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Payback Press
The Payback Press was a specialist imprint of Canongate Books devoted to (initially) reprints of classic black crime novels, which later branched out into contemporary black fiction. Notable authors included Chester Himes and Clarence Cooper Jr and Iceberg Slim. As with Rebel Inc., after its successful foundation in the late 1990s, it was discontinued due to a financial crisis in its parent company. Notable books published by Payback Press Fiction * ''Black'', Clarence Cooper, Jr. * ''The Farm'', Clarence Cooper, Jr. * ''The Scene'', Clarence Cooper, Jr. * ''Weed & The Syndicate'', Clarence Cooper, Jr. * ''Howard Street'', Nathan Heard * ''The Harlem Cycle (Volumes 1-3)'', Chester Himes * ''The Lonely Crusade'', Chester Himes * ''Not Without Laughter'', Langston Hughes * ''One People'', Guy Kennaway * ''Under African Skies'', ed. by Charles Larson * ''Indaba, My Children'', Credo Mutwa * ''Portrait of a Young Man Drowning'', Charles Perry * ''Giveadamn Brown'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canongate Books
Canongate Books (trading as Canongate) is an independent publishing firm based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is named after the Canongate area of the city. It is most recognised for publishing the Booker Prizewinner ''Life of Pi''. Canongate was named the British Book Awards Publisher of the Year in 2003 and 2009. Origins Canongate was founded in 1973 by Stephanie Wolfe Murray and her husband Angus Wolfe Murray. Originally a speciality press focusing on Scottish-interest books, generally with small print runs, its most major author was Alasdair Gray. In 1994 it was purchased from the receiver in a management buyout led by Jamie Byng, using funds provided by his stepfather Christopher Bland and his father-in-law Charlie McVeigh, and began to publish more general works, including the '' Pocket Canons'' editions of books of the Bible, as well as the ''Payback Press'' and '' Rebel Inc.'' imprints. Byng is now the Publisher and Managing Director of the company. In June 2010 it was anno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melvin Van Peebles
Melvin Van Peebles (born Melvin Peebles; August 21, 1932 – September 21, 2021) was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. He worked as an active filmmaker into the 2000s. His feature film debut, ''The Story of a Three-Day Pass'' (1967), was based on his own French-language novel ' and was shot in France, as it was difficult for a black American director to get work at the time. The film won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival which gained him the interest of Hollywood studios, leading to his American feature debut '' Watermelon Man'', in 1970. Eschewing further overtures from Hollywood, he used the successes he had so far to bankroll his work as an independent filmmaker. In 1971, he released his best-known work, creating and starring in the film ''Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song'', considered one of the earliest and best-regarded examples of the blaxploitation genre. He followed this up with the musical, '' Don't Play Us Cheap'', based on hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lemn Sissay
Lemn Sissay FRSL (born 21 May 1967) is a British author and broadcaster. Sissay was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, has been chancellor of the University of Manchester since 2015, and joined the Foundling Museum's board of trustees two years later, having previously been appointed one of the museum's fellows. He was awarded the 2019 PEN Pinter Prize. He has written a number of books and plays. Early life Sissay's mother, Yemarshet Sissay, arrived in Britain from Ethiopia in 1966. Pregnant at the time, she was sent from Bracknell to a home for unwed mothers in Lancashire to give birth. His birth father, Giddey Estifanos, was a pilot for Ethiopian Airlines, who later passed away in a plane crash in 1972. Sissay was born in Billinge Hospital, near Wigan, Lancashire, in 1967. Norman Goldthorpe, a social worker assigned to his mother by Wigan Social Services, found foster parents for Sissay while his mother returned to Bracknell to finish her studies. Goldthorpe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Szwed
John F. Szwed (born 1936) is the John M. Musser Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, African American Studies and Film Studies at Yale University and an Adjunct Senior Research Scholar in the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University, where he previously served as the Center's Director and Professor of Music and Jazz Studies. Szwed is the author of many books on jazz and American music, including studies of Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Jelly Roll Morton, Alan Lomax and Billie Holiday. Career Szwed received a B.S. in business and economics from Marietta College in 1958. He also studied trombone and music theory and played professionally for twelve years; as an undergraduate, he worked in a steel mill and performed at roadhouses, country clubs, college dances and speakeasies in Ohio and West Virginia. Thereafter, he enrolled at Ohio State University, where he earned a second bachelor's degree in communications in 1959, an M.A. in communications in 1960 and a Ph.D. in sociology and anthro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Sidran
Ben Hirsh Sidran (born August 14, 1943) is an American jazz and rock keyboardist, producer, label owner, and music writer. Early in his career he was a member of the Steve Miller Band and is the father of Grammy-nominated musician, composer and performer Leo Sidran. Life and career He was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Sidran was raised in Racine, Wisconsin, and attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1961, where he became a member of The Ardells with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs. When Miller and Scaggs left Wisconsin for the West Coast, Sidran stayed behind to earn a degree in English literature. After graduating in 1966, he enrolled in the University of Sussex, England, to pursue a PhD. While in England, he was a session musician for Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Peter Frampton, and Charlie Watts. Sidran joined Steve Miller as keyboardist and songwriter on recording projects, appearing on the albums ''Brave New World'', '' Your Saving Grace'', '' Num ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nelson Peery
Nelson Peery (June 22, 1923 – September 6, 2015) was an American political activist and author. Peery spent over 60 years in the revolutionary movement, and was active in the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), the Provisional Organizing Committee to Reconstitute the Marxist–Leninist Party (POC), the Communist League (CL), the Communist Labor Party (CLP), and the League of Revolutionaries for a New America (LRNA). He grew up in rural Minnesota, the son of a postal service worker in the only black family in the town. His older brother was the physicist and astronomer Benjamin Peery. He hoboed across the western United States and joined the U.S. Army in World War II. These experiences, which became the subject of his memoir ''Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary'', shaped his ideas about racism and the American economy. In his sequel ''Black Radical: The Education of an American Revolutionary'', Peery wrote about his re-entry into civilian life following the war. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz upright bassist, pianist, composer, bandleader, and author. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and composers in history,See the 1998 documentary ''Triumph of the Underdog'' with a career spanning three decades and collaborations with other jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Herbie Hancock. Mingus' compositions continue to be played by contemporary musicians ranging from the repertory bands Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, and Mingus Orchestra, to the high school students who play the charts and compete in the Charles Mingus High School Competition. In 1993, the Library of Congress acquired Mingus' collected papers—including scores, sound recordings, correspondence and photos—in what they described as "the most important acquisition of a manuscript collection relating to jaz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beneath The Underdog
''Beneath the Underdog: His World as Composed by Mingus'' is the autobiography of jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus. It was first published in 1971, by Alfred A. Knopf. Background Mingus worked on his autobiography for more than two decades. One newspaper indicated in October 1961 that the book "is due out in a couple of weeks". The following year, ''The New York Times'' reported that author Louis Lomax was collaborating with Mingus in the writing and editing of "an eight-year-old, portly, angry manuscript of 1,500 pages", and that publishers in France and Japan had bid for the book. The original proposed title was ''Memoirs of a Half Yellow Schitt Covered Nigger''. It was finally published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1971. The published form, edited by Nel King, reduced the original manuscript by more than two thirds.Harrington, Richard (June 2, 1993) "Mementos of Mingus: Library of Congress Acquires Works of Composer". ''The Washington Post''. p. B1. Before editing, the typescr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous books of poetry and taught at several universities, including the University at Buffalo and Stony Brook University. He received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award in 2008 for ''Tales of the Out and the Gone''. Baraka's plays, poetry, and essays have been described by scholars as constituting defining texts for African-American culture. Baraka's career spanned nearly 52 years, and his themes range from black liberation to white racism. His notable poems include "The Music: Reflection on Jazz and Blues", "The Book of Monk", and "New Music, New Poetry", works that draw on topics from the worlds of society, music, and literature. Baraka's poetry and writing have attracted both high praise and condemnation. In the African-American community, some com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blues People
''Blues People: Negro Music in White America'' is a seminal study of Afro-American music (and culture generally) by Amiri Baraka, who published it as LeRoi Jones in 1963. In ''Blues People'' Baraka explores the possibility that the history of black Americans can be traced through the evolution of their music. It is considered a classic work on jazz and blues music in American culture. The book documents the effects of jazz and blues on American culture, at musical, economic, and social levels. It chronicles the types of music dating back to the slaves up to the 1960s. ''Blues People'' argues that "negro music"—as Amiri Baraka calls it—appealed to and influenced new America. According to Baraka, music and melody is not the only way the gap between American culture and African-American culture was bridged. Music also helped spread values and customs through its media exposure. ''Blues People'' demonstrates the influence of African Americans and their culture on American culture ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chuck D
Carlton Douglas Ridenhour (born August 1, 1960), known professionally as Chuck D, is an American rapper, best known as the leader and frontman of the hip hop group Public Enemy, which he co-founded in 1985 with Flavor Flav. Chuck D helped create politically and socially conscious hip hop music in the mid-1980s. ''The Source'' ranked him at No. 12 on its list of the Top 50 Hip-Hop Lyricists of All Time. Early life Ridenhour was born on August 1, 1960 on Long Island, New York. When he was a child, his mother played Motown and showtunes in the home and his father belonged to the Columbia Record Club. He began writing lyrics after the New York City blackout of 1977. He attended W. Tresper Clarke High School, where he was offered no formal education in music. He then went to Adelphi University on Long Island to study graphic design, where he met William Drayton (Flavor Flav). He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Adelphi in 1984 and later received an honorary doctorate from Adelph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paula L
Paula or PAULA may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Paula, in video game ''EarthBound'' * Paula, in ''The Larry Sanders Show'' * Paula Campbell (''EastEnders''), in 2003 Film and television * ''Paula'' (1915 film), a silent film * ''Paula'' (1952 film), an American drama * ''Paula'' (2011 film), a Canadian animation * ''Paula'' (2016 film), a German film * ''Paula'' (TV series), 2017 Music * ''Paula'' (album), by Robin Thicke, 2014 * "Paula" (Zoé song), 2006 * "Paula", a 1972 song by Monica Verschoor * "Paula", a 1981 song by Tim Weisberg People * Paula (given name), including a list of people with the name * Paula of Rome (347–404), ancient Roman saint *Paula (surname) Other uses * Paula (computer chip), the sound chip of the Commodore Amiga computer * ''Paula'' (novel), memoir by Isabel Allende, 1994 * ''Paula'' (1876 barque), a German ship from which was sent the longest travelled message in a bottle * ''Paula'' (insect), a synonym for a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
