What Does It Mean

to Be Human?

by Maria Popova

Primates, philosophers, and how subjectivity ensures the absolute truth of our existence.

What does it mean to be human? Centuries worth of scientific thought, artistic tradition and spiritual practice have attempted to answer this most fundamental question about our existence. And yet the diversity of views and opinions is so grand it has made that answer remarkably elusive. While we don’t necessarily believe such an “answer” — singular and conclusive by definition — even exists, today we make an effort to understand the wholeness of a human being without compartmentalizing humanity into siloed views of the brain, emotion, morality and so forth. So we look at this complex issue from three separate angles — evolutionary biology, philosophy and neuroscience — hoping weave together a somewhat more holistic understanding of the whole.

THE LEAKEY FOUNDATION ON HUMANNESS

From The Leakey Foundation, which aims to increase scientific knowledge and public understanding of human origins, evolution, behavior, and survival, comes What Makes Us Human? — a multifaceted exploration of who we are as a species and how we came to be that way. Barely 8 minutes long, the film features an astounding all-star cast of scientists — Jane Goodall, Robert Sapolsky, Richard Wrangham, Steven Pinker, Eugenie Scott and more — and tackles a number of complex,

There is a lot more biology to our behavior than we used to think.” ~ Richard Wrangham

Though the film is essentially an ad for The Leakey Foundation, that’s more than okay given that over the past half-century, the foundation has stepped up to the government’s consistent failure to properly fund scientific research and practically launched the careers of some of the greatest scientists of our time — Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas, Don Johanson, Richard Wrangham, Daniel Lieberman, and even Jane Goodall herself.

via

DAN DENNETT ON CONSCIOUSNESS

Dan Dennett is one of today’s most prominent and prolific philosophers. In this excellent 2003 TED talk, he exposes the flawed and often downright misleading way in which we (mis)understand our consciousness, perpetuated by the many tricks our brains play on us.

It’s very hard to change people’s minds about something like consciousness, and I finally figured out the reason for that. The reason for that is that everybody’s an expert on consciousness.” ~ Dan Dennett

For more of Dennett’s illuminating insight, take a look at The Crucible of Consciousness: An Integrated Theory of Mind and Brain, which builds on Dennett’s iconic — and must-read — 1992 book, Consciousness Explained.

ANTONIO DAMASIO ON CONSCIOUSNESS

Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio is among the world’s leading researchers on the neurobiology of mind and behavior, focusing more specifically on emotion, memory, decision-making, communication and creativity. In this compelling BigThink interview, Damasio gives a basic definition of “consciousness”

Consciousness is the special quality of mind, the special features that exist in your mind, that permit us to know, for example, that we ourselves exist and that things exist around us. And that is something more than just your mind. Mind allows us to portray in different sensory modalities — visual, auditory, olfactory, you name it — what we are like and what the world is like, but this very, very important quality of subjectivity is the quality that allows us to take a distant view and say, ‘I am.’” ~ Antonio Damasio

Damasio’s new book, Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain, comes out in November but is already available for pre-order — which we highly recommend, since it’s an absolute must-read.

Juan Gonzalez Studies

Race & American Media

By Dianna Dilworth on October 21, 2011 

GO HERE TO VIEW VIDEO REPORT

Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez and Free Press’ Joseph Torres have a new book out called News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media. The book theorizes about the history of racism in media through an examination of national records.

In the above Democracy Now broadcast, Amy Goodman interviews the two authors. Gonzalez explained: “The media system has never been a free market system per say, the government has played critical roles throughout the history of the development of news and information in the United States in adopting policies that affected how our system developed. The government subsidized many of the technologies that eventually developed whether it was the telegraph, satellite broadcasting, the original research into the Internet. So taxpayers funded a lot of the research and development that created our different media platforms.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

via mediabistro.com

Dwight Tribble

everything has changed

26 Aug 2010 at 11:00

reineke

Support Wadada Leo Smith | Quasimode | Dwight Trible | Build An Ark

SAUL WILLIAMS

- List Of Demands (Reparations)

Third Annual Short Fiction Contest

 

Contest Judge Dorothy Allison

 

We are pleased to announce the Saints and Sinners GLBT Literary Festival’s Third Annual Short Fiction Contest. SAS Fest is seeking original, unpublished short stories between 5,000 and 7,000 words with GLBT content on the broad theme of “Saints and Sinners.”

Judge: Dorothy Allison. The author of Bastard Out of Carolina and Cavedweller, Allison will select the winning stories.

Prize: One grand prize of $250 and two second place prizes of $50 will be awarded. In addition, the top stories will be published in an anthology from QueerMojo, an imprint of Rebel Satori Press. There will also be a book release party to promote the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans May, 2012.

 

Have a question about one of our writing contests? Please send questions to: contests@tennesseewilliams.net.

Eligibility:

• The contest is open to authors at all stages of their careers and to stories in all genres.
• Only previously unpublished stories will be accepted.
• Stories that won this contest in previous years are ineligible; their authors remain eligible but must submit new work.
• Stories submitted to this contest in previous years that did not place are eligible.
• Stories that have won any other writing contest are ineligible.

Guidelines:

• Submissions should be in standard manuscript format (double-spaced, one inch margins, 12 point font). Please include a word count on first page under the title.
• Your name and contact information should NOT appear on the manuscript.
• No bios or resumes. We only consider manuscript quality.
• Word Count: 5,000 to 7,000
• Submit only original, unpublished short stories.
• Theme (interpret as you wish): Saints and Sinners

Entry fee: $15 per story. There is no limit on the number of stories each author may enter.

Deadline: December 1, 2011 (postmark)

To enter by mail: download the entry form and send 2 copies of each story with a completed entry form and your $15 entry fee to

Saints and Sinners Short Fiction Contest
938 Lafayette Street, Suite 514
New Orleans, LA 70113

To enter online: Click the button below to pay online and upload your script. One script per transaction please. To enter more than one script, please complete the online entry process for each entry.

 

Fiction Contest Online

Submission Step 1: Entry Fee

 

To begin the Fiction Contest submission process by paying your $15 entry fee, click the button below. Once you’ve paid your entry fee, you’ll be taken to the Entry Submission form to provide additional information and upload your contest entry.

Read the contest eligibility rules and guidelines above BEFORE you begin the online submission process. Submission fees are non-refundable.

Peepal Tree Press is pleased to announce that a two-day conference, Narrating the Caribbean Nation: A Celebration of Literature and Orature, will be held on 13-15th April 2012 at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. The conference will celebrate the Silver Anniversary of Peepal Tree Press and highlight the contribution of its own authors and other Caribbean and Black British writers to contemporary world literature.  

 

We are also delighted that Kwame Dawes has confirmed his participation as a keynote speaker. Widely recognised as one of the Caribbean's leading writers, Kwame is also Chancellor's Professor of English at the University of Nebraska, and Associate Poetry Editor at Peepal Tree Press.  

 

The conference aims to bring together writers, academics, students, teachers and people with an interest in Caribbean literature to discuss the rich body of both Caribbean and Black British writing and to explore the relationship between the two. Our investigation into the 'narration of nation' centres around a definition of the Caribbean nation as one rooted in a rich, unique and plural community which transcends physical borders and extends across the Caribbean and the Caribbean Diaspora.   

 

We will examine culture, politics, identities, childhood, performance and many other topics in the context of the Caribbean and its diasporas and discuss how the past 25 years of Caribbean writing connects to, and builds on, classic texts of Caribbean literature. Moreover, the conference will offer opportunities to hear the ideas of new and established writers and to watch them perform. 

The conference will juxtapose academic papers with less formal presentations from activists and practitioners in the field in order to raise the profile of writers of Caribbean heritage. Over the course of the conference, Leeds-based Peepal Tree Press, which has been the home of the best in Caribbean, Black British and South Asian literature for 25 years, will showcase new and classic works in print and in performance by its authors from around the world. 

 

Possible paper topics may include but are not limited to:

 

 

• Caribbean identities·       
• Diasporic Caribbean identities·       
• Resistance, politics, racism·       
• Publishing writing from the Caribbean and its diaspora·       
• Gender and sexuality·       
• Indo-Caribbean literature        
• Classic Caribbean texts·       
• Discovering new Caribbean writers·        
• Oral narratives and storytelling·       
• Auto/biography, memoir, life writing·       
• Caribbean texts in translation·       
• Caribbean women writers·       
• Caribbean poetry·       
• Teaching Caribbean writing·        
• Caribbean short story       
• Intersections between Caribbean literature, orature, and visual arts·       
• Writing for children
• Sport and pastimes in the Caribbean and its diaspora 

 

 

Please send abstracts of 200 words and brief biodata

(via Word attachment) to Claire Chambers, Emily Marshall, and Emma Smith on  narratingnation@gmail.com 

with 'Abstract' in the subject line by 23 December 2011.

We also welcome poster presentations (for examples  http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/presentations_poster.html)  Further details about the conference are available on   http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/2458986896  

Or contact Kadija George:  narratingnation@gmail.com

 

Selected papers will be published in a journal special issue and/or an edited collection. 

 

Convenors:  

Kadija George, Inscribe/Peepal Tree Press       

Dorothea Smartt, Inscribe/Peepal Tree Press 

Emma Smith, Peepal Tree Press 
Kevin Hylton, Leeds Metropolitan University
Claire Chambers, Leeds Metropolitan University
Emily Marshall, Leeds Metropolitan University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers

The Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers™ has been established by novelist Marita Golden to honor excellence in fiction writing by students of African descent enrolled full time as an undergraduate or graduate student in any college or university in the United States.

The winners will be announced in April for the writers of the best previously unpublishedshort story or novel excerpt.

Eligibility: At the time of submission, applicants must be enrolled in a college or university full time as an undergraduate or graduate student. Writers who have published a book in any genre are ineligible. Winners will be selected from the best previouslyunpublished short story or novel excerpt.

How to Apply:

• Email your double-spaced manuscript, of no more than 15 pages (of a novel) or 20 – 25 pages (of a short story) typed in a 12pt. font, along with a cover page to info@hurstonwright.org. Cover page should include: 
                 ◦ Your first and last name 
                 ◦ Address 
                 ◦ Phone Number (day and evening) 
                 ◦ Email Address 
                 ◦ Indicate whether you are submitting a Novel Excerpt or Short Story 

• Do not include your name on any of the manuscript pages. 
• Only one story may be submitted per applicant. 
• Submissions must be received by January 13, 2012. 
• Include with your submission a $10 nonrefundable submission fee. 

 

 

Deadline:

Submissions must be received between November 7, 2011 and January 13, 2012. The nominated winner and finalists will be required to provide a verification of college enrollment and a photo. Previous winners are not eligible.

Maya Angelou:

'I make no apologies

for writing a cookbook'

Cooking is a natural extension to my autobiography. Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication

• 
• • Maya Angelou was talking to John Crace
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 November 2011 

Maya Angelou, whose new cookbook includes recipes passed from generation to generation. Photograph: Brian Lanker/Little Brown

I used to describe myself as a cook, a driver, and a writer. Now I am 81, I no longer drive, but I still write and I still cook. And as I have been feeding other people nearly all my life, I have come to develop some philosophies about cooking.

Firstly, many people eat long after they are filled. I think they are searching in their plates for a taste that seems to elude them. If a person's taste buds are really calling for a prime rib of beef or a crispy brown pork chop, stewed chicken will not satisfy. So they will have another piece of chicken and another piece of bread and some more potatoes, searching in vain for the flavour that is missing.

A year or so ago I noticed I had lost 23kg (3st 8lb) without even really trying; I hadn't been denying myself, just taking the time to use good ingredients and cooking proper meals. Without going out of my way to cut down on fats and sugar, I discovered that by making my food more savoury, I automatically found I was eating less: a smaller portion of something tasty left me feeling fuller for longer.

So I decided, for my second cookbook, to put together a collection of savoury meals that were as good to eat at 8.30am as they were at 8.30pm. And yes, you can have fried rice for breakfast.

I know some people might think it odd – unworthy even – for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The US poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people's poet so I write for the people. Not long ago, a woman thanked me in a shopping mall. She said she hadn't spoken to her daughter in five years and it had been one of my cards that had helped to reconcile them. If something I write brings people together, then it has served its purpose.

Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication. Indeed, I feel cooking is a natural extension to my autobiography. In fiction, the story can be moulded to the author's needs but in autobiography you have to tell the truth. The reader has to believe what the writer is saying or else the book has failed. The same applies to cooking; if there is no integrity to the recipes, no one will trust them.

For me, food has always been about association. In my previous cookery book, Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, I chose recipes that had punctuated some of the key events in my life, such as the cassoulet I cooked for the food writer MFK Fisher on the day she moved to California, and the caramel cake my mother made me on the day I was expelled from school for not being able to talk [Angelou was mute for almost five years after being raped]. In this new book, I continue these associations, choosing both recipes I have acquired and refined over time or that have been passed down from generation to generation.

It was my mother who taught me to cook and she had this dream we would one day write a cook book together, with me creating the first course and her using what was left in such a way that no one would recognise the next course had been created from leftovers. I like to think my recipes for the creamy hash and the tacos created from leftovers of the crown roast of pork might have won her approval had we ever got round to writing that book.

We all have favourite foods. I love the sweet and sour of lemon chicken and lemon pies; my grandchildren always want smothered chicken [a classic soulfood dish] – though I have always suspected that it's the gravy they really like; and my son, Guy, can never get enough curry.

So, don't be afraid of adapting recipes to suit your own tastes. If you want to add something, do so. I don't pretend to be a professional chef (although I will be doing a television series in the US, Talking and Tasting with Maya Angelou). I'm just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression. My cookbooks are just collections of the recipes that work for me. I'd far rather you adapted them to your own tastes than left them as words on a page.

• Great Food, All Day Long by Maya Angelou is published by Virago, price £14.99. To order a copy for £11.99 with free UK p&p, go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846

Haute Batik:

Inspired by West Africa,

sold by

a little Dutch company

It's a bit like discovering a British Afrobeat group so good at making afrobeat that they can hold their own at the New Afrika Shrine. The Dutch company Vlisco goes one better: not only do it make batik material good enough to be sold in Nigeria (and in Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast, DR Congo, and, of course, the Netherlands, it apparently makes the best to be found anywhere. And it's been doing so since 1846.

If you've been anywhere in West Africa you will have seen batik; it is the most ubiquitous clothing material around: inexpensive, comes in a variety of patterns, worn by practically everyone, especially women (wrappers, blouses, dresses, etc.).

The patterns are created by a wax-resist dying technique, an ancient art form that, in Africa, was originally practiced by the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria and the Soninke and Wolofs in Senegal.

Typically, though, the most inexpensive and most readily available examples are richly patterned on one side (that is, on the side that others see when you wear something made from batik) but "faded" on the inside. But this Dutch company's batik is truly double-sided, which is why theirs is aimed at well-to-do African women. More power to them.

A new Vlisco fashion and accessories collection is launched every quarter in the four Vlisco Boutiques in Africa. The clips here are the ads for their last two collections, the most recent being the one on top.

Pretty cool, eh?