Tourmalines: Beyond the Ebony Portal

About the author

Kathryn Waddell Takara, PhD was born and raised in Tuskegee, Alabama, and retired as an Associate Professor from the University of Hawai`i at Manoa where she developed early courses in African American politics, history, literature, and culture beginning in 1971.

She has published 2 books of poetry: New and Collected Poems and Pacific Raven: Hawai`i Poems. Over 250 of her poems have been published separately in a variety of literary magazines and her essays have appeared in various scholarly journals.

Recipient of the Board of Regents Outstanding Teacher Award and a two-time Fulbright Fellow, Takara holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and an M.A. in French and has taught, advised, and mentored innumerable students.

She has read and performed her poetry and lectured extensively in universities, colleges, schools, and at community and military events throughout the Hawaiian Islands, the Continental United States of America and in Beijing and Qingdao, China. Dr. Takara is the daughter of pioneer black veterinarian, author, and world famous Buffalo Soldier, William H. Waddell, VMD (1908-2007).



About the book

Tourmalines: Beyond the Ebony Portal, is a collection of poems with a focus on Black history and African Americans, named and unnamed, represented by various colorful gemstones, with a variety of characteristics, properties and histories, and reflecting their unique experiences in their worlds.

The themes include: African origins, myths, nature, spirituality, music, identity, color and politics, contemporary issues, courage, growth and transformation written in lyrical poetic style. From the ebony of rich and lustrous old world trees and ancient tourmalines, these poems represent the world of a colorful, durable, ancient people still standing in modern times, weathered survivors of cyclones of racism, earthquakes of power, floods of oppression, and cruel sandstorms of history. Darkness presents the riddle of how to see. On close observation of ebony, one sees the fine and intricately grained surface, as things dark or unknown require a new way of looking and seeing depth, finding light, shadows and perhaps a soul of essence.

Like humans, every tourmaline is essentially different. The reader can experience tourmalines as a metaphor for the complexity of African Americans, mixed with people of various origins: different Native American groups, Europeans and euro Americans, Caribbeans, South Americans, Asians and different African ethnic groups. The result is a collection of richly colorful poetic gemstones.

More information about the book:
ISBN 9780984122820
www.pacificravenpress.com
pacificravenpress@gmail.com

I Didn't Work This Hard Just to Get Married

About the author

Nika C. Beamon resides in New Jersey. Currently, she is a Writer/Producer for WABC-TV Eyewitness News in New York. In her seventeen years as a journalist, she has worked at various television stations including WABU-TV in Boston, ESPN Classic and WABC-TV in New York. She also served as Coordinating Producer for “Like It Is with Gil Noble,” the country’s longest running African American public affairs show, airing on WABC-TV.

She is the author of the new non-fiction project, I DIDN'T WORK THIS HARD JUST TO GET MARRIED. It was published on May 1, 2009 by Chicago Review Press.

In 2000, she published her first novel, Dark Recesses, the poignant tale of David Jackson, a promising, young attorney who travels to rural Virginia for a family reunion and is entangled in a web of betrayal that had been hidden in his family tree. In 2002, she completed her second mystery novel, Eyewitness.

She is a blogger for AOL Love and has been a reviewer for Publisher’s Weekly Magazine and QBR: The Quarterly Black Book Review Magazine, as well as various websites. She is also a member of the Writers Guild of America East and the National Association of Black Journalists. She won a Peabody Award for ABC News’ coverage of the September 11th Attacks.

She has also been credited as a reference in the several books on television news including: Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalist Report on September 11 by Alison Gilbert and News is People: the Rise of Local TV News and the Fall of News from New York by Craig M. Allen.



About the book

Expectation is defined as something that is porbable or most likely to happen. It is also described as something we are bound in duty or obligation to do. Like many women, when I envisioned my future. I did not anticipate that I would grow older alone. I expected that I would be married with children at least by the time I was thirty. Moreover, I felt pressured to be happily coupled.

More info about M.C. Beamon:
www.mcbeamon.com

The Constitution: Major Cases and Conflicts

About the author

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is the author of the book Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to Present (Routledge) as well as The Constitution: Major Cases and Conflicts (Pearson) and The U.S. Constitution: An African-American Context (Law and Policy Group Press). She is the recipient of the Ida B. Wells-Barnett Justice Award.

She is an award-winning playwright writing under the name Gloria J. Browne. Her plays have been produced in New York City, Brooklyn, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee. Her plays include My Juilliard, Jeanine, Waverly Place, and Killing Me Softly. Her plays explore race, class, and the consequence of life changing choices. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild, Mystery Writers of America, National Association of Black Journalists, and PEN American Center.

Ms. Browne-Marshall is an Associate Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) and the Graduate Center where she teaches Constitutional Law, Race and the Law, and Evidence and is a member of the Gender Studies faculty. She has published articles on racial justice in the field of education as well as book chapters on international criminal tribunals and the rights of female inmates living with HIV/AIDS. She is a Civil Rights attorney who has litigated cases on behalf of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc.. She is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court.

Browne-Marshall’s civil rights litigation has involved education, children’s healthcare, and criminal justice issues. Gloria has worked with law and policy issues of concern to vulnerable groups, specifically children, women, and people of color in the United States, Africa, and Europe. She has presented interventions before the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on issues of racial justice and is the former Legal Advisor to the Permanent Representation to the United Nations in Geneva and New York of the African Bureau of Educational Sciences/OAU.

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is the Founder and Director of The Law and Policy Group, Inc. The Law and Policy Group is a “think tank for the community” that provides policy information, speakers, public outreach, and legal analysis on issues affecting the lives of children, women, and people of color. The Law and Policy Group, Inc. released the first of an ongoing national Report on the Status of Black Women and Girls(R) in 2008. It is the first national ongoing report on the state of Black females in America. To purchase copies for your school, organization, college or high school student, library, community or individual reference, see: lawandpolicygroup.org/

While in England and Africa as an exchange scholar in Fall 2007, Gloria J. Browne-Marshall began research on a new book project. She currently resides in Manhattan and is completing a book of essays titled The Haunted Woman.



About the book

Written primarily for undergraduate courses in criminal justice, constitutional law, and government, The Constitution: Major Cases and Conflicts offers the full text of many landmark Supreme Court cases, selected both for the combinations of constitutional issues they involve and for their continuing relevance today.

This text is of particular interest to criminal justice students, because while most constitutional law books used in this field address only criminal cases, The Constitution includes civil cases as well. This is important because various situations involving First Amendment issues, such as protest, can give rise to criminal justice issues when protesters are arrested for disorderly conduct. Thus, in this book the criminal justice (and any other) student is exposed to both civil and criminal Supreme Court cases, along with explanations of their social and historical importance.

The decisions in The Constitution: Major Cases and Conflicts, chosen from among the thousands available, involve multiple layers of legal conflict, so that by studying them, the student can come to understand converging ideals within the Constitution. They also offer insights into American culture that remain relevant to present-day society, and they provide a road map through the evolution of the Supreme Court and its shifting reasoning on issues such as federalism, protest, the right to counsel, search and seizure, and civil rights.

More about Gloria J. Browne-Marshall:
www.lawandpolicygroup.org
www.racelawsociety.blogspot.com

Propositioning the Rich Italian

About the author

I am the author of sensual romance (borderline erotica) in the African American, Interracial, Multicultural and Paranormal genres. I love to write according to my moods but you will always get a story that combines a sensual energy with a captivating storyline. A native of the Dallas, TX area, I currently reside in Fort Worth, TX area.

In my free time I love to write, read, travel, cook, spend time with my family, drink coffee, eat sour sugar candy and a few other things that are bad for me. I have been creating stories in my head since I was a teenager. I have always written for my own enjoyment and pleasure but now I want to share it with other readers.

I aspire to fill the world with romance one bookshelf at a time. I specialize in full-length novels but I do have a few short stories as well. Sometimes my heroines have an edgier persona to them and sometimes they are of a softer essence. But all the time, my heroines are like real women, just trying to make a living and keep on going no matter what challenges life brings her. Racial conflict is never a part of my storyline. My character's are more focused on the romance aspect.

In my stories you will always get a strong sense of family. Growing up in the South, family dinner's have always been a big part of my life. Family togetherness shine's through in one aspect or another in most if not all of my novels.

Writing and reading books are my biggest passions and I hope to open your imagination to the unknown between the pages of my books. With my stories you will find mind-stimulating indulgence that will leave you satisfied but wanting more. So settle in with a glass of wine and savor the titillating tales of characters you won't soon forget. A story so captivating you won't want to put it down even when it's over.



About the book

Tierra Davis is shocked when her fiancé abandons her at the altar. She knows just how to get over it when she meets a painstakingly handsome stranger. What better way to start over than to have a two-week affair with a complete stranger?

Antonio Carabelli walks into the bar of the hotel he co-owns after the end of a hard day and is intrigued by the woman he finds sitting there. It isn’t long before Tierra tells him about her plans to have a no-strings attached affair, and he is interested. However, he is only willing to move forward if they have physical chemistry. What better way to find out, than with a simple kiss? The results are explosive, but Antonio soon realizes he has a dilemma. Two weeks isn’t enough.

More about Stephanie Morris:
http://www.stephaniemorris.webs.com/