06-10 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gordon Downie, lead singer and lyricist for the popular Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, released his first solo record, Coke Machine Glow in Spring 2001. Alongside the album, his first book of poetry and prose under the same title was published, including the lyrics to the sixteen songs on the record. Now, on the 20th anniversary year of Coke Machine Glow, fans have more to delight in: an audiobook of Coke Machine Glow and a brand new album by Downie, released posthumously. Coke Machine Glow is a rich, haunting collection that reveals both the public and private selves of one of Canada's most enigmatic musicians. In poetry that is urban, gritty and political, as well as romantic, nostalgic and whimsical, Downie allows us a glimpse inside his world. With his acute and observing eye, he gives us snapshots of his life, both on the road and at home; he writes of loneliness and isolation; of longing and desire; of the present and the past; of dreams and nightmares; love lost and love of family. Ultimately, this book is about the distances that bridge and separate us. Layered and deceptively simple, imbued with Downie's wit, insight, anger, compassion and rock'n'roll edge, Coke Machine Glow is a remarkable debut from a remarkable creator.

The National's Boxer

Author : Ryan Pinkard
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1501378023
Total Pages : 201 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis The National's Boxer by : Ryan Pinkard

Download or read book The National's Boxer written by Ryan Pinkard and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2022-04-07 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Pinkard's account... brings to light the ambition and artistry, the stress and frustration, and ultimately the joy of making this very special album."-Peter Katis, The National's engineer, and mixer on Boxer “I am spooked by how well [Pinkard] has captured these characters and this madcap project. I am not sure how he did it.” -Carin Besser, co-lyricist on Boxer and wife to Matt Berninger “Accessible, perceptive, sometimes hilarious, but more often harrowing, Pinkard's book gets a running start on its subject, tracing The National's trajectory from their first notes together to the creation of Boxer.” -Stephen M. Deusner, music critic and author We all know the Boxer. The fighter who remembers every glove but still remains. That grisly, bruised American allegory who somehow gets up more times than he's knocked down. This is the fight that nearly broke The National. The one that allowed them to become champions. Released in 2007, The National's fourth full-length album is the one that saved them. For fans, Boxer is a profound personal meditation on the unmagnificent lives of adults, an elegant culmination of their sophisticated songwriting, and the first National album many fell in love with. For the band, Boxer symbolizes an obsession, a years-long struggle, a love story, a final give-it-everything-you've-got effort to keep their fantasy of being a real rock band alive. Based on extensive original interviews with the fighters who were in the ring and the spectators who witnessed it unfold, Ryan Pinkard obsessively reconstructs a transformative chapter in The National's story, revealing how the Ohio-via-Brooklyn five-piece found the sound, success, and spiritual growth to evolve into one of the most critically acclaimed bands of their time.

John Prine's John Prine

Author : Erin Osmon
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1501379232
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis John Prine's John Prine by : Erin Osmon

Download or read book John Prine's John Prine written by Erin Osmon and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021-11-18 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He is known as the Mark Twain of American songwriting, a man who transformed the everyday happenings of regular people into plainly profound statements on war, industrialization, religion, and the human condition. Marking the 50th anniversary of the album's release, John Prine chronicles the legendary singer-songwriter's Middle American provenance, and his remarkable ascent from singing mailman to celebrated son of Chicago.“Illegal Smile,” “Hello in There,” “Sam Stone,” “Paradise,” “Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore,” “Far from Me,” “Donald and Lydia,” and “Angel from Montgomery” are considered standards in the American Songbook, covered by legions of Prine's peers and admirers. Through original interviews, exhaustive research, and incisive commentary, author Erin Osmon paints an in-depth portrait of the people, places, and experiences that inspired Prine's landmark debut. After exploring his roots in rural Western Kentucky and suburban Maywood, Illinois, the book takes readers on an evocative journey through John Prine's Chicago. Its neighborhoods, characters, and clubs of the 1960s and 70s proved a formative and magical period in Prine's life, before he was a figurehead of the new Nashville scene. It's both a journalistic inquiry and a love letter: to Prine's self-titled debut and the Midwestern city that made him.

Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the Universe

Author : Zig Zag Claybourne
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781732298019
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (98 download)

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Book Synopsis Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the Universe by : Zig Zag Claybourne

Download or read book Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the Universe written by Zig Zag Claybourne and published by . This book was released on 2020-12 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All a captain wanted was a little chill time, a few tunes, and quality barbecue.Woe to those blocking her groove.Commandeer one piece of out-of-this-world tech that allows travel to anyplace at anytime and suddenly you have an evil billionaire and a corporate queenpin on your ass to get it back, factions scrabbling at the power grab to end all power grabs, and an AI of unknown power working behind the scenes. Four women; One machine goddess; Humanity's future in the balance. Mix in a Hellbilly, Saharan elves, and the baddest Pacific Octopus this side of Atlantis?and it's not just a job, it's the whole-ass adventure.

Digital Griots

Author : Adam J. Banks
Publisher : SIU Press
ISBN 13 : 0809390620
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Digital Griots by : Adam J. Banks

Download or read book Digital Griots written by Adam J. Banks and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2011-03-16 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholar Adam J. Banks offers a mixtape of African American digital rhetoric in his innovative study Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age. Presenting the DJ as a quintessential example of the digital griot-high-tech storyteller-this book shows how African American storytelling traditions and their digital manifestations can help scholars and teachers shape composition studies, thoroughly linking oral, print, and digital production in ways that centralize African American discursive practices as part of a multicultural set of ideas and pedagogical commitments. DJs are models of rhetorical excellence; canon makers; time binders who link past, present, and future in the groove and mix; and intellectuals continuously interpreting the history and current realities of their communities in real time. Banks uses the DJ's practices of the mix, remix, and mixtape as tropes for reimagining writing instruction and the study of rhetoric. He combines many of the debates and tensions that mark black rhetorical traditions and points to ways for scholars and students to embrace those tensions rather than minimize them. This commitment to both honoring traditions and embracing futuristic visions makes this text unique, as do the sites of study included in the examination: mixtape culture, black theology as an activist movement, everyday narratives, and discussions of community engagement. Banks makes explicit these connections, rarely found in African American rhetoric scholarship, to illustrate how competing ideologies, vernacular and academic writing, sacred and secular texts, and oral, print, and digital literacies all must be brought together in the study of African American rhetoric and in the teaching of culturally relevant writing. A remarkable addition to the study of African American rhetorical theory and composition studies, Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age will compel scholars and students alike to think about what they know of African American rhetoric in fresh and useful ways.