Geoffrey Philp: Meme

Showing posts with label Meme. Show all posts

August 10, 2012

The Lucky 7 Challenge: GARVEY'S GHOST

Andrew Blackman, author of Holloway Road, has invited me to take part in the Lucky 7 challenge, which involves publishing an extract from a current work-in-progress. I haven't done memes in a long time, but the name Lucky 7 has a ring to it that I like.

Now I wouldn't say that I'm superstitious about creativity because I've always advocated a workmanlike approach to writing: set a schedule and stick with it. But I also know that in the middle of what sometimes seems like an endless root canal (i.e. writing a novel) unless there is a spark, at the end of the day, all you have is numbness and blood. That's just how writing works-- a combination of work and magic.

And even then, the work may not be a commercial or critical success. Drop a penny in the well and walk away.

And begin the next project.

Well, sort of. My current work-in-progress is an outgrowth of my interest in the exoneration of Marcus Garvey, which so far has led to writing a children's book, Marcus and the Amazons, and a rewrite of my novel, A LOVE SONG FOR KATHRYN.

A few years ago, I sent it out to a few publishers and my agent at the time didn't have much luck placing it. The novel came back to me battered and bruised. I let it sleep in my boxes for a while and moved on to other things.

But Kathryn wouldn't let me go. She wanted her story to be told. And if I had to neglect my family, get up early in the morning or stay up late at night while running the online campaign, holding down a steady job, and making peace with my wife, then so be it.

She had 99 problems and my comfort wasn't one of them.

So, the novel has been reborn as GARVEY'S GHOST.

Set in Miami, Florida, GARVEY'S GHOST is the story of Kathryn Bailey's search for her missing daughter, Jasmine, who has run away to join an organization led by Russell Davenport, a charismatic speaker at empowerment seminars for Black women.

I won't say anything more. According the rules, I had to go to page 7, line 7 of my work-in-progress novel, and post the following 7 lines of prose.

I walked over to Jasmine's studio and knocked on the door. There was no answer, which was strange because she was a light sleeper. I decided to knock again, figuring she had been out late working on another political rally, even though I told her I didn't like her getting mixed up in politics. Maybe it's a hangover from by days as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, but I didn't like her being a "part of the world." But ever since the Obama campaign and now with the death of that young man, it has been one political cause after another.

Oh, there's one more rule for the meme. I have to tag 7 authors whose work-in-progress I'd like to see:

Like Andrew says, "No pressure." We're just keeping the gift in motion.

If I haven't included you, don't feel no way. Jump in--the water's is fine. But before you take off your bathing suit, link back to me so that I know where to go and read your work.

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Disclaimer of Endorsement

The documents posted on this Web site may contain hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links and pointers are provided for visitors' convenience. I do not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any linked information. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers to other Web sites or agencies is not intended to assign importance to those sites and the information contained therein, nor is it intended to endorse, recommend, or favor any views expressed, or commercial products or services offered on these outside sites, or the organizations sponsoring the sites, by trade name, trademark, manufacture, or otherwise.

Reference in this Web site to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the site's visitors, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by this blog.

April 5, 2011

21 Days/21 Poems: Prejudice

Half-Caste

Excuse me

standing on one leg

I'm half-caste

Explain yuself

wha yu mean

when yu say half-caste

yu mean when picasso

mix red an green

is a half-caste canvas/

explain yuself

wha yu mean

when yu say half-caste

yu mean when light an shadow

mix in de sky

is a half-caste weather/

well in dat case

england weather

nearly always half-caste

in fact some o dem cloud

half-caste till dem overcast

so spiteful dem dont want de sun pass

ah rass/

explain yuself

wha yu mean

when yu say half-caste

yu mean tchaikovsky

sit down at dah piano

an mix a black key

wid a white key

is a half-caste symphony/

Explain yuself

wha yu mean

Ah listening to yu wid de keen

half of mih ear

Ah lookin at yu wid de keen

half of mih eye

and when I'm introduced to yu

I'm sure you'll

understand

why I offer yu half-a-hand

an when I sleep at night

I close half-a-eye

consequently when I dream

I dream half-a-dream

an when moon begin to glow

I half-caste human being

cast half-a-shadow

but yu must come back tomorrow

wid de whole of yu eye

an de whole of yu ear

an de whole of yu mind

an I will tell yu

de other half

of my story

“Half-Caste” by John Agard.

In “Half-Caste,” John Agard reverses the idea of “miscegenation” to repudiate the notion that his so-called “half-caste” is unnatural. He reveals the fallacy by a process of reductio ad absurdum to demonstrate the limited viewpoint of those who would deny his humanity,” I half-caste human being/ cast half-a-shadow,” by a series of questions:

when yu say half-caste/

yu mean Tchaikovsky

sit down at dah piano

an mix a black key

wid a white key

is a half-caste symphony/

While it may seem as if the speaker in the poem is a victim of prejudice, by his repetition of the words, “Explain yuself,” he turns the question around so that it become a method to refute the racist epithet. By implication, the speaker fully embraces his identity with even a bit of humor, “Excuse me/ standing on one leg/I'm half-caste” for he is as natural as England’s “half caste” weather.

About John Agard

John Agard (born 21 June 1949 in British Guyana) is an Afro-Guyanese playwright, poet and children's writer, now living in the United Kingdom. Agard grew up in Georgetown, British Guyana. He would love to listen to cricket commentary on the radio and began making up his own, which led to a love of language. He went on to study English, French and Latin at A level, writing his first poetry when he was in the sixth-form. Leaving school in 1967 he taught the languages he had studied, and worked in a local library. He was also a sub-editor and feature writer for the Guyana Sunday Chronicle, publishing two books published whilst still in Guyana. His father settled in London and Agard moved to the UK with his partner Grace Nichols in 1977, settling in Ironbridge, Shropshire. He worked for the Commonwealth Institute and the BBC in London. His awards include the Paul Hamlyn Award for Poetry in 1997 and the Cholmondeley Award in 2004. Agard was Poet-in-Residence at the National Maritime Museum in 2008. His poem "Half Caste" has been featured in the AQA English GCSE anthology since 2002, meaning that many GCSE students (Aged 14 – 16) study his work for their GCSE English qualification. Agard now lives in Lewes, East Sussex.

Source: Wikipedia

Photo: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/library/2007/10/poet_in_residence.html

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21 Days/21 Poems: Prejudice

April 2, 2011

21 Days/21 Poems: "Saturday Mornings" by Malachi

Saturday Mornings

We trekked one by one

Up sharp stone paths

Through devil wisp

And serpent valley

Every Saturday morning

To gather fire wood

In the St. Catherine mountains

Every boy, over seven

Climbed the mountains

With machete in hand

Making songs, some so long ago

That they became “Big Boy stories”

That kept us laughing through

Macka juk

For we couldn’t afford

Shoes then.

But that didn’t stop us

From climbing mountain peaks

And ketch Massa Gaad a sleep.

“Saturday Mornings” by Malachi

Photo: Ian Gage

About Malachi

Malachi was a James Michener Fellow at the University of Miami’s Caribbean Writer’s Institute, where he studied poetry under Lorna Goodison and playwriting under Fred D’Aguiar. An alumnus of Florida International University, Miami-Dade College and Jamaica School of Drama, Malachi was one of the founding members of Poets In Unity, a critically acclaimed ensemble that brought dub-poetry to the forefront of reggae music in the late 70s and carried it forward for a decade. Malachi has also performed as an actor, and is an accomplished writer, publishing and performing his own plays and poetry. He has also garnered critical attention for his performances in other theatrical productions and on radio, television, and live theatre.

In 2005, he headlined the International Dub-Poetry Festival in Toronto and he performed at the Love-In Festival in Miami with Richie Heavens and other greats. In 2003, Malachi was a featured performer in Baltimore at that city’s Black History Month tribute to Bob Marley, and at the Manhattan Center in New York. He has also appeared at the prestigious Broward Center of the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He has performed scheduled for the African-Can-Do Festival in Miami on July 26, and also appeared at the Jerk Festival at Markham Park on November 14, 2010. He toured St. Kitts and Nevis in the summer of 2000 to rave reviews.

Malachi has five CD collections to his credit: “Throw Two Punch,” “The Blacker the Berry,” “Middle Passage,” “Luv Dub Fever,” and his latest, “Hail to Jamaica.” He has published one volume of poetry “Black Boy Blue.” Malachi’s poetry has been published in anthologies including: Wheel and Come Again: An Anthology of Reggae Poetry, The Caribbean Writer, The Carrier-Pidgin Journal, and Write in Our Midst. Award winning plays are “Crosses” and “Until Death us do Part.”

For more on Malachi:

www.malachismith.com

www.reggaeconcepts.com dub poetry

www.cdbaby.com/malachimusic

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21 Days/21 Poems: Childhood

April 1, 2011

21 Days/21 Poems: "Flight of the Poui Carpet" by Andrea Shaw

Flight of the Poui Carpet

Yellow fairy blossoms swirl

giggling as they glide

over rooftops and cars,

swoop through branches

and tease birds--

they kiss the grass ,

then frolic all morning.

A spring carpet of fairies.

In Benghazi and Misrata, Bin Jawad and Ajdabiya,

bullets pierce the skies,

screaming past a little boy eating bazin,

a girl eating asida,

hailing an Arab spring .

No magic carpet to whisk them away.

“Flight of the Poui Carpet” by Andrea Shaw

About Andrea Shaw:

Andrea Shaw is assistant director of the Division of Humanities and an associate professor of English at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale . She is a scholar of Caribbean and African Diaspora studies and author of The Embodiment of Disobedience: Fat Black Women's Unruly Political Bodies. She is also a creative writer. Her creative and scholarly writing have been published in numerous journals, including World Literature Today, MaComére, The Caribbean Writer, Crab Orchard Review, Feminist Media Studies, Social Semiotics, and FEMSPEC.She graduated from the University of Miami with a Ph.D. in English and from Florida International University with an M.F.A in creative writing. She is on the editorial board of Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal and on the board of the Women’s International Film Festival. She and her husband, Dean Nevins, are owners of Irie Isle Jamaican Restaurant.

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21 Days/21 Poems: Childhood

21 Days/ 21 Poems: Childhood

Instamatic

And here's Catherine

at sixteen months

barely above ground

and yet

so sky-inclined

Daddy, hustling, must yield

to her insistent ‘Bird! Bird!’

or ‘Plane!’or

‘Moon!’ her innocence

sanctifies

object and word.

She grows fast

like us to hustle time

to lose

her skywardness.

"Instamatic," by Edward Baugh. A Tale From the Rainforest, Sandberry Press, Kingston, Jamaica, 1988.

When I first read “Instamatic” in The Daily Gleaner (I had a clipped copy until a few years ago), I was awed by the simplicity and power of the lyric. In a few lines, Baugh captures the innocence of the child, “Daddy, hustling, must yield/ to her insistent ‘Bird! Bird!’/ or ‘Plane!’ and the love of the father, “her innocence/sanctifies/ object and word.” There is also a careful balancing of the words “hustle,” “sky-inclined,” and “skywardness” and the playful use of long and short vowels to contrast the point of view of the father and the child.

“Instamatic” was one of those poems that I kept in memory during the formative years of my children, and it made me appreciate even more their sheer delight and wonder of the world.

Photo: Book Industry Association of Jamaica

Edward Alston Cecil Baugh (born 10 January 1936) is a Jamaican poet and scholar, recognised as an authority on the work of Derek Walcott.

He was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, and began writing poetry at Titchfield High School. He won a scholarship to study English literature at the University College of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, and later did his postgraduate studies at Queen's University in Ontario and the University of Manchester, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1964. He taught at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies from 1965 to 1967, then at the university's Mona campus from 1968 to 2001, eventually being appointed professor of English in 1978 and public orator in 1985.

Source: Wikipedia

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March 30, 2011

21 Days/ 21 Poems: National Poetry Month

I, too, like memes, Blah Blah Blog. So, for National Poetry Month, I’ve repurposed 25 Days/ 25 Poems to 21 Days/ 21 Poems: One poem per day with a short paragraph about why you picked it.

A poem about childhood

A poem about motherhood

A poem about prejudice

A poem about a commonplace object/thing

An erotic poem

A Recent Memorable Poem

A poem that you’ve recited to someone, you wish someone would recite to you, someone has recited to you, you’ve sent to someone in an email/letter or was sent to you in a letter/email.

A poem about fatherhood

A poem that made you feel closer to the divine

A poem about place

A poem that gains meaning every time you’ve read it

A poem that you would want to recite to your children

A poem that made you want to write a poem

A poem about AIDS
A poem you wished you could have written
An elegy

A poem about ancestors/inheritance

A love poem

A Praise Poem

A poem that made you feel hopeful

A poem about a body part

I’ve only posted 21 poems because I assume my readers are decent people who do not think poetry is life and will take a break over the weekends.

If you’d like to join, link back to this post (or leave a comment here) and I’ll try my best to pop over to your site.

Until then, enjoy National Poetry Month.

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Update: 4/1/2011

I will also be broadening the scope of the blog for this month to include poets who were not lucky enough to be born in the Caribbean. But only for this month!

August 4, 2010

Inception, Dreams, and Caribbean Culture

Over the weekend, my family and I went to see Inception and like Don Florio at the end of the movie, I was forced to ask: Was this all a dream? Whose dream?”

This is not to say I disliked Inception. Compared to Memento, one of Christopher Nolan’s earlier films, Inception is a further exploration of “the ways memory, identity and narrative shape our lived reality.” And like its first cousins, Blade Runner and The Matrix, Inception has already yielded several differing interpretations, including a Buddhist analysis of the film.

In this sci-fi thriller, Nolan has found a clever way to illustrate how ideas (memes) can either help or hurt us.

The plot revolves around Dominic Cobb (Leonardo di Caprio), a dream “extractor,” and his attempt to infiltrate the subconscious of Robert Fischer, (Cillian Murphy), heir to his father’s business empire. But instead of extracting information from his target, Cobb’s client, Saito (Ken Watanabe), requests a different strategy. Saito wants a meme to be placed in Fischer’s subconscious—an idea that will ultimately lead to the dissolution of his father’s business empire. Cobb assembles a team of dream architects and doctors to carry out their plan, which involves creating dreams within dreams on varying levels.

That’s just the first thirty minutes of the thrill ride.

And although the plot is muddled by an overreliance on mimesis, Inception left me, as a creator of memes within Caribbean writing, with more questions than I could answer.

Which, I suspect, was the point of the film?

Inception is the act of invading someone's dreams for the sole purpose of planting an idea. It is the opposite of extraction, which is the process by which one gathers important information from the subject’s subconscious. Inception is thought by some to be impossible because the inceptee's mind has an uncanny ability to trace the planted idea back to the person who planted it. For example, if someone tells you “Don’t think about elephants,” you may think of elephants, but this fails as inception because the originator—the person who ordered you not to think about elephants—can be traced as the source too easily.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2010/07/25-questions-can-you-enjoy-inception-if-youre-not-very-smart.html

“What is the most contagious parasite?”

What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? Virus? Intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient and highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold in the brain, it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed, fully understood, that sticks. [pointing to his forehead] Right in there somewhere.

An idea is like a virus...the smallest seed of an idea can grow to define, or even destroy you.”

This section of dialogue is the one that stuck with me the most and it made me realize that human beings are biological and spiritual memeplexes. Our health or lack depends upon surveillance of the memes we take into our minds and bodies. The journalist, John Maxwell, once compared the free press to the "central nervous system of the body politic" and I believe writers and artists fulfill the same function.

Kwame Dawes likes to say, "All memory is fiction," and I agree. History, literature, songs are all forms of memory--complex memes about who we are, where we came from, and where we are going.

Caribbean history, literature, and music are filled with memes, some of which have helped us and some that have hurt us. The most damaging meme, which has been perpetuated by writers such as VS Naipaul, is that the Caribbean is populated by uncreative, barbaric people who are less than human and are destined for failure.

Luckily, we have had many other writers to counter Naipaul's poison with memes that continue to define us:

Marcus Garvey: New World Africans have fallen asleep in their former masters’ dreams and have forgotten the nobility of their ancestry. This has led to all kinds of behaviors that are not only harmful to our bodies, but also to our minds and spirits. Garvey urged, ‘Rise, ye mighty people!”

Derek Walcott: The beauty of the Caribbean should be celebrated in the same way that the landcapes in Greek, Roman, and British literature have been portrayed. The grandeur of Walcott’s diction (some would say “florid”) exemplifies his desire to honor people, who despite the tragedies of history, lead heroic lives.

Kamau Brathwaite: The history and literature of New World Africans began in West Africa. The roots of the music, language, rites, and mythology can be traced back to this rich heritage. His video Sycorax style is a visual representation and reclamation of an aural tradition.

Lorna Goodison: Caribbean women are strong and resilient. This strength comes from the stories women have told each other while sewing their children's clothes, cooking a meal, growing a garden or burying their loved ones. Goodison’s compassion is woven into the fabric of stories passed from hand to mouth and mouth to hand.

Cobb: "I will split up my father's empire.” Now, this is obviously an idea that Robert himself will choose to reject. Which is why we need to plant it deep in his subconscious. The subconscious is motivated by emotion, right? not reason. Which is why we need to find a way to translate this into an emotional concept.

Arthur: How do you translate a business strategy into an emotion?

Cobb: That's what we're going to figure out. Fischer's relationship with his father is stressed to say the least.

Eames: Can we run with that? We could suggest breaking up the company as a "screw you" to the old man.

Cobb: No, because I think positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time. We all yearn for reconciliation. For catharsis. We need Robert Fischer to have a positive emotional reaction to all this.

Eames: Well, why don't we try this? "My father accepts that I want to create for myself, not follow in his footsteps."

Cobb: That might work.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Inception_(film)#Dialogue

Memes work when a “positive emotion trumps negative emotion.” This is where the work of singer/ songwriter such as Bob Marley transforms a culture. The Wailers uprooted many negative memes in pop culture and gave us memes to which we could dance. Songs by the Wailers were almost like the spiritual practice of affirmations and renunciations whose aim is to bring about psychic wholeness: “Now you see the light/ Stand up for your right!”

Bob Marley: InI is a man/son of the Most High Jah Rastafari in whose image/likeness InI have been created. InI claim I birthright in the face of Babylon: “Wake up and Live!”

Contrast Marley's meme to the meme that was introduced during slavery. Stripped of their humanity by coercion, New World Africans accepted these memes as self-definitions:

I am man because of the many children I have sired.
I am a woman because of the many children to whom I have give birth.

Compare this to the dancehall meme:

I am a man because of my sexual prowess.
I am a woman because of my sexual prowess.

I don’t see much difference between the slavery meme and the dancehall meme. Do you?

“Your mind is the scene of the crime.”

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Inception_(film)

Whose dream are you living?

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May 12, 2009

Help Global Voices Advocacy win $3000 by Writing One Post

“I vote for Global Voices Advocacy, because it is a remarkable aggregator that brings bloggers from around the world together and allows us to see multiple perspectives on issues such as online censorship that affect the global community."

Now it's your turn. I 'm tagging:

Rethabile
JDID
Fragano
Jamaican Dawta
Labrish
Stephen

And if you've read this and care about online censorship, you're tagged!
Go forth and spread the gospel!

clipped from globalvoicesonline.org

Help Global Voices Advocacy win $3000 by writing one post

clipped from globalvoicesonline.org

Help Global Voices Advocacy win $3000! The prize money would help us continue to raise awareness of attacks on online freedom of speech, and share tools and tactics with activists and bloggers facing censorship on different parts of the globe. All you have to do is write a post in your own blog, including the following text…

“I vote for Global Voices Advocacy, because… (put your own words here).

This blog post is part of Zemanta's “Blogging For a Cause” (http://www.zemanta.com/bloggingforacause/) campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.

The deadline is JUNE 6, 2009.

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Geoffrey Philp’s Blog Spot receives a percentage of the purchase price on anything you buy through links to Amazon, Shambala Books, Hay House, or any of the Google ads or Google Custom Search.

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The documents posted on this Web site may contain hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links and pointers are provided for visitors' convenience. We do not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any linked information. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers to other Web sites or agencies is not intended to assign importance to those sites and the information contained therein, nor is it intended to endorse, recommend, or favor any views expressed, or commercial products or services offered on these outside sites, or the organizations sponsoring the sites, by trade name, trademark, manufacture, or otherwise. Reference in this Web site to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the site's visitors, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by this blog.

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