In my previous post on Hector Aristizabal's The Blessing Next to the Wound
, I mentioned an older Uprising Radio interview with our friend Sonali Kolhatkar. Today she has a fresh interview with Hector and his co-author Diane Lefer. Again, don't miss Hector at Vroman's in Pasadena this Friday, November 12th, 7:00 pm, then join us for a discussion of the book on Sunday, Nov. 21, 6:30 pm, also at Vroman's. Our November author, Hector Aristizabal is a dear friend and collaborator. In case you're just getting to know him through his book The Blessing Next to the Wound: A Story of Art, Activism, and Transformation here are a few links. First, he will be speaking at our favorite bookstore, Vroman's on November 12. If you can't make that this KZSU Stanford University Radio interview will give you an idea of what's in the book. Men are changing behavior, too, said Aristizábal, noting the movement called La Nueva Masculinidad and even a group called El Machismo Mata, in which men try to end the ways in which violent behavior has become connected to the male identity.It's Hector month at Rights Readers and Vroman's is the place to be. Join our Loyal Readers there to support Hector and his work!
"They did a scene in which one guy is knocked over during a soccer game. One member of his team just says, 'Get up, jerk,' and when another player asks instead if he's OK and tries to give him a hand, the others shout homophobic insults at him for being soft and showing concern. So what do you do in that moment? How do you respond to the situation?"
For February we have chosen Toni Morrison's A Mercy
:In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North. Despite his distaste for dealing in “flesh,” he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives. A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother and a daughter-a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.
by Peter Akinti. Kicking off our supplemental links this mont, Akinti introduces his book in this video:BB: For this ex-Londoner, Forest Gate draws some very painful parallels between war-torn Somalia and life on some of London 's streets. Yet Armeina defends London. Why does she?
PA: When I wrote Forest Gate one of my aims was to provide a snapshot of young black people in London, to try to paint a truer picture of their mixed identity and or culture. I wanted to show what life was like under the full effects of constant migration; how much globalization is affecting us in ways we are yet able to fully grasp. I didn't want to compare London and Somalia. I wanted to compare two lives that clash in London; to show how very different two young black people living in London might be, the causes and effects of that interaction.
And SoulCulture asks about the reality behind the fiction,SoulCulture: The book contains a lot of difficult but compelling chapters vividly describing sexual abuse and violence. Was this a realistic representation of their stories or extreme content needed to make a certain point?
Peter Akinti: Some of it is definitely to make a point. There’s a point where two boys get stopped and searched by the police and someone asked me what I thought about stop-and-search. They thought it was me trying to say something about stop and search but it wasn’t, it was much more to do with an experience I had with my niece.
One of her friends got involved in something crazy and I took her to the police station and I took a statement and they were really rough with her, and when she came out I said ‘what did you think of that?’ and she said she never wanted to do anything like that again, it felt like abuse. And that struck me. That’s where it came from, that first one.
So a lot of the things that happened aren’t me trying to be clever; a lot of these things really happened. A friend of mine had a younger brother who jumped off a tower block in East London and that’s where that came from. I just wanted to show that’s how a lot of people feel once they’ve had that experience, especially the Metropolitan police – they’re really rough with young, black people.In addition to those two interesting interviews, Akinti has a couple pieces in the Guardian you may want to check out: Looking back on New Labour and Why London is no place for a young black man.
For December, we have chosen The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger by Alec Wilkinson:
For January, we have chosen Reza Aslan's No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam,Though it is the fastest-growing religion in the world, Islam remains shrouded in ignorance and fear for much of the West. In No god but God, Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed scholar of religions, explains this faith in all its beauty and complexity. Beginning with a vivid account of the social and religious milieu in which the Prophet Muhammad forged his message, Aslan paints a portrait of the first Muslim community as a radical experiment in religious pluralism and social egalitarianism. He demonstrates how, after the Prophet’s death, his successors attempted to interpret his message for future generations–an overwhelming task that fractured the Muslim community into competing sects. Finally, Aslan examines how, in the shadow of European colonialism, Muslims developed conflicting strategies to reconcile traditional Islamic values with the realities of the modern world, thus launching what Aslan terms the Islamic Reformation. Timely and persuasive, No god but God is an elegantly written account of a magnificent yet misunderstood faith.
This month's author, Dan Everett (Don't Sleep, There are Snakes
) has his own webpage at Illinois State University, (although a note there says he has taken a position elsewhere, so the page could vanish at any moment). He does have quite a bit there to explore. This section is a good place to start. My favorite file is this song.
Other fun stuff:
. Interview with author Monte Reel here.
.
More info. Take action here.80 members of the Guarani Kaiowá Y’poí Indigenous group in Brazil have been threatened by armed men hired by local farm owners. The group reoccupied farmland they claim as part of their ancestral territory near Paranhos, Brazil, in April. They have been threatened and being prevented from leaving their encampment. This has left them in a critical situation with no access to water, food, education and health.
The Federal Indigenous Health Agency (FUNASA) has not provided care to the community allegedly claiming this is due to lack of security. The community’s children are falling sick due to the lack of medical assistance, water and the dry weather conditions. The community has denounced their situation, but so far no action has been taken.
