Rebecca Walker’s

‘Black Cool’ 

 Promotes

the Non-Material Side

of Black Culture

By Allison Samuels

Feb 4, 2012 

 

Inspired by an image of Obama, author Rebecca Walker collected ideas from African American authors on the positives of black culture that have nothing to do with material things.

 From the moment she spotted it in 2008, author Rebecca Walker couldn’t erase a particularly striking image of then soon-to-be President Barack Obama out her of mind.  For Walker, the picture of the 44th president of the United States emerging from a sleek black Town Car cloaked in a suave black suit, red tie, and super stylish sunglasses signified a return to an era of black cool she thought had died with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis. She was so impressed with the message conveyed by that particular photograph that she decided a book dedicated to all things black and cool was in order.

“I wanted to look at our culture and discuss what is cool about it that isn’t based on material things,’’ says Walker. “So much recently has connected coolness in the black community with the shoes you wear or the car you drive. That picture of Obama said very clearly that cool is your moral center, your way of thinking and the way you handle the issues you face in life.’’

Though Walker is frequently credited with being one of the founders of third-wave feminism, a movement that redefined women and girls as assertive, powerful, and in control of their own sexuality, she’s also used her voice to lead discussions on subjects such as multiracial identity, race relations, and motherhood.

In a passage from the forthcoming Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness, Walker writes, “Barack Obama emerges from the metal of a shiny black car as the Mende would emerge from a bath: fresh, new. No longer a boy with big ears, he steps out a prince. His audacity is astounding. His reserve is mesmerizing. His swagger undeniable.”

From her quiet home in Hawaii, Walker invited an impressive array of African-American writers such as bell hooks, Michaela Angela Davis, Margo Jefferson, and Henry Louis Gates to add their unique definition of what exactly constitutes authentic “black cool.” From the book’s 184 pages, it’s clear that authors like Davis relish the idea of discussing a subject that is completely untouchable by the mainstream but also currently in need of massive revisualization and reinvention from its current generation. Davis earnestly asks readers, “How will anyone learn or remember the genius of ‘black cool’ if black folks themselves don’t relentlessly interject interesting, innovative, incredible images into the collective cultural imagination?”

Author, Rebecca Walker., Graham Jepson, TSPL / Camera Press / Retna

“I definitely thought a great deal about our younger generation when putting this book together,’’ said Walker, the mother of a 7-year-old son named Tenzin. “There are so many ways of receiving information today for young people, but I wanted them to have a book to read. Something they could hold in their hands and turn the pages, because there is something very real about that. So much of the information young people receive today is misleading about who they are. I watch television and see reality shows like Love and Hip Hop, and I just get really frustrated at what our children must be absorbing from that kind of show.’’

While contributing writers like dream hampton add color and spice to the book’s lyrical flow, it is indeed Walker’s elaborate details of her own powerful and painful childhood with her mother, acclaimed novelist Alice Walker, that captivates and illustrates the most about the title subject “black cool.” 

In stirring prose, she describes a bath ritual she and her mother regularly enjoyed at the end of their day: “While my mother or I soaked, the other would sit on the floor alongside the tub and tell the news of the day. My mother and I entered the space of cleansing waters and emerged renewed and radiant.’’ Walker also describes the seat or potential throne her mother left in every room, “waiting for a visitor, human or spirit, whatever shape or form.’’ 

‘It’s difficult but I don’t speak with my mother now. That doesn’t negate the happy and powerful memories that have stayed with me.’

The force of Walker’s loving memories and soulful words makes it nearly possible to forget that she and her mother haven’t spoken to one another in years. Mother and daughter ended dialogue several years ago, a public rift Walker attributes to not one but many issues.

“I have many, many great memories of growing up with my mother,’’ says Walker. “The bath ritual is one that I think about often because it was a wonderful way to connect and bond with her, recounting the events of the day. We had a visible split that everyone saw. It was over issues that many daughters have with their mothers, but ours were magnified by the press. It’s difficult but I don’t speak with my mother now. That doesn’t negate the happy and powerful memories that have stayed with me.’’

Though Walker says she adores her picturesque home in Hawaii, she is considering returning to a world filled with more people. The islands enticed the writer with their lush greenery, beautiful waters, and of course, their connection to black cool and Barack Obama.

“All that played a part in my decision to move here,’’ remembers Walker. “But now it’s feeling a bit too isolated and secluded for me. I miss the hustle and bustle of New York when I fly in to speak or for meetings. I miss the exchange of ideas and conversation. I want my son to feel that, too, so changes may be coming soon.’’

 

Viola Davis Goes With

Her Natural Hair

for LA Times Mag

by Jorge Rivas, Monday, February 6 2012

 

Despite my criticism for “The Help,” I’m a big fan of Viola Davis. 

I’ve mentioned several times on Colorlines.com/NOW that I’m a fan of Davis because she’s one of the most politicized working actors today. 

With her acceptance speech at the SAG awards, she skipped thanking Hollywood elites and instead told the students in her hometown (that’s in bankruptcy) to dream big. 

She’s also never afraid to have a challenging talk about the role of women and women of color in Hollywood. Even if it’s with another actress.

And most recently I love her because in an industry where wigs, weaves and extensions are all too common and expected for women of any color, Davis has gone natural.

The stunning photographs  were published in the LA Times Magazine this past weekend and were taken by Colombian photographer Ruven Afanador.

An excerpt from her interview with the LA Times Magazine:

“You can be in the business for 23 years, which I have been, and suddenly something happens that wakes people up. For me, that was being in a movie with Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman,” Davis says of Doubt. “It makes people realize you’re there. Otherwise you’re that black girl who had a guest or costar role in a TV show here or there.”

It’s not that Davis isn’t grateful. “I don’t feel bitterness,” she insists. But even as a second Oscar campaign awaits for her part in The Help, Davis is not afraid to point out the weaknesses in her industry. Her next target isn’t another lead role. It’s producing, a task she feels she must undertake if she and other black actresses are to get more fulfilling work. Young people need to be mentored to aspire to something fulfilling.

“I am doing this out of necessity,” she says. “If I am not the instrument of change, I can meander through this business and be the black woman who always has two or three scenes but with fabulous actors around me.”

To that end, she has optioned The Personal History of Rachel DuPree, a sweeping novel about an African-American woman struggling to farm the Badlands in 1917. She is developing a new picture—a thriller with Spencer as a coproducer—but is always on the lookout. “I have a stack of books in mind,” she says.

For more visit LA Times Magazine.

Nat Turner Challenges Styron's Confessions From The Grave  Howard/Simon & Schuster Author Challenges Styron's Account of the 1831 Virginia Revolt in Critically Acclaimed Novel Set to Release during Black History Month

Durham, NC -The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 2: The Testimony  (Howard/Simon & Schuster) by Sharon Ewell Foster is due for release February 7, 2012.  Based on historical facts uncovered during a five-year research and writing process, Foster's two-part series discredits the primary historical document related to Nat Turner, The Confessions of Nat Turner, written in 1831 by Thomas Gray; and also challenges William Styron's 1967 Pulitzer Prize winning novel.   "Sharon Ewell Foster has unearthed the truth about Nat Turner, rather than rehash and revisit the lies and distortions surrounding one of the most important people in American history" writes Dr. Ray Winbush, professor, historian and consultant on the PBS film, Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property. "This is a liberating book, both psychologically and historically."     Set for a Black History Month international release, The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 2: The Testimony offers readers a new and more objective view of the real Nat Turner and of the pre-civil war era of American history. Her personal research included visits to Southampton County, interviews with Nat Turner's living descendants and local historians, and analysis of handwritten trial transcripts and then Virginia Governor John Floyd's diary. "Every once in a while a book shakes the very foundation of what you believe, like Alex Haley's Autobiography of Malcolm X. The Resurrection of Nat Turner is in that category," Winbush states.     The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 1: The Witnesses examines the 1831 slave revolt and its leader, Nat Turner, through the eyes of historic figures like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe, as well as friends and foes of Turner, and shares Foster's analysis of the uprising, subsequent slave massacre, and related trials.   "My findings freed me to offer readers a new Nat Turner. A preacher, a liberator, a literate man, and not the lunatic that history and some fiction bequeathed us," said Foster, whose first historical novel, Passing by Samaria, was the NAACP Book of the Year in 2000.   In The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 2: The Testimony, Foster imagines Turner's perspective and guides readers through his actions and motivations. "I never intended to write in Nat Turner's voice," explains Foster. "But,Turner's voice was insistent. One of the first things that came to me was, 'They were all heroes.' Slaves, whether passive or armed, were like prisoners of war. We should honor their role in American history rather than viewing them with shame."   Styron's Confessions initially released to national acclaim, but quickly came under criticism during the height of the Black Power movement. Author Lerone Bennett, speaking of Nat Turner and Styron's novel, wrote, "The prophet who died in the Jerusalem of America, cool and calm, sure of the Black Resurrection, still awaits a literary interpreter worthy of his sacrifice."   Critical reaction to Foster's retelling of the Nat Turner story has been strong. According to Kirkus Review, "Foster uses her strong research skills and her skill at turning historical names into living, breathing humans to great advantage."   During a radio interview,professor, author, and radio talk show host, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, exclaimed to his audience, "She's blowing our minds!"   D.G. Martin, TV host of "North Carolina Bookwatch," has positively compared Foster's novel to The Help. "Here is an opportunity to read the work of a gifted African-American writer who tells her story effectively and sympathetically." Publishers Weekly has called The Resurrection of Nat Turner "fast-paced . . .riveting and expertly told by an inspired, practiced storyteller."    Part 1: The Witnesses is available wherever books, eBooks, and audio books are sold. Part 2: The Testimony is available for pre-order and releases February 7, 2012.     Cover: Part One  This month, Foster kicks off the Nat Turner Truth Tour, Part 2, with a review in the current issue of NAACP's The Crisis Magazine, book signings, presentations, lectures, and discussions. To add a stop on the Nat Turner Truth Tour or schedule an interview, contact: Stanice Anderson stanice@AndersonTucker.com or Mike Tucker  mike@AndersonTucker.com   Events currently scheduled for Black History Month are as follows:   February 6, 2012 - 7pm - 9 pm East Regional Library 946 Steeple Square Court, Knightdale, NC 27545-7655 (919) 217-5300   February 7, 8:40 am CST Radio Interview KZIM Morning Meeting Show Cape Girardeau, MO   Feb. 10, 7pm - 9 pm Regulator Bookshop 720 9th Street, Durham, NC 27705-4877 (919) 286-2700   Feb. 12, 3pm - 5 pm Quail Ridge Books & Music 3522 Wade Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27607-4048 (919) 828-1588   Feb. 17, 11am - 1 pm Defense Information School Ft Meade, MD   Feb. 17, 6:30 - 8:30 pm Sankofa Bookstore & Café 2714 Georgia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001   Feb.18, 1:00 - 3:00pm The Reginald F. Lew is Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture 830 E. Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21202 443-263-1800   Feb. 19, 2:30 pm Enoch Pratt Free Library Central Branch  (Edgar Allen Poe Room) 400 Cathedral St. Baltimore, MD 21201 Phone:410-396-5430 (Phone)   Feb. 22 - 27 (Scheduled times TBD) Bethel Full Gospel Baptist Church 11410 Lincoln Blvd, Miami, FL 33176 (305) 232-3561       # # #   Visit the author's  websites at  www.SharonEwellFoster.com,  www.TheResurrectionOfNatTurner.com, or the  publisher's website at  www.SimonandSchuster.com.      Listen to Sharon Ewell Foster interviewed by Regina Gail Malloy about her Nat Turner novels' research and writing processes below (Part 1 & 2) and for prologue excerpt from Part 2 audiobook click here.   The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 1: The Witnesses - Interview with Novelist Sharon Ewell Foster The Resurrection of Nat Turner Interview with Regina Gail Malloy Pt 2 Author Sharon Ewell Foster Brings Nat Turner & His Mother to Life at 2011 Annual Congressional Black Caucus Conference, Part 1 of 2 Short Videos   Sharon Ewell Foster   Sharon Ewell Foster - a former Defense Department instructor, writer, analyst, and logistician is the only African American to win the Christy Award for her historical novel, Passing by Samaria, also chosen as the NAACP Book of the Year in 2000.  Born in Texas, raised in Illinois, she now resides in North Carolina. She is a speaker, teacher and author of eight previous books that have earned her a loyal following that crosses market, gender, and racial boundaries.  Foster has been a contributor to Daily Guideposts for over 10 years.                 For a photo of Foster click here.     To hear an interview with Foster on her Nat Turner fact-based novels' research and writing processes, click here or visit The Resurrection of Nat Turner FaceBook page. To check out some of the press coverage on the books visit, http://AndersonTucker.com/OurFootprints.  To follow @NatTurner180 on Twitter, click here.                   Stanice Anderson, Publicity Architect Anderson Tucker Agency, Stanice@AndersonTucker.com, 1-877-458-6811   Mike Tucker, Publicity Architect Anderson Tucker Agency Mike@AndersonTucker.com, 1-877-458-6811

------------------------------------ STORY IDEAS Everything We Know about Nat Turner is based on Lies!   Mighty words, but after five years of extensive research, author Sharon Ewell Foster disproves the primary historical document, Thomas Gray's 1831 The Confessions of Nat Turner, on what has been considered the most successful slave revolt in American history.   FACTS: Thomas Gray was NOT Nat Turner's lawyer. Gray was not mentioned anywhere in the trial's transcripts. The only thing Nat Turner confessed was ... INNOCENCE! Original trial transcripts confirm that Nat Turner pled "Innocent." There are so many angles to cover here ... The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Parts 1 & 2 vs. William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner Black History Month (Feb) 2012 Theme: Black Women in American Culture and History.  Ms. Foster's invaluable contribution to American History Women's History Month (March)  Theme: Women's Education - Women's Empowerment. Ms. Foster invaluable contribution to education and empowerment. Nat Turner's mother, Nikahywot (Nancie) was captured in her native Ethiopian and enslaved in America. Tie in to capital punishment stories Tie to modern-day slave trafficking stories Radical novel is birthing reconciliation conversations Botched Trial Conspiracy 2011 marked the 150-year anniversary of the Civil War and Nat Turner's significance to that historical event February 7, 2012 Simon & Schuster releases The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part Two: The Testimony Smithsonian's National Museum of African American Culture and History possible acquisition of the original handwritten transcripts of the Nat Turner Trials, and other artifacts.  High praise from Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus Reviews and more!    Part 1: The Witnesses is being compared to NY Times bestsellers, The Help and Alex Haley's Autobiography of Malcolm X.   Got your attention? We hope so.  LET THE TRUTH RISE! Click for profile

JAMAICA KINCAID

Geetanjali Jhala interviews Jamaica Kincaid during the Jaipur International Literary Festival for DNA India.

Antigua-born writer Jamaica Kincaid had an abusive childhood and was taken out of school so her three younger brothers could be educated. She was sent to the US to become an au pair. Instead, she changed her name from Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson to Jamaica Kincaid so that no one would recognise her, and became a contributor to the New Yorker. “I came from a place where there were no writers and I didn’t want to be a writer as I had known writers, so I started with my autobiography,” she says. In an interview with DNA, the unassuming, melancholic writer says that while her roots in Antigua influence her work, she’s all-American now. Excerpts from an interview:

Considering the abuse you faced in your childhood, how important is conflict in the life of a writer?

I don’t know what’s important. I think each individual must have something that’s important to them. Perhaps the absence of conflict makes one a writer. Perhaps if I hadn’t had conflict in my life, I might have been a better writer, I don’t know. But my childhood in Antigua has influenced my work.

Do you regret never having had a formal education?

If I had had a formal education, I wouldn’t have been a writer at all. I might have become a scholar. If I had a proper training, a doctorate, say, I wouldn’t have become an artist.

Have you come to terms with the abuse you faced as a child and all the opportunities you were denied?

No. I still think, naturally, that I would want to be a scholar. But I love my life. I don’t have any problems with it. I don’t want to be anything else because I am what I am. But I still wish I had gone to college and sat around and studied Shakespeare and written some little thing about Shakespeare that no one would read. I love scholars. I think it’s the most wonderful thing — to be someone who studies a text and writes obscure things about it.

Do you consider yourself a pessimist or a realist?

I think I consider myself a pessimist. Which isn’t to say that I give up, but I think ‘Oh, it won’t work out’, but then I do it anyway. I don’t know if that’s a pessimist, but I feel I am a pessimist. It doesn’t stop me, but I am a pessimist. I didn’t think I would have success as a writer, but it didn’t stop me.

Does being pessimistic help you as a writer? How important is it to be happy?

I don’t know that there are any happy writers. But I don’t know that there is any happy person either. A happy person, to me, would seem to have the unique ability to shut out unpleasantness of life. I think happiness is something you run into from time to time. That’s why people take drugs and such. Happiness is not a natural state. If it were a natural state, there would be no word for it. You’d just sort of bump into it in the dark.

You said that you start writing stories knowing how they will end and that life is like that. When you moved to America, did you know how your story would end?

No. I thought I would be a miserable person for the rest of my life. I was very miserable when I first got to America because I was sent away from my home, my family. I was all alone. I didn’t know it would be possible to have the life I have, which is a relatively good life.

What do you like doing more? Writing or gardening?

I love reading more than I like writing. Most of all I love to read, and when I’ve satisfied my reading impulse, then I write. Writing is the second thing that I like to do best. Gardening is a form of reading. So is actually cooking.

What would you be if you weren’t a writer?

Probably someone who’s mad, standing in the corner of the street hectoring passersby to do the right thing. I’d probably be a mad prophet that nobody listens to.

For the original report go to http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/interview_there-are-no-happy-writers-novelist-jamaica-kincaid_1641446

Bob Marley's legacy:

African Reggae

It's 30 years ago today that the world's most famous and revered reggae musician died. And while reggae had already seeped into Africa in the 1960s via Desmond Dekker and Jimmy Cliff, it was Bob Marley's music and evident love of Africa that made the genre take off in a big way in the 70s. It was clear that Africa figured in his worldview long before he actually got to visit the continent. As he said, in an early interview:

"Too many people going on like England and America are in the world. But there is a better life in Africa. I feel for Africa, I want to go there and write some music. Instead of New York, why can’t we go to Ghana? Go to Nigeria-meet some people, learn a new language. You see, people are only seeking material vanity. Black People are so stubborn. They stay here because white people give them a big hotel and a floor to vacuum."

He visited Ethiopia in 1978, living on a communal farm, visiting many of the sites relating to Haile Selassie and ancient Ethiopian history, meeting members of the then Marxist government of Ethiopia, and becoming more aware of the issues facing the continent, of the need for African unity and of the liberation struggle taking place in Zimbabwe. All of which fed into the 1979 album Survival, with tracks such as Africa Unite, Zimbabwe, Wake Up and Live, Survival.

And then came Bob Marley's concert to celebrate Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, which forever sealed the bond between reggae and Africa. Look up old articles about the excitement caused by the Beatles when they toured America in 1964 and it'll give you an idea of the excitement caused by that concert, not only in Zimbabwe but across the continent. It's not for nothing that the concert is still talked about today. Bob Marley was so committed that he reputedly financed all the arrangements for his band and crew himself. The song Zimbabwe remains one of the favourite reggae anthems today. (Check Jusa Dementor, Cynthia Mare and Kazz's interpretation of Zimbabwe in The White Room).

Inspired directly or indirectly, African musicians and fans took to reggae in a big way. The rasta philosophy embodied in reggae, which makes it a good vehicle for social and political expression, also touched a nerve. Artists kept the spirit alive and made it local by introducing homegrown elements - rhythms, instrumentation, language. Africa wasn't immune to the watering down that happened in Jamaica in the 1990s when studios started churning out raggamuffin-style dancehall singles backed by nothing more than an electronic sequencer. Fortunately, the pendulum appears to have swung back in the direction of roots reggae and dub.

It's safe to say that all reggae artists today, African or otherwise, owe a debt of gratitude to Bob Marley for giving the music the stature and prominence in the public consciousness that it holds today.

Regarding African reggae specifically, the strongest countries are Côte d'Ivoire (with main city Abidjan being one of the reggae capitals of the world) and South Africa. Nigeria used to be strong, too, but although there are some young new artists on the scene there is no one as yet with the calibre of the previous generation of musicians like Majek Fashek, Ras Kimono, or even Alex Zitto. Actually, it's fair to say there's been some falling off in talent across the board, even as reggae continues to be one of the continent's most popular styles of music.

Music fans wherever in the world might have heard of the bigger names, Alpha Blondy (Côte d'Ivoire), the late Lucky Dube (South Africa) and Tiken Jah Fakoly (Côte d'Ivoire), but it is likely that for many the list ends there because most reggae musicians from Africa do not perform outside the continent. Most don't even have an online presence (which is why some of the names below aren't hyperlinked). So we thought it'd be a good idea to add some clips to this post to show a bit of the variety from different parts of the continent, bearing in mind that we'd be leaving out more than we can reasonably include in one article. Nonetheless we include a couple of artists who while not strictly speaking reggae artists will often incorporate reggae elements into some of their music, or who might even include some pure reggae tracks on their album, as is the case with Nneka and Kenya's Wyre, who does reggae, raga, afropop and R&B.

If you're not familiar with reggae from Africa, we hope you hear/see enough here to encourage you to seek out more, and if you're a reggae fan whose seen and heard all of these already, well, enjoy the lot again as we celebrate the legacy of one of the greatest cultural figures the modern world has ever known.

Note: The heavyweights get a couple of videos apiece because, well, they're heavyweights, so why not? A couple of other artists get two apiece simply because they're notable.

CÔTE D'IVOIRE
Alpha Blondy - Wish You Were Here

Alpha Blondy and The Wailers - Jerusalem (Dub) (Also check out this live version with his own band The Solar System)

Tiken Jah Fakoly - Je dis non 
</iframe<br /><br /><br /><strong>Tiken Jah Fakoly </strong>-<em> Il Faut Se Lever </em><br /><iframe width="425" height="272" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZCmY1lcPvgo?rel=0" _mce_src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZCmY1lcPvgo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

 

Tiken Jah Fakoly - Il Faut Se Lever

TJF: I’ve always been opposed to Independence celebrations in African countries, because we are not economically or politically independent. Look at Latin America: Morales or Chavez can tell Barack Obama or Sarkozy to get lost. No African head of state since Thomas Sankara or Patrice Lumumba has got up and said “Leave us alone, things are going to be different now”. Instead we have some leaders who still have a kind of colonised mentality, you can see the parallels with the huge investments China is making and the power that goes with that. (Excerpt from an interview in Mondomix)

Ismaël Isaac - Magno Mako

Tangara Speed Ghoda - Show Biz Ti Requin

Serges Kassy - C'Est Pas Da Ni Blo

Serges Kassy - Jah Libile

 

ETHIOPIA
Dub Collosus - Shem City Steppers

Teddy Ab - Anchi Ethiopia

Semere Kiros, ft. feat. Hailu - Reggea Kemise

 

MALAWI
Black Missionaries - Ndilibe naye Chifukwa

 

SENEGAL
Dread Maxim Amar - Jah Sun

Sun Sooley - Sen System

Marcel Salem - Baappa (les parents)

 

SOUTH AFRICA
Lucky Dube - Respect (Lucky Dube fused reggae with Mbaqanga. He was murdered when he was carjacked in October 2007)

Lucky Dube - Back To My Roots - Live!

(Also see Prisoner, and listen to a Lucky Dube interview here)

Zoro - Jabulani

Zoro - Far Away From Home

Sister Phumi - Africa

Slaves (Lucky Dube's band) - Don't Give Up

 

GHANA
Rocky Dawuni - Walls Tumblin Down

Rocky Dawuni - Take It Slow (Love Love Love)

Kwame Bediako - How Sweet It Is

 

ZIMBABWE
John Chibadura (Died in 1999. Mixed reggae and Jit) - Zuva Rekufa Kwangu

Kulcha Far I -  Jah Spirit

 

CAPE VERDE
Mo'Kalamity & The Wizards (Cape Verde/France) - Vision

One Love Family (Cape Verde/Portugal) - Seria profecia

 

BURKINA FASO
Bingui jaa jammy - Commerce Triangulaire

Zêdess - Un hongrois chez les gaulois

 

GUINEA-BISSAU
Nino Galissa - Krebo Cheo

 

KENYA
Wyre - Uprising

 

GUINEA
Takana Zion - Sweet Words

 

RWANDA
Natty Dread - This Is My Party

 

CAMEROON
Kaïssa - O Si Keka

 

MALI
Koko Dembele - Amagni

Askia Modibo (Combines Mali’s Wassoulou tradition with reggae) - Wadjou

 

ALGERIA
Gnawa Diffusion - Ya Laymi

Intik - Notre Devoir

Intik - Vas le dire à ta mère

 

TANZANIA
Ras Nas - Dar-es-Salaam

Half Cast - Tumefika

 

NIGERIA
Majek Fashek - African Unity (Major influences: Bob Marley, Fela Kuti, and Jimi Hendrix)

Majek Fashek - I'm Not Tired

Nneka - Africans

If you need more about Bob Marley's bond with and influence on Africa, check out the article Bob Marley and Africa at Rasta-Man-Vibrations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Submit > Emerging Writer's Contest

We are pleased to announce that in 2012 the Emerging Writer's Contest is expanding to include fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The winner in each genre will be awarded $1,000.

Login to our submission manager here to submit.

 

SIGN UP to get contest alerts and updates

 

Since 1971, Ploughshares has been committed to promoting the work of up-and-coming writers. In the spirit of the magazine’s founding mission, the Ploughshares Emerging Writer's Contest will recognize work by an emerging writer in each of three genres: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Literary work first published in Ploughshares has been cited in the Pushcart Prize volumes more frequently than any other literary journal and is regularly featured in Best American anthologies. The magazine has an international readership and is widely distributed throughout the United States.  

Eligibility: 

We define an “emerging writer” as someone who has yet to publish a book, including chapbooks, eBooks, and self-published works, in any of the content genres: creative nonfiction, poetry, or fiction.

Submission Policies:

 

• Please log in to our online submission manager between February 1st and April 2nd to submit. The contest will open at noon EST on February 1st, and close at noon EST on April 2nd.
  
• Submit 3-5 poems; nonfiction and fiction entries should be under 5,000 words. 

• The entry fee of $20, payable by credit card on the submission manager site, will include a 1-year subscription to Ploughshares. (Current subscribers may add to their subscription or give the subscription as a gift.)
    
• Writers are allowed to submit only one entry to the contest, per year.

Publication:

The winning story, essay, and poems will be published in the Winter 2012-13 issue of Ploughshares, guest-edited by John Skoyles and Ladette Randolph.

Call for Literary Work:

Multicultural

Women’s Presence’s

Upcoming Anthology

To commemorate the second anniversary of the earthquake of January 12, 2010 in Haiti, Edition Multicultural Women’s Presence, Inc. is preparing an anthology titled Cris et Larmes / Cries and Tears / Rel ak dlo nan je.

This anthology offers a forum that will give voice to women who were greatly affected by this tragedy which devastated our land and who continue, two years later, to be concerned.  The volume will contain texts in prose and poetry from Haitian women in Haiti and in the diaspora testifying their emotions and the experiences lived during the earthquake. The book will formulate important questions about the future of Haitian women and about the country. We will also include the voices of women from other countries who are working in solidarity with Haiti.

We are appealing to all those who are interested in having their voices heard.  Therefore, we would greatly appreciate it if you would send us via e-mail a text in prose or poetry relating your reactions to the earthquake, your support after the tragedy and what are in your view the perspectives for the future of  Haitian women and for Haiti in general.

If you decide to submit a text for this volume and following the approval of the Editing Committee, your text will appear in the anthology titled: CRIS ET LARMES / CRIES AND TEARS / REL AK DLO NAN JE.  Upon receipt, we will consider your text as a permission to publish.

Multicultural Women’s Presence, Inc. is a non profit organization founded in 1999, at the service of women. Reviewing and editing texts and also the cost of lay-out and printing is definitely a challenge for a small independent press. While the authors retain their copyright, we ask all participants to graciously renounce any royalties and we thank them for letting others know about this upcoming publication along with other MWP’s published titles.

We would like you to include with your text a biographical note of 50 to 75 words maximum, your e-mail address, your regular post office address and your telephone number. Even if you have already submitted a draft, please send a formal bio by the stated deadline. The texts received without the biographical note will be considered incomplete and will not be included in the anthology.

We are glad for your participation in this project and expect to receive your text on or before the deadline of February 20, 2012

SPECIFICATIONS:

Title:  Cris et Larmes / Cries and Tears / Rel ak dlo nan je

Format;  Texte in word times new roman 12”

Languages: french, creole, english

Deadline:  FEBRUARY 20, 2012

Number of words:  Maximum 800 to 1000 for a text in prose / 500 for a poem

Biography: Maximum 50 to 75 words

Please send text to both: multiculturpress@aol.com and maratou7@aol.com

In solidarity,

Editing Committee

Florence Bellande-Robertson

Edwidge Danticat

Evelyne Ducheine-Cartright

Claudine Michel

Marlène Racine-Toussaint

About Enizagam

OSA Enizagam seeks to fill the existing void in nationally respected secondary-student-run literary publications. The journal’s editorial mission is to promote the literary arts by introducing high-caliber fiction and poetry to traditional and emerging readerships. Its content is comprised of submissions from writers living in the U.S. and beyond, as well as the winning and finalist entries of an annual contest: the OSA Enizagam Literary Awards in Poetry and Fiction.

 

Contest 2012

Enizagam is pleased to announce our Enizagam 2012 Literary Awards in Poetry and Fiction judges: Lemony Snicket, AKA Daniel Handler, and Nikki Giovanni.

Daniel Handler (2012 Ficton judge) is the author of the bestselling A Series of Unfortunate Events (under the pen name of Lemony Snicket), a collection of books for children, and three books for adults: Basic Eight (based on a true story of a teenaged girl who commits murder), Watch Your Mouth (a melodramatic satire of family life), and Adverbs. His recent work as Lemony Snicket includes 13 Words, a collaboration with Maira Kalman.

Nikki Giovanni (2012 Poetry judge) graduated with honors from Fisk University, her grandfather’s alma mater, in 1968; after graduating from Fisk, she attended the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. She published her first book of poetry, Black Feeling Black Talk, in 1968, and within the next year published a second book, thus launching her career as a writer. Early in her career she was dubbed the “Princess of Black Poetry,” and over the course of more than three decades of publishing and lecturing she has come to be called both a “National Treasure” and, most recently, one of Oprah Winfrey’s twenty-five “Living Legends.”

In addition to getting your work “blurbed” by these luminary authors, the 2012 Eniz awards offer two $500 prizes, and the chance to have a reading of your work broadcast online.

Check out our contest guidelines here: http://oakarts.submishmash.com/Submit. Can’t wait to read this year’s submissions!

 

Blurbs about your writing by luminary authors, two prizes of $1,000 and publication are awarded annually for a short story and a group of poems. OSA Enizagam seeks to fill the existing void in nationally respected secondary-student-run literary publications. The journal's editorial mission is to promote the literary arts by introducing high-caliber fiction and poetry to traditional and emerging readerships.

Submit 3-5 poems totaling no more than 10 pages, or a short story up to 6,000 words, online with $20 entry fee by March 15. Cover page must include name, address, phone, email, brief bio. No names elsewhere. Multiple/simultaneous submissions accepted. Add acknowledgments for previously published work. Notify EnizAwards@oakarts.org if an entry is accepted elsewhere. All finalists considered for publication. Reading of the winning pieces broadcast online. Work may be in any literary style as long as it hooks the reader by the eyes and does not let go.

OSA Enizagam website: http://enizagam.org

Judges:

Lemony Snicket, AKA Daniel Handler (2012 Ficton judge) is the author of the bestselling A Series of Unfortunate Events, a collection of books for children, and three books for adults: Basic Eight (based on a true story of a teenaged girl who commits murder), Watch Your Mouth (a melodramatic satire of family life), and Adverbs. His recent work as Lemony Snicket includes 13 Words, a collaboration with Maira Kalman.

Nikki Giovanni (2012 Poetry judge) graduated with honors from Fisk University, her grandfather’s alma mater, in 1968; after graduating from Fisk, she attended the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. She published her first book of poetry, Black Feeling Black Talk, in 1968, and within the next year published a second book, thus launching her career as a writer. Early in her career she was dubbed the “Princess of Black Poetry,” and over the course of more than three decades of publishing and lecturing she has come to be called both a “National Treasure” and, most recently, one of Oprah Winfrey’s twenty-five “Living Legends.”

Home

View Your Submissions

Fiction - $20.00

(pdf, doc, docx)

Size limit: 6,000

Fiction submissions should consist of one short story up to 6,000 words long. Entries may be in any literary style, and address any subject, as long as they hook the reader by the eyes and do not let go. We do not publish novel excerpts.

SUBMIT

Poetry - $20.00

(pdf, doc, docx)

Size limit: 10 Pages

Poetry submissions may be up to ten pages long, with no more than one poem per page. Entries may be in any poetic form (including free verse), and address any subject, as long as they hook the reader by the eyes and do not let go.

SUBMIT

There are no happy writers:

Novelist Jamaica Kincaid

Published: Tuesday, Jan 24, 2012

By Geetanjali Jhala | Place: Jaipur | Agency: DNA

Antigua-born writer Jamaica Kincaid had an abusive childhood and was taken out of school so her three younger brothers could be educated. She was sent to the US to become an au pair. Instead, she changed her name from Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson to Jamaica Kincaid so that no one would recognise her, and became a contributor to the New Yorker. “I came from a place where there were no writers and I didn’t want to be a writer as I had known writers, so I started with my autobiography,” she says. In an interview with DNA, the unassuming, melancholic writer says that while her roots in Antigua influence her work, she’s all-American now. Excerpts from an interview:

Considering the abuse you faced in your childhood, how important is conflict in the life of a writer?
I don’t know what’s important. I think each individual must have something that’s important to them. Perhaps the absence of conflict makes one a writer. Perhaps if I hadn’t had conflict in my life, I might have been a better writer, I don’t know. But my childhood in Antigua has influenced my work.

Do you regret never having had a formal education?
If I had had a formal education, I wouldn’t have been a writer at all. I might have become a scholar. If I had a proper training, a doctorate, say, I wouldn’t have become an artist.

Have you come to terms with the abuse you faced as a child and all the opportunities you were denied?
No. I still think, naturally, that I would want to be a scholar. But I love my life. I don’t have any problems with it. I don’t want to be anything else because I am what I am. But I still wish I had gone to college and sat around and studied Shakespeare and written some little thing about Shakespeare that no one would read. I love scholars. I think it’s the most wonderful thing — to be someone who studies a text and writes obscure things about it.

Do you consider yourself a pessimist or a realist?
I think I consider myself a pessimist. Which isn’t to say that I give up, but I think ‘Oh, it won’t work out’, but then I do it anyway. I don’t know if that’s a pessimist, but I feel I am a pessimist. It doesn’t stop me, but I am a pessimist. I didn’t think I would have success as a writer, but it didn’t stop me.

Does being pessimistic help you as a writer? How important is it to be happy?
I don’t know that there are any happy writers. But I don’t know that there is any happy person either. A happy person, to me, would seem to have the unique ability to shut out unpleasantness of life. I think happiness is something you run into from time to time. That’s why people take drugs and such. Happiness is not a natural state. If it were a natural state, there would be no word for it. You’d just sort of bump into it in the dark.

You said that you start writing stories knowing how they will end and that life is like that. When you moved to America, did you know how your story would end?
No. I thought I would be a miserable person for the rest of my life. I was very miserable when I first got to America because I was sent away from my home, my family. I was all alone. I didn’t know it would be possible to have the life I have, which is a relatively good life.

What do you like doing more? Writing or gardening?
I love reading more than I like writing. Most of all I love to read, and when I’ve satisfied my reading impulse, then I write. Writing is the second thing that I like to do best. Gardening is a form of reading. So is actually cooking.

What would you be if you weren’t a writer?
Probably someone who’s mad, standing in the corner of the street hectoring passersby to do the right thing. I’d probably be a mad prophet that nobody listens to.