Black Looks

• James Baldwin “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”

  Posted: August 31, 2010, 6:35 pm by Sokari

  “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” – I learned a great deal from James Baldwin and haven’t written as much as I had planned. But I read and read. On my bedside table I have copies of Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time. I randomly opened the latter with [...]

• James Baldwin 8 : Who is the Nigger? or Reclaiming the Dream 2010

  Posted: August 31, 2010, 8:21 am by Sokari

  A short clip from “Take This Hammer” in which Baldwin throws the “nigger” back at whiteness who invented him in the first place. Very pertinent in these moments of escalating right wing anti-Muslim hatred – a hatred invented to fill a void of hate that must always be full. Without hate there is [...]

• Reclaiming the bones: The African Cemetery on Higgs Beach, Key West

  Posted: August 30, 2010, 5:00 pm by Sokari

  Last week I went to Key West – the southern most tip of the US and part of the Florida Keys.   The Keys are a series of small islands joined together by bridges and causeways.   I had heard nothing but good things about them especially Key West which was home to Tenneesee Williams [...]

• Tweets of the Week

  Posted: August 28, 2010, 11:00 pm by Sokari

  Went 2 #memorial 4 some of these young #Africans who died after bing rescued off #KeyWest #AfricanCemetary #Slavery http://bit.ly/9CsLWG # The Press Institute hiring women frm 22 counries for #journalism training http://bit.ly/bOoL0q # Burning of #Koran has 1 purpose which is 2 provoke acts of violence. These ppl are vile full of hate # Please [...]

• “First Love,” by Geoffrey Philp

  Posted: August 28, 2010, 8:21 am by Rethabile

  Mark watched Patrick as he entered the showers and wondered how it would feel to have Patrick’s arm around his waist and the ripple of his thighs against his buttocks. For two weeks now that was all he could think about every time they took the long walk from Manning Cup football [...]

• James Baldwin 7: In search of the self

  Posted: August 27, 2010, 7:14 pm by Sokari

  After spending the past few weeks reading and listening to snippets of James Baldwin I have come to the conclusion that much of his writing was concerned with the search for himself and his people. By trying to understand himself, who he is he would be able to understand the core of America [...]

• LGBTI activism in Kenya & strategies of intervention

  Posted: August 26, 2010, 7:47 pm by Sokari

  Keguro Macharia provides an historical overview of LGBTI activism in Kenya which he states has taken place through “a strategy of association rather than an articulation of identity” specifically through health work and activism around HIV/AIDs. However as he points out this strategy has it’s problems… By allying themselves to health work and activism around [...]

• All Africa bishops in Entebbe

  Posted: August 25, 2010, 5:17 pm by Sokari

  The meeting of African Bishops in Entebbe, Uganda has not surprisingly, been used to reaffirm the church’s homophobic stance. The bishops spoke about “African Values” and “alien beliefs”. Since the rights of LGBTI people are being denied this implies that the notion of ‘human rights’ is not part of [...]

• Charissa Granger and the musical possibilities of the steelpan

  Posted: August 23, 2010, 8:11 pm by Sokari

  I first heard Charissa Granger on a short video someone had posted on FaceBook. She was playing a soft haunting melody called Raindrops which was made even more interesting because she was playing the tune on the steel pan. The steel pan is an instrument we associate with the Caribbean and the sounds of Calypso [...]

• Music on Sunday 3: James Baldwin loves Freddie Freeloader

  Posted: August 22, 2010, 8:06 pm by Sokari

  Baldwin mentioned he loved music and somehow I can imagine him listening to this version of “Freddie Freedloader” played here by: Miles davis – Trumpet Julian “Cannonball” Adderley – Alto Saxophone John Coltrane – Tenor Saxophone Wynton Kelly – Piano Bill Evans – Piano Paul Chambers – Bass Jimmy Cobb – Drums

• Tweets of the Week

  Posted: August 21, 2010, 11:00 pm by Sokari

  At some point you have to take what you've got and make the best of that. #MacyGray #Sellout love this song love this voice # #Macy_Gray on #sexism and ageism in the music industry # #Itsekiri women protest at #Escravos #Chevron #Warri #NigerDelta http://bit.ly/cCnM68 # #AfroPermedHairWhoTheHeckReallyCares #IamPanAfrikan #JillScott # #Nigeria classified http://bit.ly/9qcWAi [...]

• Thematic axes for WSF 2010 in Dakar

  Posted: August 20, 2010, 10:02 pm by Sokari

  The Organizing Committee of Dakar 2011 has launched a public consultation on the thematic axes for the WSF 2011. The idea is to finalize the axes that have been constructed since 2005 and proposed after the preparatory seminar held in Dakar from 27-29 July 2010. PLEASE CIRCULATE AND RETWEET The main goals of the axes are [...]

• James Baldwin quote

  Posted: August 20, 2010, 8:46 am by Rethabile

  The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose. ~James Baldwin

• Sappho Islands: LGBTI bar opens in Kampala

  Posted: August 19, 2010, 4:36 pm by Sokari

  Strength comes out of struggle and Uganda’s Kuchu community now have an open space where they can gather together and just share their lives. Val Kalende of FARUG explains the importance of Sappho Islands to the community in Kampala….. I have lived among LGBT communities for the past eight years and I know how much having [...]

• James Baldwin 5: Mysterious Circumstances

  Posted: August 17, 2010, 11:51 pm by Sokari

  ARRIVAL OF JAMES BALDWIN; MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES by Claire Burch Ever since I was eighteen, James Baldwin had been giving me orders. While still alive he came as Skyboss. Since he has died he is just himself. Now he is ordering me to read some of my variations on the Gettysburg Address. Foursore and many tears ago our forefathers brought forth on this incontinent a [...]

• “Gay” rights around the world – Somaliland’s gay president

  Posted: August 17, 2010, 5:37 pm by Sokari

  A short film on LGBTI rights [I wish the media would stop conflating LGBTI / Queer rights/ people into "Gay" a single one gay identity] Post on Somaliland president removed as it turns out its not true.

• South African HIV Prevention Gel may put Black lives at risk

  Posted: August 17, 2010, 4:03 pm by Sokari

  How safe is the “miracle HIV Prevention Gel” announced at the recent World AIDS conference in Vienna? The vaginal gel produced in South Africa is supposed to reduce a woman’s chances of HIV contraction by as much as 39% and reduce chances of Herpes infection by 51%. Quite staggering claims. However [...]

• The Spine

  Posted: August 16, 2010, 7:25 pm by Rethabile

  To a rock that towers above it and whose shadow it loves, thread is what spine is to brain, what tail squirts into sperm-head, how or why a tee braces a golf ball for that final, thwacking blow, what a child means to a parent, never caring how words come out as we didn’t the colour of rope used to pull us up the [...]

• James Baldwin 6: Beyond LGB

  Posted: August 16, 2010, 4:11 pm by Mia Nikasimo

  Via Baobab Graphics As an African seeing James Baldwin’s “Price of the Ticket” fired a life long interest in gender politics in me. Since then I have read Baldwin’s “Go tell it to the Mountain,” “Giovanni’s Room” and “Fire The Next Time” which explore issues of sexuality, race and spirituality. In “Go Tell It To The Mountain,” the unfortunate plight of [...]

• Conference on African Same-Sex Sexualities & Gender Diversity

  Posted: August 16, 2010, 2:07 pm by Sokari

  CALL FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS FOR THE CONFERENCE:AFRICAN SAME-SEX SEXUALITIES AND GENDER DIVERSITY: PRACTICES, IDENTITIES AND COMMUNITIES. Pretoria, South Africa, February 13-16, 2011 Conference objectives: • To promote understanding and further study of male and female same-sex sexual practices, identities and communities, including expressions of gender diversity, in Sub-Saharan Africa. • To promote understanding of social [...]

• Death of a Jazz Singer: Abbey Lincoln

  Posted: August 15, 2010, 9:52 pm by Sokari

  Just found this and felt it deserved more than a Tweet to be lost forever in Twitter-spheres short term memory. Abbey Lincoln, Jazz Singer and Writer, Dies at 80 Abbey Lincoln, a singer whose dramatic vocal command and tersely poetic songs made her a singular figure in jazz, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 80 and lived on [...]

• Music on Sunday 2: Lena Horne

  Posted: August 15, 2010, 7:28 pm by Sokari

  Lena Horne was a friend to James Baldwin – here she is on the Rosie O’Donnell show celebrating her 80th birthday – she lived for another 12 years. I hope I look this good on my 80th

• Tweets of the Week

  Posted: August 14, 2010, 11:00 pm by Sokari

  A mango adventure by one woman and 3 kids http://twitpic.com/2egcg2 # Christine Ehlers reinstated and given compensation #SouthAfrica #Transwoman #LGBTI http://bit.ly/95S4ja # Victory for #SouthAfrican #transwoman http://bit.ly/cLxMvr & # #FF best in jazz @elementsofJazz – #nigeria @freetalkblog @uzoagu documenting #HIV in US @livingquilt, @owlasylum @ungaro @ @mobileactive # ♥ The Music Inside by Chuck Loeb #lastfm [...]

• Haiti: Bwa Kayiman – the night of the revolution

  Posted: August 14, 2010, 6:18 pm by Sokari

  On the night of 13/14th August 1791 a meeting and voudou ceremony took place at the foot of the mountains just outside what is now Cap Haitian. The purpose of the ceremony was a call for action, a call for the revolution which would lead to Haiti becoming the first Black Republic. One [...]

• Sexual violence at the Limpopo River

  Posted: August 13, 2010, 9:59 pm by Sokari

  Armed gangs operating on the South African side of the Zimbabwe/SA borders are terrorizing women young girls and men. If there are men crossing they are forced to rape other members of the group. After raping the women are stripped and tied up on the side of the road. So far this year [...]

• Hope: Nigeria at Independence

  Posted: August 13, 2010, 6:56 pm by Sokari

• Remembering Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine

  Posted: August 12, 2010, 6:04 pm by Sokari

  Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is an internationally respected Haitian human rights activist who disappeared on the evening of 12 August 2007 after meeting a US-Canadian human rights delegation in Port-au-Prince. We are acutely aware of the suffering, hardship and heartbreak Lovinsky’s disappearance has meant for his family and other loved ones, as well as of the anger [...]

• We need to shine the light in the dark corners of our cultures

  Posted: August 11, 2010, 10:30 pm by Sokari

  I always find that when it comes to romanticising African traditions, it is generally men who are at the forefront of calls to return to the “old ways” whilst women and young girls are the ones who suffer the brutality of some practices such as forced marriage, child marriage and female circumcision. South African [...]

• James Baldwin 4: Freedom & Choice

  Posted: August 10, 2010, 7:00 pm by Sokari

  I asked a few of my blogger friends to write something on James Baldwin – so far only Keguro has responded and I thank him dearly for writing this piece. Keguro speaks of Baldwin’s clarity and ability to “see into us” a “Too-frightening clarity”. I have watched him over and over and [...]

• Halfcast, half white, half black for fucks sake I’m Nigerian –

  Posted: August 9, 2010, 4:57 pm by Sokari

• Chosen Few @ Gay Games 2010

  Posted: August 8, 2010, 12:00 pm by Sokari

  // PLEASE CHANGE DEFAULT EXCERPT HANDLING TO CLEAN OR FULL (go to your Wordpress Dashboard/Settings/Cincopa Options ... cp_load_widget("%5Bcincopa+10700226%5D", "_cp_widget_4c68125662c98"); Click here to open the gallery.Powered by Cincopa wp content plugins solution for your website and Cincopa MediaSend for file transfer. Photographs by Zanele Muholi ©

• Tweets of the Week

  Posted: August 7, 2010, 11:00 pm by Sokari

  #Afghans are so stupid they dont know how important their country is & cannot help themselves- http://bit.ly/b6Z5bX # Guardian reports on #Afghanistan show how pointless this war is http://bit.ly/b6Z5bX # RT @UzoAgu Is China exporting prisoners to poor countries?: Yes. According to (cont) http://tl.gd/2... Is there proof? # how did #obama come about calling Black people [...]

• Unforgotten Faces – Acknowledging Black Womyn of South Africa

  Posted: August 6, 2010, 6:50 pm by Zanele Muholi

  Busisiwe Sigasa For Artscape Women’s Festival 2010, Zanele Muholi and Ellen Eisenman have produced a collection of photographs that celebrate women’s lives. They recognize and honor the living as well as those who have left the planet. And they question, why does society allow some to be taken away so early and with such violence? These [...]

• James Baldwin “My entry into America is a bill of sale”

  Posted: August 6, 2010, 4:13 pm by Sokari

  I’ve been watching videos of James Baldwin to the point where I find myself reading in his unique voice. The film, “Baldwn’s Nigger”, is a powerful film shot in London at the West Indian Student center in 1969 by Horace Ove. Again Baldwin refers to the concept of distance. In this instance [...]

• “Colonial Sodomy”: Homophobic laws in historical context

  Posted: August 5, 2010, 7:06 pm by Sokari

  “Colonial Sodomy: Homophobic threat within common law” provides a detailed explanation of the origin of colonial “anti-sodomy” legislation and the ways in which these were incorporated and reshaped into the post-independence penal codes. Significant differences in the colonial laws of the former British colonies and Francophone countries are due to the absence of [...]

• Oni Ise Owo: Animated short by Kenneth Coker:

  Posted: August 5, 2010, 5:52 pm by Sokari

  Video produced by Kenneth Coker “Oni Ise Owo” [I am told this means "artisan" in Yoruba] and set to music by Tinariwen. I’ve watched it over and over and I am still trying to understand what is being said. Definitely there is a tension and a crisis possibly between the city where the [...]

• James Baldwin “There are no moral distances”

  Posted: August 3, 2010, 2:40 pm by Sokari

  “Take This Hammer” is a documentary following James Baldwin on a visit to San Francisco in 1963. The film begins with a group of young men being interviewed on racism in the city. Here the white man is not taking you down in public like in the south but he is nonetheless [...]

• Augmentative

  Posted: August 3, 2010, 4:54 am by Mia Nikasimo

  Lashes of uncontrollable Saliva flies everywhere, Bloodshot eyes brimming A fire all their own. You Harden as anger assails: ‘I’ve watched you all day,’ You offer in a throwaway ‘You said alot I do not agree with. Stop there!’ Leaving me fighting for Dear composure, steady! ‘Opinions are right/wrong They subjective pitches Strewn into each other’. ‘What do you know about Anything athletic genius?’ ‘Nothing, i watch without Colleric attachment. I [...]

• Football Afrika

  Posted: August 2, 2010, 12:28 am by Sokari

  The World Cup has ended and Sepp Blatter has disappeared with FIFA’s billions nicely tucked away somewhere in Europe. The debt to South Africa remains to be calculated but I imagine it to be a huge one. I wonder how much of FIFA’s money will go to grassroots football or even Africa’s league [...]

• James Baldwin: Black Queer Genius / Genius Queer Black

  Posted: August 2, 2010, 4:16 am by Sokari

  I have been thinking of James Baldwin for a while now and am just waiting for  a copy of “The Price of the Ticket“.  I decided to spend August immersed in  Baldwin.  Today is his birthday [August 2nd 1924 - November 30th 1987] and to honour this beautiful Queer Black Man and Genius whose words [...]

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Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes