Patricia Parker Books

Ella Baker (1903–1986) was an influential African American civil rights and human rights activist.  For five decades she worked behind the scenes with people in vulnerable communities to catalyze social justice leadership. Her steadfast belief in the power of ordinary people to create change continues to inspire social justice activists around the world.  This book describes a case study that translates Ella Baker’s community engagement philosophy into a “catalytic leadership praxis” that others can adapt for their work. Catalytic leadership is a concrete set of communication practices for social justice leadership produced in equitable partnership with, instead of on, communities. The case centers the voices of African American teen girls who were living in a segregated neighborhood of an affluent college town and became part of a small collective of college students, parents, university faculty, and community activists learning leadership in the spirit of Ella Baker. 

Advanced beginners and intermediate bead stitchers will find plenty of inspiration in Colorful Components . This collection of projects is a visual feast for the eyes, packed with gorgeous jewelry pieces that make dazzling use of multi-hole beads in a wide range of shapes and colors.Award-winning bead artist Patricia Parker offers a component-based approach to jewelry making. She instructs beaders to stitch elements that are assembled to create finished necklaces, earrings, pendants, and bracelets. Patricia’s designs are colorful, fresh, and wearable, and many make use of layering to create dimension. Each of the 25+ projects includes at least one design option, offering readers numerous ways to use their favorite multi-hole beads.Patricia’s years of teaching experience ensure that all the illustrations and instructions in this 96-page softcover are accurate, complete, and easy to follow. With so many design variations and ideas, Colorful Components is a great value for bead stitchers looking for lots of inspiration.

What does the keyword "continence" in Love's Labor's Lost reveal about geopolitical boundaries and their breaching? What can we learn from the contemporary identification of the "quince" with weddings that is crucial for A Midsummer Night's Dream ? How does the evocation of Spanish-occupied "Brabant" in Othello resonate with contemporary geopolitical contexts, wordplay on "Low Countries," and fears of sexual/territorial "occupation"? How does "supposes" connote not only sexual submission in The Taming of the Shrew but also the transvestite practice of boys playing women, and what does it mean for the dramatic recognition scene in Cymbeline ?With dazzling wit and erudition, Patricia Parker explores these and other critical keywords to reveal how they provide a lens for interpreting the language, contexts, and preoccupations of Shakespeare's plays. In doing so, she probes classical and historical sources, theatrical performance practices, geopolitical interrelations, hierarchies of race, gender, and class, and the multiple significances of "preposterousness," including reversals of high and low, male and female, Latinate and vulgar, "sinister" or backward writing, and latter ends both bodily and dramatic.Providing innovative and interdisciplinary perspectives on Shakespeare, from early to late and across dramatic genres, Parker's deeply evocative readings demonstrate how easy-to-overlook textual or semantic details reverberate within and beyond the Shakespearean text, and suggest that the boundary between language and context is an incontinent divide.