Visionary Vibes: A Blog by Aberjhani

Intensified Creative Vision Requires Maximized Creative Outlets (part 1 of 2)

5/18/2017

"Intensified Creative Vision Requires Maximized Creative Outlets (part 1 of 2)" blog and Postered Poetics art graphic by Aberjhani.

Adding the mantel of visual artist to that of wordsmith requires--aside from repeatedly earning such a title--doubling the secondary function of launching projects once they are either completed or close to completion. Some of us are naturals at it and others, like this author-artist, more likely to rely on the kindness of friends and pros.

With the ongoing soft launch of Postered Chromatic Poetics, one of the secondary devices employed has been a blog provided by the kind souls at Fine Art America and the camaraderie offered through the active clubs there. The club aspect is reminiscent of the Creative Thinkers International community once based at the Ning Network and I am often tempted to spend as much time there as here.

The Chromatic Poetics blog at FAA has been used primarily to introduce site visitors to new visual works, which is a good thing. Not so good is the present format restriction on images and links that can be included with it. So to help supplement those efforts, I am sharing below and in the next post the two most recent art entries with informational text and purchase widgets:

Dare to Love Life on National Selfie Day and Always

The Dare to Love Yourself "movement" had nothing to do with National Selfie Day when it began to slowly develop ten years ago. The well-known quote--"Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends."-- as many are now aware, originated with the poem Angel of Healing: for the Living, the Dying, and the Praying.

The poem was first published in the book The Bridge of Silver Wings and later in The River of Winged Dreams. It has become increasingly popular over the past few years as a rallying cry to support suicide prevention and to discourage suicide bombers. The association with National Selfie Day was never intentional but obviously a natural fit which hopefully helps encourage not narcissism, but a positive healthy self-image and a deep appreciation for all life.

The following two art descriptions are for recently-added images that celebrate the potential healing capacity of love in all our lives:

Putting Self-Love in Chromatic Context

Loving yourself isn't just about the photographs we post to our social media profiles to show the world we know how to have fun. It's mostly about recognizing where we fit in the larger scheme of things and how our lives contribute meaning and value to the world. Below is the image is the poem, published in The River of Winged Dreams, from which the dare-to-love-yourself quote is taken. The image itself is the second official Postered Chromatic Poetics artwork to feature it:

Angel of Healing: for the Living, the Dying, and the Praying

1.
As you bury flesh––
honor spirit, savor hope,
cherish memory.

Consider heaven
as a world-weary stranger
asleep in your heart.

Quote words that affirm
all men and women are your
brothers and sisters.

Pull the child away
from feeding at the mule’s tail.
Give the baby food.

2.
Compassion crowns the soul with its truest victory.
Hearts rebuilt from hope resurrect dreams killed by hate.
Souls reconstructed with faith transform agony into peace.
Wisdom applied internally corrects ignorance lived externally.

3.
Dare to love yourself
as if you were a rainbow
with gold at both ends.

Write a soft poem
to one you called bitch, shit head,
nigger, fag, white trash.

Live certain days dressed
in your lover’s smiling soul
while she, he, wears yours.

Imagine your mind
wings intent on expanding
and watch your joy fly.

(from The River of Winged Dreams)

As Goes Love...

The title of this artwork comes from the poem "The Poet-Angels Who Came to Dinner" published in the book The River of winged Dreams. An earlier alternative version features a different color scheme:

The complete first stanza of the poem from which the quotation was taken reads as follows:

I.
Neither had been invited but both were welcomed.
They spoke through wordless intuition, cool nods of
"Peace-Be-Still," and, "As-Goes-Love-So-Goes-Life."

The design used for this one was chosen because instead of idealizing hopes centered around romantic love, it seeks to evoke the many nuances of all kinds of love: family, spiritual, friendship, joy of living, pursuit of creative goals, etc. It also acknowledges that Love is often as much a struggle to maintain as it is a pleasure to be experienced.

NEXT: Intensified Creative Vision Requires Maximized Creative Outlets Part 2

Author

Aberjhani is an American poet, historian, essayist, editor, journalist, social critic, and cautious artist. His many honors include the Choice Academic Title of the Year Award, the Notable Book of the Year Award, Outstanding Journalist, and Poet of the Year. He is currently completing final edits on a work of creative nonfiction about the cultural arts, race relations, immigration, and human trafficking in his hometown of Savannah, Georgia.

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Making the Year 2014 Literary & Social Media Network Rounds

10/26/2014

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My AuthorsDen colleague Ronald Hull commented recently that I seem to have successfully managed the art of literary social media network hobnobbing (my descriptive language, not the impressively cerebral Ron’s). The compassionate behind-the-scenes team that helps me remain connected knows it has more to do with their willingness to lend an indispensable helping hand than with any techno-savvy or social-media wizardry on my part. Also, for me, it’s more like visiting diverse friends and associates in different virtual neighborhoods when time allows.

The team, however, can only do so much and some issues have to be dealt with through as much direct engagement as possible. Two big examples are the upgrade at Creative Thinkers International that has been in progress since the beginning of 2014 and the lamentable shutdown of Red Room back in July. The CTI upgrade is largely a matter of working with and adjusting to rollouts provided by the Ning/Glam Media Network. As many Ningians and members of various social networks have discovered, adapting to those rollouts can be a very tricky dance (Check out The Splendidly Revitalized Colors of Change ).

Endings & Beginnings

The Red Room shutdown was unexpected and has proven challenging for reasons that are more than sentimental. Blurbs for posts shared on Red Room were automatically shared as status updates on several Facebook profiles as well, so that distribution outlet has been lost (See The Saving Grace of an Old School Strategy and Impulse ).

There were also more links connected to books, articles, stories, poems, videos, and photographs scattered around the web than I could begin to count or think about removing on my own. They had accumulated, after all, over a period of nearly 7 years and were then rendered dysfunctional in less than a week.

Making the LinkedIn Connection

There is, however, that old saying which goes, “When one door closes another opens.” Sometimes even 2 or 3 new doors open. Just as Red Room said goodbye, LinkedIn issued an invitation for me to publish blogs alongside some of the world’s leading organization and industry strategists (A recent share Let’s Fix It 7 Steps to Help Replace Legislated Fear with Informed Compassion ).

Because I have become so accustomed to posting works of a definitive literary or journalistic nature, I was uncertain about how effective such a move might be. In the end, the challenge was one I could not resist and to date I have shared just over half a dozen posts on LinkedIn that combine advocacy for the creative arts with entrepreneurial, social, and political concerns. In addition, I also found myself living up to my pledge to support the Charter for Compassion organization in ways I had not previously anticipated. (Like this Creative Flexibility and Annihilated Lives )

I think that upon signing the charter at the beginning of 2014, I might have presumed that the signature, a few retweets of Charter statements, and some shared links were as far as my involvement would go. Thankfully I was wrong. As the world began to realize the full magnitude of threats posed by groups such as Boko Haram and ISIS, as well as by domestic violence and homegrown terrorism, the Charter provided me with an extended platform to address such issues.

On top of all the above, there was also the launch of the blog Tao of the Rainbow, about which I will share more in that specific space.

The year 2014 thus far has meant negotiating a lot of important exchanges. Determining exactly how influential or significant those changes are may have to wait until 2015 gets underway. For now, the only thing I can say for certain is that at least a few more very interesting developments are on the way, which is generally about how things tend to go in my world.

Aberjhani
© Oct 25, 2014

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The Astonishing Beauty of Art that Begets Art

12/4/2012

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"You were born a child of light's wonderful secret-- you return to the beauty you have always been." --Quotation from the poem Holiday Letter for a Poet Gone to War, published in the book VISIONS OF A SKYLARK DRESSED IN BLACK by Aberjhani.

One of the greater joys of my endeavors as an author and poet has been an occasional opportunity to compose poems, essays, and articles to supplement the vibrant works of visual artists with my own literary constructions.

That was the case in 2011 when providing panel text for paintings featured in the extremely gifted artist Michele Wood’s I See the Rhythm of Gospel exhibition. Previously, I had been blessed with a similar honor when composing ekphrastic poems for the art of Luther E. Vann in ELEMENTAL The Power of Illuminated Love. And I’ve written any number of essays reviewing the works or chronicling the lives of other contemporary artists such as Allen Fireall (who currently, heartbreakingly, is challenged by the need for a heart transplant), Jerome Meadows, Phil Starks, and Amiri Geuka Farris.

The year 2012 saw this scenario change in some unexpected ways. In recent months, various readers and inspired techno angels have shared with me a variation on the creative process of me producing words to complement the visual brilliance of fellow creators. Demonstrating Zinta Aistar’s observation (in her review of ELEMENTAL) that “art begets art,” they have employed quotations from my works to lend verbal articulation to specific images–– and vice versa. Their application of these quotes seemed a natural development following the increased popularity of social media sites like Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr.

It was an astonishing thing––at first––to experience. The reason was not because I had been unaware these inventive mergers were in progress (although in fact I did not know at the time). It was because the end results so often successfully expanded the original conceptions without excluding the original intent. Others provided fresh interpretations that generated new insights into my own work. How often does that happen for a dedicated pen-pusher who refuses to give up his inkwell and yellow legal pads no matter how awesome the latest generation of notebook tablets may be?

I have often stated that my own involvement in contemporary literature is my way of contributing to the luminous conversation sustained by readers and writers as we journey from one century to another. This new way of art begetting art (new for me at least) is both an expansion of and commentary on that conversation. One of its greatest gifts has been to inspire works like the illuminated phrase posted with this article, and taken from the poem “Holiday Letter for a Poet Gone to War,” published in Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black:

“You were born a child of light’s wonderful secret--
you return to the beauty you have always been.”

As it happens, the image used with this quote represents yet one more way that art has given birth to art because it is my understanding that it is taken from a forthcoming video.

So long as quotations or excerpts are not used for commercial purposes without authorization, I am more than happy to share them and actually feel they help me fulfill my work as an author. For that I am very grateful. After all, if one of the creative artist’s most important jobs is to address––through his or her specific medium–– the more pressing issues of the times, then surely a major part of any serious author’s role is to help compose a suitable vocabulary that accomplishes exactly that. Moreover, it should probably be one that further empowers fellow citizens of the Global Village to achieve such a goal in a way that proposes to heal lives instead of proposing to destroy them. That, more than anything else, may very well provide the greatest affirmation of art’s ever-commanding timeless value.

by Aberjhani
author of The River of Winged Dreams
co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance

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Tricks and Treats of the 2012 Presidential Debates (Editorial with Poem)

10/28/2012

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“I really think that one of the profound decisions the American people have to make now is whether they want to be governed by a president, or a boss. And I mean a boss!” ––Bravo Television’s James Lipton in conversation with Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball Show.

Halloween is close enough to the date of the 2012 American presidential election that the idea of the country waking up to either a trick or a treat on November 7 serves as an appropriate metaphor for the intense anxiety that has characterized much of the current campaign for the White House’s Oval Office.

Critics of Democrats have accused them of guerrilla decontextualization trickery in the form of a presidential administration that has delivered less that they believe it should have over the past four years. Likewise: critics of Republicans have charged them with attempting to force upon the country a potential leader whose potential administrative policies seem to shift and adapt to audience preferences.

In one sense, critics of both parties can claim the opposing candidate guerrilla decontextualized himself during the first 2012 presidential debate on October 3. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney did so by passionately presenting his political platform in much more moderate terms on such issues as affordable health care, women’s rights, and taxation than in the positions previously stated in live campaign appearances or the notorious 47 percent video. This penchant for reversing positions has been described by Mother Jones Magazine, Mr. Obama, and the Urban Dictionary as “Romnesia.”

Republicans can claim the president engaged in guerilla decontextualization during the first debate by playing the role of a timid schoolboy allowing a classmate prone to bullying others to, in the consensus of the news media and much of the Democratic base, walk all over him and straight to a first-debate victory. For the second debate on October 16, it was Mr. Obama who executed the U-turn, not so much where his stand on fundamental issues is concerned but in regard to how dynamically he presented and defended his position. Whereas he had previously appeared somewhat reticent or even docile while Romney drove home point after point, in the second debate he repeatedly stood and challenged Romney’s contentions to such a degree that the two men often appeared more as if they were engaged in a boxing match rather than a debate.

After the Dance

Several major poll analyses after the second debate––CNN’s and CBS’ among them–– declared Barack Obama the winner. They generally qualified his triumph as a “narrow” one and some polls indicated nearly a full third of viewers decided it was a draw.

However: anyone listening to the Michael Baisden Radio Show the day after the second debate would have heard one listener after another call in to express astonishment that anyone should have remained undecided or ambivalent after seeing President Obama’s pointed dissection of Mr. Romney’s various assertions and proposed economic strategies. Moreover, very few people of any political persuasion at all have bothered to dispute that Mr. Romney’s demeanor during the debate often was a true and frequently unsettling mixture of bully-like conduct and presumed racial superiority.

Bravo Television’s James Lipton appeared on Chris Matthews’ Hardball program the evening after the second presidential debate. In what he seemed to experience as an “aha moment,” he stated that he finally came to understand what he views as Mitt Romney’s true character: “He is that boss who tells lame jokes and waits for everyone else to laugh or else and who keeps us forever off balance, uncertain and anxious.”

The biggest joke, or trick, on the morning after America’s 2012 presidential election could turn out to be on those who decide their votes don’t matter because neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney are saying precisely what they want to hear. Or: it could be on those who choose to place their trust in Mr. Romney not because his proposed political strategies are better or his integrity beyond reproach but simply put: because he is white.

The following poem is presented here because it is about the struggle people sometimes experience when attempting to exercise clarifying intelligence and advantageous discernment in the face of challenging situations. It is also shared because Halloween, like the election, is now only days away. Fair warning: this poem does contain some crude language and disturbing images in accordance with both its contextual substance and thematic intent. It is taken from the book The River of Winged Dreams:

A COAT AND SHOES FOR HALLOWEEN
(by Aberjhani)

     Watching his reflection waver
     on heat waves of the old man’s soul,
     the young man sweated poison and said,
     “I’m naked old dawg, give me your coat!”

     Twice around the sun like an ancient notion
     the old man sailed his wisdom,
     then farted a lightning bolt and prayed,

     “In the days when hyenas of hate suckle
     the babes of men, and jackals of hypocrisy pimp
     their mother’s broken hearts, may children
     not look to demons of ignorance for hope.”

     The young man’s snot-slimy hands pumped
     a trigger––click, BOOM, click, BOOM,
     click, BOOM, click, BOOM, four times.
     Ejaculating a stream of dead fleas, he said,
     “I’m sorry old dawg, I need your shoes too.”

     Running, dressed in untied boots and a
     flapping coat, he fell over a ten-year-old girl.
     Her seven-inch knife slit his confusion
     as she yelled, “Man you scared me with all
     that funky stink comin’ out your heart!”

     Watching his reflection weep
     in the mirror of the old man’s soul,
     the young man listened as the old man prayed,

     “In the days when hyenas of hate suckle
    the babes of men, and jackals of hypocrisy pimp
     their mothers’ broken hearts, may children
     not look to demons of ignorance for hope.”

        (from The River of Winged Dreams)

by Aberjhani
co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
and ELEMENTAL The Power of Illuminated Love

Notebook on Guerrilla Decontextualization
Tricks and Treats of the Presidential Debates Part 1 (Editorial and Poem)
47 Percenters and Guerrilla Decontextualization (Part 1 of 3): Dreamers and Nightmares
47 Percenters and Guerrilla Decontextualization (Part 2 of 3): Barack Obama
Guerrilla Decontextualization and King of Pop Michael Jackson
Guerrilla Decontextualization and the 2012 Presidential Campaign Part 1
Guerrilla Decontextualization and the 2012 Presidential Campaign Part 2
Guerrilla Decontextualization and the 2012 Presidential Campaign Part 3
Guerrilla Decontextualization and King of Pop Michael Jackson
Considering Michael Clarke Duncan: Big Black Man Within a Nonsociopoliticohistorical Context
Sampler of Dubious Guerrilla Decontextualization Ethics
Poetics of Paradigm Dancing in the 2012 Presidential Election Campaign

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Novelist Philip Roth's Dilemma and Every Author's Challenge

9/16/2012

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Novelist Philip Roth in New York City. (Reuters file photograph)

In his September 7, 2012, “Open Letter to Wikipedia,” acclaimed author Philip Roth made an appeal to the editors of Wikipedia. Posted in his blog for The New Yorker, he asked them to correct a statement he identified as misleading in the site’s article on his novel, The Human Stain. Roth––whose literary honors include a Pulitzer Prize, American Book Award, and Man Booker International Prize––stated the following:

“The entry contains a serious misstatement that I would like to ask to have removed. This item entered Wikipedia not from the world of truthfulness but from the babble of literary gossip—there is no truth in it at all.”

He noted further that he had attempted through an official interlocutor to address the issue but was informed that site administrators required “secondary sources” to verify the proposed corrections. “Thus was created the occasion for this open letter.” Roth’s predicament created a pain-inducing illustration of a very modern techno-ethical issue: who should exercise the greater authority over individual public profiles on sites frequently referenced for factual information regarding an established literary figure?

Roth’s primary concern was accuracy in regard to a novel he had written. The editors at Wikipedia seemed mostly concerned with objectivity and authenticity in regard to the same. This is likely NOT a case of guerrilla decontextualization as some might surmise but more a matter of one website’s policy in conflict with one celebrated author’s informed preference.

The Challenge and a Possible Solution

Authors have long had to contend with the challenge of laboring first to create literary products and then promote them via public appearances and the maintenance of an accessible public biography. Others in different branches of the creative arts––actors, singers, painters––have had to do the same. That challenge has been magnified in this age of digital media culture because so many are now equipped and licensed to represent or misrepresent an individual at will. Consequently, something which should be an all-around win-win situation can and clearly sometimes does degenerate instead into a tug of war between individual creative artists and administrators of various digital platforms.

If there is a single most important solution to the issue, it may be for authors to make available on legitimate sites––such as your individual author website or other literary profile pages–– as many factually accurate document sources as possible. After all, how accurate can you really expect a reference article to remain if anyone at all is allowed to change it at will?

The apparent alternative is to spend time as Roth did composing a 2,600-word letter spelling out the inaccuracies in question and flexing one’s impressive literary muscles in the process. But how many of us would be able to get such a letter published in The New Yorker?

by Aberjhani

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Intensified Creative Vision Requires Maximized Creative Outlets (part 1 of 2)

Dare to Love Life on National Selfie Day and Always

Putting Self-Love in Chromatic Context

As Goes Love...

Author

Making the Year 2014 Literary & Social Media Network Rounds

The Astonishing Beauty of Art that Begets Art

Tricks and Treats of the 2012 Presidential Debates (Editorial with Poem)

Novelist Philip Roth's Dilemma and Every Author's Challenge

Aberjhani

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