Visionary Vibes: A Blog by Aberjhani

For Love of Paris and a More Compassionate World (Part 2)

11/21/2015

"This fire that we call loving is too strong for human minds. But just right for human souls." Aberjhani (from ELEMENTAL, the Power of Illuminated Love. Poster art by FamilyShare.com)

You can enjoy part 1 of this article by clicking here. Part 2 begins now:

Impressive 21st-century technological advances notwithstanding, we have no reasons at present believe our modern global version of the Tower of Babel is about to crumble and then reconstruct itself any time soon. Terrorists, warlords, and state governments alike would do best to include within their strategic plans sufficient measures of sanity beyond the impulses to attempt to coerce each other into unlikely forms of submission.

Different values and worldviews do not have to mean inevitable violence or conflict. They can mean greater enrichment of each other’s lives. Leadership theorist Max De Pree wrote as truthfully as anyone has when he stated:

“We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion” (Leadership is an Art).

That holds true in modern times whether you propose to be a leader of young malleable individuals eager to become catalysts for positive change or of more established groups dedicated to securing a specific legacy. What matters, above all else, is that everybody matters.

Diversity is an aspect of human existence that cannot be eradicated by terrorism or war or self-consuming hatred. It can only be conquered by recognizing and claiming the wealth of values it represents for all. The situation would be quite different if the violent extremism which has come to characterize anarchistic terrorism and government-sanctioned warfare actually resolved anything. The problem is they do not. Advances are claimed on one front and then annihilation––physical, mental, and spiritual–– witnessed on another. Global poverty, dis-empowering illiteracy, health crises, and human trafficking linger like the ultimate toxic nuclear radiation. The hearts of infants beat their last, blood dries on abandoned corpses, and souls take their leave of now useless broken bones.

Of Love and Bridges

The 13th-century Sufi mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi, whose poetry in Persian has been translated into superb English versions by the 21st-century American poet Coleman Barks, told us that “Love is the bridge between you and everything.” Those are marvelous words to contemplate when struggling to make sense of the avoidable carnage in Paris, Syria, Nigeria, Mali, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Equally marvelous to contemplate is the confluence of sensibilities that has bypassed time, space, and nationality to make Barks’ name virtually synonymous with that of Rumi’s.

Paris in particular is known in part for its many bridges and is legendary as a place that evokes mesmerizing creative expressions of love, in both the greatest of artists and the most ordinary men and women. However, if the idea of loving those whom you have been taught to recognize as your enemies is too overwhelming, consider more deeply the likelihood that we are all much more alike than we are unalike.

Individual cultures and ideologies have their appropriate uses but none of them erase or replace the universal experiences common to all human beings. What civilization does not contain within its histories tales of sons, daughters, husbands, and wives who have been lost to conflict, and whose deaths left gaping voids that could be filled with nothing but grief? In what land do people not hope that the coming New Year will bring with it fewer reasons to bow before fear or despair and greater inspiration applied to an empowered sense of hope and dignity? The more healing options do not have to be dragged into a disposal bin designed for unrealistic dreams and desires.

A Messy and Complicated Concept

The four letters that spell out the word “love”––or five (amour) in French, seven (Кохання) in Ukrainian, or six (upendo) in Swahili–– can indeed add up to a messy and complicated concept. Nevertheless, whatever danger it (love, amour, Кохання, upendo) might pose to human existence is far less fatal than strapping bombs next to one’s heart as if they were newly-earned wings. Nor is it more lethally addictive than the apparent rush that comes from investing billions in war machines and prisons instead of committing the same to much-needed medical research and education programs.

These children are eating in poverty-stricken Mali, Africa, where terrorists killed 19 people at a hotel just one week following attacks in Paris, France. (photo from UN Word Food Bank Organization and Daouda Guirou 06-2014)

Consider that pain and bewilderment at some point in the course of individual lives knocks people sobbing to their wretched knees no matter where those lives may have originated. Consider that universal agonies, common challenges, and simple human dignity make each of us worthy of some degree of compassion.

Imagine that the strength and resources which may be claimed through communication and reconciliation are far greater and much more sustainable than any likely to come from ignoring everything that binds the fate of one to that of another. The acknowledgement of a single possibility can change everything. It can heal a wounded city like Paris or restore humankind’s faith in what is best within us all.

Aberjhani
@ 20 November 20, 2015
Bright Skylark Literary Productions

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The 2015 Bid for Power and History in Savannah

11/16/2015

Diva Magazine photo of Edna Branch Jackson, incumbent mayor of Savannah, Georgia (USA). (http://www.divabydesignonline.com/dashboard.html?entry=news-georgia-gets-more-black)

Journalist Patricia C. Stumb, in a 1999 Connect Savannah news magazine story titled “Peace, love & blessings…,” wrote of how I “found worldly consciousness in the heart of [my] hometown.” Her observation was surprisingly precise because during that period while living in Savannah, Georgia, I had indeed become more aware of my hometown on the global scale of things. I had also become more cognizant of myself as an author whose influences and inspirations tended often to derive from regions far beyond it.

However, expanded consciousness or not, there was no such thing as overlooking the profound thematic shift that occurred in the city’s history when Floyd Adams became its first African-American mayor in 1996. That event prompted the composition of these lines:

By way of an African wind
a letter came today.
It was not scribbled over
Hallmark fantasies or
popcultural postcards;
it was engraved on sweat-dyed scrolls
manufactured by centuries
of anguish, struggle, determination.
––from the poem A Letter Came Today (I Made My Boy Out of Poetry)

The thematic transition grew even more powerful in 2003 with the election of Otis Johnson as mayor of the city and in 2011 when Edna Branch Jackson won the office. Up until this point, too much of the story of African Americans in Savannah had been one of a people continuously oppressed and suppressed by history itself. Different industries (such as film) and individuals benefited economically from that history but Blacks native to the city have rarely done so to any significant degree.

The Re-Historicization of a Narrative

The elections of Adams, Johnson, and Jackson created a thematic evolution that has helped the city prepare for even more dramatic and culturally inclusive demographic shifts already in progress. Call it the re-historicization of a narrative that dates back at least to late 1800s Reconstruction.
It was then that the privileges of freedom bestowed upon African-Americans certain political and social responsibilities pertaining to both themselves and their lighter-hued brothers and sisters. They learned what all before and since then have had to learn: democracy is not simply a license to indulge individual whims and proclivities. It is also holding oneself accountable to some reasonable degree for the conditions of peace and chaos that impact the lives of those who inhabit one’s beloved extended community.

The years had been a long time coming before citizens of Savannah could begin to envision new sociopolitical dynamics that involved something other than oppression in its various nefarious forms. Leadership has never been an exact science but it has always found itself particularly challenged when tasked with elevating one segment of a society onto a level more politically, socially, and economically equitable with another.

However, the 2015 bid for power and history in Savannah is about more than practicing leadership to balance weighted scales. It is about giving shape to an historical context capable of sustaining progress on multiple fronts. It is about negotiating changes which some may find difficult to accept but which in fact cannot be avoided. Fortunately, city residents can choose between two excellent candidates for the tasks at hand: contender Eddie DeLoach and incumbent Mayor Jackson. A run-off election between the two is slated for December 1, 2015.

Video Notes on Past and Future Growth

The Infamous Iron Pipeline

Anyone hoping to replace Edna Jackson as mayor of Savannah is not telling residents anything new when they point out that the city has a crime problem which needs to be addressed in an aggressive manner. Certainly what happened to Crusader for Brotherhood advocate Semaj Clark in Yamacraw Village makes that about as clear as anything could. Yet what is true of Savannah is also true of Georgia, the United States, and the world in general (for this last we have the recent tragic example of the massacre in Paris, France).

It would be a mistake to buy into the notion that Mayor Jackson has been standing idly by and doing nothing but watching the situation grow worse. She has engaged the community not only on the issue of crime but on the topics of education, racial equality, economic growth, and the eradication of poverty. She has in fact addressed nearly every aspect of public administration and social justice while working devotedly as an inspired servant leader in this era of apparently nonstop globalization.

The issues of crime and gun violence in Savannah are not only about who is or is not sitting in the mayor’s office. They are about gun legislation that made it possible for Georgia to become part of the infamous iron pipeline allowing traffickers to illegally transport weapons to other states (such as New York) where stricter forms of regulation ensuring gun safety are in place. The issues, as it were, have to do with eliminating the underpinnings of poverty, classism, and the culture of racism that fuels criminality and perpetuates conditions which impede upward mobility.

Contender for position of mayor of Savannah: Eddie DeLoach. (photo by Steve Bisson for Savannah Morning News) http://savannahnow.com/opinion/2015-11-02/use-your-power-vote-today

Manifestation of a Progressive Vision

To say the incumbent mayor lacks vision for the city of Savannah would be a mistake as well. Jackson has been a catalyst, agent, and steward of positive change since as early as her participation in the Civil Rights Movement, and, as recently as when she lobbied President Barack Obama for his support on expansion of the Savannah River port. Her position as mayor of Savannah is itself the manifestation of a progressive vision for the city.

A better option than trying to paint Edna Jackson as a scapegoat might be to support her efforts to help Savannah fulfill its potential to become one of the world’s most dynamically cosmopolitan cities. That does not mean automatically agreeing with her various proposals. But it does mean taking a look at the larger picture while dialing back on presumptuous arrogance and condescension. Discourse and critical thinking are essential tools when it comes to securing progress in a democratic society. But in the end, unity and engaged participation are what make it happen.

Aberjhani
© Nov 2015 Bright Skylark Literary Productions

One Notable Measure of Just How Far Savannah Has Come:

10 Books Keeping One Writer’s Company During the 2015-2016 El Nino Winter

11/4/2015

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Among the many literary marvels for which the world can be grateful to Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison are the numerous interviews she’s given over the years. Her inspiring genius sparkles as brilliantly in conversation as it does in her novels, librettos, children’s books, and lectures. In one such interview conversation, she expressed as her biggest fear that of being stranded somewhere without a book of some substance to keep her company. That makes flawless sense to those of us addicted to books at an early age.

I would not go so far as to call myself an abibliophobe but I am far more comfortable in spaces and places that accommodate books with some degree of delight than in those which ban them from the premises. To avoid such a potentially traumatizing condition, I try to stay as well-supplied with more books than I am likely to read––for pleasure that is––in a month, as a Beverly Hills fashionista remains stocked up on shiny shoes, bags, and credit cards.

El Nino on the Way

So with meteorologists predicting a 2015 - 2016 winter El Niño that could make some of us spend more time indoors than usual, lining up reads for the chilly wet days and evenings ahead is not a bad idea. My own mixed bag of pages includes biography, literary fiction, history, poetry, and social criticism. A couple of the titles I’ve already read once or twice but feel the need to revisit; several have been on the bookshelf for several months and patiently awaiting my attention. They now have it.

The list, which features a comment or two on why I chose a given title, could change over the next month or so. But, for now, you might call those already on it my literati posse for the duration of the 2015-2016 winter El Niño. The numbers are not to imply any kind of ranking but may say something about how my cerebral passions and priorities tend to cross-pollinate:

MY 2015-2016 EL NINO WINTER READING LIST

1. Tiny Windows (poetry) by Duncan McNaughton. One of the founders of San Francisco’s New College of California Poetics Program, McNaughton’s work as an educator and poet has long captivated and empowered many. Tiny Windows is his latest and to me that makes contemporary poetry a lot more interesting than before its publication.

2. Black Prophetic Fire (history and social criticism) by Cornel West and Christa Buschendorf. This book follows the same tradition as the great volume of dialogue between James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni (as well as those with Baldwin and other profound thinkers). It’s also reminiscent of the excellent Literary Conversations series, but with the dialogue centered by Cornel West’s expansive brilliance it obviously reaches beyond literary concerns.

3. Jean-Paul Sartre: A Life (biography) by Annie Cohen-Solal. I’ve read novels, plays and essay on philosophy by Sartre but this will be my first time reading a full-length comprehensive biography on him. As it happens, Cornel West wrote the foreword for this “Sartre Centennial” edition so that had some influence on my decision to buy this specific title.

Biographer Annie Cohen-Solal. (1988 photo by Martine Franck)

4. The State of the World Atlas (globalization reference) by Dan Smith. This is the ninth edition of Smith’s book. He finished it in London in 2012 and it was published in 2013, which means significant changes have already occurred since it the last printing. It makes a good comparative reference though for helping to place current events in a developing historical context.

5. God Help the Child (novel) by Toni Morrison. I actually started reading this before the official publication date earlier this year. Because it is Morrison I chose to save it for a special occasion and El Niño popped up it so here we are.

Nobel Prize in Literature winner Toni Morrison. (photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders)

6. Life of William Blake with Selections from His Poems & Other Writings (biography plus) by Alexander and Anne Gilchrist. This was the first major biography on Blake and is still considered among the best because the Gilchrist husband and wife literary duo met with contemporaries of Blake to complete it.

7. Pedagogy of the Oppressed (philosophy of education & social criticism) by Paulo Freire. This modern classic by a highly-revered author has been recommended to me many times over the years. With the various demographic shifts and cultural migrations currently taking place, now seems like a good time to give it some serious attention.

"Pedagogy of the Oppressed" author Paulo Freiere. (Image source: Mohawk Valley Freedom School https://mvfreedomschool.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/pedagogy-of-the-oppressed-reading-group-wednesday-march-5/

8. Race to Incarcerate: A Graphic Retelling (criminal justice, comics, graphic novel) by Sabrina Jones and Marc Mauer with a foreword by Michelle Alexander. There’s no such thing as overstating the crisis of oppressive human rights violations represented by the so-called “high school to prison pipeline” in the United States and its devastating impact upon African-American communities. The modern industrial prison complex is dangerously emblematic of apartheid-like practices. Dismantling it means coming to terms with how it came to be and why it continues to expand.

9. American Poets: The Journal of the Academy of American Poets (Vol. 49). True, this is not an actual book in the literal sense but it just arrived in the mail so feels right to place on the list. A quick peep inside indicates an interesting interview with U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, some new poems by Joy Harjo and Yusef Komunyakaa, and notes on some older ones by Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Hayden, Sylvia Plath, and W.B. Yeats. There’s a big announcement also from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation regarding their acquisition of Mark Strand’s personal library.

10. Dark Faith: New Essays on Flannery O’Connor’s The Violent Bear It Away edited by Susan Srigley. That title kind of says it all doesn’t it. Reading of course is not the only way to stay pleasurably engaged during cold soggy El Nino days and nights. It is, however, for this author one of the most sweetly enduring and warmly compatible.

by Aberjhani

©November 2015
Bright Skylark Literary Productions

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Many Inspired by Amazing Grace of Brotherhood Advocate Semaj Clark

10/31/2015

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Advocate for brotherhood and nonviolent conflict resolution Semaj Clark. (photo courtesy of GoFundMe)

The cost of the public health crisis of gun violence in America grows more expensive by the day. It has surpassed even the mega-millions of dollars that gun advocates such as members of the National Rifle Association casually spend to counter efforts to implement the most basic sensible forms of responsible gun legislation.

The greater cost is in that of lives lost or irreparably damaged. Sometimes the damage takes the form of psychological trauma experienced by those who have lost loved ones to the violence and for whom monetary compensation does nothing to ease their inconsolable grief. Recent reports on an attempt by Gloria Darden, mother of the late Freddie Gray, to commit suicide, underscores that point. Moreover, it represents only one example.

What happened to Semaj Clark when he chose to speak out against the violence he saw destroying too many young lives represents another deeply troubling instance. Yet his story is one which this compelling millennial crusader for brotherhood refuses to allow to be defined by the word “tragedy.” Considering what doctors have said about the likely results of the gun violence inflicted upon Semaj, his amazing grace is truly inspiring.

The following is a post that I shared on Facebook in regard to someone whose faith and courage in the face of heartbreak is beginning to inspire people across the globe:

Semaj Clark traveled from California to Savannah to share #love & #compassion in the name of #brotherhood . The violence...
Posted by Aberjhani Author and Poet on Wednesday, October 21, 2015

How You Can Help Semaj Clark Continue His Mission

Aberjhani

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When the Lyrical Muse Sings the Creative Pen Dances

9/20/2015

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Article art graphic featuring black & white images of musician Nina Simone, Sonny Rollins, author Pat Conroy, author & editor Susan L. Taylor, King of Pop Michael, poet & educator Ja A. Jahannes, Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, actor Danny Glover, artist Luther E. Vann, and more. (Bright Skylark Literary Productions)

If you’re a regular reader of my national African-American cultural arts column, you may have noticed that I have not been posting articles as frequently as I once did. The reason is simple enough. Having reached a certain point in the research for my current book-in-progress (at least one of them anyway) I had to reduce as many additional writing obligations as possible to fully concentrate on completion of the work.

For me, this is the part of authorship when the lyrical muse sings and the creative pen dances. The greater bulk of the more rigid tasks of verification and documentation have been satisfied, and imagination may be allowed to take over the processes of narrative construction. The resulting musical flow of image and language stamp the work with its own unique identity. And its own self-defined meanings destined to merge with different readers’ interpretations of the same.

The Writer and the Times

I started the national African-American cultural arts column on July 13, 2009, with a story about the debut of Johnny and Me, Savannah author Miriam K. Center’s play based on her friendship with the late 4-time Academy Award-winning composer Johnny Mercer. That was followed by a profile of acclaimed artist Jerome Meadows. The next month, August, saw the launch of the controversial series on the trial (and eventual execution) of Troy Anthony Davis, convicted for the murder of Savannah policeman Mark Allen MacPhail. Not writing about Davis’s trial, to my mind, would have been a case of gross negligence. Doing so was one early indication of what readers would discover over the next few years: basically, I found it impossible to restrict myself (as asked to do) to the subject of “the arts” as pertaining to African Americans.

How could that have been likely for someone who had already chronicled the global multicultural impact of the Harlem Renaissance in the pages of an encyclopedia, and whose first novel featured a cast of post-Millennials on a parallel Earth? I could no more refrain from engaging political discourse within a column bearing my name than Zora Neale Hurston could have resisted writing black dialect or Franz Kafka could have ignored the absurdities of his existential dilemmas.

Collage of images from the National African-American Art Examiner pages. See here are: King of Pop Michael Jackson, the African-American Family Monument in Savannah, Georgia, author Octavia Butler, slain officer Mark Allen MacPhail, artist Jerome Meadow, author John Lennon, executed Savannahian Troy Anthony Davis, and others.

Moreover, how could it even have been possible in the era that saw such titanic events as these: the two-term presidency of Barack H. Obama, America’s first African-American commander-in-chief, the domino effect of the Arab Spring in 2011, the death of a global pop icon like Michael Joseph Jackson in 2009, the advent of civil war in Syria with its subsequent refugee and migrant crisis, the heart-rending terror of Boko Haram and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, the Black Lives Matter Movement, the astonishing triumphs of the Marriage Equality Movement, massive shifts in population demographics, and the end of diplomatic estrangement between Cuba and the United States. Just to name a few.

This is not, of course, to say that during the same period I considered the cultural arts any less important than national or international politics. It has been more than thrilling to share with readers through this specific platform essays on such topics as: the poetry of Elizabeth Alexander, the life and legacy of Maya Angelou, the novels and ever-increasing relevance of Toni Morrison, reports on winners of the Nobel Prize, the enduring literary vision of James Baldwin, the annual global triumph of International Jazz Day, profiles of Kennedy Center honorees, and reviews of some of the most important films of our modern times.

Framing the 21st Century with Interpretive Journalism

I also took the liberty of expanding the parameters of the column to introduce a number of analytical concepts particularly applicable to the 21st century. These included several running series that provided in-depth explorations of captivating issues.

When it came to political events and social developments, I named my style of coverage interpretive journalism for its combination of original news reportage and editorial commentary––sometimes presented with poetry. Emerging facts, such as those regarding the 7 children and 20 adults murdered by 20-year-old Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School (and in the home he shared with his mother) in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012 could send recipients of such news reeling for years with shock and disbelief. It was the potential significance behind the facts that I chose to communicate to readers and which I hoped they found useful.

Indeed, much of this century’s first decade and a half has been comprised of trends and unforeseen progressions that basically trashed reality as humanity knew it and reconstructed it via the mechanisms of a technology-based revolution. No sphere of endeavor––whether in classrooms and boardrooms, or on football fields and battlefields––was left unchanged. Some of my stronger attempts to bring usable meaning to those historical changes took the form of the following long-term projects:

100th Anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance
Annual Black History Month Notebook
Guerrilla Decontextualization
Abbreviated Mind Syndrome
The Michael Jackson Legacy Files
Savannah Talks Troy Anthony Davis
The Text and Meaning Series

Each of these broke new ground more because history itself demanded it than because of any desire on my part to prove myself a savvy wordsmith. Are they likely to emerge again once the current book is completed? The possibility is a very real one. But which venue they will occupy or what form they will take, for the moment, is an open question. A couple of them have long been tagged for eventual development and publication as books.

More certain than anything else at this time is my commitment to completing the work at hand. It has patiently awaited my full attention for several years and the time has come to honor our faith in each other.

Aberjhani
© 20 September, 2015

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<<Previous

For Love of Paris and a More Compassionate World (Part 2)

Of Love and Bridges

A Messy and Complicated Concept

The 2015 Bid for Power and History in Savannah

The Re-Historicization of a Narrative

Video Notes on Past and Future Growth

The Infamous Iron Pipeline

Manifestation of a Progressive Vision

One Notable Measure of Just How Far Savannah Has Come:

10 Books Keeping One Writer’s Company During the 2015-2016 El Nino Winter

El Nino on the Way

MY 2015-2016 EL NINO WINTER READING LIST

Many Inspired by Amazing Grace of Brotherhood Advocate Semaj Clark

How You Can Help Semaj Clark Continue His Mission

When the Lyrical Muse Sings the Creative Pen Dances

The Writer and the Times

Framing the 21st Century with Interpretive Journalism

Aberjhani

Archives

Categories

For Love of Paris and a More Compassionate World (Part 2)

Of Love and Bridges

A Messy and Complicated Concept

The 2015 Bid for Power and History in Savannah

The Re-Historicization of a Narrative

Video Notes on Past and Future Growth

​The Infamous Iron Pipeline

Manifestation of a Progressive Vision

One Notable Measure of Just How Far Savannah Has Come:

10 Books Keeping One Writer’s Company During the 2015-2016 El Nino Winter

El Nino on the Way

MY 2015-2016 EL NINO WINTER READING LIST

Many Inspired by Amazing Grace of Brotherhood Advocate Semaj Clark

How You Can Help Semaj Clark Continue His Mission

When the Lyrical Muse Sings the Creative Pen Dances

The Writer and the Times

Framing the 21st Century with Interpretive Journalism

Aberjhani

Archives

Categories

The Infamous Iron Pipeline