A Soulful Collection of Art and Literature
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A Soulful Collection of Art and Literature Summer 2016 $6.00 ($9.00 outside of USA) VOLUME NO. 14, ISSUE 32 PUBLISHER’S NOTE The Gospel According to James and his Apostles “You write in order to change the world…if you alter even by a Founded in 1992, published since 1993 millimeter, the way people look at reality then you change it,” 270 W. 96th STREET, NYC 10025 — James Baldwin. Phone: 212-865-2982 www.africanvoices.com In May, I joined a historic global community of writers, scholars, and artists for the International James Baldwin Conference PUBLISHER/EDITOR presented by the American University of Paris (AUP). Carolyn A. Butts Being in the presence of “apostles” who interpreted Baldwin’s BOARD CHAIRPERSON scripture in literature, song, and verse was a transformative experience. Walking Jeannette Curtis-Rideau in his footsteps in Paris made Baldwin’s spiritual journey palpable to most of us PRODUCTION MANAGER/ attending the conference. As the grand daughter of a southern Baptist preacher, my COPY EDITOR Obinwanne Nwizu connection to Baldwin, the boy preacher, was affirmed. My vow to use words and images to empower, uplift, and enlighten were renewed by POETRY EDITOR Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie being in the presence of great minds committed towards the same goals. WEBSITE CONTENT EDITOR Barely a month after returning from the Paris conference, the world was hit with the Sandrine Dupiton killings in Orlando, Florida where 49 queer and same gender loving people were ART DIRECTOR violently slaughtered in a dance club. This horrifying tragedy demonstrates the need Derick Cross to teach James Baldwin’s work in our schools. His literature is as relevant today as it was in the 1960s during the civil rights movement. ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR AZIZA His love, honesty, and ability to challenge the way people think and act are critical LAYOUT & DESIGN elements in fighting compassionately against all forms of intolerance and hate. Graphic Dimensions Lorraine Rouse African Voices’ first digital issue is dedicated to the victims of the Orlando tragedy. You will find excerpts from papers by scholars attending the conference on ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS Black joy, The Implication of Giovanni’s Room on Black Boy Queer Identity (an Sonia Sanchez Poet/Activist interactive presentation on our website), and poems celebrating our individuality as Marie Brown human beings. Literary Agent Yesenia Montilla’s poem “It’s A Miracle,” succinctly addresses our concerns: “how Danny Simmons Visual Artist/Philanthropist, someone’s second amendment right seems to only leave a trail of children’s bodies Rush Philanthropic Arts Fdn. & brown bodies. & how some days I am afraid of stepping out of the house or of whether my lover brown & beautiful will make it home.” © 2016, African Voices Communications, Inc. is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Donations are tax-deductible. Our front cover artist Leroy Campbell offers comfort and inspiration in his upcoming ISSN 1530-0668 art exhibition “Fighting Spirit: Tribute to the Life and Times of Muhammad Ali.” African Voices is supported The exhibition, which opens in October, honors the power each individual has in with funds from the West Harlem Development Corp., fighting for justice. Let’s embrace the strength in declaring — I Am Deliberate And Regional Economic Development Council, Afraid of Nothing. NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts. Front Cover: Leroy Campbell, I Am Strong, Courtesy: Richard Beavers Gallery Back Cover: Jocelyn Goode Churches[1] Once my roof housed a century of music I shone with stained glass beautiful things pulled from fire Father forgive me my collapse heavy lies the head wearing a crown of ashes Thirteen churches the fire a raucous song Now I’m a casket of smoke now my windows weep My pews a row of blackened teeth charred gospels a flock of ravens They sent fire for a sin uncommitted These men already dressed as ghosts who burned me before pleaded guilty with smiles my cinders still in their teeth A halo of caution tape When the floods relinquished their grip God said the fire next time But their hands have left nothing up to interpretation Ashes to ashes Dust to dust © 2016 Julian Randall 4 african Voices CONTENTS FICTION AND BOOKS 24 Olio Offers A Compelling 26 Peach Cobbler Tribute to Reshape Our by Aimiende Negbenebor Sela Musical Narratives by Shani Jamila POETRY 4 Churches[1] by Julian Randall 20 ALWAYS, THERE IS MUSIC by Ariana Brown 7 Undressing In The Rain by Yesenia Montilla 21 It’s A Miracle by Yesenia Montilla 15 Ode to James Baldwin by Zoe Smith-Holladay 30 on the E express a boy asks his mama a 19 My Father Tells Me He and My Mother Got few things by Amber Atiya Married the Year Purple Rain was Released 34 SHUFFLE MACHINE by Joel Dias-Porter by Julian Randall IN THIS ISSUE 6 Contributors Bios 16 Don’t Let me Be Misunderstood: 8 Bearing Witness to The International The Relationship Between James Baldwin, James Baldwin Conference in Paris Lorraine Hansberry & Nina Simone by Charles Reese by Lynnée Denise Bonner 10 The Subversive Potential of Black Joy: Reimagining Protest In the Work of James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry by Sarita Cannon, Ph.D. GALLERY 32 The Gallery — Jocelyn Goode: Healing Community Through Art IN PASSING 22 Malik Taylor (Phife Dawg) by Mirlande Jean-Gilles African Voices print editions can be purchased at the following locations: MANHATTAN BROOKLYN PHILADELPHIA, PA Studio Museum in Harlem Pratt News & Magazine Horizon Books 144 W. 125 Street New 477 Myrtle Avenue 901 Market Street York, NY 10027 Brooklyn, NY 11205 Philadelphia, Pa. If you would like to sell African Voices magazine, please contact Ubiquity Distributors at 718-875-8047 or e-mail [email protected]. CONTRIBUTORS BIOS Amber Atiya and was the 1998 and 99 Haiku Slam Champion. His poems is a poet, performer, and self-taught artist-in-training. Her work have been published in; Time Magazine, The Washington Post, has appeared in Boston Review, Nepantla: A Journal Dedicated POETRY, Mead, The Offending Adam, Best American to Queer Poets of Color, PEN America, and elsewhere. A proud Poets 2014, Callalloo, Ploughshares, Antioch Review, Red Brick native Brooklynite, she is a member of a women’s writing group Review, Asheville Review, Beltway Quarterly and and author of the fierce bums of doo-wop published by Argos several anthologies. Book in 2014. Jocelyn Goode: See The Gallery. Ariana Brown Jonathan Guy-Gladding (JAG): is an Afromexicana poet from San Antonio, Texas, with a B.A. “The best thing that ever happened to me was being sent to in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies from the Caribbean in 1999…I applied to be a volunteer in the Peace UT Austin. She is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Corps and had the great fortune to be sent to the island of Prize, a 2014 national collegiate poetry slam champion, and is St. Lucia in July of 1999. Serving as a woodwork instructor in the currently working on her first manuscript. Her work is published beautiful southern coastal village of Laborie, I found there an in Huizache, Rattle, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review and is unending supply of rich subject matter in the faces and postures forthcoming in ¡Manteca!: An Anthology of Afro-Latin@ Poets of the uniformed schoolchildren, the people going about their from Arte Público Press. daily lives, and the traditional cultural aspects that make St. Lucia Sarita Nyasha Cannon such a wonderful and distinctive place. is Associate Professor of English at San Francisco State University Shani Jamila where she teaches 20th-century American Literature. She is an artist and cultural worker whose travels to more than forty graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an countries deeply inform her collage, text and documentary A.B. in Literature, earned a Ph.D. in English from University photography practice. Her work, which addresses themes of of California, Berkeley, and held a Postdoctoral Research identity, political imagination and witness, has been exhibited Fellowship in American Indian Studies at University of Illinois, at institutions including the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Smack Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Cannon’s scholarship has appeared in Mellon Gallery, SCOPE Art Fair, Corridor Gallery, the City Interdisciplinary Humanities, The Black Scholar, Asian American College of New York and Princeton University. The Smithsonian Literature: Discourses and Pedagogies, Callaloo, and MELUS. National Museum of African American History and Culture She is also a classically trained soprano who sings with various filmed an interview about her life and work for their inaugural groups throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. exhibit “A Changing America: 1968 and Beyond.” A Fulbright Kieyan Chauhan scholar with over a decade of leadership in designing and is a 17 year old, self-taught artist from the South East of executing programs that use the arts to catalyze social change, England. He specialises in portraiture and also creates music Jamila currently serves as a managing director of the Urban under the name ‘Kayncee’. He is currently a full time Justice Center in New York City. student studying music and art and is an avid Hip-Hop fan. Yesenia Montilla Find him on Facebook under ‘Kieyan’s Drawings’ and on is an Afro-Latina from New York City. She is a graduate of Instagram @kieyanchauhan. Drew University’s Poetry & Poetry in Translation MFA program DJ Lynnée Denise, & a Canto Mundo Fellow. Her poetry has appeared in The an artist and scholar, incorporates self-directed project based Wide Shore, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast and among other research into interactive workshops, music events and public publications. Her first collection of poetry The Pink Box is published by Willow Books and was long-listed for the PEN lectures that provide the opportunity to develop an intimate America Open Book Award.