"Remember your high school and college literature classes. Not really? Too boring? Well, why did literature have to be analyzed so blandly? Professors are clearly intelligent, but sometimes literature needs to be translated, especially classic works, to speak to today's audiences. Enter the one and only Sparky Sweets, PhD. Based on the hit YouTube series, Thug Notes: The Book will celebrate the most widely read (and widely assigned) works of literature,...

"Lorraine Hansberry has had a direct influence on who we are, the stories we tell, and how we move in the world today. We are beyond delighted to share Jay's beautiful words and Loveis's stunning work, bringing this iconic visionary to life for the next generation of dreamers." -Lena Waithe, Rishi Rajani, and Naomi Funabashi, Hillman Grad Books Our stories can change the world. As a young girl, playwright Lorraine Hansberry walked everywhere with...

McKee offers in-depth analysis for how characters speak on the screen, on the stage, and on the page in believable and engaging ways. From Macbeth to Breaking Bad, McKee deconstructs key scenes to illustrate the strategies and techniques of dialogue, applying a framework of incisive thinking to instruct the prospective writer on how to craft artful, impactful speech.

From Tony Award-winning director and recipient of the prestigious Mr. Abbott Award, Kenny Leon, comes a powerful memoir of the lessons he has learned on his incredible life journey. When Kenny Leon's grandmother told him to "take you wherever you go," she could hardly have anticipated that he would establish himself as one of Broadway's most exciting and acclaimed directors. But through years of hard work, Kenny would migrate from a small wooden...

The Common Core State Standards initiated major changes for language arts teachers, particularly the emphasis on "informational text." Language arts teachers were asked to shift attention toward informational texts without taking away from the teaching of literature. Teachers, however, need to incorporate nonfiction in ways that enhance rather than take away from their teaching of literature. The Using Informational Text series is designed to help. In...

This is a short, quick, and easy read.Some Sample Anecdotes:As a young actress just starting in show business, Eve Arden quickly learned not to be absent minded. She once finished a play's first act, went to her dressing room, took off her costume and removed her makeup, and then left the theater to take a bus home only to find the theater manager running after her and yelling, "Second act!" She returned to the stage wearing galoshes and no makeup,...

Across a turbulent history, Black poets created a rich and multifaceted tradition that has been both a reckoning with American realities and an imaginative response to them. One of the great American art forms, African American poetry encompasses many kinds of verse: formal, experimental, vernacular, lyric, and protest. The anthology opens with moving testaments to the power of poetry as a means of self-assertion, as enslaved people voice their passionate...