Poetry Parnassus : Poet and Professor Patricia Jabbeh Wesley



Destiny by Margaret E. Walters



Earlier this month in London, The Southbank Centre’s Poetry Parnassus Festival brought together poets from all the countries competing in the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The world’s most dynamic poets, rappers, spoken word artists, singers and storytellers gathered for this monumental event that made history as the largest poetry festival ever staged in the UK.

Here is Liberian poet Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, one of the festival's participating artists, reading from her work.

Wrinkles of a City; Havana / Murals by JR and José Parlá

* Source- WUM; An Online Journal  for the Arts

During the XI Havana Biennale 2012 that took place last month,  celebrated French artist JR and Cuban-American artist José Parlá collaborated to create the latest iteration of "The Wrinkles of the City," a huge mural installation that included 25 stunning large scale portraits of 25 senior citizens interlaced with palimpsestic calligraphic writings and paintings.

Parlá’s markings echo the distressed surfaces of the walls he inscribes, and offer commentary on the lives of Cuba’s elders. Both artists have left a lasting impression on the Cuban capital animating a city with such portraits in public who had only seen the likes of Che Guevara or Fidel Castro.

Celebrating Cuba's July 26th Movement- Viva la Revolución; The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Celebrating Cuba's July 26th Movement- Viva la Revolución

I am pairing this mural with Gil Scott Heron’s " The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

Here is Heron's delivering this signature poem: 

Here is a link to learn more about the July 26th Movement: http://cubasolidarity.blogspot.com/2008/07/july-26th-movement-and-gains-of-cuban.html
* Photo- Andrew K. Johnston

Color Me In Blue- Feminist Literary Journals-Submit

 

 

Submissions-Here's a link to :

1. So To Speak; A Feminist Journal of Language and Arthttp://sotospeakjournal.org/

2. CALYX, A Journal of Art and Literature by Women http://www.calyxpress.org/journal.html

3. Cliterature Journalhttp://www.cliteraturejournal.com/

 

Artwork- Ain’t I a Woman” blue by Ofunne Obiamiwe - artist, activist and educatorSee More

Toni Morrison Gives New Voice to Desdemona

Here's a link to an interview in which Toni Morrison discusses this project.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQhcI9is6XU&feature=youtu.be

Meditations in Congo Square; Lamont Steptoe Reads from His Newest Poetry Collection

“Most poets are simply that. Sonia Sanchez and Lamont B. Steptoe answer to a higher calling. Prophecy! In Meditations… Steptoe is the Necromancer, translating the language of the dead to the living, whether they be the recently departed or Ante-Bellum spirits. While our age of obesity, self-gratification, and credit cards whistles past the graveyard, Lamont reads this burial ground like an Alufaa would read cowrie shells. Yes, there is the Philadelphia of Brotherly love, the old Quaker City that infuriated George Washington by offering refuge to fugitive slaves, but there is the other Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly death, whose atrocities are still being unearthed. Lamont B. Steptoe is the poet of this hidden Philadelphia. His brother Philadelphia poet of death, Edgar Allen Poe, would be proud.” Ishmael Reed

“There are places we dream, and places, often mass grave sits, that dream through us- if, like Lamont Steptoe, we are open to the restless spirits who abide there, denied voice in their time, and wishing now to catch history’s ear. “Turn up the silence loud,” he says, and the whispering dead are heard, as lost ancestors “call this place out of its name,” and Philly’s Washington Square Park becomes

Congo Square

, a restitution and a requiem.”  Eleanor Wilner

Lamont B.Steptoe was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the author and/or editor of fifteen poetry collections, the latest of which is Meditations in Congo Square, and publisher/founder of Whirlwind Press. He is the winner of an American Book Award and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

Tuesday, July 24^th at  7:00 p.m.

The Moonstone Arts Center

 110A

S. 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Phone: 215-735-9600, 215-735-9598
Email: info@moonstoneartscenter.org

In Consideration of Ramadan

    Teaching Tolerance :  http://www.tolerance.org/blog/consideration-ramadan

Link  to Five Muslim American Poets: Part I- Literary discussion featuring readings by poets Raza Ali Hasan, Ibtisam Barakat, Fady Joudah, Kazim Ali, and Khaled Mattawa.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/audioitem/2040

Happy Birthday, Wole Soyinka !

Photo- Wole Soyinka and his Sister, Tinu, 1940

The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism. Wole Soyinka

Yesterday was Nigerian poet, playwright and political activist Wole Soyinka’s birthday.  Mr. Soyinka was the first African to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Here is a short interview with him by Skip Gates, which gives you a taste of his insight and demeanor.  I hope you explore more of his work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWjxjPQwBX0&feature=related

* Photo- Wole Soyinka and his Sister, Tinu, 1940

African Films To Be Shown at the Philadelphia African-American Museum

One of the most exiting events in West Africa happens every two years in Burkina Faso.  It’s FESPACO ; the preeminent PanAfrican Film Festival.  People locally and around world have been making and continue to make quality, relevant and life-affirming films.  As I was sharing with a friend, we don’t have to limit ourselves to what is presented in mainstream movie theaters.  Branch out, attend film festivals, and  actively  learn that there are other voices in this world other than “Hollywood’s”.

I’m thrilled that the Philadelphia African-American Museum will host the showing of several African produced films. Here is a link to learn the details:  http://aampmuseum.org/demo_dev.php/page/july-august

Below is a link to photographs by Andrea Frazzeta of the 2011 FESPACO.   This is an international event, but I like how she shows in these shots the local angle and involvement of everyday folk. Enjoy and go in 2013.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/01/magazine/look-african-film-festival.html?ref=magazine

June Jordan- A Poem About My Rights

 



Photo- June Jordan and Angela Davis

Happy Birthday June Jordan ! Here is a link to June reading Poem About My Rights which I first read more than 30 years ago and it still blows my mind !    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUSTxhYu7-4&feature=related

Scribe Presents CABRALISTA This Friday 7/13 | Filmmaker in person -Philadelphia

Joel Bergner painting the revolutionary hero Amilcar Cabral on the anniversary of his assassination in Cape Verde.

Scribe Video Center Presents:

Screening of Cabralista with Director Valerio Lopes in person!

Friday, July 13, 7PM at Scribe Video Center, 4212 Chestnut St., 3rd Fl. Philadelphia, PA

Admission $5/ FREE for Reelblack Season 9 members. 

On Friday July 13, 7PM, Scribe Video Center presents as part of its Storyville programming, the documentary Cabralista(2011, 52 min, French/Portuguese/Criol w/English subtitles) with director Valerio Lopes in person.  Shot in Cape Verde, Portugal, Libya, Kenya, Guinea and Luxembourg, this is the first episode in an ambitious documentary trilogy inspired by the work of political activist Amilcar Cabral.   In this feature-length documentary, Cabral's theories, life and work are considered and analyzed by young African students and intellectuals, as they seek alternative solutions to present-day cultural and social issues. The original music by filmmaker/musician Lopes creates a captivating mood and sets the tone for a very compelling climax.

Amilcar Cabral, a Guinea-Bissauan and Cape Verdean nationalist thinker and politician, led the nationalist movement of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde Islands and the ensuing war of independence in Guinea-Bissau.  The event is presented in partnership with Reelblack Inc.  Friday July 13, 7PM, at Scribe Video Center, 4212 Chestnut St, 3rd Fl, Philadelphia, PA. $5, free for Scribe and Reelblack members.

About Director Valerio Lopes

Composer, storyteller, director and activist Valerio (Val) Lopes was born 1977 in Luxembourg from Cape-Verdean parents.  He has been mixing music and video as a form of artistic expression since the early nineties. During the last few years he traveled all around the world, mainly in the Cape-Verdean community, where he had the opportunity to discover all the facets of this country of mixed origins with a strong diaspora.