Zadie Smith about her mother, father

and "White Teeth"

 

Best-selling British author Zadie Smith wasn't in the news because she wrote a new book, but because she claimed her childhood home was brimful of books – but most had been borrowed from a local library by her mother and not returned.

"I didn't steal books from library, says mother of Zadie Smith," wrote the Daily mail.

Her mother Yvonne Bailey-Smith, 56, agreed that her home had been full of books but insisted she bought most of them herself, spending up to £80 a time at local bookshops.

The story behind it was Zadie Smith's campaign to save a north-west London library opened by Mark Twain in 1900. Unfortunatly she lost the battle, the council voted in favour of closing half the libraries in the borough because of Goverment spending cuts.

I think it's the only photo on the net of Zadi Smith's Jamaican mother, and it's a shame it's linked to such a headline. Read the story at www.dailymail.co.uk

Zadi Smith's father

She lost her father 5 years ago. On the photo is Zadi Smith with her father Harvey. About the photo she wrote in NYT, " And this is me and my dad one Christmas past. I'm 5 and he's too old to have a 5-year-old." Her father was 55 by the way, and he divorced from her mother when she was 15.

But I don't believe she meant in a negative way. Because last year she wrote a very moving story about her father in The Sunday Times. To quote the headline, "Zadie Smith, her father and British comedy. A story about a mutual passion for the likes of Monty Python and the punchline she can’t escape — his death."

She wrote: "My father had few enthusiasms, but he loved comedy. ..

When Harvey was very ill, in the autumn of 2006, I went to visit him at a nursing home in the seaside town of Felixstowe, armed with the DVD boxed set of Fawlty Towers. By this point, he was long divorced from my mother, his second divorce, and was living alone on the grey East Anglian coast, far from his children.

A dialysis patient for a decade (he lost his first kidney to stones, the second to cancer), his body now began to give up. I had meant to leave the DVDs with him, something for the empty hours alone, but when I got there, with nothing to talk about, we ended up watching them together for the umpteenth time, he on the single chair, me on the floor, cramped in that grim little nursing-home bedroom ...

White teeth

Needles to say Zadi Smith became world famous when she published her novel White Teeth in 2000. The Amazon review states the book is about race, sex, class, history, and the minefield of gender politics.

But in an interview, Smith says, "I wasn't trying to write about race. . . . Race is obviously a part of the book, but I didn't sit down to write a book about race. So is a book that doesn't have exclusively white people in the main theme must be one about race? I don't understand that."

But her book will always be analysed from racial point of view. One of the most striking examples is the book "Zadie Smith's White Teeth - Irie as an example for 2nd generation immigrants’ desperate search for their place in a multicultural society".

In the book the author analyses the biracial identity of Irie, the daughter of Clara (see video). She writes about about Irie's feeling of unrootedness as a consequence of lacking role models and her unawareness of her own family’s history. Read it here.

In 2002 the novel was dramatised by Channel 4. For those of you who have missed it, see all the episodes at www.youtube.com.

via afroeurope.blogspot.com

Europe against the world

Europeans are not allowing the IMF to "reform" to the point of being led by the developing world.

Pepe Escobar  21 May 2011

Strauss-Kahn was in the process of making drastic changes in the IMF to benefit the developing world when he was suddenly caught up in a sex scandal [GALLO/GETTY]

So the trial of the century won't be Osama bin Laden's after all.

It will pit on one side "Ophelia", a Western African Muslim immigrant to the US, a 32-year-old widow who supports herself and her teenage daughter working as a chambermaid in a five-star Manhattan hotel.

On the other side, we find Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK), the 62-year-old French Jewish former head of the International Monetary Fund, former virtual winner of the 2012 French presidential elections, and former heavyweight of advanced capitalism.

Talk about a metaphor of the current civil war inherent to advanced capitalism, or - as a matter of fact - to life as we know it, where might is usually right and democracy has been reduced to a simulacrum.

For the past few days it has been possible to entertain the notion of history delivering some kind of poetic justice in the form of the IMF - thanks to an African Muslim female worker - finally being led by a technocrat from the developing world instead of the fund appointing one of the same old European faces.

That does not seem to be the case anymore.

The ugly sisters

Everyone in Washington and beyond knows that the "ugly sisters", the IMF and the World Bank, were designed as convenient tools for the West to lay down the law to emerging markets - the whole process sitting upon a supposedly "neutral" or "multilateral" velvet cushion.

Scores of economists who've worked for the ugly sisters throughout the past decades have ended up at very prominent positions - from ministries to Central Banks - across the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. This explains - among other absurdities - why they have always insisted in investing their countries' reserves in debt issued by the US or European Union nations. Well, because it's "safe".

At the same time, they've all bought into the fiction that the IMF was a "credible partner" to their governments. Well, it wasn't; the only IMF "credible partner" has always been the US treasury.  

Before the 2008 Wall Street-provoked global financial crisis, the IMF's credibility was risible. Not only because of the way it handled the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, almost destroying whole economies, from Thailand to Indonesia, with its dreaded one-size-fits-all structural adjustment. Not only because of the way it handled Brazil and Russia. And not only because it did everything it could to destroy Argentina after it defaulted in late 2001.  

It's in this policy wasteland that DSK - a super smart economist, lawyer and negotiator - started to make his mark. He immediately seized the opening of the 2008 crisis being discussed inside the G20 instead of the G8 - and thus including powerful voices from emerging markets.  

In 2010, he even convinced the Europeans at the IMF to share some of those obscure leadership quotas with emerging economies. Talk about bias. The US holds no less than 16.8 per cent of voting rights; Europe a whopping 35.6 per cent. Germany, the UK and France, among them, hold over 15.5 per cent. China has only 3.6 per cent. Brazil, which represents nine South American countries, has only 1.3 per cent.

When someone as impeccably progressive as Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz praises your work, you know the IMF is really changing. Stiglitz took no time to recognise how DSK was trying to implement a new model - with less emphasis on Wild West privatisations and hardcore crushing of labour unions.

It's as if the IMF had seen the light, Blues Brothers-style, and was now on the road to global wealth redistribution; in Stiglitz's analysis, "strengthening collective bargaining … restructuring tax and spending policies to stimulate the economy through long-term investments, and implementing social policies that ensure opportunity for all."

No wonder what DSK was trying to do was not exactly praised by great swathes of the Western financial elites. Only a week before his spectacular, arguably self-inflicted demise, he said at George Washington University, "the pendulum will swing from the market to the state" and urged "a new form of globalisation to prevent the 'invisible hand' of loosely regulated markets from becoming 'an invisible fist'".

The bankers win again

Most of France is convinced DSK was framed. That's a case for the French to solve reclined on their collective couch. Whatever happened in that suite at the Sofitel near Times Square, the fact is the post-DSK leader of the IMF ($521.000 annual salary plus immeasurable benefits) won't be near that revolutionary.  

German chancellor Angela Merkel, neo-Napoleonic French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Italian Prime Minister Silvio "bunga bunga" Berlusconi, president of the European Commission (EC) Jose Manuel Barroso - they all scrambled to stress the next IMF head should be European. Many justified it by shamelessly invoking the current skewed rules - after all the EU is the IMF's largest "contributor".

It's essential to note that all these apologists range from conservative to ultra-conservative. They are not exactly worried about the developing world; the priority is those packages for suffering European economies such as Greece and Portugal; ie, how to reimburse large European banks to the detriment of local working people.

No matter that China insisted the new leader should come from the developing world. No matter there are competent candidates aplenty, from Turkish Kemal Dervis to South African Trevor Manuel, from Mexican Agustin Carsten to Indian Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

So in the end it may well be Christine Lagarde, 55, once again from France (they led the IMF for 26 of the past 33 years). Another splendid metaphor; a European trying to put the brakes on the vertiginous decline of Europe after Greece threatened to leave the embattled euro and had to be contained, by force, by the powerful European banks who lent it those euros in the first place.

Well, at least this time it would be a woman; a former synchronised swimming champion with a penchant for chic Chanel business suits; former head of the Chicago law firm Baker Mackenzie; former Best Finance Minister in Europe in 2009, according to the Financial Times; and most of all, someone Washington and Wall Street trust won't come up with "exotic" wealth redistribution ideas.

Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times. His latest book is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Haiti: The Black Jacobins

By admin | Published: January 1, 2011

CLR James’ The Black Jacobins, first published in 1938, was a forbidden book in South Africa until the recent dismantling of apartheid. It’s not hard to see why.

Scott McLemmee, “CLR James: A Biographical Introduction,” American Visions (April/May 1996)

First of all, James cast doubt on the assumption that the revolution would take place first in Europe, in the advanced capitalist countries, and that this would act as a model and a catalyst for the later upheavals in the underdeveloped world. Secondly, there were clear indications that the lack of specially-trained leaders, a vanguard, did not hold back the movement of the San Domingo revolution.

Anna Grimshaw, CLR James: A Revolutionary Vision for the Twentieth Century (April 1991)

An extraordinary synthesis of novelistic narrative and factual reconstruction … The Black Jacobins is a book that helped transform both the writing of history and history itself. Three decades before historians such as Christopher Hill, Eric Hobsbawm and EP Thompson began producing ‘history from below’, James told of how the slaves of Haiti had not simply been passive victims of their oppression but active agents in their own emancipation. And in telling that story, he created a work that was to become indispensable to a new generation of Toussaint L’Ouvertures that, over the next three decades, helped lead the anti-colonial struggles in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Kenan Malik, Review of The Black Jacobins (17 August 2010)

Tranquility to-day is either innate (the philistine) or to be acquired only by a deliberate doping of the personality. It was in the stillness of a seaside suburb that could be heard most clearly and insistently the bombing of Franco’s heavy artillery, the rattle of Stalin’s firing squads and the fierce shrill turmoil of the revolutionary movement striving for clarity and influence. Such is our age and this book is of it, with something of the fever and the fret. Nor does the writer regret it. The book is the history of a revolution and written under different circumstances it would have been a different but not necessarily a better book.

CLR James, “Preface to the first edition,” The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (Secker & Warburg, 1938)

Bob Marley Tribute Week

on Jimmy Fallon

 

Marie-Claire — fusing reggae with opera

By Basil Walters Observer staff reporter

Sunday, April 17, 2011

From the Caribbean's nature isle — Dominica — comes soprano marie-claire. The Italian-trained classical singer is in Jamaica working on what, from all appearances, is destined to be a groundbreaking musical project.

"I am now fusing opera with reggae, dancehall and hip hop to create this new sound," marie-claire told the Sunday Observer. The project forms part of the work she is putting into her, her maiden album aptly titled Dreamland.

MARIE-CLAIRE... this is the first time I am actually singing an original song blending the two genres, mixing opera with reggae. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)

MARIE-CLAIRE... this is the first time I am actually singing an original song blending the two genres, mixing opera with reggae. (Photo: Bryan Cummings) 1/1

So much of the singer's passions are tied up in this project and it seems her dreams are about to come true. To begin with, just this past week, she has gotten a grant (or soft loan) from the government of Dominica to fund this dream project of hers. Secondly, the Dominican private sector and some busines interests in the United States, have thrown their weight behind the production of the album.

Then from a musical perspective, it enjoys the contribution of one of Jamaica's finest singers/songwriters, Bob Andy. And that's not all, also lending his musical talent and expertise to the project is veteran Jamaican musicians/producers, Earl 'Chinna' Smith and Glen Browne, to mention a few.

"I am producing the album myself... it's self produced. And I have received the funds from the government of the commonwealth of Dominica that will assist me in the completion of dreamland. Bob Andy wrote me a recommendation to the government which was amazing. And members of the private Sector of Dominica as well as the United States have helped me in making this trip," marie claire said.

Pressed to disclose the amount of funds she received from the Dominican government, all she was prepared to devulge was. "It's a grant, like a soft loan." When asked what benefit to accrue to the government of Dominica marie-claire response was. " I am a Dominican, so I will be promoting the country everywhere I go. They need to do something like that here."

She went on to explain more about Bob Andy's involvement in the project. "Bob Andy has also written me a song called Constellation and this the first time I am actually singing an original song blending the two genres, mixing opera with reggae. So it's a great honour.

Another well known song included on the album on which her operatic virtuosity is featured, is Bob Marley and the Wailers' Rastaman Chant (Fly Away Home) complete with Nyahbinghi drummers.

marie-claire who made her debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Grand Opera Company, is no stranger to Jamaica. "I am a regular. I love Jamaica. " affirmed the songstress who has been making her presence felt on the local entertainment circuit, especially in the Corporate Area.

"I believe in going to the source. Because when I studied opera I could have studied opera in New York. But I went to Italy to learn opera because that's where it was created. So when I am mixing opera with reggae/ dancehall, where else I am going to go but Jamaica. I am recording at Danny Champagne's Studio along with his producer Dre," exuded marie-claire.

An open-mike performance at Village Vanguard, while marie-claire was an Archeology student at Brooklyn College, was the starting point for her musical development. Since then she has gone from performing on the jazz and country and western circuit to performing with the Austin Lyric Opera Company and to studying opera, at the Conservatory of Santa Cecelia in Rome, Italy where she lived for three years.

Her first performance in her native Dominica was the solo recital — A Night at the Opera. She has also performed at Cable and Wireless Creole in the Park, Nature Fest, Creole and All That Jazz. In Dominica, marie-claire made her mark in television as well, by co-creating, co-producing and hosting Video Best — the first ever video music show in Dominica.

Speaking of TV, her music has been featured in the films Lovin Jezebel, The Roommate and marie-claire herself was part of the cast of the second season of The Chappelle Show on Comedy Central.

"I think it's divine intervention. I think God has blessed me with an incredible creative mind. And with a huge voice. And being born in Dominica and being raised in the Bronx, lends itself to having so many musical genres in my head. My uncle who was a major influence in my life he is a gynaecologist, but he was also a drummer. And he had all kinds of music in the house playing," explained marie-claire.

Added she. "Reggae was always there, y'know. I mean in the Bronx I have Jamaican neighbours. On Saturdays you have sounds systems speakers are out on the streets. And from Friday night til Sunday afternoon, you are hearing reggae/dancehall all weekend. So it's very much a soundtrack.

"Hip hop beats and dancehall beats they go so well with the intensity of an operatic voice. Because the beats for dancehall and hip hop, they're intense, y'know — hard driving. And when you put an operatic voice over it, it just rises to another level."

Speaking of the challenges she faced in her vision for creating such musical innovation, she disclosed. "I had a demo deal with Epic Records in New York and they dropped me because they didn't know what to do with me. It was too different, trying to do the same opera with hip hop. That was at least five, six years ago. They loved it but they didn't know where to place me, what to do with me. It's been a long road."

marie-claire is set to perform at the School of Music auditorium this evening, one of the acts on Jazz 'N More — a fundraiser being organised to raise funds for music scholarships. "The marriage of opera, and reggae/dancehall is something that I believe can go far," marie-claire asserted.

Marie-Claire — fusing

reggae with opera

By Basil Walters Observer staff reporter

Sunday, April 17, 2011

From the Caribbean's nature isle — Dominica — comes soprano marie-claire. The Italian-trained classical singer is in Jamaica working on what, from all appearances, is destined to be a groundbreaking musical project.

"I am now fusing opera with reggae, dancehall and hip hop to create this new sound," marie-claire told the Sunday Observer. The project forms part of the work she is putting into her, her maiden album aptly titled Dreamland.

So much of the singer's passions are tied up in this project and it seems her dreams are about to come true. To begin with, just this past week, she has gotten a grant (or soft loan) from the government of Dominica to fund this dream project of hers. Secondly, the Dominican private sector and some busines interests in the United States, have thrown their weight behind the production of the album.

Then from a musical perspective, it enjoys the contribution of one of Jamaica's finest singers/songwriters, Bob Andy. And that's not all, also lending his musical talent and expertise to the project is veteran Jamaican musicians/producers, Earl 'Chinna' Smith and Glen Browne, to mention a few.

"I am producing the album myself... it's self produced. And I have received the funds from the government of the commonwealth of Dominica that will assist me in the completion of dreamland. Bob Andy wrote me a recommendation to the government which was amazing. And members of the private Sector of Dominica as well as the United States have helped me in making this trip," marie claire said.

Pressed to disclose the amount of funds she received from the Dominican government, all she was prepared to devulge was. "It's a grant, like a soft loan." When asked what benefit to accrue to the government of Dominica marie-claire response was. " I am a Dominican, so I will be promoting the country everywhere I go. They need to do something like that here."

She went on to explain more about Bob Andy's involvement in the project. "Bob Andy has also written me a song called Constellation and this the first time I am actually singing an original song blending the two genres, mixing opera with reggae. So it's a great honour.

Another well known song included on the album on which her operatic virtuosity is featured, is Bob Marley and the Wailers' Rastaman Chant (Fly Away Home) complete with Nyahbinghi drummers.

marie-claire who made her debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Grand Opera Company, is no stranger to Jamaica. "I am a regular. I love Jamaica. " affirmed the songstress who has been making her presence felt on the local entertainment circuit, especially in the Corporate Area.

"I believe in going to the source. Because when I studied opera I could have studied opera in New York. But I went to Italy to learn opera because that's where it was created. So when I am mixing opera with reggae/ dancehall, where else I am going to go but Jamaica. I am recording at Danny Champagne's Studio along with his producer Dre," exuded marie-claire.

An open-mike performance at Village Vanguard, while marie-claire was an Archeology student at Brooklyn College, was the starting point for her musical development. Since then she has gone from performing on the jazz and country and western circuit to performing with the Austin Lyric Opera Company and to studying opera, at the Conservatory of Santa Cecelia in Rome, Italy where she lived for three years.

Her first performance in her native Dominica was the solo recital — A Night at the Opera. She has also performed at Cable and Wireless Creole in the Park, Nature Fest, Creole and All That Jazz. In Dominica, marie-claire made her mark in television as well, by co-creating, co-producing and hosting Video Best — the first ever video music show in Dominica.

Speaking of TV, her music has been featured in the films Lovin Jezebel, The Roommate and marie-claire herself was part of the cast of the second season of The Chappelle Show on Comedy Central.

"I think it's divine intervention. I think God has blessed me with an incredible creative mind. And with a huge voice. And being born in Dominica and being raised in the Bronx, lends itself to having so many musical genres in my head. My uncle who was a major influence in my life he is a gynaecologist, but he was also a drummer. And he had all kinds of music in the house playing," explained marie-claire.

Added she. "Reggae was always there, y'know. I mean in the Bronx I have Jamaican neighbours. On Saturdays you have sounds systems speakers are out on the streets. And from Friday night til Sunday afternoon, you are hearing reggae/dancehall all weekend. So it's very much a soundtrack.

"Hip hop beats and dancehall beats they go so well with the intensity of an operatic voice. Because the beats for dancehall and hip hop, they're intense, y'know — hard driving. And when you put an operatic voice over it, it just rises to another level."

Speaking of the challenges she faced in her vision for creating such musical innovation, she disclosed. "I had a demo deal with Epic Records in New York and they dropped me because they didn't know what to do with me. It was too different, trying to do the same opera with hip hop. That was at least five, six years ago. They loved it but they didn't know where to place me, what to do with me. It's been a long road."

marie-claire is set to perform at the School of Music auditorium this evening, one of the acts on Jazz 'N More — a fundraiser being organised to raise funds for music scholarships. "The marriage of opera, and reggae/dancehall is something that I believe can go far," marie-claire asserted.

Summertime

Rastaman Chant

Care For You

The Bard Fiction Prize

is awarded to a promising, emerging writer who is an American citizen aged 39 years or younger at the time of application. In addition to the monetary award, the winner receives an appointment as writer in residence at Bard College for one semester, without the expectation that he or she teach traditional courses. The recipient gives at least one public lecture and meets informally with students.

2011 Bard Fiction Prize Recipient:
Karen Russell

The creation of the Bard Fiction Prize, presented each October, continues Bard's long-standing position as a center for creative, groundbreaking literary work by both faculty and students. From Saul Bellow, William Gaddis, Mary McCarthy, and Ralph Ellison to John Ashbery, Philip Roth, William Weaver, and Chinua Achebe, Bard's literature faculty, past and present, represents some of the most important American writers of our time. The prize is intended to encourage and support young writers of fiction to pursue their creative goals and provide an opportunity to work in a fertile and intellectual environment.

Bard College invites submissions for its
annual Fiction Prize for Young Writers.

To apply, candidates should write a cover letter explaining the project they plan to work on while at Bard and submit a C.V., along with three copies of the published book they feel best represents their work. No manuscripts will be accepted. Applications for the 2012 prize must be received by July 15, 2011.

Contact the Bard Fiction Prize:

Address: Bard College,
PO Box 5000, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504
Phone: 845-758-7087
E-mail: bfp@bard.edu

via bard.edu

Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards

The Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards are an annual series of awards to encourage poets to explore and illuminate positive visions of peace and the human spirit. The Poetry Awards include three age categories: Adult, Youth 13-18, and Youth 12 & Under. The deadline for submissions is July 1, 2011. Past Award Winners 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999   1998 | 1997 | 1996

This book contains the winning poems for the first seven years of the Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards. You can order a copy here.

2011 Peace Poetry Awards Guidelines (A PDF Version of the following is available here.) Awards: Adults - $1,000 Youth (13 to 18) - $200 Youth (12 and under) - $200 We award Honorable Mentions in each category. Eligibility: The contest is open to people worldwide. Poems must be original, unpublished and in English. Deadlines: All entries must be postmarked by July 1, 2011. Procedures: Send 2 copies of up to 3 typed unpublished poems. Maximum of 30 lines per poem. Include name, address, email, telephone number, and age (if youth) in upper right hand corner of one copy of each poem. Title each poem. Do not staple individual poems together. Please keep copies of all poems as we will be unable to return them. Any entry that does not adhere to ALL of the contest rules will not be considered for a prize. Fee: $15 for up to three poems for Adult entries. $5 for up to three poems for Youth (13-18) entries. No fee for Youth (12 and under) entries. Judging: Judging will be done by a committee of poets selected by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Winners: Winners will be announced by October 1, 2011. Winners and Honorable Mentions will be notified by mail. The award is open to people worldwide. All poems must be the original work of the poet, unpublished, and in English. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation reserves the right to publish and distribute the award winning poems, including honorable mentions. Copies of the winning poems from the 2011 Awards will be posted on the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation website after October 1, 2011. Copies of the winning poems from previous years are posted on our website at: www.wagingpeace.org/menu/programs/awards-&-contests/bmk-contest. Send Entries To: Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards PMB 121 1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 1 Santa Barbara, CA 93108-2794 805-965-3443 • fax: 805-568-0466