The Breath of the World

Sallie Council McBride

On Tuesday, my mother died.  Sallie Council McBride.   She received hospice care in our home and she died there where love and her legacy reigned.  She was a southern gal, who knew the splendor of words.  To the very end, pushing through the weight of morphine and retreating organs and through the haze of her dementia and her clear knowledge of her imminent death, my mom still clung to poetry.   And even when she recited her favorite poems like Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Mother” with no sound and a mouth heavy with a dead tongue, she spoke of poetry’s true power;  to recognize, to celebrate and to redeem.   

Ode to Sadness                                                                               

by Pablo Neruda

Sadness, scarab
with seven crippled feet,
spiderweb egg,
scramble-brained rat,
bitch's skeleton:
No entry here.
Don't come in.
Go away.
Go back
south with your umbrella,
go back
north with your serpent's teeth.
A poet lives here.
No sadness may
cross this threshold.
Through these windows
comes the breath of the world,
fresh red roses,
flags embroidered with
the victories of the people.
No.
No entry.
Flap
your bat's wings,
I will trample the feathers
that fall from your mantle,
I will sweep the bits and pieces
of your carcass to
the four corners of the wind,
I will wring your neck,
I will stitch your eyelids shut,
I will sew your shroud,
sadness, and bury your rodent bones
beneath the springtime of an apple tree.

The Body Electric

Photographer Jeff Harris

This week I want to profile examples of people who use photography to document stories of human endurance, particularly when the physical body begins to fail.  Here is photographer Jeff Harris and his story: Click the link below:

http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1349803055001_0,00.html

THE ARTIST AT WORK: AN AFTERNOON WITH EDWIDGE DANTICAT

Edwidge Danticat

THE ARTIST AT WORK:
AN AFTERNOON WITH EDWIDGE DANTICAT

Date:   Saturday, March 17, 2012
Time:  4:30 to 6:30pm
Place:  Church of The Advocate
1801 W. Diamond Street
Philadelphia, PA  19121

Edwidge Danticat has captivated audiences ever since her debut novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, in 1994. She rose to national prominence after Oprah Winfrey selected the book to be apart of the prestigious Oprah Book club in 1998. Danticat continued to enthrall her readers with follow up novels, "Krik, Krak" and "The Farming of Bones."

Edwidge Danticat has been selected as the One Book, One Philadelphia author for it's 10th anniversary and in celebration of her selection and rare Philadelphia appearance, Art Sanctuary will host an afternoon of conversation, performance and sharing with the beloved author.
Danticat's latest book, a collection of essays entitled " Create Dangerously: An immigrant artist at work" is the One Book selection. In a discussion moderated by well-known cultural activist and arts advocate April Silver, we will look at the role of the immigrant artists in the arts and cultural community and in their own respective communities.

 Book sales and signing immediately following the program.

 Admission is free, but we encourage you to register to guarantee seating: http://edwidgedanticatevent.eventbrite.com.

 For more information email us at events@artsanctuary.org or call 215-232-4485    

Finishing Line Press Poets Read at Philadelphia's Musehouse

Finishing Line Press was represented in grand fashion last night at one of Philadelphia’s premiere literary centers- Musehouse.   FLP poets Donna Wolf-Palacio, Karen McPherson and I, Octavia McBride-Ahebee, read from our respective collections.   Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno, the director of Musehouse, was a warm and wonderful host.  And we sold many books.  Bravo to you, Leah, for bringing life to our work.

Photo Credit- Mona Washingtom-Musehouse Director Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno and Octavia McBride-Ahebee; 2^nd Photo FLP poets Octavia McBride-Ahebee, Donna Wolf-Palacio and Karen McPherson

Octavia McBride-Ahebee to Read at Musehouse

Original Photo by Laura Elam-Octavia McBride-Ahebee

     I had a blast spending Valentine’s Day reading love stories at the Moonstone Arts Center.  This event was sponsored by the National Black Authors’ Tour and hosted by the incomparable Maurice Henderson.  I’ll be reading on Saturday, March 10, 2012, at 7:00 p.m., along with other poets from Finishing Line Press  at :

 Musehouse; A Center for the Literary Arts
7924 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA

Phone: 267-331-9552

Do come out and support this event.

The Transformation of a Drug Capital: the Medellín Poetry Festival

Listening to Poetry in the Rain- Medellin, Colombia
How the Medellín International Poetry Festival helped transform a troubled city into a world capital of poetry.

Medellín, Colombia, a city once notorious for being the epicenter of the cocaine trade, is reinventing itself as a global center for the living word. The Medellín International Poetry Festival was founded in 1991, when the streets of Medellín were at their most precarious. Organizers envisioned the Poetry Festival as a form of cultural resistance--a venue for cultivating peace and a protest against injustice and terrorism, including state terrorism. Over the past 21 years the festival has established itself as the largest of its kind in the world. Since its inception more than 1.000 poets from 159 nations have come to Colombia, where more than 1.200 poetry readings have been held in 32 cities across the country. The festival was one of the recipients of the 2006 Right Livelihood Award, widely known as "The Alternative Nobel Peace Prize.” This short film documents some of the readings from the 2008 festival and highlights performers talking about the use of poetry as a tool for promoting peace and justice.

Source: http://www.festivaldepoesiademedellin.org/

OBIT: Lous Reyes Rivera May 19, 1945-March 2, 2012

Louis Reyes Rivera Known as the Janitor of History, poet/essayist Louis Reyes Rivera has been studying the craft of writing since 1960 and teaching it since 1969. The recipient of over 20 awards, including a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (2003), a Lifetime Achievement Award (1995), a Special Congressional Recognition Award (1988), and the CCNY 125th Anniversary Medal (1973) --each of which were given in recognition of his scholarship and impact on contemporary literature-- Rivera has assisted in the publication of well over 200 books, including Adal Maldonado's Portraits of the Puerto Rican Experience (IPRUS, 1984), John Oliver Killens' Great Black Russian (Wayne State U., 1989), and Bum Rush The Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Crown Publishers, 2001), co-edited with Tony Medina.

An internationally recognized literary figure with translations of his work appearing in the Russian, Latvian, Spanish and Italian languages, Rivera has been consistently viewed by many as a living bridge between the African and Latino American communities. He has distinguished himself as a professor of Creative Writing, Pan-African Literature, African-American Culture and History, Caribbean History, Puerto Rican History, and Nuyorican Literature, and has taught these courses at such institutions as SUNY@Stony Brook, Hunter College, College of New Rochelle, LaGuardia College, Pratt Institute, and Boricua College, among others. As well, he has completed the translation of Clemente Soto Veléz's Caballo de Palo/Broomstick Stallion, and was presently working on the collected poems of Otto Rene Castillo of Guatemala, Por el bien de todos/For the good of all.

Over the past 28 years, his essays and poems have appeared in numerous publications, including Areyto, Boletin (Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter), The City Sun, African Voices, and in several award-winning collections: In Defense of Mumia; ALOUD: Live from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe; Of Sons And Lovers; and his own Scattered Scripture, for which he received the 1997 Poetry Award from the Latin American Writers Institute.

Since 1996, Louis Reyes Rivera hosted a reading series in Brooklyn, 1st & 3rd Sundays Jazzoetry & Open Mic @ Sistas' Place (where he continues to conduct a writing workshop), and has appeared in Jazz clubs and festivals with The Sun Ra All-Stars Project, Ahmed Abdullah's Diaspora, Ebonic Tones, the James Spaulding Ensemble, and his own band, The Jazzoets. He appeared on the Peabody award-winning HBO show, DEF POETRY JAM, and was heard every Thursday, at 2pm, on radio station WBAI (99.5 FM) hosting PERSPECTIVE (streamed at wbai.org/ archives).

Louis Reyes Rivera

Source: Neo-Griot

Finishing Line Press Poets Reading at Musehouse in Philadelphia

 

 

I'm thrilled to be reading at Musehouse in Philadelphia next week.

Join us for a reading and book signing by Poets of Finishing Line Press

at Musehouse; A Center for the Literary Arts
...
DATE: Saturday, March 10, 2012 TIME: 7 pm
LOCATION: 7924 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia PA 19118
Free Admission 

267-331-9552

I'll be reading from my new collection of poetry-Where My Birthmark Dances.

Here's what Lillian Dunn, of Apiary Magazine, said about my new collection of poetry-Where My Birthmark Dances:

The Ancient Romans used to call a person's creative spirit her "genius," and recognized the labor of setting it free as one of love and sacrifice. Octavia McBride-Ahebee's latest collection is just such a labor. Her poems depict human longing, love and dignity in the context of global inequality with fierce, uncompromising grace. As her characters speak, she creates indelible sensory images of loveliness and affection, profound misery and anger, letting each co-exist on the page. The resulting complexity of tone makes space for nuanced and compelling human voices that might otherwise be categorized as "victims" or "villains" of oppression. It takes the full use of genius to notice and capture these contradictions, and a deep social conscience to care so passionately about writing them down. This collection is one of McBride-Ahebee's "bighearted magnolia trees," its trunk scarred by the fire of sacrifice, its blossoms and branches so beautiful you don't want to leave their shade."

 

Other Finishing Line Press Poets  reading will be Karen McPherson.  She will read from her collection Sketching Elise and Donna Wolf-Palacio will read from her collection What I Don't Know.

 

Do come out and join us.

Poet Dean Atta; I Am Nobody's Nigger

I Am Nobody's Nigger - by Dean Atta - http://www.twitter.com/DeanAtta

Rappers when you use the word "nigger" remember that's one of the last words Stephen Lawrence heard, so don't tell me it's a reclaimed word.

I am nobody's nigger
So please, let my ancestors rest in peace
Not turn in their graves in Jamaica plantations
Or the watery graves of the slave trade
Thrown overboard into middle passage
Just for insurance claims
They were chained up on a boat
As many as they could manage and stay afloat
Stripped of dignity and all hope
Awaiting their masters and European names
But the sick and the injured were dead weight to toss
And Lloyds of London would cover that cost.

I am nobody's nigger

So you can tell Weezy and Drake
That they made a mistake
I am nobody's nigger now
So you can tell Kanye and Jigga
I am not a nigger... in Paris
I'm not a nigger in London
I'm not a nigger in New York
I'm not a nigger in Kingston
I'm not a nigger in Accra
Or a nigger with attitude in Compton
Cos "I don't wanna be called yo nigga"

How were you raised on Public Enemy
And still became your own worst enemy?
You killed Hip Hop and resurrected headless zombies
That can't think for themselves or see where they're going
Or quench the blood lust because there's no blood flowing
In their hearts, just in the streets
They don't give a damn as long as they eating
Their hearts ain't beating, they're cold as ice (bling)
Because they would put money over everything
Money over self respect or self esteem
Or empowering the youth to follow their dreams
Stacking paper cos it's greater than love it seems
Call me "nigger" cos you're scared of what "brother" means

To know that we share something unspeakable
To know that as high as we rise we are not seen as equal
To know that racism is institutional thinking
And that "nigger" is the last word you heard before a lynching.

Bravo to Zambia for Winning the African Cup of Nations

I was rooting for Cote d'Ivoire to ultimately win the African Cup of Nations, but Zambia did. I must say Chipolopolo Africa Unlimited really impressed me and won me over as well. Bravo to Zambia and all of the various African teams that participated in the 2012 African Cup of Nations. You avenged the ancestors by showing the world how magical soccer can be.