Download or read book Rick Najera s Latinologues written by Rick Najera and published by WPR Books: Latino Insights. This book was released on 2012 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Najera, the first Mexican American to have both written and starred in a Broadway show, offers a theater collection that is hip, and funny, as well as poignant and dramatic as it showcases all the facets of latinos in America.
Download or read book Almost White written by Rick Najera and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2013-09-16 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Almost White, award-winning writer, actor, director, comedian, playwright, and producer Rick Najera explores what it means to be a Latino against the ever-changing backdrop of his life as a Hollywood creative. A bona fide chameleon, this L.A.-based everyman is "Mexican hyphen American" or, as he wryly puts it, "almost white." Recognized twice as one of the "100 Most Influential Hispanics" by Hispanic Business Magazine, Najera has worked with and mentored some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, including Cheech Marin, Jimmy Smits, Mario Lopez, Sofia Vergara, and many more. His funny, sad, and sometimes dark memoir tells his story of breaking into mainstream Hollywood, what it takes to struggle against typecasting, and how to challenge the pessimistic narrative that Latinos can only be disenfranchised victims in America. Driven by a satirical stream of consciousness, Najera's journey exposes universal lessons, from confronting the limits we place on our imaginations, to the need to take ownership of our stories instead of being mere performers in another's distorted vision, and the necessity of rising every day to press forward-no matter what. "In the end," says Najera, "perhaps it will be the power of the people and art, not politicians and politics, that will redefine the Latino American dream."
Download or read book The Pain of The Macho Other Plays written by Rick Najera and published by Arte Publico Press. This book was released on 1997-07-01 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the face of political correctness and the feminist movement, renowned stand-up comedian, scriptwriter and satirist Rick Najera dares to proclaim0́4tongue in cheek, of course0́4that machos are regular guys, too. In The Pain of the Macho, Najera has assembled an ensemble cast of quintessential Latin Lovers or wannabes who pour out their souls in side-splitting monologues. But the zing in the punch line hits us when we realize that melodramatic, teary-eyed spiels lead sly insights into the dilemma faced by not just Latino men but all those who must exist at the margins of two intersecting cultural spheres. The other two plays included in this wildly entertaining collection are "A Quiet Love" and "Latinologues."
Download or read book Almost White written by Rick Najera and published by Smiley Books. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning writer, actor, director, comedian, playwright, and producer, Rick Najera explores what it means to be a Latino against the backdrop of his life as a Hollywood creative.
Download or read book Ashes of Light written by Marco Antonio Rodriguez and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ASHES OF LIGHT (la luz de un cigarrillo) is an award-winning, dynamic, engaging play by Marco Antonio Rodriguez about the struggles and aspirations of a Dominican family in New York City. Written with compassion, humor and honesty, the play is a welcome addition to the vast body of theatre from a new generation of US Latino dramatists.
Download or read book Bodega Dreams written by Ernesto Quiñonez and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2015-01-21 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this "thriller with literary merit" (Time Out New York), a stunning narrative combines the gritty rhythms of Junot Diaz with the noir genius of Walter Mosley. Bodega Dreams pulls us into Spanish Harlem, where the word is out: Willie Bodega is king. Need college tuition for your daughter? Start-up funds for your fruit stand? Bodega can help. He gives everyone a leg up, in exchange only for loyalty—and a steady income from the drugs he pushes. Lyrical, inspired, and darkly funny, this powerful debut novel brilliantly evokes the trial of Chino, a smart, promising young man to whom Bodega turns for a favor. Chino is drawn to Bodega's street-smart idealism, but soon finds himself over his head, navigating an underworld of switchblade tempers, turncoat morality, and murder. "Bodega is a fascinating character. . . . The story [Quiñonez] tells has energy and verve." —The New York Times Book Review
Download or read book Duke written by Terry Teachout and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-10-17 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major new biography of Duke Ellington from the acclaimed author of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was the greatest jazz composer of the twentieth century—and an impenetrably enigmatic personality whom no one, not even his closest friends, claimed to understand. The grandson of a slave, he dropped out of high school to become one of the world’s most famous musicians, a showman of incomparable suavity who was as comfortable in Carnegie Hall as in the nightclubs where he honed his style. He wrote some fifteen hundred compositions, many of which, like “Mood Indigo” and “Sophisticated Lady,” remain beloved standards, and he sought inspiration in an endless string of transient lovers, concealing his inner self behind a smiling mask of flowery language and ironic charm. As the biographer of Louis Armstrong, Terry Teachout is uniquely qualified to tell the story of the public and private lives of Duke Ellington. A semi-finalist for the National Book Award, Duke peels away countless layers of Ellington’s evasion and public deception to tell the unvarnished truth about the creative genius who inspired Miles Davis to say, “All the musicians should get together one certain day and get down on their knees and thank Duke.”
Download or read book Black Prophetic Fire written by Cornel West and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unflinching look at nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. In an accessible, conversational format, Cornel West, with distinguished scholar Christa Buschendorf, provides a fresh perspective on six revolutionary African American leaders: Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and Ida B. Wells. In dialogue with Buschendorf, West examines the impact of these men and women on their own eras and across the decades. He not only rediscovers the integrity and commitment within these passionate advocates but also their fault lines. West, in these illuminating conversations with the German scholar and thinker Christa Buschendorf, describes Douglass as a complex man who is both “the towering Black freedom fighter of the nineteenth century” and a product of his time who lost sight of the fight for civil rights after the emancipation. He calls Du Bois “undeniably the most important Black intellectual of the twentieth century” and explores the more radical aspects of his thinking in order to understand his uncompromising critique of the United States, which has been omitted from the American collective memory. West argues that our selective memory has sanitized and even “Santaclausified” Martin Luther King Jr., rendering him less radical, and has marginalized Ella Baker, who embodies the grassroots organizing of the civil rights movement. The controversial Malcolm X, who is often seen as a proponent of reverse racism, hatred, and violence, has been demonized in a false opposition with King, while the appeal of his rhetoric and sincerity to students has been sidelined. Ida B. Wells, West argues, shares Malcolm X’s radical spirit and fearless speech, but has “often become the victim of public amnesia.” By providing new insights that humanize all of these well-known figures, in the engrossing dialogue with Buschendorf, and in his insightful introduction and powerful closing essay, Cornel West takes an important step in rekindling the Black prophetic fire.
Download or read book BARCEL ON THE ROCKS BARCEL CON HIELO written by Marco Antonio Rodriguez and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2016-03-27 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "After receiving unexpected news, Nino Antonio Cruz, a Dominican man living in New York City's Washington Heights neighborhood with his two sons, is forced to confront his mortality and the dark secrets that have plagued his family for generations which are intrinsically tied to the Caribbean island's political history"--Cover.
Download or read book The Dirty Girls Social Club written by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alisa Valdés-Rodríguez's vibrant, can't-put-it-down novel of six friends--each one an unforgettable Latina woman in her late '20s--and the complications and triumphs in their lives Inseparable since their days at Boston University almost ten years before, six friends form the Dirty Girls Social Club, a mutual support and (mostly) admiration society that no matter what happens to each of them (and a lot does), meets regularly to dish, dine and compare notes on the bumpy course of life and love. Las sucias are: --Lauren, the resident "caliente" columnist for the local paper, which advertises her work with the line "her casa is su casa, Boston," but whose own home life has recently involved hiding in her boyfriend's closet to catch him in the act --Sara, the perfect wife and mother who always knew exactly the life she wanted and got it, right down to the McMansion in the suburbs and two boisterious boys, but who is paying a hefty price --Amber, the most idealistic and artistic member of the club, who was raised a valley girl without a word of Spanish and whose increasing attachment to her Mexica roots coincides with a major record label's interest in her rock 'n' roll --Elizabeth, the stunning black Latina whose high profile job as a morning television anchor conflicts with her intensely private personal life, which would explain why the dates the other dirty girls set her up on never work out --Rebecca, intense and highly controlled, who flawlessly runs Ella, the magazine she created for Latinas, but who can't explain why she didn't understand the man she married and now doesn't even share a room with; and --Usnavys, irrepressible and larger than life, whose agenda to land the kind of man who can keep her in Manolo Blahniks and platanos almost prevents her seeing true love when it lands in her lap. There's a lot of catching up to do.
Download or read book Chicano Visions written by Cheech Marin and published by Bulfinch. This book was released on 2002-09-23 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originating in the early seventies, Chicano art long remained unrecognised by the art and gallery world. This text features the work of 26 Chicano artists and marks the transition of this unique and exciting movement into the critical fold of contemporary art.
Download or read book Brother West written by Cornel West and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2011-01-19 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times best-selling author Cornel West is one of America's most provocative and admired public intellectuals. Whether in the classroom, the streets, the prisons, or the church, Dr. West's penetrating brilliance has been a bright beacon shining through the darkness for decades. Yet, as he points out in this new memoir, I've never taken ...
Download or read book Cheech the School Bus Driver written by Cheech Marin and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2007-06-26 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the students who ride Cheech's schoolbus enter the Battle of the Bands, they are willing to try almost anything to prove that mariachi can beat rock-and-roll.
Download or read book In the Name of Salome written by Julia Alvarez and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2000-06-09 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Original and illuminating."—The New York Times Book Review In her most ambitious work since In the Time of Butterflies, Julia Alvarez tells the story of a woman whose poetry inspired one Caribbean revolution and of her daughter whose dedication to teaching strengthened another. Camila Henriquez Urena is about to retire from her longtime job teaching Spanish at Vassar College. Only now as she sorts through family papers does she begin to know the woman behind the legend of her mother, the revered Salome Urena, who died when Camila was three. In stark contrast to Salome, who became the Dominican Republic's national poet at the age of seventeen, Camila has spent most of her life trying not to offend anybody. Her mother dedicated her life to educating young women to give them voice in their turbulent new nation; Camila has spent her life quietly and anonymously teaching the Spanish pluperfect to upper-class American girls with no notion of revolution, no knowledge of Salome Urena. Now, in 1960, Camila must choose a final destination for herself. Where will she spend the rest of her days? News of the revolution in Cuba mirrors her own internal upheaval. In the process of deciding her future, Camila uncovers the truth of her mother's tragic personal life and, finally, finds a place for her own passion and commitment. Julia Alvarez has won a large and devoted audience by brilliantly illuminating the history of modern Caribbean America through the personal stories of its people. As a Latina, as a poet and novelist, and as a university professor, Julia Alvarez brings her own experience to this exquisite story. Julia Alvarez’s new novel, Afterlife, is available now.
Download or read book Latin Style written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Performing the US Latina and Latino Borderlands written by Arturo J. Aldama and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-09 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this interdisciplinary volume, contributors analyze the expression of Latina/o cultural identity through performance. With music, theater, dance, visual arts, body art, spoken word, performance activism, fashion, and street theater as points of entry, contributors discuss cultural practices and the fashoning of identity in Latino/a communities throughout the US. Examining the areas of crossover between Latin and American cultures gives new meaning to the notion of "borderlands." This volume features senior scholars and up-and-coming academics from cultural, visual, and performance studies, folklore, and ethnomusicology.
Download or read book Democracy Matters written by Cornel West and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-08-30 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Uncompromising and unconventional . . . Cornel West is an eloquent prophet with attitude.” — Newsweek“ "A timely analysis about the current state of democratic systems in America." — The Boston Globe In Democracy Matters, Cornel West argues that if America is to become a better steward of democratization around the world, we must first wake up to the long history of corruption that has plagued our own democracy: racism, free market fundamentalism, aggressive militarism, and escalating authoritarianism. This impassioned and empowering call for the revitalization of America's democracy, by one of our most distinctive and compelling social critics, will reshape the raging national debate about America's role in today's troubled world.
