Chimurenga:

Africa's answer

to the New Yorker

 

From Nkepile Mabuse, CNN

updated 6:38 AM EDT, Tue June 5, 2012

 

 

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• 
• Cameroonian Ntone Edjabe is the founder of the pan-African magazine Chimurenga
• He's received international recognition for his unconventional portrayal of Africa
• The S.Africa-based award-winning journal has more than 100 contributors
• Its latest edition re-tells 2008's xenophobic attacks in South Africa

 

 

(CNN) -- Bringing together an army of creative writers, photographers and illustrators from all around Africa and beyond, Cameroonian journalist Ntone Edjabe has set up an exciting media platform that mixes culture and politics to present an unconventional portrayal of the continent.

Dubbed Chimurenga, which means "revolutionary struggle" in Zimbabwe's Shona language, Edjabe's creation is an award-winning, pan African literary magazine that addresses and embraces the continent's diversity, with a focus on "the complexity of life."

"Discourse on Africa is geared towards simplicity," explains Edjabe. "Everything must be simple, 'he's a poor black man, he's a victim,' like there has to be a simple story, in a way this is what signifies Africa and global consciousness," he adds.

"The moment you bring a degree of complexity to it, it kind of throws people off, they just don't know where to look anymore, it's like, 'what's going on?' So Chimurenga in a way does not try to maintain the superficiality of this narrative -- we engage with life, we try to present life as complex as it really is."

Retelling stories of xenophobia

The pages of the literary magazine, which has more than 100 contributors, offer its readers a variety of thoughtful content, ranging from in-depth investigation stories and analyses to poetry and photographic essays. The journal is available online, while hard copies are distributed throughout Africa, Europe, the United States and India.

Read more: Bringing joy to refugees with dance

Chimurenga, which was first published in 2002, is produced roughly once a year, only when there are available funds to do so. The only constants are its provocative content, its creative packaging and, to many, its refreshing reflection of all things African. It was recently described by a writer in the UK's Financial Times as "better than The New Yorker."

Embracing African diversity

"There's a feeling about writing something, sharing something that is beautiful and truthful from one's perspective, of course, and important, urgent almost that we demand from the contributors," says Edjabe.

"We ask them to put themselves on the line, so to speak, as if it really matters -- not for the check that may arrive or may not, but because he matters and because he cares about what he's writing, whether it's music, boxing, theory, analysis, does matter, to them at least."

Chimurenga recently received a much needed cash injection after winning the prestigious Prince Claus Award, given annually to individuals, groups and organizations for their outstanding achievements in the field of culture and development.

The judges praised it for challenging established ideas and stimulating pan-African culture with intellect, freedom and diversity.

We engage with life, we try to present life as complex as it really is.
Ntone Edjabe, Chimurenga

For a publication whose survival is wholly dependent on funding, the 100,000 euro prize money was a welcome bonus.

"I take that of course with great honor," says Edjabe. "I also take the check that comes with it because it's very useful to be able to plan a little bit ahead. But ... we're trying to develop our own measuring stick for excellence -- at the moment this kind of validation, and we appreciate it and we take it, we're part of a world, but it's very important that we develop our own measure for excellence."

Read more: Spreading African spirit through song

Born in Douala, Cameroon, Edjabe moved to Lagos, Nigeria to study before arriving in South Africa on the eve of democracy in 1993. Three years later he established in Cape Town the Pan African Market, a cultural center for African immigrants.

More recently, Edjabe, who is also a DJ, created the Pan African Space Station, a music platform that brings together diverse African genres both online and in venues across the continent. Its radio station PASS streams music, shows and interviews live around the clock.

Edjabe believes firmly that music cannot be divorced from politics.

"At some point music was a vehicle recognized by people for ideas, for subversive ideas, for revolutionary ideas, it wasn't just produced for entertainment, it had a very important role in the struggle," he says. "In this country, that's very well known, how not just music, but creativity as a whole, arts as a whole, was used as a tool for liberation."

South Africa's struggle and transition from apartheid to democracy are often a central theme in Edjabe's Chimurenga. The magazine also takes a critical look at the country's relationship with the rest of continent.

Its latest edition is fashioned as a back-dated newspaper -- a mock-up of a May 2008 broadsheet, addressing that month's unforgettable events in South Africa.

Read more: S. Africa's dean teaches reconciliation

It's very important that we develop our own measure for excellence.
Ntone Edjabe, Chimurenga

A series of attacks on migrants from other parts of the continent, left 62 people dead as South Africans turned on their fellow Africans creating an explosion of xenophobic violence.

As an African who's lived away from home for decades now, this is a topic close to Edjabe's heart.

He says it was important to re-tell the story to fill the historical gaps while re-examining the context and complexity of xenophobic violence.

"I think that the raw emotion that brings about this kind of violence to turn against your neighbor is more than what's written on a piece of paper and I feel that that sentiment, what ever it is and whatever brings it about, I think it is still there," says Edjabe.

 

ARTURO

ALFONSO

SCHOMBURG

Legacy of an Afro-Boricua

 

The Puerto Rican

Father of Black History

The Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture, a branch of the New York Public Library.

I was in the fifth grade, attending my new school, P.S. 175-Manhattan in my new neighborhood Harlem, New York City. One day, while playing, I just happened to drift across the street, and noticed a bust of a black man in front of a two-story brownstone building specializing in black literature. Little did I know that it would years before I learned that this site was a the cornerstone of The New York Public Library's Division of Negro Literature, History, and Prints, which would later grow into the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture.

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg

 January 24, 1874 (San Juan, Puerto Rico)

 

to June 8, 1938 (Brooklyn, NY)

 

It all started in San Juan, Puerto Rico, when a school teacher told a young black kid that blacks have no history and has never accomplished anything of note. This young black kid was so inspired to prove his teacher wrong, that he began his own readings and collected books on the accomplishments of black people all over the world. As he grew older, he got into debates with his classmates about the contributions of blacks.

 

The old Schomburg Collection located on 135th Street in Harlem, across from my elementary school P.S. 175-Manhattan.

As an adult, he moved to New York City, where at first, he was involved in the revolutionary movements of immigrant Cubans and Puerto Ricans. Meanwhile, he met an African-American journalist who introduced him to New York's black intellectual community and continued to increase his knowledge and expanded his personal collection of books by and about black people. During this time he got involved in the Harlem Renaissance (originally the new Negro movement), a black social and literary movement that spread through black communities nationwide.

Arturo Alfonso loaned objects from his personal library to the New York Public Library until his total collection of 10,000 items was purchased by the Library with the assistance of the Carnegie Corporation. Today, at the current site of the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture, there are more than 5,000,000 items such as artifacts, recordings, manuscripts, motion picture films, newspapers, periodicals, photographs, prints, recorded music discs and sheet music. In addition, there is an 11,000 item digital library that can be accessed world wide by computer where you can browse more than 11,000 relating to African the African continent and the African Diaspora going all the way back to the 17th century.

 

Posted by W. Bill Smith

 

 

__________________________

 

Digital Schomburg

 

 

 

Stevie Wonder

performs at the

Diamond Jubilee Concert 

DeeKay June 5, 2012 

The legendary Stevie Wonder took to the stage in London last night to perform at the star-studded Diamond Jubilee concert, playing “Sir Duke”, “Isn’t She Lovely”, “Happy Birthday” and “Superstition” to the crowd assembled in front of Buckingham Palace and an average audience of nearly 15million watching at home. Wonder even switched up a fair few lyrics in tribute to the monarch, joining the likes of JLS, Jessie J, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, Gary Barlow and Grace Jones and many more who hit the stage during the three hour show. At one point, he was inexplicably joined on stage by will.i.am, who performed earlier in the night and provided ad-libs on Wonder’s Queen-themed rendition of “Happy Birthday”.

Of course, this means that history will now tell of Cheryl Cole gracing the same stage as the likes of Stevie, Sir Paul McCartney and Annie Lennox. How’s that for a bring-in?

 

 

 

The Foreign Exchange

Dear Friends:

An Evening With

The Foreign Exchange

(The Foreign Exchange Music)

June 28th, 2011

Vocalist Phonte Coleman and producer Nicolay Rook first began swapping music files through Okayplayer.com message boarda while the former resided in Carolina and the latter in the Netherlands. Soon after, the pair formed the Foreign Exchange without having met. Since then they have released three albums to critical acclaim and their sophomore studio album, Leave It All Behind, received a Grammy nomination. The band has shifted from a hip-hop focus to a soul and R&B focus since their inception and Phonte has not rapped with the Foreign Exchange since their debut, Connected. Since the release of their third studio album, Authenticity, in October 2010, the band has been continuously touring. Their newest release, Dear Friends: An Evening With The Foreign Exchange, is a live, acoustic/lo-fi showcase of material from their last two albums as well as select numbers from individual members’ solo outings.

The album opener is a rendition of “Fight For Love” that stays true to the original though Phonte’s vocal layering is replaced by back-up from vocal newcomers Jeanne Jolly and Sy Smith (former F.E. vocalist Yahzarah is missing here). The electronic drum-kit that drove “All Roads” on Authenticity is replaced by Nicolay’s percussive guitar playing as well as shakers, which is the sort of scaling down that could describe the scope of the album. The warmth of Phonte’s vocals on “Take Off The Blues” blend with Jolly and Smith and the progressions of pianist Zo! consistently brings the songs to the next level. At other times, renditions of F.E. material, when lacking Nicolay’s electronic backbone, fall apart as the upbeat, campfire-esq playing of guitarist Chris Boerner do not meet the jazz-driven piano and drum elements halfway, which leaves some songs like “Something in the Way She Moves” sounding musically at odds with itself.

“Dear Friends: An Evening with The Foreign Exchange” by the Foreign Exchange

On “Lose Your Way” Phonte spends 7 minutes of the album giving background information about each musician and the album while quasi-rapping, which almost seems like intentional mockery for all those hoping to hear live versions of Phonte’s hip-hop focused tracks from Connected here. There are endearing aspects of “Lose Your Way,” but it generally breaks the flow of the album; in short, it is appropriate for a live performance, but it doesn’t fit here at all. The country-duet “Laughing At Your Plans” features Phonte and Jolly feeding off each other’s energy very well and here it is obvious that the band has been touring because they are dwelling in the pocket. The previously trip-hop/electronic driven “DayKeeper” gets an upbeat, country rendition replete with faux hillbilly accents.

This album is an excellent representation of material from F.E.’s last two albums, but I wouldn’t recommend it for new F.E. listener’s because they have meaningfully altered the compositions and I’d recommend hearing the originals first. As aforementioned, the banter between the tracks, which usually drives F.E.’s live performances, ranges from being disingenuous to boring, which brings the quality of the album down. Go see them live!

Words by Liam Bird

For more info on Foreign Exchange head over to their official site here.

 

__________________________

Beats, Bartering and Brooklyn:

The Foreign Exchange

Live at Music Hall

of Williamsburg

 

Phonte “Phontigallo” Coleman and Matthijs “Nicolay” Rook named themselves The Foreign Exchange because they recorded their 2004 debut album, Connected, without ever having met in flesh. This transcontinental changing of hands – forged from their Okayplayer encounters – makes their moniker simple to understand, but there’s much more to the name than that. The exchange of alien musical ideals between the two – Coleman’s North Carolina hip-hop roots as one third of Little Brother, Nicolay’s background as a Dutch electronic music producer – have come to reconcile a form of music that is not easily explained. When they received their first Grammy nomination in 2008 for the song “Daykeeper,” they were classified as Urban/Alternative; a curiously damning and contradictory title, as it combines two terms that are limiting and vague, respectively. Appropriate that such an indescribable band chose Brooklyn as a performance stop. The New York City borough is a terminal where countless cultures, sounds and spirits collide and implode. If their performance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg offered any resolution, The Foreign Exchange (+FE) has to be described as a jazz band. Not jazz in its predictable preconceptions, but rather as an abstract ideal, or a means to an end. The end is to create physical and intellectual rejuvenation for its listeners; the means is to use every melodic and lyrical resource that their mental disc-changer can muster.

There’s nothing that precludes a raucous gathering like the sight of “standing room only” on a ticket stub. It almost guarantees that the rhythms you’re about to absorb will cause instinctive, if not involuntary, movement of the hips, neck and elbows. British DJ Barry King provided the soundtracks to the revolution of the feet for the hundreds in attendances. King spent 60 minutes successfully revving up the crowd for +FE with his hellacious selector skills. Scratching up Foster Sylver’s “Misdemeanor” was one thing, but to segue it into J Dilla’s Donuts treatment of said Sylvers’ on “Only Two Can Win,” now that was pleasingly devastating.

Once +FE materialized on stage, it became clear that they’re no longer a mere duo. While Phonte and Nicolay are certainly the nucleus (it’s their pictures on the marquee), +FE should be considered more of a collective, in the same tradition as Miles’ 2^nd Quintet, or even the Soulquarians. The band features artists & musicians that can and have stood on their own as formidable artists, making the combination that much more potent. Vocalists Jeanny Jolley and Sy Smith are frequent +FE studio collaborators and were the anchor for the night’s sound. Keyboardist Zo! has rapidly earned a funky reputation as solo artist and producer, and was invaluable to the music’s colorful atmosphere. Rather than playing the background for Nic and Tigallo, all eight people on stage shared equal responsibility.

Show opener, “The Last Fall” was a perfect mission statement for the evening: be prepared for introspective wordplay, soul piercing vocal harmonies and rib squeezing rhythms. For nearly 150 minutes of dynamic cuts from +FE’s catalog and solo joints from Phonte, Nicolay & Zo!, not a single false note was played nor an ill-advised turn of phrase. Coleman was as charismatic as they come; a gritty, vulnerable, gracious and hilarious front man, pulling inspiration from James Brown, Kirk Franklin and Sting with equal attention.  While Phonte was crooning on folk-hop tunes like “Fight For Love,” Nicolay led the four piece band with the intricate enthusiasm of a master chef.  As he switched between giving counted cues and bobbing his torso forth and back at his synthesizer, Nic showed there was no bigger +FE fan than him. Sy Smith was Nona Hendryx 2.0. Wearing a backless +FE t-shirt, homemade Run DMC earrings and donning a black and red braided beehive, she stalked the stage with rock star swagger and jazz starlet grace. Smith, who’s shared stage and studio with artists like Chris Botti and Rashaan Patterson, shined brightest singing lead on “Greatest Weapon” a standout track from Zo!’s Sunstorm album. “Authenticity” featured an electronic drum/bass intro that would make Prince gush with flattery. “It’s Gonna Be a Beautiful Night,” from Phonte’s stellar 2011 solo debut Charity Starts at Home, became the battle cry for an audience that was already partaking in gorgeous darkness.

Although the actual songs themselves were all fan favorites, a key component to the night’s success was the calculated injections of other pop songs into their own.  Phonte managed to seamlessly fuse Aaliyah’s “Rock the Boat” into the bouncy, somber “Take Off the Blues.” The band juxtaposed Teena Marie’s “Square Biz” with Drake’s “Find Your Love,” and it was all so right. The audience went into a frenzy when Zo! acknowledged the Brooklyn brethren by kicking off an impromptu performance of ODB’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya,” prompting Phonte and the crowd to belt out the words of the late Wu Tang killer bee. The show’s climax came at the end of a three song encore, when +FE gave a rousing rendition of Mark Morrison cultish 90’s jam, “Return of the Mack.” Phonte was in his glory, acting as part crooner, part rapper, part preacher, part comedian. “Return of the Mack” tied the performance with a logical bow.  And some were still confused by what kind of band they are, consider this: The Foreign Exchange are well-rehearsed artists who don’t cut corners when it comes to musicianship, but refuses to take itself too seriously. They give honest music; they get back honest love. That’s a fair trade Brooklyn can get behind.

Set List:

The Last Fall
House of Cards
Fight For Love
Authenticity
Greater Than the Sun
All or Nothing/Coming Home
Nic’s Groove
Come Around
Greatest Weapon
Ball N Chain
Beautiful Night
Sendin My Love
Don’t Wait
Make Me a Fool
Take Off the Blues
Daykeeper
Maybe She’ll Dream of Me

Encore:

Laughing at Your Plans
I Wanna Know
Return of the Mack

Words & Photograph by Matthew Allen (@headphoneaddict) 

 

>via: http://revivalist.okayplayer.com/2012/06/07/beats-bartering-and-brooklyn-the-...

 

2012 BECHTEL PRIZE

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Since 2004, Teachers & Writers Collaborative (T&W) has honored the author of an exemplary essay on literary arts education with the annual Bechtel Prize. Submissions for the award address important issues in creative writing education and/or the writing life.

The 2012 Bechtel Prize winner and finalists will be selected by Jo Ann Beard from a list of semi-finalists. Beard is the author of The Boys of My Youth, a collection of autobiographical essays, and the novel In Zanesville. Her work has appeared in literary journals, anthologies, and magazines such as Tin House, the New Yorker, and Best American Essays. Beard is the recipient of awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Whiting Foundation, among others. She lives in upstate New York and teaches nonfiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College.

The essay selected to receive the Bechtel Prize appears in Teachers & Writers Magazine and on the T&W website, and the author receives a $1,000 honorarium. Honoraria totaling $500 are shared by the authors of entries selected as finalists for the prize, which may also be published in Teachers & Writers Magazine.

Possible topics for Bechtel Prize submissions include contemporary issues in creative writing education, innovative approaches to teaching literary forms and genres, and the intersection between literature and imaginative writing. Previous winners of the Bechtel Prize can be found here.

Selection criteria for the Bechtel Prize include the essay’s relevance and appropriateness for readers of Teachers & Writers Magazine, most of whom teach at the elementary, secondary, or postsecondary level. Teachers & Writers Magazine publishes work that is concise, lively, and geared to a general audience. Prospective entrants for the Bechtel Prize are encouraged to review a sample issue of Teachers & Writers Magazine to familiarize themselves with the publication’s style. Go to www.twc.org/publications/magazine to order a sample issue of the magazine for $5.00.

The submission deadline for the 2011 Bechtel Prize is 5:00 PM (Eastern), Monday, July 2, 2012. Please refer to the submission guidelines below for additional information.

• Entry fee: $20 for each entry (make checks payable to Teachers & Writers Collaborative). Each fee entitles the entrant to a new one-year subscription to Teachers & Writers Magazine or a one-year extension of a current subscription. Please indicate your choice and include a complete address for subscriptions.

• Submissions should relate to creative writing education and/or the writing life.

• Submissions must be previously unpublished and under 3,500 words in length.

• Submissions must be typed, paginated, and double-spaced.

• Submissions will be judged anonymously. The author’s name and address must not appear anywhere on the essay/article.

• Two copies of the entry must be submitted. One copy should include a cover page with the following information: the author’s name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number, the title of the submission, and where the author learned about the Bechtel Prize. The other copy should include a cover page with only the title.

• Authors of the Bechtel Prize winner and finalists must permit T&W to publish their submissions in Teachers & Writers Magazine. The winner must permit T&W to publish the essay on the T&W website. T&W reserves the right to edit the submissions for publication.

• Please mail entries to The Bechtel Prize, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 520 Eighth Avenue, Suite 2020, New York, NY 10018. Entries may be delivered to T&W between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday. Submissions will not be accepted via e-mail or fax.

• Submissions must be received by 5:00 PM (Eastern), Monday, July 2, 2012.

• Submissions that do not conform to the above guidelines will not be reviewed for the Bechtel Prize. Submissions will not be returned to the authors.

Questions regarding the Bechtel Prize should be directed to bechtel@twc.org.

Support for the Bechtel Prize

To make a contribution to support the Bechtel Prize or Teachers & Writers Magazine, please contact T&W Director Amy Swauger at 212-691-6590, aswauger@twc.org.

 

The Wordstock Ten

Short Fiction Competition

This international contest is a “double blind” competition. The judges, a collection of writers, academics, publishers, bookstore owners, and literary critics, choose ten finalists from the stories submitted. All ten finalists’ stories are published in The Wordstock Ten, an anthology that is available at the festival, at Portland-area bookstores, and online through the Wordstock website.

The winner of the competition, chosen from this field of 10 finalists, receives a first prize of $1,000. The top submission by an Oregon-based writer will receive publication in the October issue of Portland Monthly magazine.

2012 Contest

The final judge for this year’s competition will be essayist and short story author Steve Almond. Check below for complete guidelines and submission link.

Purchasing The Wordstock Ten
Previous editions of The Wordstock Ten from 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, are available for purchase (though sadly, 2007 is out of print). You can find information about all the editions here, on The Wordstock Ten – Past Editions page. To purchase previous editions, contact us.

Any proceeds from the Wordstock Short Fiction Competition are used to support Wordstock’s work with teachers and students.

Click here to submit your short fiction to Wordstock — Submission deadline is July 1st

The Guidelines
Wordstock only accepts electronic entries to this competition. (NB: 2012 submissions close July 1st.)

Submission guidelines
- All short stories must be works of fiction written in English
- Stories must be an original work and not previously published
- The entry fee is $30 per short story entry
- There are no genre restrictions, and comics are acceptable
- Manuscripts may be in Word compatible or PDF format
- Manuscripts must be double-spaced
- Stories should be no less than 1,500 and no more than 3,000 words
- Each submission file you upload must omit the writer’s contact information—DO NOT put this information on the manuscript!
- Entries that do not follow these guidelines will be disqualified

Questions? Contact us

Click here to submit your short fiction to Wordstock — Submission deadline is July 1st

 

The Cleantech Innovation

Essay Contest

(PLN5,000/ $1,400* top prize

| worldwide)

Deadline: 22 August 2012

(Note: The prize is PLN5,000 or roughly $1,400 based on PLN1: $0.28 conversion rate. The contest is open to any person of any nationality who is under the age of 35 by the start of the contest.)

Imagine this: you are a young woman who just gave birth. The nurse comes in and asks you, “Would you like to plant a tree in honor of your newborn son?”

You say yes and a new tree is planted. Your son receives a bracelet. So does the tree, which grows along with him. Now multiply that by 10 maternity wards in 10 cities in 10 countries.

It’s a simple model that could result in a very large largest afforestation program and potential carbon sink. That’s a cleantech innovation: replicable, scalable, marketable, sustainable. Write an essay about a cleantech innovation and be eligible to win a prize: 5000 PLN or an iPad!

HERE ARE A FEW OTHER CLEANTECH INNOVATIONS:

- Wrocław city hall finances trams that recover their kinetic energy while braking
- A utility installs turbines to turn the slow-moving Vistula River into electricity
- A new law mandates public buildings be renovated from energy savings

The idea doesn’t have to be original or not-yet-invented, so long as it can be applied in an original or novel way. Write your essay. Keep it simple, and easy to understand. It can be technical, but don’t use jargon that couldn’t be understood by a 15 year old. Add a photo or two or a drawing or a sketch or a conceptual design or a pro-forma on the business model.

EVALUATION BASIS

- Criteria 1: Simplicity and beauty of the idea: does it inspire the imagination? (up to 5 POINTS)

- Criteria 2: The environmental benefit: does it promote sustainability principles? (up to 5 POINTS)

- Criteria 3: The economics: how well does it do financially? Does it need a subsidy? (up to 5 POINTS)

- Criteria 4: Originality: does this idea appear in a google search? Is it a novel idea? (up to 5 POINTS)

- Criteria 5: Scalability: can this idea be applied anywhere? Is it location specific? (up to 5 POINTS)

LANGUAGE

The essay can be in Polish or English but the executive summary must be written in English.

STRUCTURE

The essay has no mandatory structure but may contain the following:

- executive summary (up to 250 words)
- description of idea
- environmental benefit
- business model
- originality of idea
- scalability of idea

FORMAT

The first page should contain:

- Essay title:
- First name(s):
- Surname(s):
- Age(s):
- Nationality(ies):
- Academic focus or profession:
- Email:
- Telephone:
- Signature:

The first page should be signed by the author(s) and the following text should appear on the first page:

“This text is my own original work (or our own original work) and has not been published elsewhere. In submitting this text, I certify that I am (we are) 35 years or younger at the commencement of the contest. I hereby give Cleantech Poland permission to reprint in whole or in part any portion of the submission and allow the publisher to retain my personal data in accordance with applicable Polish laws on privacy and protection. I hereby agree to give the copyright to this work to Cleantech Poland Sp z o.o. with their registered office at ul. Pustelnicka 48/22, 04-138 in the district court in Warsaw under NIP 1132817017 and REGON 142596385, and agree to hold harmless the publisher for any typographical errors or errors of omission.”

Second page should contain:

- Executive summary
- Remaining pages:
- Page number (top right of header)
- Title of essay on each page (bottom right of footer)

SELECTION COMMITTEE

The contest will be evaluated by six professionals active in cleantech markets:

- Jolanta Chodkowska, Chairman of the Board, PR2 (Public Relations)
- Robert Dwiliński, President, Ammono (Technology)
- Peter Hogren, CEO, Greenfield Wind (Developer)
- Agnieszka Król, CEO, Esperotia (Developer)
- Christian Schnell, Partner, DMS Law Firm, (Lawyer)
- Agata Stafiej-Bartosik, Sustainability Manager, PwC (Consulting)

ELIGIBILITY

The contest is open to any person of any nationality who is under the age of 35 by the start of the contest, excluding immediately family and employees of the contest sponsors and selection committee.

TARGET

The contest is aimed at young innovators – graduating scholars, engineers or scientists, or recently graduated scholars, engineers and scientists, as well as economists, policy-makers, and business professionals.

HOW DO I SUBMIT?

- Format: an essay in English or Polish with optional supporting photos, figures, drawings

- Requirements: Please see the section FORMAT for details of the essays formal requirements. Besides these, you must demonstrate that the idea is achievable, not fantasy or science fiction

- Length: no more than 8 pp or 2,000 words

- Topic: can be on any subject such as agriculture, information technology, biology, energy, infrastructure, economics, public policy, marketing or advertising – but it must have a cleantech angle

- Submission Deadline: email must be time stamped before August 22nd, 2012 at 22:00

- Submission Mode: An electronic WORD document emailed as an attachment to contest at cleantechpoland dot com

- Subject line: Cleantech essay contest submission

- Winner Announced: September 15, 2012

PRIZES

- First prize: 5000 PLN
- Second prize: iPad (cash value: 2500 PLN)
- Third prize: a subscription to Cleantech Poland (cash value: 1750 PLN)

Other prizes announced as donated by sponsors of contest. It is the responsibility of the winner(s) to declare the receipt of goods as a taxable item.

WINNERS

The winner and runners-up will be announced at the fall Cleantech business mixer. The first place essay will be printed in the Q1 2013 edition of Cleantech magazine. Summaries or abstracts of the best essays will appear also in the printed magazine.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: contest@cleantechpoland.com

Website: http://www.cleantechpoland.com

 

 

<p style="font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #808080; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 512px;">Watch New Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey Explores Human Struggles on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.</p>

Natasha Trethewey

Named U.S. Poet Laureate

Posted by Mike Melia , June 7, 2012

 

Pulitzer Prize-winner Natasha Trethewey will be the 19th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, the Library of Congress announced on Thursday.

"Natasha Trethewey is an outstanding poet/historian in the mold of Robert Penn Warren, our first Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry," Librarian of Congress James Billington said in a statement. "Her poems dig beneath the surface of history--personal or communal, from childhood or from a century ago -- to explore the human struggles that we all face."

Born in Gulfport, Miss., in 1966, Trethewey's work has chronicled the complicated history of her own family and that of the South. As the daughter of a black mother and white father, an interracial union that was still illegal in Mississippi at the time, "it was very hard to drive around town with my parents, to be out in public with my parents," she told the NewsHour in 2006. Her hometown was later ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The shotgun houses in the neighborhood where she was born and raised were destroyed.

With the NewsHour, she returned home for the first time following the storm to discuss her third collection of poems, "Native Guard," which went on to win the 2007 Pulitzer Prize.

"It's odd to come back here after having written this book, seeing the places that I was trying to elegize years ago when I first started working on these poems, in a very figurative sense, because I was distant from these places, not that these places were actually gone," Trethewey said.

The poems in "Native Guard" are set on Ship Island, just off Gulfport, and are inspired by the Louisiana Native Guards, the first sanctioned regiment of black Union soldiers in the Civil War stationed on the island.

"I used to come out here every Fourth of July as a child to picnic and to swim on the island, to tour the fort and wander through it. And all of that time, I never knew anything about the presence of black soldiers on the island. And so, for me, this was a way of trying to tell another history, a lost or a forgotten or a little-known history about these black soldiers who played an important part in American history." Trethewey said. Coincidentally, she was born "exactly 100 years to the day that Mississippi celebrated the first Confederate Memorial Day, April 26, 1866."

After she won the Pulitzer Prize, we caught up with Trethewey in our studio:

Trethewey's 2010 book, "Beyond Katrina," is a personal account of how the people of the Gulf Coast region, including her family, have lived with the threat and consequences of natural disasters for generations.

"Oddly, not until after Katrina did I come to see that the history of one storm, Camille -- and the ever-present possibility of others -- helped to define my relationship to the place from which I come," Trethewey writes.

"There are so many things that haven't come back," Trethewey told Art Beat in 2010. "There are these big gaps where my own history seems to have vanished. All these buildings that were landmarks of my own past [are] gone."

The storm hit her own family hard. Her grandmother, who had also been born and raised in North Gulfport, survived Hurricane Camille in 1969, but was forced to flee to Atlanta after Katrina. She died there, never able to return home. Trethewey's brother Joe, who before the hurricane had recently begun to make a living renting the family's shotgun houses in the area, found himself listless after the storm which destroyed their property.

"At first, there was nothing to do but watch," Trethewey writes in her poem "Watcher." "For days, before the trucks arrived, before the work / of cleanup, my brother sat on the stoop and watched."

Out of work, Joe got into trouble and was sent to jail for trafficking cocaine. Her family's story was the basis for "Beyond Katrina," and the collection even contains a poem by Joe, who began writing in prison.

Trethewey will be the first U.S. Poet Laureate to actually take up a residency at the Library of Congress, starting in spring 2013. She is also far younger than the last two to hold the honor. At 84, Philip Levine is the outgoing laureate. He followed W.S. Merwin, who was also in his 80s when he was named to the post.

"I am thrilled our next Poet Laureate will spend the second half of her term in the Library's 'Catbird Seat,'" said Robert Casper, head of the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. "There she will impact the capital and the country even more powerfully, as one of our great poets of reclamation and reckoning."

In January, Trethewey was named Poet Laureate of Mississippi, a four-year position she will retain while serving as U.S. Poet Laureate. She is also a professor of creative writing at Emory University.

Trethewey's first poetry collection, "Domestic Work," won the inaugural 1999 Cave Canem poetry prize, a 2001 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Book Prize and the 2001 Lillian Smith Award for Poetry. Her second collection, "Bellocq's Ophelia," received the 2003 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Book Prize, was a finalist for both the Academy of American Poets' James Laughlin and Lenore Marshall prizes, and was named a 2003 Notable Book by the American Library Association.

Below, Trethewey reads from "Native Guard." You can also read the poems here on our Poetry Series page.

 

 

 

Nikki Giovanni 

(born Yolande Cornelia Giovanni; June 7, 1943)

An Interview With

Nikki Giovanni

by Kevin Hershner 

This is a short video I made in November 2009 for Digital Cinema Production.

The assignment was called Landscape of a Person. We were supposed to interview a dynamic person and explore some aspect of their life. I was lucky enough to interview Grammy-nominated poet, New York Times best-selling author, and Virginia Tech distinguished professor Nikki Giovanni. She gave me great insight on poetry and the creative process.

The songs featured in the video are "Funks" by Misiek (via Jamendo.com) and "Ego Trippin'" by De La Soul. The video in the beginning and end is from Def Jam Poetry.

On a personal note, I would like to add that Prof. Giovanni was extremely friendly, approachable, and easy to work with during my project.

 

__________________________

 

 

 

The Authority of a Writer:

An Interview with

Nikki Giovanni

By Jan McDaniel 

Award-winning author, poet and activist Nikki Giovanni is the author ofRacism 101 and more than 

 

fourteen volumes of poetry, including Black Feeling Black Talk, Black Judgement, Cotton Candy On A Rainy Day, My House, The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni, and, most recently, Love Poems. A professor of English at Virginia Tech, Ms. Giovanni reads her work all over the country. 

She is the recipient of an NAACP Image Award, holds the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry and has been named woman of the year by Mademoiselle, Ladies' Home Journal, and Essence. She holds a B.A. from Fisk University, as well as numerous honorary degrees, including an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Delaware State University, an Honorary Doctorate of Literature from Smith College, an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Widener University, an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Allegheny College, and an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Fisk University. Her work has been called intimate, edgy, and unapologetic. In a career that has spanned three decades, Giovanni has created an indispensable body of work and earned a place among the nation's most celebrated and controversial poets; Gloria Naylor calls her "one of our national treasures." She is the mother of one son, and enjoys gardening and the blues music. 

Meeting Nikki Giovanni reminded me that a writer's words are meant to last. Throughout a long and prolific career, she has tackled almost every form of the written word and has successfully published each time. Her calm, yet distinctive, style comes across in her personal life because life is writing, for Nikki Giovanni, and writing is life. 

She was browsing in the university bookstore when I spotted her. After I introduced myself as the interviewer who had arranged to meet her, she waved a t-shirt on a hanger in the air, debated the color selection, and settled the purchase with great satisfaction. A gift for a friend, the cloth and thread almost seemed to hold her together. She had received word of another friend's death shortly before it was time to catch her flight to the writers conference, and that news was what was on her mind. 

Click here for ordering information.

Loss and glory interwove themselves throughout our interview. Her thoughts touched on death, mixed with the everyday concerns of the living, and wandered from the innocence of children to the radical injustices of the past. Getting to the heart of this compact and energetic woman was easy because of her warmth and compassion . . . hearing the strength behind her words was harder because, if there is one thing I learned about Ms. Giovanni and her life, it is that she never veers away from the truth.

---

From a look at your website, it's easy to see what a prolific writer you are. Out of all of your writing activities and creative ideas, how do you decide which ones to pursue or develop? 

Well, I think writing poetry is largely a case of the heart. 

 

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I don't have any question about that . . . but it's also a big head case because your heart gets interested in things, but if your head doesn't know about them, you end up with this trite crap. I'm a big fan of the black woman and so I'm always looking at aspects of the black woman--what she's doing and how she does it. 

Coming to a conference like this was always right down my alley. When I was invited, there was just no question about it . . . I wanted to be here. I want to be here. We had a death in the family not long before I was to leave, but I still thought I should be here. It makes me really sad, of course, because this was an older couple. I cook for them twice a week (several of us on the faculty cook for them), and I had the pots on the stove when I found out. Death is always a surprise. This conference is all about remembrances, so it wasn't just that I had committed. I thought being here would make me feel a little better. 

I do a lot in remembrance. I was asked recently what makes me an Appalachian writer. I was trying to think about it because this is actually not a term I would use--I think of myself as an urban writer. My Appalachian roots come out because of my sense of independence. My Southern roots come out because of my sense of remembrance, and I do see the difference between how Appalachia and the South handle independence . . . or individuality, I should say . . . and remembrance. 

There is very little individuality in the South. There is such a herd mentality, you wish you could just crack that egg and break it through. There is such a fierce, personal independence in Appalachia. I do see how that works in a black girl from Knoxville, Tennessee, who grew up in Cincinnati. It's what you're constantly dealing with . . . remembrance but also what is your individual responsibility. 

You asked about my activities. I do what brings me an amount of pleasure. I have a writer's workshop, and I enjoy cooking for friends and family. The things I do bring me great pleasure but also satisfy my sense of responsibility as an individual. I think you should do what you can do. People overlook that and always want to do something way bigger than they can. You are capable of making lamb stew, for example, or frying some shrimp. You don't do that because you want to tilt windmills. Someone once said to me, "You're Quixotic." But I'm not Quixotic. I don't tilt at windmills. I don't fight battles I can't possibly win. 

You only have so much time. There are things you stand up for because it's right. That's not a battle that you're losing. You're just adding your body and your best wishes to a fight that has to be won. 

If you could start your writing career over, would you make any changes? 

I'm a very practical person so that level of contemplation doesn't work for me. There are probably things in my career that could have been more financially beneficial. I had some opportunities to be in commercials and things like that, but it just didn't seem like that's what you did with poets, so it wasn't really that I lost money. I just didn't make it. I think my integrity means a lot. 

"Nothing takes the place of curling up in bed with a book. In my opinion, nothing takes the place of the smell of the paper. Now that people like me say that, they may come up with a way to make the e-books smell like that."

Probably what I'm most proud of is that this is a thirty year career. If you had asked anybody but me, thirty years ago, if I would still be here, everybody would have said, no, she won't maintain. I'm very pleased that it's been a good career, a solid career. For a word that I don't like the way people use, I think I had the right values. 

I think I had the values of integrity in the work. I'm perfectly willing to take the work just about anywhere. I've read for just about all groups and places because I figure the work is the work and you have to get the work around. I think the work has been wonderfully and almost magically consistent. I keep learning things, and you keep adding what you're learning, but it's been good. I don't even know where the last thirty years went. Over there at the bookstore, what you're looking at is a thirty year output which averages out to a book a year or something like that. 

There is a poem there I'm going to read tonight called "What He Missed". I was laughing with the editor of Essence Magazine because she needed the poem quickly. I said, "I am prolific, but I am not quick." It takes a little longer when you're putting the work together. 

If I were advising someone on a writing career, the deal is this: write. If you get it published, good. If somebody pays you, better, because you have to eat, but the deal is you have to write. 

You see people who say, "I want to have a writing career." If you ask them what they are writing, they say, "Well, I'm not working on anything right now." No, no, no . . . that's not the way. You have to write. 

My work is not that different now than it was when I was starting out. People want to see big changes sometimes, I think. My early work was . . . I think the term was incendiary, but I don't trust people who make big changes. What you say has been said. You keep trying to say what you're learning and keep sharing it with your audience. 

I think I've been remarkably lucky. I haven't lost a lot of people, and I haven't gained a lot of people. The people who used to read me in the 60's are still reading me. I think that's kind of wonderful because that's a consistency that changes. It's like stirring the pudding, and the pudding has to be a certain way. It means that I've grown. I didn't dig a hole some place. I'm not God: I wasn't trying to be. I'm not trying to tell people what to do or what to think or none of that. I'm not a leader. I'm not a guru. I'm just a poet looking at the world. 

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People know they can bring their grandchildren, and I can read Genie in a Jar or something from The Sun is So Quiet. They can hear it and tell their grandchildren, "I heard that thirty years ago." I love what Chris Raska (the illustrator for Genie in a Jar) did in developing the little girl. Of course, I'm a big fairy tale because that's all of life; that's anybody. Don't prick your finger because when you prick your finger, you fall asleep. They all did, you know. Snow White, eating those apples. That's all you're saying to the kids. It's, "Okay, careful, Baby." I'm totally fond of that and very happy that we were able to get that illustrated children's book. 

Do you feel that the online world has or will have a great impact on the world of writing and publishing? 

I'm at Virginia Tech which is probably one of the most 

"I'm not trying to tell people what to do or what to think or none of that. I'm not a leader. I'm not a guru. I'm just a poet looking at the world."

wired places in the world, but I am a writer and we are a part of a throw-back, in many respects. Frankly speaking, I don't think anything can ever take the place of books. I know they're trying to make the e-books more like pages and asking themselves how can they make these computers more like a book. At some point, when you hear that, you have to say to yourself why are you making it more like a book? Why not do a book? 

We could think about doing something like erasable paper. We could use the Internet and, instead of using a non-renewable source, we could scan again and again on the same paper. Nobody wants to think like that right now. Nothing takes the place of curling up in bed with a book. In my opinion, nothing takes the place of the smell of the paper. Now that people like me say that, they may come up with a way to make the e-books smell like that. I'm not hostile to the electronic world, but I also think that in this rush to make things quicker and better there are no real time-saving devices except maybe the dishwasher. The vacuum cleaner is not even a friend. Now everybody expects your floor to be perfect. You're always on call. The electronic age is not perfect but must be approached with some caution. 

What advice would you give to young writers today? 

Let's own it. This is mine. This is how I feel about it. The catchword I use with my classes is: 

Click here for ordering information.

The authority of the writer always overcomes the skepticism of the reader. If you know what you're talking about, or if you feel that you do, the reader will believe you. That's why we believe Frank Baum. Who would believe Dorothy and a house and a dog up in a tornado? We believe it because the author believes it. We believe Peter Rabbit because Beatrix Potter believes it. You have to. 

The authority of the writing will always overcome that. You can't hedge your bets. If you do, people will say, "Hmm. Where did you get that from?" You can't do that. Just don't do it. 

---

 

Photograph of Nikki Giovanni by Mari Evans. 

>via: http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/jul00/giovanni.htm

 

__________________________

 

 

BILL MOYERS: We travel now far from the world of oligarchs and high finance, to some enduring matters of the human heart — parochial affairs like love and bicycles. Our guide is the poet Nikki Giovanni, and when she came to town the other day, her fans were waiting. It was standing room only at the Barnes & Noble store on Union Square as she read from her new book.

>via: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02132009/watch2.html

 

 

50 Cent Doesn't Care

What You Think Of His

Straight-To-DVD Releases:

"I've Already Seen

A 60% Return..."

News by Tambay | June 4, 2012

"They'll spend a $120 million on a film or a whole bunch of money making a film and then a whole bunch of money promoting it a year before it actually comes out, and the money they get back in theaters is just the money they spent... And then it goes to dvd and everything is profit there. Some of the movies I've done recently, I was financing and I've already seen a 60 percent return on what I've [been] involved with. They don't understand, they're looking at it and going, 'Well, it went straight-to-dvd,' and they don't realize I'm gonna get another $800,000 off each one of these projects. You can sit there and say 'It went straight-to-dvd'... my ass... They'll try to figure a way to discredit whatever you do because I come from that. I have a lot, so I'm conditioned to the people who haven't been through that and can't get to the next level... 

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson said in an older interview with a Tampa Bay radio station; there's more where that cam from in the video embedded below which contains that full interview.

I share this today as a reponse to the mostly negative reactions that posts about Fiddy's films usually receive - most recently, the post over the weekend that featured the trailer for his latest, the crime drama Freelancers, with Robert De Niro and Forest Whitaker, which is going straight-to-dvd.

He's pretty much addressing those kinds reactions in the above comment, isn't he? Essentially, yeah, my films are all going to DVD, bypassing theaters, BUT, I'm making mad money off of these straight-to-DVD movies I keep cranking out.

"I'm gonna get another $800,000 off each of these projects," he says. I especially laughed at his dismissive "my ass" comment. 

So, really, the dude is all about the business folks - revenue and profit. All your complaints about his films or his ability don't mean much to him, so you can save them for someone who gives a hoot.

He may not win any awards for his performances, nor might any of these films attract critical acclaim (although anything is possible), but he's gradually building a body of work, proving his onscreen worth, which may later provide him with added leverage in negotiating future production/distribution deals.

You may recall that 50 Cent's Cheetah Vision Films signed a 10-picture, $200 million agreement with George Furla's Hedge Fund Film Partners, the goal being to produce and finance three to five movies per year. 

And we've reported on just about all of those films, including those that were announced before the deal with George Furla's fund, like Caught In The Crossfire, which was released on DVD in 2010, and which I'll review later.

I embedded the full interview 50 Cent gave to the Tampa Bay radio station, in which he talks about his straight-to-DVD releases, and other aspects of the film business. I'm not much of a fan (I've seen a few of these flicks, and didn't really care much for them), but, somewhat like Tyler Perry, I think 50 is someone worth watching, as he gradually builds what could eventually become something of an empire, right under our noses.

Here's the interview:

 

__________________________

 

Another 10-Picture Deal Re-up

For 50 Cent's Cheetah Vision,

Emmet/Furla, Lionsgate

 

 

__________________________

 

Review -

'Caught In The Crossfire'

(Breezing Through

50 Cent's Cheetah Vision

Film Library)