Renowned folklorist William R. Ferris has captured the voices of southern musicians, artists, writers, and thinkers for forty years—and we have been proud to publish his work in Southern Cultures for nearly half of that time. To celebrate Southern Cultures' 20th anniversary, we present our inaugural special omnibus ebook, The William R. Ferris Reader. Collected here for the first time are all 20 of Bill Ferris's essays and interviews as they have appeared in our pages between 1995 and 2013, as well as an introduction to the collection by Ferris. From folk humor to moon pies to Faulkner, Welty, Walker, and so much more, we are delighted to share this special collection of a favored friend, mentor, and colleague.
Renowned folklorist William R. Ferris has captured the voices of southern musicians, artists, writers, and thinkers for forty years—and we have been proud to publish his work in Southern Cultures for nearly half of that time. To celebrate Southern Cultures' 20th anniversary, we present our inaugural special omnibus ebook, The William R. Ferris Reader. Collected here for the first time are all 20 of Bill Ferris's essays and interviews as they have appeared in our pages between 1995 and 2013, as well as an introduction to the collection by Ferris. From folk humor to moon pies to Faulkner, Welty, Walker, and so much more, we are delighted to share this special collection of a favored friend, mentor, and colleague.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, folklorist William Ferris toured his home state of Mississippi, documenting the voices of African Americans as they spoke about and performed the diverse musical traditions that form the authentic roots of the blues. Now, Give My Poor Heart Ease puts front and center a searing selection of the artistically and emotionally rich voices from this invaluable documentary record. Illustrated with Ferris's photographs of the musicians and their communities and including a CD of original music, the book features more than twenty interviews relating frank, dramatic, and engaging narratives about black life and blues music in the heart of the American South. Here are the stories of artists who have long memories and speak eloquently about their lives, blues musicians who represent a wide range of musical traditions--from one-strand instruments, bottle-blowing, and banjo to spirituals, hymns, and prison work chants. Celebrities such as B. B. King and Willie Dixon, along with performers known best in their neighborhoods, express the full range of human and artistic experience--joyful and gritty, raw and painful. In an autobiographical introduction, Ferris reflects on how he fell in love with the vibrant musical culture that was all around him but was considered off limits to a white Mississippian during a troubled era. This magnificent volume illuminates blues music, the broader African American experience, and indeed the history and culture of America itself.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, folklorist William Ferris toured his home state of Mississippi, documenting the voices of African Americans as they spoke about and performed the diverse musical traditions that form the authentic roots of the blues. Now, Give My Poor Heart Ease puts front and center a searing selection of the artistically and emotionally rich voices from this invaluable documentary record. Illustrated with Ferris's photographs of the musicians and their communities and including a CD of original music and a DVD of original film, the book features more than twenty interviews relating frank, dramatic, and engaging narratives about black life and blues music in the heart of the American South. Here are the stories of artists who have long memories and speak eloquently about their lives, blues musicians who represent a wide range of musical traditions--from one-strand instruments, bottle-blowing, and banjo to spirituals, hymns, and prison work chants. Celebrities such as B. B. King and Willie Dixon, along with performers known best in their neighborhoods, express the full range of human and artistic experience--joyful and gritty, raw and painful. In an autobiographical introduction, Ferris reflects on how he fell in love with the vibrant musical culture that was all around him but was considered off limits to a white Mississippian during a troubled era. This magnificent volume illuminates blues music, the broader African American experience, and indeed the history and culture of America itself. The enhanced ebook edition includes: * Almost 2 hours of video clips and interviews scattered throughout the text * An hour of original music, also imbedded throughout the text * Concludes with the full DVD of original film and full CD of original music Watch the video below to see a demonstration of the the features of this enhanced ebook:
Story after wonderful story, tall tale after tall tale. Ray Lum tells a southern writer where he came from, and where he ought to go. -Shelby Foote Bill Ferris makes me wish I'd known Ray Lum. -Larry Brown Indeed, the mule trader has undoubtedly helped to form our great oral tradition in the South . Ray Lum [was] a man born and bred to the practice of the country monologue. -Eudora Welty Readers captivated by this book will be happy that Bill Ferris found Ray Lum and that he thought to turn on a tape recorder. Lum (1891--1977) was a mule skinner, a livestock trader, an auctioneer, and an American original. This delightful book, first published in 1992 as You Live and Learn. Then You Die and Forget It All, preserves Lum's colorful folk dialect and captures the essence of this one-of-a-kind figure who seems to have stepped full-blooded from the pages of Mark Twain. This riveting talespinner was tall, heavy-set, and full of body rhythm as he talked. In his special world he was famous for trading, for tale-telling, and for common-sense lessons that had made him a savvy bargainer and a shrewd businessman. His home and his auction barn were in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where mules were his main interest, but in trading he fanned out over twenty states and even into Mexico. A west Texas newspaper reported his fame this way: He is known all over cow country for his honest fair dealing and gentlemanly attitude..... A letter addressed to him anywhere in Texas probably would be delivered. Over several years Ferris recorded Lum's many long conversations that detail livestock auctioneering, cheery memories of rustic Deep South culture, and a philosophy of life that is grounded in good horse sense. Even among the most spellbinding talkers Lum is a standout both for what he has to say and for the way he says it. Ferris's lucky, protracted encounters with him turn out to be the best of good fortune for everybody.
I try to get the people in my hand, for them to love me, and once I get them in my hand, I can then tell them what I've come to tell them. And I come to tell them about the blues. It's just like a preacher." The consummate Chiltin' Circuit performer talks women, finding his crossover audience, and masquerading as two different people on the same stage in one night. This article appears in the 2011 Music issue of Southern Cultures. Southern Cultures is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for the Study of the American South.
The Storied South features the voices--by turn searching and honest, coy and scathing--of twenty-six of the most luminous artists and thinkers in the American cultural firmament, from Eudora Welty, Pete Seeger, and Alice Walker to William Eggleston, Bobby Rush, and C. Vann Woodward. Masterfully drawn from one-on-one interviews conducted by renowned folklorist William Ferris over the past forty years, the book reveals how storytelling is viscerally tied to southern identity and how the work of these southern or southern-inspired creators has shaped the way Americans think and talk about the South. The Storied South offers a unique, intimate opportunity to sit at the table with these men and women and learn how they worked and how they perceived their art. The volume also features 45 of Ferris's striking photographic portraits of the speakers and a CD and a DVD of original audio and films of the interviews.
In the American South, the civil rights movement in the 1960s and the struggle to abolish racial segregation erupted in dramatic scenes at lunch counters, in schools, and in churches. The admission of James Meredith as the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi; the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama; and the sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis—where Martin Luther King was assassinated—rank as cardinal events in black Americans’ fight for their civil rights. The photographs featured in I AM A MAN: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960–1970 bear witness to the courage of protesters who faced unimaginable violence and brutality as well as the quiet determination of the elderly and the angry commitment of the young. Talented photographers documented that decade and captured both the bravery of civil rights workers and the violence they faced. Most notably, this book features the work of Bob Adelman, Dan Budnik, Doris Derby, Roland Freeman, Danny Lyon, Art Shay, and Ernest Withers. Like the fabled music and tales of the American South, their photographs document the region’s past, its people, and the places that shaped their lives. Protesters in these photographs generated the mighty leverage that eventually transformed a segregated South. The years from 1960 to 1970 unleashed both hope and profound change as desegregation opened public spaces and African Americans secured their rights. The photographs in this volume reveal, as only great photography can, the pivotal moments that changed history, and yet remind us how far we have to go.
Teaching English to Second Language Learners in Academic Contexts: Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking provides the fundamental knowledge that ESL and EFL teachers need to teach the four language skills. This foundational text, written by internationally renowned experts in the field, explains why skills-based teaching is at the heart of effective instruction in English for academic purposes (EAP) contexts. Each of the four main sections of the book helps readers understand how each skill—reading, writing, listening, and speaking—works and explains what research has to say about successful skill performance. Pedagogically focused chapters apply this information to principles for EAP curriculum design and to instructional activities and tasks adaptable in a wide range of language-learning contexts. Options for assessment and the role of digital technologies are considered for each skill, and essential information on integrated-skill instruction is provided. Moving from theory to practice, this teacher-friendly text is an essential resource for courses in TESOL programs, for in-service teacher-training seminars, and for practicing EAP teachers who want to upgrade their teaching abilities and knowledge bases.
In the American South, the civil rights movement in the 1960s and the struggle to abolish racial segregation erupted in dramatic scenes at lunch counters, in schools, and in churches. The admission of James Meredith as the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi; the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama; and the sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis—where Martin Luther King was assassinated—rank as cardinal events in black Americans’ fight for their civil rights. The photographs featured in I AM A MAN: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960–1970 bear witness to the courage of protesters who faced unimaginable violence and brutality as well as the quiet determination of the elderly and the angry commitment of the young. Talented photographers documented that decade and captured both the bravery of civil rights workers and the violence they faced. Most notably, this book features the work of Bob Adelman, Dan Budnik, Doris Derby, Roland Freeman, Danny Lyon, Art Shay, and Ernest Withers. Like the fabled music and tales of the American South, their photographs document the region’s past, its people, and the places that shaped their lives. Protesters in these photographs generated the mighty leverage that eventually transformed a segregated South. The years from 1960 to 1970 unleashed both hope and profound change as desegregation opened public spaces and African Americans secured their rights. The photographs in this volume reveal, as only great photography can, the pivotal moments that changed history, and yet remind us how far we have to go.
Readers captivated by this book will be happy that Bill Ferris found Ray Lum and that he thought to turn on a tape recorder. Lum (1891-1977) was a mule skinner, a livestock trader, an auctioneer, and an American original. This delightful book, first published in 1992 as “You Live and Learn. Then You Die and Forget It All,” preserves Lum's colorful folk dialect and captures the essence of this one-of-a-kind figure who seems to have stepped full-blooded from the pages of Mark Twain. This riveting tale-spinner was tall, heavy-set, and full of body rhythm as he talked. In his special world, he was famous for trading, for tale-telling, and for common-sense lessons that had made him a savvy bargainer and a shrewd businessman. His home and his auction barn were in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where mules were his main interest, but in trading he fanned out over twenty states and even into Mexico. A west Texas newspaper reported his fame this way, “He is known all over cow country for his honest, fair dealing and gentlemanly attitude. . . . A letter addressed to him anywhere in Texas probably would be delivered.” Over several years, Ferris recorded Lum's many long conversations that detail livestock auctioneering, cheery memories of rustic Deep South culture, and a philosophy of life that is grounded in good horse sense. Even among the most spellbinding talkers, Lum is a standout both for what he has to say and for the way he says it. Ferris's lucky, protracted encounters with him turn out to be the best of good fortune for everybody.
Headhunters are third-party agents paid a fee by companies for locating job candidates perform a unique sales role. The product they sell is people, matching candidates with jobs and companies with candidates. Headhunters affect the professional lives of thousands of employees every day, and their work has a profound, though hidden, effect on the employment picture in the United States. William Finlay and James E. Coverdill draw on interviews with and observations of headhunters and on analysis of headhunting training seminars, lectures, industry newsletters, and a mail survey of headhunting firms. The result is a frank and sometimes unsettling portrait of the aims, attitudes, and tactics of practitioners. The payment of fees has shifted from candidates to employers, and recruiters now find people to fit jobs rather than the other way around. Finlay and Coverdill address what they feel is a serious lack of research about the work headhunters do and how they do it. Their book is built around three major questions: What advantages do employers derive from using third-party agents to handle candidate search and recruitment? How are headhunters able to accomplish the double sale ('selling' candidates to employers and employers to candidates)? What criteria do headhunters use for selecting candidates? In the process, Finlay and Coverdill link their findings to larger issues of institutional and historical context, revealing the economic and political reasons clients use headhunters, demonstrating how headhunters manipulate clients and candidates, and assessing the impact of headhunters' actions on hiring decisions.
How Simply Asking Adult English as a Second Language Students How They Preferred to Learn How to Speak and Write in English Changed My College Composition Classes Forever!
How Simply Asking Adult English as a Second Language Students How They Preferred to Learn How to Speak and Write in English Changed My College Composition Classes Forever!
In today's American college classrooms, more and more international students are enrolling at a rapid pace. This happened in my classroom sevearl years ago. I had taught for over twenty years at the time, but I did not know how to approach these students who possessed varying levels of English proficiency. My traditional methods did not work, and all I could do was speak louder-as if an increased volume would increase their learning. Because I considered teaching a vocation, I did not want to give up. Instead, I enrolled in a doctoral program in Adult Education and chose Teaching English as a Second Language as my Cognate. In one of my doctoral classes, I had to do a research project. I decided to conduct interviews with my new students and simply ask them how they prefrred to learn how to speak and write in english. The results fascinated me! Based on what they told me and what I found in the literature, I totally revamped my composition classes. Gone were the days of lecture! Instead, with student input, I created a film based approach to teaching writing that seemed to emancipate my students, and they became proficient writers of English! Along the way, I was emancipated, too, and I knew that my classes would never be the same. This book is a result of my experience, and I hope it can be used as a jumping off point for positive change for any college composition teacher who truly cares if their students learn!
Development of the Nervous System, Fourth Edition provides an informative and up-to-date account of our present understanding of the basic principles of neural development as exemplified by key experiments and observations from past and recent times. This book reflects the advances made over the last few years, demonstrating their promise for both therapy and molecular understanding of one of the most complex processes in animal development. This information is critical for neuroscientists, developmental biologists, educators, and students at various stages of their career, providing a clear presentation of the frontiers of this exciting and medically important area of developmental biology. The book includes a basic introduction to the relevant aspects of neural development, covering all the major topics that form the basis of a comprehensive, advanced undergraduate and graduate curriculum, including the patterning and growth of the nervous system, neuronal determination, axonal navigation and targeting, neuron survival and death, synapse formation and plasticity. Provides broad coverage of concepts and experimental strategies Includes full color schematics and photographs of critical experiments Outlines the molecular and genetic basis for most developmental events Written at a level that is appropriate for advanced undergraduates and beyond Includes designs of critical experiments that are easy to understand
By the year 2000 half of the people in the United States were over the age of 50. By 2030, 70 million elderly will account for 20% of the U.S. population. The percentage of the population with Alzheimer’s disease is significantly on the rise and by 2025 there will be a 45% increase in developed countries and a 215% increase in developing countries. Aging populations face many other issues involving cognitive decline. Building an Ageless Mind offers practical solutions, including specific directives to assist individuals in changing the course of cognitive decline as a result of aging and disease. The brain, our ability to think, and our self-concept are so very important to individual lives, and the desire to maintain robust cognitive function is the ultimate goal for anyone concerned about the aging mind. Here, Dr. William J. Tippett helps readers understand the basics of how the brain works, and explains why engaging in certain exercises may be helpful. He gives people the tools to maintain, combat, and understand good brain health. He also examines one of the most profound brain aging related illnesses of our time, Alzheimer’s disease, and provides detailed information on how this disease affects the individual, as well as ways to protect against it and to alter its course even if it’s been diagnosed. Lifestyle strategies to promote brain health are also offered throughout. Readers will be fascinated by the way the brain functions and ages, and the many methods available to everyone to maintain better brain health as they age.
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