Category Archives: Global South

Ntozake Shange, Alice B. Toklas: What Cooks Know

Posted on January 23, 2013 by wcd2

January 23, 2013 “The first effable gazpacho was served to us in Malaga,” Alice notes. She and Gertrude Stein would also find “entirely different but equally exquisite” versions of the that soup in Seville and Cordoba, cities once under Islamic … Continue reading →

Posted in African-American literature, Cities, Contemporary novel, Diaspora, Ethnicity, Food in literature, Global South, Greek, Islam, Mediterranean, Middle East, Polish, Spanish | Tagged Alice B. Toklas, cacik, chlodnik, cookbooks, Cordoba, Crusades, gazpacho, Gertrude Stein, Malaga, Ntozake Shange, Polish, Seville, Spanish, tarata, Turkish, Vienna | Leave a comment

Mangoes: Richard Blanco, Sandra Cisneros

Posted on January 9, 2013 by wcd2

January 9, 2013 Conceived in Cuba, born in Spain, raised and educated in Miami– that’s Richard Blanco, as described by the inaugural planners. What poem would he be reciting on January 20? It’s not so easy to guess based on … Continue reading →

Posted in Americas, Cities, Contemporary literature, Cuba, Diaspora, Ethnicity, Food in literature, Global South, Latino/a literature, Poetry, Spanglish, Vernacular dialects | Tagged Barcelona, Bethel, Brazil, Chicago, Cienfuegos, City of a Hundred Fires, Cuba, Directions to the Beach of the Dead, Guatemala, House on Mango Street, Maine, Malta, Miami, Richard Blanco, Rome, Sandra Cisneros, Spain | Leave a comment

Frederick Douglass, H.D.: Egypt Again

Posted on January 2, 2013 by wcd2

Janurary 2, 2013 She never mentioned him and probably never read him. Still, he anticipated her. Visiting Egypt in 1887, Douglass wrote: “I do not know of what color and features the ancient Egyptians were, but the great mass of … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, ancient Greece, Christianity, Classics, Comparative literature, Egypt, Gender, Global South, Islam, Modernist poetry, Poetry, Race, slavery, Translation, Twentieth century literature, Wars, world literature | Tagged Egypt, Frederick Douglass, Greeks, H.D., Islam, Malcolm X, Petition for franchise for women, Seneca Falls Convention, Stesichorus of Sicily, Trojans | Leave a comment

Muriel Rukeyser, Wallace Stevens: Books of the Dead

Posted on December 26, 2012 by wcd2

December 26, 1012 There’s a picture of the two of them – Stevens standing at the back, and Rukeyser seated in front with Marianne Moore. To the left of him from where they were, and to the left of … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Classics, Egypt, Environmentalism, Experimental poetry, Global South, Journalism, Labor history, lyric, Poetry, print medium, Race, Remediation, Translation, Twentieth century literature, Vernacular dialects | Tagged Book of the Dead, Dante, Egypt, Henry Church, Homer, investigative journalism, Marianne Moore, Muriel Rukeyser, Owl in the Sarcophagus, silica mines, U.S.1, Underworld, Virgil, Wallace Stevens, West Virginia | Leave a comment

Shankar, Coltrane, Whitman: Within You, Without You

Posted on December 12, 2012 by wcd2

December 12, 2012 2012 is full of deaths at the year’s end. Dave Brubeck last week; this week, Ravi Shankar. Shankar was half an American musician (the fractions don’t have to add up to a zero-sum game). Since 1970 he … Continue reading →

Posted in Afro-Asian alliances, Asia, Cities, collaboration, Diaspora, Educational institutions, Ethnicity, Global South, India, jazz, Music, Nineteenth-century literature, Poetry, public universities | Tagged Beatles, California Institute for the Arts, Don Juan, Encinitas, Faust, George Harrison, Gounod, Jean-Pierre Rampal, John Coltrane, Mozart, Mtislav Rostropovich, Norwegian Woods, Philip Glass, Proud Music of the Storm, Ravi Shankar, Rossini, San Diego, Walt Whitman, William Tell | Leave a comment

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

Jack Kerouac, Edwidge Danticat: Joual and Creole

Posted on October 10, 2012 by wcd2

October 10, 2012 The name on his birth certificate is Jean Louis Kirouac – that’s the most common spelling of the name in Quebec, which is where his parents were from. His father, Léon-Alcide, continued to work as a printer … Continue reading →

Posted in African-American literature, Americas, Atlantic, Autobiography, Canada, Caribbean literature, Cities, Comparative literature, Contemporary novel, Creole, Diaspora, Ethnicity, Gender, Global South, Latin America, Libraries, Media, mexico, peripheral networks, print medium, Publishers, Radio, Twentieth century literature, Vernacular dialects | Tagged Creole, Edwidge Danticat, French, Gabriel Anctil, Haiti, Jack Kerouac, Joual, La Nuit est ma femme, Le Devoir, Lowell MA, New York Public Library, Québécois, Sur le chemin | 1 Comment

Jack Kerouac: Mexico City Blues

Posted on October 3, 2012 by wcd2

October 3, 2012 “The immense triangular arc from New York to Mexico City to San Francisco”: Jack Kerouac writes in The Dharma Bums. After two publishers turned down On the Road in quick succession, Kerouac went to Mexico in a … Continue reading →

Posted in African-American music, Americas, Arts communities, Cities, Experimental poetry, Genre, Global South, jazz, Latin America, lyric, Media, mexico, Modernist poetry, Music, peripheral networks, Publishers, Spanish, Twentieth century literature, YouTube videos | Tagged Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac, Jazz poetry, mexico city, New York, Paris Review, San Francisco, Ted Berrigan, William Burroughs | 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