Visionary Vibes: A Blog by Aberjhani

Conversations with the World 111: Speaking Truth to Power and Ourselves (pt. 1 of 2)

10/30/2022

“In the last decade the number of armed conflicts has doubled. So has the number of people killed, and the number of displaced. And this was even before the invasion of Ukraine.”
–– The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
(from Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk)

People speak truth to power with hopes of accomplishing goals ranging from personal advantages and extravagances to collective acknowledgements and political freedom. The occasion for such a conversation might be something as simple as a teenager negotiating use of the family car for a date. Or it could be as serious as the parents of children slain in a mass shooting demanding officials entrusted with their safety be held accountable in some way.

When members of the American Friends Service Committee published their 1955 “report” titled SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence, they were mostly concerned with addressing international conflicts. Contributing authors noted the title of the report was inspired by “a spiritual duty” assigned Quakers in the 18th Century. They considered themselves speaking truth to several embodiments of power:

Influential political leaders...
“…the American people who are the final reservoir of power in this country and whose values and expectations set the limits for those who exercise authority..”
“…the idea of power itself.”

Although his name does not appear among signers of the report, famed civil rights icon Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) has often been cited as one of its principal authors and originator of the phrase: Speak truth to power. Various researchers have pointed to archived correspondence and alternate versions of the report to verify Bayard’s now historic contribution to it.

Yesterday and Today

The concept and practice of speaking truth to power is no less relevant, or compelling, in 2022 than in the 1900s. If anything, it has likely become more so both within America’s borders and beyond them. People stunned to witness the skill with which President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy requested, via live video links, military assistance from international heads of state during the early days of his country’s current war with Russia know this for themselves.

"It can be difficult to speak truth to power" quotation art graphic by Aberjhani C2022)

Dialogues between truth and power may be engaged in a variety of forms. Young people like USA’s Mari Copeny and Kenya’s Lesein Mutunkei articulate concerns over environmental sustainability with a sense of urgency largely absent from discussions held by members of previous generations. Pro-democracy demonstrations in Sudan, Hong Kong, Myanmar and other locations draw international attention as protestors present their case for greater personal freedom and human rights. The ongoing push to end racism in America has spawned a generation of activists who identify as anti-racists and routinely address concerns over the issue as the country’s demographic profile continues to steadily evolve.

In most of these instances, people rarely present themselves as “heroes” but as human beings struggling to correct imbalances––be they environmental, political, or social––which pose direct threats to their continued existence.

Women Speaking Truth to History

en around the world in 2022 have been speaking their truths to power in ways which cannot be ignored. Upon Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, many fled the country with children and elders in tow. At the same time, many others stayed behind to support resistance efforts by making explosive Molotov cocktails or learning to fire guns themselves. Women in Afghanistan defiantly challenged Taliban soldiers in the streets of Kabul when told they would have to give up liberties, such as pursuing education, they had become accustomed to while under U.S. protection.

Among the most vocal of women speaking their truth are Americans protesting the Supreme Court’s reversal of the Roe versus Wade decision which previously had protected women’s rights to get abortions. House speaker Nancy Pelosi pointed out what appeared to be conflicting standards when she note the Supreme Court’s decision to support the right for citizens to bear concealed weapons (one form of power) while denying women the right to choose what happens to their bodies when dealing with unwanted pregnancy. As Pelosi sees it, “the hypocrisy is raging but the harm is endless. What this means to women is such an insult. It's a slap in the face to women about using their own judgment to make their own decisions about their reproductive freedom…”

Author Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale tells the story of a totalitarian society in which women’s bodies are, essentially, controlled by the state. A popular 2017 Hulu adaptation of the novel became an instant social media reference point for responses to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Atwood herself posted on Instagram a photo in which she simply holds a cup bearing the words: “I told you so.” Yes, she had, but what 21st century American feminist (female or male) was about to believe such a dystopic nightmare could be forced upon them in “real” life?

NEXT: Conversations with the World: Speaking Truth to Power and Ourselves (Part 2 of 2)

Aberjhani
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance

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Conversations with the World 108: Ben Okri’s Existential Call to Creative Arms

12/1/2021

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In his November 12, 2021, essay for England’s The Guardian newspaper, Booker Prize-winning author Ben Oki urged creative artists around the globe to dedicate their inspired labors to the production of works addressing the catastrophic crises of the current era. In his words:

“I propose existential creativity, to serve the unavoidable truth of our times, and a visionary existentialism, to serve the future that we must bring about from the brink of our environmental catastrophe.”

It just so happens that many creative artists already advocate not only for environmental justice, but also for economic justice, gender equality, and antiracism. That Okri declined in his op-ed/essay to comment on the last in this year when the verdict for the trial of the death of George Floyd made headlines around the world, and the trial for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery was moving toward a similar outcome, is a little baffling. After all, ending death by racism and xenophobia is no less a global crisis than preventing mass destruction from human-induced climate change. Neither, for that matter, is a coronavirus capable of masking itself and attacking our species in different mutated guises: such as Delta and Omicron.

Deatail from "Finding Shelter in a Circle of Gratitude Number 3: Meanwhile Back on Earth" art by Aberjhani. Full wall art print available for purchase on artist's Fine Art America and Pixels profiles as well as here at Bright Skylark.)

Does any of that mean Okri’s call for more mindful considerations of climate change should be ignored? Not at all. But how any given creative chooses to respond to it is up to them. My own compulsion to address climate change is apparent in the article, “The Art of Reversing Climate Change Denial,” in artwork currently on exhibit in the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport Art Gallery, and in the book, Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah.

Taking Notice of Rare Literary Talent

I first became aware of Okri’s commanding literary voice after his novel, The Famished Road, catapulted him to world fame in the 1990s. If I hadn’t been a bookseller at the time, I probably would not have learned about the title. Moreover, I likely would have missed out on the gems which have continued to flow from his pen.

The Famished Road turned out to be one of those rare reads which I never wanted to put down and rushed back to at every opportunity. My review essay on it was published first in the now defunct Georgia Guardian newspaper and, later, in my AXS Entertainment African-American Cultural Arts column. In it, I pointed out something which illustrates well Okri’s current howl of existential angst:

His work poses very serious questions for the twenty-first century. Among them: To what extent will we allow the indefinable dynamics of something called “destiny” to maintain grief and horror in the world? How hard are human beings willing to fight to achieve and sustain justice, equanimity, or joy? And should progress be called such when it devours what is best within the human spirit? (From essay Ben Okri’s Famished Road Leads to Thrilling Reading Pleasure, by Aberjhani)

When considering the above observation made years ago, it becomes easy to see why much of my recent literary and fine visual art has indeed been mindful responses to the turbulent terrors of this historical moment. With climate change denial literally stoking the flames of mass destruction, xenophobia prompting unjust killings, and armed conflicts increasing instead of decreasing, how could they be otherwise? Small wonder that billionaire’s are investing their cash into space-bound rockets.

Supporting the Process

My brand of existential creativity cannot include the assertion that these days are humanity’s last days. I have to hold my creative endeavors and my mindful intentions accountable for something more than standing on street corners screaming the end is near. That is where the “visionary” aspect of Okri’s battle cry comes into play and where our philosophical approaches align best.

It is, without question, imperative we acknowledge the near-apocalyptic conditions forcing dangerous human migrations all over the world and producing toxic circumstances both physical and psychic in nature. It is equally vital we propose and work to secure alternative outcomes. My way of supporting that process has been, and remains, to help provide language, images, and strategies which enable us to steer our way through the raging chaos. How many before us have had to so the same?

The spark of life itself never goes out completely. The stream of existence adapts to new pathways and new challenges while yet flowing steadily toward a horizon of uncertainty and a dawn of renewed hope. This reflection is not intended to suggest the existential perils before us are insignificant. It is intended to affirm the priceless value of all we stand to lose and which yet might be salvaged.

Aberjhani
Creator of Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle
Author of Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

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Two Savannah-born Authors Shine in 2021 Literary Spotlights

6/13/2021

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Some unquestionably will view it as a strange kind of paradox but the stature and influence of two Savannah, Georgia-born authors has just increased in two spectacular ways. Specifically, Iowa City council members recently named one of its largest public spaces the James Alan McPherson Park after Savannah’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning native son, who for years headed the world-famous Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Equally significant, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the American Literature Association to cancel its annual conference last year, it will return June 17-19, 2021, with the Flannery O’Connor and Families Symposium at the DeSoto Hotel only a few blocks from O’Connor’s birthplace. Headlining the event is author Minrose Gwin, who will give a presentation titled “’Where you come from is gone’: What Flannery O’Connor Taught Me about Mothers” (free and open to the public June 18, Friday, at 5PM).

A DELAYED PUBLIC DEBUT

There are not, so far as I know, any plans to name a park anywhere after me (understandably enough and totally acceptable) but I am happy to note my book, Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind, is among the titles being made available by The Book Lady Bookstore for the O’Connor symposium. Given numerous postponements of efforts to host booksigning events while simultaneously taking precautions against the pandemic and moving ahead with projects addressing the full scope of recent social, political, and racial developments, the opportunity to include autographed copies of Greeting Flannery with other titles on exhibit for the O’Connor symposium is a welcomed one.

McPHERSON’S LASTING LEGACY

Next month, July 27, 2021, will mark the fifth anniversary of James Alan McPherson’s death. By now, my admiration for his work as expressed in Greeting Flannery is well-known. Therefore, when news broke in March (just as Americans were glimpsing light at the end of the pandemic tunnel) that Iowa City Council members had voted to rename the former Creekside Park in his honor, I happily applauded.

McPherson had sometimes joked that winning a Pulitzer Prize could be a terrible thing for a writer because once, or if, that happened, people rarely acknowledged any of his or her other accomplishments. However, as Lee Hermiston reported in The Gazette, Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague was well aware of the author’s overall value when noting:

“I think Mr. McPherson is well-deserving. 'He was all about community... I think this is a great honor, and I'm so happy the city of Iowa City had the opportunity to vote to name this park after him.”

Highly-treasured as an educator in the city, the park was named after McPherson partly in response to the Black Lives Matter movement which swept through the U.S. in 2020. The honor stands in odd stark contrast to the absence of any major tributes to McPherson in his hometown. He is mentioned on a historical marker dedicated to the Carnegie Branch Library but his death in 2016 was all but ignored by media in the city even as it made headlines worldwide; the same lack of acknowledgement followed the announcement of the park’s renaming.

FROM COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS TO O’CONNOR SYMPOSIUM

For some three decades, with the exception of last year, the American Literature Association (ALA) has held annual conferences in cities around America, including: Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Cambridge, and on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. It started, according to ALA’s website, like this:

“In June 1989, members of the major societies devoted to American authors met at the Cal State Symposium on American Literature in San Diego, to discuss ways to provide specialists in American authors with new opportunities for scholarly interaction. The result was the American Literature Association: a coalition of societies devoted to the study of American authors.”

The ALA conference has been held in Savannah previously. But with cities reopening after a year of COVID lockdowns and struggling to regain economic footing, the choice to hold The Flannery O’Connor and Families Symposium in the city makes it something like the lucky winner of a lottery prize.

The complexity of O’Connor’s writings when it comes to addressing such issues as religion and race has often resulted in divided critical responses ranging from high intellectual praise to doubt-riddled contempt. Extracting meaning from that skillfully-woven web of complexity is an important part of my own reasons for approaching reflections on her work via three creative routes: the essay, visual art, and poetry.

(“Flannery O’Connor and Families” Minrose Gwin poster art courtesy of Georgia Humanities in partnership with Georgia College, Andalusia Institute and other notable supporters of the cultural arts.)

The scholars addressing the symposium, directed by Georgia College’s Marshall Bruce Gentry, will present panels and papers on everything from “Flannery O’Connor and Race” and “Love, Law, Medicine: Teaching (Almost Anything) with O’Connor,” to breakout sessions on individual O’Connor short stories and miscellaneous related topics.

In a city where the concept of literature is too often restricted to references to John Berendt’s now-classic tome on Savannah, the current nods to McPherson’s and O’Connor’s legacies demonstrate its literary significance runs much deeper than generally suggested.

Aberjhani
Co-author Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Creator of Original Silk-Fatherbrush Artstyle

(“Flannery O’Connor and Families” poster art courtesy of Georgia Humanities in partnership with Georgia College, Andalusia Institute and other notable supporters of the cultural arts.)

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The Consecrated Souls of Whitney Houston and Don Cornelius (Part 1)

6/7/2021

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With the death of TV’s legendary Soul Train founder Don Cornelius (Sept 27, 1936-Feb 1, 2012) at the very beginning of February in 2012, and that of Whitney Houston (b. Aug 9, 1963) February 11, Black History Month 2012 was fated to go down in history as one during which the world lost two of its greatest champions of African-American music.

The Difference Don Cornelius Made

Cornelius’s impact as the host of Soul Train for more than two decades (1971-1993, the show itself ran until 2006) cannot be overstated. At a time when American television still reflected restrictive racist practices common in the country, Cornelius’s syndicated show made a game-changing difference. It did so by providing a weekly platform for Black musicians, celebrated African-American dance styles, and allowing families of color to see positive reflections of themselves within a medium where such images were rare.

He also, however, modeled the power of diversity by occasionally including on the show White artists such as Teena Marie (March 5, 1956 - Dec 26, 2010), Hall and Oates, and Canadian singer Gino Vannelli. But in the host’s own words, when it came to Soul Train’s groundbreaking success, “the blackness of it all is what made it different.”

Soul Train’s importance as a major outlet for established Black musical artists like Stevie Wonder, The O’Jays, Donna Summer (Dec 31, 1948 - May 17, 2012), James Brown (May 3, 1933 - Dec 25, 2006), and other major talents was undeniable. But another of its extremely important but often overlooked roles was as an incubator for developing performers. Among those who spent time dancing on the long-running show (which ended ) before establishing their own careers in the entertainment industry were: singers Jody Watley and Jeffery Daniel (of Shalamar fame), the late Jermaine Stewart (Sept 7, 1957 - March 17, 1997), actress Rosie Perez, and entertainment entrepreneur Nick Cannon, currently the weekly host of The Masked Singer.

Don Cornelius’s history-making legacy lives on through the annual Soul Train Awards presented on the BET Network.

NEXT PLEASE CHECK OUT: The Consecrated Souls of Whitney Houston and Don Cornelius Part 2 with poem dedicated to the great music diva and actress Whitney Houston.

Aberjhani
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Greeting Flannery O'Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

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Celebrating the PEN Centennial Part 2: The Pattern of Dynamics

5/1/2021

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INTRO: This installment of Celebrating the PEN Centennial was first published in May 2012. What it addresses in regard to writers’ relationships with language as well as such issues as immigration and genocide are as irrefutably relevant now as then. Possibly even more so. To read part 1 of this series please click here. Part 2 begins now:

Intoxicaing Melodies

Whether language is shyly uttered, fiercely written, or fearfully thought, it creates an inherent rhythm which invites the soul to dance to such intoxicating melodies as truth, anger, inspiration, fear, and love.

Human beings most often accept that invitation to dance in many different ways. Sometimes we do so by following the lead of an initial small or large realization until it whirls voluptuously into an unyielding idea that persuades us to take a certain action or cautions us against another.

Sometimes other pronouncements, spoken or un-, follow the first. But in languages of different kinds. They spring back and forth between diverse grammars and revelations of universal symbols or archetypes, as strangely enthralling formulations and poetic constructions creating what many might recognize as: a song of some kind.

The music is not always beautiful and the dance it inspires may appear more macabre than graceful. As much as we might prefer to choreograph our lives to hip-hop ballads of genuine democracy, various populations throughout the world community endure their existence instead to the soundtrack of something closer to a nonfiction nightmare dystopia.

Ours is an age in which thousands are driven daily from their homelands by the unforgiving brutalities of war, terrorism, political oppression, starvation, disease, economic piracy, and the relentless suffocation of that singular breath which makes human beings individuals. In the United States, Latinos once secure in their identities as Americans discover they are in fact something referred to as “illegal aliens.” They then have to make their way south across the Mexican border and reestablish their lives to the tune of conditions and customs which previously had been little more than the subject of tales shared by grandparents and other interesting relatives.

Leaving Somalia, refugees struggle to reach neighboring countries like Kenya and Ethiopia or, increasingly, to cross the Atlantic to the United States to escape rape, mutilation, and genocide. People indigenously at home in rain forests and other native locales find themselves driven out by the encroaching demands of commercialism [and climate change].

In each of these scenarios human beings have to adapt to choices made by someone other than themselves and dance frantically, as it were, to a beat not their own. The forced nature of these cultural migrations burden language with a vocabulary of tears steeped in grief and desperation. And they challenge writers to retrieve out of these everyday tragedies any beauty worth singing–– without glamorizing the horrors involved or betraying the lives so despicably at risk.

The Pattern of Dynamics

An author accepting language’s invitation to dance steps onto the floor of his or her sensibility-charged consciousness and begins to move instinctively––even if with much dread––in ways which synchronize images, ideas, emotions, sounds, smells, ignorance, and knowledge. Subtle energies crackle insistently along intersecting horizontal and vertical lines to occupy each other repeatedly and compose a vision which at some point may be called a story, a poem, an essay, or a play.

The pattern of dynamics might alter where different authors are concerned but the nature of this paradigm dancing remains essentially the same. Such is the culture, if you will, of the dance shared between vernacular and writers that others––passionate readers, curious friends, fellow authors, tribes on the run––are always encouraged to join them. Many, in fact, will say the dance is not a true one until they do.

NEXT UP: Celebrating the PEN Centennial Part 2: The Pattern of Dynamics

Aberjhani
Author of The River of Winged Dreams
and Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

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Conversations with the World 111: Speaking Truth to Power and Ourselves (pt. 1 of 2)

Yesterday and Today

Women Speaking Truth to History

Contact Author-Artist Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Conversations with the World 108: Ben Okri’s Existential Call to Creative Arms

Taking Notice of Rare Literary Talent

Supporting the Process

Contact the Author-Artist at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Two Savannah-born Authors Shine in 2021 Literary Spotlights

A DELAYED PUBLIC DEBUT

McPHERSON’S LASTING LEGACY

FROM COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS TO O’CONNOR SYMPOSIUM

Aberjhani
Co-author Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Creator of Original Silk-Fatherbrush Artstyle

Contact the Author

The Consecrated Souls of Whitney Houston and Don Cornelius (Part 1)

The Difference Don Cornelius Made

Aberjhani
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Greeting Flannery O'Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

Contact the Author-Artist

Celebrating the PEN Centennial Part 2: The Pattern of Dynamics

Intoxicaing Melodies

The Pattern of Dynamics

Aberjhani
Author of The River of Winged Dreams
and Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

Contact Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Aberjhani

Archives

Categories

Conversations with the World 111: Speaking Truth to Power and Ourselves (pt. 1 of 2)

Yesterday and Today

​Women Speaking Truth to History

Contact Author-Artist Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Conversations with the World 108: Ben Okri’s Existential Call to Creative Arms

Taking Notice of Rare Literary Talent

Supporting the Process

Contact the Author-Artist at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Two Savannah-born Authors Shine in 2021 Literary Spotlights

A DELAYED PUBLIC DEBUT

McPHERSON’S LASTING LEGACY

FROM COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS TO O’CONNOR SYMPOSIUM

AberjhaniCo-author Encyclopedia of the Harlem RenaissanceAuthor of Dreams of the Immortal City SavannahCreator of Original Silk-Fatherbrush Artstyle

Contact the Author

The Consecrated Souls of Whitney Houston and Don Cornelius (Part 1)

The Difference Don Cornelius Made

AberjhaniCo-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem RenaissanceAuthor of Greeting Flannery O'Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

Contact the Author-Artist

Celebrating the PEN Centennial Part 2: The Pattern of Dynamics

Intoxicaing Melodies

The Pattern of Dynamics

AberjhaniAuthor of The River of Winged Dreamsand Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

Contact Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions

Aberjhani

Archives

Categories

Women Speaking Truth to History

Aberjhani
Co-author Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Creator of Original Silk-Fatherbrush Artstyle

Aberjhani
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Author of Greeting Flannery O'Connor at the Back Door of My Mind

Aberjhani
Author of The River of Winged Dreams
and Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind