Lunch Poems: Tracy K. Smith-->First Aired: 4/13/2009
29 minutes
Tracy K. Smith received degrees in English and creative writing from Harvard and Columbia, and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford. Her first book, The Body's Question, was awarded the 2002 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and her most recent collection, Duende: Poems, received the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. She teaches creative writing at Princeton.
Harare North:
the story tellers task
by on December 14, 2009
George Orwell and Graham Green both saw the role of the writer as one who questions and critiques the establishment, the State etc – something which Robert McCrum [writing in the Guardian] fears has been lost to mediocrity and market leaving Britain in a state of “creative bankruptcy.
The storyteller’s task, Greene declared, was “to act as the devil’s advocate”. Born in 1904, the son of a headmaster, Greene was a child of his generation. He distrusted authority, loathed the state and nurtured a visceral hatred of officialdom. His veneration of disloyalty was unique to his psyche, but it was shared by his contemporary, George Orwell. In Why I Write, Orwell declared: “When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie I want to expose.”
Orwell was more of an artist than he liked to let on, but both he and Greene – not alone in the last century – saw the writer’s vocation to be a protestant in a catholic society; to see the virtues of the communist in a capitalist state, and vice versa; above all, to elicit sympathy and understanding for those who lie outside the boundaries of conventional approval. The writer’s duty, said Greene, was to be “a piece of grit in the state machinery”. This vital contrarian instinct has deep roots in the English intellectual tradition. Tom Paine once wrote: “We must guard even our enemies against injustice.”
I fear it is not only Britain which is failing in “exposing the lie” or unpacking the truth. Harare North” by Brian Chikwava is the second of the last two books that seek to “expose the lies”. Arriving in London from Zimbabwe, the unnamed “native African” speaks the magic words “asylum” and thus he begins his life as one of Britain’s millions of “illegals” from across the world. Those who live in daily fear of “break[ing] your disguise”, deportation, humiliation at failing to send the hard earned graft back home. The one’s who service the country’s towns and cities as cleaners, dishwashers, daily labourers, factory workers exploited for £2.45 an hour graft before tax – many earn less.
The narrator, an ex member of Mugabe’s brute squad, the Green Bombers, [which he constantly tries unsuccessfully to justify] is purposeful in his task which is simple enough, to earn the money to settle his debts at home – $5,000 and settle his late mother’s spirit. He initially stays with his cousin and wife before moving to Brixton to live along with several other Zimbabweans, his childhood friend Shingi. Daily life consists of negotiating the underworld of those who live in hiding which requires a creativity way beyond those of us who have red passports or green ones with the right stamps. Jobs come and go, money comes and disappears, fear of opening doors, fear of police on the streets, heads down and combing supermarket dustbins for food past its sell by date all of which is underpinned by racism.
There is much despair and wretchedness but Chikwava makes the book readable by introducing a character who is full of wit and optimism, a survivor rather than a victim. The narrator cleverly explains his cousin’s wife disdain for his arrival in Harare North [London].
“But that’s how all them people from home behave when they is in Harare North; sometimes you talk to them on the phone asking if they don’t mind if you come and live with them and they don’t say ‘no’ because they don’t want you to think that they is selfish. They always say ‘…..OK, just get visa and come…..’ when they know that the visa is where everyone hit the wall because the British High Commission don’t just give visa to any native who thinks he can flag down a jet plane, jump on it and fly off to Harare North, especially when they notice that people get them visitors visa and then on landing in London they do this style of claim asylum……”
Chikwava uses the street English of Harare mixed with south London slang which adds layers to the thought process of the narration full of pathos, mischief and sometimes very threatening and crude often running in parallel. One minute you have empathy for the character the next disgust for his callousness. But ultimately this is a life of hustlers trying to survive poverty and racism as well as a precarious status. One must do what has to be done, he is careful not to break the law, and pray you make it back home instead of ending in a morgue forever forgotten. There is a price and Chikwava exposes the lies which surround the under employed, those living on the extreme margins of society. At the same time he exposes the unpleasant truth of the Green Bombers and life in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe – all are shades of grey.
“Harare North is a big con. We have already put many Mars bars inside people’s pockets, and now look…. Does anyone have any question? Them migrants fidget and grind they teeth; the foreman have hit they heads and get them out of gear and they is not able to say anything”
UPDATE: Interview with Brian Chikwava via Cassava Republic
With this year's Caine Prize for African Writing shortlist now announced, Mildred Kiconco Barya interviews Brian Chikwava, the 2004 winner of the prize. The winner of the 2009 prize will be announced at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, on Monday 6 July.
Brian Chikwava is a Zimbabwean writer. His novel Harare North was published by Jonathan Cape in 2009. He lives in a matchbox-sized flat in London. He eats fish but only on some days. He is also a staggeringly good cyclist.
MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: Why do you write? BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I write because that’s what all bums do when they find a moment of solitude. That was a very useful attitude when I wrote Harare North. MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: At what age did you start writing creatively? BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I must have been 14 when I attempted a film script. I wrote half a dozen lines and had a sore head. I gave up. MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: Describe your writing journey. BRIAN CHIKWAVA: You could say it’s marked by a lot of groping in the dark, full of grunts and yelps. MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What are the thematic concerns in your writing? BRIAN CHIKWAVA: It’s a mixed bag, I must admit. That’s because I just write what I feel like at the time and never really think too much. Maybe if I look carefully there is a running thematic strand but I don’t want to look yet. MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What inspired you to write Seventh Street Alchemy? BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I just happened to have a lot of time on my hands then and was trying to learn the short story form. But I also was surrounded by interesting people. MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: How did you know about the Caine Prize? BRIAN CHIKWAVA: I heard about it when it was launched at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair. MILDRED KICONCO BARYA: What was your initial response when you won the Caine Prize?Let your voice be heard. Comment on this article.
That's my brother there...teling it like it is....lol
GODWIN CHIKWAVA
Brian you are so real and nice to read about. No complexities and need to show off. I love your inner security. Thanks.
BevNambozo, GILGAL
Interesting interview...I love the answer to the last question so much...You know Brian is a very interesting writer...
it's refreshing to come across a seriously brilliant writer who does not take himself too seriously. One always learns something relevant: like the problem-solving combo of a 15 km walk, vodka and talking to strangers. who would have thunk it? we should export this to world leaders so they can lead us out of the present global crisis.
nice interview. I enjoyed it. And Harare North is a blast!!!!
chika
Two skilful debuts lay bare the reality of life in Mugabe's Zimbabwe, says Aminatta Forna
by Aminatta Forna
The Guardian, Saturday 25 April 2009
Harare North
by Brian Chikwava
240pp, Jonathan Cape, £12.99
An Elegy for Easterly
by Petina Gappah
288pp, Faber, £12.99
Harare North is what Zimbabweans call London, a reference to the number of Zimbabwean immigrants who have chosen or been obliged to settle in the city. Johannesburg is Harare South. Brian Chikwava's unnamed asylum-seeking narrator arrives in Harare North with nothing to his name but a survivor's instinct. His is a parasitical existence, first in the house of his cousin and his wife, neither of whom wants him there. When the coldness of his reception finally moves him on, he goes to stay with his only other contact in London, an old school friend who lives with other Zimbabweans in a Brixton squat. Here the reason for the tension that existed between the protagonist and his cousin becomes evident. The young man is a pro-Mugabe thug, a member of the Green Bombers youth brigade, on the run from the police and his own people.
In his narrator Chikwava has created an utterly compelling anti-hero, who exploits and manipulates everyone around him while retaining a superb grandiosity ("I am a principled man!") and sense of entitlement. This is a brave thing for any writer, especially a first-time novelist, to attempt, but Chikwava pulls it off. At first the central character comes across as lazy, naive, cunning, loyal and disloyal by turns, the average teenage lout. Only gradually does Chikwava reveal the extent of his cold machinations and even cruelty - which includes hiring a Polish prostitute to seduce his sexually inexperienced friend Shinge and thereby killing Shinge's budding romance with a young housemate.
Chikwava's great skills are his humour and his ability to create a powerful and original voice. Sekai, the cousin's wife, is a "lapsed African" who doesn't cook for visitors, keeps a dog instead of having children and looks at the narrator with a "pointy eye". But behind the humour are powerful themes. The connection between personal choices and wider events; the narrator's refusal to acknowledge what is happening in his country, even as the bulldozers prepare to move into his mother's village; the exploitation of asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants in London, including by members of their own community. The Brixton household, indeed the whole of Harare North, mirrors the Zimbabwean state, with pro- and anti-Mugabe factions, self-absorbed middle classes and those just trying to get by, like Shinge, by taking employment as BBC (British Bottom Cleaner) workers in old people's homes.
Though Harare North is described as a book about "London as it is experienced by the dispossessed", it seems to me that it is almost entirely about Zimbabwe, just as Heart of Darkness was never about the Congo, but rather the rot in the heart of Leopold's Belgium. If there is a weakness, it is the lack of a driving narrative. But this is a minor criticism. Chikwava's narrator is mesmerising, an amoral chancer who meets his match not in a person, but a place - in Harare North.
Petina Gappah's debut collection is a book of two halves. In the first half are stories of people - women, mostly - coping. The women are downtrodden, exploited, mad, the abandoned, forgotten widows and wives of Big Men. One grieves over her husband's empty coffin at a state funeral attended by the President (here, as in Harare North, Mugabe, though never named, is a constant and menacing presence). Another grieves over her empty marriage and lifeless existence in one of Harare's most exclusive suburbs. An infertile woman watches with envy the swelling stomach of the local madwoman, never realising the unborn child belongs to her own husband. A talented law student finds her future tainted by a spell in a mental home. It makes for bleak reading. Frankly, too much so.
Gappah is a talented writer, but one who wears her heart too obviously on her sleeve in these first few stories. And then, almost halfway through the book, comes "The Mupandawana Dancing Champion" and everything changes. With this absolute gem, which tells the story of a retired coffin maker's attempt to win a local dancing contest, Gappah comes into her own. It is clever, beautifully crafted and very, very funny. Her sense of humour is the key, for it tempers a tendency towards didacticism; it puts the politics where it should be - in the background - and brings the characters to the fore.
From there it just gets better. "Our Man in Geneva Wins a Million Euros" is the story of a Zimbabwean embassy clerk who falls for a Nigerian scam. "The Maid from Lalapanzi" reveals the secret past of a formidable household help. "Aunt Juliana's Indian" explores the complex relationship between an Indian shop owner and his assistant. Though Gappah's characters run the gamut of class from super-wealthy to destitute, she is at her best in her depiction of ordinary people, their ambitions and dreams of a better life even as everything around them crumbles. Through humour and compassion, she depicts that most quintessential of African characteristics: the ability to laugh at life, for fear of crying.
If you want to know a country, read its writers. The reality of life in Zimbabwe, a country that has lost its way, is brilliantly conveyed by both these startling new talents.
• Aminatta Forna's novel Ancestor Stones is published by Bloomsbury
>via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/25/brian-chikwava-petina-gappah
Sierra Leone: Gullah-GeeChee of the Carolina Lowlands
Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of Julie Dash's seminal film - Daughters of the Dust. Like the film, guest blogger J. Gustav (Dog Ate My Blog) reminds us of the fascinating collision of circumstances that slowed down assimilation and allowed the Gullah-Geechee--i.e. African slaves in the Carolina lowlands--to preserve their culture over several generations.The Gullahs are African-Americans who live in the coastal "lowcountry" regions of Georgia and South Carolina. Their language is called Geechee, a concoction of English-based Creole, African words, and African grammar and sentence structures. Their ancestors were brought over as slaves from Sierra Leone by way of Brazil in the mid 1700s. Plantation owners had discovered that rice grew well in the region, and so exported slaves from the West African "rice region" in the hopes they would be able to produce better results with their knowledge of the grain.
With the slaves transplanted to a similar climate also came similar disease, specifically malaria and yellow fever. The Africans had built up some immunity to the common maladies and so were able to weather them as their European owners and overseers headed for the cities and areas with less disease-friendly climates. This left the slaves alone with their black "rice drivers" in charge, and allowed for a continuation of African language and custom away from the supervision of whites bent on erasing these traits.
During the Civil War, many Gullahs fought hard for their freedom, and as a result the lowland region was one of the first to be emancipated. Post-war saw the Gullahs officially receive their freedom, but also saw an increase in their isolation from the country's mainstream culture. Plantation owners gave up their properties due to labor issues and hurricanes, and free blacks were unwilling to work the land due to the extreme climate and chance of disease. The Gullahs were able to continue to live in relative isolation without influence from the outside world, and so continued speaking Geechee and practicing their African-based traditions and customs.
In modern times, the Gullahs have had to contend with new issues and more attention from the outside world. In the 1960s, resorts sought to push Gullah families off lands their families have owned since emancipation, but to no avail -- they have been fought tooth and nail through civil suits, community protest, and political influence. The fight still goes on today, but with more support from the government and other agencies in recognizing the importance of the Gullah-Geechee tradition. In 2005, Congress passed the "Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Act" to preserve historic sites for the culture from southern North Carolina to northern Florida. The act pledges $10 million to be spent over 10 years.
Also in 2005, the gullahs finally completed a translation of the New Testament into Geechee, a project that took over 20 years. In the 1990s, several documentaries were released centering on Gullahs pilgrimages to Sierra Leone to trace and connect with their Western African roots. American educational institutions such as Purdue University have held exhibits and other events showcasing Gullah-Geechee culture. There are many festivals celebrating the culture up and down the lowlands region every year.
Though many Gullahs have moved away to more contemporary settings, the Gullah-Geechee culture still persists, and the Geechee language is still spoken today. Just like their ancestors were able to preserve their customs in the face of strong outside influences, modern Gullahs are resolute to continue their language, culture, and customs, and pass them on to younger generations.
J. Gustav is a guest blogger for Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on masters in social work online for Guide to Online Schools.
Hurricane Tomas floods quake-shattered Haiti town
8:07 AM on 11/05/2010
Peruvian U.N. soldiers and an aid worker take a little girl up into a U.N. truck as earthquake survivors are evacuated from the Corail-Cesselesse tent refugee camp before the arrival of tropical storm Tomas in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
JONATHAN M. KATZ,Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Hurricane Tomas flooded the earthquake-shattered remains of a Haitian town on Friday, forcing families who had already lost their homes in one disaster to flee another. In the country's capital, quake refugees resisted calls to abandon flimsy tarp and tent camps.
Driving winds and storm surge battered Leogane, a seaside town west of Port-au-Prince that was near the epicenter of the Jan. 12 earthquake and was 90 percent destroyed. Dozens of families in one earthquake-refuge camp took their belongings through thigh-high water to a taxi post on high ground, waiting out the rest of the storm under blankets and a sign that read "Welcome to Leogane."
"We got flooded out and we're just waiting for the storm to pass. There's nothing we can do," said Johnny Joseph, a 20-year-old resident.
The storm, once again a hurricane with 85 mph (135 kph) winds, was battering the western tip of Haiti's southern peninsula and the cities of Jeremie and Les Cayes.
One man drowned while trying to ford a river in an SUV in the rural area of Grand-Anse, said civil protection official Pierre Andre. The hurricane had earlier killed at least 14 people in the eastern Caribbean.
The center of the storm was 157 miles from Port-au-Prince, draping charcoal clouds over the city and dropping a steady rain with occasional bursts of wind. There were no immediate reports of damage.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted dangerous storm surges along the coast and possible flash floods and mudslides in mountainous areas.
Haiti's civil protection department had urged people living in camps for the 1.3 million Haitians made homeless by the Jan. 12 earthquake to go to the homes of friends and family.
By evening it was clear most camp residents were not heeding the advice. People in the yard of a high school on the Delmas 33 thoroughfare in Port-au-Prince said their camp's governing committee had passed along the official advice to leave, but they decided to stockpile water and tie down their tents instead.
Buses began circulating around the camps just after dark Thursday night to take residents away, but few were willing to go. Four civil protection buses that pulled up at a camp in the Canape-Vert district left with about five passengers on them.
Many camp residents stayed put out of fear they would lose their few possessions and, worse, be denied permission to return when the storm was over.
"I'm scared that if I leave they'll tear this whole place down. I don't have money to pay for a home somewhere else," said Clarice Napoux, 21, who lives with her boyfriend on a soccer field behind the St. Therese church in Petionville. They lost their house to the quake and their only income is the little she makes selling uncooked rice, beans and dry goods.
Late Thursday, Tomas passed to the east of Jamiaca, where earlier schools closed in eastern provinces and traffic was jammed in the capital, Kingston, as businesses closed early.
"I'm taking no chances," said Carlton Samms, a bus driver who went home early after stopping at a supermarket for food and other supplies.
WATCH THE TODAY SHOW'S REPORT ON HURRICANE TOMAS
The storm was expected to cross over Haiti's southwestern tip, then swirl through the strait that divides Haiti from Cuba.
At the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in southeastern Cuba, the military cleared away any debris that could fly off in strong winds, suspended flights, canceled school and closed the harbor to recreational craft.
"We have a well-rehearsed plan that is going to serve us well," said Navy Cmdr. James Thornton, Guantanamo Bay's operations officer.
Early Friday, the hurricane was located about 160 miles (255 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince and 80 miles (130 kilometers) south-southeast of Guantanamo, Cuba. It was moving to the northeast at about 10 mph (16 kph). Tropical-storm-force winds extended as far as 140 miles (220 kilometers) from the center.
Forecasters warned of a dangerous storm surge that would generate "large and destructive waves" and raise water levels up to 3 feet (nearly 1 meter) above normal tide levels. It also predicted rainfall of 5 to 10 inches (12 to 25 centimeters) for much of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola.
Port-au-Prince's airport was expected to be closed through Friday, American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Sanderson said.
Most of Haiti's post-quake homeless live under donated plastic tarps on open fields. It is often private land, where they have been constantly fighting eviction. A September report from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said 29 percent of 1,268 camps studied had been closed forcibly, meaning the often violent relocation of tens of thousands of people.
Haitian human-rights lawyer Mario Joseph, who testified on behalf of those evicted before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights this summer, said he fears the government is using the storm as an excuse to drive people off disputed land.
"I think it's going to be a time of eviction," he said. He said he has advised people who know they are at risk for floods, landslides and wind damage to stay in buildings near the camp and return to their squatters' sites as soon as possible after the storm.
Reconstruction has barely begun and even the building of transitional shelters -- sturdier than makeshift tents, but not solid houses -- has been slow. Large installments of long-term funds, including a promised $1.15 billion from the United States, have not arrived. The State Department now says it still has to prove the money won't be stolen or misused.
"We know that, particularly with flooding and mudslides, there's going to be a loss of life. It's inevitable. But we will be prepared to do everything that we can to meet the immediate needs of the Haitian people," State department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Thursday.
As rebuilding lags, the United Nations and aid groups have been giving people reasons to stay in camps, providing aid and essential services such as medicine. That continued Thursday as residents reluctant to leave were given reinforcing tarps and other materials.
"We have always said that the best way to protect people in camps is to make camps as resistant as possible to any weather," said Imogen Wall, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "(Evacuation) doesn't make sense ... on a practical level, on a large scale."
Residents of the nearly 8,000-person government relocation camp at Corail-Cesselesse threw bottles at aid workers trying to get them to leave their ShelterBox tents for schools, churches and an abandoned prison nearby.
"If we go away, other people are going to move in our place! We want to stay here because we don't have another place to go," said 29-year-old Roland Jean.
The camp's grounds were designed by U.S. military engineers and graded by the United Nations. But the selection of the site has been criticized by aid groups almost since the beginning: The desert plain nine miles (15 kilometers) north of the city constantly floods and suffers wind damage.
Residents were told the tents could resist hurricanes. ShelterBox spokesman Tommy Tonkins said Thursday that they can stand up to heavy rains and 75 mph (120 kph) winds, but are not hurricane-proof.
Camp officials finally resolved the dispute and several hundred people left Thursday afternoon on trucks provided by U.N. peacekeepers. An AP reporter found that while the school, church and abandoned hospital chosen as shelters for them were large and undamaged, they had no water or usable toilets.
Tomas killed at least 14 people when it slammed the eastern Caribbean country of St. Lucia as a hurricane Saturday. It will cost roughly $500 million to repair flattened banana fields, destroyed houses, broken bridges and eroded beaches on the island, Prime Minister Stephenson King announced Thursday.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
Kamau Daaood performs Live with The Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra at The Jazz Bakery
THIS IS MY AFRICA is AfricaLab’s first major film project.THIS IS MY AFRICA is an award-winning 50-minute documentary that uses the memories and perceptions of 21 Africans and Africaphiles to weave a very different view of the continent. Featuring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Colin Firth, Yinka Shonibare, MBE and Jon Snow, amongst others, the film has been shown in festivals, galleries and museums across the UK, Europe, USA and Africa. THIS IS MY AFRICA premiered on HBO in
February 2010.____________________________________This Is My Africa - Excerpt - Africa in 2060
This Is My Africa - Excerpt - Expression
Zina Saro-Wiwa is a film-maker, writer and broadcast journalist. She is also the founder of AfricaLab, a multimedia company dedicated to transforming the way the world sees Africa. www.africalab.orgShe has made three documentaries to date. Bossa: The New Wave, Hello Nigeria! and This Is My Africa. This Is My Africa premiered on HBO in February 2010.Zina was born in Nigeria to Ken and Maria Saro-Wiwa and moved to Britain at an early age. She was raised in Surrey and Sussex spending summers in Nigeria. Zina began her career in the media at the age of 16 when she wrote her first article for The Sunday Times newspaper. She has since spent the majority of her career working as a freelance researcher, producer and presenter on BBC TV and radio. Between 2004 and 2008 Zina was a TV presenter for the BBC's arts programmeThe Culture Show. On the show she reported on a wide variety of topics and interviewed, amongst others: the late Robert Altman, Jude Law, John Grisham, Kate Winslet, Rowan Atkinson, Cameron Mackintosh, Banksy, Dawn French, Russell Brand, The Pet Shop Boys, Gwen Stefani, John Barry, celebrated tenor Juan Diego Florez, concert pianist Lang Lang, as well as all the editors of the UK's broadsheet newspapers. Beyond the BBC, Zina has always been involved in the arts. She has had two short stories published, has written a major essay about Nollywood for artist and photographer Pieter Hugo's monograph on Nollywood, has acted as an advisor for the British Council and a judge for the Africa In Motion Film Festival short film competition. Zina is a music-lover and a singer songwriter (in her own right and in her spare time). Her favourite African music is 80s Afro-synth, Fela Kuti, Hugh Masakela and Bheki Mseleku. She loves cooking African food. Particularly dishes from Nigeria, Senegal and North Africa.
T ∫ B ∫ R
tidal basin review
Washington, DC
Invisible Man
Tidal Basin Review invites writers and critical thinkers to begin creative and critical dialogue regarding the terms, “Post-Black” and “Post-Racial.” We challenge you to make a fighting case for the appropriate use of the terms, post-black and/or post-racial, or to advocate for a world of academic and common thought, in which the terms are not used. As always, Tidal Basin Review wants to hear from America’s beautiful spectrum.
Tidal Basin Review will accept submissions for the Post-Black/Post-Racial Call from November 1st to December 31st, 2010. Any submissions received after this deadline will not be considered and will be discarded. The standard response time is two (2) months.
Tidal Basin Review considers work, in English, which has not been previously published. Tidal Basin Press, LLC acquires North American Serial Rights, First Electronic Rights, and Electronic Archival Rights. Publication rights revert back to the author upon publication of work in an issue of the Tidal Basin Review.
We accept simultaneous submissions, however, please notify us immediately upon acceptance of your work elsewhere via the Submission Manager.
For poetry submissions, submit 3-5 poems totaling no more than 7 pages in one single file in doc., rtf, or .pdf format.
For prose submissions, submit one (1) short story or one (1) stand alone novel chapter or creative non-fiction piece of no more than 2,500 words in one single file in doc., rtf, or .docx format.
For critical submissions, submit one (1) essay not to exceed 5,000 words.
Work accepted for this call is tentatively slated to appear in the Spring 2011 Issue of Tidal Basin Review.
Mary E. Weems
Seeking Manuscripts and/or book proposals for the following new book series:
What's Going On: Black Studies and the Arts
Historically, Black artists and scholars have used their work to investigate and articulate the heart of the global Black experience. We seek work that addresses innovative ways visual art, music, poetry, literature, dance and other art forms critique, illuminate and/or bear witness to problems and solutions to critical issues in k-12 and postsecondary education. These issues include but are not limited to use of the arts as an integral part of the curriculum, to critique or explore the achievement gap, to report on the consequences of No Child Left Behind, use of the arts in Teacher Education programs, and the experiences of Black artist scholars in academia. We are interested in author's doing qualitative research using interpretive methods including auto/ethnography, ethnography, poetic inquiry, narrative, and ethnodrama; as well as interview and focus groups. What's Going On welcomes work from all educational disciplines and will also consider collaborative book projects on the cutting edge of crucial issues facing Black people today pertinent to the field.
*******
Help me spread the word about Peter Lang's, Black Studies and Critical Thinking (BSCT) series and contact me at mweems45@yahoo.com or mweems@jcu.edu with questions about What's Going On or to suggest folks who might be interested in submitting proposals. Also, note the other series editors and their areas below.
Peace,
Mary E. Weems,
Series Editor
Black Studies and Critical Thinking
Peter Lang Publishing
Other Series Editors:
Marsha Darling, History Ernest Morrell, Youth & Childhood Culture
E. Patrick Johnson, LGBT Mitchell Rice, Public Policy & Admin.
Judy Alston, Black Leadership R. Deborah Davis, Education
Judson L. Jeffries, Political Science
Sandra Jackson, Black Women and Gender Studies
The 2011 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize
with guest judge Jennifer EganThe winning submission, selected by Jennifer Egan, will be read as part of the Selected Shorts performance at Symphony Space on June 8, 2011. The story will be recorded for possible later broadcast as part of the public radio series. The winner will receive $1000.
Story requirements
- Submit a single short story that addresses the theme, Restaurants and Bars.
- Your story must have a title.
- Make sure your name and contact information appear on the first page of your story. If you are submitting online, this information needs to appear on the first page of the attached Word document. Include page numbers.
- Your story must be no more than 2 double-spaced typed pages in length (Times New Roman, 12pt font) and no more than 750 words.
- Your story must be unpublished.
Deadline
All submissions must be received by March 1, 2011. To be specific, online submissions must be submitted by 5pm Eastern Standard Time. Mailed submissions must arrive with the day's mail. (Entries postmarked on March 2 will NOT be accepted.)Where to submit your story
Submit your submission onlineMail to
CONTEST, Selected Shorts
Symphony Space
2537 Broadway
New York, NY 10025.Mailed submissions must also include a check for $25, written to Symphony Space. Online submissions must give credit card information to submit. Stories will not be accepted without payment of the $25 fee.
Please do not send duplicate copies (online or snail-mail is sufficient). We cannot allow revisions to your story once we have received it. Due to the high volume of submissions and the small size of our office, we will not be able to notify you when we receive your story. The winner will be selected by Jennifer Egan and notified by early May. As soon as the winner is selected, his or her name will be posted to this page.
Note
Contestants who submit online or provide their email address will be added to the Selected Shorts email list - please let us know if you do not wish to receive email about upcoming programs.The Prize
$1000 and two tickets to the June 8th Selected Shorts at Symphony Space, when the prizewinning story will be read.About this year's guest judge
Jennifer Egan is the author of The Invisible Circus, Look at Me, a finalist for the National Book Award, and the bestselling The Keep, as well as a short story collection, Emerald City. She has published short fiction in The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's and Ploughshares, among others, and her journalism appears frequently in the New York Times Magazine. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was recently a fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and sons. Her new book, A Visit from the Goon Squad, was published in June and her short story Safari was selected by Richard Russo for Best American Short Stories 2010, to be published in October.
South Africa: This Revolution Will Be Embedded
KonWomyn flags....
Very Big Hospital by Sweat. X. Single. 2010. Fader compares the Sweat X aesthetic and Aljoscha Kohlstockto's direction to something out of a Lars Von Tier's dogme-horror, and below Sweat X's front man, Spoek Mathambo, explains the aesthetic part:
Sweat.X, South Africa’s digitized descendants of Prince (early years), are dropping a new EP on Citinite, whose purveyor Manuel Sepulveda happens to be featured in FADER #63 for his futurefunk sleeve artwork for those guys and others (check the cover for this one after the jump). Like Jem says, synergy! “I’m That Alley,” a slinky electro synth track with a dollop of sexy falsetto from superman Spoek Mathambo, drops August 24 and foretells copius dancefloor slow-grinds—not quite “Erotic City” flagrant dry-humping but definitely on point for “Controversy”-style understated freakage. The B-Side, “The Knife,” is a twitchy, nasty, twerky rap track with Spoek dropping some of his infamously swaggy self-invented slang, which is to say you’d do well to cop that in anticipation of their next full-length, 187.
GO HERE TO HEAR "I'm That Alley"
Stream: Sweat.X, “I’m That Alley”
If you haven’t picked up our Africa issue, you should and you should then read about Soweto, South Africa-based Sweat.X, the duo of Spoek Mathambo and Markus Wormstrom, who’ve been jamming up their MySpace with crazy hyperspeed party mixes for the better part of a year now. They’re currently on tour in Europe, so if you’re there, make sure to put on the polka dot Zubaz and check them out. For the rest of you, hit more to read Jace Clayton’s Gen F from the issue, go download some of those mixes and hit up Discobelle for an exclusive track.
WILDIN
Sweat.X’s Coochie Clash (Now in Hyper-Color!)
Spoek Mathambo is a slippery post-Apartheid glam-rap prince from Soweto who is descended from distant African royalty, or Jewish, or both. In addition to our online communications trail, I have two weeks worth of phone bills—a Paris mobile, a London office number, some digits that connect to a voice speaking Arabic—to prove how hard it is to catch up to him.
Mathambo wasn’t always so busy. “As a teenager I was fucking up with the girls!” he says. “Then I hit this bridge where I started getting mad girls and started getting busier and busier. Now I’m like a slave to my own sexuality and that development is bang with the music.”
Making smart, dirty, overwhelming music—and fucking—is just part of Mathambo’s Sweat.X project with Markus Wormstorm, a white South African he met when they were both actors in a short film. Ebonyivorytron isn’t simply the title of their first EP, it’s also a mission statement that has struck a chord across Africa’s bottom. Now-thing young designers from Capetown and beyond have stepped in to help realize Sweat.X’s wildstyle afrofuturist vision where tailored neon dashikis and cyclops shades jostle with culturally complicated robot minstrel outfits.
Wormstorm spent years on IDM productions and Mathambo started rapping when he was nine, but when Sweat.X was born two years back, they spiked their styles with what Mathambo calls “a speeded-up idea of what that deep heavy funk could be.” That funk is kwaito, South Africa’s hugely popular, blinged-out, slowed-down house. Cop Sweat.X’s free Nuflex Cowabunga Sex Mix online and you’ll realize that, no, it doesn’t sound anything like kwaito, but it’s guaranteed to burn down any house party.
When asked about his favorite performance, Mathambo replies, “A hyper-glamorous show in France.” Then he explains, “My memory of it is skewed because the photography that came out of it was so beautiful. It’s kind of a tainted memory because it looks so fuckin’ glamorous!” Replay that show through digital visions on a computer screen and Sweat.X are easily the most colorful kids in the room. Zoom in: Wormstorm stabs buttons to unleash throbbing nu rave electro that switches up every few bars. Pan left: Mathambo raps about “bulimic bitches wasting my money” and skipping “from Soweto to the mall to the Louvre.” Pullout widescreen: the camera captures girls everywhere and a smiling black man in a dapper suit and sunglasses, the gold chain gracing his neck flagrantly brass. Pre-recorded deadpan chants from Sweat.X conspirator Wendy House tell a compliant audience: Go black, go low, go fast/ Go pussy, go titties, go ass! It’s hard to disobey. African coochie pop redefines Eurochic.
JACE CLAYTON
