New Releases by Jamake Highwater

The popular writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry examines how people who stand outside of society because of their sexual orientation, physical appearance, ideas, artistic inclinations, or ethnic heritage, often achieve lasting and even profound influence upon the culture at large. He combines his own experience as a gay Native American with sources in the arts, literature, biology, psychology, and anthropology. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book presents a powerful view of the history of dance, contrasting its role in Western civilization with its significance in other cultures. Highwater--a renowned critic, author, and lecturer on art, theater, music, and dance--links the history of dance to cultural forces as diverse as Karl Marx and Elvis Presley. Beginning with the original, ritualistic, and primal forms of dance, he traces its decline into empty ceremonial forms while all along insisting that dance is a fundamental life impulse made visible in motion--a spontaneous transformation of experience into metaphoric meaning. Considering the historical and creative context from which dance emerged, Highwater goes on to point out the specific contributions and cultural influences of such 20th-century dance giants as Isadora Duncan, Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson, George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Alwin Nikolais, Erick Hawkins, Jose Limon, Merce Cunningham, Meredith Monk, and Garth Fagan. Also examined are many newer artists, such as Bebe Miller and the Urban Bush Women.

Native Land formed the basis of a PBS series of the same name.

A fictionalized retelling of the Hindu legend of Prince Rama who, while in exile from his father's kingdom, fights and wins a great battleagainst the forces of evil led by the demon king Ravana.

Anpao is young and Handsome and Brave -- a man any maiden would be proud to call her husband. Any maiden but Ko-Ko-Mik-e-is, that is, who calims she belongs to the Sun alone. And so Anpao sets off for the house of the Sun to ask permission to marry the woman he loves. But Anpao's journey is not an easy one. Before he can reach the Sun, Anapao must travel back in time to the dawn of the world. He must relive his own creation, venture through The World Beneath the World, and battle the many magical mystical creatures of Native American legends. For only by doing so can Anpao discover who he really is, and rove to the Sun why he alone is worthy of the fair Ko-komik-e-is

Sitko Ghost Horse escapes from the dying city into the desert, where he encounters the dream world of a tribe that seems to be from another time and place. He is initiated into a ritual that requires him to verify his identity.

See "Homoeroticism" and "Homosexuality" in the index.

Sitko, growing up in a hostile white world that tries to make him renounce his heritage as an American Indian, finds refuge in the pictures he paints.

Alone and destitute after the death of her husband, Amana finds lasting friendship, love and disillusionment, and eventually moves to a trading post town where she strives to give her daughter and grandchildren a sense of pride in their Indian heritage.

Abandoned in the wilderness after smallpox devastates her tribe, eleven-year-old Amana acquires from Grandfather Fox a warrior's courage and a hunter's prowess, gifts that sustain her as she watches the progressive disintegration of her people.

This is a comprehensive one-volume survey of the Indian arts of the Western Hemisphere from pre-columbian times to the present. Beginnng with a general historical and cultural background of the arts of the Indian American by geographical area, Highwater discusses the images, symbols and meanings and techniques of this art as an intrinsic part of daily life, ceremony, religion and history. The book organizes the different arts by medium, with geographical areas included within each medium. Art forms covered include: basketry, textiles, skinwork, featherwork, beadwork, pottery, carving and sculpture, metalwork, mosaics, painting, oral and written literature, music, dance and ritual. Also includes a list of museums and galleries of Indian arts. ISBN 0-06-433330-2 : $35.00 (For use only in the library).

As the moon moves across the sky, it observes the activities of an Indian camp and of the natural phenomena surrounding it.

A young American attorney and his British architect and artist friend journey by steamboat and mule through Central America, where they stumble upon the forgotten Mayan civilization. Their historic journey is the basis for Journey to the Sky.

NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY 35,000 B.C. TO 1973 A.D.

Beneath the surface of small town serenity lies a dark domain where innocents dare not tread and unpredictability is the norm. It is the haunting realm of Blue Velvet. Spawned from the mind of David Lynch (Mulholland Drive, "Twin Peaks"), Blue Velvet is a "shocking, deeply disturbing...startling mixture of the heartfelt and the horrific" (Newsweek). Clean cut Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) realizes his Mayberry-like hometown is not so normal when he discovers a human ear in a field. His investigation catapults him into an alluring, erotic murder mystery involving a disturbed nightclub singer (Isabella Rossellini) and a drug-addicted sadist (Dennis Hopper). Soon Jeffrey is led deeper into their depraved existence...to the point of no return.