2012 Black History Month Poetry Reading: V.S. Chochezi, Terry Moore, and Milton Bowens

On February 14, CRC is hosting a BHM poetry reading featuring VS Chochezi, Terry Moore, and Milton Bowens. I look forward to this event, which takes place just a day after another BHM event at the Sacramento Poetry, in which Terry Moore and VS Chochezi be some of the features.

The CRC reading will take place in the Recital Hall from 12:00 to 1:20 PM.

V.S. Chochezi has resided in Sacramento for more than 20 years. For most of that time she has shared poetry and spoken word at countless venues including colleges and universities, K-12 educational centers, festivals and poetry features. She has been published in numerous publications including Speak, Write, Dream an anthology of contributions from ZICA members, available on LULU.com. ZICA is a Sacramento based creative arts and literary guild with an eclectic, national membership. Chochezi also has been published in several issues of Drum Voices Revue, a publication from Southern Illinois University, Sierra College's literary journal and Poetry Now, a Sacramento Poetry Center publication to name a few. When not writing and sharing poetry, Chochezi teaches public speaking and works as an editor, journalist, leadership development trainer and Myers Briggs Type Indicator practitioner. She holds a bachelor's in journalism, a master's in communication studies and is pursuing a doctoral degree in education.


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Performance poet Terry Moore is one of America's favorite spoken word artists. He has featured with and opened up for some of the world's top entertainers! He is the host of two of Northern California’s longest running and most successful poetry venues. He has won five "Best Spoken Word Artist” awards, appeared on the world famous Showtime at the Apollo, hosted and won poetry slams, hosted numerous events, been in movies, coordinated workshops for men, women and children of all ages and races and is a household name in the spoken word community. This multi-published, multi-recorded, multi-talented man, father, activist is nationally recognized, appreciated and respected.


Awards and achievements


2001 Spoken Word Artist of the Year- Sounds of Soul Music Awards

2002 Nominated for Entertainer of the Year- Sounds of Soul Music Awards

2004 Nominated for Best Spoken Word Performer-

Los Angeles Black Music Awards

2004 Appeared on the world famous Showtime at the Apollo

2005 Best Male Spoken Word Performer- Sounds of Soul Music Awards

2005 Father of the Year- Center for Fathers and Families

2007 Best Poet in Sacramento-Hub Choice Awards

2008, 2009 & 2010 Sacramento Super Love Jones Love Poem Competition Champion

2010 Best Spoken Word Male Performer- Sounds of Soul Music Awards

2010 Chosen as one of the Bay Area’s 1 of 4 Kings of Poetry

2010 Best Poet (Best of Sacramento) –Sacramento News & Review

Has Shared the Stage With  The Temptations, Maya Angelou, Kirk Franklin, Rashaan Patterson,

Dr. Cornel West, CeCe Winans, Lalah Hathaway, Zapp, WAR, Marvin Sapp

Philip Bailey (Earth, Wind and Fire), Bilal, Howard Hewitt, Gerald Albright

Raphael Saadiq, Raheem DeVaughn, Iyanla Vanzant, Mary Mary, Norman Brown, Lenny Williams, West Coast All Stars, Rick Braun, Jonathan Butler, Pieces of a Dream, Lisa McClendon, Darlene McCoy and many more!

Born and raised in Oakland, Calif., Milton Bowens is the fifth boy of ten children. Milton’s artistic promise began at the age of five with nothing more than a few pencils and cut up brown paper bags used as sketch paper, thanks to his mother’s ingenuity of making the best of lean times. Milton never lost sight of his humble roots. Discreetly placed on many of his works of art is a slim strip of brown paper bag. Years later, Milton’s formal art education took off while he attended the Renaissance Art School in Oakland during his junior and senior high school years. After graduating, Milton received a scholarship to the California College of Arts and Crafts. He completed one-year of study then enlisted in the United States Armed Forces and became an Illustrator. He received his Associates Degree in Commercial Art under the Army’s College Education Assistance Program (ACE). Milton continued his art education at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee and at North Carolina’s Fayetteville State University, while completing his military obligations. During this time, two of the military’s most prestigious museums: The John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Museum, Fort Bragg, North Carolina and The Don F. Pratt Memorial Museum, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, collected Milton’s artwork.


After serving his tour of duty, Milton returned to the Bay Area, where he continued his education under the mentorship of Fine Artist David Bradford, head of the Art Department and instructor at Laney College (Oakland). Inspired by great artists such as Jean Michel Basquiat, Robert Rauschenberg, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and Andy Warhol, Milton changed his focus from illustration to fine art. That shift proved crucial for Milton now considered a great artist in his own right and inspirational public speaker/community activist in the struggle to keep art a vital part of public education and a tool to help build self-esteem in youth. Milton works tirelessly to create thought-provoking exhibitions that will help restore a level of hope in communities desperately in need of inspiration.

Sacramento Poetry Center Lecture Series Starting Soon

FEB 16 -- Bolo and Bullshit: The Other TS Eliot.

Josh McKinney is the author of two award-winning books of poetry: Saunter, co-winner of the University of Georgia Press Poetry Series Open Competition in 2002, and The Novice Mourner, winner of the Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize in 2005. He has also published two poetry chapbooks: Saunter (Primitive Publications, 1998) and Permutations of the Gallery (Pavement Saw Press, 1996), winner of the Pavement Saw Chapbook Contest. His poems have appeared in over one hundred national journals such as American Letters & Commentary, Boulevard, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, The Kenyon Review, New American Writing, Ploughshares, Poetry International, Prairie Schooner, and many others. His other awards include The Dickinson Poetry Prize and a Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative American Writing. He is a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Joshua is currently a professor of English at California State University, Sacramento, where he teaches courses in literature and various creative writing courses such as Between Genres: Prose Poetry & Flash Fiction, Meter & Rhythm: The Poem’s Heartbeat, and Ecopoetics.


FEB 23 -- Poetry Collaboration

V.S. Chochezi is a poet, spoken word artist, and long time student of West African dance and drum. She teaches at Sierra College and with her mother, Staajabu, entertains audiences with her poetry slam team, Straight Out Scribes. Her other experience is as a leadership development and MBTI practioner, mother, daughter, grandmother, mother-in-law, artist, and activist.


MARCH 1 -- Women Poets: Friendship, Critique & Support

Molly Fisk was born in San Francisco. She earned her B.A. from Radcliffe College/ Harvard University, her M.B.A. from Simmons College Graduate School of Management, and began writing at the age of 35. She's the author of The More Difficult Beauty (Hip Pocket Press, 2010), Listening to Winter (Roundhouse Press/Heyday Books, 2000), Terrain (with Dan Bellm and Forrest Hamer, Hip Pocket Press, 1998), the letterpress chapbook Salt Water Poems (Jungle Garden Press, 1994) and two CDs of radio commentary: Blow-Drying a Chicken, and Using Your Turn Signal Promotes World Peace. (See Books/CDs) Molly has received fellowships in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts the California Arts Council and the Marin Arts Council. She's won the Dogwood Prize, the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize in Poetry, the Billee Murray Denny Prize, the National Writer's Union Prize and a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She serves as Poet Laureate of radio station KVMR-FM, Nevada City and recently appeared in the TEDxSanFrancisco event The Edge of What We Know.

MARCH 8 -- Contemporary Poetry: The International Poetry Web

Emmanuel Sigauke was born in Zimbabwe, where he started writing at the age of thirteen. After graduating from the University of Zimbabwe with a BA in English, he moved to California, where he completed graduate studies. He teaches English at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, where he is an editor for the Cosumnes River Journal. Sigauke hosts readings at SPC and writes book reviews for Poetry Now. He is the publisher of Munyori Literary Review and has published many of his poems in journals and anthologies. Professor Sigauke has facilitated poetry workshops in Natomas for the public. The author has a published collection of poems titled, Forever Let Me Go.


MARCH 15 -- The Blab of the Pave: Rhythm, Texture, Silence and Other Elements of Post-ryhming Poetry

Poet Laureate of Sacramento Bob Stanley serves as the president of the Sacramento Poetry Center as well as teaches Creative Writing and English at CSU Sacramento. His poems have won a number of awards, including the California Focus on Writers prize in 2006 and have been published in numerous journals and anthologies. He recently published his first chapbook, Walt Whitman Orders a Cheeseburger, released by Rattlesnake Press in 2009.

Also with special guest lecturer, John Allan Cann, one of Sacramento’s finest poetry scholars. He studied at Cornell with A.R. Ammons. John wrote and published a number of books in the 1970s, and he has recently become more involved in the Sacramento poetry scene. He currently teaches English Composition at Cosumnes River College, and is also offering a class on American poets born in the 1930s, at the Room to Write School of Poetry on 25th Street.


MARCH 22 -- Japanese Literary Traditions in West Coast Poetics

Judy Halebsky won a New Issues Prize for her book, Sky=Empty, and was a finalist for the California Book Award. Her chapbook, Space Gap Interval Distance is forthcoming from Sixteen Rivers Press. The MacDowell Colony, the Millay Colony, and the Japanese Ministry of Culture have supported her work. With a collective of Tokyo poets, she edits and translates the bilingual poetry journal Eki Mae. She Originally from Nova Scotia, she now lives in San Francisco and teaches at Dominican University of California. Books: Sky=Empty (New Issues Press, 2010) Chapbooks: Space, Gap, Interval, Distance (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2012), Japanese for Daydreamers (Finishing Line Press, 2008); Anthologies: Yuba Flows (Hip Pocket Press, 2007); Journals: Eleven Eleven, Five Fingers Review, Harpur Palate, Hotel Amerika, New Delta Review, Ping Pong, Poetry Kanto, Poetry Now, Runes: A Review of Poetry, Smartish Pace, and more. Prizes: New Issues Poetry Prize, Sixteen Rivers Press Chapbook Award for Poets Under Forty


MARCH 29 -- Kenneth Rexroth: The World Outside the Window

James DenBoer is publisher of Swan Scythe Press. Long appreciated by local readers of poetry, James DenBoer’s work has appeared in a great variety of publications in multiple media. DenBoer has authored eight books of poetry spanning almost 40 years, has appeared in another seven anthologies of poetry and literature, and has won awards and grants from the National Council on the Arts, the Author’s League of America, the Carnegie Fund for Authors and the National Endowment for the Arts. Great and recognizable poets have celebrated the poetry of James DenBoer. National Book Award winner William Stafford said that DenBoer’s “readers are immediately enriched by the various dimensions that an original and assured mind can give to the texture of real life in our time.” Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate William Meredith wrote that DenBoer’s poetry “reveals a growth in humor, in tough-mindedness, and in affection for the natural world.” And David Wagoner, former Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets, has said “”The voice of James DenBoer . . . seems lucid, flexible, refreshing, and important.” DenBoer’s most recent book, Stonework: Selected Poems, was published by Sandra McPherson’s Swan Scythe Press, in the city of Davis.
James Denboer performed on March 19th, 2008. DenBoer has written: Learning The Way, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1969 (U.S. Award of the International Poetry Forum) Trying To Come Apart, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1971 (National Council of the Arts award), Nine Poems, Christopher's Books, Santa Barbara, 1972, Brandi & Brandts & DenBoer & Durand & Peters & Turner, Christopher's Books, 1973, Lost in Blue Canyon, Christopher's Books, Santa Barbara, 1981, Dreaming of the Chinese Army, Blue Thunder Press, 2000, Poems: James DenBoer, Verdant Press, Pasadena CA (artist book), 2002, Poems: James DenBoer/Paintings: Mel Smothers, The Press of the Black Dog, Sacramento, CA, 2002 (1 copy of handmade book with original paintings), Poems: James DenBoer, Magpie Press Books, Sacramento, CA (artist book), 2002, Bibliography of the Published Work of Douglas Blazek 1961-2001, Glass Eye Books, 2003, Back Until Then, Verdant Press, Berkeley, CA, 2005; prose poems, Black Dog: An Incomplete Seque Between Two Seasons, Rattlesnake Press, Fair Oak, CA, 2005


APRIL 5 -- Surrealism and it's Academic Discontents

Tim Kahl is the author of the poetry collection, Possessing Yourself (Word Tech Press, 2009), and his poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, American Letters and Commentary, Berkeley Poetry Review, and numerous other journals. He has also translated, among others, the work of German poet Rolf Haufs, Brazilian poets Ledo Ivo and Marly de Oliveira, and the poems of Jose Saramago, the Portuguese language’s only Nobel Laureate. He currently serves the poetry community as the editor for Bald Trickster Press and as the Vice President of The Sacramento Poetry Center. He teaches at Sacramento City College.

Who is Visiting WOI and Why?

Once in a while I check traffic statistics to my blogs, particularly this one, which is my favorite. And on some days I wake up and there have already been 300 or 400+ visits, signalling a day that may end with over 800 or more. So then I check why such a surge and I click on the traffic source tab, which shows me the source websites and search engine key words. It's the latter I always find interesting, and worth blogging about. It shows what key words brought the traffic to my blog, gives me an idea of what people are looking for.

In the past there have been key words like "the rise of Petina Gappah", "Marechera and Zimbabwean literature", "Interesting characters in African literature," and sometimes just "Emmanuel Sigauke". Today's list is longer, and here it is:

black history month event ideas

shona literature novels

abigail george poetry

alice laplante, method and madness 

beautifull girl south african poem 

black history month events ideas

black history performance ideas 

forever young ideas 

imitating the style of writing of binyavanga wainana 

lumina literary agency short story

It makes sense that people are looking for information on Black History Month.  I am going to host two events myself, one at the Sacramento Poetry Center (February 13) and the other at Cosumnes River College (February 14); something I usually publicize as "Black History Month Events, Back to Back". The readings are popular as I usually work with some of the best poets in the Sacramento area, VS Chochezi, Terry Moore, Malik Moore, NSAA, Immobeme and many others. It always an honor bringing poets to both the SPC and CRC, and to introduce them to eager audiences. The CRC attendence sometimes reaches north of the 300s, and I know some are there as classes, are on extra credit or extra-curriculum projects, but the value is what they get out of the performances, that which enriches their experiences in the world of art. So yes, it makes sense that people are looking for these events, which also qualify as beautiful entertainment.

I see there has been a search on "imitating the style of writing of Binyavanga Wainaina". That's a huge compliment to Binyavanga, but also a great way to exemplify that writing relies on influence from others and that sometimes writers deliberately imitate others in order to discover their own voices. Not only that; sometimes they seek to parody styles they admire. In the mix of literary production, it all makes sense. And what a choice: reviews are raving about how stylish Binyavanga is in his prose.

"Shona Literature novels". It's interesting to note that someone out there is looking for these, a whole literature a lot of readers don't know exist because of language, but someone is looking. These creatures, Shona novels, need a bigger readership, so it's great to know that there organizations in places like the UK and ....the UK, which order and sell or distribute Shona and Ndebele novels, and I read somewhere that a school was going to be started in the UK, a school that teaches things in Shona and Ndebele and English, a school that teaches Zimbabwean things. People around me here in Sacramento have begun to express a wish that one day someone like me (because of how I always talk about books and language) should be part of a program that starts somethng that educates children of Zimbabweans, educate them on Zim culture, the languages, etc...because the communities are growing, and soon Sadza Restaurants may need to sprout in these places. Interesting, all interesting.

See the search on South African poetry? That's very good, and I like how it connects with a search for Abigail George, a South African poet who is passionate about African literature, who recommends laying your hands on any African books, whose worldview is centered in the African world she writes about. She is the founder of Drum Beat media, which has a page on Facebook, and they have announced that they are starting a journal of African writing; we need more of these.

Search engine terms; they really give you ideas to blog about. Keep them coming.

SPC Third Reading of the Year: Zara Raab and Judy Wells

Presents

Zara Raab and Judy Wells

Monday, January 23 at 7:30 PM

1719 25th Street at Crossroads for the Arts

Host: Tim Kahl

Zara Raab grew up along the North Coast of California. She attended Mills College and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) for college and graduate school. In her twenties, she lived in Paris, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., where she freelanced as an editor and writer, before returninto the West Coast to raise a family. Her grandparents’ grandparents’ settled in Humboldt and Mendocino counties in the 19th century, where they farmed, raised cattle and harvested tan oak for leather. Both her parents attended one-room schools; the one in Branscomb still stands. Early California is a subject of Swimming the Eel, just as the drama of family life informs her earlier work, The Book of Gretel.

On Zara Raab’s Swimming the Eel


“With abundant detail and in many voices the poet rounds out family history with sweetness, humor and presence, frequently moving back and forth from one era to another. In this way we see the family lines as they gather along the Eel, and disperse. . . . Zara Raab has long entranced us with glimpses into her ancestral life. Now we have the wonder of it in Swimming the Eel. We are grateful.”

––Cleo Griffith, editor, Song of the San Joaquin



"Swimming the Eel is a moving and impressive work of art. Its family history feels both intimate and mythic in its fresh iteration of a Western American archetype. [With] a combination of formal coherence and musical fluency, . . . a beautifully sustained sequence of poems."

––Stephen Kessler, author, The Tolstoy of the Zulus



“This poetic chronology grips and blesses in a way that no history could, telling the story of the American West through family eyes, beginning with an “artless girl who kept a clean house over a green hill,” who is swept toward her future by life’s inevitable “waterfall of loss.” Charm and efficacy yield a light touch; yet the words speak of deep longing . . . amid the “pantaloons of soil along the river rock.”
––Cathy Luchetti, author of Women of the West



“Who’ll join me...as the winter seance starts, wind rattling the pots?” Zara Raab’s compelling dream of history, and the painful waking from it, merges inner life with outer world in these exhilarating lyrics of lost lifetimes in an outback corner of Northern California. A brew of wildness and domesticity. . . its pleasures are many. . . “



––Beverly Burch, author of Sweet to Burn

JUDY WELLS has published ten collections and chapbooks of poetry: I Dream of Circus Characters: A Berkeley Chronicle (Beatitude Press, 2010), Little Lulu Talks with Vincent Van Gogh (Malthus Press, 2007), Call Home (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2005), Everything Irish (Scarlet Tanager Books, 1999), The Calling: Twentieth Century Women Artists (Mother’s Hen, 1994), The Part-time Teacher (Rainy Day Women Press, 1991), Jane, Jane (Hawkeye Press, 1981), Albuquerque Winter (Hawkeye, 1980), Been in Berkeley Too Long (Hawkeye, 1980), and I Have Berkeley, (Hawkeye, 1979).

She has read her poetry in many venues—from the famed bookstore, Shakespeare & Co. in Paris to the famed, now closed Cody’s Books on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. She was a featured reader in the Berkeley Poetry Festival, 2006, 2009, and 2011. Journal publications include Feile-Festa, Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review, North Coast Literary Review, 2000: Here’s to Humanity, Coffeehouse Poetry Anthology, The Walrus, Howling Dog, The Kerf, Colere, Rattlesnake, and forthcoming in California Quarterly and Levure Litteraire.


She received her B.A. in French from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley. Judy is also co-editor of The Berkeley Literary Women’s Revolution: Essays from Marsha’s Salon, McFarland, 2005, a chronicle of the founding of Women’s Studies in the Comparative Literature Department at UC Berkeley in the 1970s. Her essays have also appeared in Travelers’ Tales Ireland and several editions of The Borzoi College Reader.


Judy taught writing and literature at various Bay Area colleges before a career as an Academic Counselor for adults in the School of Extended Education at Saint Mary’s College of California, and as a faculty member of the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Saint Mary’s. She is now devoted full-time to her poetry.

Thoughts on Helon Habila's 'Oil on Water'

This is my first encounter with Helon Habila's work. As he is increasingly becoming more important in the canonization of African literature (he won the Caine Prize in its second year and he recently anthologized African short stories with a respected publisher), I thought I should read him right away. And what better way to introduce myself to his work than through his recent novel, 'Oil on Water', which takes readers to the Niger Delta. I say take, as opposed to invite, because from the moment you hear the narrator's voice, you are taken on a voyage as if you were foreign to the Niger Delta, which, in my case, is true (never mind that earlier today, a lady outside the grocery store asked me if I was Nigerian and I told her what I was, and the lady with whom she was standing quickly said: "You are my neighbour and I said, "Are you Mozambican?" and she said, "No, I'm South African").

 As I begin reading the novel, I am following a narrative thread that recalls Joseph Conrad (not the prose style, no, no) in the voyage and expedition trope. We are going up a river in a boat, we are navigating, and we are journalists, two of us, accompanied or guided by some locals, a father and a son, the latter a speaker  of Pidgin English, saying things like: "You no well, sir, thas why . I think say you go stop here rest small..." and the other a lad who needs an outsider to help him pursue his dreams for success, because he can't make it his village.

The narrator, Rufus, a recent graduate of journalims school, on a mission to make his breakthrough in his field, encounters people whose languages he cannot name. He knows he can't understand them, but he does know what they are speaking. I don't if as a reader I should expect him to know what the language is at least, but I have to realise that in some African countries hundreds of languages are spoken, and I have to leave room for people in such countries not being able to name the language. Besides, it's a minor issue in the story's premise.

The story centers on Rufus and his career role model, the drunkard Zaq, whom he met when he came to give a commencement speech on his journalism graduation. Meeting him was an opporunity any journalism student would have wanted to have, and for Rufus, connecting with  Zaq became a reality when he found himself stuck with him when, on that first night they met, he became so drunk he passed out and had to use the help of Rufus. So began a professional relationship that had landed them together on this mission: navigating up a filthy river in search of white woman who has been kidnapped by millitants in the Niger Delta. Their assignment is to confirm the woman is alive, to take pictures, and to make the militants "understand that nothing must happen to her. She's a British citizen..."

This makes for an excellent premise for the novel. It is a subject readers are likely to find interesting as it serves multilple purposes: first, the novel is already set in an Africa full of problems, but this problems play on the stage of multi-national interests, a lot of wealth is at stake, and major players in the global landscape are involved. Then there is the hot subject of militants, rebels, ransom seekers responsible for cause instability in a place full of oil wealth--even the editor of the newspaper Zaq works for understands that this mission will lead to a real scoop: "an opportunity is an opportunity. How often does the oil  company come knocking on your door, asking for a favor?" But where Habila excels in dealing with interesting and far-reaching subject matter is in including a kidnapped white woman in the story.

 In the depth of trouble-ridden Africa, to put the white wife of a British oil executive adds an interesting layer to the story. It is actually the life of the story. While consistent with reality in these oil-rich places, where groups seeking opportunity or freedom may cause this kind of havoc, the premise of the story is chosen so well that it almost seems like a gimmick to garner extensive reader interest. This has been done before in African literature, and it will continue to be done; the writer who understands how it works stands to benefit from it. But even that, in the context of this story, is also a minor issue; it gets the reader into the narrative: what matters then is what happens one we are in. Is the story delightfully rendered? How is the narrative thrust? How about the story's arc? How soon do we relate this single story to general human concerns while not losing sight of its distinctiveness? In all these fronts, Habila delivered.

This is a gently told story, not a breathless, forward-thrusting mystery or miplaced adventure, but a patient, nuanced and lucidly moving story. The narrator weaves the connecting tissues of the story from the present to the past and back without boring us  with details that slow down the story. The style stays consistent with the prosaic unfolding of a journalist memoir, but we are invited in the subjective core of the story-teller, his dreams, his fears, his ignorance, and like a good journalist, his willingness to observe and learn. Observation is the key to these journalists' expedition. First they will observe, take notes, photos, and then they will report.


The journey is dangerous for them, and it has uncertain consequences. Hope is smitten,  but the journalistic urge takes over, because that which endangers makes good reportable material. The waters they navigate are dangerous because of toxins, Zaq catches a disease, whole villages are being wiped out by the toxins in the water, and then there is the lurking danger of militants and government soldiers. When armies and rebels hunt each other, the innocent villagers are caught in the middle, are victimized, are killed. Here, the author shows the injustice of it all, shows who the real victims are. What the protagonist takes us through are the two imperatives of preserving the feeling driven by simple compassion towards fellow humans and and the dictates of ambition for a successful journalism career, and further, the call of fame for the journalists involved and the companies they work for.

The books is an easy read, yet deceptively simple. Ultimately, it becomes a strong statement against social injustice driven by greed in the oil industry.

Naomi Benaron's "Running the Rift" Now Out

I am excited about the arrival in stores of this much-awaited award winner, "Running the Rift" by  Naomi Benaron.  Here is some information from Amazon:

Amazon Best Books of the Month, January 2012: No wonder Barbara Kingsolver awarded her 2010 Bellwether Prize, given biennially to an unpublished novel that confronts social issues, to Naomi Benaron's Running the Rift. In her coming-of-age story of young Tutsi Jean Patrick Nkuba, whose extraordinary gift for distance running lands him on the path to become his country's first medalist in track, one of history's most inconceivable chapters--the Rwandan genocide--becomes intensely personal. Out of a childhood marked by loss and overshadowed by mounting Hutu-Tutsi tensions, Jean Patrick draws the strength for grueling Olympic training and the courage to run his life's most crucial race--to save himself and his family. A vividly told tale with a memorable champion at its heart. --Mari Malcolm

Review

"An auspicious debut . . . Having worked extensively with genocide survivor groups in Rwanda, Benaron clearly acquired a very lucid sense of her characters' lives and of the horrors they endured. Her story tells, with compelling clarity, of Rwandan Tutsi youth, Jean Patrick Nkuba--who dreams of becoming Rwanda's first Olympic medalist. It's a dream he must postpone for more than a decade as the internecine savagery, Hutu vs. Tutsi, slaughters millions and derails the lives of countless others. While it would be counterintuitive to pronounce this a winning, feel-good story, there is something to be said for hope restored. And Naomi Benaron's characters say it well."—The Daily Beast

“In a finely crafted story of dreams, illusions, hard reality, and reaching the other side of fear, Benaron has bestowed upon the world a story that illuminates events on a national scale by showing their effects at the personal level.”—ForeWord Reviews

"Benaron accomplishes the improbable feat of wringing genuine loveliness from unspeakable horror . . . It is a testament to Benaron's skill that a novel about genocide . . . conveys so profoundly the joys of family, friendship, and community." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Awarded the prestigious Bellwether Prize for its treatment of compelling social issues, Benaron’s first novel is a gripping, frequently distressing portrait of destruction and ultimate redemption... Benaron sheds a crystalline beacon on an alarming episode in global history, and her charismatic protagonist leaves an indelible impression.”—Booklist

"First novelist Benaron, who has actively worked with refugee groups, won the 2010 Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction for this unflinching and beautifully crafted account of a people and their survival. In addition, she compellingly details the growth and rigorous training of a young athlete. . . Highly recommended; readers who loved Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner will appreciate."—Library Journal, starred review

"The politics will be familiar to those who have followed Africa’s crises (or seen Hotel Rwanda), but where Benaron shines is in her tender descriptions of Rwandan’s natural beauty and in her creation of Jean Patrick, a hero whose noble innocence and genuine human warmth are impossible not to love." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

 

 

African Awareness Week at University of British Columbia

MONDAY, JAN 16:

Opening Night: The Africa in UBC

High Commissioner of Lesotho in Canada and UBC alumna, Her Excellency Dr. Mathabo Tsepa, will address students, faculty, administration and the Vancouver community on the dire necessity of an African Studies Program and the role it will play in creating truly “international leaders” from UBC. The night will also include cultural performances by AAI members as well as the greater Vancouver African community.
Venue: Museum of Anthropology
Time: 6:00 - 7:30pm

TUESDAY, JAN 17:

Research In Africa

Two UBC professors will be presenting their research projects in Africa and speak on the unparalleled importance of Africa’s ecosystems
Venue: Global Lounge
Time: 12:00 - 1:30pm
Speakers:

Dr. Gary Bull, UBC Forestry

A representative from The Africa Forest Research Initiative on Conservation and Development (AFRICAD)

Two UBC professors will be presenting their research projects in Africa and speak on the unparalleled importance of Africa’s ecosystems.

Africa in film - The first grader

The inspiring true story of the struggles and triumphs of an 84 year old Kenyan fighting to receive elementary education

Venue: Global Lounge
Time: From 7:00pm - 9:00pm

WEDNESDAY, JAN 18:

Open a Book, Read Africa

World-renowned author and the 2011 Winner for the Caine Prize for African Literature will be speaking to two literature classes, AFST 351 and ENGL 224 about the state of the modern African literature in the world.
Venue: Marine Drive Ballroom
Time: 4:30 - 6:00pm
Keynote Speaker: NoViolet Bulawayo
NoViolet Bulawayo is the 2011 Winner for the Caine Prize for African Literature.

"NoViolet recently earned her MFA at Cornell University where her work has been recognized with a Truman Capote Fellowship. She currently teaches creative writing and composition at Cornell. NoViolet was born and raised in Zimbabwe. Some of her work includes Hitting Budapest, which has attributed to her literary accomplishments. Noviolet has graciously accepted to come to UBC and share her literary work and journey, not to mention the importance of African literature in western higher education. She will also offer words of inspiration to aspiring authors and African students on campus.

THURSDAY, JAN 19:

Revolution, African style

Venue: The Liu Institute
Time: 5:00 - 7:00pm

Guest Speakers:

Dr.Deborah Campbell, Journalism

Dr. Taylor Owen, Journalism

Two UBC professors will come together and speak on how the revolutions in North Africa this past spring have creatively connected social media and politics in an innovative and democratic manner.

Artistic Night: For the Love of Africa

An open mic night dedicated to celebrating Africa through slam poetry and other performances.

Venue: Abdul Ladha Centre
Time: From 7:30pm onwards
An open mic night dedicated to celebrating Africa through slam poetry and other artistic performances.

FRIDAY, JAN 20:

SIKILIZA

An Afro-fusion cultural night with performances, entertainment and a DJ playing music from the continent celebrating the end of a successful Conference Week.
Venue: International House
Time: 8:00pm onwards

:Closing Remarks:
By stressing Africa’s impact on western higher education, we hope that the university realizes the necessity of a stable African Studies Program. The presence of such notable speakers on campus shows that the University of British Columbia shows its continued dedication to follow through with the complete and justified ‘creation of global citizens.’