Notes From a Warm Place

So, the people who invited me to read in Southern & Northern California have been sending me very lovely comments from the audience members and, I have pulled them together into a 14-line collage in celebration. My trip so far as been incredibly reaffirming - if I ever doubted that readers just love literature and want to be challenged and exposed to new worlds, my doubts have been blown away... Here's the collage/bricolage/commentage:

The poem he read to us which paralleled playing
a piano with playing basketball). I thought it was both
thoughtful and creative. Not only was he an attractive writer,
but his poetry was amazing, the perfect

antidote to an otherwise grinding week. His reading draws me in
and paints pictures; the way that he speaks of togetherness,
in terms of "we" instead of "I" says a lot about his character.
He speaks with such rhythm. I loved Nii's reading;

definitely my favorite guest speaker. The way he read
his novel was almost as if he was singing a song.
I love the way he incorporated language in his book.
He has such a wonderful spirit; I thoroughly enjoyed hearing his work.

I'm just about to order his book from Amazon.
I wish he could come back and read to us again!

The Parade (reviews in)

I know I haven't said much about my little kids book project from last year/early this year, but it is out there and it is slowly growing a following and some lovely reviews have come in which I'm happy to share with you now:

This collection of trickster tales is lively and entertaining and will be an essential component of any teacher's story collection.
Back to School Bookseller

With their vibrant sense of fun and cunning these stories are sure to have an enduring appeal.
Booktrust

These delightful stories can be dipped into by relatively new independent readers, but also read well if you are sharing the stories with your child. The setting in Ghana adds exotic appeal and poet KP Kojo creates a fresh experience quite different to most children's books.
Junior

Not only very energetic and entertaining, these tales also encourage children to be well-mannered and polite.
Carousel

This wonderful collection of stories expands Ananse's myth with sparkling wit and words that roll off the tongue. K.P. Kojo has clearly written this refreshing new book to be read aloud and shared.
ABC Best Books for Children

The collection of six stories both read well, and sound well when read aloud, with the lively imagery of the text supported by the black and white line drawings. Each tale has a moral to be told - although part of the fun with Ananse is that you never quite know whether you are going to be following his example, or learn from his mistakes!
School Librarian

All six short stories are simply and assuredly told and, unsurprisingly, are delightfully set and are perfectly complemented by the illustrations of Karen Lilje, all drawn in black and white except for the cover. The moral in all of them is clear and it is interesting to see how even Ananse, despite all his wisdom, can err. The spider is aware of his own shortcomings and in the sixth story he is initially hiding in the forest reflecting upon this. This is a lovely book which is worth considering as an addition to any library supporting children in KS1 and lower KS2. Class teachers looking for multicultural stories for their classes would enjoy this book and so would new independent readers.
Armadillo Magazine

The ink illustrations will capture the younger children's imaginations, and the stories are short enough to be enjoyed as individual bedtime stories. The stories are very clearly told but with wonderful descriptive writing, setting the scene for each story and giving a little background information on the characters involved. A delight to read.
Ibby Link

This book will transport you to Africa as you get caught up in the rich, descriptive text and fast moving narrative.
English 4-11

To Buy:

THE PARADE (as K.P. Kojo) in the UK:http://bit.ly/aVnE3I

THE PARADE (as K.P. Kojo) in the US:http://amzn.to/g4rrvV

First US Review - Library Journal

Excitement! I got my first US review from the 'we miss very little' Library Journal. I can't tell you how happy I am; I thought the book might just blow by like one of those LA clouds some band sings about... Here you go:

This is a charming, kindhearted, and profound first novel by Parkes, an acclaimed poet from Ghana. With great depth and intelligence, Parkes brings this story about traditional Ghanaian wisdom and spirituality beautifully to life. Structured like a detective story, the novel begins with the disturbing discovery of what may be human remains in the hut of a man in a remote country village. Set against a traditional world of elders and ancient wisdom is the modern world of forensic science, embodied by an ambitious police chief, P.J. Donkor, who is a fan of American forensic television shows like Law & Order and CSI. Donkor summons a young forensic expert, Kayo, to explain what has been found in the village. The novel turns out to be a modern-day fable about living in a world rich with mystery and spiritual energy. By the end, Kayo begins to believe that "the real truth, like love, was beyond the reach of scientific explication." VERDICT Enthusiastically recommended for all readers of literary fiction. — Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT

Here's the link to the page where it appears: http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviewsbook/887651-421/fiction.html.csp

Interview/Reading on VoxAfrica TV

I was recently interviewed by Henry Bonsu on VoxAfrica in relation to my new book of poems, The Makings of You. It's a long programme and I appear in the last half hour so do forward if you have to. Enjoy!

August Advances

I've become a useless doting dad. All the hustle, travel, reading, performances and (gulp!) even the writing, everything has settled to a simmer in my life and the only thing popping is Little-Miss-Daughter who (I kid you not) is amazing! She's 20 months old and already she's having conversations with me in Ga and English and scolding me (no more, Daddy, no more!). I used to think my mother was making things up when she told me the really complicated things I am supposed to have said at the age of three, but I'm beginning to believe. The human mind is truly, truly amazing! What I can't get my head around is the fact that we lose pretty much all our memory of events up to the age of 3/4, but we don't forget the things we learn e.g. language, whether or not to be afraid of dogs etc. etc. It's mind-boggling. Anyway I'll bore you no longer with Daddyhood. The good thing, with hindsight, is, I did so many sleepless nights BEFORE my daughter was born that it seems I will be releasing new work until I finish the next project. In the meantime, here are some updates.

Tail of the Blue Bird was selected by Writers' Centre Norwich as one of their Summer Reads and right through the year it's been promoted in local bookshops and libraries, which has been amazing. The initiative is now coming to an end, but until the end of August, Tail of the Blue Bird is being discussed online as well as at a special Tail of the Blue Bird Book Club Session at Writers’ Centre Norwich, 14 Princes St, Norwich, Tuesday 24th August, 6pm. To join the online discussions, just go the the WCN Facebook Page. You can even check out their reading guide.

Sticking with discussions, Tail of the Blue Bird, stands a one-in-eleven chance of being chosen for discussion at the African Writers's Evening book discussion on Friday September 17 at the Poetry Cafe and YOU GET £4 toward the cost of the book too. To vote for Tail of the Blue Bird and find out more, visit: African Writers' Evening

Now, book news - or new books news :) I mentioned the release of a Dutch version of Tail of the Blue Bird and I can confirm that it is now out and selling well (you can see it on the publisher's website) and so is the German version (also on the publisher's website), which has had a couple of decent reviews this week [Links: Die Spiegel | Watching the Detectives ]. Well, I'm guessing that they're good because I couldn't make real sense of the automatic translation!

I have also now held in my hands a physical copy of my children's book The Parade (pictured on the left) and I can assure you that it feels good. Plus I am assured that I will receive in tomorrows post a few copies of my début full poetry collection The Makings of You. I am giving five copies away, so the best five pleas I receive detailing why you should get a copy in tweet-length (i.e. text or 140 characters) will get them. I'll reveal the winners at the end of the month :) Of course, this doesn't mean don't buy the book - I need you to buy it so I can earn some royalties, but you can flog the one you bought if you win!

And finally, drum roll... the long-awaited US release! It is still long-awaited, the release date has been pushed back to 20 January 2011, but you can now pre-order it on amazon.com or BN.com AND I will be coming to the US in January/February for a whole month to promote it (with the other two books, of course!). My first reading/signing is likely to be in Rochester, NY but I'm still trying to fix dates so if you know of a local bookstore or college/university that would like to have me visit/sign/read/teach and it's on the East Coast, please contact me so we can work something out. Not many people have seen what the entire cover will look like, but... eyes-left - voila! You're the first, my fans, my everything!

what i'm reading/listening to

listening:
Omara Portuondo - la novia del filin

reading:
Arthur Gakwandi - The Novel and Contemporary Experience in Africa

Prize & Praise

Two things.
Quickly.

ONE - 'Tail of the Blue Bird' made the shortlist for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Djama all night :)
TWO - I found a new, short but lovely, review of 'Tail of the Blue Bird' in the current issue of World Literature Today that 'got' some of the politics behind my aesthetic choices. Good times!

Review from World Literature Today, January-February 2010

Nii Ayikwei Parkes. Tail of the Blue Bird. London. Jonathan Cape. 2009. 176 pages. £12.99. isbn 978-0-224-08574-8

One of the most curious attractions of Tail of the Blue Bird is its privi­leging of Ghanaian languages over English. Nii Ayikwei Parkes tells a wonderful narrative where all the "English" words are italicized and the Ghanaian words of Twi and Ga are not: "It was black and shiny, but when the tall red policeman stepped closer it was wansima, about apem apem thousands." This in itself sets the book apart, and yet it is a revolu­tionary publication on other levels, too. Parkes has insisted on the use of phonetic script to capture the sounds of Ghanaian English—kєtє, sєbi, Asєm bєn ni!—and interestingly offers no key or glossary for the non-Ghanaian reader. In terms of con­tent, the book marks a moment in time when the postcolonial novel is leaving the stage; there is no "apolo­gy" in this narrative, nor is there any great sense of problematic opposites. Things in this book are very much "as they are."

Set in the hinterland of Ghana, the protagonist, Kayo, is "persuad­ed" by the Ghanaian police force to leave his comfortable forensic labo­ratory job in Accra to investigate a "whodunnit" in a village of twelve families somewhere in the Ghanaian jungle. The investigation, however, becomes increasingly complex, and Kayo's discussions with Opanyin Poku and Oduro, residents of the village, are told through a web of story and palm wine.

The story within the story explores the mysterious, employing Ghanaian proverbs and ancestral wisdom. In the narrative of Opanyin Poku, we read: "Ei, wonders will never cease. They say nothing is other than what you see, but it is also true that nothing is other than what you don't see."

It would be easy to state that the demonstrative differences of rural versus metropolis, East versus West, and rational versus ethereal are the basic tenets of this book, but that would be doing this publication an injustice. Tail of the Blue Bird reminds us that, although events may be rationalized, explained as "fate," or accepted as the unknown doings of ethereal forces, the universal fact remains that as humans, we all pass through them, live and endure them; whatever our cultural or philosophi­cal stance, we survive life's events to greater or lesser degrees.

Emma Dawson

Keele University

Nominations galore

So, some of you will know that I am an editor as well as a writer - and I'm pleased to let the world know that I have been longlisted for the UK Young Publishing Entrepreneur award run by the British Council. It's a recognition of all my sleepless nights as an editor so I'm very very proud and to add to that the company, flipped eye publishing, is trying to rack up nominations for the Mashable Open Web Awards in the niche category for our online translation wiki, lexicon [ www.flippedeye.net/lexicon ] please add your nomination below - thanks!

In other news, I have a reading [mainly poetry] in London on November 13 at Lauderdale House, Highgate Hill, Waterlow Park from 8pm. Please come and support.
Event details are also on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events.php?ref=sb#/event.php?eid=27331766247





I think that's it for now - a real blog to come soon. So much has happened in the world!!

Stolen from Hip Hop

OK, so I'd been going into schools and, in trying to get my students, to apply critical minds to poetry, I'd taken in song lyrics, hip hop lyrics - you name it. But they kept making distinctions. So what I came up with, eventually, was a series of poems (one of which I have pasted below) which borrowed heavily from lyrics. I then asked them what they thought of these 'constructions' and they said, 'yeah, nice poems, but more intricate than lyrics.' Then I said, 'well most of the lines here are taken from or inspired by song lyrics so your homework is - guess who wrote what'. Now I'm sharing with you guys... The game here is - if you're a hip hop fan - to guess the origins of the lines in the poem and add them as a comment. To make it easier the lines are numbered - enjoy!

Miss H in the City
by Nii Ayikwei Parkes with props to the original lyricists who inspired the collage

I

1. I arrive in the city at dawn, just before sunrise, step
2. onto shore with hope bright in my eyes. This is
3. a new start; new dreams away from the hearts I broke;
4. excitement’s got my heart racing like a hummingbird
5. pacing. I try to be cool and patient, but it’s harder than
6. the calculus of quantum leaping. See I’m a small city
7. boy with big city dreams, I’ve dreamt of this existence
8. amidst the harbour lights; ships coming and going
9. like ghosts, dropping – like flies – new dreamers
10. who prayed for wings. Now I take it all in; its five
11. dimensions, its six senses. I feel the seven firmaments’
12. force and hold myself back from screaming. I sit
13. outside myself, observe from a bird’s eye view, a boy
14. descending into this fantastic beautiful mess. I wrestle
15. with words and heartbeats seeking the phrase to express
16. the moment, but the usual is no longer suitable. So
17. I rest my eyes on a purple bud bursting into a high-five
18. flower, its reflection shimmering on tranquil waters
19. like something greater than depth, something eternal.

II

1. And soon there is a girl; filled with magic
2. and strife and scaled just right. A smile
3. like a spear, on point and timed to perfection.
4. I lose myself in it, hear a distant bass ride
5. out like an ancient mating call. The duration’s
6. infinite – enough time for me to ponder sugar,
7. spice, and other things she might be made of.
8. I feel my flesh burn, my cell walls disintegrate
9. to allow me to absorb her essence. Her head is
10. wrapped but her aura peeks out at the back.
11. The big city’s first riddle and I have no answers.
12. It’s too loud to think; maybe my dreams are
13. larger than my hands can grasp. I realise now
14. the streets are too shrill to ever hear freedom
15. sing, too crammed for love to grow wings.
16. A new moon rides high in the metro’s fading
17. crown; across the way the ancient is manifest
18. in knife fights. I take a deep city breath, watch
19. my broken dreams fly to where waters fall
20. as she walks away – a devil in a blue dress,
21. a beast in a blue Chrysler, karma coming back
22. hard. My chest heaves against the evening’s
23. flesh. I sigh, watch the city lights throb
24. against a purple flower’s reflection, hope
25. that from this night a sweet dawn will come.

Re:configuration

It's been a while since I blogged and I don't think I will properly for a few weeks yet - way, way too busy! But I recently had a poem Re:configuration published in the PEN International Magazine (the issue is on shelves now and most of it can be seen online at: http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/go/pen-international-magazine), which I'd like to share part of as a post. I'm particularly happy the poem got published for two reasons

1. It's one of my favourites,
   
2. It's one of my more experimental ones.

So, I'm sharing what I call it's second movement, but don't just read - please, let me know what you think...

II

The story is simple; my father went

with a cancerous light, chasing Swedru

in the shadow of his fat/her for answers

to questions he divined I would ask

forgetting that project/ions dance, shift

like rhythms. In a hot panic he left

before night could come to hurry him

along with songs. My mother bears the scars

but only a fraction of the answers; for

how was she to know she would be the one

I clawed at for maps of my existence – one

in a role meant for absent sound/and/light?

So I am left with darkness; the high

window through which imagination creeps,

the room I at/tempt to enter to evoke

more than fading echoes of footsteps that

haunt me. I am a slave to the hard hold

unable to yield chance to the light/less

of grip that all moments employ for

the velo/city of sand’s passing. Maybe I am

slowly learning that with each green breath

I blow my life away. Rushed, all I want

is for my father to explain what I mean

to my name, how I be/came configured

as Parkes when I don’t harbour its phantom

rhythm beneath my tongue.

I have lost

my way again: did I not hear the tri/angle

and the gankogui tinkling responses into

the vacuum of the drum’s silence? My

father is rest/less again. Please tell him

to open his window for my tear/full chants

have left me hoarse – and my siblings

the thieves too; who took his skin, spirit

and mind, leaving me captive in his body.

We confess our parents never truly told us

their names, we over/heard others calling

them Auntie and Uncle, Mr and Mrs so and so

so we did the same. Did we err? Did I

trap my pa/rents by calling their red shadows

names meant for colours? All I know

is that I am at/tuned to brown like no other

shade, yet cold breath haloes frame me black.

...waiting for the copy edits...

So, I'm learning that publishers run on that other time too. The date for my copy edits for Tail of The Blue Bird, has been pushed back twice, and it's very frustrating because I set time aside to go through the edits and get them back so that work can begin on the advance copies of the book. Now, some of you might be wondering what advance copies are or do exactly in publishing. In short they are the first blast of real excitement a writer gets after the book deal - essentially a finished version of your book, complete with a cover design and the final layout is printed almost a year in advance and sent out to the media, famous writers etc. etc. so that radios, newspapers and magazines can start scheduling you for interviews (if they think you/your work are interesting), writers can give you endorsements, and bookstores can make orders - all the things that trigger those quotes that appear on books that make everyone wonder - 'how come the book's only been out two days and they already have that printed on it?' In my case, the struggle to find a publisher because of the unusual (not my word) nature of the book means that luckily (or unluckily) I already have quotes from authors who endorsed the work so that potential publishers would realise that the book was considered good by my peers - I am proudest of my endorsements from Helon Habila, whose work I've been a long-time admirer of, and Courttia Newland, who was one of my early mentors in prose...

Anyway, back to the delay on my copy edits, very frustrating etc etc, but I have been making good use of the time; last week I recorded an excerpt for a fairly new BBC World Service programme called The Forum, and took part in a panel discussion of some of the ideas in the book, and stuff like whether or not Islamic Law is ethical and whether Plato had the right ideas about erotic love in his 'Symposium'. It was supremely interesting (I'll let you know when THEY let me know when it will be broadcast), but the publicity department at my publishers said - oh, couldn't it have been next year? everyone would have forgotten by the time the book comes out! Ah, YE publishers of little faith; haven't you heard about gossip, the bush fire media, alata wire tap, abusua radio, or, for the wine drinkers, the grapevine...? [BTW I welcome comments from my West African readers for any more phrases that exist to describe gossip - it's funny how the mind goes blank sometimes...]

Bottom line is, I'm not completely bored. I even had occasion to celebrate the fact that one of the books I edited last year - 29 Ways to Drown by Niki Aguirre - made it to the longlist of the Frank O'Connor Short Story Prize and was reviewed in today's SUN newspaper (the UK crew will understand the significance of this - it has a circulation of 3 million and pictures of half naked women on Page 3 i.e. West-European-naked, just breasts, which is fully clothed at some of the markets I went to in Cape Coast - over here people get excited when a woman breast feeds in public - as my Naija crew would say, ah ah!)

On that half-clothed note, I bid you adieu, or rather au revoir...

what i'm reading/listening to

listening:
Smokey Robinson & D'Angelo - I have entire folders of their work on my laptop and I have them on loop - I'm in a chilled summer mood...

reading:
Rose by Li Young Lee (something to relax) and Land of our Birth by Ainsley Burrows (something I'm editing)

Poetry Review Comment/Poem

Those of you who know me will know I'm one of those poetechs/wiredwriters who is intermittently plugging in to technology - blame it on my two engineer brothers and (of course) my own background in physics/biochemistry/microbiology and the rarely-confessed four hours programming on my friend Ebow's ZX Spectrum when I got so fascinated by the things I could get the computer to do and record on tape - yes, tape! - that I got home late and got my arse acquainted with a lost branch from some random water-starved tree in Accra. Anyway, that's a long roundabout way of saying I put my name in a google alert and got this little nugget from a blog about my poem in the Poetry Review:

"However, there is surprising news for today - I've just finished reading the latest "Poetry Review" magazine and it's the first time I've closed the final pages and haven't wondered what on earth all the fuss was about. Not a bad edition really - an undercurrent of pretention here and there of course, but at that level you probably have to expect it. There were some poems I even enjoyed (Good God, Carruthers, pass me the smellings salts: the words "enjoy" and "Poetry Review" have never been in the same paragraph before). I will even go so far as to say I noted some poets and their collections down on my buying list. Particular favourites were Siriol Troup for being charmingly Japanese about WH Auden (ah, the story is in the spaces, m'dear ...), Hugo Williams for being charmingly Victorian, Nii Ayikwei Parkes for putting the people back into politics, and Jane Draycott for a wonderful scene of miscommunication. Also nice to see my old favourite, Neil Rollinson, in there. Though they were rather snippety about his latest collection, Demolition. Hey, I didn't think it was that bad. Not vintage Rollinson for sure, but not terrible!" - the blog is Anne Brooke's Writing Journal

Putting 'the people back into politics' - I thought, yeah, that's probably an accurate description of what I try to do, but whether or not I'm successful is always up to the reader - it's just good to know that occasionally people feel what I'm trying to say - on that note, here's an excerpt from the poem for those of you who haven't had the chance to pick up the review (On Pleasure):

Lebanon was in a shade of peace – stilled
from war – and regardless of what anyone said
about you, I had never heard a name so

beautiful; Sajeeda. Late afternoon, we held

hands by the gutter as we walked to our
secret haunt. Above the graveyard of cars,
our seven year old bodies twisted into

the rust and glass cage of a Nissan Sunny –
forsaken. Nested, we didn’t consider the odds
of dropping like dislodged eggs. In that

strange skyscraper of scrap – a monument
to your mechanic father’s failures, the precise
shape of the green tree in his flag – we

solemnly undressed, as one. We embraced

More information on the issue here

and that's it for today :)

Little Pleasures

I haven't blogged in a while, I haven't listened to NEW music in a while, I haven't invented a new recipe in a while - it's been that kind of year. I spent most of January and February in my editorial role for flipped eye publishing editing work for three of my favourite poets - Ainsley Burrows, Agnes Meadows, Charlotte Ansell - and ended the month of February with a celebration event called reaching the 10000, marking a slaes landmark for flipped eye.

But before the end of Feb I went to see Junot Diaz at the Royal Festival Hall and got my copy of the brilliant The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao signed. The book has now joined others on my shelf and it just hit me that about 20-30% of the books I've bought/received in the last year have been signed. Is this the real pleasure of being a writer - that you know/meet so many writers that you get a good chunk of your books signed - and free, even? I don't think so - what I get from those books, really, is inspriration, because I only get books signed by authors I admire - every one of those books is a reminder, a klaxon, a broken record stuck on the word write, write, write, write....

[Oh, started a new notepad for my teaching stuff...]

the wake of change

The last time I blogged Sekou Sundiata had just died. Since then, another literary man - one of my Ghanaian predecessors - Kwesi Brew, has passed on. It's been a period full of mourning, wakes and wakefulness. In the Ga tradition we believe that when someone goes to the other side someone takes on their role in this world, so my thoughts have now turned to the replacements, the poets who will take on the roles, the public voids left by the departure of Sekou and Kwesi. Of course, the replacements will have to carry on being themselves, but better, more elevated selves so that some other emerging writers can become their lesser selves, and so the world adjusts. I will blog on that subject - the idea of who replaces Sekou and Kwesi - later, but for now I remain mindful that in the midst of chaos, there is always cause for celebration and how true that has turned out to be! One of my other poet idols, Charles Simic, has been made Poet Laureate of the United States and I'm ecstatic because he is truly a rare, unconventional and brilliant poet. His book A Wedding in Hell is one of my favourite poetry books along with a few Nerudas and Heaneys, Li Young Lee's The City in Which I Love You and Atukwei Okai's Oath of the Frontomfrom (of course I love all the writers I have edited for waterways and mouthmark but that's another story). Anyway, you can read a poem by Simic on the online version of the New Yorker...

While you're online reading, check out this lovely list of fifty new African writers to watch that I'm privileged to be on... and also go to the Writers Fund Amazon wish list and buy something for the project I'm running in Ghana. I've already got quite a bit lined up but not much in the way of these much-needed books for the Writers' Centre I'm helping set up at the Pan African Writers Association building in Accra. I'm heading out there soon to run some workshops and do some work on the ground so it would be great if a few books turned up while I was there.

Anyway, I'd better go and sleep, but I promise to be a better blogger this August!

what i'm reading/listening to

listening:
Internal Affairs by Pharoahe Monch

All I can say about Pharoahe is he's irreverent, but artistic as hell. His wordplay makes every swear word worth listening to, because each one has a purpose. Great sense of plot too; his storytelling skills would put many a short story writer to shame and, of course, he rhymes as though Queen's needs his end rhyme to build houses with and his internal rhyme to put fuel in their cars. The Mrs and I saw him live in London last month and his new album, Desire, sounded wonderful live. Probably worth checking out too...

reading:
A Heart So White by Javier Marias:

This book was recommended to me by a good friend, Hisham. It is heavy with detail in every scene, moments in which the author pauses to interrogate the world, but it all adds up to make a great story. I'm almost done now...

News Source: Guardian (for Simic announcemnt)

NIN

No, it's not Nine-Inch-Nails, it's Nii in the News :)

Just thought I'd share a review from my hard slog at the Brighton Fest:

Wordplay
Nii Parkes
Trying to get kids into Yeats is a tough job, so although Parkes did his best, his own poems about his mum were far more popular with this crowd. Plenty of fun exercises filled this hour-long workshop, with the children briefly discussing their views on poetry (primarily that it should rhyme) before getting stuck into creating poems about themselves and their passions (primarily chicken nuggets). An interesting task saw them learn about writing from the subconscious, signified by an aggressive green lollipop stick. The children obviously had fun being creative, but the session was far too short to really get into much depth on the subject - yet even a short handover makes a welcome break for parents, and Parkes makes a relaxed and inspiring tutor.

(from threeweeks.co.uk)

In the meantime my poem appears on the underground on Monday June 4 (date of the first coup I experienced in Ghana) and there have been some related press releases:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/5221.aspx
http://www.poetrysoc.com/content/education/potu/

And I have come into my own as a contemporary writer:
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/

Finally, I came upon a wikipedia Germany entry for me which I googleated (google-translated) for fun, and it was delicious to find out what gets a rise out of me:
Nii Ayikwei Parkes is a Ghanaian writer and artist, who write Kurzgeschichten, articles, song texts and also RAP. Parkes lives and works at present in London, where he arises to literature also in a Café. Its work has an emphasis in the youth culture, since Parkes works gladly with children and young people.

a table is not a writing desk

i'm supposed to be editing, but sometimes this is what happens :) luther vandross, i miss you...

what i'm reading/listening to

listening:

what's with the dollar bill?

So, I visited a workshop and the students were asked to find a photograph and write something in the style of Lloyd Schwartz's (great critic) Tom Joanides: Which of these statements is true? Being a writer, I could only get my hands on a dollar bill - George Washington - and this is what came out:

Georgie, what's the deal really?

(a) I don't like smiling (b) I'm not smiling because I'm sitting
on hot coals (c) My mother styled my hair after a wave
that nearly drowned her (d) My mirror broke and I needed my friend
to etch me so I could see myself (e) I designed my own clothes using curtains
(f) I love fashion; my favourite colours are black and green (g) I'm a highlander;
there can be only one me (h) I'm a tender person, but don't be misled -
I'll break your back (i) I'm an illegal immigrant with private and public
debts (j) I slept with Faulkner (k) I'm so powerful they named a city
after me (l) Rappers yank my chain (m) Don't let the print fool you;
I'm Black (n) You can wake up now.

OK, you all have a good day now. I will be back to normal (whatever that is!) blogging duties soon :)

what i'm reading/listening to

listening:

Just got myself a little mp3 player and I'm listening to a post-supper mix of Marvin Gaye, Amel Larrieux, Van Hunt and Amy Winehouse. For lunch I had B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix; The Thrill was definitely in the Red House :)

reading:

Recently finished Andrei Makine's "The Woman Who Waited", which was good, but I'm in writing mode now - commercial - I have to finish some articles I've been asked to write.

he what? he stinks?

This has got to be a cool moment - my writing buddy, Niki Aguirre, who blogs on the virtual onion has gone and shown what's beneath my feathers by 'nomination' me for the thinking blogger award. Now I'm not saying I don't think, but I stink at reading blogs. I read a few to amuse myself, but to nominate five that make me think, when Niki has already stolen almost all the blogs I read is criminal. Anyway, I will try....

1. For general thought and 'dopeness' - Koranteng's Toli
2. For diverse musical stimulation - DJ Durutti
3. For book-type thinking & tidbits - Ready Steady Book, Editor's blog
4. For writer's perspective book stuff - Laila Lalami
5. and when he's not too busy tipping points - Malcolm Gladwell

I guess I have to go and let some of these people know I've marked them for life. Oh no! Shea it ain't so (more on this Shea stuff in my next blog!)

what i'm reading/listening to

I'm reading London Book Fair gossip, hoping to find that my novel has been sold, and I'm listening to Don Cherry's Symphony for Improvisors (read a review)

birthday, no blues

my roman-symmetrical birthday came and i felt no blues - except for the moment i stopped to remember how marvin gaye died on my 10th birthday. i even wrote a haiku in the morning - a sign that my zen is maturing:

barrage of goosebumps
a corporeal down payment
for afternoon sun

otherwise, all goes well in California. i visited a remarkable middle school, Nimitz in Huntington Park, CA as part of the university's outreach programme and had the fullest day ever - from 7:25 until 15:13 reading poetry, running workshops, answering questions - i was completely hoarse when i got home. but, to balance that i had ice cream yesterday - cold stone creamery in long beach, CA - it was sooo good (see their website for pictures :)). i made my own mix of banana/coffee ice cream with pecan nuts, almonds and caramel, with the thickest crunchiest waffle ever

and who said we have to age gracefully? here's to 33 going on 3

my article of the week: chavez boosts chomsky sales

In summary, Chavez does an Oprah: he appears at the UN asking Americans to read Chomsky's book 'Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance' ("because their threat is right in their own house") and sales go through the roof. Full story at: http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1880226,00.html (Guardian Online)

:)

where in the world...

...is Carmen Sandiego? OK, don't tell me I'm the only one who played that game; it was probably the first (and only) video game I played [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Sandiego ] - Anyway, I feel like her right now because I haven't had a moment in one spot for ages. I'll be back though. The good thing about moving about it that it gives you great ideas for writing and loads of useful useless info. For example, I was 'punting' in Cambridge and the boat/barge/punt builder told me there was no fish in the water for years 'cos it was so polluted (the fish are jumping like summertime again, thanks to an EU grant to clean it up), and it makes you wonder - what exactly were those Cambridge kids doing to pollute the water so much?? Just kidding, it was industrial waste - or was it?

Next big event:
Bringing the House Down www.myspace.com/bringingthehousedown

Listening to:
Hugh Masekela