New for August we have the first in Nat Rubner’s two volume set exploring a pivotal moment in the history of the African continent; the first biography of Gérard Grisey – the ‘angry young man’ who transformed 20th century music; insights on the way Latin American women writers and artists are using their work to address the most pressing issues of our times; new perspectives on the Kindertransport, and an English text and musical reconstruction of the twelfth-century play the Laon Ordo Joseph.
by Nat Rubner
The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), which came into effect in 1986, was the first non-Western declaration of human rights and the first official statement of an African human rights perspective. This book presents the first comprehensive account of the development of the ACHPR. This first of two volumes, outlines the dominant African political and cultural ideas of the time and their symbiotic relationship with the principles and politics upon which the OAU (now African Union) was founded and upon which it functioned.
Delirium and Form
by Jeffrey Arlo Brown
The French composer Gérard Grisey (1946-98) changed the course of music history with his small but potent output. Labeled “spectral” music, his compositions looked to the physics of sound and the capacities of human perception for material and inspiration. This first biography of Grisey draws on original archival research, interviews with more than fifty of Grisey’s colleagues, friends, and lovers, and the study of previously overlooked sketches.
Edited by Jane Elizabeth Lavery and Sarah Bowskill
In contemporary Latin America, an emerging crosscurrent of pioneering female writers and artists with an interest in transgressing traditional boundaries of genre, media, gender and nation are using their work to voice dissent against pressing social issues including neo-liberal consumerism, environmental degradation, mass migration and gender violence. Bringing together analyses by scholars from the US, Europe and Latin America, this volume proposes new critical approaches to new forms of expression which encapsulate rich transnational cultural flows and grass-roots political activism.
Exhibitions, Memorials, and Commemorations
by Amy Williams and William Niven
The Kindertransport, the rescue of ca. 10,000 Jewish children from the Nazi sphere of control and influence before the Second World War, has often been framed as a “British story.” This book compares British memory of the Kindertransport to that of other host nations, including the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It is the first book to ask how the Kindertransport is remembered both in the countries of origin and in the host nations.
The Laon Ordo Joseph
by Robert C. Lagueux
This book shows that the twelfth-century Ordo Joseph from Laon, in France is in fact a drama for the Feast of Fools, long hidden in plain sight. The volume Includes a new Latin edition of the text, accompanied by an English translation, as well as a musical reconstruction that harnesses the music of Laon’s liturgy and finally makes possible a performance of this spectacular, newly identified Feast of Fools drama.
The Power of Anti-Slavery Poetry