Microsoft's associate general counsel shares the inspirational story of his rise from childhood poverty in pre-gentrified New York City to a stellar career at the top of the technology and music industries in this stirring true story of grit and perseverance. For fans of Indra Nooyi's My Life in Full and Viola Davis's Finding Me"--
This book accompanies the exhibition "Bruce Jackson: Being There Photographs 1962-2002" organized by the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY. It includes essays by Bruce Jackson, Tom Rankin and Anthony Bannon
Fieldwork deals with the practical, mechanical, ethical, and theoretical aspects of collecting data. Jackson discusses how fieldworkers define their role, how they relate to others in the field, and how they go about recording for later use what occurred in their presence. This treatment offers an abundance of useful information to those who do folklore fieldwork as well as those who work in any of the other social sciences or humanities. An appendix relates the author's own experiences while documenting Texas's death row.
Honorable Mention, for the 2022 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the Photography Category Rocker Rod Stewart, Jackson says, had it wrong when he titled his breakthrough album Every Picture Tells a Story. Pictures don't tell stories—but many of them call to mind stories or have stories about their making. Throughout his sixty-year career as folklorist, ethnographer, criminologist, filmmaker, and journalist, Bruce Jackson has taken photographs of family, friends, people he worked with, people he studied, and people he encountered. Ways of the Hand includes 112 of his favorite portraits, portraits in which the hands are often as expressive as the faces. In six sections, Jackson shares photographs of notable musicians, political figures, activists, actors, artists, and writers. These portraits are accompanied by stories of how and where they were taken and the stories they invoke or reflect. The result is a stunning visual and narrative memoir of a lifetime of encounters.
In The Story Is True, folklorist, filmmaker, and professor of English Bruce Jackson explores the ways we use the stories that become a central part of our public and private lives. Describing and explaining how stories are made and used, Jackson examines how stories narrate and bring meaning to our lives. Jackson writes about his family and friends, acquaintances, and experiences, focusing on more than a dozen personal stories. From oral histories to public stories—such as what happened when Bob Dylan "went electric" at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival—Jackson gets at how the "truth" is constantly shifting depending on the perspective, memory, and social meaning that is ascribed to various events—both real and imaginary. The book is ideal for students and writers of oral history and storytelling but goes beyond those topics to encompass how we interpret and understand the real-life "stories" that we encounter in our daily experience. This edition includes new sections on how stories are related to historical facts and new chapters on contemporary films (expanding the discussion of visual storytelling) and on conspiracy narratives and Trump's Big Lie. Fresh examples tie together new material with the existing stories.
For more than forty years Bruce Jackson has been documenting—in books, photographs, audio recording, and film—inmates’ lives in American prisons. In November, 1975, he acquired a collection of old ID photos while he was visiting the Cummins Unit, a state prison farm in Arkansas. They are published together for the first time in this remarkable book. The 121 images that appear here were likely taken between 1915 and 1940. As Jackson describes in an absorbing introduction, the function of these photos was not portraiture—their function was to “fold a person into the controlled space of a dossier.” Here, freed from their prison “jackets,” and printed at sizes far larger than their originals, these one-time ID photos have now become portraits. Jackson’s restoration transforms what were small bureaucratic artifacts into moving images of real men and women. Pictures from a Drawer also contains an extraordinary description of everyday life at Cummins prison in the 1950s, written originally by hand and presented to Jackson in 1973 by its author, a long-time inmate.
Folklore Matters gathers over a half-century of articles, memoirs, field studies, and more by master folklorist Bruce Jackson. Jackson's wide-ranging view of what makes up folklore, his affection for his subjects, and his keen-eyed ability to observe and record without prejudice stories, songs, and lore from everyone from death-row inmates to numbers runners, hustlers, and legendary blues musicians shines through. In his own words, Jackson's essays "bear witness" to worlds that others have too easily ignored. This book includes Jackson's landmark work on prison lore and toasts (the predecessor of rap); labor and criminology; his wide-ranging interest in African American lore and legend; his encounters with legendary figures including Alan Lomax and Pete Seeger; and articles that challenge the many traps and pitfalls that plague much of academic study. Folklore Matterswill delight, inform, and inspire all those who value America's deepest traditions and the endless creativity of the unrecognized masters of our national culture.
In this stark and powerful book, Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian explore life on Death Row in Texas and in other states, as well as the convoluted and arbitrary judicial processes that populate all Death Rows. They document the capriciousness of capital punishment and capture the day-to-day experiences of Death Row inmates in the official "nonperiod" between sentencing and execution. In the first section, "Pictures," ninety-two photographs taken during their fieldwork for the book and documentary film Death Row illustrate life on cell block J in Ellis Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections. The second section, "Words," further reveals the world of Death Row prisoners and offers an unflinching commentary on the judicial system and the fates of the men they met on the Row. The third section, "Working," addresses profound moral and ethical issues the authors have encountered throughout their careers documenting the Row. Included in this enhanced ebook edition is Jackson and Christian's 1979 documentary film, Death Row.
In this stark and powerful book, Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian explore life on Death Row in Texas and in other states, as well as the convoluted and arbitrary judicial processes that populate all Death Rows. They document the capriciousness of capital punishment and capture the day-to-day experiences of Death Row inmates in the official "nonperiod" between sentencing and execution. In the first section, "Pictures," ninety-two photographs taken during their fieldwork for the book and documentary film Death Row illustrate life on cell block J in Ellis Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections. The second section, "Words," further reveals the world of Death Row prisoners and offers an unflinching commentary on the judicial system and the fates of the men they met on the Row. The third section, "Working," addresses profound moral and ethical issues the authors have encountered throughout their careers documenting the Row. Included is a DVD of Jackson and Christian's 1979 documentary film, Death Row.
Archer Daniels Midland got lucky the night of December 11, 2021: a fierce winter wind took out a third of the brick wall of Buffalo's Great Northern Grain Elevator. ADM had wanted to demolish the building since 1993, but each of its demolition requests to the city had been blocked. Six days after the storm, with no public hearings, the building was condemned. A unique piece of Buffalo's economic and global architectural history was gone. Grain elevators are part of Buffalo's—and the nation's—architectural heritage. Unlike earlier wooden structures, the Great Northern was made of steel; it was fireproof. The steel bins kept the grain dry and the rats out. The entire steel structure was riveted and bolted into a single entity. The Great Northern couldn't burn down or blow up; it couldn't be knocked down, and it was incapable of falling down. When the Great Northern was completed seven months after the shovels broke ground, it was the largest grain elevator in the world. It was built to last, and last it did until the eight-month task of tearing it apart began on September 16, 2022. Photographer and activist Bruce Jackson documents the story of this key architectural landmark through text, documents, and his own photographs taken over a period of several decades to tell this tragic story that will appeal to anyone interested in the history and preservation of America's industrial culture.
Two friends embark on a journey of laughter, literature, and Labradoodles. The Roller-skating Giraffe is a collection of short stories from the colorful mind of Bruce Jackson. His compadre KJ merely typed the words. Give it up for Bruce Jackson, a.k.a. The Black Russian, a.k.a. Ice Tiger. Good shot.
This gathering of essays by the maverick social observer Bruce Jackson will stir memories, give insights, and provoke strong reactions. Selections range freely over a wide spectrum of American social conditions, public policy, and crime and punishment issues from the mid-1960s to the present. The essays remain remarkably fresh and crucially central to issues in contemporary American society. They will appeal to the general reader as well as to readers with more specialized interests in the criminal justice system and social policy.
What is universal reality? Is this world interested in a realistic vision of what life is like beyond death? Is our world curious about how an understanding of a realistic presentation of heaven might impact our lives in this age of alternative truth, unreality, entrenched self-interest, and systemic racism? Would individuals be interested in a narrative about our universe that is neither a Star Wars fantasy nor a fiction perpetrated by religionists with a social/religious agenda? Would anyone have an interest in discovering what universal teachers or resurrected beings might say to us beyond the veil of death? Is racism, evil, hate, cheating, greed, lying, murder, rape, selfishness, and etcetera something that is okay with our universe? If it is, then the very concept of eternal life has no meaning and is utterly inviable. We humans of the Planet of the Cross have known this for well over two thousand years. So why are these issues such a problem on our planet today? Are our universal leaders pleased with our progress? We live in an age where our greatest human handicap is our lack of understanding of our ascendant future and the reality of our universal lives. On earth, we are embryonic souls locked within the limits of the womb. From earth, we pass into universal infancy. What happens when our eyes open? Premise: "There are as many paths to the Portals of Paradise as there are Ascending Pilgrims going there. Each ascenders path is utterly unique. Any religious practice that believes that it has the 'one and only truth' speaks more in arrogance than in the knowledge of universal truth." This fictional work reflects on our mortal lives from the perspective of unseen universal beings and from the experiences of ascenders who have passed through the veil of human death. As all beings are the children of our Mother/Father God, all are truly equal siblings; "there is no racial supremacy because there are no racists in heaven." This novel calls for the cultivation of genuine human equality through the end of systemic racism. It suggests a new perspective on ascendant living for mortal beings. Plot : The narrative covers the progression of life in a Southern American town during the first three decades of the twentieth century. The characters experience social divisions, poverty, World War I, pandemic, prohibition, suffrage, clerical rape, lynching, gay marriage, economic collapse, and systemic racism. The story is presented from the perspective of a diverse cast of characters ranging from judges, politicians, hoodlums, teachers, businessmen, soldiers, wealthy whites, lower-class whites, and folks from a colored community. Their lives are reflected upon by their guardian angels and unseen universal teachers. Part 1 covers the lives of folks around Thom Jons, a war hero and entrepreneur who gradually descends into rejecting life by demanding death. Part 2 begins after the dispensational resurrection of the souls onto Mansion One. All the resurrected characters protest that Thom Jons had failed to be resurrected. They demand and win a tribunal before Melchizedek to convince Thom to be born into the reality of ascendant eternal life. After introductions by Melchizedek, the tribunal consists of the reflections of each ascender on their earthly lives, Thom's positive mortal legacy, and their experiences, lessons, and new perspectives learned after their resurrection. They invite Thom to join them in the adventure of universal progress, spiritual development, and an ever-evolving living faith. For they have understood the experience of the Ascendant Will of God in the fulfillment of their personal spiritual assignments by God the Father and their communal service experience with the Eternal Mother.
DON'T scroll past without getting to know this GREAT MASTERPIECE A repackaged release of the worshipped creator's retelling of the fantasy of Cupid and Psyche-what he and numerous others see as his best book. Bruce Jackson-An American essayist, researcher, Christian defender, and a father of two who has won many honors of greatness in writing and history. Told from the perspective of Psyche's sister, Orual, we still Have Faces is a splendid assessment of jealousy, disloyalty, misfortune, fault, pain, responsibility, and transformation. In this, his last-and generally developed awesome-novel, Bruce helps us to remember our own questionability and the job of a higher power in our lives. Kindly GET this book NOW!!! WE STILL HAVE FACES
Voices from Death Row is considered a classic work on the strange "living limbo" inhabited by condemned men in Texas, who await resolution of their sentence in execution, death by other causes, commutation to a term of life sentence, or exoneration. This book offers first-person accounts of life on death row that still holds for condemned men and women today. The accessibility the authors had to Texas Death Row in 1979—to sit in the cells and listen—is unimaginable in today's closed prison environment. Today, however, conditions on Texas's Death Row are far more punishing and brutal; and, while the number of death sentences has declined, the number of sentences of life without parole has increased hugely. This second edition updates and expands on the original stories that these men told, revealing the names of those men whose stories have ended with either exoneration or death. New photographs enhance the text to give it a full picture of the brutal conditions that these prisoners experienced.
In 1947, 1948 and 1959, renowned folklorist Alan Lomax (1915-2002) went behind the barbed wire into the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck--and, in 1959, a camera--Lomax documented as best an outsider could the stark and savage conditions of the prison farm, where the black inmates labored "from can't to can't," chopping timber, clearing ground and picking cotton for the state. They sang as they worked, keeping time with axes or hoes, adapting to their condition the slavery-time hollers that sustained their forebears and creating a new body of American song. Theirs was music, as Lomax wrote, that "testified to the love of truth and beauty which is a universal human trait." Their songs participated in two distinct musical traditions: free world (the blues, hollers, spirituals and other songs they sang outside and, when the situation permitted, sang inside as well) and the work songs, which were specific to the prison situation.A chilling account of how slavery persisted well into the 20th century in the institutionalized form of the chain gang, "Parchman Farm" includes two CDs with 44 of Lomax's remastered audio recordings and a book of more than 70 of Lomax's photographs, many published here for the first time.
Bright Fields is a comprehensive and deeply intimate exploration of the life and work of Mississippi-born artist Marie Hull (1890–1980). Her paintings reflect a nine-decade journey of search, thought, and growth. She produced some of the most memorable and iconic works ever created by a southern artist. This elegant and exquisitely detailed book contains over two hundred newly photographed reproductions of the artist's finest works, many never before seen by the public. Hull was born in a small town near Jackson at a time when women were not allowed to vote and were denied many career opportunities. This did not deter Hull from a constant “search for quality” both in her life and in her art. She studied with some of the most important artists of her day, including William Merritt Chase, in Philadelphia, New York, and Europe. She won major national competitions and awards and was exhibited in some of the world's most prestigious art exhibitions and shows in the United States, Europe, and East Asia. During the Depression, Hull created a series of paintings depicting African Americans and local sharecroppers that is considered one of the most significant contributions to regionalist art in the country's history. These important, deeply moving works place her among the forefront of the great American portraitists. Three decades later, in her seventies, Hull would reveal her remarkable ability to evolve again, this time into one of the most significant abstract painters of the South. In her powerful, brilliantly colorful late works, she combines her mastery of landscape painting with a unique, persuasive synthesis of ideas from such artists as Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Hans Hofmann. Today, Hull's works are exhibited in museums and prestigious private collections throughout the country. Bright Fields expands our knowledge of the painter's remarkable life and work, illustrating why Hull's unique vision and tremendous creativity had, and continues to have, such a profound impact on art in the South and beyond.
Places: Things Heard. Things Seen unveils Bruce Jackson’s extraordinary career as a writer, photographer, and filmmaker. Jackson’s graphic prose and powerful photographs capture his childhood in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn with Jewish grandmothers who spoke German, Yiddish, Russian, and Polish. We follow his travels to Mallorca, France, Italy, Alaska, to Texas prisons and Attica. And we meet his friends--poets Robert Creeley, John Berryman, and Robert Lowell, folklorists Alan Lomax and Pete Seeger, photographer Walker Evans, political activists William Kunstler and Herbert X. Blyden, and film historian James Card. At the age of 82, Jackson recalls his life in prose that is as richly detailed, as are his photographs"--William Ferris, The South in Color: A Visual Journal, reprinted on back cover.
(Book). Ever since his father gave him a disc recorder at the tender age of 10, Bruce Swedien has known what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. The names of the people he has worked with are too many to list, but when one mentions musicians like Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughan, Eddie Harris, Quincy Jones, Jennifer Lopez, and even Michael Jackson, a great deal is immediately understood. In this book, Swedien generously gives away detailed information from his lifetime in the studio-from a musical, technical, and very personal perspective. This book has something for everyone who is interested in music, especially those curious about the stories behind the scenes of some of the best music to ever come out of the recording studio.
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