Hannah Lewis

In this Oxford Guide to Film Musicals, author Hannah Lewis gives readers fascinating new insights into the development, style, and reception of the 2016 film musical La La Land. Directed by Damien Chazelle with music by Justin Hurwitz, the film tells the story of a romance between an aspiring actress and jazz pianist as the two pursue their dreams in Los Angeles. It uses a vintage form to tell a modern story and its blend of nostalgia and realism made it an instant classic even as it prompted a range of critical and audience responses. Drawing on extensive personal interviews with director Damien Chazelle, composer Justin Hurwitz, choreographer Mandy Moore, and lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the book explores La La Land's aesthetic approach to the film musical genre, particularly its engagement with and subversion of the classic Hollywood musical's stylistic and narrative expectations. Lewis offers readers ways of listening to the film's depiction of jazz, focusing especially on how race and genre intersect in its narrative. She also reveals new insights into the film's reception, showing how the critical response from its premiere to its place at the Academy Awards reflected broader cultural expectations and understandings of the film musical and its continued appeal for twenty-first century audiences. By exploring the range of stylistic and cultural debates that La La Land prompted, this book gives readers new ways of thinking about the film musical genre's enduring and evolving place in contemporary American culture.

In this Oxford Guide to Film Musicals, author Hannah Lewis gives readers fascinating new insights into the development, style, and reception of the 2016 film musical La La Land. Directed by Damien Chazelle with music by Justin Hurwitz, the film tells the story of a romance between an aspiring actress and jazz pianist as the two pursue their dreams in Los Angeles. It uses a vintage form to tell a modern story and its blend of nostalgia and realism made it an instant classic even as it prompted a range of critical and audience responses. Drawing on extensive personal interviews with director Damien Chazelle, composer Justin Hurwitz, choreographer Mandy Moore, and lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the book explores La La Land's aesthetic approach to the film musical genre, particularly its engagement with and subversion of the classic Hollywood musical's stylistic and narrative expectations. Lewis offers readers ways of listening to the film's depiction of jazz, focusing especially on how race and genre intersect in its narrative. She also reveals new insights into the film's reception, showing how the critical response from its premiere to its place at the Academy Awards reflected broader cultural expectations and understandings of the film musical and its continued appeal for twenty-first century audiences. By exploring the range of stylistic and cultural debates that La La Land prompted, this book gives readers new ways of thinking about the film musical genre's enduring and evolving place in contemporary American culture.

‘There may be no single climate solution that has a greater breadth of benefits than mini-forests…[and] can be done by everyone everywhere.’ Paul Hawken, from the foreword Are you ready to join the movement to restore biodiversity in our cities and towns by transforming degraded and underused urban land into forests that can help heal the planet? In Mini-Forest Revolution, Hannah Lewis presents the Miyawaki Method, a unique approach to reforestation devised by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. Lewis explains how tiny forests, as small as six parking spaces, can grow quickly and offer rich biodiversity and environmental benefits – much more so than forests planted by conventional methods. Today, the Miyawaki Method is witnessing a worldwide surge in popularity. Lewis shares stories of mini-forests that have sprung up across the globe and the people who are planting them – from a ‘Forest of Thanks’ in East London, to a mini-forest along the concrete alley of the Beirut River in Lebanon, to a backyard project planted by tiny-forest champion Shubhendu Sharma in India. Mini-Forest Revolution offers a revolutionary approach to planting trees and a truly accessible solution to the climate crisis that can be implemented by communities, classrooms, cities, companies, clubs, and families everywhere.

Over the last 30 years, the prevalence of eating disorders has increased to become a widespread problem across the UK and worldwide. This book offers a comprehensive guide written by people with eating disorders, their families and leading researchers, clinicians and therapists, all aiming to improve understanding of practical ways of helping people with eating disorders to live and thrive in their communities. The handbook covers the important topics of understanding eating difficulties in our society's context, including the role of social media and the fashion industry, and how health care professionals and voluntary organisations currently support those with an eating disorder. It explores the value of exercise, nutrition and sleep, and considers support from parents and schools for children, as well as making reasonable accommodations for young people and adults in higher education and the workplace. Particular therapies for stabilisation and recovery are detailed, and a final section sets out examples of creative and arts-based approaches.

Following years of theology of deafness based on the premise that Deaf people are simply people who cannot hear, this book breaks new ground. Presenting a new approach to Deaf people, theology and the Church, this book enables Deaf people who see themselves as members of a minority group to formulate their own theology rooted in their own history and culture. Deconstructing the theology and practice of the Church, Hannah Lewis shows how the Church unconsciously oppresses Deaf people through its view of them as people who cannot hear. Lewis reclaims Deaf perspectives on Church history, examines how an essentially visual Deaf culture can relate to the written text of the Bible and asks 'Can Jesus sign?' This book pulls together all these strands to consider how worship can be truly liberating, truly a place for Deaf people to celebrate who they are before God.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence This ground breaking book presents the first evidence of forced labour among displaced migrants who seek refuge in the UK. Through a critical engagement with contemporary debates about precarity, unfreedom and socio-legal status, the book explores how asylum and forced labour are linked, and enmeshed in a broader picture of modern slavery produced through globalised working conditions. Drawing on original evidence generated in fieldwork with refugees and asylum seekers, this is important reading for students and academics in social policy, social geography, sociology, politics, refugee, labour and migration studies, and policy makers and practitioners working to support migrants and tackle forced labour.

Brave Little Bones is a beautifully illustrated memoir in gripping, free verse poetry. In this reflective, coming-of-age poetry collection, Hollatz undresses her skeleton, allowing her bones to tell their story. Brave Little Bones explores themes of nostalgia, love lost, and the rebirth of self. Broken into four parts, this collection encourages self-growth and discovering the light source within all of us.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence This ground breaking book presents the first evidence of forced labour among displaced migrants who seek refuge in the UK. Through a critical engagement with contemporary debates about precarity, unfreedom and socio-legal status, the book explores how asylum and forced labour are linked, and enmeshed in a broader picture of modern slavery produced through globalised working conditions. Drawing on original evidence generated in fieldwork with refugees and asylum seekers, this is important reading for students and academics in social policy, social geography, sociology, politics, refugee, labour and migration studies, and policy makers and practitioners working to support migrants and tackle forced labour.

Following years of theology of deafness based on the premise that Deaf people are simply people who cannot hear, this book breaks new ground. Presenting a new approach to Deaf people, theology and the Church, this book enables Deaf people who see themselves as members of a minority group to formulate their own theology rooted in their own history and culture. Deconstructing the theology and practice of the Church, Hannah Lewis shows how the Church unconsciously oppresses Deaf people through its view of them as people who cannot hear. Lewis reclaims Deaf perspectives on Church history, examines how an essentially visual Deaf culture can relate to the written text of the Bible and asks 'Can Jesus sign?' This book pulls together all these strands to consider how worship can be truly liberating, truly a place for Deaf people to celebrate who they are before God.