| QC Authors |
| |
|
The drive of JEFFERY RENARD ALLEN’s (English) second collection of poems, Stellar Places (Moyer Bell), comes from music: blues, jazz, and even hip-hop. The idiom—which draws on African and Caribbean myth, African-American folklore, street talk, and night whispers—is as capable of meditative reflection and cultural speculation as it is of matters of self and identity. There is an awareness throughout these poems of black history, of “the shackles of the old,” and of the confining urban present: “the shackles of the new.” All this is combined with a sense of the saving graces in poetry, music, art, and film; of vision, dance, and song. The poet Wanda Coleman observes: “These are not mere poems, but blues-rooted celebrations and revelations that bristle with love of language. These poems twist and shimmy to the rhythms of life, as if trumpeted from the bandstand by a raging horn section." Allen’s ‘jazzifications’ resonate with the raw power of those fully engaged in establishing their humanity, yet burst off the page with that noisily embraceable joy of self-love and discovery no amount of evil can obliterate—a rush!
|
| |
 |
| |
|
The proceedings of the March 2005 conference at Queens College, Feminism and Multiculturalism: How Do They/We Work Together?, is now available in a book of the same name published by Cambridge Scholars Press and edited by JOYCE W. WARREN (English). In an attempt to answer the question posed by the title, Warren convened a group she describes as “some of the most important voices in this discussion,” including Nurah W. Ammat’ullah, Jane Kramer, Robina Niaz, Manizha Naderi, Katha Pollitt, Madhulika Khandelwal (A/AC), Eugenia Paulicelli (ELL), and Gail Garfield. Reflecting the organization of the conference, the book is divided into two sections: “Feminism and Islam” and “The Varied Voices of Feminism.” In their essays, members of the group address such issues as “Making the Distinction between Faith and Religion: A Challenge to Secular Feminism,” “Western Feminists’ Perceptions of Muslim Women: Do They Help or Harm Immigrant Women?” and “Researching Black Women’s Lives: A Closer Look at Violence against Women.”
Warren, noting the appropriateness of the conference’s location, observes in her introduction that “students at Queens College reflect the variegated culture of the county of Queens, which is the most diverse county in the United States. However,” she continues, “the questions that we are asking in this book about feminism and multiculturalism are not only relevant to the Queens community. They are questions that are being asked in many communities across the United States and throughout the world today.” |
| |
|
| |
Continuing the work of their earlier volume published in 2004, MARY K. CHELTON and COLLEEN COOL ( Grad. School. of Library & Information Studies) begin Youth Information-Seeking Behavior II (Scarecrow Press) with a historical overview of the literature on children’s use and understanding of electronic information systems dating back to when these retrieval mechanisms were in their infancy. Chapters then provide a snapshot of the current research agenda, everyday life information seeking (ELIS), and the information seeking of youth in their role as students. The book compiles, in one convenient volume, the work of many of the discipline’s important researchers and their projects. Five chapters focus on ELIS, including: the everyday information behaviors of children nine to thirteen years of age; a similar study of urban teenagers fourteen to seventeen; the need for sexual health information; information seeking during “queer” youth coming-out experiences; and teen reading, book purchasing, and library-use patterns. The authors also include four chapters that address the information seeking of youth in their role as students.
|
|
