Accepting Submissions:

sx salon: a small axe literary platform

sx salon: a small axe literary platform

www.smallaxe.net/sxsalon

 

The Small Axe Project has recently launched sx salon: a small axe literary platform, a new electronic publication dedicated to literary discussions, interviews with Caribbean literary figures, reviews of new publications (creative and scholarly) related to the Caribbean, and short fiction and poetry by emerging and established Caribbean writers. sx salon also houses the Small Axe Literary Competition, launched in 2009. 

 

sx salon represents both a new project and a continuation of the Small Axe Project’s ongoing affirmation of the literary as a critical component of Caribbean cultural production. We envision this space as an open source, easily accessible, online resource for students, teachers and scholars, as well as a forum for academics in the field to consult for announcements related to Caribbean literary studies.

 

sx salon publishes a new issue every two months  and invites year-round submissions of:

• Literary Discussions that engage issues relevant to Caribbean literary studies: 2,000 – 2,500 words
   
• Book Reviews of recent (published no more than two years preceding the date of submission) creative literary works by Caribbean authors or scholarly works related to Caribbean literary studies: 1,000 – 1,200 words

• Interviews with Caribbean literary figures: 2,000 – 2,500 words

• Poetry and Short Fiction that engage regional and diasporic Caribbean themes and concerns: up to 2 poems or fiction of up to 4,000 words

Submissions must be accompanied by a short bio approximately 50 words, which should include information about the author’s location (institutional, geographical, etc.), and publications. Manuscripts should not contain any information about the author. Please include name, email address, phone number and, if applicable, institutional affiliation with the accompanying bio

 

Please visit http://smallaxe.net/sxsalon/submissions.php for more detailed guidelines for submissions. 

 

 

INQUIRIES AND SUBMISSIONS

 

ALL inquiries and submissions must to be sent electronically to the following addresses:

• Literary discussions, book reviews, interviews: Kelly Baker Josephs kbj@smallaxe.net 

• Short fiction and poetry: Andrea Shaw andreashaw@smallaxe.net

***

Image: http://www.smallaxe.net/

OVERNIGHT OATMEAL

http://gettingahealthybody.tumblr.com/post/29385595274/how-to-spice-up-your-o... . " width="650" />

imbeelzebubswaget:

laurachowder:

gettingahealthybody:

What is overnight oats?

Overnight oats (OO) is basically oats soaked in the liquid of your choice. Either milk or yogurt, but you can always experiment with other kinds. It is often chilled overnight (hence the name) and usually left uncooked. However you can heat it up if you prefer to. It is perfect for days when you are in a rush to make breakfast, just make it in a jar the day before and it’s ready to go the next day. 

You can add any kinds of toppings you want to it. You can add fresh fruits, nuts, dried fruits, peanut butter, etc. Many people also add chia seeds to the overnight oats. Be adventurous and try new additions, you might be pleasantly surprised!

This is also good to put together with your kids, let them play around with their favorite toppings and learn more about fruits and nuts, etc. There’s no or minimal cooking involved, so it’s safe for them as well.

In the following list, there are several sites that provide the recipes for a basic overnight oatmeal, and if can continue from there if you want to create your own personal one-of-a-kind oatmeal. Have fun! Remember, healthy doesn’t mean boring or tasteless!

Overnight Oatmeal

Mint Chocolate Chip Overnight Oats

Strawberry Cookie Butter Overnight Oats

Skinny Overnight Oats in a Jar

6 flavor varieties of Refrigerator Oatmeal

• Mango Almond Refrigerator Oatmeal

• Blueberry Maple Refrigerator Oatmeal

• Apple Cinnamon Refrigerator Oatmeal

• Banana Cocoa Refrigerator Oatmeal

• Banana Peanut Butter Refrigerator Oatmeal

• Raspberry Vanilla Refrigerator Oatmeal

Overnight Oats (OO), Two Ways

• Basic Overnight Oats

• Pumpkin Peanut Butter OO

• Strawbery Banana OO

Coconut mango overnight oatmeal

Chocolate Cake Batter Overnight Oats

Overnight Blueberry Almond Oats

Overnight Refrigerator Oatmeal with Berries

Banana Cream Pie Overnight Oatmeal

Vegan Overnight Oat Parfaits

• Cherry Chocolate Bomb Vegan Overnight Oats

• Blueberry Vanilla Banana Soft Serve Vegan Overnight Oats

• Peanut Butter and Jam Vegan Overnight Oats

• Strawberry Banana Softserve and carob Vegan Overnight Oats

• Banana Split Vegan Overnight Oats

• Gingerbread Pumpkin Vegan Overnight Oat Parfait

• Neapolitan Vegan Overnight Oat Parfait

Pumpkin Delight Vegan Overnight Oat Parfait

Vegan Scottish Overnight Oats with Blueberry Banana Softserve Parfait 

Basically these are the more popular and interesting creations of overnight oats that I found. However, this list is by no means exhaustive! Get creative and come up with your own favorite recipe. 

The picture and recipes do not belong to me but to their respective owner.

P.s: Here’s a link on how to spice up your oatmeal.

http://gettingahealthybody.tumblr.com/post/29385595274/how-to-spice-up-your-oatmeal-oatmeal-101-in-a

Prêt-À-Poundo:

Have You Heard of Seraka?

November 28, 2012 Posted by: Poundo

Designer Selly Raby Kane. Photo credit: Layepro

Senegalese designer, international traveller and world citizen Selly Raby Kane is a fantastic emerging artist and the founder of Seraka. Kane gives us an opportunity to look at the value of art in society and its influences in our artistic choices. Pop art, street art, and music all contribute towards her vision and design choices, giving her an original aesthetic appeal. Celebrating modern shapes, prints and colors makes her pieces come alive — the ideas begin to flow and the innovations begin to make their way as you move along. Every piece is different and unpredictable, bringing on another universe. Capsule, Seraka’s S/S 13 collection, recalls a pop-art African mask and shows us how to stand out by entering the futuristic realm. We spoke with designer Selly Raby Kane and get a look at the collection below.

All pictures by Eduardo Acevedo / Styling Quanasia Graham / Model Angelina Lee / Make Up Milan Staples / Hair Aretha Covington

Who is Seraka?
Seraka is a designer brand created in Dakar and destined to fashion forward women.

How did you start creating? When did you start considering fashion?
 As a kid, I used to collect from here and there thousand of small fabric pieces and sew crazy outfits to my dolls and teddy bears. I think creating styles and looks came from there.

Did you study fashion? If yes, where?
 Yes I did. In Mod’Spé Paris.

Where do you seek your inspiration?
Fantastic movie genre, travels, people, colors, music, cartoons ,streets

What materials are you using? Where do you get these materials?
I adore basin, a traditional textile usually used for boubous, it’s so rich silky, complex, simple and graphic. I use a lot of leather, suede, wax, denim, jersey. I like cool materials and atypical mixes.

Where does the conception happen?
It happens whereever I live at the time. For example I created my three first collections in my small Parisian apartment, eating coockies and drawing 24/7!

How would you describe Seraka signature in one line?
It is fresh, easy, cool, edgy, tricky sometimes and most of the time colorful.

What makes a good look?
Statement accessories, mix of influences, a bit of rock ‘n’ roll and an edgy haircut.

What is cool?
Creepers!

I had the chance to visit your website, I saw your pictures, I can’t see your eyes, what is going on behind those glasses?
Well a lot of things! And if you look closer to my clothes you’ll discover a bit of me in each piece.

I think that you’re great example of the African inspired revolution, mixing cultures with African prints and these modern shapes, do you think that you are bringing something new?
Well I’m definitely expressing my own point of view. I think fashion should be fun and easy. Born and raised in Dakar then studying fashion in France, then coming to the United States, then traveling in Africa, made me build a cosmopolitan conception of fashion. I don’t think of where I come from when I design clothes; it just comes from who I am and where I’ve been.

Where have we seen your work? What is your last collection? Could you describe it to us and tell us what was different from the previous one?
My last collection was an homage to streets through street art, through cinema and music. I was inspired by street artists such as Banksy, Basquiat, Invader, Herakut etc. It was more structured and less naive then the previous one.

What is your masterpiece? The one which will describe you the most.
The Iconic Black & White top of the Iconic capsule collection is what would describe me the most. It’s cartoony, and graphic.

Today, as a fashion designer who has media coverage, are you using fashion as a way of talking? Or maybe inspiring the youth?
We are in a period in Senegal where a new generation of artists, designers, shows that things can be done differently. Today is the perfect timing, a revolution in arts is taking place in my country and I’m honored to be a part of that mutation! In an international context, I just want to broadcast that revolution.

Today, we have the emergence of many African fashion week in many countries. This evolution is the proof of the existence of African fashion, should African designers be present in regular fashion weeks? Is there any discrimination?
I think we should feel challenged and not discriminated. The African market has millions of people. Let’s create our own fashion industry!

What do you think of the African fashion? And the evolution?
African fashion is rich, free, open minded and so democratic. You can wear whatever you want, wear handmade garments for less than $12. This is what I like in African fashion, it’s a symbol of democracy and freedom. Now, the evolution is a consequence of the elimination of any type of boundary between neighborhoods, cities, countries and continents. Each of us bears a part of someone else’s culture and that is the very beauty of humanity.

What are your hopes for the African fashion?
The main one is to create a strong fashion industry and elaborate a fashion offer that can meet the local demand.

What’s next? Do you have any other event planned?
I’m preparing my annual Dakar show with a collective named les Petites Pierres which I’m a member of. It’s composed of young alternative artists from the Dakar scene. Alternatively, I’m working on my next collection and on a concept store opening.

Describe Seraka in one word.
Fun!

Trust Women and

Give Us a Right to Choose

– Separate Church and State

October 15, 2012 by blackfeminists

By Inti Maria Tidball-Binz, leader of Atrévete Hollaback, Buenos Aires, Argentina 

I always appreciate it when other people position themselves when writing, so let me introduce myself. I am Inti Maria, I am 31 years old, I live in Argentina (my place of birth) and I am also a British citizen. I lived in England for 20 years, from 1990 to 2010. I am in the odd situation of being considered a POC in one country and white in another. It gives me a very specific view on race issues because I am very aware of the privilege I have in my country of birth. Whereas in Britain the one drop rule counts, in Argentina lots of people who would in Britain be seen as POC self-assign themselves as white by claiming a European ancestor. So it is mainly people with visibly indigenous features who are most discriminated against in terms of jobs, education, the justice system, and the financial system. An influx of Senegalese immigrants has made them a target for police brutality, marginalisation and acts of racism.

I am very aware that I would never have the job I had in England, and that my living situation is in fact stable in a way it never was in England for the same reason. I am immediately trusted, I face little or no discrimination as an outsider or a foreigner as I did in the UK.

I also have a very special privilege in Argentina which luckily does not apply in the UK, because laws were passed over 45 years ago permitting legal and free abortion. In Argentina, I may have access to a safe clandestine abortion at a backstreet clinic, with a qualified doctor. But I know that I, unlike hundreds of thousands of women who risk their health and lives every year, can pay for one which will not kill me. I will have access to someone who knows where I can discreetly choose to not continue my pregnancy, if I needed to. It would still be illegal. I could still be fined or go to jail, and so could my doctor, but hundreds of poorer women without this privilege are forced into situations which often leave them with lifelong disabilities and health issues, if not death, from backstreet abortions.

I am directly involved with pro-choice activism in Argentina. Only last week, I was involved in a confrontation with anti-abortion Catholics as a demo of 18,000 women reached its final destination in front of the Cathedral of Posadas, Misiones. A week earlier, the same confrontation had taken place in La Plata, Buenos Aires. That’s what I decided to write this blog about, because it bears mentioning as anti-abortionists are strengthening their trenches around the world.

There are two things you need to know about Argentina and abortion. The first is that 10% of the Catholic church’s budget comes from the state, giving the church a say in political decisions. This also politically legitimates anti-abortion arguments and makes the abortion debate an incredibly close fight. The second is that although induced abortion is illegal and in the penal code, there is an exception that states that all women and girls who have been raped have a right to get an abortion. This is called “non punishable abortion” (aborto no punible).

Earlier this year, in March, it was clarified that there should be no exceptions to this. Before this, there was so much confusion as to possible exceptions that judicial processes took months, making abortions more dangerous and therefore often dismissed. In March this year, it was also clarified that girls of 14 and over need no parental permission for this procedure. There is also an exception which allows an abortion in the case of severe health problems in the mother or the foetus, which can be resolved in no other way.

Last week, just as I was attending the yearly women’s national encounter in Posadas, Misiones, next to thousands of women who congregate to meet in non-hierarchical workshops, a case for a non-punishable abortion was blocked in the courts of the capital due to pressure from a pro-life NGO.

The story started earlier this month when a motion was passed for reglamentation of non-punishable abortion to be approved in the autonomous capital of Buenos Aires. It was passed by one vote. The mayor of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri, is famous for his exercise of the right to veto. He has vetoed over 100 laws since he has come into the role of mayor. Knowing he would likely veto the reglamentation, we started a twitter campaign #noalveto, through the local women’s listserv red informative de mujeres en Argentina (RIMA). Many women’s rights NGOs released statements to campaign against the coming veto. One such campaign received signatures from most of the legislators that passed the reglamentation, as well as famous pop stars, Amnesty International, renowned journalists and more, and was published in a national newspaper, Tiempo Argentino.

All this and more was not enough to stop the coming veto. However, not only did Mauricio Macri veto the reglamentation, he also released information to the press about an upcoming abortion by a victim of human trafficking, giving the time and the place when the abortion would take place. This incited confusion in the press, because at first, it seemed that he was citing an example where the appropriate judicial processes had been implemented and an abortion was able to take place, regardless of the veto. The paper which published the piece almost made him seem ‘pro-choice’. It is speculated he manipulated the media to create confusion as to the meaning of the veto, while at the same time giving anti-abortion protesters the chance to harass the victim and lobby the courts.

Before you ask, no, he will not be tried for releasing information which is legally protected by the patient-doctor confidentiality agreement, although a statement was released by the People’s Defense (Defensoría del Pueblo) saying that he had violated the law by releasing private information.

The judge that took the case, Myriam C. Rustan de Estrada, cited human rights legislation, and highlighted the Argentine constitution which considers a human life to start at conception. She denied the victim of human trafficking, who had been repeatedly raped and denied her freedom, an abortion, on the basis of the right to life of “the unborn child“.

Two days later, the supreme court took her off the case and ruled in favour of the abortion.  But the damage has been done. This woman’s identity was revealed in an act of selfish manipulation and self-interest by a politician, and her life will now be plagued by harassment at the hands of anti-abortionists, adding to the trauma she has already lived through.

The process of being denied and later permitted access to abortion is a particularly traumatising situation for the victim, and Amnesty International has rightly called it a type of torture.

On the positive side, the courts are now investigating judges who have previously blocked abortions in the case of rape, including a judge who in 2010 blocked an abortion for a12 year old girl.

In Argentina 500,000 abortions are practiced every year, most of them clandestine. We cannot know exactly how many women are dying because, being illegal, they go unregistered. Registered deaths from illegal abortions are around 100 a year, but we know it is much more than that. Not to mentions those that suffer lifelong health complications as a result of unsafe conditions.

Although we have made some progress in the last year, there is such a long way to go. It should not be enough to have access to abortion in the case of rape and ill health. There should be access to integral sexual education for children and adults, there should be free access to contraceptives and free information in clinics. And there should be free, safe and legal access to abortions so that women and girls STOP DYING. How many more have to die before we start to take this issue more seriously? We need global support, and visible voices.

Right now, there are many women working to this end in Argentina. The collective of Feminists and Lesbians for Legal Abortion have published an info booklet called “How to have an abortion with [over the counter] pills” making safe abortion available to anyone able to get hold of the pills, something which has become more and more difficult.  There is a national campaign for legal abortions. There are regular marches and meetings. There are groups, men and women, fighting for the right of women to have sovereignty over their bodies.

I, like many, believe we need to separate the church and the state, and give women back the right to choose over their bodies. We need to stop paying the church, and take the church out of school and out of politics. We need to outreach into communities with tools for sexual educate and autonomy. We need to stop giving a platform to people who hate women. As the popular chant says, the church needs to “remove their rosaries from our ovaries”. We need to trust women.

moonandthewitch:

fyeahblackhistory:

Joseph Bologne

- The Chevalier

De Saint-Georges

‘The Black Mozart’

(1745-1799)

• Musically Saint-George was considered the “King of Pop” of his age;

• Militarily he helped prevent what could have been the early collapse of the French Revolution. The vicissitudes of his journey are dramatic: from a young outsider in Paris to the dizzying heights of superstardom in pre-Revolutionary France, to an utterly tragic end.

• In his lifetime Saint George was an elite musketeer of the King’s Horse Guard; a master-swordsman and Europe’s fencing champion;

• A composer, violin impresario, and opera director that influenced Mozart;

• Queen Marie-Antoinette’s music teacher and confidant; a playboy whose inner circle included the author of Valmont;

• A military hero who championed the French Revolution.

• That Saint-George was all of these in an age when slavery was endemic and white superiority was dogma, is beyond extraordinary and the height of irony.

Known possibly as being the “king of pop for his age”, Charles Pettaway music professor of Lincoln University, sums up Bologne as being ‘perhaps the most unjustly forgotten composer of the classical period. In his day, he was known as much for his symphonies as his swordsmanship, as much for his violin virtuosity as his trendsetting dress, and as much for his equestrian skills as his many romantic dalliances. In fact, only one thing kept him from attaining the uppermost heights of his profession and immediately securing his place in music history—he was, in the parlance of his era, a mulatto’.

Despite his Herculean accomplishments, Saint George -a man whose company was once fought over by royalty and great aristocrats- died alone, unmarried and destitute in 1799. The tragedy deepened: instead of being celebrated, in 1802 after the reinstitution of slavery in France by Napoleon, Saint-George’s music was banned, and many of his scores were destroyed. Yet, Saint-George lives. Like a Phoenix, two centuries later, the indomitable Chevalier has risen from the ashes as music lovers and historians have rediscovered him. In February 2002, the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe renamed a street in the memory of the Chevalier de Saint-George, restoring his stature to one of a legendary statesman

Early Life

Born on Christmas day, 1745, on the French-Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe. His mother was a young Senegalese Wolof slave of remarkable beauty named Nanon. Joseph’s father, George de Bologne Saint-George, was a wealthy sugar plantation owner and a former “Gentleman in the King’s Chamber” in the court of Louis XVI, King of France.

Bologne was remarkably dedicated to his mistress and their son. Defying the Code Noir—a royal decree designed to define the conditions of slavery in the French colonies—he treated Saint-Georges as a member of his family. And, although little is known about Saint-Georges’s early years, it is easy to imagine him growing up a relatively privileged child, spending most of his time running, swimming, and generally frolicking through Guadeloupe’s paradisial landscapes.
But Bologne wanted a better life for his son than the colonies could offer.

Life in Paris

In 1753, Saint-Georges’s father took him to Paris, where he received an education in the gentlemanly arts of fencing, music, and manners. After completing his studies, Saint-Georges was made a Gendarme de la Garde du Roi and introduced to the frothy upper classes of French society. He danced in glittering ballrooms, conversed in delicately appointed parlors, attended shows at opulent concert halls, and was rumored to frequent a number of ladies’ boudoirs. “He loved the ladies!” says Pettaway. “And the ladies loved him!”
And who could blame them? He was handsome, athletic, well connected. And, of course, there was his music. Only about a third of his compositions have survived the last two hundred years, but those that have, says Pettaway, are “certainly on par with the works of Mozart and Haydn.”

Rise

Saint-George received the tutoring appropriate for a young member of the French nobility, attending a boarding school run by a famous swordsman named La Boëssière. Besides fencing and swordsmanship, his studies included literature, the sciences, and horseback riding. The teacher became the first of several observers to write admiringly of Saint-George’s prowess with the sword. Saint-George was tall, handsome, and gracious, and he quickly found his way into the halls of the French aristocracy. In 1765 a fencer named Picard insulted Saint-George and challenged him to a duel. Saint-George at first refused, but his father promised him a new carriage if he fought and won. At the duel in the city of Rouen, Saint-George quickly emerged the victor. He suffered his first defeat the following year at the hands of the famed Italian fencer Giuseppe Gianfaldoni, who praised Saint-George and said that he would soon be the best fencer on the European continent.

In music, too, Saint-George was a standout student. Several of France’s leading composers had benefited from the elder Saint-George’s patronage in the past, and young Saint-George benefited from their musical attentions. He is thought to have studied the violin with one of the great French virtuosi, Jean-Marie Leclair the Elder, and he mastered the harpsichord (an ancestor of the piano) as well. By the late 1760s he had become the recipient of a dedication from François-Joseph Gossec, the composer at the center of Parisian concert life. In 1769 Saint-George joined an orchestra called Le Concert des Amateurs, directed by Gossec, as first violinist, and in 1773, when Gossec moved on to a different conducting post, Saint-George became the group’s director.

Even as he notched these successes, Saint-George’s status in French society was an ambivalent one. Religious leaders were agitating for the end of slavery, and King Louis XVI himself was opposed to the practice. But interracial marriages were forbidden (Saint-George was never able to marry), and belief in the genetic inferiority of Africans was widespread. As word of his athletic and musical exploits spread, Saint-George became famous. Word even reached America of how he could swim across the Seine River using only one arm or shoot at and hit a coin thrown into the air, and he was something of a fashion trendsetter as well. But there was always an undercurrent of racial controversy surrounding his reputation. Saint-George had powerful backers who appreciated his talents, including Queen Marie Antoinette (to whom he was unusually close).

Influence

• He and François-Joseph Gossec were among the first French composers to write music in an important new genre of Austrian origin—the string quartet.
• He acted as the agent in commissioning the six symphonies composed by Joseph Haydn between 1785 and 1786 known today as the “Paris Symphonies”; these symphonies were performed under the baton of Mr. Boulogne by the  orchestra Concert des Amateurs.
• Mozart, was still a teenager scouring Europe for steady work when Saint-Georges’s musical career was at its peak, he is thought to have “quoted” a melodic line from one of Saint-Georges’s violin concertos in his Symphonie Concertante in E-flat Major. Mozart also based a passage in his ballet score Les petits riens (The Little Nothings) on one of Saint-George’s melodies
• Other composers offered more explicit compliments to Saint-Georges’s talents: François-Joseph Gossec, Carl Stamitz, and Antonio Lolli each dedicated works to him.

Despite his renown, Saint-Georges was still vulnerable to racial prejudice. Perhaps the most flagrant and dispiriting instance occurred in 1776 when he was nominated to head the prestigious Paris Opéra, only to have his candidacy challenged by a group of divas who argued that they could not be expected to, as they put it, “submit to the orders of a mulatto.” Louis XVI had approved the appointment, says Pettaway, but the divas’ objections won out and Saint-Georges did not get the coveted directorship.

Later Life and the French revolution
When the French Revolution erupted in 1789, the democratic ideals of the revolution—liberté, égalité, fraternité—appealed to the composer, who under the Ancient Régime “never knew when the ugly face of racism would present itself again,” . He joined the National Guard at Lille at 1789, and a year later was selected to lead one thousand black soldiers charged with defending the ongoing revolution.
But service to the revolution, it turned out, was no guarantee against the sweeping violence of la Terreur. The revolutionaries regarded anyone with ties to the aristocracy with suspicion, and Saint-Georges, who had been a guard for Louis XV and conducted Haydn’s Paris Symphonies before Marie Antoinette, was no exception. Brought in on trumped-up charges in 1793, he spent nearly a year in prison. Five years later, at about the age of fifty-five, he died in Paris, destitute, alone, and all but forgotten.
Saint-Georges’s music suffered the ill effects of the Revolution no less than his person. Many of his manuscripts were destroyed during the early years of unrest and, later, under Napoleon’s government, performances of those few of his works that did survive were banned. Only recently, through the work of scholars and musicians such as Pettaway, has the music of Saint-Georges begun to reclaim audiences as it once so ably captured.

Conclusion.

Although he was gifted, his inborn talents were magnified by his relentless effort, permitting him not only to be better, but above all to overcome the racial barriers  put before him in a time when slavery was endemic and white superiority was dogma.

References:

Dunoyer, T The Historical Biography of Joseph Bologne (Griot pictures Entertainment, LLC) [Online] available from: http://www.chevalierdesaintgeorge.com/bio_fulltext.html

“Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George” Notablebiographies.com, http://www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-Mi-So/Chevalier-de-Saint-George-Joseph-Boulogne.html (March 31 2012)

Remirez, C, R (2012) Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra - “The Black Mozart”(local arts Live) [Online] available from: http://localartslive.com/profiles/blogs/black-pearl-chamber-orchestra-the-black-mozart

Willford, J (2010) Black mozart: (Humanities Magazine) [Online] available from:http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2010-05/PA_BlackMozart.html

Zick, J, W (2012) Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799)  (AfriClassical.com) [Online] available from: http://chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com/page1.html

Click here for more

In the wake of a viral post of a photoshopped black mozart (which should offend rather than spread rumors of a black Mozart) we should be celebrating the man that Mozart owes most of his celebrity to.  

(via fantasticalradicals)

Edem – Mass Production

– Album Out Today!

by benjamin on November 12, 2012

Edem, formerly known as Ayigbe Edem, has become the cultural and social ambassador for Ghana’s Volta region, home to the Ewe people. This status makes him an unavoidable public figure all across Ghana, where he has come to embody conscious, yet popular hip hop.

The Volta’s rap kingpin is moving on up however, as this album demonstrates. His recent single Over Again was a massive single all over Ghana, and this second opus is clearly geared at a much broader audience than his fellow Ewe people:

On Mass Production Edem displays his versatility, rapping and toasting in Ewe, English and even Patois over a wide range of beats, from the azonto jam Over Again to the conscious reggae anthem Ghetto Arise. More recently, Edem has released other videos for his latest singles Medekuku and last week Heyba.

“Music is not about the dialect, but about the talent, so I am moving to show my skills: reggae, patois, pidgin, fused with English and Ewe.” Edem uses these different means of communication to share his message with the youth in Ghana and beyond, to educate them and mark his contribution as an artist.

Not content with dominating the charts at home in Ghana, Edem is already planning his next steps, collaborating with Togolese stars Toofan and piecing together a continent wide African tour. Not to mention having his videos on rotation on Channel O and Trace TV. Enyo!

Mass Production is available today in iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp and most major music stores and services.

__________________________

Edem’s

Border Blasting

Rhymes

by BENJAMIN on OCTOBER 1, 2012

The WASHINGTON PRIZE

In 1981, Karren Alenier, Deirdra Baldwin, Jim Beall, and Robert Sargent created the Washington Prize, a United States national literary competition awarding $1000 to an American poet. In 1999 the prize award was increased to $1500. From 1981 to 1987 winning poems were published in a full-page ad in Poets & Writers magazine. In 1988, the prize progressed from a single poem competiton to a book-length manuscript award. In 2011, Word Works offers the option of electronic submission. Poets read and judge contest entries blind. Literary merit is the sole criterion. As a book publication award, the Washington Prize has given The Word Works national recognition and has increased distribution.

In 1999, The Word Works published WINNERS: A RETROSPECTIVE OF THE WASHINGTON PRIZE, an anthology of poems, anecdotes, essays, and photos of and by the winners and judges of the prize from 1981 to 1999. This collection of work by 80 poets tells the complete story of the Washington Prize. Entrants to the competition should consider this book a reference for how to win this prize.

All snail mail queries about the Washington Prize are answered with a graphically attractive brochure that describes the organization, provides the Washington Prize contest rules, profiles our books, and solicits orders. Typically, distribution is through booksales at readings by the author, Small Press Distribution, Ingraham, Amazon, Paypal, and mail orders to The Word Works. 

WASHINGTON PRIZE GUIDELINES

In 2013, The Word Works will award a living American or Canadian poet $1,500 and book publication for a volume of original poetry in English. To enter:

• Submit a manuscript of 48 to 64 pages.
  • Include a separate cover letter with manuscript title, author's name, and all pertinent contact information. Author’s name should not appear anywhere in manuscript.
  • With the cover letter, include an acknowledgments page and a one paragraph bio. Attach acknowledgments and bio to title page with a staple. For electronic submission, you may forego acknowledgments, but you will have the option to use the comment field to include your bio. You may send your file as .pdf, .doc, or .rtf.
  • Repeat the title of the manuscript on the table of contents page.
  • Use a standard font type, such as Times New Roman or Ariel. Font size 10-12 point type.
  • For paper submissions, use only a binder clip to fasten the manuscript. Please do not use staples or folders. No manuscripts will be returned.
  • Kindly indicate the information source where you learned about the Washington Prize. For example, AWP newsletter, Poets & Writers Magazine,Tthe Word Works website.

Enclose entry fee: $25 US drawn on a US bank only, payable to The WORD WORKS. Our submission manager allows credit card payment through Paypal or their standard Paypal crediting.

 

Optional for paper submissions, enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for contest results. Early in 2014, all entrants to the 2013 Washington Prize will receive the winning publication.

 

Between January 15 and midnight March 15, 2013, inclusive, submit electronically or mail manuscript by first class postage, entry fee, and business-sized SASE to:

• Nancy White, Administrator
• WORD WORKS Washington Prize
• Dearlove Hall
• Adirondack Community College
• 640 Bay Road
• Queensbury, NY 12804

ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION: Exercise this option now.

The winner will be selected by August 2013. Book publication is planned for January 2014.

Direct questions to Nancy White, Washington Prize Administrator, electronically or by regular mail to The Word Works, PO Box 42164, Washington, DC 20015. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope with all regular mail inquiries. Many questions are answered in WINNERS: A RETROSPECTIVE OF THE WASHINGTON PRIZE or in our online FAQs.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Can I submit my manuscript electronically?

A: Yes, in 2011, The Word Works made available electronic submission of Washington Prize manuscripts.

Q: What is the advantage of submitting electronically?

A: There are financial, environmental, and quality of life advantages to submitting your manuscript through our electronic submissions manager. You will save money by avoiding postage, packaging, and copying costs. You will save trees by avoiding all the paper and packaging. Finally, you will save time both in sending and getting an update on your status.

Q: What are the benefits of entering the Washington Prize?

A: All Washington Prize entrants get a copy of the winning book. Those entrants whose manuscripts are passed up to second readers have the option of getting feedback from our readers and/or judges on their manuscripts.

Q: What are the benefits of winning the Washington Prize?

A: The poet who wins the Washington Prize will enjoy the benefits of working with an attentive editor, receive a cash purse of $1500 once the manuscript is edited, receive at no cost to the author 100 copies of his/her book, get assistance in sending out 30 review copies, and have the honor of distribution of said book to all entrants of the Washington Prize. In 2011, all of new books were on the best seller list of Small Press Distribution and many copies of these books were sold at the 2011 AWP conference.

Q: May I send a manuscript that exceeds your limit of 64 pages?

A: While we prefer that submissions meet our guidelines of 48 to 64 manuscript pages, we usually tolerate a manuscript that might run over or under by a few pages.

Q: May I send a postcard for notification that you received my manuscript?

A: Yes, but we prefer that you consider your canceled check as proof that your MS arrived safely.

Q: May I send more than one manuscript?

A: Yes, and it is best if we know that you are doing this so that the manuscript can be distributed to different first readers. Please be sure to submit a $25 entry fee per manuscript--i.e., $50 for two manuscripts, $75 for three, etc.

Q: Why do you require that a binder clip hold a paper manuscript together?

A: if your manuscript is selected, we will copy that manuscript for our final judges and want easy access to the pages. Therefore we do not want stapled or bound manuscripts. We also do not want manuscripts sent in folders because the pages might fall out and get lost.

Q: is there a limit on the length of any one poem submitted for this contest? For example, could one poem exceed one or two pages?

A: Individual poems may be of any length as long as the manuscript adheres reasonably to our manuscript length of 48 to 64 manuscript pages.

Q: What kind of paper should I use?

A: Use standard white 20 lb copying paper sized 8 ½ “ X 11”. We handle a lot of manuscripts and do not want unnecessarily heavy manuscripts.

Q: May I use distinctive fonts and styling?

A: Text should be printed in black ink. The single font you choose should be standard and easy to read, such as Times New Roman or Ariel. Font size must be 10-12 point type.

Q: May I include illustrations and/or drawings?

A: No. The contest is judged solely on the poetry.

Q: I have submitted to your contest before and want to know if I am wasting my time and money sending my manuscript again.

A: All manuscripts are read without identification of the author. If you read about our judging process, you will see that it is not likely that your manuscript will be read by the same first reader, which is a critical point in the competition’s process. If you have been submitting your manuscript without notice of it being selected as a finalist, consider working with a professional editor or a peer group to make revisions.

Q: How does your judging process work?

A: When a manuscript arrives, it is assigned an identification number and logged into our database. When the contest closes March 1, first readers are assigned 20-30 manuscripts. From that group, a first reader selects up to 5 manuscripts to pass on to a second reader. Second readers receive 15 to 20 manuscripts and pass along as many as 3 manuscripts to the final judges. Final judges receive copies of the same 10-12 manuscripts. Therefore, a single manuscript making it to the hands of the five final judges is read by one first reader, one second reader, and the complete panel of five judges. If a reader or judge recognizes the work, he or she will recuse him/herself from reading the manuscript and will allow others to read it. After the final judges have read the final manuscripts, they meet, discuss the merits of the manuscripts, and vote on a winner. The winner is usually called from that meeting.

Q: Is there a particular school or style of poetry that The Word Works prefers?

A: The Word Works looks for the best manuscript without any restriction to style or subject matter. The best advice for a winning manuscript can be found in an essay by Hilary Tham in Winners, A Retrospective of the Washington Prize.

Q: What happens to my fee?

A: Your $25 fee helps support the cost of printing the winning book, supplying the winner’s monetary award, advertising the prize, and the mailing costs associated with sending every entrant a copy of the book.

Q: When or how will I hear the contest results?

A: if you are selected as the winner, you will be called. Be sure to include your phone number and email address. If you provide an SASE, we will send you a news release about the winner. Results will be posted on our website at wordworksdc.com. Those entrants submitting through our electronic submissions manager will be notified automatically after the winner has been confirmed.

Tampa Review Prize for Poetry

Submission Guidelines

Guidelines for Submission to The Tampa Review Prize for Poetry

1. Manuscripts must be previously unpublished. Some or all of the poems in the collection may have appeared in periodicals, chapbooks, or anthologies, but these must be identified.

2. Manuscripts should be typed, with pages consecutively numbered. Clear photocopies are acceptable. Manuscripts must be at least 48 typed pages; we prefer a length of 60-100 pages but will also consider submissions falling outside this range.

3. When sending by mail, please submit the manuscript as loose pages held only by a removable clip or rubber band and enclosed in a standard file folder. Do not staple or bind your manuscript. Online submissions should follow guidelines provided there.

4. Printed entries should include a separate title page with author’s name, address, phone number, and e-mail address (if available). Online submissions guidelines are posted.

5. Entries must include a table of contents and a separate acknowledgments page (or pages) identifying prior publication credits.

6. Submissions must be postmarked (or electronically dated online) by the postmark deadline of Dec. 31, 2012. Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but the University of Tampa Press must be notified immediately if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

7. Include a nonrefundable handling fee of $25 for each manuscript submitted. Make check or money order payable to “University of Tampa Press” when sent with mailed submissions. Online submissions are not complete until this fee has been sent using any major credit card via our secure online service, CCNow. (A small processing fee is added to online submissions.)

8. The winning entry will be announced in the subsequent summer. Enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard for notification of receipt of manuscript, and a stamped, self-addressed envelope for notification of contest results by mail. No manuscripts will be returned; the paper will be recycled. Online submissions will be acknowledged by email. All contestants enclosing SASE or email address will be notified following the final selection of the winning manuscript.

9. Judging is conducted in accord with the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses Contest Code of Ethics by the editors of Tampa Review. Submissions are not accepted from current faculty or students at the University of Tampa. Editors will recuse themselves from judging entries from close friends and associates to avoid conflicts of interest.

Manuscripts should be mailed to:
The Tampa Review Prize for Poetry
University of Tampa Press
401 West Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33606-1490

Online submissions should use this link: Tampa Review Prize Online Submissions