Bookstore

Katherine Dunham: A Biography. (Hardcover)
By Ruth Beckford. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1979.

Katherine Dunham (1909 – 2006) was a dancer, choreographer, educator and activist. Her interest in dance was revealed when she traveled to Haiti to work on her graduate thesis in anthropology for Northwestern University. During her life she lectured, published numerous articles, wrote three books, and, for more than 30 years, directed the Katherine Dunham Dance Company in New York, the only permanent, self-subsidized American black dance troupe at that time. She toured widely and became renowned in the United States and abroad for her innovations in dance form. During the 40s and 50s, Katherine Dunham became a political activist and fought segregation. She received numerous awards including the Albert Schweitzer Music Award and a Kennedy Center Honor's Award.

Ruth Beckford was born in 1925 in Oakland, California. In 1943, she joined the Katherine Dunham Dance Company and toured the West Coast and Canada. She taught dance at several universities, and, from 1954 to 1961, was director, dancer and choreographer for her own company: the Ruth Beckford African-Haitian Dance Company. She is widely recognized for her role in cultural affairs as a dancer, writer, and community organizer.

“It is hard for the author to please the subject of a biography. Ruth Beckford has captured my life in no uncertain terms.” Katherine Dunham.

“This book is a tribute to Katherine Dunham, her trials and her triumphs. But it goes further than that; it is a must-read for everyone who dances, everyone who wants to dance, and everyone who loves the art of dancing.” Maya Angelou.

Emil Nolde and German Expressionism. (Paperback)
By William S. Bradley. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1986.

Emil Nolde (1867-1956), a German painter and printmaker was brought up in the rural region along the border of Germany and Denmark. He was one of the first Expressionist painters. Initially a follower of the Nazi party, he soon opposed it. By 1937 he was declared a "degenerate" by the Nazi regime and was forbidden to paint or exhibit. He hid the paintings he was working on at that time, mostly small pictures of flowers done in very bright colors. He was prone to melancholy and inner tension but publicly projected a sense of strength which is reflected in his paintings. The book studies the development of Nolde's art in a historical context and studies the artist's concepts of prophecy and mission. It is a revised version of Prof. William S. Bradley's Ph.D. thesis at Northwestern University. Professor Bradley has held curatorial and director's positions at art museums and has taught at several universities, including Cornell and the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Lady in the Dark. A musical Play. (Hardcover)
By Moss Hart. With lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Music by Kurt Weil. New York: Random House, 1941. First printing. (Not available on Amazon).

Lady in the Dark, a musical play created and directed by Moss Hart was first produced in 1941. The play, which took on the unlikely subject of psychoanalysis, was based on Hart's experience with his own Freudian psychiatrist. Ira Gershwin returned to writing lyrics for the theater after the death of his brother, and Kurt Weill provided the music which includes hauntingly beautiful melodies. The play is written as three dream sequences: The Glamour Dream, the Wedding Dream, and the Circus Dream. In the 1941 production, the protagonist, a female editor for a fashion magazine, was played by Gertrude Lawrence, while Danny Kaye played the fashion photographer. Other plays and musicals by Broadway writer and director Moss Hart include You can't Take It With You, The Man Who Came to Dinner, and Face The Music. He staged successful Broadway plays, including Pygmalion and A Star Is Born, but his greatest success of all was the musical My Fair Lady, produced in 1956, which ran over seven years and resulted in a Best Director Award for Hart.

Down & Country. (Staple-bound paperback).
By Glenn Myles. Berkeley, CA: Artman's Press, 1974. (A Bebop Drawing Club Book).

Glenn Myles was born in Carthage, Texas and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. He studied design and illustration at the California College of Arts and Craft (now the California College of the Arts) in Oakland, CA. His illustrations have appeared in national magazines and in books published by Houghton Mifflin, Doubleday, and the University of California Press. He was commissioned by Colombia Records to do an album cover for Grammy Award Winning blues singer Taj Mahal and created numerous posters for many African American personalities including Ron Dellums and Civil Rights Legends Rosa Parks and Septima Clark. Glenn Myles was a founding member of Yardbird Publishing and lectured at the California College of Arts and Crafts and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Down & Country, his book of poetry and drawings, with its mind-twisting poems and inspired pen and ink illustrations, is a truly original work which is now part of the collections of many U.S. and foreign university libraries.

“Very talented.” The Nation.

Pioneer Sonoma. (Hardcover).
By Robert D. Parmelee. Sonoma, CA: The Sonoma Index-Tribune, 1972.

The charming city of Sonoma with his park-like town square surrounded by boutiques and historical monuments is a living repository of California history. In Pioneer Sonoma, Robert D. Parmelee concentrates on the people and events that made Sonoma famous: The creation of the San Francisco Solano Mission (the last mission in California); the dominant presence of General Vallejo who first protected the Mexican territory of Alta California against the Russians and the local Indian tribes, and later became part of the California State government; The Bear Revolution, which proclaimed California's independence, picked Sonoma as its capital and lasted 26 days; the Gold Rush (several hotels and other buildings from the period still stand); and finally the development of a pioneer society. All this is covered in historian Parmelee's book, eminently readable and copiously illustrated with photographs of the time. A great book, well-researched, offering a serious bibliography that includes a list of unpublished manuscripts.

Wherever Dreams Live (folktales) (8 ½ x 11 paperback)
By Peter Harris. El Cerrito, CA: Life Signs: Words and Images, 1982. (signed by author). (Hard-to-find book)

Peter Harris is an African American writer, poet, journalist and broadcaster. His work has been published in a wide range of national publications. His book Hand Me My Griot Clothes won the PEN Oakland award for multicultural literature in 1993. Extracts from his cultural output can be checked on the site he founded: Inspiration House, which also lists cultural retreats he organizes. Wherever dreams live, a collection of African-inspired folktales for all ages was favorably reviewed by notable educators. It is now out of print and hard to find.