life, love, poetry, africa, gender activism

If I could write a poem
I would write about you
I would say your heart is like a flower
That blooms in a desolate wasteland
Beautiful and natural
To bring joy and never-ending bliss

If I could sing a song
I would sing about you
Amazing and extraordinary
I would sing of love
Enduring and intense
Sparkling eyes and selfless acts

If I could paint a picture
I would paint a picture of you
You would be a shimmering star
Shining bright in the dark of night
My guiding light
When my way was lost

If I could write a book
I would write about you
Passionate and splendid
I would say you are my sister
My comrade and my friend
Dearly loved by many
Sorely missed by them and by me

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We laugh
but the smile never touches our hearts.
We can look you in the eye
but the lids quiver at random acts of kindness.

Our words are two-edged;
what we are saying
and what we should be saying.

And when we dance,
our arms outstretched,
directed at the sky,
we are supplicating
for compassion,
for our splendid one
be returned to us.

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He weaves and ducks
Scattering misery and malice
A little here
A little there

Shamelessly two-faced
Brashly insincere
In his wretched meanderings
His heart will never inspire
Neither feel nor know love

Where his soul should be
An abscess resides

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This exhibition is currently taking place at the Musée Quai Branly in Paris and covers magazines, letters, cartoons, photographs, paintings and others types of expression. The exhibition features some of the most revered names of jazz, among them, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

Some of the paintings and photographs as featured here are rather magnificent.

The painting at the top is Jazz (Variante) by Fernand Leger. The 2nd is Homage to Duke, Bessie & Louis by Romare Howard Bearden. I find these and the 1927 Josephine Baker (I must blog about Josephine Baker one day) poster quite lovely.

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At the awareness of duplicity
Beneath you the earth moves
Above you the sky tilts
Now you comprehend
This wound will be deep
This wound will fester
Now you understand
The poet did not lie
It is your heart that lied

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Every once in a while, when you have been very good or have been very lucky, a piece of art, a musical composition or a poem that is mind blowing comes your way. When this happens, all you can do is sit and wonder and nod your head to say: without art, we are nothing, without music, we are nothing, without love, we are nothing. (My personal mantra and my reason for being).

Released by Sterns Africa in 2007, African Virtouses – The Classic Guinean Guitar Group, consists of music recorded in the 70s and 80s by Guinean guitar maestros – the Diabate Brothers – Papa, Sekou, Sire and Abdoulaye, yet I can’t get over how incredibly fresh and contemporary the music sounds.

Traditionally, Guinean musical instruments are the the kora, balafon (xylophone), and koni (lute). The aptly named, African Virtuoses in their own inimitable style, include the guitar as their means of creative expression. Here and there, one can hear flashes of Cuban, flamenco and Django Reinhardt musical influences. The overarching elegance is typically and distinctively Guinean however.

African Virtouses, I bow down to your greatness.

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Young black man: crime perpetrator/victim of crime
Black woman: crime perpetrator /victim of crime/mother of victim
Black man: crime perpetrator /victim of crime/father of victim

…and so on…

There are days when the only images one sees of black people on telly are the above or a combination of the above. I exaggerate, of course, but perhaps not by much. I am therefore looking forward to the next instalment of the No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency this Sunday. The pilot was great fun. Jill Scott was superb.

Check out the trailer.

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On the face it, my focus for this year’s International Women’s Day, unlike the focus here, here and here may appear disordered and quite random when it actually isn’t.

This year I celebrate a short and disparate list of women who have faced enormous challenges.

Shirely Ann Jackson is a physicist who received her PhD in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is the first African American woman to do so. I am currently pursuing a science-based degree and this fabulous woman inspires me (especially when I get stumped when drawing D and L Haworth Projections glucose structures).

Selima Gerima. Teza, the film she co-produced with her brother Haile Gerima has just won the Etalon d’Or de Yennenga (Golden Stallion of Yennega) at the 40th anniversary pan-African FESPACO film festival in Ouagadougou in competition with 18 other films. The film is about repression under the Mengistu Haile Mariam regime. Congratulations. This win will no doubt inspire the thousands of African women and girls who want to work in films.

I have always written poetry while listening to music and to my mind, the poems that have been the most fun to write are the ones when listening to cool blues and jazz and especially the music of long-departed divas, such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. This year, I celebrate Bessie Smith who achieved so much in an age where black people were treated like second class citizens.

Bessie Smith (1894 — 1937). Also known as the Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith had perfect timing and a remarkable voice. A great singer, she had a distinctive interpretation and her unique style and delivery influenced many musicians then and now. She was a tough cookie by all accounts and I smile when I listen to ‘Gimmie a Pigfoot’:

Up in Harlem ev’ry Saturday night when the high-brows git together it’s just too tight,
They all congregates at an all night strut and what they do is tut-tut-tut..
Old Hannah Brown from ‘cross town gets full of corn and starts breakin’ ‘em
down.

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