Song for My Fathers

Song for My Fathers PDF Author: Tom Sancton
Publisher: Other Press, LLC
ISBN: 1590513762
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
Song for My Fathers is the story of a young white boy driven by a consuming passion to learn the music and ways of a group of aging black jazzmen in the twilight years of the segregation era. Contemporaries of Louis Armstrong, most of them had played in local obscurity until Preservation Hall launched a nationwide revival of interest in traditional jazz. They called themselves “the mens.” And they welcomed the young apprentice into their ranks. The boy was introduced into this remarkable fellowship by his father, an eccentric Southern liberal and failed novelist whose powerful articles on race had made him one of the most effective polemicists of the early Civil Rights movement. Nurtured on his father’s belief in racial equality, the aspiring clarinetist embraced the old musicians with a boundless love and admiration. The narrative unfolds against the vivid backdrop of New Orleans in the 1950s and ‘60s. But that magical place is more than decor; it is perhaps the central player, for this story could not have taken place in any other city in the world.

Song for My Fathers

Song for My Fathers PDF Author: Tom Sancton
Publisher: Other Press, LLC
ISBN: 1590513762
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 363

Get Book

Book Description
Song for My Fathers is the story of a young white boy driven by a consuming passion to learn the music and ways of a group of aging black jazzmen in the twilight years of the segregation era. Contemporaries of Louis Armstrong, most of them had played in local obscurity until Preservation Hall launched a nationwide revival of interest in traditional jazz. They called themselves “the mens.” And they welcomed the young apprentice into their ranks. The boy was introduced into this remarkable fellowship by his father, an eccentric Southern liberal and failed novelist whose powerful articles on race had made him one of the most effective polemicists of the early Civil Rights movement. Nurtured on his father’s belief in racial equality, the aspiring clarinetist embraced the old musicians with a boundless love and admiration. The narrative unfolds against the vivid backdrop of New Orleans in the 1950s and ‘60s. But that magical place is more than decor; it is perhaps the central player, for this story could not have taken place in any other city in the world.

The Song Poet

The Song Poet PDF Author: Kao Kalia Yang
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 1627794956
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
From the author of The Latehomecomer, a powerful memoir of her father, a Hmong song poet who sacrificed his gift for his children's future in America In the Hmong tradition, the song poet recounts the story of his people, their history and tragedies, joys and losses; extemporizing or drawing on folk tales, he keeps the past alive, invokes the spirits and the homeland, and records courtships, births, weddings, and wishes. Following her award-winning book The Latehomecomer, Kao Kalia Yang now retells the life of her father Bee Yang, the song poet, a Hmong refugee in Minnesota, driven from the mountains of Laos by American's Secret War. Bee lost his father as a young boy and keenly felt his orphanhood. He would wander from one neighbor to the next, collecting the things they said to each other, whispering the words to himself at night until, one day, a song was born. Bee sings the life of his people through the war-torn jungle and a Thai refugee camp. But the songs fall away in the cold, bitter world of a Minneapolis housing project and on the factory floor until, with the death of Bee's mother, the songs leave him for good. But before they do, Bee, with his poetry, has polished a life of poverty for his children, burnished their grim reality so that they might shine. Written with the exquisite beauty for which Kao Kalia Yang is renowned, The Song Poet is a love story -- of a daughter for her father, a father for his children, a people for their land, their traditions, and all that they have lost.

My Father's Angels

My Father's Angels PDF Author: Gloria Gaither
Publisher: Zonderkidz
ISBN: 0310870348
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 29

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Book Description
By award-winning author and lyricist, Gloria Gaither The companion picture books My Father’s Angels, Ordinary Baby, Extraordinary Gift and I Am a Promise all come with a bonus CD, making a trio of great music, inspiring lyrics, and dazzling art. My Father’s Angels—This story reminds young hearts that God’s heavenly protectors are always at hand. The words to Gloria Gaither’s wonderful, reassuring song and enchanting artwork weave a promising message that children can sing along to, with CD included. Ordinary Baby, Extraordinary Gift—In this heartwarming story, celebrated author and award-winning lyricist Gloria Gaither makes use of her song “Ordinary Baby” as the basis to share the timeless truth of Jesus’ birth and life. Written in a way that is simple and easy to understand, children can read along with the CD. Ordinary Baby makes known the story of not just why Jesus came, but why he chose to come to earth as a baby. With its vibrant and engaging illustrations,Ordinary Baby, Extraordinary Gift is certain to become one of your child’s most treasured books, with CD included. I Am a Promise—Because every child is full of promise, potential, and possibility, kids can be assured that with God’s help they can become anything he wants them to be. Beautiful full-color art will delight young readers as they sing along with the music on the bonus CD. GLORIA GAITHER is an award-winning lyricist, author, scriptwriter, former adjunct professor of songwriting at Anderson University, recording artist with the celebrated Gaither Trio for thirty years, mother, and grandmother. Gloria and her husband, Bill, live in Alexandria, IN.

I Am My Father's Son

I Am My Father's Son PDF Author: Dan Hill
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
ISBN: 1443401374
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
In this deeply moving memoir, one of Canada’s most respected singer-songwriters traces his difficult, often tumultuous relationship with his father. From the time Dan Hill picked up a guitar at age 11, he tried to win the approval of Daniel Hill Sr., a man who has been called Canada’s father of human rights. But Hill Sr. set impossibly high standards for himself and his family, especially for his eldest son, leading to conflict and alienation even as young Dan achieved international fame and success. Through vivid family stories, letters, memories and his own award-winning lyrics, Dan Hill tells the story of two parallel lives—his father’s in mid-20th-century America and his own as a young black man coming of age in suburban Canada—and the stormy but ultimately loving way each of those lives affected the other.

The Latehomecomer

The Latehomecomer PDF Author: Kao Kalia Yang
Publisher: Coffee House Press
ISBN: 1566892627
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
In search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to America. But lacking a written language of their own, the Hmong experience has been primarily recorded by others. Driven to tell her family’s story after her grandmother’s death, The Latehomecomer is Kao Kalia Yang’s tribute to the remarkable woman whose spirit held them all together. It is also an eloquent, firsthand account of a people who have worked hard to make their voices heard. Beginning in the 1970s, as the Hmong were being massacred for their collaboration with the United States during the Vietnam War, Yang recounts the harrowing story of her family’s captivity, the daring rescue undertaken by her father and uncles, and their narrow escape into Thailand where Yang was born in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. When she was six years old, Yang’s family immigrated to America, and she evocatively captures the challenges of adapting to a new place and a new language. Through her words, the dreams, wisdom, and traditions passed down from her grandmother and shared by an entire community have finally found a voice. Together with her sister, Kao Kalia Yang is the founder of a company dedicated to helping immigrants with writing, translating, and business services. A graduate of Carleton College and Columbia University, Yang has recently screened The Place Where We Were Born, a film documenting the experiences of Hmong American refugees. Visit her website at www.kaokaliayang.com.

Dreams from My Father

Dreams from My Father PDF Author: Barack Obama
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307394123
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 463

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS In this iconic memoir of his early days, Barack Obama “guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race” (The Washington Post Book World). “Quite extraordinary.”—Toni Morrison In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. Praise for Dreams from My Father “Beautifully crafted . . . moving and candid . . . This book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride’s The Color of Water and Gregory Howard Williams’s Life on the Color Line as a tale of living astride America’s racial categories.”—Scott Turow “Provocative . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.”—The New York Times Book Review “Obama’s writing is incisive yet forgiving. This is a book worth savoring.”—Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here “One of the most powerful books of self-discovery I’ve ever read, all the more so for its illuminating insights into the problems not only of race, class, and color, but of culture and ethnicity. It is also beautifully written, skillfully layered, and paced like a good novel.”—Charlayne Hunter-Gault, author of In My Place “Dreams from My Father is an exquisite, sensitive study of this wonderful young author’s journey into adulthood, his search for community and his place in it, his quest for an understanding of his roots, and his discovery of the poetry of human life. Perceptive and wise, this book will tell you something about yourself whether you are black or white.”—Marian Wright Edelman

My Father

My Father PDF Author: Judy Collins
Publisher: Little Brown
ISBN: 9780316152389
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
A shared dream carries family members out of their drab life into a finer world of music and travel, a dream later fulfilled by the youngest daughter when she becomes a parent herself.

Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty

Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty PDF Author: Horace Silver
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520253922
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Silver details the economic forces that persuaded him to put Silveto to rest and to return to the studios of such major jazz recording labels as Columbia, Impulse, and Verve, where he continued expanding his catalogue of new compositions and making recordings that are at least as impressive as his earlier work. Silver's irrepressible sense of humor combined with his distinctive spirituality make his account, which is well seasoned with anecdotes about the music, the musicians, and the milieu in which he worked and prospered, both entertaining and inspiring."--Jacket.

My Father's Wake

My Father's Wake PDF Author: Kevin Toolis
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306921456
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
An intimate, lyrical look at the ancient rite of the Irish wake--and the Irish way of overcoming our fear of death Death is a whisper for most of us. Instinctively we feel we should dim the lights, pull the curtains, and speak softly. But on a remote island off the coast of Ireland's County Mayo, death has a louder voice. Each day, along with reports of incoming Atlantic storms, the local radio runs a daily roll call of the recently departed. The islanders go in great numbers, young and old alike, to be with their dead. They keep vigil with the corpse and the bereaved company through the long hours of the night. They dig the grave with their own hands and carry the coffin on their own shoulders. The islanders cherish the dead--and amid the sorrow, they celebrate life, too. In My Father's Wake, acclaimed author and award-winning filmmaker Kevin Toolis unforgettably describes his own father's wake and explores the wider history and significance of this ancient and eternal Irish ritual. Perhaps we, too, can all find a better way to deal with our mortality--by living and loving as the Irish do.

In My Father's Footsteps

In My Father's Footsteps PDF Author: Sebastian Matthews
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393057386
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
A brilliant father, a complicated legacy, and a son's hard-won journey of self-discovery. William Matthews was a much-admired, award-winning poet and teacher who lived hard and died in 1997 at the age of 55. This clear-eyed, often wryly funny memoir pays homage to a charismatic father as the son struggles to step out from his considerable shadow.