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The Spirit of Ani

Reflections on Spirituality, Feminism, Music, and Freedom

Ani DeFranco Lauren Coyle Rosen

$47.95

Hardback

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English
Akashic Books
07 June 2026
The Spirit of Ani is a captivating journey of intimate reflections with Ani DiFranco, a pathbreaking, highly original artist of our time. In this powerful collaborative work, the legendary folk-rock star and feminist icon is in conversation with author, artist, and cultural anthropologist Lauren Coyle Rosen. In these exchanges, Ani is remarkably open about her creativity, spirituality, personal experiences, and evolving consciousness. She is vulnerable and unapologetic, offering an unprecedented window into her fiercely prolific journeys.

Expanding on themes from her best-selling memoir, Ani also offers fascinating reflections on contemporary popular culture-ranging from gender and queer politics, to the music industry in the virtual age, to climate change. The book includes previously unpublished photographs and journal entries, song-birth sheets, paintings, and the lyrics for some of her most treasured songs. The coauthors explore how Ani's music and art are profoundly tied to her experiences of the interconnectedness of all consciousness and tuning in to receive creative inspiration. Ani's striking openness produces a book that is both meditative and activating. This is a must-read for anyone intrigued by the dedication, intuition, and vision that drive Ani's lifelong journey of creating art that not only reflects, but also empowers, transforms, and heals.
By:   ,
Imprint:   Akashic Books
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 263mm,  Width: 184mm, 
ISBN:   9781636142777
ISBN 10:   163614277X
Pages:   160
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Ani DiFranco is a Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and musician who has released twenty-three albums, traversing genres and addressing a range of autobiographical, political, and social issues. She is widely considered a feminist icon, and created her own record label, Righteous Babe Records, in 1990. DiFranco released a collection of poems and paintings titled Verses in 2007. Her memoir, No Walls and the Recurring Dream, was a New York Times bestseller, and she is the author of two children's books, The Knowing and Show Up and Vote. In 2024, she completed a five-month run on Broadway in the role of Persephone in Hadestown. Lauren Coyle Rosen s an award-winning author, artist, singer-songwriter, and cultural anthropologist. Her nonfiction books include Hannibal Lokumbe (coauthored with Hannibal Lokumbe), Law in Light, and Fires of Gold. She founded and writes for the Spiritual Muses and is a fellow at Harvard University. She was formerly a cultural anthropology professor at Princeton University, where she received the President's Award in Distinguished Teaching, among other honors. Coyle Rosen has also published eight volumes of poetry and art. She is currently at work on her next nonfiction book, Goddess: A History. In 2025, she released her first four music albums, including, most recently, Athena Visions.

Reviews for The Spirit of Ani: Reflections on Spirituality, Feminism, Music, and Freedom

A memoir as fierce, freewheeling, and passionate as her music.-- ""O, the Oprah Magazine, on No Walls and the Recurring Dream"" After reading this funny, honest account of [Ani DiFranco's] life up to age thirty, it's clear that though her choices may not be for everyone, they're part and parcel of her integrity and creative path.-- ""Washington Post, on No Walls and the Recurring Dream"" The collaborative format produces an enticing, echoing meditation on the mystic role of the artist as well as, at its most reciprocal, the spiritual role of the fan. This is both a supplemental text to DiFranco's memoir, No Walls and the Recurring Dream, and a politically charged prayer book for the Gen X women and queer followers who have found a missing piece of their reality mirrored in DiFranco, even as she struggles to 'write [herself] into a different state of being' and 'into power.'-- ""Booklist"" A feminist icon whose music blends folk, punk, funk, and jazz influences, DiFranco broke new ground in1990, when she founded her own record label, Righteous Babe Records, allowing her to maintain full creative control over her work in an industry often dominated by major labels. She won the Grammy for Best Recording Package for her 2003 album, Evolve, and is also known for albums like Not a Pretty Girl, Dilate, Little Plastic Castle, and Living in Clip.-- ""Deadline, on Ani DiFranco"" Ani DiFranco has spent decades challenging the status quo, standing up for what she believes and creating honest, raw music. Her memoir is an extension of these passions . . . No Walls and the Recurring Dream is unapologetic, steadfast, and vulnerable. It's as if DiFranco has invited you into the living room of her New Orleans home to have a long discussion about how she got to where she is.-- ""Associated Press, on No Walls and the Recurring Dream"" For a lot of people, Ani DiFranco's music might be emblematic of a certain time--of clove cigarettes and coffee shops, dorm rooms and Doc Martens. But that hasn't stopped her from continuing to develop herself and her sound . . . Aside from her new album--which she recorded with BJ Burton, making this only the second record in almost thirty-five years that she didn't self-produce--she's currently starring on Broadway as the goddess Persephone in Anaïs Mitchell's Hadestown . . . She is still a ball of energy at fifty-three, her eyes as piercing as they were on the cover of her 1990 debut--even if her head isn't quite as shaved.-- ""Rolling Stone, on Ani DiFranco""


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