PUB: Announcing the 2011 TBR Editorial Review Prize Call « The Basin Blog

Announcing the 2011

TBR Editorial Review Prize Call

Tidal Basin Review invites prose and poetry submissions for the second annual TBR Editorial Review Prize. One poem and one prose entry (fiction or creative nonfiction) will be chosen for this prize.

$200.00 will be awarded to one winner in each category (i.e., poetry and prose). In some cases, runners-up may be identified, however, Tidal Basin Review is not obligated to select runners-up. All winners will be published in the upcoming issue of Tidal Basin Review.

ENTRY GUIDELINES

For prose entries, submit via the Submission Manager no more than 2,500 words. For poetry entries, submit no more than five (5) poems. You may make multiple submissions, however, a $15 fee must accompany each entry. Previously published work, including work that has appeared online (in any form), is not eligible. There are no restrictions regarding form, style, or content. We accept simultaneous submissions, but ask that you alert us via the Submission Manager if your work is accepted elsewhere. No refunds will be provided for partial or full withdrawals. All eligible contest entries will be considered for publication in an issue of Tidal Basin Review.

ENTRY PREPARATION:

When preparing submissions, please make sure your work does not include any identifying information within the title or body of your entry. When submitting your entry, please provide in the comments section a list of poem titles (for poetry entries) and/or the title (for prose entries) along with relevant contact information including full name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number. Your entry filename should contain only the title of your work, category, and date submitted (i.e., The Long Road, Prose, 4222011).

CONTEST READING PERIOD:

Contest entries will be accepted from April 22nd, 2011, 12:00 a.m. through June 30, 2011, 11:59 p.m. Any contest submissions received outside of this submission period will not be considered for the contest issue or for general publication in an issue of Tidal Basin Review. Winners will be announced no later than July 15, 2011, 12:59 p.m.

ELIGIBILITY:

In accord with Tidal Basin Review’s mission and vision, submissions from non-U.S. residents and/or non-U.S. citizens are not eligible for and will not be considered for the 2011 TBR Editorial Review Prize.

 

PUB: www.gemini-magazine.com short short story contest fiction

THE 2011
Gemini Magazine
FLASH FICTION
CONTEST
Grand Prize: $1,000
Second Place: $100
Four Honorable Mentions
Entry fee: $4
($3 for each additional entry)
Deadline: August 31, 2011
Maximum length: 1,000 words

All Six Finalists Will Be Published Online in the
October 2011 Issue of Gemini.

 

Absolutely no restrictions on content, style or genre.
Simply send your best
, most powerful work.

Why such a low entry fee for a major contest? So EVERYONE
can have a chance. We publish both new and experienced
writers. Our 2010 Flash Fiction Contest marked the first
fiction publication for both the Grand Prize and Second Place
winners. (See results of our previous fiction contests below.)

 

TO ENTER BY EMAIL:

1. Click "Donate" and pay the $4 entry fee                      
  ($3 for each additional entry).                          

("Security code" is on back of credit card; if you didn't
receive confirmation number, transaction was not processed.)

2. Paste confirmation number and previously unpublished
story into body of email and send to:

 

 

contest@gemini-magazine.com">contest@gemini-magazine.com

 

NO attachments. Do not include bio—just your story and
contact info. Enter as many stories as you like; $4 fee for  
first story, $3 for each additional story. Total
the entry fees
into one payment:

2 stories = $7
3 stories = $10
4 stories = $13
7 stories = $22

 

TO ENTER BY SNAIL MAIL:

1. Mail entry with $4 check or money order, payable to
Gemini Magazine, to:

Contest, Gemini Magazine
P.O. Box 1485
Onset, MA  02558 USA

(include $3 for each additional entry)

postmark deadline: August 31, 2011

 

 

 

INTERVIEW + VIDEO: Black and White: Grada Kilomba on dealing with Racism in Europe > AFRO-EUROPE

Black and White:

Grada Kilomba

on dealing with

Racism in Europe

"Black people look at themselves from the perspective of white people," says writer Grada Kilomba. "They don't look at themselves from their own perspective."

Kilomba, the author of “Plantation Memories – Episodes of Every Day Racism", has origins in the West African Islands São Tomé e Príncipe and was born in Lisbon where she studied clinical psychology and psychoanalysis at ISPA.

In a very interesting video she describes the nature of racism in Europe, how white Europeans can repair their relationships to minorities, and minorities can heal themselves.



In an interview which was republished in Africanvenir Kilomba answers the question: what exactly does it mean to be white?

"White is not a colour. White is a political definition, which represents historical, political and social privileges of a certain group that has access to dominant structures and institutions of society. Whiteness represents the reality and history of a certain group. When we talk about what it means to be white, then we talk about politics and certainly not about biology. Just like the term black is a political identity, which refers to a historicity, political and social realities and not to biology.

As we know there are black people who are very light-skinned, others who are dark-skinned, others who have blue eyes. It is the political history and reality that constructs these terms."

 

__________________________

‘White is not a color’ -

An interview with author

and psychoanalyst Grada Kilomba

The following interview with Dr. Grada Kilomba, author of “Plantation Memories – Episodes of Every Day Racism” was first published by The African Times, the interview was conducted by Stefanie Hirsbrunner. Grada Kilomba's roots are in São Tomé e Príncipe and Portugal. Her main interest of research is racism. Kilomba’s seminar at the Free University in Berlin had to be moved to one of the biggest lectures halls because so many students wanted to attend.

THE AFRICAN TIMES: How do you explain the huge interest especially from whites when you talk about racism?

Grada Kilomba: First of all, important is who teaches, what is being taught and how. I try to combine traditional academic scholarship with literature and creative narrative. In this way, the lecture becomes very artistic and fascinating for both the students and for me. I learned this from other authors such as Frantz Fanon.

When you read their work, you really don’t know where to place it. Is it poetry? Is it prose? Is it political science? I like this combination of disciplines and views, which invites one to look at things in a very complex way. I also find this a very honest way to reflect on politics because you speak from your own position.

This is a perspective that comes from the margins and it is very new for most of the students. I work with a complete new generation of students, who are willing to heal their history, to position themselves anew as well as to work on their own racism.

 

Shame is a common reaction when whites are being confronted with their own racism. How do you transform this reaction into something productive?

Working on one’s own racism is a psychological process and it has nothing to do with morality. It starts with denial, goes on with guilt and then comes shame, which allows one to achieve recognition afterward. Once you have achieved recognition, you can start repairing structures, the so-called reparation.

White people often ask: “Am I racist?” This is a moral question, which is not really productive because the answer would always be: “Yes.” We have to understand that we are educated to think in colonial and racist structures. The question should instead be: “How can I deconstruct my own racism?” This would be a productive question that already opposes the first step, denial, and initiates that psychological process.

 

Can you explain why you chose to write a book on everyday racism? What characterizes everyday racism?

In my writings, I like making this link between past and present, fantasy and reality, memory and trauma using remembered stories of slavery and colonialism. It is interesting how racism in the present is able to place you back in history. It restages a colonial order: Whenever a person is confronted with racism at that precise moment, he or she is being treated as the subordinate and exotic “other” like in colonial times. And because this chain to the past and the trauma has not really been explored yet, I decided to write this book in the form of psychoanalytical episodes on everyday racism.

When we speak about racism, it usually has a macro-political perspective but black people’s realities, thoughts, feelings and experiences have been often ignored. That is exactly what I wanted to have at the center of this book, our subjective world.

 

Are there any remarkable differences between European countries when it comes to racism or talking about it?

Yes and no. A critical and reflective view upon the brutality of colonialism is almost nonexistent in many European countries. In Germany, on the contrary, I experience a sense of guilt and shame toward racism, which is more productive. Nevertheless that happens only in relation to the Holocaust; when it comes to the German colonial history, it is unknown even in school textbooks.

I believe it is a collective process which Europe has to complete together, facing its very problematic history of racism, which started with slavery, followed by colonization and today’s fortress Europe. Racism has always been in the center of European politics and this has not changed until today.

 

A famous quote from Simone de Beauvoir goes, “One is not born a woman, but becomes one.” Do you see any truth in the variation, “One is not born white, but becomes white?”

This is a very problematic phrase because one of the big fantasies of white (people) is having the possibility to escape their own whiteness, to be able to say: “I am white, but I am not like other white people.” What is very important when we talk about racism is to understand that whiteness is a political identity, which has the privilege of both being at the center and still being absent. That is, having the power, but this power is perceived as neutral and normal. It is precisely this privilege of remaining unmarked but of marking the others that characterizes racism.

 

 

So what exactly does it mean to be white then?

White is not a color. White is a political definition, which represents historical, political and social privileges of a certain group that has access to dominant structures and institutions of society. Whiteness represents the reality and history of a certain group. When we talk about what it means to be white, then we talk about politics and certainly not about biology. Just like the term black is a political identity, which refers to a historicity, political and social realities and not to biology.

As we know there are black people who are very light-skinned, others who are dark-skinned, others who have blue eyes. It is the political history and reality that constructs these terms.

 

What can white people contribute to the struggle to overcome racism?

They should work on themselves, start doing their homework. That is already enough to ask, compared to the fact that black people have been doing exactly this for the past 500 years.

 

 

Can whites also be victims of racism?

This question is illogical. Those who (propagate) racism do not experience racism. People who exclude, dominate and oppress cannot be victims of that oppression at the same time. But they certainly develop a sense of guilt, which sometimes is confused with being a victim. What often happens is that, because the sense of guilt is so overwhelming, the aggressor turns her-/himself into the victim, and turns the victim into her/his aggressor. This allows the aggressor to perceive her-/himself as good and to free themselves from the anxiety their own racism causes. A black person never has this choice.

 

 

Do you believe in a future without racism?

No. History and everyday life show me the opposite. There has been much transformation but also stagnation, they both co-exist. The fact that Obama is president does not mean that racism is over; the fact that Merkel is chancellor does not mean that we reached the end of sexism. And the fact that the mayor of Berlin is homosexual does not mean the end of homophobia. But I still wish very much for a future where people can live together as equals.

 

First published by: |+| The African Times
Grada Kilomba's Website: |+| www.gradakilomba.com/

 

OP-ED: The Real World | Africa on the Blog

The Real World


I’ve been at a loss recently about what to write about on AOTB. Politics and economics hold only avague interest and I know so little about other African countries (which is very regrettable and a fact I hope to change soon). So I decided to keep it real and stick to Rule #1 of good writing: write what you know.

What I know is that I live on a farm in a beautiful citrus valley and wake each morning to the gorgeous African sunrise reflecting its signature palette off the rolling mountains which are so characteristic of this region. On the way to work I dodge and weave through potholes some the size of small craters.   The road is finally being patched up though, in preparation for the local-government elections of course.

Rhino wading through yellow flowers

I pass cows and goats and children and people who raise their arms as I whizz by, hoping for a ride. I feel a pang of guilt every time this happens.  Every god-damn time. Why should I be alone in a car that can fit five when others have nothing?  The case of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’become more glaringly apparent with every face I pass. I try to steel my heart to it – stone faced.  I feel especially rotten when I pass by old men in their overalls, carrying ancient suitcases and the scars of a lifetime of hard work and our not-too-distant oppressive past.  I’ve often thought of stopping, but my mother’s words ring out from the back of my mind, telling me to never give in to those thoughts, not a single woman alone, not in this country. Memories of the shock and outrage caused by newspaper articles and stories of people enduring brutalities as a result of offering lifts to strangers come to mind. Stories I wouldn’t repeat. Stories I wish I could forget. Worse than thatis remembering how jaded we became to it, how hazed: the banality that eventually came after hearing too many of those stories…But I hear the stats say its getting better and crime is on the decline. I’ve stopped reading the news.

I’m headed back to Johannesburg today for a week-working out of the office there on an assignment.  I remember when I first came out here to ‘the bush’; it was like heading out into the twilight zone. In my ignorant, highly-strung city-girl condescension, I found people so backwards, so simple.  It felt surreal like I was a character ina Hollywood flick and I’d just landed in a previous century. Every time I went down to the city I thought, “Thank God! I’m heading back to ‘The Real World’!”   Where people talked fast and dressed well and said appropriate things and had an iota of social etiquette! Where roads were good and service was good and you could actually find somewhere decent to have lunch on a Saturday with your girlfriends.

No, no. Now I was in Africa, and now I had to play by her rules.  Africa, where people were slow and couldn’t care less how they talked, walked, dressed.  Africa, where the uneducated run the show.  Africa where the pure lack of housing mean people drive 50km or more to work and back.  Africa, where the only fear of leaving your windows and doors open all day was the monkeys!  Africa,where the heat bounced off every surface to find you no matter how hard to tried to avoid it…Africa where the smell of clean air and dry earth and grass took you back to pre-historic, untouched simplicity. Africa, where people cared about their neighbours (even though they gossiped about them viciously behind their backs).  Africa, where you actually had time; time to think, to love and to understand whereyou came from and where you are going.

In South Africa, its so easy to lose yourself in the hustle and bustle of the city. With money, you can live a first-world life! You can forget that you are in Africa after all…Its a farce.  After a while out in the ‘real Africa’, I realised something…It wasn’t exactly cognitive, or even emotional. The closest I can come to describing it would be that it was a spiritual alignment with reality.  I became patient, quiet, slow. I could relax for the first time in months, maybe years. I started to appreciate every early morning start, every cow that wouldn’t budge from the road when I was late for work, even the arms that lifted as I passed by.

I came to the understanding that this place is what it is. It is real and as beautifully simple as it appears. And it is not troubled by what it isn’t. There is no farce here, no masks, no ‘cool’.   It really hit me when I drove back from JoBurg a few weeks ago.  As I came over the pass and saw the Valley of Citrus sprawling out before me in all its glory I thought, “Thank God, I’m back in ‘The Real World’!”

__________________________

Rhea Naidoo

Rhea Naidoo

I am a South African woman of Indian descent who comes from the sunny, seaside city of Durban.  For the past five years, I’ve lived in Cape Town, studying an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering. After graduating in 2010, I began a career in project management with a large resources and mining company.  The two-year project we’re currently working is based in the rural settlement of Steelpoort in the Limpopo Province.

Being an engineer is sometimes a challenge. Having to wear safety boots and a hard hat to work every day is a bit of a change for me, but I’m enjoying the experience. Being a female in this industry is also tough, but I always maintain a sense of femininity despite the masculine environment I work in. Through my blog, Engineer-Chic.blogspot.com, I hope to inspire young women into careers in engineering by showing a fun and fresh side to this stereotyped field.

Apart from my passion for engineering, I am extremely passionate about Africa and development. I’ve been heavily involved with the University of Cape Town’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), a student-run organisation that seeks to link engineering students with developmental projects in under-served communities.  This year however, my focus will be to expand the organisation to other South African universities, as well as to start a forum for professionals to participate through EWB-SA. 

 

 

INTERVIEW: Ten Questions, with Pamela Mordecai > Open Book: Toronto

Ten Questions, with

Pamela Mordecai

Pamela Mordecai talks to Open Book about the créolité of Caribbean literary traditions, translating the Gospel stories into Jamaican patwa, and her most recent short story collection, Pink Icing and Other Stories.

Home

Open Book Toronto:

When did you first discover the power of words? Did you write as a child?

Pamela Mordecai

I think I discovered the power of words by being on stage. Two of my clearest, earliest memories are of being in plays. In the first, the name of which I can’t recall, I played Rosebud and wore a dreadful costume made out of red and green crepe paper with edges crimped by pinking shears! The other recollection is of playing Cobweb, one of Titania’s fairies, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream , wearing a delicious, filmy, silvery-black tutu! I took part in many plays in school, and began reciting poems early.

The first piece of my writing that is still extant is a poem about Hurricane Charlie in 1951. Here are the first two verses:

Terror and horror
that it was
for sadness and sorrow
it did and it does

for sadness and sorrow
were all that it taught
and sadness and sorrow
were all that it brought.

I was nine.

OBT:

What initially prompted you to compose the stories that make up your most recent collection, Pink Icing and Other Stories (Insomniac Press, 2006)?

PM

I say in the acknowledgments to Pink Icing that the story about my father’s death, “Limber Like Me,” got the collection going, and in a way that’s true, though it isn’t in fact the first story I wrote. “Limber Like Me” won a prize in the Prism International Short Story competition in 1998 and that was very heartening, because I had not published much prose at that point, and thought of myself pretty much as a poet and children’s writer. I am ambivalent about literary prizes, since so many things other than merit can influence a judge’s choice. Overall, the system of awards and grants in Canada serves the literary community very well, and the competitions run by Canadian literary journals every year do a good job of promoting and encouraging writers. When I won grants from the OAC and TAC for a proposed short fiction collection put together around that prize-winning story, I grabbed the ball and ran. The result was Pink Icing, which was, as I remember, initially called “Limber Like Me.”

OBT:

How would you describe your working style, or optimal environment for writing?

PM

I write many kinds of things, and the writing process can be very different, depending on the project. For example, developing a play can be a lengthy process of work-shopping over many years, of rewriting according to feedback from readings, rewriting once the play is actually in production, according to that set of exigencies, and so on. However, if I’m commissioned to write a textbook or edit an anthology, for example, there’s inevitably a timeline embedded in a contract. In that case, everything else gets put to one side, and I’m focused to the point of obsession. That’s really not the best way to approach any task. One can miss many good “real life” things when one is so completely enthralled by a project. If I’m working on poetry or fiction, the process is gentler—sometimes a bit too gentle. It takes me, on average, five years or so to produce a collection of creative work. Recently, I’ve been involved with writing groups, and that’s been great in creating more disciplined writing habits. I said a while back on OBT that the optimal writing environment for me is “being at my computer on the top floor of our house, looking through the window at the Toronto skyline, not worrying about money, with my husband, Martin, also a writer, nearby, to give me feedback and make me lunch and dinner.” That’s still true.

OBT:

You have been seen as both a quintessential Caribbean writer, and yet, couldn`t it be argued that there is no single Caribbean literary style, because such a style is necessarily cross-cultural, interlingual, creole? How do you see yourself within the Caribbean literary tradition?

PM

I think you are absolutely right—there is no single anything in the Caribbean: literary style, culinary tradition, music, dance, religion, and so forth. So there’s probably no quintessential Caribbean writer either. It’s all fluid, “Everything is everything,” as Ms. Lauryn Hill would say, and the tolerance—indeed the happy, exhilarated indulgence of that fluidity—is perhaps what is most Caribbean of all! I think we now recognize language as an important part of what is Caribbean. I keep saying language is the first thing of their own that the slaves made, and in the case of Jamaica, they made our patwa very fast. Jamaican language has come into its own, thanks to Claude McKay, Louise Bennett, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, a host of reggae ambassadors, the dub poets, Dick HoLung, Oliver Samuels and a vast diaspora of unapologetic creole speakers and performers. Theorists of créolité and Antillanité see language as a defining characteristic of being Antillean. Me, I don’t believe in definitions. Still, Caribbean voices and the sound of patwa are a very big part of my inspiration. I’ve always heard those rhythms loud and clear and they’ve always been deeply affecting, perhaps because I was lucky enough to be tuned to their pith and power early by the poetry and commentary of Louise Bennett, the banter of Miss Lou and Maas Rannie, the raucous carryings on of Putus and Rannie, the pantomimes at Ward Theatre in which Jamaican creole held mighty sway... as for how I see myself in the tradition: I’ve written a lot for children, and I really ought to collect that writing, because there is so little for Caribbean children. I am determined to tell down-to-earth stories in poetry and prose, avoiding what I tease my husband by calling “like-and-as writing.” I’m not interested in the high literary stuff, the writing that’s hard to read. I can be as obtuse as anybody, but we’ve lost three generations of readers because we thought we’d plunk for being highfalutin, which neither Dickens nor Jane Austen nor Sam Selvon nor Olive Senior are. And they are superb storytellers.

OBT:

In addition to being an author of several books, you have also been involved in the theatre. How do you see the relationship between writing and performance?

PM

The stage was my first experience of the word and that language-in-performance brings me characters and story. It also may very well be that this performativeness or performability is a Caribbean thing. Everything I write is destined to become what Trinidadian critic Gordon Rohlehr so felicitously calls “the word in audible motion”.

OBT:

How do you see your writing projects within the larger project of recognizing, preserving and promoting the contributions of Caribbean peoples and their collective histories?

PM

My husband and I wrote a book called Culture and Customs of Jamaica, a reference work published in the U.S. I like to think it’s a contribution to the work you identify. Where my other writing projects up to now are concerned, other persons may pass judgment, except perhaps in the one respect that they are very firmly rooted in Jamaican language and the culture of ordinary Jamaican town and city folk. I’ve put together or shared in putting together four important anthologies, the most recent being Her True-True Name, published in 1989 and co-edited with my sister, Betty Wilson. It is the first collection of fiction by women from the Anglophone/Francophone/Hispanophone Caribbean, in English translation.

OBT:

Who are your favourite writers?

PM

Anybody who answers that is nuts! I like writers from the Caribbean. I like people who write funny stuff. I love a good poet, any good poet, and any good writer of detective fiction. Shakespeare is my hero. So is Georges Simenon. Ursula Le Guin and the late Octavia Butler are fabulous writers of speculative fiction. Nalo Hopkinson is superb.

OBT:

What are you reading right now, or planning to read in the near future?

PM

Timothy Reiss's The Meaning of Literature and Mirages of the Self; Rachel Manley's Horses in Her Hair; Derek Walcott's The Prodigal .

OBT:

Are you currently at work with any new projects?

PM

My newest project involves turning my second book of poetry— de man: a performance poem—into a full-length play. It’s the story of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ written entirely in Jamaican Creole. I’m also remaking some of my children’s poems into mash-ups of French, Spanish, English and Jamaican patwa. I find mash-ups interesting and challenging. I also hope to start work on a book about the insights offered by translating the Gospel stories into Jamaican patwa, tentatively called The Risible Jesus.

OBT:

Will you be reading or presenting at any upcoming events? Where can we go to hear or find your work?

PM

On February 7th I read at seven-thirty at the Richmond Hill Public Library in an evening shared by Horane Smith, a Jamaican novelist and writer of historical fiction. On Wednesday, February 23rd, Olive Senior, Rachel Manley and I read from award-winning works of memoir, fiction and poetry and join Donna Bailey-Nurse for a discussion about the art of loving Jamaica. It’s at the Don Mills Public Library and starts at seven o’clock.


Pamela Mordecai is a Jamaican writer, teacher, and scholar and poet. She attended high school in Jamaica and college in the United States, where she did a first degree in English. A trained language-arts teacher with a PhD in English, she has taught at secondary and tertiary levels, trained teachers, and worked in media and in publishing. She is the author of over thirty books, including textbooks, children’s books, and four books of poetry. She lives in Toronto.

For more information on Pamela Mordecai, visit her website by clicking here.

 

VIDEO: DH Film Review || When the Drum is Beating > Develop Haiti

DH Film Review ||

When the Drum is Beating

Recently I walked out of When the Drum is Beating, a new Haiti doc that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.  I fumed on Twitter but later that night I dropped in on the after-party at a hotel bar for the doc’s stars, visiting members of a 62-year-old orchestra from Cap-Haïtien, the Septentrional. By Flatbush, Brooklyn standards the party would’ve been a flop but as far as artsy-intellectual Manhattan gatherings go, it wasn’t too bad either. “There’re a lot of newcomers to Haiti here tonight,” was how one enthusiastic Haitian mingler described the crowd. Makes sense. Much of the doc came across like it was made for a liberal sensibility that’s shocked-just-shocked by deprivation.  

When the Drum is Beating is about the band and the history of Haiti from slavery through the 2010 earthquake.  That’s a lot, too much, and it shows. Thank God then for the archival footage (rare stuff, to hear a 1915 Marine narrating the US’s arrival), some poignant interviews and the festival scenes.  As a concert-goer says during fet chanpet, “When Septen plays I’m rich, when they stop I’m poor.”

 

That singular statement is a brilliant set-up to explore the small triumphs of music-making in a place as trying as Haiti. But the film’s need to teach the History of Haiti 101 (hint: if you’re the type to watch a documentary film you’ve already taken that class) gets in the way of the actual story. It smothers its gems, the band-members, with the country’s brutality and poverty.  By the time I bounced, about 10 minutes before closing credits, I felt like I’d ground my teeth through another flat rendering of Haiti and Haitians.

Yet my reaction was what filmmaker Whitney Dow, known for PBS docs about racism in the United States, was trying to avoid. So what happened?

When I made this film, I was really hoping that I could create a different access point to Haiti. What people have at the moment is a vision of violence, privation, unrest and poverty, and I really wanted to offer people a different way in….I’ve seen so many films about Haiti that open with a squalid scene and some big-eyed child, and that absolutely exists there and we don’t ignore that in the film, but this will give people a different way to look at and understand Haiti.

It doesn’t.  Unlike his earlier work, which restricted itself to particular towns, time periods and events Dow goes super-wide and attempts to tell both the story of the Septen orchestra and the 200-year history of Haiti in 84 minutes. That’s nuts. So perhaps because of the time crunch, Drum plays like two separate and for the most part disjointed stories. The rare moment they come together however: magic.

Hulric Pierre-Louis, Septentrional's founder, passed in 2009

Like when Hulric Pierre-Louis, Septen’s white-haired founder waves his arms while recalling how a partier, a Tonton Macoute, sprayed bursts of bullets during a small-venue concert, accidentally killing (or maiming?) a band-member. But the show had to go on. While the older man gesticulates, the camera zooms in on his boastful lead singer (I’m the best in the world, he’d said) whose face is now tight with discomfort.  Later, said Pierre-Louis, Septen made up a popular song praising Papa Doc and they had no more trouble from Tonton Macoutes. The lead singer finally speaks. We’re here for music, not to talk politics. Let’s move on. And maddeningly, the camera obeys.

But now that Pierre-Louis can speak publicly about the Duvaliers, what does he really think about producing what was in effect propaganda for Papa Doc?  The lead singer: why doesn’t he want to talk politics? Did Septen ever produce  music that questioned or challenged the status quo? If they didn’t, why not? And were Haitians more or less okay with Septen’s neutrality? Drum makes no effort to address this line of questioning even though this film is also about Haiti’s political history.  The omission is ironic, too, given the film’s title. Within the heritage of Africans and enslaved Africans in the New World, a beating drum was never just about making black people dance or, as this film suggests, forget.

Particularly for people kept poor and uneducated by their ruling elite, as in South Africa during apartheid and other Caribbean islands during colonialism and after, music expressed the complaints, frustrations and side-eye glances of the supposedly voiceless. Music was, is, a form of rebellion and popular mobilization (see Egyptian rap for its most recent incarnation).  Is Septen a part of that global tradition?  For a population whose human, civil and political rights are taken and given at the whims of others, I can’t imagine it’s an unimportant question.

Another not unimportant question: where are women in this film? Bands may or may not be an all-male affair in Haiti but its politics definitely is not.  While men comment on, suffer from or bear through the situation unfolding around them, women appear in the subtitled lyrics of two songs: one about them being tricksters (and men being hotheaded) and the other about a young girl disobeying her parents and going off to party (and presumably trouble). If women’s absence from political conversation is indeed the reality at least acknowledge it. Don’t reproduce their exclusion as though it’s acceptable for either me or, and I’m willing to bet, Haitian women.

Overall, Drum is a reel of missed opportunities. I wish that Dow had trusted that band-members’ stories alone could fill this film. With more space, and more attempts to show band-members interacting with their families and their city, there would have been enough insight, tension, triumph and of course, Haitian history from the band’s birth in 1948 and on, to keep an audience satisfied.  But what we get instead is another story about Haiti where poverty and violence, with some music thrown in, are the main characters. And really, what’s so new about that?

 

VIDEO: JESS3 x Economist: Women's Economic Opportunity on Vimeo

JESS3 x Economist:

Women's Economic Opportunity

In hopes of going beyond the traditionally static, and oftentimes boring, PowerPoint presentation, The Economist tapped JESS3 to help bring an important data set to life through a powerful graphic animation.

Working closing with the Economist Intelligence Unit, which compiled a 150-page report called the Women’s Economic Opportunity Index, our team explored creative direction through multiple styleframes in order to achieve a look that would illuminate crucial information about women’s opportunity across the world.

In combing through data and creating detailed storyboards, this six-minute animation tells the story through data visualization of where women stand in the business world from issues ranging from maternity leave to property rights.

The Economist Intelligence Unit presented the data at the World In 2011 Festival, an event that coincided with the 25th Anniversary of The Economist’s World In… publication. It preceded a panel sponsored by the Washington D.C.-based NGO Vital Voices featuring female entrepreneurs who are changing the way women live and work around the world.

jess3.com/​womens-economic-opportunity-index/​

 

 

VIDEO: Nikki Jean "Pennies in a Jar" LP Release Date & Tracklist > PUT ME ON IT

Nikki Jean

"Pennies in a Jar" LP

Release Date & Tracklist

 

If, like me, you have been following the drama as it unfolded for the last three years you too will be very excited to know that S-Curve Records (a Universal affiliate), will be releasing Nikki Jeans debut album Pennies In A Jar on June 7th.

Aside from her ridiculous talent and beauty, the woman is a marketing beast and has been video blogging her life for three years, alongside all kinds of other devotion-inspiring activities including going on tours of her fans houses, sending them hand written Christmas cards, answering all of their questions on Tumblr, baking cookies, knitting, the list goes on... The documentation process however allowed her fans an insight in to the pain and frustration of being caught in a deal with Columbia who didn't want to put her record out.

"The entertainment industry is a commodities game, just like corn or gold. The chemical composition of gold NEVER changes. Peoples perception of its value changes, and markets change. . but gold doesn’t change.  That’s what we are as artists. . Of course we grow and change every day, but . . our value?  our intrinsic qualities do not change. "

Then this happened...

This has to be one of the most exciting tracklist announcements I've seen in years.

1. How to Unring a Bell (Written by Thom Bell & Nikki Jean)
2. Steel and Feathers (Don’t Ever) (Written by Bob Dylan & Nikki Jean)
3. La Di Da Di Da (Written by Luigi Creatore & Nikki Jean)
4. My Love (Written by Lamont Dozier & Nikki Jean)
5. Pennies in a Jar (Written by Burt Bacharach & Nikki Jean)
6. What’s a Girl Supposed to Do (Written by Jeff Barry & Nikki Jean)
7. Rockaway (Written by Carole King & Nikki Jean)
8. Million Star Motel feat. Lupe Fiasco & Black Thought (Written by Bobby Braddock & Nikki Jean)
9. Patty Crash (Written by Paul Williams & Nikki Jean)
10. China (Written by Jimmy Webb & Nikki Jean)
11. Mercy of Love (Written by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil & Nikki Jean)
12. Sex, Lies and Sunshine (Written by Carly Simon & Nikki Jean)

 

__________________________

Lupe Fiasco / Hip-Hop Saved My Life (feat. Nikki Jean) 

 on Oct 26, 2009

© 2008 WMG
Hip-Hop Saved My Life (feat. Nikki Jean) (video)

VIDEO: MB: An emcee with ambition (South Africa)

MB: An emcee with ambition

Entertainment - Music


Just in time for the festive season, the South African musical fraternity is set to witness the professional introduction of one of the most exciting hip hop artists to emerge out of our shores in recent times. To be among the first to feast their eyes and ears to this rare musical gem who goes by the stage name MB, Mzansi’s music lovers should remained transfixed to their television sets this year.      

Poised to create a major industry buzz, the youthful music find is celebrating the debut of his new music video Go Getta” just a week ahead of the official release of his 13 track full length album, titled AMBITION. Breaking new musical ground, the video is tipped to be one of the first HD (high definition) to ever come out of hop artist and most importantly South African first to debut with four multi location videos.

Quite a major feat for a new artist, the young muso (real name Mbuso Sokhulu) is making appearances on various leading radio stations such as Metro FM and YFM. He is also making television appearances on Channel O, MTV Base and SABC 1’s leading music show “Live”.

About the video, the new singing sensation said: “I am so proud of this song and this video. It’s a very uplifting and inspirational song. I definitely sing this one from the heart. It’s a statement song, and my kind way of saying ‘I have arrived’. While writing the song, MB drew inspiration from his own ambition to make it as an artist, so it should come as no surprise that the video is in sync with his own individual touch and style and how uniquely he is able to articulate it.   “When we started working on the song and the album as a whole, we were inspired by the authenticity of South African musical landscapes and most importantly the reality of life in Mzansi as we all know it,” says producer Banele “Maker” Mthwa,  who has previously worked with popular hip hop stars like Skwatta Kamp. His Sound is fresh and authentic, he adds. “MB has raised the bar.  He is just different and South Africa will see the difference and appreciate it. “

MB's Background:

Born and raised in Daveyton, East of Johannesburg, MB is a prodigy of 3 Diamonds Records, which is home to the likes of Nkuli from Pretoria, Malika who features on the debut hit single ‘Go Getta” and well known R&B singer TeePee (2007  Metro FM Music Music Awards winner for best R&B artist). MB has been cooking up the storm in the studio for several years with his unique powerful voice, and fresh sound, coupled with a hip-hop attitude that is both cool and confident. The video is designed as an introduction to his broad professional repertoire as a performer.

 

What sets MB apart:
Elaborating more on the authenticity of his music, MB says: “All the singles are inspiring and stays true to the South African reality. I am not trying to be anybody else. I am just being myself and I made it a point that I stay away from the impression of artificiality and fictitiousness that has become synonymous with rap music. In the video I am not driving a Bentley, which is something I could have easily opted for.  “I am featuring real people in real life situation, and that’s what would make people to remember me for. What with the hit single, “Sthandwa Sam”! A beautifully crafted love song easy to relate to, MB brings into perspective here our culture of lobola, which is unique to South Africa.

Prolific Writer:

While MB has the charisma, charm and ambition to become a musical force to reckon with, there’s no denying that through his impeccable song writing skill he harbors a deep passion and drive to inspire the youths around the country to strive to turn dreams into reality. He has penned some of the most inspirational messages you can ever find in the hip hop circles. As his producer simply puts it “his punch lines are not dissing, but are inspirational”. The same lyrical prowess and inspirational drive is evident in his follow singles “Go Getta”, “Sthandwa Sam” and “Ain’t The Same”.  All the singles revolves around one simple motto: “if you want to achieve something great in life, you get up and make it happen,” quips MB.

Musical Influence
:
It's been a long journey for MB, who just like many artists before him, had to hassle his way from underground music scenes to the being an active participant in the South African mainstream music arena. He has taken chances and risked it all. We are talking here about someone who took a risk in his studies by focusing his energies in music from as early as the late 90s, to the pain of having to deal with the loss his mother last year.  He knows all too well, the joy that can only come from real life experiences and seeing her musical dream come true.

Record Label:

At 3 Diamonds Records, MB is confident that the battles needed to bring his music to a wider audience are beginning to shape up. “3 Diamonds Records really feels like home to me, says MB, who matriculated from the highly revered National School of Arts in 2004. “My record label and producers have an amazing believe in my talent, and they have allowed my creativity to take its rightful place without setting any parameters. You can hear the freedom whenever I spit out the lyrics and my individual artistry comes out clearly without any compromise.”

Collaborations:
Also refreshing for this rising music star is how the 3 Diamonds family is able to come through for each other. Take the compatibility of MB and Teepee for an example. The quality of production and musicians that comes from this stable is not something that can be easily ignored. So is the support that MB enjoys from stable-mate Teepee and that should tell you what to expect from this musical dynamite!  Other artists featured on the album (title please) include well known rapper Pro-Kid in “Go Getter”, newcomer Kula in “Sthandwa Sam”.  The production team who is able to bring out the best in MB is made up of Mochacho, Semitone and Pro-Play, who are all under the stewardship of Banele “Maker” Mthwa.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE MUSIC VIDEO

FOR MORE /Interview Resquests / Photographs – CONTACT:
Ms Tankiso Komane : 083 312 8950 – 079 821 8731 / tankiso@celebratesafrica.com

 

 

 

 

 

PUB: SubTerrain » Lush 2011 Awards

Lush 2011 Awards

We are now accepting submissions for the 2011 Lush Triumphant Literary Awards Competition.  By Brian Kaufman
  • 3 categories
  • 3 cash prizes
  • one deadline

$3,000 in cash prizes, plus publication in our Winter 2011 issue.

 

The skinny . . .

FICTION MAXIMUM 3,000 WORDS (no specific theme, we simply want to be amazed!)

POETRY A SUITE OF 5 RELATED POEMS (MAXIMUM 15 PAGES)

CREATIVE NON-FICTION (Based on fact, adorned w/fiction) MAXIMUM 4,000 WORDS

ENTRY FEE: $25 PER ENTRY (INCLUDES A ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION! Please send cheque or money order made payable to subTerrain Magazine)

 

(You may submit as many entries in as many categories as you like)

 

The winning entries in each category will receive a $750 cash prize (plus payment for publication) and will be published in our Winter 2011 issue. First runner-up in each category will receive a $250 cash prize and be published in our Spring 2012 issue.

All entries MUST be previously unpublished material and not currently under consideration in any other contest or competition. Entries will NOT be returned (so keep a copy for yourself). Results of the competition will be posted here in late summer, 2011.

All entrants receive a complimentary one-year subscription to subTerrain.

 

SEND ENTRIES TO:

Lush Triumphant c/o subTerrain Magazine

PO Box 3008, MPO, Vancouver, BC V6B 3X5