PUB: New England Poetry Club.

New England Poetry Club 2011 Contests

* Annual contest: open April/May only

* Student contests: submit by April 30

See Student contests descriptions here.

Contest Guidelines

The following are descriptions of the various contests.

See Student contests descriptions here.

All contests are open to members in good standing except Board members.

Non-members may enter by paying $10 for up to 3 poems and $3 for each additional poem. Only one poem per contest. Make checks out to New England Poetry Club (no charge for students and members).

* Entries must be orginal unpublished (cannot be in print or online) poems in English.

* No poem may be entered in more than one contest, nor should it have won a previous contest.

* Poems should be typed and submitted in duplicate, with the author's name and address on one copy. Include an email address too, if possible. Label poems with the name of the contest.

* No entries will be returned, and New England Poetry Club (NEPC) will not engage in correspondence regarding poems submitted or contest decisions.

* Judges are well-known poets, and sometimes are winners of previous NEPC contests.

* No entries should be sent special delivery or express mail. Regular mail only.

* Mark the name or names of the contest(s) entered on the envelope before mailing. All entries (unless otherwise noted) should be sent to: NEPC Contest Coordinator, P.O. Box 190076, Boston, MA 02119.

* Annual contest deadline: May 31. Entries must be postmarked in April and May only.

The Golden Rose Award

Given annually since 1920 to a poet who has done the most for the art in the previous year or in a lifetime. Recipients chosen by the Board. Click here for a history of the Award.

May Sarton Award

Given intermittently to a poet whose work is an inspiration to other poets. Prize $250. Recipients chosen by the Board.

Members-Only Contests

Rosalie Boyle/Norma Farber Award
For a poem in traditional form, including sonnet, villanelle, and sestina. Prize $100.

Gretchen Warren Award
For the best published poem of the previous year. (Members of the governing board may not enter any competition except this one.) Send 2 copies of up to 4 poems, with dates and names of publications, author’s name on one copy. No cash award.

Contests Open to Members and Non-Members

Daniel Varoujan Award
For an unpublished poem (not a translation) worthy of Daniel Varoujan, a poet killed by the Turks in the genocide which destroyed three-fourths of the Armenian population. Previous winners may not enter again. Prize $1000.

Der-Hovanessian Prize
For a translation from any language. Send a copy of the original with the poem. Prize $200. Funded by John Mahtesian.

Erika Mumford Prize
For a poem in any form about foreign culture or travel. Prize $250. Funded by her family and friends.

Firman Houghton Award
For a lyric poem in honor of the former president of the NEPC. Prize $250.

Barbara Bradley Award
For a lyric poem under 21 lines, written by a woman. Prize $200.

Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize
For a chapbook of poems published in the last two years. Send 2 copies of the book with $5 handling fee for non-members. Prize $100.
Send to 2 Farrar Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Sheila Margaret Motton Prize
For a book of poems published in the last two years. Send 2 copies of the book with $5 handling fee for non-members. Prize $500.
Send to 2 Farrar Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.

 Contests Open to Students

Contest deadline: April 30, 2011

No fee for full time students.

Submit in duplicate, with school name, grade, address and email address of student, and contest name on one entry.

The John Holmes Award
For a poem by a student enrolled in a New England college. Prize $100.
Send to 2 Farrar Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Ruth Berrien Fox Award
Given for a poem by a Massachusetts High School student. Prize $100.
Send to 2 Farrar Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Longfellow Prize
For poems by Massachusetts students in elementary and middle schools. Prize $100.
Funded by Friends of Longfellow House Frank Buda Memorial Fund.
Send to Longfellow National Historic Site, 105 Brattle St., Cambridge MA 02138.

For more information, contact us at contests@nepoetryclub.org

 

CULTURE: #71 “African Fabrics”: The History of Dutch Wax Prints–Guest Blog by Eccentric Yoruba > Beyond Victoriana

#71 “African Fabrics”:

The History of

Dutch Wax Prints

–Guest Blog by Eccentric Yoruba

 

“A picture of a pipe isn’t necessarily a pipe, an image of “African fabric” isn’t necessarily authentically [and wholly] African”.

These above words are quoted by Yinka Shonibare, a Nigerian-British contemporary artist known for his amazing artwork using African print fabrics in his scrutiny of colonialism and post-colonialism. What is commonly known as “African fabric” goes by a multitude of names: Dutch wax print, Real English Wax, Veritable Java Print, Guaranteed Dutch Java, Veritable Dutch Hollandais. I grew up calling them ankara and although they’ve always been a huge symbol of my Nigerian and African identity, I had no idea of the complex and culturally diverse history behind the very familiar fabrics until I discovered Yinka Shonibare and his art.

I know I personally felt shocked upon learning that the “African” fabrics I grew up loving and admiring were not really “African” in their origins (or is it?). This put things in perspective, however, as it suddenly made sense that my mother’s friends regularly travelled to European countries, including Switzerland and England, to purchase these fabrics and expensive laces to sell them again in Nigeria. In an attempt to join this lucrative business, my mother once dragged me with her to a fabric store while on holiday in London. I was not 13 years old then and I recall being surprised to find such familiar fabrics on sale outside Nigeria. Regardless, I never imagined that the history of this African fabric, henceforth referred to as Dutch wax print, spanned over centuries, across three continents and bridging various power structures.

Vlisco model. Click for source.

 

European imitation and industrialisation of Indonesian batik techniques

The development of the African print fabric has been referred to as the “result of a long historical process of imitation and mimicry”. How exactly Dutch wax prints became popular in West Africa is debated. What is known for certain is that Dutch wax prints started out as cheap mass-produced imitations of Indonesian batik locally produced in Java. Colonial powers, particularly the Dutch and the English, played heavy roles in industrialising the batik production techniques and popularising the resulting textiles in foreign markets.

Example of Javanese batik print. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Javanese batik are made by hand-drawing motifs on cotton cloth and involved the use of wax and resist-dye. After being colonised by the Dutch, Javanese batik was introduced to Holland and consequently to other parts of Europe but did not gain popularity. In the 19th century Dutch merchants saw that fabrics were mass produced in Europe using engraved roller print machines and dye-resistant resin to design motifs and produce a batik effect on cloth. This was done in an effort to develop foreign textiles markets for machine-produced batik imitations. The van Vlissingers, for example, were a merchant family who established their company in 1846 by bringing the mass production of batik dyed textiles to Europe, and established today’s Vlisco brand of cloth.

Views differ as to how Dutch wax prints entered the West African market. One view is that in the late 1800s, Dutch freighters on their way to Indonesia from Europe stocked with their machine-made batik textiles stopped at various African ports, and subsequently an African client base grew.

Another suggestion is that the Dutch wax fabrics did not do as well as expected in the Indonesian market due, in part because of economic restrictions imposed on the sale of forign textiles at the beginning of the 20th century to protect locally made batik textiles. It has also been suggested that the industrialised wax prints were regarded as much poorer in quality that the locally handmade batiks. In order to prevent a loss, the target market switched to West Africa.

There is also the theorized role played by West African indentured soldiers for the Dutch in Indonesia, also known as the Black Dutchmen. They served between 1810 and 1862 and many had taken Indonesian batik with them on their return home as gifts for their families. Thereafter, local interest in the fabrics grew, and the Dutch wax prints were the closest imitation available. The role played by Black Dutchmen is questionable, however, because while a large number of them married Javanese women and stayed on in Indonesia, those that returned to their countries of origin usually came back empty-handed due to shortcomings and delays in salary payments from the Dutch.

Lest it seem that the introduction of Dutch wax prints into the West African market happened out of the blue, West Africa had always been a textile market, since fabrics have been important aspects of African social life for a very long time. As early as the 16th century, the English, Dutch and French were selling batiks and other types of textiles manufactured in Asia, such as the “guinea cloth” and Indian produced cottons from Pondicherry, now Puducherry, to West African markets. Thus consumers were quite accustomed to globally-produced fabrics. The introduction of Dutch batik-inspired wax prints lead to the peak of foreign-manufactured fabrics in West African markets in the 19th century.

Regardless of how Dutch wax prints precisely entered West Africa, one can conclude that they were originally intended for the Indonesian market but found a more enthusiastic market in the Gold Coast (modern day Ghana) where they became symbols of high quality and fashion. From the Gold Coast, these fabrics spread into other West and Central African markets.

The acceptance and growth of Dutch wax prints by West Africans

In the 19th century West Africans embraced these Dutch wax prints, using and assimilating them into societies as a part of culture and self-expression. The English were manufacturing and selling wax print textiles as well, but the Dutch brands were more popular. It has been suggested that the Dutch were viewed as the “well-meaning” traders with West Africa, since a lot of West African nations were under English or French colonial rule.

Dutch wax prints carried, and still carry, an enormous amount of prestige and this was mostly likely due to their uniqueness as part of an European industry producing for export markets solely in West Africa.

 

Vlisco model with handbag. Click for source.

Dutch manufacturers of these fabrics thereafter made some changes to designs and motifs in order to cater to the tastes of their new African customers. As can be expecting making prints using motifs designed specifically for the African market took more time and effort. Earlier design motifs used plants and animals believed to be universal to all cultures. From the middle of the 20th century, though, more effort was made in making design motifs more authentic by using indigenous African textiles to create similar motifs. In the 1920s prints began to feature portraits of local community leaders and chiefs in their designs that people could buy in to celebrate their leaders. This tradition continued with portraits of African heads of states and prominent politicians used as design motifs starting in the 1950s.

 

Francois Tombalbaye (1918-75), President of Chad from 1960 to 1975, with FrenchPresident Georges Pompidou. Cloth dates from 1972. Click for source.

Designs and motifs that became extremely popular and successful were given catchy names, and they had proverbs and slogans attached to them by West Africans traders in their respective communities, even though these appellations had nothing in common with the designs on the fabrics. Due to this integration of Dutch wax prints, they are said to be “authentically African” even though they were produced and designed in Europe, presumably by Europeans with little or no African input in terms of designs and motifs at the production stages.

Up until the 1960s, most wax prints sold in West Africa were being produced in Europe. Post-colonially, things changed. Currently, Ghana is home to several fine and high quality wax print manufacturers including Woodin, a subsidiary of Holland’s Vlisco and ATL which is a subsidiary of Manchester-based ABC textiles. Notice that even though these textiles are now manufactured on the continent, the companies that manufacture them are largely not owned by Africans.

Da Viva model. Click for source.

Yet West Africa became the exclusive markets for Dutch prints and Dutch brands have dominated the West African market since the end of the 19th century where they held importance as status symbols. Today, wax prints carrying European brand names are the most expensive in the West African fabric market. The Dutch brand Vlisco is a symbol of class on par with any popular Western brands like Rolex or Louis Vuitton. A wealthy person cannot be seen wearing just any wax print brand, it has to be Vlisco.

The Chinese entrance into the wax print market

It hasn’t been too long since Dutch wax prints started being produced on the African continent but now the African textile industry is facing competition from China. The entrance of Chinese manufactured print textiles brings another complication into the mix, throwing a wrench in the established trade networks between West African and European cloth manufacturers.

How the wax prints produced in China came into West African markets is another long story which can summarised thus: some African traders travelled to regions in China such as Shandong to reproduce fabric samples cheaply, which were to be sold in their respective countries. Thus, African traders had a role to play in introducing Chinese manufacturers into the African textile market.

With Dutch wax prints being increasingly reproduced in China, wax prints carrying ‘made in Holland’ tag are at the high end of the market, with Chinese productions occupying the opposite end. However, this is changing rapidly as the quality of Chinese wax print copies is apparently improving. The manufacturer based in Manchester was recently bought by a Chinese company, leaving Vlisco as the only European-owned producer of wax prints.

The question of authenticity

Dutch wax prints are of foreign origin but are widely recognised as African fabrics. To bring back the earlier quote from Yinka Shonibare; “an image of ‘African fabric’ isn’t necessarily authentically [and wholly] African”. Or is it? Delving into the history of Dutch wax prints and their strong popularity in West Africa draws questions of authenticity and “Africanness”. Are these fabrics African because they are popular in Africa? How does the fact that they started out as imitations of Indonesian/Javanese batik designs and were brought into the West African market by colonial Europeans fit into all this?

Though they seem to be quite unpopular, there are some voiced concerns with regards to an exploitative relationship with the European fabric markets. This article for example argues that what we call African wax prints are Javanese in production techniques and are a product of Javanese, Indian, Chinese, Arab and European artistic traditions. It calls for a “regeneration of authentic African print designs”.

This is where the question of authenticity comes up. Are Dutch wax prints really based on a traditional African form? Can they be compared to indigenous African fabrics such as the Yoruba adire or the adinkra cloth of the Ashanti? Has the introduction of Dutch wax prints hurt the indigenous textile market, driving locally produced fabrics out of the market? Actually, I’m tempted to answer ‘yes’ to the latter because I have been told that the adire textiles I own are out of fashion. The last time I wore hand woven aso-oke was more than a decade ago. Aso-oke is still worn at weddings and special ceremonies but they are not extremely popular, not as Dutch wax prints. After all I only see billboards for Vlisco and Da Viva .

 

Girl wearing aso-oke. Click for source.

 

It is no secret that I love fabrics and textiles. I try to buy Dutch wax prints that were manufactured in Ghana. At the same time I purchase locally-made fabrics not caring whether or not they are in vogue.

***
Eccentric Yoruba is a really not that strange regardless of what her alias may suggest. She spends her days writing and blogging at Curiosity Killed The Eccentric Yoruba and Dreamwidth.

 

OP-ED: A Critique of ANC - The National Erection > Mahala

The National Erection

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 by Brandon Edmonds

South African Elections

The great philosopher of totalitarian eros, Milan Kundera, famously defined kitsch as the “inability to admit that shit exists”. It is the key to unlocking the local elections this week. Take a look at the ANC election video. It is kitsch because it is unable to admit that shit exists. Kitsch because it elides poverty with kwaito. (Super-connected smoothie, Arthur Mafokate, produced the ANC election CD for an undisclosed fee.) Here is party-funded imagery meant to distract us from the Real Shit – the usual suspects of structural violence: unemployment, corruption, and inequality – with singer Chomee’s (admittedly marvelous) tits. An erection video.

It’s as if the grasping cadres, the communication strategists, of Luthuli House put a live feed directly into Zuma’s limbic system, his brain’s pleasure center. The result is raw political fantasy life, the smegma of his deepest wishes: dancing girls and cleavage, blow-me lips mouthing conforming pieties of the Party: Building Better Communities; a sunny libidinous wonderland of assent, joyous townships heaving with merriment, everything exuding a positivity as relentless as the beating that killed Andries Tatane; problems digitally removed by pure ideology; in short, Kundera’s kitsch, the active denial of shit.

And these elections really do stink. They’re alarmingly excremental. Toilets are rhetorical weapons in a negative arms race, a race to the bottom, this election cycle, with the DA trading demeaning revelations with the ANC over which municipality puts poor people through the most indignity. Is it the open toilets of Makaza in Khayelitsha, the crying shame of the DA, or the open toilets of Moqhaka in the Free State, yet more slop on the towering dung heap of the ANC?

In fact, there are bucket systems spilling kak in real time all over the country where fresh-water Bathroom Bazaar style plumbing is as likely as a harvest of Playstation 3’s. Throughout the land, gogos shit al fresco in Checkers packets as you read this. Try putting that in a song, Arthur, you court serenader, you lackey. Open drains runneth over. Children leap-frog sewerage alive with water-borne diseases. Conditions in too many townships are straight up medieval. Eternal liberal gadfly, RW Johnson, feels right on this: “the heroic age of resistance is over and with it any unifying vision capable of overcoming the Hobbesian struggle of each against all.” Johnson says the ANC state is failing and every aspect of the ruling party is now increasingly criminalized. To mask the decline, Vegas tactics. Showgirls. Hoopla. An erection video where social problems dissolve into a feel good miasma of dance moves, denial and décolletage. You know, kitsch.

Zuma told us recently that open toilets have “broken” his heart. That organ might well have cracked long ago were he an honourable man capable of either insight or remorse. That rape trial, the corruption allegations. Seriously, how do you even show your face in company let alone presume to run a country? Anyway, the spurious claim of tears in the face of grinding want is pure populist sentimentalism, demagogic shtick, the go-to mode of governing kitsch. It is pitched at the same low, debasing frequency as that video. Meant to short-circuit critical distance. Meant to reel the masses in. A tear in the eye and a lump in the throat distracts from the ill-gotten bazillion bloating with compound interest in the bank. Of what mortal use are a President’s rhetorical tears, when you’re taking a shit on an open toilet in a shithole like Viljoenskroon?

That is what struggle is now. A struggle for dignity. A struggle to be seen for who you are in the fact of your circumstances. Rather than in the bogus light of State ideology – where as a poor person in a nowhere community you are immediately suspect, disposable and criminal. If you don’t join in the song and dance, the populist dream-sequence of the election video, you’re shot at, you’re lied to, you’re tabulated by NGO’s, you’re beaten, you’re patronized, undermined and ignored. Grassroots community organizations throughout the country will boycott the elections out of disgust at the corruption and dysfunction of local government.

Shit is bad and it’s only getting worse.

South African Elections

9 Responses to “The National Erection”

 

  1. Jason says:

    You’re preaching to the choir, china.
    That shit was designed to appeal to a demographic, who will slap down their Xs tomorrow – drunk on promises and blinded by visions of hanging out with the ancestors, being gifted some gold watches and cellphones as they slurp champagne from Chomee’s magnificent cleavage. Only to be choking on bullshit and toy-toying next month, when Malema’s cavalcade runs down some kids with his white Range Rover. White??

    Fuck yeah.

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  2. chomeechomy says:

    this story is shit. what do you know about township real things? anc has done more than any other party evah. i luv tha song. you will see who is boss tomorrow.

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  3. Phumlani says:

    you never cease to amaze.

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  4. Concerned says:

    @Chomeechomy

    How many people in the demographic you talk about frequent YouTube?

    Also, I assume/hope that your pathetic grammar is an attempt to sound cool, rather than a result of your ANC’s education systems.

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  5. Lindokushle says:

    Contrary to popular belief, the ANC doesn’t stand for Arthur ‘n Chomee. Although you’d be excused for making that mistake. African National Congress? Political Party or monthly gatherings at Hush for a VIP party? They might not deliver on their promises, but they will deliver a bottle of Moet (sparklers and all) so the whole club can know you’re a card-carrying member.

    That said, the DA can eat a dick.

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  6. Mick says:

    Crackling text. You smoked a cigarette after, didn’tcha?

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  7. Las Babas del xxx says:

    Why did you say “national erection”. there is too much talk about erections in the newspapers and medias. erections are private things. they are not to be made fun of. erection signfies the love of a man. it is a beautiful gesture. i was made fun of for having an erection recently. it was not romantic. i was with on a date with a girl, and we were kissing. she saw that i had an erection through my pants. she laughed about it. i will never give her forgiveness.

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  8. Kagiso says:

    Cheap politicking is what this ‘article’ is about,sounds like you need a drink.

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  9. Mbejezansi mHlophe waMalandela II says:

    Am I the only one who noticed that this tune is the spawn of the unholy congress of Ma Brrr’s ‘Black President’ and Chomee’s wobbly warbles?

    Sies, Arthur, for shame.

    This ANC must think we’ve forgotten all the promises they’ve broken. Promises and dreams, now mangled, dark and indistinct like some apocalyptic nightmare by Goya, which now stand broken, tripping us up and blocking our way to the future we all struggle toward.

    The road to hell, ladies and gentlemen, paved badly with good intentions by a tenderpreneur who bought a Gallardo with the proceeds and fucked off into the distance, never to been seen again. Jimmy vaai’d to Jozi, my people, so sorry about the cracks in your dreams. Abafazi no Abantu, ladies and magents, welcome to our township tour of South Africa v.2. For those who wish to use the toilet on our journey to a regrettable tomorrow, please use our Moqhaka open-plan toilets, where copies of the Constitution hang on a nail, for you to wipe your ass on.

    ‘Together we can do more’
    ‘A better life for all’

    Sure, sure, Msholoz’. Pull the other one. It plays Vulindlela.

    Brothers and sisters of the radioactive afterglow of our very own special revolution, let me tell you – together we can do more, for a better life, for us all. It’s very simple – you vote the motherfuckers out.

    Vuku’zenzele, bakhiti – lalelang, mamela, luister en luister vokken goed – we need to exercise our democratic right to say fuck off, voetsek, hamba, basta, baguts, vamos, raus, jou ma. Shit, if this were a relationship, we would have kicked the lying, cheating, thieving sack of shit out years ago.

    No, my friends, visitors, surfers, hipsters, thinkers, browsers, critics, journo’s, lurkers and writers. No, no, no, NO. uTata Madiba tuned us all – never, never and never again.

    So Voesek, ANC.

    It is time for change, South Africa. And not that disappointing Obama change, that huckster wolf in sheeps’ clothing. No thanks, bra, we’re all full up on bullshit round here. Real change – the kind that starts with saying howzit to a face, not a race. We need to get off our asses and just fucking do it.

    And there’s only one way to do that – by voting. They got the guns, but we, we got the numbers. And, if history repeats – and I think we can all agree, it sure does, then this vague notion of democracy can grow into real change. But you Have. To. Get. Off. Your. Ass. And do something about it.

    This is only a municipal election, but the surge of participation and awareness has been (for a municipal election, which have in the past largely seen underwhelming electioneering and voter interest) kicked up a notch. People are pissed off. Some of them – at polar opposites of the social scale – enough to do something about it.

    Which is why, if you don’t vote, you’re a chump. It’s true – if you don’t vote, you can’t bitch.

    That, my people, is how democracy grafts. It’s about getting involved.

    Not involved in the sense of a scene, a genre, a style, a big screen television with surround sound, game console, two stoepkakkertkies, an unhappy marriage, a Yaris, a bond, medical aid, insurance, a shitty cubical culture 9-5, an affair, stilted conversations, dull sex, dry kisses, Top Fucking Billing, retirement annuities, arthritis, Alzheimers, dementia, fragmented memories of a nation’s potential dashed against the swollen bellies of liars who’ve poisoned the well we all drink from, medication, sedation, tremors, shudders, and at last the picture flickers, and dies. No, not that horrorshow. Involved in the people, places and purpose of everything around you. Involved, active, aware and acting toward a better life for all.

    Like that staggering prophet of Clark Road said: Get involved, or get evolved.

    Thank you for reading. It’s been a pleasure letting it out.

    Please act on your opinions. They matter, as does your participation in this life you live here in South Africa. It is, literally, up to us. And if we let the chance of a better life, neighbourhood or world slip through our fingers because we were too busy buying a shitty disposable life, hell, we only have ourselves to blame.

    So please, vote.

    Thank you, ngiyabonga, dankie, kosi gakhulu, kealeboga, graci, spasiba, obrigado, sharp.

    p.s: if you were wondering, I am an Africanised mongrel. Just like you.

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INTERVIEW: Blitz the Ambassador, World Citizen > The African Immigrant Journal

The AIJ Q&A:

Blitz the Ambassador,

World Citizen

Ghanaian-born, N.Y. rapper Blitz the Ambassador explains how he encapsulates the African immigrant experience on scintillating new disc, Native Sun.

 

By John Murph, TheAIJournal.com

Want a glimpse of the African immigrant experience set to a hot hip-hop beat? If so, then peek Blitz the Ambassador’s blazing new disc, Native Sun. The Ghanaian-born, Brooklyn based rapper touches upon various themes surrounding the issues, ranging from optimism of arriving to another land to lamentation of his homeland. Blitz’s fierce political insight offers plenty of sharp critique of Africa’s socio-politics as well as address many misconceptions about the continent.

After a reportedly rousing performance at New York City’s SOB’s, Blitz and his exhilarating band, the Embassy Ensemble, came to Washington, D.C. to spread the word. Right before sound check, he talked with African Immigrant Journal about the new album, the hurdles he faced being a rapper from Ghana, and his explorations into film.

Ghanaian-Born, Brooklyn-Based Rapper Blitz the Ambassador

 

Talk briefly about some of the central themes on your new disc, Native Sun?

Well the main themes that travel through Native Sun mostly revolve around the immigrant experience – recognizing that hip-hop music is immigrant culture. Even though it was born in the Bronx, it was born out of the sound-system culture that had traveled from Jamaica. I journey backwards and take it from the Bronx to Jamaica, and from Jamaica to Accra – that’s kind of the central travel of the album. Besides trying to tell this immigrant story that I feel has been left out of hip-hop; I was also trying to put out a record that would also show that African music is synergetic with hip-hop music; it’s almost kind of the same thing. The differences are obviously the environments that shape them. But if you take highlife music, Afrobeat, suco then expand upon that like the blues, jazz through which hip-hop eventually came out of – it’s just part of the same fabric. Native Sun traces that sonically, not as much ideologically.

Even though hip-hop is now a global phenomenon, as a hip-hop artist, originally from Ghana, do you feel that you have to prove your legitimacy as a rapper?

 Naturally, when I first moved here, I was not trying to rap with an accent, because that’s the first reason for someone to disqualify you. That’s why hip-hop was so close-minded in America. For a long time, if it wasn’t from New York City, it wasn’t happening. Later down the line, you heard accents from the south, the west and the Midwest. But if you really think about it, hip-hop is very nationalistic or territorial. Years gone by, we’ve kind of expanded from that. Artists like myself can exhibit something else that people, maybe 10 years ago, would not be so open to. It also follows a trajectory of hip-hop; we’re reached a point to where it had plateaued. There was very little innovation happening. Hence, people are becoming more curious about other things, because they are getting bored with the same rhythms and patterns. So Native Sun is born out of all of those things. Now, it’s about standing out and being a unique individual. The world is ready to accept that.

AIJ: Talk about your moment of truth, when you decided to embrace your Ghanaian heritage as a hip-hop artist.

 That was something that was sizzling in me for many years. I think it happened after I was done with Stereotype. I really start thinking to myself that I couldn’t just walk into a Ghanaian restaurant and play that record from them to understand it, not just in terms of language but also in terms of rhythm and vibe. I recognized that I was denying a whole people that I’m a part of access to this information.  So it got me to that point where I started thinking: “How do I combine both? How can I make sure that both of these constituents can vibe with what I’m doing?” That was the turning point.

As a rapper, how did you develop your unique flow. Often you rhyme over 6/8 rhythms, which is common in African, jazz and Afro-Latin music. But most rappers spit over 4/4 meters.

 Most hip-hop rhythms are obviously in 4/4. Because of the virtue of my background – being Ghanaian and growing up around these rhythms – those other rhythms already made sense to me. So when the opportunity came to make music with those rhythms, it wasn’t like I had to figure anything out. Throughout my elementary school days, I was also fortunate enough to be in a school dance troupe and drum troupe.  That’s where I learned how to play the djembe. We didn’t even know what those time signatures were. We just knew after a while that those rhythms were: king-ka-king/king-ka king/king-ka-king. When you’re a bit studied, you just go: “Yo’ that was that time signature.”  So that was just in me.

What are your regular listening habits like?

 I’m super into samba – Jorge Ben, Seu Jorge; I’m always digging for classic African material – Super Rail Band, Bembeya Jazz Orchestra. Post- independence in Africa, between 1957 and the early-’60s, a lot of national bands were formed that help propagate this idea of independence. So a lot of fabulous musicians came out of that circle. But I also love electronica. I’m always checking for Björk and Aphex Twins.

 How did you make the leap from being a visual artist to rapper? Also, do you see those disciplines feeding off of each other in your artistry?

Well, how I really got into rapping was that when I was young, I would spend hours just drawing. I have a little makeshift studio in my house. It was a bit of a ritual to create a mixtape the night before then play that mixtape throughout while I was drawing. From doing that, I started memorizing the Biggie verses or Run DMC verses. Out of all of those hours, I started realizing that I was actually pretty good at it, while I wasn’t even paying attention to it.

Even though hip-hop is now a global phenomenon, as a hip-hop artist, originally from Ghana, do you feel that you have to prove your legitimacy as a rapper?

Based upon my visual arts background, I’m really fortunate that I can really build my visual brand. I designed the Stereotype album cover. I went from drawing to graphic design. That album cover ended up being a major hinge point for them getting an album that they could possibly identify with. I designed the logo, the cover and organized the photo shoot. Aesthetically, I think that when those two marrying points [visual and musical] are not together, you miss a major piece of the project. I also took it a step further by delving into film and directing. A short film coming out of Native Sun is about going to Ghana, filming stuff and getting the visual and sonics together in a more living and breathing way.

 I just finished writing a full-length screenplay, Bukom Boys Club. That basically resolves around boxing. This area in Accra called Bukom is where all of our professional boxers come from. So if you know anything about Ike Quartey or Joshua Clottey; they’re from Bukom. Per capita, there are more boxers and gyms in Bukom than in the rest of West Africa. Bukom Boys Club is a narrative film that explores a conflict between two boxing gyms and these poor kids who are trying to come up. That’s the next level for me.

 

VIDEO: Femi Kuti

Femi Kuti, Musician ::

120 Seconds

Grammy-nominated, Nigerian musician Femi Kuti explains the importance of African unity and awareness given the continent’s colonial history and current political systems as the impetus for his new album, Africa for Africa.

MORE ON: FEMI KUTI

Moni’s photo of Kuti in Rolling Stone, September, 1999:

Femi Kuti + Cast of Fela! in the New African Shrine

Femi Kuti Playing a Tribute Show to Fela

 

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Femi Kuti: Beyond The Legacy

Nigerian music star Femi Kuti carves his own path, building on the legacy of his late father.

>via: http://fyeahafrica.tumblr.com/post/5566030723/femi-kuti-beyond-the-legacy-nig...

 

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Shows We Love ::

Femi Kuti, Africa for Africa Photos

We had the pleasure and honor of filming a 120 Seconds with Femi Kuti last night just before he hit the stage at El Rey for his Africa for Africa tour. The segment is coming soon but in the meantime, take a look at some of Moni’s photos from the show. The man is a musical genius with a message of unity, awareness, peace and cooperation not only for Africa, but for us all.

Please click to enlarge:

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VIDEO: Seven Afropolitan Female Icons You Should Be Aware Of > KenyanVibe

Seven Afropolitan Female Icons You Should Be Aware Of

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Beauty is composed of an eternal, invariable element whose quantity is extremely difficult to determine, and a relative element which might be, either by turns or all at once, period, fashion, moral, passion ~ Jean-Luc Godard

This list was compiled by Ms Afropolitan who describes Afropolitan as a hybrid of the words African + cosmopolitan. Ms Afropolitan is founded by Minna Salami who runs a London based online boutique name Ms Afropolitan that was launched as a tribute to African Women’s Decade celbrating the successes of African women in the diaspora. Catch up with her HERE.

When it comes to beauty, all women have to find a way to feel adequate and love themselves amidst beauty ideals that fluctuate between skinny to curvy to blonde to brunette.

African women, and other non-caucasian women, perhaps need to dig even deeper to find that place called self-love, given that the commercial industries that influence our consumer patterns have pumped out ideals of fair skinned beauty for a few centuries now.

Many of us grew up playing (perhaps only) with white dolls and flicking through magazines with (perhaps only) caucasian women.  The impact of such childhood behaviours may not always be apparent, ie we have turned out quite well considering. Still, we do admire women who yet, and despite the aforementioned predicament possess both that eternal and variable element element that Godard speaks of.

When we think of the word beauty, physical appearance alone feels almost like an antonym. Instead, I see beautiful people as those whose external reflects their internal.

And there are many who match this definition, but the below came to mind when we decided to include to the seven’s category, a list of seven beautiful Afropolitan women making an impact in the motherland and the Diaspora.

KenyanVibe loves all the ladies listed and we are quite sure you will too.

1. Ayo

Ayọ is a Nigerian/Romanian singer. She grew up with a mother who was a heroine addict until her father got custody of her when she turned fourteen. We love this video of hers, shot in Lagos. It reflects both her inner and outer beauty. 

2. Wunmi

 

Afro jazz singer Wunmi is also a dancer and fashion designer. She was born in the UK, to Nigerian parents. In her recent video collaboration with TRoy from Broadcite, she proves that her beauty is individual, gorgeous and completely representative of her Afropolitan background.

 

3. Mayra Andrade

 

There is something about Cape Verdian women. They are not only attractive, but they also have that proud, earth-mother quality to them. Or maybe it’s just Mayra that makes us imagine so? She was born in Cuba, and has thereafter lived in Senegal, then Angola, followed by Germany, before settling on her parent’s native island of Cape Verde.

4. Nneka

 

We’ve posted about Nneka’s beauty mesmerizing us before. She is truly beautiful inside and out, and her tomboyish, unintentional style only adds to her allure.

 

5. Shingai Shoniwa

 

Zimbabwean, with a name that means perseverance, and a kind but driven attitude to match, Shingai is a household name now, isn’t she? She should be! When it comes to Afropolitan style, if such a term can be coined, then Shingai is the godmother of it.

 

6. Iyadede

 

Iyadede makes us go all pop  Her unique style is fun and fearless. We're excited to hear more about this beautiful woman who escaped the Rwandan genocide by exiling to Belgium. From there she has ventured on her Afropolitan journey and is currently a Brooklyn artist.

7 Sophie Okonedo

 

Sophie Okonedo is the daughter of a Polish/Russian mother and a Nigerian father.  She's also the first African actress to be nominated for an oscar in that category. Either way, her beauty seems to come from an internal source of eternal strength and soft humility at the same time.

 

Here's the full trailer.....

 

VIDEO: AYO

Ayo

Ayo. - LIVE @ New Pop Festival 2007 in Baden-Baden/Germany

>via: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8CyJC-IwKw&feature=related

Live Session // Ayo – Black Spoon

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Le dernier album d’Ayọ est sorti le 7 mars. Il se caractérise par une énergie hors du commun. On la retrouve notamment dans la réalisation avec un son très brut.We’ve Got To illustre tout à fait cela. Mais c’est une autre chanson que j’ai filmée récemment, particulièrement sombre : . Nous en parlerons très bientôt puisqu’une interview fera suite à cette session acoustique.

 

 

 

PUB: River Styx

Contests

 

2011 River Styx Founders Award
High School Poetry Contest

$150 First Prize

 

  • No entry fee!
  • Must be a high school student in the St. Louis bi-state metro area.
  • Include student's name, address, and name of school on cover letter only.
  • Enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope; we will use it to notify you of results.
  • Send up to five poems, each on a separate page.
  • Winner invited to read at May River Styx Lit Feast.
  • Entries must be postmarked by April 22.
  • Judged by the River Styx editors.
  • Send poems, postmarked no later than April 22, to:

    River Styx Founders Award
    3547 Olive Street, Suite 107
    St. Louis, MO 63103-1014

 

River Styx
2011 International Poetry Contest

$1500 First Prize

Send up to three poems, not more than 14 pages.
All entrants will be notified by S.A.S.E.
$20 reading fee includes a one-year subscription (3 issues).
Include name and address on cover letter only.

2011 judge: B. H. Fairchild.
Winner published in Fall issue.
All poems will be considered for publication.

Postmark poems by May 31st to:

River Styx Poetry Contest
3547 Olive Street, Suite 107
St. Louis, MO 63103-1014

River Styx
2012 Schlafly Beer Micro-Fiction Contest

$1500 First Prize plus one case of micro-brewed Schlafly Beer

500 words maximum per story, up to three stories per entry.
$20 reading fee includes a one-year subscription
(3 issues).
Include name and address on cover letter only.
Entrants will be notified by S.A.S.E.
Winner published in Spring issue.
All stories will be considered for publication.

Postmark entries by December 31, 2011 to:

River Styx's Schlafly Beer Micro-Fiction Contest
3547 Olive Street, Suite 107
St. Louis MO 63103

 

 


 

Contest Winners

 

Winners of the Fifth Annual (2011) Schlafly Beer Micro-Brew Micro-Fiction Contest

Thank you for submitting your work to the Fifth Annual River Styx Schlafly Micro-Fiction Micro-Brew Contest. We received over 500 submissions this year. Of those, our editorial panel selected twenty finalists, and then selected the winners. We thought the overall quality of manuscripts was exceptionally high. Here are the results:

  • 1st Place          Katie Cortese, "Thrill Ride"
  • 2nd Place         Laura Kate Resnik, "Ms. Muffet"
  • 3rd Place          Allison Alsup, "Pioneers"

    Honorable Mentions
    Jeanne Emmons, "Vinyl"
    Kim Henderson, "Girls"
    Thomas Israel Hopkins, "When the Immigrant Is Hot"
    Hugh Martin, "Three Months Before We Ship to Iraq"
    Francine Witte, "Husband Weight"

WINNERS OF THE 2010
River Styx International Poetry Contest

Thank you for submitting your work to the 2010 River Styx International Poetry Contest. Here are the 2010 results:

  • 1st Place Stephen Gibson, "Megapixels"
  • 2nd Place Diana Arterian, "The Albatross, Golden Mollymawk"
  • 3rd Place Will Greenway, "Annunciation"
  • Honorable Mention Susan Cohen, "Pantoum of The Blue Virgin"

2010 River Styx Founder's Award
Poetry Contest for St. Louis Area High School Students

  • 1st Place:
    Ben Constantino, St. Louis Priory School and Lauren Fields, Crossroads College Preparatory School
  • Honorable Mentions:  
    Benjamin Layton Corely, Priory
    Luke D. Slabaugh, Priory
    Ryan Bry, Ladue Horton Watkins High School

 

PUB: Yazoo River Press

 

Haiku Page, a new printed journal founded in Itta Bena, MS, now seeks submissions of haiku, senryu, and essays on haiku to be published in the new journal. Please email your submissions to:

haikupage [at] yahoo [dot] com

or mail to:

The Editor, Haiku Page
14000 Hwy 82 W., #5032
Itta Bena, MS 38941-1400