This is the second in a series of blog posts concerning the Chinua Achebe Colloquium 2014, which I attended in early May at Brown University. In this post, I will discuss the challenges and conditions of publishing literature by Africans across the continent. This is a broad topic, but one which was addressed during a panel discussion at the colloquium called, "The Direction of African Writing and Publishing Since the African Writers Series."
2012 marked the 50th anniversary of the famed African Writers Series, founded by British publishing company, Heinemann, in 1962. The Series published and brought worldwide attention to dozens of notable African writers, from Achebe to Gordimer, during the post-independence period until the mid-1980s. All of the panelists were publishers of African writers, who added their comments regarding the evolution of the topic at hand.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the discussion came about regarding the topic of digital books. The publisher at African World Press noted that the dawn of digital publishing marked a "brave new world," a new age for authors and their writing on the continent and across the world. Now, anyone with a laptop and WiFi can become a writer. Gone are the days when a publisher needed to employ 20-30 editors and 20,000 feet of storage space in order to put out a book. Today, an author can print and sell a book as the market demands (hence the term, print-on-demand.)
Digital publishing allows authors to overcome the difficulties of distribution so prevalent on the continent. The bookstores, the roads, the mail and other delivery systems--the physical infrastructure--simply do not exist to get books into the hands of customers in many places on the continent. Accessing books via internet is a promising development for this reason.
One of the publishers on the panel noted that his press is looking into providing digital books for free to ISP addresses identified as coming from African countries. This would ameliorate the challenge of getting books to students across the continent, many of whom have never read the much beloved African writers whose books are now out of print and hard to find in many cases.
A panelist and audience member agreed that digital publishing could be important in countries like Nigeria, where the appetite for reading is so grand that photocopying bestselling books and selling them in street intersections is a profitable activity. The market for digital books is immense.
It is essential that African students have access to books by Ghanaians, Kenyans, South Africans, etc. in order for them to develop a sense of national and regional consciousness, as well as a sense of the literary canon and history. What Achebe accomplished that was so profound for his contemporaries and for forthcoming authors was he developed a piece of literature that was familiar. He created an awareness of the everyday in Nigeria, particularly for his ethnic group, the Igbos.
As one audience member, who happened to be an event organizer, a member of Achebe's family, and a fellow Igbo, added during the question and answer session, she "did not know that what [she] was saying everyday was prose." One panelist noted that while Achebe's most famous book has been translated into 70-some languages, it was never translated into the author's native language of Igbo. He went on to say that the book, in fact, is already written in Igbo--the author used the English language to tell stories in a way that only an Igbo would.
As for the future of African literature, there are a large number of competitions, even beyond the Noma Prize, the Caine Prize, and the Commonwealth Prize, created to identify new literary talent. Zimbabwae and Kenya are hubs of publishing activity. Publishers across the globe are even scouting authors on the internet and social media. Above all, publishers are beginning to recognize the growing market and the need for reading audiences "to see themselves in the stories they read."
Further, the panelist from Michigan State University Press noted that the role that traditional publishers play will always be relevant. Traditional publishers can identify the market for a given book and the potential impact a book can have on that market. However, if the desire to tell a story is as vast as it has proven to be for self-publishers on this side of the globe, traditional publishers will have a challenge in scouting and maintaining talent.
Friday, May 30, 2014
Friday, May 23, 2014
Chinua Achebe and the Hip-Hop Generation
A few weeks ago, I visited my alma mater, Brown University, for a colloquium in homage to the writing of famed Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe. Achebe had been a professor at Brown before his death last year. His family put together a three-day event featuring panelists, academics and other professionals, from across the world to speak about Achebe's legacy and the future of writers in Africa and in the diaspora. It was a wonderful few days, punctuated with dramatic, poetic, and musical performances by EME & HETERU and others. This is the first in a series of blogs on my experiences at the colloquium.
Perhaps the most memorable and, for me, profoundly moving segments was a panel called "Chinua Achebe and the Hip Hop Generation." Falling mid-way through the last day of discussions, the panel traced the influence of Achebe's most famous work, Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, through jazz, funk, and hip-hop.
One of the speakers, Rob M., who spent years as an editor for hip-hop magazines like "Source" and "Vibe," discussed his multiple trips to various African countries over a period of ten years. He traveled for work and on personal business in search of the deep and abiding connections between contemporary African American experience and those of Africans. His remarks, and those of others about the connections, were enlightening.
Rob noted that, in his work as a magazine editor, he has been a close witness to the evolution of hip-hop from an "outlaw culture from the Bronx" into "the global culture for people of a certain age." Based on his extensive travels across the continent of Africa, he suggested that hip-hop culture is evidence of "Africa reconstructed in modern idioms." He added that, if one were to subtract the "pathology of slavery" from hip-hop, one could see African history and culture manifested in the art form.
Marcus G., another panelist at the event, who spent his youth split between Harlem and Dakar, noted that today's hip-hop captures something of Chinua Achebe's irreverence and dissatisfaction with the status quo. Hip-hop is something of a "disruptive" development that allows so many Africans of the diaspora to recover pieces of their culture and traditions. From hip-hop's focus on cadence, rhythm, and timing to its artists' efforts at storytelling, improvisation/freestyling, and cyphers, there are many connections to be found.
The panelists who spoke about hip-hop echoed previous speakers' remarks, noting that hip-hop, as did Achebe in literature, put people of African descent at the center of an art form. Toni Morrison is renowned for saying that it was not until she read Achebe's Things Fall Apart that she found that she could take the authority to position fundamentally African American stories at the center of literature. This was the genesis of books like Beloved.
Hip-hop, as did Achebe, breaks down the English language and uses it to express and define a radically different reality then can be found in mainstream culture. Despite its misogyny, hip-hop also seeks to answer back to or dignify elements of American culture that are dehumanizing.
Several people on the panel and in the audience mentioned that it was not until hip-hop group, The Roots (now the official band of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon), put out an album in 1999 entitled, "Things Fall Apart," based upon Achebe's novel, that they became interested in reading Achebe's work. As someone noted, The Roots were so distinctive in the late 1990s--here was a black hip-hop group playing instruments--it was nearly unheard of. The Roots are known to incorporate storytelling and jazz elements into their music. Here's one of my favorites from the album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJCHeEQV454
Greg E., a comedian, teacher, and panelist in on the discussion, mentioned that he tried to introduce students to literature through his series on YouTube entitled, "Thug Notes," something of a "Cliff Notes" for young urbanites. In this segment, Greg breaks Achebe's novel down into a language that youth can understand. Here is a vignette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_xtOMiW0ys
One thing audience members pointed out during the question and answer session was that hip-hop was missing a dialogue with the ancestors. The form, in general, does not acknowledge its own evolution, its roots, its heritage, its fore bearers. It owes much to spirituals, jazz and funk. The group The Roots is one of the exceptions.
Marcus noted that social media, despite all its faults, offers the opportunity for dialogue between millennials and their elders. As technology continues to evolve, so, too, will the cultures of the African diaspora.
Perhaps the most memorable and, for me, profoundly moving segments was a panel called "Chinua Achebe and the Hip Hop Generation." Falling mid-way through the last day of discussions, the panel traced the influence of Achebe's most famous work, Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, through jazz, funk, and hip-hop.
One of the speakers, Rob M., who spent years as an editor for hip-hop magazines like "Source" and "Vibe," discussed his multiple trips to various African countries over a period of ten years. He traveled for work and on personal business in search of the deep and abiding connections between contemporary African American experience and those of Africans. His remarks, and those of others about the connections, were enlightening.
Rob noted that, in his work as a magazine editor, he has been a close witness to the evolution of hip-hop from an "outlaw culture from the Bronx" into "the global culture for people of a certain age." Based on his extensive travels across the continent of Africa, he suggested that hip-hop culture is evidence of "Africa reconstructed in modern idioms." He added that, if one were to subtract the "pathology of slavery" from hip-hop, one could see African history and culture manifested in the art form.
Marcus G., another panelist at the event, who spent his youth split between Harlem and Dakar, noted that today's hip-hop captures something of Chinua Achebe's irreverence and dissatisfaction with the status quo. Hip-hop is something of a "disruptive" development that allows so many Africans of the diaspora to recover pieces of their culture and traditions. From hip-hop's focus on cadence, rhythm, and timing to its artists' efforts at storytelling, improvisation/freestyling, and cyphers, there are many connections to be found.
The panelists who spoke about hip-hop echoed previous speakers' remarks, noting that hip-hop, as did Achebe in literature, put people of African descent at the center of an art form. Toni Morrison is renowned for saying that it was not until she read Achebe's Things Fall Apart that she found that she could take the authority to position fundamentally African American stories at the center of literature. This was the genesis of books like Beloved.
Hip-hop, as did Achebe, breaks down the English language and uses it to express and define a radically different reality then can be found in mainstream culture. Despite its misogyny, hip-hop also seeks to answer back to or dignify elements of American culture that are dehumanizing.
Several people on the panel and in the audience mentioned that it was not until hip-hop group, The Roots (now the official band of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon), put out an album in 1999 entitled, "Things Fall Apart," based upon Achebe's novel, that they became interested in reading Achebe's work. As someone noted, The Roots were so distinctive in the late 1990s--here was a black hip-hop group playing instruments--it was nearly unheard of. The Roots are known to incorporate storytelling and jazz elements into their music. Here's one of my favorites from the album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJCHeEQV454
One thing audience members pointed out during the question and answer session was that hip-hop was missing a dialogue with the ancestors. The form, in general, does not acknowledge its own evolution, its roots, its heritage, its fore bearers. It owes much to spirituals, jazz and funk. The group The Roots is one of the exceptions.
Marcus noted that social media, despite all its faults, offers the opportunity for dialogue between millennials and their elders. As technology continues to evolve, so, too, will the cultures of the African diaspora.
Friday, May 9, 2014
My Latest Book FREE Tomorrow (Saturday) Only!
Tomorrow
my latest book, Love Emphatically, goes live on Amazon! Download it FREE to
your PC, iPad, Kindle or other mobile device beginning at 12 am EST tonight.
The eBook will be available for free tomorrow only. Check it out at the
following link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K4KYZ5M
Also see a sample poem…
Also see a sample poem…
We gather
in low voices and hushed tones
We gather
in high tides despite flood waters
We gather
to celebrate living
We gather
passing down traditions and
holding hands
We gather
to lay another in his permanent
resting place
We gather
to pray and to heal
We gather
in the name of love
We gather
to ward off demons that
stir the heart
We gather
growing and conquering
We gather
being and becoming
We gather
to bear witness to newborns
We gather
to welcome wives and husbands
to our lineage
We gather
to celebrate our boys and our men
We gather
in the name of love
We gather
to break bread
and to watch the full moon
We gather
star-gazing and chasing dreams
We gather
in the name of love
#freeEbook #LoveEmphatically #poetry #amazon
Friday, January 17, 2014
On the Life and Legacy of Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka (nee LeRoy Jones) died late last week at the age of 79. The world knew him as a prolific poet, playwright and activist. I knew him as one of my favorite poets, among the first African American poets that I was exposed to and moved by in the 1990s.
I met Mr. Baraka at a book talk for his acclaimed book of poetry, Tales of the Out & Gone (2007) at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC. After a brief reading, he signed a book that a friend purchased for me. I remember him, even into his seventies, as a fiery, provocative figure who lived to inspire political dialogue through his poetry, essays and other literature.
I first read Baraka's poetry in high school in a 1963 publication of American Negro Poetry. His writing was juxtaposed to many of the greats of the Harlem Renissance, including Countee Cullen and Sterling Brown (one of Baraka's mentors). Later, in college, I read some of Baraka's more controversial works like his play, The Dutchman (which was the winner of the prestigious Obie award, sponsored by the Village Voice) and poems like, "Ka' Ba" or "Black Art."
Until his death, I had little idea about the formative and seismic impact he had on the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 70s. His works, that I read in numerous Norton anthologies, only hinted at the activist the world knew. In the research that I've done for this blog, I learned that his work to date has been censored. I never read his most influential and polemical work. As a result of his death, surely there will be renewed interest in his activism and his legacy. I anxiously await the publication of a complete collection of his poetry in the years to come.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, he was known as a Beat poet and spent a great deal of time in New York and Paris with the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Jean Paul Satre. He changed his name from LeRoy to LeRoi (meaning "the king" in French), married a young Jewish woman by the name of Hettie Cohen, had two children and lived in Manhattan.
By 1967, after the Cuban revolution, the assassination of Malcolm X and the Newark riots, Baraka became radicalized. He left his wife, Hettie Cohen, changed his name to Ameer Baraka, married Amina Baraka (nee Sylvia Robinson) and moved back to his hometown of Newark, NJ.
During the riots (which Baraka termed a "rebellion" in which 1500 were injured and 27 died), he was captured by the police and brutally beaten. In an account of what took place at that time, he said that the police interrupted his poetry reading and took his script from him, "as if it were a loaded weapon." First, he was beaten in the streets, until neighbors interrupted by throwing glass bottles at the officers. Then he was taken to the police department, where he was beaten further and brought in front of the sheriff. According to Baraka's own account, the only thing that saved his life that day was a call to the police from Jean Paul Satre (one of Baraka's cronies and, of course, a famed French philosopher). I would subscribe these events to urban legend, if I had not heard the words come out of Baraka's own mouth. See "Sources" below for details.
These ideas go to the heart of what the poet claimed and used to motivate other artists of his generation by the mid-to-late 1960s. Art for art's sake was no good. All art is political and the sequence of events in Newark serve to validate this premise. According to one of the panelists from one of the sources below, we, African Americans, have to continue "to develop our own aesthetic." We have "a distinctive viewpoint and different optical and auditory nerves," which is why our art "does not conform to mainstream Western values." This was the foundation of "cultural nationalism." Mr. Baraka aimed to foment racial consciousness and pride, which formed the backbone of the Black Arts Movement.
Baraka is also credited with being the first African American to write a book which traced the role and development of jazz from slavery into contemporary times in Blues People. According to his friends, like Sonia Sanchez, James Baldwin and Maya Angelou, it was in creating this work that "he found his voice." He mirrored Langston Hughes in incorporating jazz elements into his poetry. Today, rap and spoken-word owe their foundation to Baraka and others who built on this legacy of "mass-based poetry." Toni Morrison called Amiri Baraka "the greatest living poet."
More practically, at the height of the poet's growing cultural and political power, he worked to unify African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and other groups to bring about political change. He helped to inspire each group's own cultural nationalism and is said to have brought about multiculturalism as we know it today.
Over the course of his career, Amiri Baraka served as professor at Yale, Columbia, Rutgers and George Washington University, as well as, twenty years at SUNY-Stony Brook. He was the poet laureate of New Jersey from 2002-03. He leaves quite a legacy, in his children, his students and in his great writing. He will not soon be forgotten.
Sources:
Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/1/10/remembering_amiri_baraka_part_2_featuring
USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2014/01/09/amiri-barak-dies/4395467/
Fader:
http://www.thefader.com/2014/01/09/amiri-baraka-poet-laureate/
I met Mr. Baraka at a book talk for his acclaimed book of poetry, Tales of the Out & Gone (2007) at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC. After a brief reading, he signed a book that a friend purchased for me. I remember him, even into his seventies, as a fiery, provocative figure who lived to inspire political dialogue through his poetry, essays and other literature.
I first read Baraka's poetry in high school in a 1963 publication of American Negro Poetry. His writing was juxtaposed to many of the greats of the Harlem Renissance, including Countee Cullen and Sterling Brown (one of Baraka's mentors). Later, in college, I read some of Baraka's more controversial works like his play, The Dutchman (which was the winner of the prestigious Obie award, sponsored by the Village Voice) and poems like, "Ka' Ba" or "Black Art."
Until his death, I had little idea about the formative and seismic impact he had on the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 70s. His works, that I read in numerous Norton anthologies, only hinted at the activist the world knew. In the research that I've done for this blog, I learned that his work to date has been censored. I never read his most influential and polemical work. As a result of his death, surely there will be renewed interest in his activism and his legacy. I anxiously await the publication of a complete collection of his poetry in the years to come.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, he was known as a Beat poet and spent a great deal of time in New York and Paris with the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Jean Paul Satre. He changed his name from LeRoy to LeRoi (meaning "the king" in French), married a young Jewish woman by the name of Hettie Cohen, had two children and lived in Manhattan.
By 1967, after the Cuban revolution, the assassination of Malcolm X and the Newark riots, Baraka became radicalized. He left his wife, Hettie Cohen, changed his name to Ameer Baraka, married Amina Baraka (nee Sylvia Robinson) and moved back to his hometown of Newark, NJ.
During the riots (which Baraka termed a "rebellion" in which 1500 were injured and 27 died), he was captured by the police and brutally beaten. In an account of what took place at that time, he said that the police interrupted his poetry reading and took his script from him, "as if it were a loaded weapon." First, he was beaten in the streets, until neighbors interrupted by throwing glass bottles at the officers. Then he was taken to the police department, where he was beaten further and brought in front of the sheriff. According to Baraka's own account, the only thing that saved his life that day was a call to the police from Jean Paul Satre (one of Baraka's cronies and, of course, a famed French philosopher). I would subscribe these events to urban legend, if I had not heard the words come out of Baraka's own mouth. See "Sources" below for details.
These ideas go to the heart of what the poet claimed and used to motivate other artists of his generation by the mid-to-late 1960s. Art for art's sake was no good. All art is political and the sequence of events in Newark serve to validate this premise. According to one of the panelists from one of the sources below, we, African Americans, have to continue "to develop our own aesthetic." We have "a distinctive viewpoint and different optical and auditory nerves," which is why our art "does not conform to mainstream Western values." This was the foundation of "cultural nationalism." Mr. Baraka aimed to foment racial consciousness and pride, which formed the backbone of the Black Arts Movement.
Baraka is also credited with being the first African American to write a book which traced the role and development of jazz from slavery into contemporary times in Blues People. According to his friends, like Sonia Sanchez, James Baldwin and Maya Angelou, it was in creating this work that "he found his voice." He mirrored Langston Hughes in incorporating jazz elements into his poetry. Today, rap and spoken-word owe their foundation to Baraka and others who built on this legacy of "mass-based poetry." Toni Morrison called Amiri Baraka "the greatest living poet."
More practically, at the height of the poet's growing cultural and political power, he worked to unify African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and other groups to bring about political change. He helped to inspire each group's own cultural nationalism and is said to have brought about multiculturalism as we know it today.
Over the course of his career, Amiri Baraka served as professor at Yale, Columbia, Rutgers and George Washington University, as well as, twenty years at SUNY-Stony Brook. He was the poet laureate of New Jersey from 2002-03. He leaves quite a legacy, in his children, his students and in his great writing. He will not soon be forgotten.
Sources:
Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/1/10/remembering_amiri_baraka_part_2_featuring
USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2014/01/09/amiri-barak-dies/4395467/
Fader:
http://www.thefader.com/2014/01/09/amiri-baraka-poet-laureate/
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Introducing, Love Emphatically...
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope that you enjoyed your celebrations. I am still celebrating because this new year will bring a new book for me--one which will be released as early as the spring. The book cover is an ever-evolving project. I wanted to share an initial sample with you. I hope that you like it! See below.
 |
| Double-click on the image to read the text |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)