M in Urhalpool: 2 poems

Two poems from Mendi in Urhalpool, contemporary Bengali-English bilingual webzine: "Protest Poem" & "Fifteen".





Painting by Monica Araoz

Thinking about Haiti

I am thinking about Haiti, sending love to the people and hoping they get what they need to push forward. I'm writing in to post a link to this essay by our friend Ferentz Lafargue in Next American City: The Meaning of Progress: Thoughts on Haiti's Disaster. It ends with a list of large and small organizations through which you can donate to the relief efforts and to other, ongoing efforts to strengthen Haiti. I'm reposting that list here, but encourage you to check out the essay as well.

from Ferentz:

"If you are looking to help here are two things to consider:

(1) There are numerous organizations that are providing immediate relief in Haiti. A short list includes Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, Mercy Corps and the Red Cross. Donate $10 to the Red Cross to be charged to your cell phone bill by texting “HAITI” to “90999.”

(2) Without discouraging anyone from making a donation to the above disaster relief organizations, I encourage everyone to also think about smaller organizations that are also working in Haiti and which might have suffered significant damages. It is critical that we also keep these organizations up and running so that they can not only help with disaster efforts, but also do the work that they have been doing for years. Two such organizations include: Lambi Fund and Yele Haiti. A third is Haiti Soleil, a organization on whose board I serve. "

Mendi+Keith songs on youtube

from The Sour Thunder: Blue Jasper

The Sour Thunder blends science fiction and autobiography with pop music, new music, and a theatrical bi-lingual text (English and Spanish), creating a personal and surreal tale of cultural and racial identity. Commissioned by the Yale University Cabaret, the premiere of The Sour Thunder took place in two separate venues simultaneously, with images and sound streamed from both venues to the web. The CD recording of The Sour Thunder is a studio performance with all instrumentals and vocals performed by the Mendi + Keith Obadike. The Sour Thunder takes place as Mendi is traveling with a friend to study Afro-Dominican culture and Caribbean literature in the Dominican Republic. While Mendi's story is told, another story simultaneously takes place in Solaika Dast, a state where scent is the primary means of communication. From Solaika Dast, Sesom is sent to a new world where her sensibilities take on new meanings. While some pieces clearly tell Sesom's story, or Mendi's, others fit squarely in the nexus between the two. Musically, The Sour Thunder is told through a series of 23 sound-text pieces and songs. The textures that make up "The Sour Thunder" were created using digitally treated hollow body guitars, Nigerian mbiras, field recordings of environmental sounds, and electronically processed vocals.
get the song from iTunes
get the song from Amazon
get the ringtone

from DOCUMENT: If the Heavens Don't Hear, the Earth Will Hear

The song titles come from an English translation of an Igbo proverb: "Si kele onye nti chiri; enu anughi, ala anu." ("Salute the deaf: If the heavens don't hear, the earth will hear.") We have been mulling over the different choices our predecessors have made in the presentation of their lives and work. We note how much Marian Anderson holds back as she tells her life story in her autobiography My Lord, What A Morning, and conversely, how much Audre Lorde puts forth in her biomythography Zami, A New Spelling of My Name and other works, and Marlon Riggs put forth in his documentaries. We place these praisesongs together because we want to recognize that while their choices may be perceived as contradictory, all of their choices were political, and all of them were made as part of an effor to move us forward.

• youtube: If the Heavens Don't Hear (A Roller Skating Jam for Marian Anderson)
• youtube: If the Heavens Don't Hear (A Roller Skating Jam for Marian Anderson) // Gordon Voidwell Remix
• youtube: The Earth Will Hear (for Audre Lorde and Marlon Riggs)
• free download

Jan 20: Mendi reads in Brooklyn w/ Cave Canem and Kundiman

January 20, 7 pm
Cave Canem & Kundiman Poets Read

Cave Canem and Kundiman present an evening of poetry in Cave Canem's new DUMBO loft-space, featuring readers Regie Cabico, Jacqueline Jones LaMon, Tan Lin and Mendi Obadike. Book signing and reception to follow. Recommended admission $5-$10 to benefit Cave Canem.

20 Jay Street/Suite 310-A
Brooklyn, NY

Big Ups (NAACP Image Awards)

I just heard that our friends and fellow Cave Canem poetry fellows Adrian Matejka, Camille Dungy, Mitchell Douglas, and Dwayne Betts were nominated for the NAACP Image Awards for literature this year. Big ups, y'all!

M

February 26: Mendi Obadike reads in Brooklyn

come through. M *****

Stain Poetry Series :: Hosted by Amy King and Ana Božičević

Friday, February 26 @ 7 p.m. – Goodbye Blue Monday – Bushwick, Brooklyn

1087 Broadway
(corner of Dodworth St)
Brooklyn, NY 11221-3013
(718) 453-6343

J M Z trains to Myrtle Ave
or J train to Kosciusko St

with

Mendi Lewis Obadike makes literature, art, and music. She is the author of Armor and Flesh: poems. She composed the The Sour Thunder, an Internet Opera and produced the audio anthology Crosstalk: American Speech Music with Keith Obadike. Her conceptual media artworks with Keith have been exhibited at the Whitney Museum, the New Museum, and Electronic Arts Intermix and the New York African Film Festival, among other institutions. M+K’s opera-masquerade Four Electric Ghosts debuted at The Kitchen in May 2009. Mendi is an Assistant Professor in Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute.

Jillian Brall received both her BA in Creative Writing in 2004 and her MFA in Poetry in 2009 from The New School, in New York, NY. She is a NYC certified Teaching Artist, currently living in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. She recently published a book of poems, Wet Information, under ZoeWo Press. She is also a saxophonist and visual artist, focusing on mixed media collage and painting. Several of her collages can be seen in the current issue of Pax Americana, as well as featured on The Best American Poetry Blog, and have been used as cover art for several electronic poetry books published by Scantily Clad Press. Prints of her collages, as well as copies of her book, Wet Information, are available for purchase at http://www.zoewopress.etsy.com.

~

R. Erica Doyle

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Steve Langan is the author of Meet Me at the Happy Bar (BlazeVOX, 2009), Freezing, and Notes on Exile and Other Poems. He lives in Omaha and on Cliff Island, Maine.

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Janaka Stucky is practicing the perfection of effort while working on silent relationships with knives, hairpins, & a history of tentacles. Other passions include whiskey and pugilism. He is also the Publisher of Black Ocean and its literary magazine, Handsome, and the author of Your Name Is The Only Freedom (Brave Men Press). Some of his poems have appeared in Cannibal, Denver Quarterly, Fence, Free Verse, No Tell Motel, North American Review, Redivider and VOLT.

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Healing Waters Productions

We wanted to post a link to this great resource for anyone interested in health and performance. Healing Water Productions, headed by Cynthia Harris, does theatrical performances and workshops on black women's mental and physical wellness. Here is the latest post: Is Your Family Safe for Women and Girls?

Nicole Mitchell’s Truth or Dare @ The Stone (1/2/10)

About a year ago I was at a party and had the good fortune to sit down next to Nicole Mitchell and Kiran Ahluwalia. We had a long, interesting conversation about our respective creative processes, and happily discovered that Nicole was in an orchestra (Chicago Sinfonietta) that was about to play some work that Kiran had composed. Nicole was also going to play at the Stone that week and we had tried to come see her, but weren't able to make it.

It took a year to see Nicole play but we finally caught her at the Stone Saturday night. This time she was on the bill as "Nicole Mitchell’s Truth or Dare" (Nicole Mitchell with Renee Baker and Shirazette Tinnin). I'm going to have to take some time to process what I heard and recollect all the places my mind traveled, but I have to say right now that they set the place on fire. Each artist had her own funk. It was great to hear three creative musicians with distinctive, but complementary styles play with such force and at the same time such generosity towards one another. And it was great to feel my mind stretch as it did to hear their sounds, to be surprised in the ways that I was, and at the same time to feel such a recognizable flavor. The music felt good; the music pushed me, too. Walking home in the cold, cold, cold night, Keith and I were light on our feet, so thrilled to have seen and heard what we saw and heard. YesYes.

Truth or Dare. This image is from Feast of Music.
The one above is from JazzChicago