Category Archives: Africa

Ishmael Reed, Grateful Dead: Egypt

Posted on November 28, 2012 by wcd2

November 28, 2012 Ishmael Reed gets away with it. He is “a Cowboy in the Boat of Ra,” he says in the poem of that title. And he gets to do thisbecause Sonny Rollins has already set an example: Sonny … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Arts communities, collaboration, contemporary poetry, Egypt, Global South, jazz, Middle East, Music, peripheral networks, Rock music, Twentieth century literature, Vernacular dialects, World religions | Tagged "Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978", Bill Kreutzmann, Cowboy in the Boat of Ra, Egypt, Gizab Sound & Light Theater, Grateful Dead, Hamza El Din, ishmael Reed, Israel, Jerry Garcia, Madame Anwar Sadat, Moses, Nile, Nubian Youth Choir, Ollin Arageed, Peace Accord, Ra, Sonny Rollins | Leave a comment

Audre Lorde in Mexico, Maya Angelou in Ghana

Posted on September 26, 2012 by wcd2

September 26, 2012 2012 marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of Audre Lorde. She had died at the age of 58, after 14 years of battling with breast cancer. But even before that, Lorde had always seemed associated with … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Americas, Autobiography, Ethnicity, Genre, Global South, Latin America, mexico, Race, Twentieth century literature, Universities, world literature | Tagged All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, Audre Lorde, biomythography, Ghana, Maya Angelou, Mexico, National University of Mexico, The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance, Zami | Leave a comment

Rene Marie and Thomas Pynchon: Dixie/Strange Fruit, Mason & Dixon

Posted on August 15, 2012 by wcd2

August 15, 2012 Thanks to Ron Fritts, I learn this week that Rene Marie also has a version of “Strange Fruit” – a mashup, joint with the Confederate anthem, “Dixie.” Is it meant to be ironic? Marie doesn’t think so. … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, African-American music, Cities, collaboration, Ethnicity, Global South, Music, Race, Racial violence, Remediation, Remix, Science, slavery, World history, YouTube videos | Tagged "Strange Fruit, Cape Town, Charles Mason, Confederacy, Daniel Decatur Emmett, Dixie, Jeremiah Dixon, Knox County, mashup, Mason & Dixon, Mason-Dixon line, Ohio, Rene Marie, Ron Fritts, Snowden family, South Africa, Thomas Pynchon, transit of Venus, Wikipedia | Leave a comment

Richard Wright, Count Basie, Paul Robeson: Collaboration that Happened and Collaboration that Didn’t

Posted on July 18, 2012 by wcd2

July 18, 2012 Richard Wright had always liked boxing, but what intrigued him most of all was probably the personality of Joe Louis – “King Joe” – the world heavyweight boxing champion for more than 11 years, defending his title … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Afro-Asian alliances, Asia, Cities, collaboration, Ethnicity, Global South, Interdisciplinarity, jazz, lyric, macro politics, Media, Music, Newspapers, peripheral networks, planet, Sports, Twentieth century literature, world literature | Tagged " FDR, "King Joe, Adam Clayton Powerll, Bandung Conference, boxing, Count Basie, Daily Worker, Ganges, Hitler, Joe Louis, Max Baer, Max Schmeling, Nazism, Niger, Nile, Okeh Records, Paul Robeson, Richard Wright, State Department, Yangtze, Yankee Stadium | 2 Comments

Spanish Civil War: Hughes and Hemingway

Posted on July 4, 2012 by wcd2

July 4, 2012 The Beinecke Library doesn’t have a great Hemingway Collection (most of his material is at the JFK Presidential Library in Boston), but I did find a rare photo, taken in Madrid in 1937, Hemingway with Langston Hughes, … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Arabic, Caribbean literature, collaboration, Cuba, Cuban poetry, Ethnicity, Global South, Islam, Latin America, Letters, Libraries, Modernist poetry, Newspapers, peripheral networks, Spanish, Translation, Twentieth century literature, world literature | Tagged Baltimore Afro-American, Beinecke Library, Cuba Libre, Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bells Tolls, General Franco's Moors, Gypsies, Havana, JFK Presidential Library, Langston Hughes, Michael Koltyov, Moors, Nicolas Guillen, Oklahoma, Spanish Civil War | 2 Comments

Gertrude Stein: Pittsburgh to Paris

Posted on May 9, 2012 by wcd2

May 9, 2012 850 Beech Avenue, Allegheny West. A two-story house, 5 windows on its front facade, 3 on the second floor, 2 on the first. A modest house, middle-class, no more. I remember this, of course, from The Autobiography … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Arts communities, Modern art, museums, Paris, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts | Tagged African masks, Allegheny West, Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, blue period, California, Cubism, Gertrude Stein, La Femme au Chapeau, Leo Stein, Matisse, Metropolitan Museum, Michael Stein, Paris, Pennsylvania, Picasso, Pittsburgh, rose period | 2 Comments

Black Pittsburgh

Posted on May 2, 2012 by wcd2

May 2, 2012 I’ve been here before, but it hit me again this time, coming into the city at night. This has got to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The river and the bridges all lit up — there are … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Arabic, Arts communities, collaboration, Contemporary Art, Educational institutions, Ethnicity, Islam, jazz, Media, Music, peripheral networks, Theater, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, world literature, World religions | Tagged Abdullan Ibn, Billy Strayhorn, Brenda Buxton, bridges, Buhaina, Duke Ellington, Earl Hines, Fate Marable, Hill Distict, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Mary Lou Wiliams, Nation of Islam, New Orleans, Paris, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Cycle, riverboats, Romare Beaden, Stanley Theater, The Piano Lesson, West Afraica | 21 Comments

Moving Modernisms: Oxford 2012

Posted on March 28, 2012 by wcd2

March 28, 2012 I missed a whole day of the conference (had to teach, there was no getting around it). What did Paul Saint Amour say about slowness; Maud Ellmann about bi-location; Enda Duffy about high energy modernism; Ato Quayson … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, collaboration, Comparative literature, Contemporary novel, Educational institutions, film medium, globe, Media, Modernist poetry, print medium, Twentieth century literature, Universities, world literature | Tagged Ato Quayson, cognitive science, emotional intelligence, Enda Duffy, Jean-Michel Rabaté, Julian Murphet, Maud Ellmann, modernism, Morocco, New College, Nigeria, Oxford University, Paul Saint-Amour, Route 66 TV series, Samuel Beckett, Tangerine Dream, Wole Soyinka | 6 Comments

Sudan: George Clooney, Dave Eggers, Valentino Achak Deng

Posted on March 21, 2012 by wcd2

March 21, 2012 Last Friday George Clooney was arrested protesting the new humanitarian violations in Sudan. The Satellite Sentinel Project, which he co-founded with John Prendergast in October 2010, collects digital images analyzed by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and used … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, collaboration, Contemporary novel, Ethnicity, film medium, Global South, Islam, Media, print medium, world literature, YouTube videos | Tagged Arabs, Dave Eggers, George Clooney, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, John Prendergast, Josiah Henson, Middle East, Nuba Mountains, Omar al-Bashid, Satellite Sentinel Project, Sudan, Valentino Achak Deng, What is the What, YouTube | 6 Comments