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Web Release
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Web Release
Lines of Fire: A New Book Published by AUB Press
The American University of Beirut (AUB) Press announced the release of its new publication Lines of Fire by Dr. Tariq Mehmood. Focusing on the works of the Afro-Asian Writers' Movement between the 1960s and 1970s, it presents a selection of poetry from the rich archives of the two major journals published during that time, The Call and Lotus. Through the selection, this book highlights key works from a movement that brought writers from all corners of the world together under the banner of resistance. Lines of Fire was finalized against the backdrop of escalating violence. 'It reminded me that poetry is not just an outlet for anger, grief, or love,' writes Mehmood in the introduction. 'It is resistance. It is resilience. It is the refusal to be erased.' Over the course of his research, the author's path has brought him together with many renowned poets and writers who shaped the history covered in this book. One of these poets is Ziad Abdulfattah, the last living editor of the journals. Ziad has written the foreword to this book where he shares his first-hand experience in formulating a journal and developing it to allow it to reach the entire world. This book introduces the history of the Afro-Asian Writers' Movement and highlights those who used their pens as weapons to fight injustice. This work also extensively discusses the Tashkent and Bandung conferences that aimed to bring writers together, discuss peace, poetry, and decolonization. As in many movements, internal conflicts and the watchful eye of intelligent services were some of the challenges that faced the writers and editors. Most importantly, this work draws parallels between the struggles of the past and those of today, placing poetry and powerful writing at the heart of resistance, remembrance, and the ongoing fight for justice. The book includes more than one-hundred poems from The Call and Lotus categorized into four sections: Exile, Independence and Nationalism, Place and Land, and Hope and Endurance.
Al Bawaba
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Al Bawaba
Lines of Fire: A New Book Published by AUB Press
The American University of Beirut (AUB) Press announced the release of its new publication Lines of Fire by Dr. Tariq Mehmood. Focusing on the works of the Afro-Asian Writers' Movement between the 1960s and 1970s, it presents a selection of poetry from the rich archives of the two major journals published during that time, The Call and Lotus. Through the selection, this book highlights key works from a movement that brought writers from all corners of the world together under the banner of resistance. Lines of Fire was finalized against the backdrop of escalating violence. 'It reminded me that poetry is not just an outlet for anger, grief, or love,' writes Mehmood in the introduction. 'It is resistance. It is resilience. It is the refusal to be erased.'Over the course of his research, the author's path has brought him together with many renowned poets and writers who shaped the history covered in this book. One of these poets is Ziad Abdulfattah, the last living editor of the journals. Ziad has written the foreword to this book where he shares his first-hand experience in formulating a journal and developing it to allow it to reach the entire book introduces the history of the Afro-Asian Writers' Movement and highlights those who used their pens as weapons to fight injustice. This work also extensively discusses the Tashkent and Bandung conferences that aimed to bring writers together, discuss peace, poetry, and decolonization. As in many movements, internal conflicts and the watchful eye of intelligent services were some of the challenges that faced the writers and editors. Most importantly, this work draws parallels between the struggles of the past and those of today, placing poetry and powerful writing at the heart of resistance, remembrance, and the ongoing fight for justice. The book includes more than one-hundred poems from The Call and Lotus categorized into four sections: Exile, Independence and Nationalism, Place and Land, and Hope and Endurance. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba ( Signal PressWire is the world's largest independent Middle East PR distribution service.
USA Today
29-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
It looks like Bo Nix attended Tez Johnson's draft party
It looks like Bo Nix attended Tez Johnson's draft party The Nix family took Tez Johnson into their home when he was a 15-year-old high school football player, and while he was not formally adopted, Johnson and Bo Nix consider themselves brothers. Nix and Johnson played together at Oregon in 2023, connecting 86 times for 1,182 yards and 10 touchdowns last season. When Nix went pro last spring, Johnson was by his side when his brother and quarterback got "The Call" from the Denver Broncos during the 2024 NFL draft. Fittingly, when Tez waited to hear his name called during the 2025 NFL draft, it appears that Nix was at his brother's draft party this time around. Johnson shared a post on in Instagram page that showed him getting the call and then celebrating with friends and family. Nix is shown in the last slide and Johnson is wearing the same suit in the same room, so it seems fair to assume Nix was among those in attendance. Nix's wife, Izzy, also shared a video on her Instagram story from Johnson's watch party. (Click the right arrow to scroll through the photos.) As a reminder, here is Johnson at Nix's draft party last year: Following the draft, Nix shared a message to Johnson on his Instagram story: "Keep proving them wrong kid @tezmania15." Johnson ended up being picked by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the seventh round of the draft (No. 235 overall). The Bucs are not among Denver's list of opponents this fall, but Nix and Johnson should face off on the field at some point down the road in their NFL careers. Related: These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans.
Chicago Tribune
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: Now on a Broadway stage, ‘Floyd Collins' feels stuck in that cavern
NEW YORK — In the first moments of Tina Landau and Adam Guettel's 'Floyd Collins,' the spring musical at Lincoln Center set in the Mammoth Cave region of Kentucky in 1925, the titular impoverished Kentucky spelunker slithers his way down a particularly interesting opening here in the aptly named Barren County, hoping it unlocks his future fortune. Rocks tumble. A ceiling gives way. Floyd Collins, a real-life guy played here by the Broadway star Jeremy Jordan, gets stuck underground in the pitch black. The rest of the show, which I first reviewed at Chicago's Goodman Theatre back in 1999, is dedicated to the various attempts to pull him out. It becomes a circus, with various parties fighting for credit and against blame, the media competing for the best story, hawkers selling their wares, bosses and workers fighting even as family members sit forlorn on the surface, desperate for news. Meanwhile, Floyd Collins keeps company mostly with crickets, but also with his brother Homer (Jason Gotay) and a reporter named Skeets Miller (Taylor Trensch), who possess the highly unusual but helpful journalistic quality of being short, thin and pliable enough to search for his scoops under the surface of the earth. I've been fond of this piece these last 25 years, not least because of the gorgeous melodies Guettel forged with this guitar-heavy score, the one and only example of this gifted composer's foray into bluegrass and country, banjos and harmonicas put into service. Much of the music is very beautiful, including the aria-like solo called 'The Call,' a lovely ballad titled 'Through the Mountain,' sung by Floyd's sister, Nellie (Lizzy McAlpine in a stellar Broadway debut) and a very sweet aspirational Floyd number called 'And She'd Have Blue Eyes,' which I love. Guettel wrote 'Floyd Collins' not so long before his masterpiece 'The Light in the Piazza,' and, taken together, the two musicals reveal a composer of astonishing range, capable of giving musical voice to entirely different communities with equal vivacity and commitment. So why did 'Floyd Collins' not feel fully satisfying in this new staging from the original director and book writer? Part of the problem is baked into the material and was present back in the 1990s. You might think of it as the immobile protagonist dilemma: it's not easy to center a musical on a man who for almost all of the show is incapable of movement. 'Floyd Collins' is not the first musical to set itself that problem: 'Hands on a Hardbody,' an underrated show about contestants who had to keep their mitts on an automobile, struggled with the same issue. But the first time around with 'Floyd Collins,' if memory serves, Landau better managed to center Floyd and thus help him to win over our empathy. This time, naturally with a different actor, that doesn't work as well. It's a consequence, I think, of the Lincoln Center's massive stage and Landau's understandable reluctance to just stick the guy in the middle of the stage. Off to the side, though, and far away from many folks watching, it's just tough for him to command the necessary level of attention, notwithstanding Jordan's famous vocal chops. The other central characters fare better, especially Gotay's moving Homer and Miller's spunky scribe but also McAlpine, and Marc Kudisch as Floyd's dad. But Sean Allan Krill, who plays the designated evil suit, has to deal with an archetype. And the reporters, too, are mostly just types, even though Guettel wrote them a fabulous satirical number called 'Is That Remarkable.' In this new design by the team known collectively as Dot, you don't so much see the real hills of Kentucky as a kind of surreal dreamscape that looks cool in an arty kind of way, but still doesn't truly connect you to Floyd himself. Even Floyd's final number, 'How Glory Goes,' which I remember as hitting you between the eyes, just does not soar. Sure, this show is about more than Floyd Collins; it has much to say about how America exploits human and familiar tragedy, then and now, but it just cannot work fully without a deep connection taking place between the audience and the main character. Jordan's Collins feels more reactive than proactive, even though I think Landau and Guettel intended him as a great American adventurer, a striving risk-taker who deserved a community and a country that had his back. Simply put, the emotional waves that all musicals need to surf in order to fully work just seem here to stop at the surface; we understand the issues, but don't feel all the feels underground. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
