VIDEO: Robots of Brixton: A Fictional Future Inspired By The Past — Shocklee Entertainment Universe

Robots of Brixton:

A Fictional Future

Inspired By The Past

Check out this brilliant short animated film by director Kibwe Tavares and the Factory Fifteen creative studio. This one’s got hints of films like I, Robot and Dark City meets Avatar but in Brixton, South London’s district famous for its inner city culture and the infamous 1981 riot that took place there, photos of which were artistically woven into the film.

Brixton has degenerated into a disregarded area inhabited by London’s new robot workforce – robots built and designed to carry out all of the tasks which humans are no longer inclined to do. The mechanical population of Brixton has rocketed, resulting in unplanned, cheap and quick additions to the skyline.

The film follows the trials and tribulations of young robots surviving at the sharp end of inner city life, living the predictable existence of a populous hemmed in by poverty, disillusionment and mass unemployment. When the Police invade the one space which the robots can call their own, the fierce and strained relationship between the two sides explodes into an outbreak of violence echoing that of 1981.

 

 

 

 

PUB: Free contest, Delhi London Poetry Foundation's International Poetry Competition, top prize: €1000 (worldwide) > Write Jobs

Free contest, Delhi London Poetry Foundation's International Poetry Competition, top prize: €1000 (worldwide)

Deadline: 21 August 2011

The Delhi London Poetry Foundation and Theatre of Devas pleased to announce an international poetry competition in English on the following topics.

1. Just War?
2. Just Evangelisation?

The prizes will be € 1000 for the winner and € 500 for the runner up and €100 consolation prizes in EACH category.

The rules of the competition are as follows:

• Open to all
• No more than 16 lines
• Only in English
• Poems to be sent by email only to theatreinternational2011@yahoo.com
• Winning poems will take the connotation of the above subjects including the question marks
• Winning poems will be based on sympathies of the poets to the views of the majority of the people in the non western world as expressed in the website www.siddhivinayaksavesmumbai.com with subjects of recent plays and poems.
• All winning poems and consolation prize winners will be published in an anthology of new poems on the above subjects to be released in December 2011

Entry fee : FREE

Contact Information:

For inquiries: theatreinternational2011@yahoo.com

For submissions: theatreinternational2011@yahoo.com

Website: http://www.siddhivinayaksavesmumbai.com/


 

PUB: Call for Submissions: Edited Collection on Contemporary African American Satire in all Media > Writers Afrika

Call for Submissions:

Edited Collection on Contemporary African American Satire in all Media

Deadline: 1 January 2012

Proposals for essays should be between 750 and 1000 words and should articulate a clear critical question in relation to a set of primary and secondary texts. It is the editors’ view (in accordance with the view of most academic presses) that a successful edited collection needs a clear and compelling organizing narrative and, thus, successful proposals will articulate clearly which critical narratives are at work within their rhetorical structures and why. Completed proposals are due on January 1, 2012 and can be sent to either Derek C. Maus (mausdc@potsdam.edu) or James J. Donahue (donahujj@potsdam.edu) or mailed in hard-copy to Derek Maus, 244 Morey Hall, State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam, NY, 13676. We welcome any inquiries or questions about the volume prior to this submission date as well. Submitters will be notified about the status of their essays by February 1, 2012 and final essays of 4500-6000 words will be due on June 1, 2012 with a projected publication date some time in 2013. We have received strong initial interest in this volume from a major academic press and have every reason to believe it will be accepted for publication along to this timeline.

Possible topics (others are welcomed)

* Dawolu Jabari Anderson (visual artist; The Birth of a Nation: Yo! Bumrush the Show)
* Damali Ayo (conceptual artist and writer; rent-a-negro.com; Obaminstan!: Land Without Racism)
* Kevin Avery (“Siskel and Negro”; Thugs: the Musical)
* Paul Beatty (novelist; The White Boy Shuffle; Slumberland; Tuff; etc.)
* W. Kamau Bell (The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour; Face Full of Flour; Laughter Against the Machine)
* Black Dynamite (film)
* Dave Chappelle (Chappelle’s Show; stand-up comedy)
* Chocolate News (short-lived African American-themed satirical news-show on Comedy Central hosted by David Alan Grier)
* Rusty Cundieff (Fear of a Black Hat; Tales from the Hood; etc.)
* Ego Trip (magazine and website)
* Trey Ellis (novelist, screenwriter; Platitudes; Home Repairs; Right Here, Right Now)
* Patrice Evans (Negropedia: The Assimilated Negro's Crash Course on the Modern Black Experience; “The Assimilated Negro” blog)
* Percival Everett (novelist; A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond, as told to Percival Everett & James Kincaid; Erasure; I Am Not Sidney Poitier; etc.)
* Donald Glover (stand-up comedy; Community; "Childish Gambino" hip=hop performances)
* David Hammons (visual and conceptual artist; "African American Flag")
* D. L. Hughley (stand-up comedy; D.L. Hughley Breaks the News [CNN show])
* Darius James (Negrophobia: An Urban Parable)
* Charles Johnson (novelist; Oxherding Tale; Middle Passage; etc.)
* Mat Johnson (novelist; Pym; Hunting in Harlem)
* Keith Knight (cartoonist of The K Chronicles and (Th)ink)
* Spike Lee (filmmaker; School Daze; Bamboozled)
* Aaron McGruder (Boondocks comic strip and television show)
* Paul Mooney (stand-up comedy; television)
* Tracy Morgan (stand-up comedy; Saturday Night Live; 30 Rock)
* Z.Z. Packer (short-story writer; novelist; Drinking Coffee Elsewhere)
* Ishmael Reed (novelist; The Terrible Twos; The Terrible Threes; Japanese By Spring; Juice!)
* Chris Rock (Saturday Night Live; The Chris Rock Show; stand-up comedy)
* Wanda Sykes (stand-up comedy; various television shows)
* Baratunde Thurston (writer and editor for The Onion; Better Than Crying: Poking Fun at Politics, the Press & Pop Culture; How to Be Black)
* Touré (novelist, short-story writer; journalist; Soul City; The Portable Promised Land)
* Robert Townsend (Hollywood Shuffle)
* Keenen Ivory Wayans and other Wayans family members (In Living Color; I’m Gonna Get You Sucka; White Chicks; etc.)
* Colson Whitehead (novelist; The Intuitionist; John Henry Days; Apex Hides the Hurt; etc.)
* George C. Wolfe (The Colored Museum)

Patrice Evans, who blogs under the moniker “The Assimilated Negro,” published an online essay on the ebonyjet.com website late in 2007 that lamented the seeming lack of satire in mainstream black culture:

[W]hy does it seem like black people are missing the boat -- treating the SS Satire like a slave ship? Sometimes it feels we only get the joke if it's the lowest common denominator, otherwise we have to put on our suits and let Oprah or Tyler Perry hold our hands and make sure there's a heavy Maya Angelou level of respect.[…] Where are the black branded satirists? Maybe we don't get it. Maybe we don't care to get it. Are there no satirists because of the lack of demand? It can't be for lack of opportunity. Every week we get a new race-event begging for lampooning: Watson, Jena 6, OJ, Imus, Michael Richards, Vick .... all present unique opportunities to make a joke that might mean a little more to someone with melanin.

Evans goes on to engage in some “speculative armchair psychology” and wonder openly if what he calls the “critical”, “literary”, and “detached” elements of satire are not barriers to African Americans’ participation in this mode of cultural commentary. Not surprisingly, Evans’s article garnered numerous online responses, both in its original form and in numerous repostings around the Internet. We seek to assemble a collection of scholarly essays about satire in contemporary African American culture in order to develop that response in both depth and breadth, examining both the premises that undergird Evans’s original claims and a range of African American satirists working in a variety of media over the past thirty years.
Our volume seeks to build on the solid foundation laid by Darryl Dickson-Carr’s African American Satire (Univ. of Missouri Press, 2001) and the contributors to Dana Williams’s collection African American Humor, Irony and Satire (Cambridge Scholars, 2007). To that end we seek essays that critically examine African American satirical works since 1980, with an eye towards synthesizing a nuanced picture not only of the variety of forms in which African American satire appears but also of the larger media environment in which it participates. We invite close readings of individual satirists (a list of potential topics is appended below, but we welcome essays on other artists, especially women, from all media) as well as overarching meta-critical and theoretical discussions of themes, (sub)genres, or other aspects of the satirical mode as it relates to contemporary African American culture. We also would welcome essays that examine the use of satire by artists and within works not usually associated with the mode (e.g., Dickson-Carr’s discussion of Toni Morrison’s Jazz in his book) and wish to emphasize that our definition of satire is not limited solely to comedic or satiric-parodic works.

Proposals for essays should be between 750 and 1000 words and should articulate a clear critical question in relation to a set of primary and secondary texts. It is the editors’ view (in accordance with the view of most academic presses) that a successful edited collection needs a clear and compelling organizing narrative and, thus, successful proposals will articulate clearly which critical narratives are at work within their rhetorical structures and why. Completed proposals are due on January 1, 2012 and can be sent to either Derek C. Maus (mausdc@potsdam.edu) or James J. Donahue (donahujj@potsdam.edu) or mailed in hard-copy to Derek Maus, 244 Morey Hall, State University of New York at Potsdam, Potsdam, NY, 13676. We welcome any inquiries or questions about the volume prior to this submission date as well. Submitters will be notified about the status of their essays by February 1, 2012 and final essays of 4500-6000 words will be due on June 1, 2012 with a projected publication date some time in 2013. We have received strong initial interest in this volume from a major academic press and have every reason to believe it will be accepted for publication along to this timeline.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: mausdc@potsdam.edu or donahujj@potsdam.edu

For submissions: mausdc@potsdam.edu or donahujj@potsdam.edu

 

 

PUB: Paying market, Thin Threads: Pets & Companions, pays $100 per story > Write Jobs

Paying market, Thin Threads:

Pets & Companions, pays $100 per story

Deadline: 30 July 2011

Kiwi Publishing is looking for true, inspirational stories of 1200 words or less that will make readers laugh, cry, or sigh. Stories should be positive, universal, and non-controversial. The "point" or "message" should be evident without preaching. No essays, commentaries, tributes, philosophical or biographical pieces will be accepted. We are currently collecting stories in the following category, with the following submission deadline:

Thin Threads of Pets & Companions - July 30th, 2011

Each story must:

1. Be real, nonfiction
2. Capture the essence of a thin thread event
3. Evoke an emotion from the reader

You may submit more than one story for any of our upcoming titles. Please select stories from your own experiences, or from someone in your life.

Should your story be selected and be included in one of the Thin Thread book series, a permission fee of $100 will be paid to you. To submit your story, click here.

If your story is selected for publication, you will be required to sign a submission release form. Click here to review the terms of that form before you submit your story. If you are unable to email, please send a hard copy (and on disk if possible) to: Thin Threads c/o of Kiwi Publishing P.O. Box 3852 Woodbridge, CT 06525.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: info@thinthreads.com

For submissions: submit online here

Website: http://www.thinthreads.com/

 

 

VIDEO: South Africa: Writing and the Rising Black Middle Class > "A BOMBASTIC ELEMENT"

South Africa:

Writing and the

Rising Black Middle Class

 


Reviewing the new anthology African Pens 2011: New Writing from Southern Africa, with stories selected by JM Coetzee, literary critic Chetty Kavish  asks over at Mahala how an anthology of new Southern African writing does not include writing from a single black Southern African author. Chetty offers an hypothesis:
... Black embourgeoisement [in South Africa] is a (relatively, as ever) recent phenomenon. Hence, the amount of black students who find themselves coming from families which genuinely place cultural capital and value on metaphysics, romantic poetry, Oedipus Rex and/or psychoanalysis is likely to be slim. I’m not suggesting that there is some definable lifeline pumping from the study of the arts into the production of writers, but the interdependency between the two is possibly something worth exploring. I’m sure there is some other naked theorising here to account for this fact, and if yours grips you in the right place, slather it all over the comment threads.

But in the judgment of art, there are two poles: the producers and the assessors. Sleuthing around the back of this book with an agenda in mind, I discover that there isn’t a black dude or dudette on the editorial board or reading panel either. I’m trying my best not to sledgehammer race into what is simply a curiosity of the way classes emerge and consolidate in a fairly fresh democracy – but I think we have a puzzle on our hands here. Is it possible to compile a volume called African Pens without (strictly speaking) an African anywhere in the process? (more)

Perhaps the question ought to be: when will the the blood in the lifeline become thoroughly thickened with the blood of Southern Africa's rising black middle class and privilege?

Speaking of new black Southern African writing,  below is a panel from Mail & Guardian 2010 Literary Festival led by Wits university Leon de Kock which includes South African authors Thando Mgqolozana and Zukiswa Wanner: 


 

 

 

 

INFO: 10 Young African Writers You Should Know > Flavorwire

10 Young African Writers

You Should Know

12:30 pm Monday Jul 11, 2011 by Kathleen Massara

 

The winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing will be announced today, and one writer from a list of five worthy candidates will be recognized by a committee of judges (led by Hisham Matar) as the most promising young English-language short story writer on the continent. In preparation for the announcement, we’ve created a list of 10 contemporary African novelists who you should be aware of, since they’re all doing great things right now. While we realize that it’s a ridiculous endeavor to attempt to list ten authors from the 54 countries and disputed territories that make up current day Africa, we also like to be a little ridiculous sometimes, so bear with us as we recognize a group of young authors who are deserving of your attention. As always, suggestions from you are much appreciated in the comments.

 

Olufemi Terry

Terry was born in Sierra Leone but has lived in a number of countries since then; he currently resides in Germany. He was last year’s Caine Prize winner and his short stories have been featured in Guernica and New Contrast, among others. He’s currently at work on his debut novel.


*****

 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie


Photo credit: The New York Times

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria but left to study in the United States. The New Yorkernamed her one of their “20 Under 40″ novelists last summer, and her short story,”Birdsong,” was featured in the September 20, 2010 issue. Her collection of short stories is The Thing around Your Neck, though she has also written two novels: Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun.

 

*****

Ahmed Alaidy

Alaidy is a poet and the author of Being Abbas el Abd, a novel which distilled the anger and frustrations of young Egyptians into something tangible, years before the revolution. It’s a book about insanity, but it’s also about a young misanthrope who is dealing with life in the Middle East after the Israeli victory in 1967. As he says in the novel, he’s a member of the “I’ve-got-nothing-to-lose-generation.” Post-revolution, we’re curious as to what Alaidy will do next.


*****

NoViolet Bulawayo

Bulawayo, née Elizabeth Zandile Tshele, is a Zimbabwean writer who is on this year’s shortlist for the Caine Prize. [She won! See > LITERATURE: The Caine Prize http://post.ly/2ccRe] She’s currently enrolled in the MFA program at Cornell, and is working on her first novel. We featured her story, “Hitting Budapest,” in our favorite short stories post in May. 

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*****

Aminatta Forna

Forna grew up in Sierra Leone, though she was born in Glasgow and spent a good chunk of her life in the UK.  She won the Commonwealth Prize this year for her second novel, The Memory of Love, and was short-listed for the Orange Prize this year as well. Her memoir about her dissident father, The Devil that Danced on the Water, investigates the troubled history of Sierra Leone as it becomes a dictatorship in the years following independence, with Siaka Stevens at the helm.

 

*****

E.C. Osondu

Osondu won the 2009 Caine Prize and his debut story collection, Voice of America, centers on contemporary life in Nigeria with an eye on a distant, mythical land of plenty — a land that provides t-shirts branded with funny slogans, a good education, numerous swimming pools, and the promise of a way out for those feeling trapped in Africa. This fall, Osondu will be the guest editor of Sentinel Literary Quarterly‘s “Identity” issue, which will include a previously unpublished story by the Nigerian-born author. (If you’d like to submit to the issue, there’s still time: the deadline is September 30th and details are here.)

*****

Leila Aboulela

Aboulela is a Sudanese writer and playwright who is now living in Qatar. Her latest novel, Lyrics Alley, details the life of a well-to-do family in northern Sudan in the 1950s. In an interview with The Guardian, she says, “The more writers tackle minority issues, the easier it becomes for others to join in because people are more informed.”

  

*****

Uwem Akpan

The author of Say You’re One of Them, an Oprah’s Book Club pick and winner of the Commonwealth Prize, is a Jesuit priest who was born and raised in Nigeria. In 2005, The New Yorker published his story about a family living on the streets of Nairobi; an interview with Akpan about “An Ex-Mas Feast” is available here. Three years later, The New Yorker published his story, “Communion,” and last year, they ran “Baptizing the Gun,” a story about a Catholic priest on a bus trip in Nigeria. 

*****

Chika Unigwe


Photo credit: The New York Times

We know that this is the third Nigerian author on the list, but can you really blame us? Unigwe’s first English novel, On Black Sisters Street, has been receiving rave reviews, and for good reason. In it, four African sex workers occupy a section of Antwerp’s red-light district called “Zwartezusterstraat,” or Black Sisters Street, and learn to use their bodies to survive in a country that offers rich food, nice clothes, and the ability to send money back home. And yet, even their survival instincts are not enough. Fernanda Eberstadt her The New York Times review writes about “the accumulated disappointments that can grind even the most determined soul into defeat.” It’s a harsh, funny novel, and it brings to light serious issues about immigration, sex, and money.

*****

Phaswane Mpe and Kabelo “Sello” Duiker

 

So this is actually a list of eleven authors. You caught us cheating, didn’t you? Well, this is only because we couldn’t decide between two writers who both had their careers cut short by tragedy.

Mpe was the brazen author of Welcome to Our Hillbrow, which is set the crime-ridden neighborhood in Johannesburg where he once lived. The New York Times writes, “Everything is there: the shattered dreams of youth, sexuality and its unpredictable costs, AIDS, xenophobia, suicide, the omnipotent violence that often cuts short the promise of young people’s lives, and the Africanist understanding of the life continuum that does not end with death but flows on into an ancestral realm.” Mpe died in December 2004, of an unknown illness that many believe was AIDS.

*****

7 Responses

gab • July 11th, 2011 at 4:43 pm

Great list but how come no Teju Cole?
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2011/02/28/110228crbo_books_wood

jeeash • July 11th, 2011 at 5:58 pm

That’s a good post but most of these writers are english speaking! As a french african, i’d like to add in your list good and still young african writers like KOSSI EFOUI, LEONORA MIANO or INSA SANE ! PEACE and keep on promoting african authors!

Julia • July 11th, 2011 at 7:33 pm

I loved Adichie’s TED talk

Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha • July 12th, 2011 at 10:31 am

You have named your list and am happy & celebrate them. They are great novelists. Writers and authors like Anyaele Sam Chiyson, Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha, Chinelo Benny Umunnakwe, Ogwo David Emenike, etc are ruling the world from Aba, Nigeria through their books, articles and writing.

Carti in .com/.co.uk (3-12 iulie) « Bookaholic • July 12th, 2011 at 11:16 am

[...] De urmarit: 10 tineri scriitori africani. [...]

Michael Achinulo • July 13th, 2011 at 4:33 am

These writers inspire Africa and the World. Their words are full of power and motivation. Anyaele sam chiyson, ifeanyi enoch onuoha, Ogwo David Emenike,Michael Achinulo,Sandra samuels .These are the voice of the people.

Flavorwire’s Prescient List of “Young African Writers You Should Know” | Books LIVE • July 22nd, 2011 at 4:33 am

[...] View the list at Flavorwire [...]

 

EVENT: Atlanta Black August Tribute - Moorbey's Blog

Friday, August 5 · 6:30pm – 9:30pm

Location
Alumni Hall, Georgia State Univ. & Auburn Ave Research Library
30 Courtland St. & 101 Auburn Ave.
Atlanta, Georgia

 
Created By
Iras Levi, Akinyele Umoja, Mshairi A Uwezo SiyandaShow all (5)

More Info
In the Spirit of Black August Resistance and the memory of Geronimo Ji Jaga. The Friends and Family of Mutulu Shakur present

A Mini-Conference on

Black/New Afrikan Political Prisoners

and Prisoners of War


Friday, August 5, 2011 6:30pm
Alumni Hall, Georgia State Univ.
30 Courtland Street, Atlanta, Ga. 30303 &

Saturday, August 6, 2011 1pm to 6 pm
Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History
101 Auburn Avenue, NE
Atlanta, GA 30303

Sponsors: Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, SOS Productions, US Human Rights Network, Sankofa Society, Georgia State University Department of African-American Studies

 

VIDEO: Watch Trailer for “Boys of Summer”: Now on VOD > Shadow and Act

Watch Trailer for

“Boys of Summer”:

Now on VOD

Tribeca and ESPN Films documentary Boys of Summer, directed by Keith Aumont, stars Vernon Isabella and the Curaçao All-Star Team. The documentary film won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2010 NY International Latino Film Festival last summer.

This film’s synopsis reads:

On a tiny Caribbean island of Curaçao, they take their Little League® Baseball very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that Manager Vernon Isabella has sent his Little League All-Stars to the Little League World Series for an unprecedented seven consecutive years. However, in the summer of 2008, the boys are faced with new challenges that could jeopardize their eighth chance at the championship. They must overcome injuries, team bickering and Puerto Rican Little League® players who’ve already matured – some have already started to grow mustaches – in order to do their team, manager, and nation proud.

 

The frustrated coaching staff tries everything to bring the team together, only to have the team finally unite to represent their country after a pep talk from Curaçao’s Prime Minister herself.

Though at its core, BOYS OF SUMMER is a film about baseball as a universally beloved pastime, the film is also about much more. It’s about children carrying the privilege and burden of a nation’s pride. It’s about athletes competing at the highest level and having the time of their lives. And it’s about the unexpected camaraderie that develops between these boys as they do what they love.

 

To watch now, go to the Tribeca Film Festival’s Boys of Summer website HERE and enter your zip code and cable provider to check for availability in your area. If not, click this link for AMAZON or VUDU to rent it online.

Check out the trailer.

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Boys of Summer - Trailer from BOYS of SUMMER on Vimeo.

 

VIDEO: Trailer For George Lucas’ Tuskegee Airmen Film “Red Tails” Arrives! > Shadow and Act

Trailer For George Lucas’

Tuskegee Airmen Film

“Red Tails” Arrives!

Well, whadaya know? Just mere minutes after my post announcing the official release date of the film, and that I’d be keeping an eye out for the trailer, which was set to debut this evening, the trailer drops on Yahoo Movies, and it’s embedded below.

The George Lucas-produced Tuskegee Airmen actioner, Red Tails, directed by Anthony Hemingway, written by John Ridley, with a cast that includes cast includes: Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Nate Parker, David Oyelowo, Tristan Wilds, Method Man, Lee Tergesen, Ne-Yo, Elijah Kelley, Andre Royo and Jesse Williams.

Terence Blanchard is scoring the film.

This morning, Movieline reported that Lucasfilm finally confirmed the film’s exact release date at January 20th 2012. So it’s an official date then!

Without further ado… here’s your first look at Red Tails:

 

VIDEO: Stromae

Stromae

 

Music Break / Stromae

July 25, 2011

by Tom Devriendt

 

Stromae seems determined to turn every song on his 2010 album Cheese into a hit. A video like the one above will no doubt help. I’ve always been surprised by articles digging for his ‘Rwandan roots’ (e.g. “in Africa, I am considered white”), for in Belgium we just know him as the dude from Alors on Danse (and its hilarious ‘making-of’ you must have seen by now).

 

__________________________

 


     
    Role model: Stromae

    Stromae: In Africa, I am considered white!

    Published on : 29 January 2011 - 12:35pm | By RNW Africa Desk (Photo montage: RNW)

    Stromae?
    That’s « verlan » for maestro. Verlan is slang from Paris, but we use it in Brussels too. You take a word and flip it. Maestro becomes Stromae. I find it a bit more modest.

    I don’t pretend I’m a maestro. I consider myself to be one just because I write songs behind my computer. My musicians are inside my computer. I’ll never compare myself to big composers like Mozart or Beethoven.

    Since you’re Belgo-Rwandan. Are you well known in Africa?
    The song Alors on danse worked well in Africa. Or at least in the French-speaking countries. The European French-speaking culture is influenced a lot by the African French-speaking culture. I know my single worked very well in countries like DR Congo. Also in West-African countries and in the north: Morocco, Tunisia. A little bit in Egypt, even if they don’t speak French. South Africa too. I’ve seen Gabonese people on my Facebook page. My hat off to all the African people who support me.

    Let’s say you’ve been elected president of Rwanda. What would be your number one priority?
     

    For Rwanda – I think, I’m not sure – we’ll have to focus on forgiving. I believe the actual president Paul Kagame is doing a great effort. After all, big crimes have taken place there. We will have to evaluate this genocide.

    And your priority in Belgium?

    In Belgium… there was no genocide, luckily. But people in Belgium are busy with similar stupidities – language stupidities. I believe people should come closer to each other. We are talking about human problems. As a president, I think you should take a step back. You should not think about your own interest, but about the interest of the people. But that's an easy thing to say if you are not in power. I don’t want to pass easy judgements.

    What is your personal relationship with Africa? 

    When I am in Africa, they consider me as white. Even a Black African who grew up in Africa, is seen as white. I don't want to falsely get closer to an origin or another, without really knowing it. I don't know much about my African roots. In fact, I never knew my father. But we danced a lot on music by Kofi, Papa Wemba and others. In Europe we danced too! In music, I think there is no more borders.

    Thinking about the Netherlands, what’s the biggest cliché you can think of?
    When I think of the Netherlands, I think of Gouda cheese. We eat a lot of Dutch cheese in Belgium. I think of beer too, but Belgium has a better reputation for beers. Weed, you’re very well known for marihuana. The Netherlands is one of the few countries that legalises weed.

    Do you smoke any yourself?
    Me? No. Never. Seriously. Seriously!

    Being a role model yourself, who’s your personal role model?
    Ibrahim Ferrer! He’s one of the singers in the collective Buena Vista Social Club. I’ve been listening to them for a long time. My mother introduced me to his music. It’s a good mix of all the music in the world. He’s inspired by the Congolese rumba, he uses the same congas. There are also Spanish and oriental influences in his music.

    The Buena Vista Social Club has melancholy. It is full of modesty and simplicity. It is simply wonderful!
     

    But I believe there is a lot of melancholy in electronic music as well. Even the New Beat was very much inspired by Cuban music. These are the same kind of melodies I have been using in my music.

    __________________________

     

    Music Break

    DECEMBER 3, 2010

    by Sonja Sugira
    Earlier this year, Belgian-Rwandan singer Stromae spent several weeks at number one across various countries in Europe with “Alors On Danse.” I can see why.

    Below the jump, Stromae gets the Kanye West treatment.

    Happy Friday.

      

     

     

    >via: http://africasacountry.com/2010/12/03/music-break-24/

     

    __________________________