Book cover of Samba: Resistance in Motion

Book description

"Browning's ability to write ethnography, to locate the subject in terms of, and against, such African-Diaspora questions as 'continuities' and 'acculturation', and to fashion a personal and lyrical narrative, opens up many possibilities." - David H. Brown. Barbara Browning combines a lyrical, personal narrative with incisive and theoretically sophisticated accounts…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Samba as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Barbara Browning is a professor of dance, and a capoeirista. She learnt capoeira in New York and took classes with two of the first Brazilians to teach there in the 1970s. 

This is a book about Samba (the Brazilian national dance) with one long chapter about capoeira. As a female dancer Browning came to capoeira, when women learners were rare in Brazil and in the USA, with a relevant skill.

Many women capoeira learners came from dance backgrounds whereas most male learners in the UK and USA find the dance side harder than the more martial element. Browning sets capoeira…

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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