what up oka's,
last year around this time i posted "good books, anyone?" and we got over 100 replies with suggested readings and a few discussions on some...one person recommended i read armah's book and since then ive read 'the healers' and 'the beautyful ones are not yet born'...lets start our dialogue here for those who appreciate (or dont) the works of ayi kwei armah...also, list any other suggested readings..

Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

by Robin DG Kelley

I was going to post about this book......and ask all of you a question on it......

anyway. its probably the best non-fiction book I've read all year

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0807009768/qid=1051811354/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/103-5822640-9742263?v=glance&s=books


put it this way, a lot of people are saying Kelley will be the next Cornell West.....in my opinion he already is, and hes gone beyond......



On the fourth day
God was riding around Harlem in a gypsy cab
when he created the people
and he created these beings in ethnic proportion
but he saw the people lonely & hungry
and from his eminent rectum
he created a companion for these people
and he called this companion
capitalism
who begat racism
who begat exploitation
who begat male chauvinism
who begat machismo
who begat imperialism
who begat colonialism
who begat wall street
who begat foreign wars
and God knew
and God saw
and God felt this was extra good
and God said
VAYAAAAAAA
On the fifth day
the people kneeled
the people prayed
the people begged
and this manifested itself in a petition
a letter to the editor
to know why? WHY? WHY? que pasa babyyyyy?????
and God said,
"My fellow subjects
let me make one thing perfectly clear
by saying this about that:
No . . . . . . . . . . . COMMENT!"
but on the sixth day God spoke to the people
he said . . . "PEOPLE!!!
the ghettos & the slums
& all the other great things I've created
will have dominion over thee"
and then
he commanded the ghettos & slums
and all the other great things he created
to multiply
and they multiplied
On the seventh day God was tired
so he called in sick
collected his overtime pay
a paid vacation included
But before God got on that t.w.a.
for the sunny beaches of Puerto Rico
He noticed his main man Satan
planting the learning trees of consciousness
around his ghetto edens
so God called a news conference
on a state of the heavens address
on a coast to coast national t.v. hookup
and God told the people cool
and God said
Vaya . . .

Miguel Pinero
From The Book of Genesis according to St. Miguelito

Okay.

Ayi Kwei Armah's last book "Osiris Rising" is a definitely a book you want to read as well. IMO, it does not have the flow or 'lyricism' of The Healers or 2000 Seasons, but it is more of a conversation on living a life involved in the struggle for change.

whats it about?..

Osiris Rising is a re-telling of the Osiris "myth", set in modern Africa. A young scholar activist, Auset, leaves the US and goes to the continent in search of an old college friend/flame, Ausar. Ausar is involved in the liberation struggle on the continent and another classmate of theirs, Set(h), has ascended to Minister of security and views Ausar and his comrades as the greatest threat to the regime.

are you reading Two Thousand Seasons right now?

naw, read it last summer

yurugu as well

but i'm having a hard time finding either of them

suggestions?

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...causin thrill_factor poetic pain since May '03!!

The West and The Rest of Us- Chinweizu
The Decolonization of The African Mind- Chinweizu
The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness- Amos Wilson
Black Spark, White Fire- Richard Poe
Blueprint For Black Power- Amos Wilson
Notes For An African World Revolution- John Henrik Clarke
Who Betrayed The African World Revolution?- John Henrik Clarke
The Sex Imperative- Mwalimu Baruti
http://www.geocities.com/afrikandieli/Baruti.html
Excuses, Excuses- Mwalimu Baruti
Negroes and Other Essays- Mwalimu Baruti
The Sankofa Movement- Kwame Akoto http://www.geocities.com/afrikandieli/Akoto.html
Nationbuilding-Kwame Akoto
http://www.geocities.com/afrikandieli/Akoto.html
Afrikans and European Holidays(Books I& II) - Ishakamusa Barashango
The Peculiar Institution- Kenneth Stammp
Let The Circle Be Unbroken- Marimba Ani*

* Still Looking for that one

These should be links to Yurugu

http://knowledgebookstore.com/search/view.asp?viewbook=1258
http://www.headstartbooks.com/politics/politics.htm

Two Thousand Seasons & More
http://www.geocities.com/afrikandieli/Armah.html

why?

There is a link to Yurugu by Marimba Ani(A Female). Let The Circle Be Unbroken is also on the list by the same author.

i appreciate the links


_____________________________






...causin thrill_factor poetic pain since May '03!!

i use it to keep me from getting too demoralized. i had to repurchase it again last week cuz i'm feeling it again.

i'm starting it again tonight.

however, it is one of those books that i have begun to believe that most of the people who read it do not get. i can't state it clearly now, but i often look sideways at people who've said they've read it.

i saw the author speak once & it was bizarre. he is against most hierarchies, especially those regarding age. he said so repeatedly, but the people hosting the event kept calling him elder & talking about baba this & baba that. it was sick.

this book, that man is hardcore. he has started a publishing house in senegal. it is run primarily by solar energy because it is difficult to maintain a current where he lives. it also serves as a community resource center. i don't know how well developed it is now. but i'll research how we can support it.

if you can't find the book then order it. he has had problems with his previous publisher ( the little orange book) & wouldn't even sign copies of it at his engagement. the newest edition is being published by his own company.

http://www.geocities.com/afrikandieli/Armah.html

This spot in Atlanta has all of the new Armah books, including his new book, KMT. Per Ankh, the publishing collective he is a part of, now publishes 2000 Seasons and The Healers.

http://www.geocities.com/molarao/sunday_afternoon.htm

What's the name of it, and how can I get a copy of it?

It's called two thousand seasons and it is on Volume 1 of the Rawkus "Soundbombing" series.

too commercialized to do something that radical now. He's on some tour w/ Fabolous, and performed @ Towson State this past week-end...

the Prologue of 2kS (2000 Seasons) is a lyrical snapshot of the current state of the world. "The desert" that Armah refers to in the prologue is Western Civilization, with the "Springwater", referring to people of Color, Africans in particular. Armah doesn't try to beat you over the head with polemics (although many folks will disagree on this). You will see as you get into this, that in contrast to his earlier work (Beautyful Ones...) he does not try to draw you into the specific characters- they are all pieces to a huge landscape. Outside of the core group of characters you will meet, the majority of the characters fall under the categories that Armah begans to introduce in the Prologue: Seers, Hearers, Killers, Predators, Zombies, Utterers, etc.

The beauty of this technique is that even in the prologue, the abstract lyricism places his themes outside of the time period the actual story is set within; thus the prologue can be taken and applied to ANY stories of oppression you are familiar with and you will recognize these patterns.

...

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

It is an entire life account of a man searching for truth and ultimate understanding of life. Very interesting. When reading this, I becamse very calm and serene and became much more aware of everything around me. I am still thinking about the story in my mind.

.