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'Present Continuous' is a collection of hybrid essays, written during the recent covid pandemic, moving between criticism and poetic prose, between visual and textual expressions of the present moment and a future that still has a past to resolve. From the initial announcement of the lockdown to Black Lives Matter protests to a “second wave” of restrictions and the issue of police violence, Grundy’s writing offers, in the words of Richard Owens, “a quality, a shade of incredible intelligence and intuitive imagining that cannot be reproduced”. "The world in art and poetry will begin with a world anew", commented the late musician and poet Henry Grimes. In these "expositions of harmony and theory", David Grundy strives to imagine that new world.

Through its comprehensive history of post-war queer writing in Boston and San Francisco from the 1940s through the 21st century, Never By Itself Alone provides a new view of queer history. Grundy intertwines analysis of lesbian, gay, and queer literature of the time, centering voices which have not yet before been explored in existing criticism. The book elevates the underrepresented work of writers of color and those with gender-nonconforming identities, underscores the link between activism and literature, and insists upon the vital importance of radical accounts of race, class and gender in any queer studies worthy of the name

The five essays printed here are excerpted from Part I of PRESENT CONTINUOUS, a book of prose written during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic between March 2020 and April 2021 in Lewisham, London. The essays in the present volume were written between March 2020 and June 2020: the movement from spring to summer, from the first announcement of a national lockdown to the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in the United States and the death of Belly Mujinga in the UK. Nearly two years on, following a seemingly endless series of virus variants and subvariants, an apparent shift from pandemic to endemic, and a kind of exhaustion of vocabulary and will, I hope they provide some sort of record, not just of where 'we' were in 2020, but where 'we' are--or might be--now. Literary Nonfiction. Essays. African & African American Studies.

Providing an unprecedented exploration of key moments in queer literary history, Never By Itself Alone changes our sense of both the American literary and political landscapes from the late 1940s through the 21st century. Grundy presents the first comprehensive history of post-war queer writing in Boston and San Francisco, intertwining analysis of lesbian, gay, and queer writing, and insisting on the link between activism and literature. The book centers a host of underrepresented writers, especially writers of color and those with gender non-conforming identities, and challenges the Stonewall exceptionalism of queer historiography. Starting with Robert Duncan's 1944 essay, 'The Homosexual in Society', one of the first significant public defenses of homosexuality in the US, Grundy takes the reader through pioneering works by queer voices of the era, including Adrian Stanford's Black and Queer, the first published book by an out, Black gay poet in the US; the Boston collective Fag Rag and their radical reconsideration of family, private property and the State; the Combahee River Collective, whose Black Feminist analysis drew together race, class, and sexuality; the anthology This Bridge Called My Back, in which women of color spoke truth to power, together; and New Narrative writing, which audaciously mixed Marxism, porn and gossip while uniting against the New Right. Linking these works to the context which produced them, Grundy uncovers the communities formed around activism and small press publishing during this era and elevates neglected voices to narrate a history that before now has never been told in its entirety. Drawing on extensive archival research, Never By Itself Alone is a rigorous and unmatched work of both literary criticism and queer scholarship which underscores the vital importance of radical accounts of race, class, and gender in any queer studies worthy of the name.

A vital hub of poetry readings, performance, publications and radical politics in 1960s New York, the Umbra Workshop was a cornerstone of the African American avant-garde. Bringing together new archival research and detailed close readings of poetry, A Black Arts Poetry Machine is a groundbreaking study of this important but neglected group of poets. David Grundy explores the work of such poets as Amiri Baraka, Lorenzo Thomas and Calvin Hernton and how their innovative poetic forms engaged with radical political responses to state violence and urban insurrection. Through this examination, the book highlights the continuing relevance of the work of the Umbra Workshop today and is essential reading for anyone interested in 20th-century American poetry.

This volume of 50 texts is the result of the longstanding and fruitful collaboration of two colleagues, the writer John Waddington-Feather and the composer, David Grundy. The comprehensive index of subjects, which ranges from Advent to Trinity and from Bereavement to Peace, includes 13 Psalm Paraphrases. The writing is dignified in tone and language, as in `Heal us with your Spirit, Lord / Restore our earthly frame' (No. 14). But some users might find that there are few concessions to the niceties of inclusive language. So in `A master-builder never builds / but first he draws the plan' (No. 1) we find the lines `A man of letters thinks each word / ere pen to paper's laid'; and in a peace hymn, `Great Spirit of the living Lord' (No. 12), the legacy of Watts looms large with `When watery men with fiery tongues / urge folk to hate and fight, / who lead whole armies from the rear / and shout with all their might'. In No. 41, `How dear is your house, how full of beauty', a paraphrase of part of Psalm 84, we sing, "And happy the men who seek your household'. As most of the author's ministry has been in prisons and in schools it is not surprising that several hymns reflect these pastoral situations. No. 17, `In Christ there are no prison walls', interprets Romans 8:37-39, and is set to David Grundy's evocative tune, Shrewsury Prison. No.34, `Unworthy as I am, / make me a channel of your grace', for unison voices, piano accompaniment and optional flute, would make an attractive item for a school or church choir. No.37, an Easter introit, `Alleluia! Your name be praised, O risen Lord', is a useful addition to the repertoire for four-part choir and organ. Throughout the collection the music of David Grundy complements the texts, and the musical arrangements are flexible and well-crafted.

The gastrointestinal tract is a long, muscular tube responsible for the digestion of food, assimilation of nutrients and elimination of waste. This is achieved by secretion of digestive enzymes and absorption from the intestinal lumen, with different regions playing specific roles in the processing of specific nutrients. These regions come into play sequentially as ingested material is moved along the length of the GI tract by contractions of the muscle layers. In some regions like the oesophagus transit it rapid and measured in seconds while in others like the colon transit is measured in hours and even days, commensurate with the relative slow fermentation that takes place in the large bowel. An hierarchy of controls, neural and endocrine, serve to regulate the various cellular targets that exist in the gut wall. These include muscle cells for contraction and epithelial cells for secretion and absorption. However, there are complex interactions between these digestive mechanisms and other mechanisms that regulate blood flow, immune function, endocrine secretion and food intake. These ensure a fine balance between the ostensibly conflicting tasks of digestion and absorption and protection from potentially harmful ingested materials. They match assimilation of nutrients with hunger and satiety and they ensure that regions of the GI tract that are meters apart work together in a coordinated fashion to match these diverse functions to the digestive needs of the individual. This ebook will provide an overview of the neural mechanisms that control gastrointestinal function. Table of Contents: Neural Control of Gastrointestinal Function / Cells and Tissues / Enteric Nervous System / From Gut to CNS: Extrinsic Sensory Innervation / Sympathetic Innervation of the Gut / Parasympathetic Innervation of the Gut / Integration of Function / References

This practical guide sets out, step-by-step, how patients with spinal cord injury should be managed - moving from the scene of the accident through initial stabilization, to special aftercare. Revised and updated, with chapters by experienced workers in each aspect of management, the emphasis is placed on the team approach, and the adjustment of patients to living in the community.