In 1970, Patience Gromes was an 83 year old widow who lived on State Street in Fulton, one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Richmond, Virginia. This non-fiction narrative traces the life of Patience Gromes, her family, her neighbours from the War between the States to the War on Poverty. Meet Patience's grandfather who escaped slavery 14 years before the Civil War. Experience the hard years of Reconstruction, the cruelty of De Jure Segregation, the triumph of Civil Rights. Probe the complexities and ironies of neighbourhood life under urban renewal and the War on Poverty.

The World of Patience Gromes: Making and Unmaking a Black Community

History

Davis, Scott C.

Americas

Univ Pr of Kentucky

Lost Arrow and Other True Stories contains eleven nonfiction tales based on the author's life: He is a rock climber, foreign traveler, and carpenter. Also, he spent 14 years tracing the obscure roots of a small African-American community where he lived and worked after graduating from Stanford in 1970.Rather than examining his subjects from the outside, Scott C. Davis reports from within. He is engaged -- a position which yields special insight and gives the reader an opportunity to delve into distinctly different worlds.

Lost Arrow and Other True Stories (Local Authors of International Importance)

Literature & Fiction

United States

Cune

The Road from Damascus provides a street-level view of a so-called terrorist nation a view that gives the lie to accepted wisdom in the United States. Syrians, the author discovers, are intelligent, gracious, fair-minded, and utterly in love with American culture even as they decry what they see as the excesses of US foreign policy. The Road from Damascus introduces some of the finest Syrian artists and writers (Fateh Moudarres, Walid Ikhlassy, Zouhair Dabbagh, Youssef Abdelke, and Mamoun Sakkal) who are creating a vibrant modern culture a next step that surpasses the Islamic radicalism of 9-11 and builds a bridge between East and West. It was a rough few years in the Middle East: suicide attacks, hostage-taking, hijackings. In 1985 the terror spread to Europe, and Americans were among the victims. The following year the United States responded by attacking Libya. Commentators said that Syria was next. In Seattle, Scott C. Davis was curious. Did Middle Eastern people hate us? How true were media stereotypes which condemned Muslims, Arabs, and Syrians? Davis flew to Damascus. Two hours after arriving, he took a hotel room with a Muslim fundamentalist and found himself using his mountaineer s compass to answer technical questions: Exactly how many degrees to Mecca? Two weeks later in the shadow of a great Crusader castle, Davis and a local teenager ran from the mukhabarat and took shelter in a stone house on the cliff side. After dark they ate a meal with sisters and friends. Then the teenager played disco on a Korean boom box, and Davis gave bump dance lessons to six Muslims including two women. While the dancers shook, the cows in the room below shuffled and moaned. A few weeks later in a dry town at the edge of the Euphrates, Davis was invited to play chess by a Kurdish soldier on leave. The night was cold, and the soldier pulled a sheepskin cape over his shoulders for warmth. As the game progressed, the soldier taunted the 241 US Marines killed in Beirut four years earlier. At checkmate Davis learned that the taunts concealed respect, sorrow, and an inescapable comradeship. On his first night in Syria, traveling on a rickety transit bus into Damascus, Davis had been overcome with apprehension. Weeks later, returning to Damascus from hard travel on the eastern steppe, Davis welcomed this city as a safe moorage, a quiet resting place, an enduring home.

The Road from Damascus: A Journey Through Syria (Bridge Between the Cultures Series)

Travel

Asia

In February 2001 Scott C. Davis flew to Damascus, attended raucous political salons, talked all night, and sat in local cafes debating the nature of the evolving Syrian nation. Such openness was new in Syria. Was it a sign of things to come? Would the Damascene Curtain fall as heavily and permanently as did the Berlin Wall? Would Damascus become another tourist trap bursting with American franchise restaurants, another Amman? To answer these questions, and to give a feel for the real country beneath the rapidly changing surfaces, Davis tells a story of an earlier time when Syrians did not discuss politics for fear of the 'mukhabarat' and when some hesitated, in their own homes, even to mention the name of the Syrian president. Fourteen years earlier, in October 1987, Davis had come to Damascus and begun a slow, difficult journey through Syrian society. He met artists and intellectuals, wealthy landowners, retired mystics, and also slept on the floor beside humble peasants and working folk. The times were quiet, jobs scarce, and ordinary folk could take a few moments for tea with a guest. Many of those Davis met took pride in their own simplicity.Denied political power and wealth, they aspired instead to wisdom - or at least to perfecting a sardonic wit. This tale of grace, humour, and humanity turns on the author's search for truth and, also, for a few good quotes for his book - a search that took him across Syria in the footsteps of Alexander to the ancient Roman Bridge over the Tigris River in the far eastern tip of the country - and then brought him racing back to Damascus to find the Patriarch of Antioch.

Middle East

Cune Press

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Books by Davis, Scott C.