Introducing: The Centre for African Poetry

If you're into poetry and African culture then the new Centre for African Poetry will probably interest you and I recommend you check it out! This website, magazine and actual (?) centre, CAP is starting to look a movement to watch. The project is launched in the fitting month of April - poetry month. In the Inaugural Statement, directors Chielozona Eze and Afam Akeh state that the magazine comes at an "interesting" time. In an age where African fiction writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Noviolet Bulawayo and Binyavanga Wainaina have attained international critical acclaim, it could be difficult to be an African poet. I definitely experienced people suggesting I write fiction, or asking why I don't write fiction and the answer is: I am not a fiction writer. I am a poet. Well, I hope the CAP can achieve rebirth and foster interest both local and international that  they hope to. I was also extremely pleased to see that the CAP did not define African identity by birth and residence alone (as I have seen with other similar initiatives and competitions), but by origin origin/heritage as well. Below are some excerpts from the CAP's Inaugural Statement. Read the entire piece and find out more here: Centre for African Poetry. 

"African Poetry magazine and indeed the entire Centre for African Poetry project arrives at a challenging but interesting moment for poetry practice in Africa and the rest of the world. What we do have in the African practice, as demonstrated by the establishment of this Centre, is renewed confidence in our capacity to move things forward, hopefully make them better, certainly make them different, make them mean and matter more to our poetry public and beyond." 

"The Centre for African Poetry and its house magazine exist to generate and support renewed energies and enthusiasm for the development, organization, celebration, discussion and study of poetry practice by Africans, wherever else they may live and also call home. We primarily work with poets who are Africans by birth or residence, but we also have an inclusive 'Africanworld' perspective which seeks to understand and feature poets and information of African origin. Anyone from anywhere interested in the Literature of African and the Africanworld is welcome at the centre for African Poetry. We are a platform for constructive and sustained exchange between the African practice and poetry elsewhere. We recognize the many varieties of the African practice and want to develop capacity for celebrating all. we honour all the languages of the African conversation and want to grow cross border interest in work from all of them through." 

In Short: Art in Nigeria has always been thriving

Someone at the BBC only recently discovered that there's an art scene in Nigeria. Or, they've only recently discovered the Western art scene in Nigeria because certainly the centuries old traditions of music, literary arts, dance, sculpture, etc account for something, right? 

This article speaks about the "thriving art scene" in Nigeria by focusing on children learning classical Italian compositions and the growing number of art galleries. 

Excerpt: "News from Nigeria often concentrates on corruption in politics, fighting with the Boko Haram militants in the north and unrest in the oil-producing Delta region - but Africa's most populous nation has also quietly become a hotbed for the arts.

There was a very different atmosphere in the room where the strings were practising - it certainly had an international flavour.
A strict German conductor was guiding the Nigerian violinists and cellists through the Italian composer Arcangelo Corelli's 300-year-old Christmas Concerto."

My thing is, the market place was the art gallery long before the modern art gallery came into place and being. The drumming, dancing and story-telling that are part of everyday life from the wedding ceremony to the funeral to the naming ceremony are just as significant as the violins these children are learning to play. I mean, what's being implied is the "arts" only consist of violins, Italian composers and Ave Maria. How can we discount the many generations of Nigerian musical innovators who blended various genres of music? Or the comtemporary artistes who have delved into hip-hop, R&B and more? 

#justsaying, but in short, art in Nigeria has always been thriving.

Viv Westwood's "charity"

at the onset this article, "Is British designer Vivienne Westwood Kenya's friend or foe?" seemed like it would present fierce questions about vivienne westwood's exploitation of poor kenyan women. but it turned out to be yet another sympathetic, liberal, hippie-point-of-view magazine piece that put all the attention on westwood and none on the kenyan women (and with sales pitch at the end to top it off!)

i'm no longer interested in stories about wealthy celebrities who lend their faces, names and logos to charity. i'm not interested in them lending their faces, names and logos to initiatives that are not considered charities but "opportunities". this story is old. it is tired. we have been hearing and reading it for too long. what i am interested in is the story of these "poor" kenyan women who are making bags for vivienne westwood.

do these women have names? famillies? what languages do they speak? why are they "poor"? where did they learn to sew? what are their dreams? do they dream? why is the continent of africa always spoken about in terms of poverty and charity cases and violence and AIDS? there are almost a billion people in that continent and it just so happens that these issues are all they have to offer the world? 

inna modja: malian sensation

                                        

"In spite of the close ties that she maintains to her home country, Modja’s music is definitely a departure from what we usually think of as World Music or “African sound”. But then, what is African sound? And should upcoming African musicians like Inna Modja embrace influences from all over the world; or should they be ambassadors of their own musical heritage?" 

New Year, Old Debate

The New Year has come and gone without a new post from me! Here's a topic that continues to deserve attention. 

It seems like I'm always "talking." This post is based on another conversation I stumbled into. This time I was speaking with two friends, one male, one female. The discussion began with us debating whether or not it was worse for a woman to abandon her child than for a man to do so. I argued that it was unfortunate when a parent, any parent, abandoned a child. 

Rekindling Lost Spirits: Just BE

In middle school I was not always the most fashionable kid. It might have had something to do with me being a little dorky or my then recent change of environments: what was hot in Trinidad was not in the States. Of course it also had to do with the politics of blackness and that was something I had not have fully gauged at that age. My hair was natural for most of my middle and high school careers.

 
Once in 7th grade my sister twisted and cork-screwed my hair (cork screw=bantu knot), then we unraveled them so I’d have curls. I loved the way it came out and I dressed up a little to fit the hairstyle. When I got to science, one of the girls in the class told me, “Somebody said you look like Medusa.” All I did was say ok, but my confidence was lost; not shattered but definitely cracked.