Recently in Cross-cultural Poetics Category

Click here for a 2007 podcast by Victor Dlamini of Dennis Brutus on Poetry, Protest and Global Apartheid

From Patrick Bond

(Dennis left us this morning, surrounded by loving relatives, without
pain. His final period in Durban, about six weeks ago, reminded all of
us of the courage and 'stubborn hope' - and of the need not to mourn,
too long, but to celebrate. If anyone would like to assist with
memorials, in whatever city and setting, please let us know; events will
be announced in coming days. There will also be a website to post the
photos Dennis loved so much, and we'll try to have videos of Dennis
online for posterity. Mainly, keep struggling for justice, in honour of
his politics, and keep expressing, in honour of Dennis' contribution to
culture and inspiration. And keep enjoying every minute no matter how
grim the enemy and the circumstances, as he always insisted.)

Statement from the Brutus Family on the passing of Professor Dennis Brutus

Excerpt from Chinua Achebe's new collection of essays, The Education of a British-Protected Child (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009).

My Daughters

All my life I have had to take account of the million differences -- some little, others quite big -- between the Nigerian culture into which I was born, and the domineering Western style that infiltrated and then invaded it. Nowhere is the difference more stark and startling than in the ability to ask a parent: "How many children do you have?" The right answer should be a rebuke: "Children are not livestock!" Or better still, silence, and carry on as if the question was never asked.

"Climate Hope: Inspiring 2009 Books For A Clean Energy Future"

BY Jeff Biggers
Huffington Post
28 November 2009

An incredible year of new books on climate destabilization, dirty energy policies, bogus Big Coal campaigns and a vibrant anti-coal movement, a growing coalfield resistance and the tragedy of mountaintop removal, and the still big possibility of renewable energy sources to refresh our survival chances on the planet

COAL MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY By Mark Nowak

Working class hero and poet Nowak gives a lyrical account of the voices of coal mining tragedies in Sago, West Virginia and China, in this breakthrough collection of poetry.

To learn more about Nowak and his excellent poetry and literary endeavors, and coal issues around the world, visit his blog here.

-Jeff Biggers, Huffington Post

See the Huffington Post's full list of "inspiring" books here.

Photo: Reuters / "Cry from the heart... the relative of a miner killed in a pit gas explosion breaks down as others gather for news outside the entrance to XingXing coal mine in China." 24 November 2009

A few years back in the Twin Cities, I was fortunate enough to see writer/actor Anna Deavere Smith twice in one week. This was just after she concluded her study, or what she calls her "search for American character." I found an excerpt from her show on the TED site, which I think is important for my students to see, particularly Smith's word for word performance of her interview with inmate Paulette Jenkins, which she titles "A Mirror to Her Mouth" (at 6:00 in the video below).

Here, Jenkins's telling of her experience witnessing then covering up the murder by her partner of her child Myisha illustrates for us the complexity of what it is to be human within a complex world of social and emotional imaginings regarding "the right," "the good," secrecy and notions of privacy, sacrifice, gender, poverty, race, and the ultimate varied effects of often purposeful social differentiation. Smith states that several people recommended that she remove Jenkins's story from her show, but of course she did not. For Smith, Jenkins' story is a way to fathom the "negative imagination" (a reference from Smith's talk with Maxine Greene); it is about risk, "what nature is, what Mother Nature is, and about what a risk can be."

"On the Road: A Search for American Character" (23:05)

Photo by Ian Teh who collaborated with Mark on CME

In the June issue of In These Times, contributing editor Kari Lyderson provides a compelling analysis of Mark's new book, Coal Mountain Elementary (Coffee House Press, 2009). The following is an excerpt from Lyderson's article.

PBS: The Online NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
24 April 2009
BY Mike Melia

"DRESS REHEARSAL" for the play version of Coal Mountain Elementary.
Photo by: Lizz Clements/The Inter-Mountain

Download Mark Melia's interview with Mark Nowak where Nowak discusses the significant local and global social-economic issues that his new book, Coal Mountain Elementary, exposes.

Click here for NewsHour's article on the book as well as a video clip from a recent performance by Davis & Elkins College of West Virginia.

Click here to go to Nowak's blog, which chronicles daily in numbers and stories coal mining accidents and deaths globally.

I was just reminiscing (or should I say daymaring?) about my life in Chi-Town & then found online--finally--the group (& the song) that truly got me through the complexities of living there before Mark came into my live.