Call for Entries to the New Media Writing Prize

By Hannah Johnson

The Poole Literary Festival in the UK has partnered with the Media School at Bournemouth University to establish the New Media Writing Prize for authors and storytellers creating interactive narratives using digital tools. The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2010. More from the official press release below:

New Media Writing Prize

Last Call For Entries
Closing Date 15 September 2010

Poole Literary Festival in partnership with the Media School at Bournemouth University has established a prize for new media writing. The prize creates an exciting opportunity for writers working with new media to showcase their skills, provoke discussion and raise awareness of new media writing and the future of the written word. The competition deadline is approaching rapidly, with a cut-off point of Midday (GMT – UK time) on 15 September for entries.

There are two awards, one for Best New Media Writing and one for Best Student New Media Writing. Prizes will be awarded at a prestigious Awards Ceremony on 31 October 2010. Please ensure all entries are received by the closing date. This is very important as in the interests of fairness to all entrants exceptions cannot be made for late submissions.

Entry details:
http://www.poolelitfest.com/new-media-prize.php

The judges of the New Media Writing Prize have a blog at:
http://www.newmediawritingprize.co.uk/

Poole Literary Festival:
http://www.poolelitfest.com/index.php

Press / Media enquiries:
gary@poolelitfest.com

About the Competition

What does the competition involve?

We are asking all entrants to create an engaging and interactive narrative, through the use of digital technologies. Typically ‘new media writing’ exploits the potential of the web, which offers readers/viewers a range of narrative ‘activity’ beyond reading a piece of text online or watching a film. For example, a viewer might need to click the mouse on a word or image on screen to activate the next sequence of text, or to link them to the next chapter.

In some cases, interactivity might involve the reader/viewer in making choices about how the story progresses (remember those ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books?). There might be game-like elements, e.g. answer a question before the next episode or chapter is activated. There might be a choice of themes for the reader/viewer to explore, rather than follow the conventional chapter 1,2,3,4 pattern. Some new media narratives allow readers/viewers to follow characters, again rather than the usual chapter structure. It’s up to you to use new media inventively to build your narrative; and it’s up to you to include interactivity engagingly for the reader/viewer.

Is there a prize?

For each of the two categories, student and professional, there will be a chance to win an Apple iPad and £250. Plus, prize winners will be advised on how to get their winning idea published by Creative Content who specialise in digital audio books. Winning entries will be published on the Poole Literary Festival & Bournemouth University websites and may also be published on relevant new media writing partners’ websites and in media/press releases.

What are you looking for?

We are looking for good storytelling (fiction or non-fiction) written specifically for delivery and reading/viewing on a PC or Mac, the web or a hand-held device such as a mobile phone. It could be a short story, novel, documentary or poem using words, images, film or animation with audience interaction.

We are looking for creativity, so try to be imaginative to create an engaging story i.e. combining any number of media elements, such as words on a screen combined with images and video clips. New media writing can be created using a variety of tools i.e. a word processor, DV camera, social networking tools (i.e. Twitter), mobile phone/s, a scanner -– anything goes!

What are you NOT looking for?

We are not looking for a story/poem which you can upload to a web page or place on a disc. We are not looking for screens of words uploaded to your blog and we are not looking for a slideshow of photos uploaded to Flickr or a video uploaded to YouTube.

What are the judging criteria?

The judges will be looking for the following:

• Innovative use of new media to create an engaging, satisfying narrative or poem
• Ease of accessibility for the reader/viewer
• Effective use of interactive elements
• An example of how new media can do things traditional media can’t.

Applying for the Competition

Who can apply?

Anyone can apply! Whether you’re a student, a professional, an artist, a writer, a Flash designer or an enthusiast, the competition is open to all. It’s also an international competition, open to all outside the UK. For Entry Rules click here.

How do I submit my work?

Each entry should be submitted by email to prize@poolelitfest.com by midday on September 15th 2010.

Each emailed entry should contain an active URL for the judges to access your work. However if your entry is for viewing on a mobile phone or other electronic device, please provide clear instructions on how to view your piece. It’s important you read the Entry Rules before submitting, otherwise you could be disqualified.

About New Media

What is new media?

New media is a broad term for communicating information dynamically and interactively. It is the amalgamation of traditional media such as films, images, music and the written word but with interactive features. Interactivity is enabled through digital means such as computer programmes, games consoles, computer hand-held devices, communication technologies and the internet. Interaction such as online multi-player gaming and social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and Wikis) for example, allow users to behave actively instead of passively through creative participation, feedback and community formation.

Why are you having a new media writing competition at Poole Literary Festival?

With the popular demand of eBooks, which can be read on devices such as Amazon’s Kindle, new opportunities have arisen for writers. Publishers are beginning to realise the potential of the new art form in creating interactive eBooks and we hope the prize will raise awareness, reward those working in new media and add to the debate. Read what Michael Bhaskar, Digital Publishing Manager at Profile Books, has to say on his view from the publishing office. This new digital platform offers writers the chance to explore a playground of limitless creations and new opportunities to collaborate with other artists. Are you a writer and put off by all this technology? Don’t be, read what one of our judges Tim Wright has to say about digital writing.

 

Bottle Tree One Act Play Competition for Writers 2010

First Prize $1,000
Second Prize $250
Third Prize $100

Bottle Tree Productions is a writer-driven production company. Charles Robertson has received Ontario Arts Council and Davies Foundation grants for writing. His production of "Ghost of the Tree" won numerous awards in various festivals and has been commissioned for performance at a national conference on Gender related violence and by a national conference on Homelessness. "The Hack" is a gritty look at being a night-time cab driver. "Pretty Pieces" is a very dark look at a toxic relationship on the fringes of society. Both shows were toured. His "Sir John A. McDonald" about Canada's first prime minister had audiences with Canada's Prime Minister and Canada's External Affairs Minister. Charles also teaches drama and has written numerous productions for kids. His fairy tales have played all over Ontario.

He has written many educational in-school shows based on history, and anthology shows based on Dickens and Shakespeare. In his teaching he has developed scripts around the children. Having worked for years with actors, he believes that good actors can be an inspiration for good scripts.

Bottle Tree One Act Play Competition Details The contest is open January 30th, 2010. It closes November 30th 2010. For electronic submissions, please email to: contest(at)bottletreeinc(dot)com For Overland Delivery, Scripts need to be bound and should be mailed to: Bottle Tree Productions 445 Southwood Drive, Kingston, ON, Canada K7M-5P8 A manuscript-sized SASE should be attached if the script needs to be returned

Bottle Tree One Act Play Competition for Writers Entry Fee

There is a twenty-five dollar entry fee in Canadian or American dollars. For email submissions use our PAYPAL account Script contest/ Critique Entry fee $25.00 Critique only $50.00 Entry fee and critique $75.00

• A twenty-five dollar cheque should be enclosed with hard copy submissions and made payable to Bottle Tree Productions.
• No entry will be considered until the entry fee has been paid.
• You may enter as many scripts as you like but there is a twenty-five dollar fee for each entry.
• Previously produced and/or work-shopped scripts will be accepted as long as they weren't produced or work-shopped by an equity company.
• Scripts should be no longer than 70 minutes.
• The format is immaterial, as long as it is typed and readable.
• Plays must be written in English.
• Prize money is in Canadian dollars. We are happy to remit your prize to your Paypal account, or to pay by cheque in Canadian dollars.

The winners of The Bottle Tree Productions One Act Competition for Writers will be announced in January of 2011.

 

---

Critique

If you would like critical input about your play, please submit a $50 cheque made payable to Bottle Tree Productions, along with a manuscript-sized SASE. Or deposit $50 into our PAYPAL account

Don't Forget

Leave the playwright's name and other contact information off the script. This info should be included on a separate title page.
Please number your script pages.

 

Current Competitions:

(Click Here for previous competitions and results)

(Download Competition Guidelines)

New Writing Workshop Competition - Closes Nov 30th 2010

New Write about Writing Competition - Closes Oct 31 2010

Memoir Competition - Closes 30th Nov 2010

Tiny Weeny Competition - Closes Oct 31 2010

Micro-Fiction Competition - Closes September 30th 2010

Postcard and Short Travel Writing Competition - Now Closed - results out in October - best pieces to be printed in the Magazine Issue 3.

Creative Writing Workshop Competition - Now Closed, click here for results. To be printed in the Autumn Leaf Writers' Magazine.

Write About Writing Competition - Now Closed, click here for results. To be printed in the Autumn Leaf Writers' Magazine.

Poetry Competition - now closed, judging in progress - we hope results out Sept/Oct

Nano Fiction Competition now closed - click here for results.

Click Here for previous competitions and results

*********************************

New Writing Workshop Competition

The Workshop:

This is an exercise in the use of different narrative points-of-view.
Write a short piece, prose or poetry, in which you describe the same event using two or three
different narrative point-of-views – first-person (‘I opened the door’), second-person (‘You
open the door’) or third-person/omniscient narrator (‘Mary opened the door’). You can write
it in any tense you choose and you’re welcome to attempt variants on these three conventions,
eg. first-person plural.
Try to consider how the descriptions of the event will differ according to your chosen narrative
voice – how an omniscient narrator can be privy to information that a first-person narrator
may not be aware of; how first-person narrative needs to inhabit a specific character and to
accurately reflect their voice, their actions and reactions; how third-person narrative can be
used to pass objective comments on events and characters; how the rare and difficult second person
perspective can be used to draw in the reader. Crucially, bear in mind that the same
event can seem vastly different from one point-of-view to the next.

The Competition:

Send us a short poem (20 lines or fewer) or up to 300 words inspired by this writing exercise.
The winning entry will be published in the next edition of the Leaf Writers’ Magazine, and the winner will receive £75 and a free
copy of the magazine.
To enter: £3 per entry, 4 entries for £10.
You’re entitled to one free competition entry if you’ve bought the magazine.

Enter by post: you can download an entry form (word document) here

or just send your details and a cheque. click here for postal address

 

Enter online: pay via paypal (they take credit cards if you don't have a paypal account). The button will take you to paypal and then you just email us the writing. Please send your work as an attachment to contact@leafbooks.co.uk

For a single entry (£3.00):

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For 4 entries (£10):

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*********************************

New Write about Writing Competition

We invite you to send us up to 300 words on one of the following themes:

How I started writing
Why I write
How other authors influenced me
Advice to a new writer
My writing routine

Please state your chosen category on your entry form/in your email.
Prizes: The winning entries will be published in the third edition of the Leaf Writers’ Magazine. One winning entry will receive £75 and a free copy of the magazine. Further successful entrants may also be published in the magazine and will receive a free copy.
Entry Fee: £2.50 per submission,
5 submissions for £10.

Enter by post: you can download an entry form (word document) here

or just send your details and a cheque. click here for postal address

 

Enter online: pay via paypal (they take credit cards if you don't have a paypal account). The button will take you to paypal and then you just email us the writing. Please send your work as an attachment to contact@leafbooks.co.uk

For a single entry (£2.50):

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For 5 entries (£10):

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Closes 31 October 2010

*******************************************

New Memoir Competition

Closes 30th Nov 2010

Send us an extract from your own life in 1,000 words or fewer. Your mini-memoir can be on any subject – childhood, war, travel writing, family, school, work, community projects, political activism, the story of your allotment or anything else you can think of that's happened to you in your life. It can be as dramatic or as low-key as you like: just make sure that it grabs our interest and that it stands alone as a narrative. The previous competition anthology Foresight with Hindsight is now available on this website to buy either as a hard copy or a downloadable pdf e-book, so if you want to see what really caught our attention last time then have a look at this publication.

Prizes : Winner will receive £150, a free copy of the anthology and a year’s subscription to the Leaf Writers’ Magazine (or a refund if you already subscribe). Runner-up will receive a free copy of the anthology and a full set of Leaf mini-books. All selected pieces will be published in the anthology and the winner and runner-ups will be published in the Leaf Writers’ Magazine.

Entry Fee : £4 per submission, 3 submissions for £10.

Enter by post: you can download an entry form (word document) here

or just send your details and a cheque. click here for postal address

 

Enter online: pay via paypal (they take credit cards if you don't have a paypal account). The button will take you to paypal and then you just email us the writing. Please send your work as an attachment to contact@leafbooks.co.uk

For a single entry (£4)

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For 3 Entries (£10)

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Closes 30th Nov 2010

 

*********************************

New Tiny Weeny Writing and Drawing Competition

Closing Oct 31 2010

Back by popular demand (we enjoyed it anyway) the tiniest of our competitions. We invite you to send us EITHER writing that is no longer than 140 characters, which includes letters, spaces and punctuation, (not the title but please don’t make those more than 30 characters) OR a piece of black and white art no bigger than half a post card. Obviously you can send both, but as separate entries.

You can use any form - a petit poem, a short short short story, a playlet, your best ever tweet, anything you like. For the drawings please can we have black and white and if you send them online as a jpeg or a gif.

Prizes: The best of the pieces will be published in the Leaf Writers’ Magazine and the very best single piece will win £75.00 and a free years subscription to the Magazine.

Last time the winners went up on the Showcase site – have a look at these great entries for ideas and inspiration.

Entry Fees: £ 2 per submission, 6 pieces for £10. If you have one of our £3 off entry vouchers from your magazine then in a moment of pure craziness we’re giving you 2 entries for that.

Enter by post: you can download an entry form (word document) here

or just send your details and a cheque. click here for postal address

 

Enter online: pay via paypal (they take credit cards if you don't have a paypal account). The button will take you to paypal and then you just email us the writing. Please send your work as an attachment to contact@leafbooks.co.uk

For a single entry (£2):

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For 6 entries (£10):

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Closing Oct 31 2010

*********************************

Micro-Fiction Competition

Closing date: September 30th 2010
Leaf Books invites you to submit micro-fiction (max 300 words) on any subject imaginable.
Winning and outstanding entries will be published in the Leaf Writers’ Magazine. These, and further commended entries, will also be published in an anthology.
First prize: Winner receives £150 and a free copy of the Leaf Writers’ Magazine and the anthology.
One runner up will receive a free copy of the magazine/anthology.
Further successful entrants published in the magazine will get a free copy, and commended
authors for the anthology will be able to pre-order the book at a reduced rate.
To enter: £3 per entry, 4 entries for £10

Enter by post: you can download an entry form (word document) here

or just send your details and a cheque. click here for postal address

 

Enter online: pay via paypal (they take credit cards if you don't have a paypal account). The button will take you to paypal and then you just email us the writing. Please send your work as an attachment to contact@leafbooks.co.uk

For a single entry (£3.00):

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For 4 entries (£10):

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Closing date: September 30th 2010

A Voice in Haiti's Chorus

— Photo: Beowulf Sheehan/Zuma Press

Author Edwidge Danticat on the glory of nonfiction, the Kindle generation, and Haiti’s long road to recovery.

— By Elizabeth Gettelman

 

2 Comments | Post Comment

May/June 2010 Issue

The author of eight books, mostly fiction about her native Haiti, Edwidge Danticat has long been a powerful literary voice bridging her two countries. In her first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, readers learn of her childhood in Port-au-Prince before she moved to New York City when she was 12. And it was through her books like The Farming of Bones and Dew Breaker that she detailed the sights and smells of the atrocities that seem to constantly befall a country only 90 miles from American shores. Danticat, who lost a cousin in the January earthquake, visited survivors of the disaster soon after, and was heartened to find people giving voice to their own experience. "No one can speak for 10 million people," she says. The devastation she saw erased what little progress the country has managed since the reign of ruthless dictators Francois ("Papa Doc") and Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier, she says, but Haitians' resilience is not to be underestimated. Danticat, who won a MacArthur Fellowship (a.k.a. the "genius" award) last year, caught up with Mother Jones from her home in Miami, where she lives with her husband and two daughters.

Mother Jones: You said a few years ago that "whenever [places] are in the news, that's when they exist…I think Haiti is a place that suffers so much from neglect that people only want to hear about it when it's at its extreme. And that's what they end up knowing about it." Is that where Haiti is now—without such a disaster it wouldn't exist for people?

Edwidge Danticat: Absolutely. The way the media cycle works here, the way the news works, and the way people's attention span works, is that we only learn that people exist when there is crisis. That's why I think it is important to reach people through other means, like the arts and literature, because then you establish a connection that's not an instant crisis. It's not disaster porn, it's a mutual gaze: I'm giving you something and you're giving me something. That has always been a strength of Haiti: Beyond crisis, it has beautiful art; it has beautiful music. But people have not heard about those as much as they heard about the coups and so forth. I always hope that the people who read me will want to learn more about Haiti.

MJ: How can we sustain the momentum that builds up after such a disaster?

ED: I wish I knew! If I knew would put it into action immediately! [laughs] What we haven't seen before is this huge response from the Haitian-American community here—doctors, lawyers, professors, the people who are the bridge between the two cultures.

MJ: And how might the response be different in this instance, where the tragedy is a natural disaster instead of a social or political one?

ED: I think there will be a more sustained response because of the very large community who live here in the United States. But also because there is a better sense now that Haiti is our neighbor. I think that sense of proximity has hit home. We live now in a global culture where anything that happens in a place that's 90 minutes from your shores really affects you.

MJ: Half of the population in Haiti is under 18, too young to remember the full legacy of the Duvaliers, but now they have another disaster to deal with. How do you think the earthquake will come to define their lives?

ED: I think the earthquake will have an extraordinary, extraordinary effect. First of all, physically. So many young people are amputees. This is a very difficult environment in which to be disabled. You also have the psychological effect and aftershocks—kids being really traumatized, afraid to sleep inside, and kids who've lost so many people, who've lost parents, who've lost friends. We've lost a whole generation, a large number of kids who could have contributed to the future of the country. And all the others who are there, but who could leave, now they are out of the country. But for the kids who are stuck there, so many schools have been destroyed, which means that whatever progress had been made since the dictatorship has been wiped out. It used to be said that in Haiti they are trying to go from misery to poverty—President [Jean-Bertrand] Aristide said that—and now it's a deeper misery.

MJ: Haitian writers and artists have emerged to tell the world about this disaster. What role does writing and art play in reconstruction and healing?

ED: It's been great to see, in the very first days of the disaster all these writers inside Haiti telling their stories, what happened, and what they would like to see happen next. Because everyone could get on the Internet, anyone could write their own narrative. There's a woman I know who lost her son, who wrote this extraordinary account of it, which circulated amongst everyone. Her name is Dolores Dominique. She writes about the death of her son but also her appreciation for all those who came to help her, and it's an extraordinary thing because she may not have gone to a journalist to tell it, she can write it herself. That's what writing can do in whatever form it comes to us. It allows us to see these larger events in a personal way. It goes back even to the slave narratives, where it's stressed on the cover of these books, "Written by Herself" or "by Himself," where people need to testify to their own experience. What's happened has brought new eyes to Haitian literature, to Haitian art, to Haitian music. Hopefully that'll be something that will continue even when we're not in the news.

MJ: Baby Doc has pledged $8 million to rebuild Haiti. Is any sum from him enough?

ED: It wasn't his money in the first place to pledge, because it was money he took out of Haiti that was in dispute in the courts. Ah, please, it was such a weird thing to hear that he pledged that. It was like a joke. If he actually had $8 million, he would not have pledged it.

MJ: You have written mostly fiction, but your last book was a memoir. Which do you prefer?

ED: It really depends on where you are in your life. I turned 41 this year, and I'm in a more reflective place. The things in the memoir have started me thinking about mortality. I feel like in this particular moment that nonfiction helps better to address that.

MJ: Fiction, in some ways, is really a misnomer for your other writing, because there is often so much nonfiction in it.

ED: Absolutely. No one has really ever said that, and it's true. I remember reading an interview with a writer who said that in nonfiction if you have one lie it sort of messes it up. But in fiction the real details give you so much more credibility, because people do so much research just to write fiction. In fiction you're trying to recreate something lifelike. But after writing fiction for so long, I like the discovery element of nonfiction, in the sense that when you find the right information, it feels like gold. In Brother, I'm Dying when I found those documents [from Department of Homeland Security describing her uncle's last days and death in detention] it felt novelistic, as if they had been invented by someone. Yet they were real conversations. Sometimes there are definitely ways that real life trumps whatever you could have invented.

MJ: Memoirs seem to be rising in popularity. Why do you think that is?

ED: If you go way back, to the Confessions of St. Augustine and that kind of line of narrative, they've always intrigued people, the idea of somebody's whole life. It is a way of being intimate with people without having to live it. It's also a way of experiencing things that are perhaps horrible or crazy without having to go through them yourself. I think that they appeal to the voyeur in all of us. And, it's interesting to see people overcome things. Because if you didn't overcome, you wouldn't be writing it.

MJ: Do you think we'll have literary fiction in print a decade from now?

ED: We've had fiction from the time of cave drawings. I think fiction, storytelling, and narrative in general will always exist in some form. Perhaps the form that we receive it in will change. It's hard to tell what people will do with the word and how they'll be circulating it but I think the storytellers and the stories themselves will always be there. I don't know what will happen to the physical book and what it will mean for authors. I worry whether it will mean people can still make their careers this way. Will whatever comes next allow people to be able to own their ideas and be able to take time to develop them?

MJ: Sounds like you don't have a Kindle just yet.

ED: Not yet. I very much love a physical book myself. I think people who have had this experience of also seeing a book come together, from sitting down and writing the first word, to holding the binding in your hand, we have a deeper sentimental attachment to it than others might. So I love the whole physicality of it; I love the process of cracking the spine for the first time and slowly sinking into a book. That will soon seem old-fashioned, I'm sure, like the time of illuminated manuscripts.

MJ: In your writing, you touch on how the lyrical is used to describe something awful. Dew Breaker, the title of your 2004 book, is the Creole term for a torturer. Tonton macoute, after all, translates to something not all that menacing, "Uncle Gunnysack." What does language used in this way tell us?

ED: Language is such a powerful thing. After the earthquake, I went to Haiti and people were talking about how [they] described this feeling of going through an earthquake. People really didn't have the vocabulary—before we had hurricanes. I'd talk with people and they'd say, "We have to name it; it has to have a name." My husband's uncle, he was calling it "TiRoro" after a kid named TiRoro, who was like a bully. And then my friend Richard Morris, who is a singer and who runs the Oloffson Hotel where Graham Greene's novel The Comedians is set, was one of the first people tweeting about the earthquake (@RAMHaiti) and he called it "Samson." Also people would say, if you asked them, "It felt like the earth was dancing."

MJ: America has been complicit in the difficulties your country has faced in the past, and it's been cruel to your family in particular, yet you are a proud American. How have you been able to forgive, or to reconcile?

ED: America's relationship with Haiti has always been very complicated. I often say to people, "Before we came to America, America came to us in the form of the American occupation from 1915 to 1934." But what I know from having lived here this long is that not all of America did this. In the same way, I would hate for people to generalize about every Haitian from something that one Haitian did, or a group of Haitians did. My fight was with those policies and those particular people and what they were doing to other people.

MJ: How are the loss of your uncle, who died in detention while seeking asylum here, and the recent loss of your cousin in the earthquake connected to your life as a writer?

ED: For me—and I think a lot of writers can identify with this—you have an outlet, a place to vent. I live in Miami and I know so many people whose relatives were mistreated by immigration and they didn't have that. I don't think of myself as resilient, because when you think of what people are going through in Haiti right now, those people are resilient, my God. But I was able to not fold and go in a corner because I had my writing as therapy, but also as my tool for struggle. It's like Toni Cade Bambara said: "Writing is the way I participate in the struggle."

MJ: You've said of your work, "People will read what you write and feel like it's anthropology instead of fiction," describing a certain assumption by readers that "we're writing not just our autobiography, not just our singular experience, but still at the same time paradoxically about an entire group or race of people." This has likely only intensified since the earthquake.

ED: I am very timid about speaking for the collective. I can say what I see, I can say what I've heard, I can say what I feel, but I can't speak for—no one can speak for—10 million people, and it takes away something from them if you make yourself their voice. Often in the media, they will say about anybody who has written a book or sings a song or who comes from a minority group, "Oh, she's 'the voice of the people.'" The people did not elect me. I speak with one voice that may echo other people, but I am part of a group of people. That's not distancing yourself from a community, that's also allowing the space for others to speak for themselves.

MJ: What are you working on, other than raising your two daughters?

ED: Thank you for acknowledging that, as I follow Mira around the house [laughs]. I am working on a collection of essays called Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work. It's based on a lecture that I did at Princeton in 2008, and it talks about this whole idea of writing outside the country of your birth, especially in times of crisis. And I am working on a novel that is sort of not wanting to be what I want it to be. When you are working on something, you have to believe that people will still be reading when you're done!

Elizabeth Gettelman is the managing editor at Mother Jones. To follow her on Twitter, click here.

The History of White People
Click to Order via Amazon

 

by Nell Irvin Painter

Hardcover: 496 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1St Edition edition (March 15, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393049345
ISBN-13: 978-0393049343
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches

Book Review by Kam Williams

“Most Americans envision whiteness as racially indivisible, though ethnically divided; this is the scheme anthropologists laid out in the mid 20th Century. By this reckoning, there were only three real races (Mongoloid, Negroid and Caucasoid) but countless ethnicities. Today, however, biologists and geneticists no longer believe in the physical existence of races—though they recognize the continuing power of racism (the belief that races exist, and that some are better than others)...

Although science today denies race any standing as objective truth, and the U.S. censes faces taxonomic meltdown, many Americans cling to race as the unschooled cling to superstition. So long as racial discrimination remains a fact of life and statistics can be arranged to support racial difference, the American belief in race will endure.

But confronted with the actually existing American population—its distribution of wealth, power and beauty—the notion of American whiteness will continue to evolve, as it has since the creation of the American Republic.”
--Excerpted from the Introduction (pages xi-xii)

A quarter century ago, comedian Martin Mull published “The History of White People in America” a book which took a lighthearted look at the contributions of Caucasians to this society. The droll humorist even served as the host for a made-for-TV adaptation of the popular best-seller, a tongue-in-cheek mockumentary starring Steve Martin, Harry Shearer and Fred Willard.

As might be expected, Nell Irvin Painter’s version of “The History of White People” tackles the same subject-matter, only in the deadly-serious, methodical and academic fashion expected of a Princeton University professor who also happens to be African-American. Weighing-in at 500+ pages, her informative, encyclopedic opus ponders whether white people even belong to a separate race, which one might presume to be the case, judging by this country’s long legacy of a strictly-enforced color line.

But the author’s examination of the history of Western Civilization from ancient Greece and Rome to the present reveals the emergence of “whiteness” to be a relatively-recent phenomenon, having only really caught hold as a viable philosophy in the 1700s in the wake of a Germanic propagating the notion of Caucasian features as the epitome of beauty. Professor Painter’s persuasive thesis that there is only one race, the human race, rests on evidence unearthed in recent years by the Genome Project. Yet, in spite of conclusive scientific proof, we see that the arbitrary, artificial construct of race tends to persist, even if undergoing alterations in accordance with dictates of ever-evolving cultural mores to a certain degree.

If there is any hope in finally making racism obsolete once and for all, it rests in the widespread embrace of the sort of sensible conclusions upon which Nell Painter’s monumental research and scholarship were based.

 

 

 

 

 

"These Aren't Carvings..."

From the BBC:

When magnificent 16th-century bronze casts were discovered in the kingdom of Benin in 1897, many could not believe they had been made by Africans. It was thought West Africa lacked the technical development required to make them. Dr Casely-Hayford travels to present-day Nigeria and Mali in search of the truth, exploring what the bronzes mean, how the technology to make them developed, and what it reveals about the lost kingdoms of West Africa.

Watch the video:

via Bombastic Elements

Parable of Purple

 

Parable of Purple

In Oakland, we grew up playing the dozens, rapping about another brother's mother, trying to "cap" or best the brother in desecrating our sacred Mother Goddess. The winner said the most hurtful things, and yes, the contest often ended with a fight because the loser felt ashamed and humiliated. The hip hop generation has upped the game.

On a recent Monday night, half a block from Academy of Da Corner at 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, two young men had a rap contest on the street while a large crowd listened attentively. When Craig, aka Purple, won the contest, the loser, Mike, felt humiliated and ashamed, especially because Purple had rapped about catching Mike in a homosexual encounter. Amiri Baraka's 60s play The Toilet dealt with a similar encounter.

According to reports, Mike fired off two rounds into the ground and urged Purple to shut up, but Purple persisted, claiming he had the power of the Logos. He continued slamming Mike with crowd approval. Mike aimed his gun at Purple's chest and fired twice. "Told you to shut up, nigguh. Told you to shut up!"

Purple stumbled into De Lauer's bookstore next door and fell dead. There must be some significance to his dying in a bookstore, a place of light in a world of darkness. Such is life: sometimes we win only to lose.

--Marvin X
9/11/10

 

Make Sure You're Sure

bahia97 | January 16, 2008

Stevie Wonder sings a song from the Jungle Fever soundtrack on The Arsenio Hall Show. I've added a few still photos of Stevie and Syreeta (his first wife, now disceased) and video enhancements. I hope you enjoy.

You Will Know - LIVE London

jokanahan | December 09, 2007

Part 7 of Stevie Wonder's Birthday Celebration LIVE at Wembley Arena in London 1989. Sings "You Will Know". Complete set in 22 parts.

Overjoyed - Live @ The O2 London

Ribbon In The Sky Live in Tokyo Japan 1985

SOMEBODY UP THERE DIGS ME

Rashid Vally grew up in downtown Johannesburg. The Champion Buildings, where he was born in 1939, still stand on Market Street today. Vally attended the Central Indian High School – a private school set up by the Transvaal Indian Congress to combat the impact of racial zoning of the city under the Group Areas Act. After completing school, Vally joined his father’s café and grocery business on Kort Street. Opened in 1956, the Azad Café was directly beneath the famous Kapitans’ Cafeterias where Nelson Mandela regularly ate while practising as a lawyer. 

 

As a sideline Rashid Vally’s father sold Indian film music. He often allowed Qawali singers like Suliman Patel to practise in the grocery store, the bags of sugar and flour acting as soundproofing. Valley senior started recording Patel, singers from the SS Karanja and others at the Trutone recording studio in Johannesburg. He released the results as five-packs of 78s and later as 45s. 

 

It was around this time that the long-playing (LP) vinyl format was introduced and the young Rashid Vally fell in love with Louis Jordan’s Somebody Up There Digs Me LP. When he wasn’t delivering grocery orders by bicycle, he was working in the store and playing the latest jazz LPs. Anyone in the vacinity of the shop would hear the latest from Hank Mobley, Elvin Jones and others. It wasn’t long before Rashid Vally opened a wholesale account with a US music dealer and started to sell imported jazz records. The Kort Street café was renamed Kohinoor, meaning mountain of light. In 1982, a second Kohinoor store opened on Market Street)

 

Not long after starting the music sideline in the early 1960s, Rashid Vally formed his first label – Soultown – and started recording South African dance and soul bands, such as El Rica’s and the High Notes. The idea of recording jazz only came to fruition in the late 60s after spending numerous Sunday afternoons at Dorkay House jazz sessions and getting to know musicians such as Gideon Nxumalo, Lionel Pillay and Early Mabuza. The first jazz LP on Soultown was a recording of Gideon Nxumalo, entitled Early Mart. 

 

In 1970 Dollar Brand (later Abdullah Ibrahim) visited Rashid Vally to discuss a business partnership. With the commercial side handled by Vally, Ibrahim set about recording a number of albums. Dollar Brand +2 (Peace) and Dollar Brand +3 (with Kippie Moeketsi) were recorded and issued on the Soultown label in 1971. Underground in Africa was recorded in 1974 with a new group of rock and soul musicians and was issued on the Mandla imprint.

 

Rashid Vally funded further sessions for Abdullah Ibrahim and his new band in Cape Town. These sessions yielded the anthemic Mannenberg. Ibrahim coined the name As-shams (the Sun) for the record label on which Mannenberg was released. The As-shams logo was designed by Rashid Vally’s brother-in-law, Abdul Kader Ali. The LP sold at least 5 000 copies in the first month of release, purely by word of mouth. It was then licensed to Gallo – and sold more than 40 000 copies in less than a year.

 

Following the success of Mannenberg and further recordings by Ibrahim, Rashid Vally extended the As-shams catalogue by funding numerous recording sessions for jazz musicians keen to be given free rein in the studio. These records were heavily promoted through Kohinoor, which, by then, had become a legendary hangout for jazz lovers. It was also one of the few spaces in the city where people of different races could mix comfortably. 

 

It is no exaggeration to state that Kohinoor and As-shams were beacons of light in a dark time. Today, the albums issued on the As-shams label are highly prized by collectors, archivists and lovers of South African jazz for the freedom of spirit they capture and embody. The impact on South African jazz of the As-shams label and Rashid Vally in making it all possible cannot be underestimated.

CHAPITA PREVIEW - Underground in Africa

 

 

Opium11: Shya Scanlon 7-Line Story Contest
Write 7 Lines, win $1,000, be in Opium11!
Judged by Amy Hempel

Opium Magazine’s Shya Scanlon 7-Line Story Contest Judged by Amy Hempel We’re thrilled to announce the return of Opium Magazine’s Shya Scanlon 7-Line Story Contest, judged by the brilliant Amy Hempel. To snare the grand prize of $1,000 (or the second- and third-place prize of $100), we ask that you submit a story seven lines or shorter.  The rules? Write a story or prose poem that is seven lines or less (8.5" x 11" paper with 1" margins). The winning story along with runners-up — and as many as 10 finalists — will be featured in Opium11, slated for release in March 2011. (We will not accept previously published work.) The Deadline: October 4, 2010 (midnight EST) The Cost: $10 for a single entry; $17.50 for two (to pay: shop.opiummagazine.com) How to Submit: Submit your 7-Line story/poem by clicking here. (Make sure to tag your entry “Contest.” And, please, no .wpd files!). Then head to Opium’s Store (click the links above) to pay via credit card (sorry for the inconvenience, but we no longer accept Paypal for contest entries). The Judge: Amy Hempel is the author of the books Reasons to Live, At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, Tumble Home, The Dog of the Marriage and The Collected Stories. She has won many awards, including the PEN/Malamud Award for Short Fiction, Rea Award for the Short Story, and is the recipient of the Hobson Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.  The Reward: $1,000 for 1st Place, $100 for 2nd and 3rd Place, and publication in Opium11. The Odds: We can’t know this until all entries are in, but we typically receive over 300 entries. We tend to publish as many as 30 of the non-finalists on our Web site.  Our first two 7-Line Story contests, featured in Opium4: Live Well (No Matter What) judged by Christopher Kennedy (won by John Colasacco) & Opium7:7 judged by Brian Evenson (won by Julius Kalamarz). While the issues are now out of print or nearly so, you can order the PDF's of the bookmark contest finalists from the two issues.   Read this stellar example of a 7-Line Story that we love (from Opium7:7): Postcard from Mykonos by Thomas Cooper Estimated reading time: 30 seconds When H and J were on vacations they wrote postcards to the Mortimers, a couple they never knew or met. They imagined the Mortimers at home, captivated, when they received postcards from San Tropez, Tokyo, Madrid. “Maybe we’ll visit this Thanksgiving,” he wrote. “Why didn’t you meet us in Bangkok?” she wrote. It went on for years. But this morning, alone in Mykonos for Christmas, at a desk window overlooking the Aegean sea, he writes on the back of a hotel postcard that he has news he must share in person, and that he’ll soon be on his way.