Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot

New Book: NIgger For Life

2009-11-29T07:56:00.001-05:00

Neal Hall, M.D., graduate of Cornell and Harvard, ophthalmologist and poet, has published a critically acclaimed anthology of verse, Nigger For Life, reflecting his painful, later life discovery, that in “unspoken America," race is the one thing on which he is “first” judged, by which he is “first” measured, “first”, against which his life and accomplishments are metered diminished value, dignity and equality. All of which have everything to do with accessing choice, opportunity, power and freedom in America.

Nigger For Life reveals his deep sense of betrayal combined with his fervent passion for life and equality for “all”. His words pierce through in candid, gut wrenching clarity. He bares his intelligence, wit and dreams. His anthology is as confronting as it is illuminating, as disarming as it is thought provoking, as cathartic as it is filling.

Whether an ophthalmologist or poet, Dr. Hall’s reality is clear-cut - in the eyes of “unspoken America”, he is, a Nigger For Life.

Nigger For Life can be reviewed & purchased at: http://www.surgeonpoet.com

Email: info@NiggerForLifeBook.com

Online Interview of Dr. Hall: http://www.caribbeanbookblog.wordpress.com

“…a warrior of the mind … a warrior of the spirit, an activist, a poet.” - Cornel West, Ph.D.

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Happy Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-26T01:45:00.003-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Blessings for You and Yours...

1Heart,

Geoffrey

Thanksgiving Sestina @ Wordle

2009-11-25T14:21:00.001-05:00

"Thanksgiving Sestina (for Nadia)" @ Wordle

Here's the original poem: "Thanksgiving Sestina (for Nadia)"

"Thanksgiving Sestina" will be published in my next collection of poems, Dub Wise.

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Geoffrey Philp Wins Daily News Prize For Poetry

2009-11-25T01:03:00.009-05:00

The Editorial Board of The Caribbean Writer has awarded Jamaica-born poet and short story writer, Geoffrey Philp, the Daily News Prize for his poem, “Erzulie’s Daughter.”

A talented writer in many genres, Mr. Philp has also won the Canute Brodhurst Prize for his short story, “Uncle Obadiah and the Alien.” The prize winning poem is included in Philp’s upcoming collection of poems, Dub Wise, which will published in Spring 2010 by Peepal Tree Press.

More @ Jamaicans.com: Geoffrey Philp Wins Daily News Prize For Poetry

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Poor Man's Copyright?

2009-11-23T01:39:00.004-05:00

I have a dark secret and I owe one of my students an apology.

It began with two car accidents in consecutive years. Two cars totaled by drunk or careless drivers left me unable to work at the level to which I had become accustomed.

Then, the bills started to pile up.

It would be an understatement to say that I was hard up for money. I was desperate and when I saw an ad in a very reputable magazine for a screenplay, I answered the ad. I'd been tossing around this idea in my head for some time and I bit. I emailed a proposal. The agent followed up and asked for a treatment.

I sent him this synopsis, but just to be sure, I mailed myself a copy of the treatment and followed the advice that one of my teachers had given me: "Use Poor Man's Copyright."

It has been one of the biggest mistakes of my writing career.

***

Synopsis of The Blackheart Man

Opening Scene: Westmoreland, Jamaica.

The camera moves lowly over rows and rows of cane fields under a gorgeous Jamaican full moon. It’s as if the camera is bending the heads of the cane stalks, but there’s no sound—just the movement of the camera over the canes. A light rain begins to fall. The pace quickens over a hill to a Great House and toward a beach and circles back to cane fields.

Spling! The sound that machetes make when cutting cane.

The sound intensifies and the camera moves faster and after over the cane fields and suddenly we see a couple obviously in love racing towards a fence that has a sign “Keep Out! On Pane of Deth!” They ignore the sign and almost as if seeking shelter from the rain they race towards the dilapidated Great House.

Spling!

We see the machete glinting in the moonlight. As they run, the woman begins to unwrap the skirt she’s been wearing. Obviously they are going to make love. We assume she’s going to lie down on the skirt. They enter the Great House cautiously, and then, race towards the center hall where they start to make out and then, to have sex.

Spling!

The rain begins to fall harder and they are getting wet while they are making love, but they don’t seem to mind—the sex is too good. They are both giggling and laughing and we have a close-up of the man’s face. He is loving this.

Spling!

In split second, the camera pans the woman’s’ face that goes from her own pleasure and giving pleasure to blood all over her face. The man has been decapitated. There is a thud on the floor. We never see the head. All we see is the look of horror on her face as the body falls on top of her and twitches. She screams. And screams. She picks up what she can and races out of the Great House.

The rain is falling harder. She is racing towards the beach. The sound of a heartbeat. We see the machete again.

Spling!

A hand reaches out to touch her, but she fights it off a runs even faster away from the hand. Close-up of her as she apparently reaches towards her legs as if she had been cut down.

Spling!

She falls and looks up at the camera, almost in recognition, but not quite. Scream…

Spling!

Bunny Wailer’s song “Blackheart Man” begins.

Trevor Matthews, the protagonist
Janice Williams, the love interest
Uncle Wallace, the antagonist
Henry DaCosta, weed smoker and comic relief
Norman Higgins, sidekick and betrayer
Beeline, wise old Rasta man
Blackheart Man, a dreadlocked force of nature
The Mistress, comic relief

Trevor Matthews, who works as a manger at a hotel in Miami, has returned to Jamaica to take over and run Hog Heaven Hotel that has been placed in trust to his Uncle Wallace until he is twenty-nine years old. Trevor is educated, has a degree in hospitality management, and knows the hotel business in a bookish way. He has never been tested in Jamaica where he is a bit of a fish out of water. He has invited his friends Henry (weed smoker and comic relief) and Norman (secretly a coward) with him so that they can help him run the hotel. They have been friends with him in Miami and he figures they will be with him through whatever problems he comes up against in Jamaica.

On the night before Trevor returns from Miami, the murder has already occurred. Uncle Wallace (ex-cop) covers up the murder of the Jamaican couple with little or no fanfare. Uncle Wallace thinks he is going to buy out Paul's portion of the business.

When Trevor returns to Jamaica, he tells Uncle Wallace that he intends to take over Hog Heaven. This upsets all of Uncle Sam's plans. A murder of a tourist occurs and Uncle Wallace doesn't cover it up. In fact, he makes it a media event. He wants to discourage Trevor from buying the hotel. He wants the hotel for himself and his very expensive mistress.

Enter Janice Williams, Paul's' old girl friend. She works for the Tourist Board of Jamaica and is there to help Trevor so he won’t lose any more tourist business. Trevor still loves her and she still loves him. Trevor wants to prove that he is no longer a dilettante( “You can always run back to Miami and leave us the way you’ve always run away from everything” she says to him) and she wants to prove that she's no longer Daddy's little girl (“Did Daddy get you this job, too?” Trevor asks her the first time they meet: “He’s dead” she counters, “but I guess you were too busy in Miami to follow what’s been happening here in Jamaica.”

Paul also meets up with the Rasta man Beeline who gives him the background story of the Blackheart man who has been stirred by the boundary transgression of the Jamaican couple and the tourists and Uncle Wallace’s plan to extend the hotel to the land that was owned by the Blackheart man. A murder of a cook who worked at the hotel when Trevor’s father was alive has occurred before when Trevor’s’ father tired to expand the hotel. But once Trevor’s father restored the fence, nothing happened again.

Another murder attempt occurs and Trevor must act to solve the mystery. If not, another tourist will never step foot in the hotel. Who is the Blackheart man? Beeline gives more information. Uncle Wallace sees this as the perfect opportunity to kill Paul. He hires a hit man to do the job ala the Blackheart man. The Blackheart Man kills the assassin.

Trevor tries to rebuild the fence, but Beeline tells him it is futile now. The Blackheart man wants blood. The fence is still repaired. The next day they find it broken down again.

Fear takes over the hotel. Everyone is fleeing, checking out. Going to other hotels and islands.

Trevor is betrayed by his friend Norman who decides to go back to Miami, “I don’t want to die, man.” Uncle Wallace has bought off Norman. Henry will stay for the weed that Beeline supplies

Together Trevor, Janice, Beeline and Henry must join to kill the Blackheart man.

The Blackheart man kills Norman who is one the way to the airport.

The Blackheart man also kills Uncle Wallace. His expensive mistress gets away without her weave. Trevor is next. They all join forces and they kill the Blackheart man.

Trevor is reunited with Janice. The hotel opens under new management with Trevor and Janice about to get married.

***

I never heard from the agent again.

Then, a few years ago, my son and I were walking through Blockbuster and we saw this movie, XYZ, that was set on a Caribbean island, so we decided to rent it.

As we settled back in our seats, a sickening feeling overcame me. This was my movie. A few changes had been made, but it was my movie. I'd been ripped off.

I called all my friends and then we contacted a lawyer, who after reviewing the case told me that because we couldn't prove a “material connection” between he agent and the production company, we couldn't bring a law suit. Plus, he added with the costs of expert witnesses, etc, the costs made it impossible to win.

I asked him about "Poor Man's Copyright."

After he finished laughing, he basically informed me about what is now found in Wikipedia: "There is no provision in copyright law regarding any such type of protection. Poor man's copyright is therefore not a substitute for registration. According to section 408 of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, registration of a work with the Copyright Office is not a prerequisite for copyright protection."

Dejected, I put away the information and thought I'd gotten over it until a few weekends ago when a popular cable station had a movie marathon with the movie.

I was steaming mad, but there was nothing that I could do about it.

And then I remembered the advice that I'd given one of my students about copyrighting his poems. I told him it was probably a bad idea to copyright every one of his poems because of the cost and the chance of his work being stolen was infinitesimal.

I'm wondering now if I gave him the right advice. I don't think I did. So, my student, if you are reading this, I'm sorry that I gave you bad advice and I hope you have not lost any work to unscrupulous agents or producers.

For in this Internet age when everything on the web can be scraped, copied, and mashed, unless you're willing to let go of the work, then you'd better apply for copyright: U.S. Copyright Office.

It may just save you from the rage that I am still feeling right now.

***

Words from flickr

Created by kastner

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Video: "The Day Jesus Christ Came to Mount Airy"

2009-11-20T02:04:00.003-05:00

"The Day Jesus Christ Came to Mount Airy" @ UVU

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Who's Your Daddy? @ Miami Book Fair International: Redux

2009-11-18T01:06:00.063-05:00

I’d sent out dozens of invitations via Facebook, but I didn't expect to see so many friends on Saturday at the Weekend Author Sessions, Miami Book Fair International 2009.

The event got off to a great start after the introduction by Professor McKnight-Samms. I read one of my favorite stories, "My Jamaican Touch," which was first published on this blog. The audience loved it and laughed in all the right places. Even my mother-in-law, the antagonist in the story, laughed when I read, “She feels I have led her daughter away from the true Church, which according to her is "Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic!"

Next, Dylan Landis read from Normal People Don't Live Like This, the story of a troubled young girl and her relationship with her equally disturbed companions. Dylan captured all of the Sturm und Drang of a precocious teen growing up on the Upper West Side during the seventies.

We rounded out the event with Marc Fitten’s Valeria’s Last Stand about an elderly Hungarian widow’s attempts to cope with political and romantic changes in her life. If the first chapters are any indication of the rest of the book, then Valeria’s Last Stand will definitely be on my list for Christmas.

Give thanks to the organizers for putting together such an Irie reading for the Weekend Author Sessions. It was a pleasure to meet and read with Marc Fitten and Dylan Landis. But what was really heartwarming was to see all the friends who promised to come to the event and showed up!

So, the Events app. on Facebook works. Hallelujah.

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For more photos of the event, please follow this link: Miami Book Fair International 2009 @ Flickr

For I will consider my Cat Buju

2009-11-16T01:44:00.014-05:00

He is not supposed to be alive. My daughter heard his cries from inside a dumpster where she found a garbage bag sealed with duct tape. She tore the bag open and he licked her hand. He barely weighed a pound. And when he curled up between her palms, she remembered a scene from one of her favorite movies, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective: "My little Buju." He now had a name.

Our family nursed Buju back to health and when he was strong enough, we took him to the Humane Society to be neutered. Since then, Buju, who used to be scared of the slightest sound has grown stronger and bolder to the point where he has become a fixture in our lives: playing tag with my son, nuzzling my daughter, purring in my wife's lap.

Buju and I are the ones who are awake while the world sleeps. When I'm watching TV, he reminds me that I have a bald spot and licks the thinning hair on my crown. And when I'm falling asleep, he nudges me until I awaken and then he pads over to the window where he becomes, like Jeoffry,our guardian: "For he keeps the Lord's watch in the night against the adversary."

He also thinks that he is a writer.

On most mornings before I go to work, I begin my day by writing. Buju escorts me downstairs to my computer and sits beside me. He plays with my pens, chews on my pencils, and like any good critic, offers commentary at the appropriate time.

And when I refuse to listen to his endless carping or he disapproves of the text, he slaps his paw against the keyboard and holds down the keys for emphasis: asssssssssssssssssssssdddddddd

And despite my screams, "Buju!' which when he first came would have sent him scurrying under our beds where he would have stayed for days, he has now grown to the point where I don't scare him any more.

He must also think he's one of my children.

***

Who's Your Daddy? @ South Florida Caribbean News

2009-11-13T01:01:00.002-05:00

MIAMI - Jamaica-born author, Geoffrey Philp will be reading at with Dylan Landis and Marc Fitten the Miami Book Fair International 2009 on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. in Room 3410.

More at South Florida Caribbean News

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Who's Your Daddy @ Nightly Business Report

2009-11-12T01:46:00.002-05:00

I'll be appearing on WPBT's Nightly Business Report tonight (7:00 p.m EST) in an interview with Jeff Yastine. We talked about blogging, social media, Kindle, and publishing in the Internet age.

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Update: 11/13/2009:

NBR Transcripts-November 12, 2009 Thursday, November 12, 2009

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The "DC Sniper" & Who's Your Daddy?

2009-11-11T09:52:00.001-05:00

I have often been asked if there was a real life story behind “Who’s Your Daddy?”. The inspiration for that story, John Allen Muhammad, was executed last night.

In 2002 when the first “DC Sniper” shootings began, America was gripped with fear. The shootings were so random. No one, it seemed, was safe. People stopped going to gas stations and some began to wonder if malls or supermarkets were safe.

Many of the profiles from experts in law enforcement suggested that the sniper was a white male and many of us in the black community breathed a sigh of relief. All we needed was another crazy brother with a gun out there for the rest of us to become scapegoats for his crimes.

So you can imagine the shock when it was revealed that the “DC Sniper” was John Muhammad and his young accomplice was a boy named John Malvo. The relief in the black community was now a collective: “WTF?”

The story fascinated me from the start. A young boy effectively abandoned by his parents, but more importantly by his father, who had fallen under the influence of a charismatic older male with a murderous streak. The seeds of tragedy were sown and the bitter harvest was being reaped: “In all, the sniping team would shoot 22 people, murdering 15 of them, in a deadly coast-to-coast spree that stretched from the Northwest to the deep South” (Victim's Brother Says 'Surreal Watching Life Sapped Out' of DC Sniper).

And when Muhammad was arraigned there was even a greater shock. But not with Muhammad. He resembled what I had imagined: a burnt out man who was a cross between a pool hustler and a failed evangelical preacher. But John Malvo? Behind that cherubic face, there was a sinister coldness in his eyes that mortified me. How could a child’s eyes be so deathly cold? How did this young man end up like this?

I began doing the research and it turned out that Malvo’s story is similar to the tale of many fatherless boys growing up in the Caribbean and in Miami—the “barrel” children, the children who have never known the love of a parent or grandparent and are easy prey for the Alpha males with whom they come in contact. These young Malvos are recruited for all kinds of criminality, from selling and transporting ganja, cocaine and heroin to committing murder. And the monetary rewards that they receive are minuscule compared to the risk (Steven Levitt: Crack Economics)—which suggests that the mixture of devotion, admiration and loyalty that these young Malvos have for these older males is something akin to love.

And the strange irony is that these young men grow up to be either Malvos or Obamas.

John Malvo was sentenced to life in prison without parole, and as Grace Nichols, author of "Genesis: The Bullet Was Meant For Me: D.C. Sniper Story Untold" has said, she is at peace with Malvo's sentence of life without parole because "he had the mind of a child who happened to be with a man who became diabolical."

Malvo may still be in prison, but his story is being multiplied in the Caribbean and South Florida. Malvo’s little brothers are still out there playing in the streets of Jamaica and Miami, waiting for another John Muhammad to appear in their lives to train them in the ways of terror.

***

Photo: Wikipedia

Book Review: How to Leave Hialeah by Jennine Capo Crucet

2009-11-11T01:27:00.003-05:00

An Open Letter from Marisella Veiga to Jennine Capo Crucet

Dear Jennine,

Initially, because you are a Cuban American woman fiction writer, I was interested in reading your first short story collection, How to Leave Hialeah. Then, your having won the 2009 John Simmons Award for Short Fiction and were the first Latina to win it—these facts were also a draw. When I learned the University of Iowa Press published the collection, I called for a review copy.

I am a Cubana fiction writer too. You were born in Hialeah in 1981. I was born in Havana in 1957 and arrived in Miami at age 3. Much of my childhood was spent in Minnesota, so I know something about learning to be a Cuban by living in the North.

I returned to Miami in 1968. As your book reveals, contrast helps people define themselves. I suspected your work would move me, and I was right. It has not stopped resonating. Your short stories bear witness to the many dynamics present among our exiled people. The characters you depict are on target.

Your last story, from which the collection’s title is taken, has countless examples. “You need more vitamin D than these Viking people, you have no choice,” you write, a tiny illustration of a myriad of differences.

Your well-crafted and written short stories are insightful, a powerful witness to the many dynamics present among our exiled people and within themselves. Your observations about the characters you’ve depicted are on target. I wonder how you, at such a young age, found the courage to depict so many hard truths in your stories?

Let me direct the next few lines to potential readers: Jennine’s last story, from which the collection’s title is taken, has countless examples. “You need more vitamin D than these Viking people, you have no choice,” she writes as a tiny example of the myriad of differences.

In “The Next Move,” a male first person narrator relates events two years before his wife Nilda, had died. He refused to go back to Cuba, but details her trip there to visit her sisters. His comments on the Tai Chi class he and Nilda took together are hilarious. The decision to enroll in the class was motivated by one of his wife’s sisters in Cuba. The narrator questions the wisdom of someone who hasn’t eaten a steak in years.

The narrator interacts with his daughter and grandchildren, “animal children” he calls them once. These children don’t speak Spanish as well as they should. They are clueless about what Cuba was or is. As assimilation continues, the inter-generational and cultural rifts grow. And so does lack of time and lack of appreciation for our elders’ stories.

The narrator reveals frustration with both, speaking for so many of our people: “I stood up from the bed and said, ‘Can’t I just tell a goddamn story!’”

This collection of 11 short stories accomplishes so much. It is a fiction that tells the truth of the lives of your characters, many of whom sprouted in the working class city of Hialeah, a place often sneered at by fellow exiles.

For readers who want to know about what is happening in our South Florida exile community, this book is important. For a closer look at what happens to immigrants and refugees as they begin to assimilate into the U.S. mainstream, it is crucial.

Maybe the book will educate a few people, in particular those who insist on seeing Greater Miami as a glamorous place—(read sexy), all those beautiful Latinos. After their South Florida jaunt, they can return home to their newspapers and televisions where they learn about us from a distance and complain about our ways.

Your book made me conscious of so many conflicts and pains and attitudes and traits that I’d rather ignore. I can easily do this, since I live in St. Augustine, way north of our Mecca. On the other hand, because I needed the confirmation and affirmation, I read on. I have emerged shaken, both sorrowful and joyous. Thank you for writing these stories.

How to Leave Hialeah by Jennine Capo Crucet (University of Iowa Press, paperback, $16.00, 184 pages.)

***

Marisella Veiga was born in Havana, Cuba, and went into exile with her family in 1960. She was raised both in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Miami, Florida. She received a B.A. in English from Macalester College and a Master’s in Fine Arts in Poetry from Bowling Green State University. Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers and literary anthologies. Veiga has won The Pushcart Prize XX, Best of the Small Presses, Special Mention in Fiction, the Canute A. Brodhurst Prize for Best Short Story in The Caribbean Writer. She was also given the Evelyn LaPierre Award for Journalism in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a nationally syndicated columnist with Hispanic Link News Service. Recently, Veiga released a spoken word recording with Eclipse Recording Studios that has collected a few. The CD is Square Watermelons: Ten Essays on Living with Two Cultures.

Mark Your Calendar: Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009

2009-11-10T01:50:00.001-05:00

Miami Book Fair International 2009

Geoffrey Philp on Who's Your Daddy, Dylan Landis on Normal People Don't Live Like This and Marc Fitten on Valeria's Last Stand.

Saturday, Nov. 14, 2:00 p.m., Room 3410 (Building 3, 4th Floor)

Marc Fitten

Marc Fitten was born in Brooklyn in 1974 to Panamanian parents. He’s been published in Prairie Schooner, The Louisville Review and serves as the editor of the Chattahoochee Review in Atlanta. His first novel, Valeria’s Last Stand (Bloomsbury), set in a Hungarian village, is “a promising debut.” – Publishers Weekly.

Dylan Landis

Dylan Landis, author of Normal People Don’t Live Like This (Persea), has published fiction in Tin House, Best American Nonrequired Reading and won the California Writers Exchange Award from Poets & Writers. “The characters in Dylan Landis's debut story collection, Normal People Don't Live Like This, are blessedly extraordinary.” – Vanity Fair.

Geoffrey Philp

Geoffrey Philp is a writer and poet whose awards include a James Michener Fellowship at the University of Miami. Born in rural Jamaica, he is the author of four collections of poetry, a previous book of short stories, a novel and Who’s Your Daddy and Other Stories (Peepal Tree Press). He lives in Miami.

Schedule
Saturday, Nov. 14, 2:00 p.m. Free

Location

Miami Book Fair International * Miami Dade College
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132
Room 3410 (Building 3, 4th Floor)

***

Source: Weekend Author Series

CALL FOR PAPERS: CARIBBEANSCAPES: THE VISTAS OF CARIBBEAN LITERATURE

2009-11-09T01:00:00.005-05:00

CALL FOR PAPERS

CARIBBEANSCAPES: THE VISTAS OF CARIBBEAN LITERATURE

The 29th Annual West Indian Literature Conference

Department of Literatures in English

Faculty of Humanities and Education

University of the West Indies, Mona

Kingston, Jamaica

April 29 – May 1, 2010

Special Guests :

Kamau Brathwaite

Lorna Goodison

Shara McCallum

David Chariandy

The theme for the 29th Annual West Indian Literature Conference is Caribbeanscapes: The Vistas of Caribbean Literature.

The Caribbean has been perceived in myriad and often contradictory ways: as paradisal isles; outposts of innocence offering Edenic beginnings; hedonistic beachscapes of tourist fantasies; the backwaters of civilization, condemned to mimicry and futile posturing; and vital centres of creative cultural hybridity, literally new worlds that prophesy our globalized futures.

Anglophone Caribbean literature is a rich archive of such perceptions, often articulating them as visual tropes of space and place that conflate geography and history, language and cartography in the attempt to chart the imaginative and literal frontiers of psyche and society.

To explore this archive of Caribbean literary vistas, the 29th Annual Conference on West Indian Literature invites papers and panel proposals on the following topics:

•    Tropicalized Spaces : The Power of Vistas
•    Home and Garden: Domestic Ecologies
•    Unhomely Spaces
•    Manscape and Womantongue Trees: The Gender of Vistas in Caribbean Literature
•    Rural Pastoral, Urban Dystopia? City and Country in Caribbean Writing
•    Plantation, Yard, Tonelle: Metaphors of Place and Identity
•    Spectacular Islands: The Visual Politics and Poetics of Caribbean Popular Culture
•    Translocal and Transnational Vistas
•    Travel Writing
•    Bordered Vistas: Border Regimes, Border Clashes, and Border-Crossings
•    Imagining Caribbean Space

Proposals are welcomed on other topics that are relevant to the theme of the Conference.

Abstracts should not exceed 250 words in length, and should include (1) a title, (2) name, status and institutional affiliation of the presenter(s), (3) a contact email address, and (4) a mailing address. Please also let us know if you require any special equipment. Papers will be a maximum of twenty (20) minutes in length.

Abstracts or proposals for panels comprising three papers should be emailed to the following addresses:

liteng@uwimona.edu.jm

litsengmona@gmail.com

The first Call for Papers will close on November 30, 2009

***

Dear Reader,

Please help to spread the word via Twitter, Facebook or any other social media .

Peace,

Geoffrey

Interview With Hannah Bannister: Peepal Tree Press

2009-11-08T01:01:00.002-05:00

Hannah Bannister, Peepal Tree marketing manager

and managing editor, Jeremie Poynting

Do you think Caribbean writers have reason to be hopeful about the future?

Hannah: I really do think it’s a bright future, and I hope we’ll start to see more entrepreneurs setting up Caribbean publishing companies – there’s room for more, judging by the volume and quality of the submissions we receive.

More @ Caribbean Book Blog

Photo Source: Caribbean Book Blog

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Celebrate National Bookstore Day

2009-11-07T01:30:00.024-05:00

Today is Publishers Weekly’s first annual National Bookstore Day, “a day devoted to celebrating bookselling and the vibrant culture of bookstores.”

If you live in Miami, drop by Books & Books, and show them some love.

Of course, readers in Boynton Beach can always visit Pyramid Books which "celebrates Black History Month 365 days a year to educate all people about the African Diaspora."

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Night of the Indigo Wins Moon Beam Award

2009-11-06T09:00:00.002-05:00

This year, Holgate's Night of the Indigo won a silver medal in the category of 'Young Adult Fiction - Religion/Spirituality'. The awards ceremony was held on October 10 as part of the West Virginia Book Festival in Charleston. While Holgate was not able to attend, he was happy to have won. "I'm very pleased with the award. I found it very interesting that the book didn't win in the category of fantasy/sci-fi which is the genre it qualifies for, but won in the religious/spirituality category," he said. "I'm very happy nonetheless. Anyone who reads the novel could easily understand why that happened."

More @ Island Fiction Series Editor

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Who's Your Daddy? endorsement @ Electronic Village

2009-11-06T08:18:00.001-05:00

Give thanks to Electronic Village for this endorsement of Who's Your Daddy?:

Philp's imagination flows from a casual game of dominoes that reveals the deep undercurrent of affection between father and son to the laugh-out-loud inventiveness of a dreadlocked vampire. I encourage all villagers to read this book to see a unique view of the lives of Black boys and their (sometimes) absent fathers.

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"Summer Storm" by Geoffrey Philp

2009-11-06T01:36:00.002-05:00

Summer Storm

After thunderstorms have cleared the city,
after the homeless have abandoned their cardboard palaces,

fog older than Tequesta circles, Seminole arrowheads
and Spanish jars, dulls the sawgrass’s razor,

turns away from the charted rivers,
slithers over the boulevard I could not cross

when the names Lozano and McDuffie rhymed
with the scent of burning tires, and away

from churches with broken steeples that grow
more vacant each Sunday because their faithful

folded their arms while balseros floundered, boriquas
drowned, and negs joined their sisters and brothers

on the ocean bed. Yet something like music
rises from the sound of the gull’s wings beating a path

over Calle Ocho, Little Haiti, La Sawacera, like the bells
that echo over the Freedom Tower, bright as the final

burst of the sunset against the billboards, gilding the sea
grapes’ leaves washed clean by the evening rain.

***

My Morning Star(s)

2009-11-04T01:19:00.003-05:00

A few days ago as I was getting ready to take my daughter to her new job at Starbucks, I looked up and saw the Morning Star hovering over the top of the Poinciana that stands like a sentinel at the top of our street. In that moment, I considered all of the travelers through the centuries who have been guided to and from home and for whom the Morning Star was a constant. And although I do have my Zen-moments when I say to myself, "The only thing permanent is impermanence," it's comforting to think of the Morning Star in that way.

Unconcerned about either departures or arrivals, the Morning Star's message seems to be: "Wherever you are going, you can count on me." There are very few things or very few people about whom this can be said, and I count myself among the fortunate to have known a few people who have been my Morning Stars: Dennis Scott, friend and mentor; Melvyn Smith, family friend and supervisor, and James Carnegie, teacher and scholar.

These three men personified what it meant to be, as Mr. Carnegie often reminded me at Jamica College, a "Jamaican gentleman." That phrase stuck with me. As someone who came of age in post-Independence Jamaica, I grew up in revolutionary times in which the idea of resistance, especially to British colonialism, became my raison d'être. The emotional zeitgeist of this era has between captured somewhere between the poetry of Mervyn Morris and Ralph Thompson, but in Trust The Darkness: My Life as a Writer, Anthony C. Winkler describes the dilemma:

The blueprint of what a man should be like is implicit in the culture of every nation. Boys unwittingly study it and absorb its details by observing and mimicking the behavior of men around whom they admire…As the boy grows older and becomes more self-confident, he will shed those adopted traits that do not fit his particular personality and keep those that do, and out of the lump of clay that was his boyhood will eventually emerge the figure of as solid, unique man.

The problem Jamaican boys of my generation faced was that the English had scorned and denied our culture for so long that the Jamaican blueprint for manhood had become scuffed-up and blurry. Stilted Englishmen, who were as conspicuously different from us as penguins are from pea doves, were the strong and available role models. But for many boys of my generation, these men smelled like the enemy, and to emulate them with their emphasis on class, protocol and snobbish language was to become a patchwork creature that some might call "colonial" but was definitely not Jamaican.

We had examples of what we weren't supposed to be, but what and who never had a clue about what we should be. After we assumed the reins of power, we were left with the questions: What are we going to build? How would we define ourselves as men and women or as fathers and mothers? What would become our blueprint for these roles? Or would we slip into the default mode of nature, "red claw and tooth," while rutting ourselves into eternity in our playground of sand , sea, san sun with copious amounts of weed and rum thrown in for good measure?

Who would be our Morning Star(s)?

I saw my trinity in these men, Melvyn Smith, James Carnegie, and Dennis Scott, whose lives showed me what a father, scholar and poet could be--that my life didn't have to be hemmed in by the stereotypes.

Melvyn Smith was an excellent provider and administrator at the Collector General in Jamaica, where I had my first job; James Carnegie was an outstanding assistant principal at Jamaica College and his encyclopedic knowledge of history, cricket and the names of nearly every boy in the school endeared him to us; and Dennis Scott, poet, playwright, and Director of the Jamaica School of Drama, showed me that a poet did not have to be the consumptive, fever ridden model that we inherited from our reading of British literature. From their lives, I saw possibility. They demonstrated a way to become successful men and fathers, and I've tried to emulate then as much as I could--even if it meant waking up early in the morning to take my daughter to work.

As we drove along Biscayne Boulevard, their memories travelled with me. And when my daughter got out of the car, I looked at her and suddenly realized how much she had grown and how proud I would have been to show her off to these men and to my own father had they been alive. For I often speak about them to my children and I'd like to think that some time in the future they may look up at the Morning Star and muse about me as I did about these men who became my wayshowers.

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Dear Reader,

Who is your Morning Star?

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Photo by :
Mila Zinkova

The 3Es of Sustainable Artistic Communities

2009-11-02T01:09:00.018-05:00

For the past twenty-six years, Miami Dade College and the Miami Book Fair International have sustained reading and writing communities in South Florida and have earned the reputation as the “nation’s premier literary gathering.” From its inception at the Wolfson Campus with the partnering of Dr. Eduardo Padron and Mitchell Kaplan, the MBFI has grown into one of the largest and most prestigious book events in North America. This has not been an accident. Indeed, with the addition of the Florida Center for Literary Arts, Cultura del Lobo, and the Miami Film Festival, Miami Dade College has created several sustainable artistic communities and has become a model in this endeavor by offering encouragement, entertainment, and education to artists and residents of Miami.

Perhaps, the most important factor in an artist’s growth is encouragement. It gives the artist the assurance to try new things and the confidence that she is recognized for her talent. MBFI has been a pioneer in recognizing local talent in South Florida and continues this tradition each year with the Write Out Loud series. This encouragement has not only been with words or with providing venues for exposure. They have also provided economic support. As Robert McCrum has stated, “Writers have always needed enlightened patrons.” Both MBFI and MDC have certainly been “enlightened patrons.” Through the many workshops and classes that the FCLA offers, many South Florida writers such as Les Standiford, Lynne Barrett, and Emma Trelles have been monetarily rewarded for their talents. Many of the writer/professors who contribute to the literary life of Miami have earned their tenure with Miami Dade College: Ricardo Pau-Llosa, Joseph McNair, Preston Allen, Ivonne Lamazares, Steve Kronen, Michael Hettich, CM Clark, Sandra Castillo, and a Jamaican writer/blogger whose modesty will not permit me to disclose his name.

It is no surprise then that the MBFI because of its close relationship with the college has been educating many of our residents about regional and culturally significant writers. Whether its with the Big Read, One Book, One Community, or Story Time, South Florida residents have participated in events that have celebrated the work of Zora Neale Hurston, Louise Erdrich and Amy Tan. MBFI has also been a great supporter of Caribbean writers and throughout the years under the leadership of Mervyn Solomon, writers such as Derek Walcott, Kamau Brathwaite, Junot Diaz, Edwidge Danticat, Wayne Brown, and Paule Marshall have been invited to read for the Caribbean writers program.

Yet, without the third element, MBFI would be just like any other niche book fair. The MBFI has a wide appeal to many audiences ranging from crime/mystery writers to environmental activists. The fair also has its famous Children’s Alley where children’s authors introduce youngsters to the world of imagination and wonder. And if that wasn’t all, there are always minstrels, jugglers, clowns, mimes, and actors dressed up as literary characters bumping into patrons as they make their way from one event to another. But the event that’s always worth staying for is the band, The Rock Bottom Remainders: Dave Barry, Stephen King, Cynthia Heimel, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Sam Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Joel Selvin, James McBride, Roy Blount Jr., Barbara Kingsolver, Robert Fulghum, Matt Groening, Tad Bartimus, Greg Iles, as well as ringers Josh Kelly on drums, and Erasmo Paulo on saxophone. And believe me, it’s always a sight to see Maya Angelou shake her tambourine.

Miami Book Fair International and Miami Dade College have been an integral part in creating networks of writers, readers, educators, and sponsors who been essential to our growth as a community. More importantly, they have provided the material/economic support so that many artists have had the chance to live and work in Miami. In this its twenty-sixth year, the MBFI’s paradigm has proven to be a success because of the enormous economic and cultural benefits that we have seen in South Florida.

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Mark Your Calendar: Nov. 8 – 15, 2009

2009-11-01T01:21:00.012-04:00

Book lovers, get ready to celebrate because the 26th edition of the nation’s finest and largest literary gathering, Miami Book Fair International (Fair), is just around the corner. Presented by the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College (MDC), the Fair will take place Nov. 8 – 15 at the college’s Wolfson Campus, 300 N.E. Second Ave., in downtown Miami.

The Fair will again treat book lovers to more than a week of cultural and educational activities, including author readings, book signings, the beloved Evenings With series, the IberoAmerican Authors program, the popular Street Fair Nov. 13 – 15 featuring hundreds of vendors on the actual closed streets of downtown Miami surrounding the campus, Children’s Alley, Comix Galaxy, and much more.

Its signature Evenings With series kicks off on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 5 p.m. with Elizabeth Alexander, who wrote and delivered President Barack Obama’s inaugural poem, “Praise Song for the Day.” Admission to this event is free and does not require a ticket. Seating is limited. Please note all other Evenings With events have a $10 admission fee. The events will be held at the Chapman Center, Building 3, Room 3210.

In addition, many other renowned authors are slated to attend, including Sherman Alexie, Margaret Atwood, Roy Blount Jr., Robert Olen Butler, Meg Cabot, Alan Cheuse, Susie Essman, Mary Karr, Mike Farrell, Nobel Laureate and former Vice President Al Gore, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Barbara Kingsolver, Jonathan Lethem, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Ralph Nader, Richard Powers, Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, Francine Prose, Ruth Reichl, Senator Bob Graham, Wally Lamb, musician and performer Iggy Pop, Melvin Van Peebles, Jeannette Walls and many others.

Confirmed Spanish-language authors include Roberto Ampuero, Carmen Posadas, Alvaro Vargas-Llosa, Boris Izaguirre, Angela Becerra, Juanita Castro, Edmundo Paz-Soldán, Jorge Ramos, Fabiola Santiago, Jaime Bayly and others.

EVENINGS WITH SERIES

• Elizabeth Alexander, is the author of the inaugural poem Praise Song for the Day -- Sunday, Nov. 8, at 5 p.m.
• Margaret Atwood is the author of The Handmaid’s Tale and finalist for the Booker Prize -- Sunday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m.
• Ruth Reichl is the Editor-In-Chief of Gourmet Magazine and former New York Times food critic -- Monday, Nov. 9, at 6 p.m.
• Barbara Kingsolver is the bestselling author of The Poisonwood Bible, and short listed for the Pulitzer and PEN/Faulkner Awards -- Monday, Nov. 9, at 7:30 p.m.
• Jeannette Walls is the New York Times bestselling author of Glass Castle --Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 7:30 p.m.
• Richard Powers is a critically acclaimed novelist and winner of a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize Finalist – Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 7:30 p.m.
• Isabella Rossellini, famed actress, model and beauty icon, is the author of four books – Thursday, Nov. 12, at 7:30 p.m.
• Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) is the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature – Friday, Nov. 13, at 7:30 p.m.

Thanks to the support of sponsors, there will be a nightly reception called Twilight Tastings prior to the evening presentations on the fifth floor terrace in Building 3. Also, people paying the admission to the evening sessions are eligible to receive a $5 discount on any of the authors’ books at anytime during the Fair or toward the purchase of any book prior to Dec. 31 at any Books & Books location. This does not apply to complimentary tickets.

MIAMI DADE COLLEGE AND THE ARTS

Miami Dade College has a long and rich history of involvement in the cultural arts, providing South Florida with a vast array of artistic and literary offerings including The Miami Book Fair International, the Florida Center for the Literary Arts, The Miami International Film Festival, the Cultura del Lobo performing arts series, The Cuban Cinema Series, the Prometeo Theatre, the Miami Leadership Roundtable speakers’ series, a renowned art gallery system, several campus theaters, and the nationally recognized School of Entertainment and Design Technology. It is also home of the National Historic Landmark Miami Freedom Tower. With an enrollment of more than 170,000 students, MDC is the largest institution of higher education in the country and is a national model for many of its programs. The college’s eight campuses and outreach centers offer more than 300 distinct degree programs including baccalaureate, associate in arts and science degrees and numerous certificates. In 2006, MDC admitted its 1.5 millionth student.

For regular updates, times and more information, please visit www.miamibookfair.com, call 305-237-3528 or email wbookfair@mdc.edu.

Media-only contacts:

Juan Mendieta, 305-237-7611, jmendiet@mdc.edu, MDC communications director

Sue Arrowsmith, 305-237-3710, sue.arrowsmith@mdc.edu, media specialist

Tarnell Carroll, 305-237-3359, tcarroll@mdc.edu, Media Specialist

Alejandro Rios, 305-237-7482, arios1@mdc.edu

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Just Published: OCHO #26 (The Travel Issue)

2009-10-30T01:31:00.002-04:00

OCHO #26 (The Travel Issue), edited by Emma Trelles, has just been published and contains poems by Emma Trelles, Jacob Saenz, Geoffrey Philp, Nikki Moustaki, Jesse Millner, Alexandra Lytton Regalado, Jen Karetnick, Stacey Harwood, Michael Hettich, Susan Elbe, Denise Duhamel, and Didi Menendez.

You can read the poems here(Ocho #26) or you can buy the Print Companion here: CreateSpace--MiPOesias Print Companion

Either way, enjoy the poems and have a great weekend!

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A Tribute to Mervyn Morris, O.M.

2009-10-28T01:06:00.020-04:00

A Tribute to Mervyn Morris, O.M.

by Fragano Ledgister

Mervyn Morris has been the face of Jamaica’s academic and scholarly poetry for more than four decades. His voice and pen, more than any others’ has come to define a large part of the national literature of Jamaica since independence.

From his office at the University of the West Indies, he has been able not only to send forth to the public collections of his poetry, but some of the most important anthologies of West Indian literature published since the 1960s. He has been friend and mentor to more than two generations of writers, not only at Mona but throughout and beyond the region.

In Jamaica, through the 1960s and 1970s, however, he was better known as a champion tennis player. I recall a piece in the Gleaner, in the early 70s, perhaps by Cedric Lindo, the tone of which indicated that readers might be surprised to learn that in addition to being one of the country’s top tennis players he also enjoyed a reputation as a poet.

That he was. He was also willing to read the juvenilia of students who begged for his time, and asked for his opinion of their work; even if, as in my case, they weren’t his students. He was a ferocious and firm critic whose love of language communicated itself very clearly. So did his humour: of one frankly sexual metaphor in a poem of his he quipped “I took the image from quick-drying cement.”

His first edited volume of poetry, Seven Jamaican Poets, an anthology published in 1971 was a kind of history in miniature of post-World War II Jamaican poetry. It included work by R.L.C. McFarlane and Basil McFarlane, both undeservedly forgotten these days, who were already established figures in the 1960s, and the magisterial A.L. “Mickey” Hendricks, a man whose poetry absolutely deserves re-examination, then the elder statesman of Jamaican letters. It also marked the entry onto the literary stage of Mervyn himself, Dennis Scott, and Tony McNeil, the three most important poets of the early post-independence era; the men whose work at least one foolish youth hoped vainly to emulate.

Mervyn’s first collection, The Pond, published in 1973 marked him as a serious, lyrical writer. His poetry was spare, taut, tight, each word doing multiple duties, each word almost bowed beneath a freight of meanings. The language, whether Oxonian or Kingstonian, managing to be both bright and wry.

I would not have expected a poet who celebrated the senses as thoroughly as Mervyn does to have written his next collection, On Holy Week. The punning title is wholly Mervyn, however. Each of the poems is written in the voice of a participant in the story of the death and resurrection of Christ. These are poems intended to be read, and Alma MockYen was able to corral an extraordinary range of people to record the poems for broadcast on JBC over Easter 1977. I recall Hugh Morrison as Pilate, Leonie Forbes as Pilate’s Wife, a young dread from JBC as the Malefactor on the right, and me as a priest (“The chap’s a madman rather than a liar”).

The collection that followed, Shadowboxing published in 1979, has a title that is, again, punning. Mervyn takes language very seriously, and plays with it with extraordinary skill. I enjoyed his explanation, after the book came out, of what a shadowbox was, and the meaning of curiosa, one of the words in the title poem. Such subtleties were lost on the Trinidadian critic Victor Questel, who found the collection wanting. Questel’s review, which relied on the best-known meaning of “shadowboxing” as its operating metaphor, led to a poetic reply, using the same metaphor. With a punning title: “For Q.” One best read aloud. In private.

Such publications as the anthologies Jamaica Woman, published in 1980, co-edited with Pamela Mordecai, and Focus 1983, which brought to the public eye a new (and sometimes not so new) generation of writers not to mention the academic writing, and the prose anthologies, such as West Indian Short Stories, meant that Mervyn published no book of his own poems during the 1980s.

Examination Centre, which came out in 1992, takes up the threads of his earlier work, with taut reflective poems, and sharp wordplay. Though now there is in the verse less humour (although the humour is there) and more sadness. As the closing poem in the book notes “memory ketch yu/ like a springe.”

His most recent collection, published in 2006, I Been There: Sort Of, is both a new work and a selected poems. It demonstrates that he has not lost his touch, nor his sure sense of language, either standard or Creole. It also includes a bow in the direction of the new formalism, a demonstration that he could be a deft hand with the heroic couplet.

What I wish, and I hope Mervyn will indulge those of us who know about them, is that his limericks (to speak about another traditional form) might be preserved. I grant that the limerick is not the most exalted of forms, and is frequently associated with vulgarity, but these were clean enough to be published in the Sunday Gleaner; under a pseudonym, true, but still available for all to read.

I’ve mentioned Mervyn’s role as a mentor, for myself and others. Perhaps his most important act of mentorship was the launching of the Creative Arts Centre Arts Review, when he was Acting Secretary of the CAC (now the Sir Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts) while John Hearne was on leave in 1976. In today’s Jamaica where the internet is increasingly available, and where the Calabash Festival and Small Axe both do a great deal to promote serious writing, it may be hard to appreciate how few outlets there were for the young writer back in the 1970s.

Mervyn’s generosity with time, energy, and friendship to young poets – and to a wide variety over the years – has been truly legendary. The pleasure he takes in his friends and the enduring nature of his friendships is also the stuff of legend.

From the 1960s to the twenty-aughties, from Tony McNeil to Kei Miller, Jamaican poetry has been stimulated, encouraged, and awed by Mervyn Morris. When the Jamaican government got around to granting him the Order of Merit, the question on my mind was not “Why?” but “How dem tek so blasted lang?” As a poet, as a scholar, as a teacher, Mervyn has made an immense contribution to Jamaica’s cultural and intellectual life.

Fragano Ledgister was born in London, moved to Jamaica at the age of 12, and was educated at St Elizabeth Technical High School, Munro College, UWI Mona, New York University, and the University of California, San Diego. He has worked for the Jamaica Daily News, The Gleaner, CANA, Efe News Agency, as an office temp, as a college professor, and, once upon a time, as a radio actor.

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How To Use Symbols

2009-10-26T01:45:00.031-04:00

Many young writers, who after they’ve read poets such as T.S. Eliot, often think that they need to “put some symbolism” in their work. They think that if they add a dash of imagery and a few tablespoons of symbolism, the path to literary immortality will suddenly appear. For my young male poets, the ambition is even more grand: seventy-two virgins will sweep them up into literary nirvana.

As tempting as the vision may be, I’ve often had to tell them the sad truth: symbols can’t be “added” to a poem. Discovering symbols in one’s work is a process. Writing is a recursive activity and symbolism in a literary work is the result of the intellectual and emotional state of the writer before and during composition.

But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you’ve begin to write a poem and as you are following the words across the page, you find this gem nestled between the thorns of two commas. At this point, you have at least two options.

You can stop writing and do some more research if you think you don’t know enough about the symbol, or you can finish the poem and go with the intensity of the emotion that was the spark for the poem.

Either way works.

I usually choose the second option because I never know what will survive with revision, and I’d prefer to have a workable draft of a poem than pages and pages of Wikipedia downloads with nowhere to go.

Now assuming the gem has survived the first cut and you feel that the poem has not fully explored most of the connotative possibilities of the symbol, ask yourself these questions:

What is the origin of the symbol?

Should I learn more?

How has the meaning of the symbol changed over time?

Which other writers have used this symbol? How have they used this symbol?

What are the religious, intellectual, and cultural connotations?

Is the symbol relevant to the poem? Why?

Does the symbol grow organically from the poem?

Why does the symbol appeal to me?

How is the symbol re-imagined in my poem?

The last question is important because that’s where the creativity of the poet will be demonstrated in the re-imagining of the symbol.

I’m thinking of symbol, of course, in the Jungian sense as standing “for something that is unknown and that cannot be made clear or precise.” Or in the spirit of Ferdinand de Saussure, the signifier may remain constant, but the signified may change depending on the context.

It is this arbitrariness of the signified that creates the opportunity for artists to reinterpret myth and symbols as T.S. Eliot and James Joyce did throughout their careers. In fact, T.S Eliot’s essay, “Ulysses, Order, and Myth,” confirmed Joyce’s “mythic method”--a method Eliot had used in diagnosing the spiritual ills of Europe in The Wasteland.

The use of myth as a contemplative method suddenly became clear. But I did not want to re-heat Western mythology. The myths would have to speak to something that was happening right in front of me, so I began searching. My quest ended with The Arrivants by Kamau Brathwaite. After I read that collection, I knew what I had to do.

Brathwaite's seminal trilogy made me realize the many displacements of Yoruba mythology in the Caribbean. This became one the major themes in my work: the rediscovery of African heritage in the Caribbean, which as Brathwaite has asserted is essential to the psychic wholeness of Caribbean peoples.

For if we continue to denigrate this heritage; if we do not honor this inheritance, then the cycle of self-hatred, the wound of the Middle Passage will continue to fester. We will never be healed and all the symptoms of this dis-ease with ourselves will continue to manifest as the various social ills, especially the high murder rates in Jamaica, we see all around us.

Looking around Jamaica and the Caribbean, I saw Xango at a stoplight geting angry with the car in front of him; Erzulie on a Friday night getting in a taxi to go to a nightclub; Papa Legba sitting on the street corner cracking jokes and telling the children riddles.

These archetypal symbols became the means by which I could interpret Caribbean life, even as many of my compatriots continued to act out the characteristics of these loas without knowing it. Indeed, it may be said that some of us are being “ridden” or possessed by Eleggua and we don’t even know it.

And sometimes we want to be ridden by the loa and begin with a meditation on the symbol—the process that Brathwaite used extensively in his collection, Words Need Love Too.

This was the approach I used in the composition of the poem, “oshun,” when I learned about the death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper Texas on June 7, 1998. His death was so horrific and I was filled with a hate that needed to be exorcised. That is when I remembered Michelle Cliff’s poem to Oshun and I knew only the love of Oshun could save me from my own hate:

oshun

(to michelle cliff)

this morning i could have sworn i saw oshun
rise out of the water – “she who makes her people one.”

i needed to see her this morning after james byrd junior,
my brother, was dragged to death by a truck in jasper,

texas; for i need to believe this morning – i don’t want
to be a tongueless bell – i don’t want to be burnt

up like a useless limb by my own simmering hate.
oshun, guardian of our dreams and our spirit,

lover of our dark hands, dark bodies, dark skin--
healer of wounds made by our enemies and our weapons

aimed at ourselves--my sister, protect us in this dread
hour until anger passes – wash your coolness over my head.

“oshun” needed very few revisions. I already knew about her through Michelle Cliff’s work and my own research, so that when the poem came, I was ready.

But this perhaps leads me to the penultimate question about archetypal symbols: Do we choose them or do they choose us?

Words from flickr created by kastner (Erik Kastner)

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