November quickie

Haaaaaa... how long it has been!

I have been caught up in studies, rushing about and wondering about my writing. I find myself questioning the ensemble of my writing as well as specific bits of it. Some would call it a newly developed critical eye, others will call it writing group critiquing sessions.

These classes have harshly denounced the use of adverbs and adjectives which I am so gleefully interjecting into this blog...I've got to break free...

So what have I been up to since September? Well, briefly: I have written a theatre play (in a space of a few days), tried my hand at new forms of prose writing (results unsure), attended a writer's conference and taught creative writing to teenagers.

I will have to make time to come back to these points and share the highlights. For now, I must vanish. First, I leave you with the promise that I will be back (hmmmm...where have I heard that before?)

Adios for now!!

And it was all about the hair

The Guardian has an article out about black hair (by this I mean of course African, African-American, bi-racial hair etc). This article is seemingly about a matter of grave importance and a "controversy" worthy of discussion because the First Lady is black. Here we go...

Entitled "Should you straighten your afro hair?" The article discusses the use of weaves, relaxers and ceramic plate straighteners on "afro" hair and implies that it is somehow strange that black women should want to have straight or straightened hair.

In short, the state of our hair has become an identity issue and not in a good way either. That hair styles should be used as a barometre to measure your pride in your African hair is despicable and racist. You hair is not the sum total of your existence nor does it define what your identity is.

I have a great deal to say on this issue and I will save it for another day. I would suggest that anyone interested in finding out more should read the article on:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/18/straighten-afro-tyra-banks

Another month

As usual, time has gone by and I haven’t kept up with my commitment to writing on this blog. Again, I am hoping this will change this month. Ahhhh…that wonderful thing called hope! You see, the problem is procrastination. It gets you by the throat and holds you down. The only way forward it to break free.

Anyway, to the more interesting stuff. What has been happening?

August, I must say, passed in a flash.

I didn’t travel as I had hoped and planned to Mexico but I did do quite a bit of writing. I was ever so desperate to finish the book I am currently writing but the ending has proven elusive simply because I have to make sure the construction and flow feels right.

August was also the month I was supposed to cover the South African film at the Locarno film festival (4 – 14^th) but in the end, the distance and the date were challenges too great to overcome on a whim. It is such a pity as it would have been fantastic to now be waxing lyrical about the virtues of an “African” film at such a prestigious European festival where the film must be selected before it can even be shown. It would perhaps even have given me a chance to rub shoulders with famous celebrities. Acckkk, no! I would rather have made contact with the film makers themselves, the Directors, (executive) producers and such. They are the brains behind the film. Hoorah for the filmmakers!

What else did I do in August? Well, I saw a few films and some were atrociously bad while others were either passé or very gimmicky.

Don’t see “The Hangover”. It is highly overrated and so far-fetched you would have to do a lot of suspending of reality for that storyline.

“The Proposal” was well…interesting. It was a script that had obviously been written by women, for women.

“The Soloist” was potentially the worst of the bunch. This should not be blamed on the acting which was quite stellar but the weird directing is extremely questionable. Those weird overlong light strobes…seriously, was that really necessary? And for so long? I think I am really just ticked off because it was a surprise night at the open air cinema and it was truly a horrid surprise.

I can’t remember the other films I have seen this month. It is possibly my brain’s way of protecting me against recalling the trauma of time and dreams wasted.

September should prove to be a very interesting month for various reasons but it is October I am really looking forward to. Ahhh! The start of the infamous University course! Will I be able to do it? Will I have the courage to follow my dreams down the unknown path? To be continued...

Back to the present - September. Yes, so this month, I shall be visiting the circus (first time ever...err does Cirque du Soleil count? If yes, then not my first time).

I shall also be visiting some rather special art exhibition in Geneva. This is the Musee Rath exhibition. An open call was made for artists in Geneva. Secondly, there is the African exhibition organised by a Cameroonian photographer at the Centre de l’Esperance.

So far, I have met up with some of the alumni members of the university I am supposed to be attending in the super near future. They were really cool and gave some great tips. Big up to Ingrid, she is quite an inspirational individual.

By the by, I noted that Petina Gappah has been short-listed for more than one prestigious book award for her book, An Elegy for the Easterly. Guardian and another award. I hope that she gets it. Good luck!

The Caine Prize has disappeared off the internet. I have to assume this is merely a glitch and not a permanent thing like the Macmillan African writing Prize. I will be investigating that in the near future.

I promise to come back soon with more information about the art and writing events I have mentioned above.

Until then, I am wishing you very happy reading…and writing.

July ends with a sigh

Again, the month has flown by and I have been remiss in filling this internet cyber-blog-space or whatever the right term is with frivolous, juicy, sacrilegious or just plain boring information. So much has happened in this month that I did not want to end it without penning (typing really) down these few lines.

What has been happening?

I missed Pettina Gappah's reading in London by a day and spent the next few days overdosing on galleries and museums like the National Portrait G. and the Courtuald Institute. I also saw "Outsiders", a threatre production at the South Bank that left me desperate for sleep. I think that was really because I had been walking all day around the city like displaced soul.

I participated in a music video, attending summer music concerts both indoors and outdoors, rediscovered ice-cream and pondered the usefulness on sunscreen for those not on holiday.

Bookwise, I gobbled down another Harlen Coben "Hold Tight" and then threw it down when I finished. This is not a good sign as I was quite frustrated by the ending. I picked up a Lee Child's "Tripwire" since and have tried to convince myself that it's okay to keep reading the same ol' authors. Boooringgg!! I tried reading R. Kipling but I can tell I am going to need some help with the text. Yes, seriously, my attention span...
There are still short stories by Adiche, Atta and Habila to get through, so never fear, hey?

I have also spent a lot of time considering the usefulness of any course in creative writing and must confess that it leaves a strange taste in my mouth. I truly do not believe you can teach talent however, you can indeed learn to fully utilize or perfect it.

In this spirit of discovery, I spent some time in student accomodation to see if I was willing to go back to that life for a year while I learnt something about perfecting skills and talents.

Errrr...no, thanks. I don't miss that student life of dorms and weird scheduled living to a beat you are not always in sync with. Ok, fine, it is indeed no better than work life in some respects but this is different, you don't really control the space you live in. Yes, that small shell of sustained existence in a foreign city that feels oddly familiar, all that talking about missing the work-life and that gripping uncertainty about whether you made the right decision once you finish and start again that process of searching for a job in a seemingly unfriendly work market.
Hmmm... I could go on.
Kingston, Birbeck, Oxford, UEA, Warwick, Bristol and Manchester, all offer courses and leave you wondering, what would I be lacking without? The unknown beckons.

See you in August! Locarno Film Festival approches!

Helen Oyeyemi's Guardian podcast

Okay, I take it all back.

Helen Oyeyemi's new book, White is for Witching deserves to be the book of the week.

Please check out the Guardian website for the podcast reading of an excerpt of her book.
See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2009/jun/18/helen-oyeyemi-white-is-for-witching

She reads it with such a lyrical, magical manner that you are instantly transported into the story. I must however confess that I haven't yet read the book but hearing the podcast does inspire my curiousity. I wonder if it's available yet at the local library.

For those who are reading it or plan on reading it soon, happy reading.

Arty farty

Helas! So much has happened in the past two weeks and will only just be mentioning some of them now.

Where to begin?

I tripped up to Basel to see Art Basel and then FOCUS09.
Both art exhibitions were obviously very different from each other for several reasons.

Art Basel is a huge art machine that spat out work from thousands of artists presented by galleries from around the world. There were works of old masters, sculptures forming new chef d'oeuvres and paintings, installations and sculptures by artists you have never heard of...yet.

There was even an African traditional sculpture on display behind tightly secured glass container and a security guy with a roving eye who patrolled the tiny square metres of exhibition space of the Gianada Gallery, like a tiger prowling a cage.

Art Basel was the place to go if you want to see Degas, Botero, Picabia, Warhol, Basquiat and the ever present Picasso. They are all for sale too, at mouth-dropping prices that you only attain upon request. Also present were mythic galeries like White Cube, Gascogian etc. It is through them that the legend of artists such as Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and Lucian Freud live on.

FOCUS09 was more experimental. This was a pilot exhibition which was intended to display works exclusively by or on Africa. It was a big space but the exhibitors struggled to fill it with comprehensive art. They however did try to make it a truly culutural exhibition by organising musical and dance performances, as well as cultural debates. I have been assured that next year, the event will be even bigger and better.

Above are some of the pictures from the event.
The "Who am I?" is by Samba Fall at the FOCUS09 event. The other three pictures are from Art Basel, predominately from the Art Unlimited section.
I liked the mixed media painting of the black woman by an African American artist (don't have her name right here) because she used rhinestones to create the picture. It's pretty amazing up close.

Thanks Cristy!!!

Before I forget - which I had - I must say a huge Thank You! to Cristy Burne, the winner of the Diverse Voices award for so kindly promoting the work of other writers, especially as some (myself included!) did not win the award.

Her book, "Takeshita Demons" won the prize and will be published by Frances Lincoln in the near future. Please check it out and buy it once it comes out!!

In the meantime, she has kindly offered to print on her blog, information about the short-listed writers of the Diverse Voices award which was launched by Frances Lincoln and Seven Stories.

For more info, please see her blog-site:
http://cristyburne.wordpress.com/

HOME: our Earth - our hope and our film

HOME

Today marks the opening of the documentary film by Yann Arthus-Betrand about life on earth as seen from the sky in all its glory, decay, beauty and destruction.

It was filmed in various parts of the world (yes, even Africa is included) and presents the Earth as it is today and possibly shows what is to come if we continue they way we are going.
It is showing from today onwards, worldwide, on the internet for free. Yes, that's right, for free.

In case you hadn't heard about it already, the film is called "HOME" and is a must see. The link above is supposed to link directly unto the Home website or at the least, show parts of the film.

More than 88,000 people collaborated and supported the film's realisation so I would advise everyone to support it by watching it. Home is about the magnificence of this planet we call Earth and why we must all, in one way or another do something to protect it. Today is not too late to start.

To watch the integral film see:

http://www.youtube.com/homeprojectFR

Photography in St. Jean

Photography exhibition

On another note, one of the pictures I took for the competition, “Mon coin préféré du quartier” was chosen for the display at the Maison de quartier de Saint-Jean. While I did not win (sob! sob!) I got to participate and have my picture (one of three) chosen for the exhibition.

Small steps, hey?

Above is the picture that was chosen. I will add some other images at another time as I find it rather difficult to upload to my satisfaction. I like the picture below because of the brightness of the leaves contrasting against the linear, dull wood planks and the blue walls.

The vernissage took place yesterday evening.

New contemporary African art exhibition in Switzerland

FOCUS09 is a sort of "newish" art concept which claims to show contemporary art. I say "claim" only because I have never been to the event before and because I am rather sceptical about the representation of African art in its modern conceptualisation.

The reason for this is twofold. Contemporary African art displayed abroad is often very regional or fragmented. Secondly, there seems to be some confusion as to what African art is. By this I simply mean that there is a general vagueness, a sort of wishy-washy understanding of the dynamics of art from the continent.

This is perhaps as a result of the fact that generally speaking, the knowledge of the art in and outside the continent is very much dependent on the buyers. And who are the buyers and why are they the determining factor?

The buyers are the people who for various reasons, are able to travel to an African country and either buy art from galleries or directly from the artist and thereafter follow their carriers and support them. These are the so-called "patrons of the arts". These patrons - who actually wish to become collectors - start to buy art. in increasing quantities. Some speculate as they do so, either buying artworks they personally like or have been told is a good investment. These buyers expose others abroad to their collection either by hiring out their artwork as is the case with CAAC in Geneva or by writing books on the art they have collected, as is the case with André Magnin, curator for the Pigozzi collection or Fred Spinnler in Switzerland. I wrote an article about the latter for the Africa Link magazine in 2008. Mr Spinnler's collection is at the least, interesting andecclectic.

This select league of buyers present a select group of artists that they have chosen from the continent. They thus use this exclusive leverage to determine which artists on the continent sell/succeed and therefore, present a biased picture (pun intended) of the reality.

The fact that some countries like Nigeria are not very tourist-friendly makes things more complex for the artists. Nigeria, for example, has a thriving contemporary art industry which has been in existence for decades. The variety available for purchase on ground is simply incredible. The artists are talented, well trained and imaginative. However, outside the country, Nigerian artists are predominately under-represented. However, the ones that manage to have exhibitions abroad end up being the only names you hear. I would quote here Wole Lagunju, Tola Wewe and Sunday Jack Akpan. This list is far from exhaustive.

Older and especially famous examples of such artists include Bruce Onabrakpeya, Ben Enwanwu and Jimoh Buraimoh. But how many have heard these names abroad?

This problem is generally widespread for most African countries. The Congo has an extremely talented body of artists but again, the same problem.

The names that you do hear again and again include Cheri Samba, Moké, Malick Sidibé (winner of the Lion d’or at the Venice biennial in 2007), Seydou Keita and Richard Onyango.

I would even say it is no coincidence that most are from the francophone countries in Africa simply because there appears to be more support given to artists from this linguistic region of the continent.

These are some of the truly famous artists. It would however be very remiss of me not to mention the great Ghanaian artist, El Anatsui whose work was shown at the Art Basel Unlimited venue in 2008 as well as at the Venice Biennial in 2007.

Now let’s talk about the Diaspora. The artists in the Diaspora have the advantage of having being trained abroad and/or of living abroad, so they have more doors open to them…in a sense. Again, we only seem to hear the same names; Chris Ofili (Turner Prize winner), Yinka Shonibare and Kehinde Wiley.

And they are all men. Don’t get me started on that point.

I think the point is that the continent is too big to be fairly represented for the above reasons and for the simple fact that each African country has its unique history and culture which has and continues to influence its artistry.

All this said, it will be very interesting to see what this FOCUS09 has to offer. I hope to meet some artists or at the least, interview some of the organisers and get their views on the art of the continent as they presented it.

The FOCUS09 event takes place in Voltahalle, Basel from 1 – 14 June and links itself to the Art Basel event which takes place between 10 – 14 June 2009. Please visit their websites for more details.

http://www.focus09.ch

http://www.artbasel.com

June calling

I can't believe it's June already. So much has already happened in the space of three short days.

First it was Pentecost.

Then the Air France plane went missing somewhere between Brazil, Africa and Paris. My thoughts are with the families of all those on the plane.

A great deal more will be happening this month. There is the Sustainable Development event which begins today and ends on Sunday, Petina Grappah's will be reading and signing her book in Geneva this week, the Art Basel fair is on next week as well as FOCUS09, which I will be talking about at greater length tomorrow.

Until tomorrow then!!

Is it me or does this lend a certain confusion?

This is a Times Online excerpt of an interview with Helen Oyeyemi, the writer of Icarus Girl.

Here, she talks about her new book, White is for Witching. I am... confused.

...
Oyeyemi neatly summarises White is for Witching as the story of a “starving girl and a xenophobic house”. In it, Miranda Silver, her twin brother, Eliot, and their French father run a large guesthouse in Dover, the building itself a sentient if deranged soul. Miranda suffers from pica, a condition that compels her to eat only chalk. It worsens after the killing of her photographer mother in Haiti and she goes into psychiatric care. (“Female craziness is something I’m very interested in,” Oyeyemi says, “how it can manifest itself, what it means, what pressures force someone into these behaviours. I’m pretty much obsessed with madness.”) Several voices recount the ensuing events: Miranda gets into Cambridge. She falls in love with a black girl. She vanishes.

“I wanted to write a vampire story,” Oyeyemi explains. “After I graduated, I volunteered in South Africa for a few months. I was staying in this town called Paarl, and everyone wanted to talk about race all the time. I started to feel strange . . . I got this flu-like illness and spent a lot of time in bed with Dracula in the dark wing of this big house. I was feverish. I started thinking that vampire stories were a lot to do with the fear of the outsider, because you’ve got this foreign count with this unnatural appetite,” she says, building momentum. “I thought, what’s an unnatural appetite? A girl who eats chalk, but probably with a desire to eat something else.” The result is not a conventional vampire story; there are no fangs, bats or archvillains.

May Day! May Day!!

Ah ha!!
Finally, I am putting down some intrepid lines!
So what has been happening?

In February, one of my short stories, Kilmoro River was accepted for publication as part of an anthology on African writing.

In March, I feverishly entered several competitions, one of which was Diverse Voices in February and was informed I had been long-listed.

In April, I was shortlisted for my children's book "Gbenga and the reticent chromosome".

In May, I was accepted for a Masters programme in the UK. Yes, for writers. I have accepted. Hmmm...

I think the last is perhaps the most nail-biting because it was the most recent and it will entail actually committing to hard work for several long months.

This wish and willingness to take part in such a course is actually very interesting given that I was one to previously scorn writing courses at the post-graduate level. Surely, I thought, you can't teach natural talent? Why do a course on something you already know how to do?

I have only come round (yes, a 360 turn) simply because I have convinced myself that it can only improve what I think I have and could otherwise help polish some of the atrocious authorship errors I may otherwise commit. (I am of course not admitting to any from the past).

I have other projects in the works and I hope I will actually be able to keep my promise (this time) and from now on keep updating the info on this blog. Let's all hear an Amen!

For now, adios.

A new beginning

Ok, so I am resolved to make 2009 a unique and distinctive year of excellence. I am not at all certain about new year resolutions but I do believe in committing oneself to what one believes in. And on these famous words, I give you my words of wisdom for 2009.

May it be a year of exceptional fortitude, tolerance, peace and empowerment for women of all races all over the world. May aspirations soar higher on the wings of inspiration.
Live long and proud.

On a second note, I hope to be more consistent with my blogging this year, mainly because I believe I will have a lot more to share. Oh, I have stuff to write, it's the sharing that I need to work on.

So again, Happy 2009!!!