After 6 months of struggling with my current ISP, I've decided to leave them and move to a new ISP. This is, of course, going to be a long painful process. I'm sorry about this. I will let people know when Indigocafe.com is open again.
July 10 – 13, 2008
Center for Black Literature
Medgar Evers College, CUNY
The Fourth Annual North Country Institute and Retreat for Writers of Color will be held at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, NY from July 10 - 13, 2008. The first three retreats were held in northeastern New York at the Valcour Educational and Conference Center. This retreat is a collaboration between several organizations and is a continuation and expansion of the alumni program for the Paden Institute and Retreat for Writers of Color. This year's retreat is targeted towards writing workshop participants in the New York tri-state region. Tuition is $400.
Poetry: Ravi Shankar
Fiction: Victor LaValle
YA/Youth: Tonya Hegamin
DEADLINE TO APPLY: June 15, 2008. To Get An Application:
This was an event for the Internet website Witness.org, the international human-rights organization that uses video to expose human rights abuses. A section of the site for Witness.org called "The Hub" is for allowing people to post videos. They give video cameras to people "on the ground" so that they can post human rights violations. (I once went to the site and saw a Japanese reporter being kicked to death!) Anyway, as horrible as this may seem, getting images of human rights violations out to the world is the key to stopping these violations from happening.
The participants in the panel were Yousef Al-Mohaimeed (author of "Wolves of the Crescent Moon"), Thant Myint-U (author of "The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma"), Uzodinma Iweala (author of "Beasts of No Nation"), and Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and member of the Elders, a group of political leaders gathered together by Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, and Desmond Tutu to contribute their wisdom to world politics. It was exiting to see her at this event and a highlight of the PEN World Voices Festival. She was eloquent and added a touch of the power of possibilities that this festival can have to world politics. The moderator, Sameer Padania, is the webmaster for "The Hub."
Each participant on the panel showed a video that they have on the "The Hub."
The video Yousef Al-Mohaimeed showed was of a woman in Saudi Arabia driving. What's the big deal you say? Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. The woman was driving on a back road on a special day. I personally don't know how to drive but that is MY CHOICE. We should work for the day when seeing a women drive in Saudi Arabia is as mundane as seeing one drive in other parts of the world.
Uzodinma Iweala should a video of people with HIV/AIDS in Africa. He said that he is using these interviews as a basis for his next book. He even went so far as to say that they are the ones writing his next book. It is a chance to "give people the opportunity to speak for themselves." He wasn't shy of speaking about sex in relation to HIV/AIDS. I thought that was refreshingly brave to say that people who are not letting people know their AIDS status is beacuse of the fear of loosing love and human contact. Who wants to loose that? It is deep and moving to think that he is spending time talking and speaking with these people. He is turning to a very interesting writer. He lets his insecurities hang off his sleeves and is never reluctant to let his audience know when he isn't sure about something. It quite refreshing.
Thant Myint-U redeemed himself from the Burma event with this event in my eyes. His video was of a Burmese Monk demonstration and crackdown. It was a video was taken by Al-Jazeera and was smuggled out. It was one of the very few images of the crackdown.
This was a powerful event and definitely one of my favorites of the festival. Visit the Hub. It is truly an amazing site.
From SCI FI Weekly:
"McKellen Reprising Gandalf In Hobbit" —
British actor Ian McKellen told Empire magazine that he will reprise the role of the wizard Gandalf in Guillermo del Toro's upcoming movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, the Reuters news service reported.
The 68-year-old star played the part in the hugely successful Lord of the Rings trilogy directed by Peter Jackson. Mexican filmmaker del Toro has been named to direct two films based on The Hobbit, which Jackson will produce and co-write.
"Yes, it's true," McKellen told Empire. "I spoke to Guillermo in the very room that Peter Jackson offered me the part, and he confirmed that I would be reprising the role. Obviously, it's not a part that you turn down; I loved playing Gandalf."
Del Toro, whose credits include Pan's Labyrinth, will move to New Zealand for the next four years to work on both Hobbit films with executive producer Jackson, according to New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios.
The studios have said that filming will begin in 2009, with tentative release dates set in 2010 for the first film and 2011 for the sequel.
The participants in this panel were Elias Khoury and Nurddin Farah (Asli Erdogan, a Turkish writer, couldn't make it to the festival because of illness) and the moderator was Albert Mobilio. The goal of the event was to consider questions of fiction's role in political life. The answers from the two authors on the panel were quite interesting. Nurddin Farah said, "Most human activities are political ... the point of [the novel] is to reach people" and Elias Khoury said, "novels must be novels. Literature is not only a statement...every novel is a struggle to widen the sense of humanity."
Essentially, this is the whole point of the work that I've been doing as a bookseller. I have a deep belief that politics and art cannot be separate. It was good to hear authors just coming out and saying this. I think the idea of the two disciplines need to be apart is an wholly American one. Part of the many attempts to dumb down the American public.
Khoury said, "[The] search for human dignity and human life is the struggle for freedom and liberty" and Farah said, "[The] writer gives power to people who cannot speak for themselves ... [the writer] imagines himself as the person ... [the writer] must take sides."
Gee, I don't know about the taking sides part but everything else I think I agree with. I think that as a writer if you take sides in a story you can sometimes end up with a one-sided tale that can loose sympathy for different characters. This is all very general, I know, and that this all depends on how a story is constructed. But even an evil character can have some areas open for empathy.
Anyway, this was a very interesting and stimulating event. It gave me much to think about in terms of literary writing and the political overtones both overt and subtle.
Note that I wrote this before the horrible cyclones and devastation of the last few days in Burma. It breaks my heart to see this happen to Burma. My prayers go out to all its people...
This event was dubbed as a panel discussion on "the possibilities of peaceful change in the aftermath of last years bloody response to the protest by Buddhist monks." What else are you going to talk about in a discussion of this type. Well, it seemed like everything but the Monks uprising was discussed. It was more like a history lesson than a discussion on current events. What happened last October was only mentioned in passing.
The participants in the panel were Ian Burma author of "God's Dust: A Modern Asian History" and "Murder in Amsterdam" and Thant Myiut-U, a western educated author of "The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma," and it was moderated by Dedi Felman of World without Borders.
Going into this event, probably like most Americans, knew very little about Burma. I know the name Aung San Suu Kyi. I know that she's been under house arrest for a really long time. But what I didn't know is how long and violent the history of Burma is. How long the struggle has been to deal with being at the literal crossroads of Asia.
Burma is not like the other countries that Britain colonized. Burma was supposed to be a easy win for the British: go in with a few men, conquer the country and subdue its people, then take what was valuable from the counties coffers. Easy. Only not. The country launched a violent insurgency. (Gee, where have I heard a story like this before?)
So what am I to make of the abridged history lesson that has been downloaded into my brain in a single hour. Was I supposed to walk away empowered? Well, I wasn't. I walked away confused and discouraged. The problems presented seem so big and complicated and far away. I suppose that was my biggest problem with this presentation: distance. The information, the people, everything seemed too distance from the events. I know that something happened last October not just in 1988 and 1948. I know that the people need support today. I went to this event hoping to get a sense of what I can do. Literary people, it seems, are not adept at doing this. They sit on the armchair of time looking back to assess what should have been or could have been. Is that what literature feels so out of touch? Is it simply because it is by its nature "out of touch"?
This is maybe my third or fourth year attending the PEN festival here in NYC. It is always exciting to see what writers from around the world are thinking and doing. We are so isolated here in the US. This year the festival is dedicated to the writers and journalist who have been imprisoned in China. In each panel discussion there is an empty chair to represent a writer who is imprisoned for their writing.
Bloggers have been targeted for imprisonment. When the most famous blogger in Saudi Arabia was arrested for essentially nothing, it sent shock waves through the Saudi blogging community -- as was intended. (He was recently released.) What we take for granted and is a right here in the US is not so in other parts of the world. What we do here is important even with a small audience. We are one voice of a chorus. Each voice adds to the power of praise to free speech.
I will also be cross posting to Metaxucafe.com
From The Associated Press by NEDRA PICKLER:
"Wright says criticism is attack on black church" —
Asked about some of the comments after the terrorist attacks, Wright challenged the reporter questioning him.
"Have you heard the whole sermon? No? The whole sermon?" he responded. When the reporter shook her head, he said, "That nullifies that question."
He said criticism comes from people who only have heard sound bites playing repeatedly on television and have never listened to his entire sermons.
Bill Moyers last week did what every reporter should have done: he interviewed Rev. Wright. (God bless you, Bill Moyers!) Let us, the viewing public, hear him speak and judge for ourselves if this is the crazed lunatic that he has been portrayed to be. This is actually an important issue since Barak Obama's argument for leadership is based on his judgement. If he has chosen a church for himself and his family that is full of unpatriotic war-mongers we should know. Guess What? It's not. What a surprise. This whole situation is disgusting. The media should be put on notice that the internet is here and there are ways to cross check you and, your twists of the truth, your spin, and your down right lies. I first got to see an extended view of Rev. Wright's sermon from a blogger, not the press, a blogger. I expect politicians to lie. I also expect the media to look into the story and find out the truth, you know, DO THEIR JOBS.
If it wasn't clear before, it should be clear now that the corporate media are not to be trusted. They are in league with the power elite; they are the power elite. And their interests are not the same as the peoples.
See the interview and read the transcript from the Bill Moyers Journal interview with Rev. Wright.
There something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear...
— Buffalo Springfield
Admittedly, I'm on a different trip than most feminist bloggers. My focus is on books, reading, the book & publishing industry, and the like. So the firestorm on the Woman of Color (WoC) blogs that is brewing is a bit difficult for me to suss out. But there is something very big brewing there and from what I can gleam, it ain't pretty. I'm trying to piece this together so bear with me ...
First, it appears that the blogger Brownfemipower has accused a white feminist blogger/writer, Amanda Marcotte, of plagiarizing her work. After many attempts to gain recognition of the afore mentioned plagiarism Brownfemipower took her blog down.
Now it seems that Amanda Marcotte has gotten herself a book deal with Seal press. I know of them. They are a decent feminist press and have published books from Edwidge Danticat and others. Thus, the WoC bloggers have decided to take action. Some being professors have taken to boycotting Seal press and standing together to speak out about this outrage.
To which Amanda Marcotte and Seal press has made a response. Even Salon Broadsheet has chimed in.
Have I got everything?
It sounds to me that it is high time for an independent black feminist press. I'm just sayin'...
This does, in a strange way, tie into the current political campaign. People of Color have for the last 30 to 40 years been trying to work with the white liberal establishment thinking, wrongheadedly, that they are in someway more receptive to our cause. It has now become clear to me that power only respects power. We must come to the table with equal strength. Which means we need our own institutions funded and maintained on a separate basis from the white liberal establishment. White supremacy is white supremacy. Pure and simple. They will be our friends when it's convenient to them and use us likewise, a la Hillary and Bill Clinton.
Blogger Jeff Fecke (a white guy, BTW) summed this up well in his post:
"The Blindness of Privilege" —
One can't attack the patriarchy with racism, any more than one can undo racial oppression with sexism ... We cannot as a movement achieve equality for women without achieving equality for women of color. We cannot get to a more egalitarian society by marginalizing groups. And we must work assiduously to hold allies to a higher standard.
UPDATE:
Incredibly, this just got uglier. Here is a link to the images from Amanda Marcotte's upcoming book.
It's no surprise. A black man's life is worth nothing. Damn. The man was shot 50 times! 50 times! And it's okay. It's always okay. I don't know what to say...
UPDATE:
There is a rally planned for today —
FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2008
5:30pm
The Queens DA’s Office
located at
125-01 Queens Blvd.
Queens, NY
(between Hoover Ave & 82nd Ave.)
(E or F train to Union Turnpike)
For more information about the April 25th rally/community speak-out, Peoples’ Justice, and other cases of police violence go to: www.peoplesjustice.org and myspace.com/peoplesjustice or email info[at]peoplesjustice.org.
I suppose when it comes down to it, I'm just personally hurt by all this. I campaigned for Hillary to take the Senate seat here in NY. I put her poster in my storefront window and advocated for her candidacy then. We, Black people, have been the Clinton's biggest supportors over the years through thick-and-thin. They've been in our churches and our college campuses with huge crowds and loud cheers. We were practically the only people who supported them unconditionally during the Lewinsky scandal. We gave them a warm and glowing goodbye at the end of his presidency with gratitude and love. To see them use race politics and to see them dismiss the Black vote the way they have during this campaign is so very hard.
I’m looking through you, where did you go?
I thought I knew you, what did I know?
...
Why tell me why did you not treat me right?
Love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight
— The Beatles
So, I've tried to be gentle. Now, I need to be rude: "Girl, just go away!" You don't want me to start hatin'. Oops, too late, I already am. This primary election campaign as it stands is a farce. Hillary continues to ask, "why can't Obama close the deal." Well, why can't she? She's the one vying for the presidency, she needs to be the one to convince the people that she's the one for the job. By the numbers, it is clear that we've already made that determination. Her only hope is to convince the "elite" of the DNC to over-ride our choice. Hardly democratic. "Selecting" Hillary this way will tear the Democratic party apart in a way from which it will never recover. I ain't kiddin'. I ain't exaggerating. It's a fact, Jack. Why are we pretending otherwise?
My Question is: has she given much thought to the future? I don't think she has. This is a throw-it-all-in campaign. But what of the DNC's future? Does she really think that she can do more that skate by in an election campaign with McCain. It was a shaky prospect before all this mess with the protracted primary. Now, I don't think that she stands a chance if she is "selected" as the Democratic Party nominee. Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! We are heading into a rough patch of space.
If we are to judge leadership abilities based on the leadership of the primary campaigns I have to say that I have great doubt in Hillary Clinton's abilities while increasing respect for Obama's. There have been many opportunities for Barak to stick the knife into Hillary's gut. He could begin with her husband and work his way to the people who they pardoned after leaving the White house to Mark Penn, Clinton's chief campaign strategist while simultaneously being the chief executive of the lobbying and public relations firm for the Colombian government. If she truly against the Colombian trade deal she has shown really bad, bad judgement to have Penn head her campaign. With all of this "baggage" Obama has not gone for the jugular. Maybe that's bad judgement on his part, but it's also darn classy.
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