Dawn's Messenger

There are lots of books by my bedside. A little bookshelf to the right of the bed, and in front of that another stack for me. Then a stack for the little one. Happy Baby Things That Go. First the Egg. Earth Mother. Creation-My Father Loves Me. The Fortune Tellers. Look and Learn ABC. I must admit that having a book jones is both a blessing and a nuisance. If I'm not careful, I'll trip over them when I get up to go to the bathroom at night.

Fortunately, most of the books around here are ones we own. A few, though, are from the library. Any time I go there to drop off old books, I say that I'm not going to get any new ones. Not only am I trying to control this passion, but I'm also notorious for racking up fines since it's never easy for me to return good music or reads.

Of course, I always do end up getting something, swearing to self that I will turn it in by the due date. Art books, with their big pages and color plates, are especially luscious treats. One art book I recently checked out is Romare Bearden: The Caribbean Dimension. Back during college, professor Floyd Newsum's survey of African American art introduced me to Bearden's work. Bearden, Aaron Douglas and Lois Mailou Jones were some of my first favorites.

This look into Bearden's life on St. Martin has a subtle but sure hold on me because of the roots culture and spiritual element that is strongly present in the work. The authors-- Sally and Richard Price, who have also written books on the maroons of Suriname, hence their draw to this phase of Bearden's creative cycle-- allude to the "natural mystic" but (so far) don't refer to Bearden's embrace of African notion of spirituality outright.
Such a holy communion there is between Bearden and nature, especially as nature reveals itself in the Caribbean. There is a breathtaking passage where Bearden gives an earth-reverant and hermetic description of sunrise at his home in French St. Martin. Imagine:

Just as it becomes light, a large black bird soars into view. Sometimes called the "hurricane" or "weather" bird by the people on the island, this frigate bird, with its wingspan of about six feet, glides effortlessly, a master of rising and falling...currents. The coming of the weather bird heralds the dawn. There comes a charging wind that this fine bird uses in his swift climbing spirals, and the dark purple, now graying clouds of night begin to take on new colors and the sun mounts. The clouds become saffron, then vermillion and many shades of red, especially a deep cardinal. Undoubtedly, the sun is the emperor. Observing this vast elemental change, I can readily understand how people worshipped the sun in ancient times.

Image: Romare Bearden, In a Green Shade (1984)

Integration

Putting one of my old poems into the play pen--

Integration

In my wildest, craziest dreams
I am the blue-green Atlantic
hugging the Cabo de Sao Roque;
Billowing cluds of Georgia red clay
kicked up at a sanctified tent revival;
Southeastern sun warm
like the tejana negra that I am;
Polaris guiding
Annie Christmas down the banks
of the mighty Mississippi;
A samba sonata,
A reggae riff,
bebop blues guitar,
Flute and violin
Lilting in an aria,
Nyabinghi drums
and soca-lypso punta rock;
In my wildest,
Craziest dreams
My name is Pangea.

(Spring 2000)

Hidden Kitchens

A short while back was listening to NPR and learned of an intriguing documentary series called Hidden Kitchens. The particular segment I heard focused on the simplicity of Basque-American cooking.

I love what people like the Hidden Kitchens folk, Southern Foodways Alliance, Vertamae Grosvenor and Marcus Samuelsson are doing. In particular, since Hidden Kitchens has such broad distribution by NPR the way that the series pays attention to how culture and living history are passed along through culinary traditions is significant. After all, as one of my favorite culinary anthropologists Jessica B. Harris has said: If food is on the table, then history is on the plate.

Now all we need is more folk like Slow Food International to tie a strong knot binding foodways and ecological sustainability . Matter of fact, let's take it a step further and tie in the piece having to do with respecting traditional modes of spirituality and their sacred connection to the Earth.

(Above image from Zanzinet Forum website. )

One Thing Leading to Another

"She gathered All before her/And She made for Them a sign to see..."

Photographer: Margaret Courtney Clarke

Recently, rather than do my class prep work at my job, I decided to do it at the library close to my son's babysitter's house as a change of scene. Given as I am to diversions and daydreaming, I cruised through the periodicals section to see if this particular Dekalb county library subscribed to any cool specialty publications, especially since many of their patrons are East African, Eastern European and South Asian refugees in addition to there being large Caribbean and black southern communities. Even if I didn't happen upon any such literary delicacies, perhaps some of the garden variety American glamor or lifestyle magazines had features worth sampling. (As you've surely figured out by now, I had basically decided to treat myself to a little goof-off time.)

Once I finished scouring the shelves, I settled into an armchair next to a sunny bay window opposite an Ethiopian school boy engrossed in a book on Mars. I had, I'd say, half a dozen pop and ethnic magazines stacked at my feet having pretty much given up any pretense of preparing for class. With the help of my school book French, I haltingly made way through a francophone African magazine to find, not surprisingly, that there's international fascination with Obama. I also learned of the dismissal of Manuela Ramin Osmundsen, Norway's first black cabinet member; found out about a few new musicians and got the scoop on old vets like Youssou N'Dour and Manu Dibango.

After this I switched gears to African American mags, reading up New York's new governor, David Alexander Patterson; Nicole Mitchell's Xenogenesis Suite, the flutist's tribute to Octavia Butler; and Vanessa Williams-- someone whose resilience I've long admired-- being really frank about divorce, family, career, health, aging. For the latter, her weapons were a touch of botox blended with yoga. Though I found it funny, I ain't gonna begrudge the sister for being honest with her stuff. (Kudos to Melanie Johnson Rice; she's doing a wonderful job of of upholding the legacy entrusted to her by her father, both appealing to its traditional audience and broadening its scope by including points of international interest.)

Of biggest interest was one of the cultural magazines which featured an extensive listing of exhibits around the world. A few that caught my eye were Inscribing Meaning: Writing + Graphic Systems in African Art, Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World, and Pharaohs, Queens and Goddesses . Going on a virtual tour of these exhibits led me to the Jewish feminist Judy Chicago's majestic installation The Dinner Party and this passage:

And She gathered All before Her
And She made for Them a sign to see
And lo They saw a vision
From this day forth
Like to like in All things
And then all that divided Them merged
And then Everywhere was Eden once again

I love that these powerful words tell of how those who submit to inner vision--healers/artists of various stripes-- are in prime position to be harbingers of a better day.

Not only does it turn out that the Dinner Party could add a lovely dimension to a project that I'm working on, but I found the above incantation to be an ensouling baptism (Ensouling! What a word. Kind of like inspiring. "Only soooo much better than that!" To borrow a soundbite from Reese Witherspoon and Legally Blonde ;D )

Chicago's words strike the same chords as does the rememberance of Isis' mythical journey to gather the scattered pieces of her Beloved to make him whole again. The women Alice Walker writes about in The Temple of My Familiar and Possessing the Secret of Joy. Ntozake Shange's reminder in Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo that "Creation is everything you do. Make something!" The healing and circle of sisters (Yam, Corn, Rice and Plantain sisters sending telepathic calls to one another, party line style) that Toni Cade Bambara writes of in The Salteaters. And finally, Julia Cameron urging in the Artist's Way to bear in mind that it's not up to the maker of the work to stand in judgement of said work. The maker's job is simply to be sincere, devoted and diligent in what (s)he does and once the job is done, share the harvest.

Robert Farris Thompson on Daughters of the Dust

Robert Farris Thompson has some insightful things to say about Julie Dash's old film, Daughters fo the Dust. Check out this video clip as well as this fairly new interview with the filmmaker.