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Literary & Cultural arts Persuasions: 
Reviews & Remembrances by Aberjhani

Exploring the stylistic texts, images, and provocative meanings
of contemporary & classic cultural arts.

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Transgression and Resolution in Michal Majernik’s Mechanical Bull

6/27/2023

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(Original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle title art, “Out from the Depths of Blood and Dreams,” by Aberjhani ©2023)
Fans of stylistically-rich literary fiction have only to read the first few pages of Michal Majernik’s novel, Mechanical Bull, to realize they have just discovered a rare kind of talent. It is one sharply aware of the soul-suffocating urban environments in which 21st century humans have encased themselves, and equally cognizant of the psychological dilemmas caused by their pursuits of illusory security and something resembling genuine love.
​
The question after realizing the rarity of Majernik’s gifts (a relative newcomer to literary fiction, at least for this reader) becomes: what is he going to do with them for the rest of this book? And how might he utilize them in future works? For now, it’s worth noting that previous efforts as represented by his short story collection Alibist, and work as a journalist reporting on businesses in Canada, are put to advantageous use. Occasional typo malfunctions in the current work raise some concerns but, fortunately, do not diminish the strength of the story itself. 

​Lava and Tears

Mechanical Bull (Adelaide Books, 2021) is a novel driven by the mercurial force of its three main characters’ often unpredictable, and at times violent, personalities. Each stars in their own chapter.  We first meet Berlin Fearne, an “energized and positive achiever” on her way to work in Hogtown (if you’re thinking Chicago, switch to Toronto).  In her professional life, Berlin appears to be an ambitious exacting marketing executive who demands promptness and precision. By contrast, in her personal life, she is prone to compulsions and obsessions which lead her to casually commit theft while simultaneously purchasing expensive items which she neither can afford nor has any intention of keeping permanently. 

​​At home, Berlin and husband River Fearne argue over who is more to blame for their financial and marital woes. Is it her for being “miserable” and “shallow,” or him for being “the animal and the demon” loser who has not held a steady job in 10 years and does not know how to comfort her? In short, they routinely physically and verbally abuse each other to the point of accepting their lethally toxic relationship as love, like two volcanoes convulsively spewing lava and tears all over each other. It is clear the mania and desperation driving them can only lead to something horrible. What that horrible thing may or may not be, however, is less apparent. Should, for example, the reader interpret it as literal or metaphorical when the author writes, “Emptiness filled her. Coma took her”? Any doubt is erased 115 pages later. 

Style and Heartbreaking Substance

Majernik’s style of literary construction fuses elements of different forms in lushly-layered passages of poetic prose with blade-sharp dialogue. Exchanges between characters run the gamut from unsparing intensely-heated tirades to soft menacing seductiveness. These are perhaps qualities of the raw naturalist and transgressive genres with which some readers will likely identify Mechanical Bull. While the author’s individual tweaks of the blended forms are effective for his creative purposes, and more than likely thrill any number of readers, it also possibly leaves those who prefer more linear plots and bluntly descriptive background stories feeling frustrated.
​
At the same time, it has to be said that Majernik depicts his characters’ ever-evolving states of mind––whether driven by heartbreak and loneliness, or disappointments and delusion and drugs––with exceptional skill. So much so, in fact, that a reader can come close to empathizing with their twisted brands of logic.    

Introducing Clare Morgan

Following our introduction to Berlin, we meet Clare Morgan. She is a college student who engages in various kinds of sex for pleasure as well as for different profitable purposes (including obtaining well-written papers). She imagines making herself “available” to different young men in order to “save them from themselves.” Among Clare’s multiple multicultural lovers is her former internship supervisor, and Berlin’s husband, River Fearne. On the surface, Clare appears to be comfortable with her recreational dalliances and for-profit hook-ups. Beneath that surface, she intentionally inflicts pain upon herself for her transgressions and prays at length: “…heavenly Father, that you Transform my unyielding Heart of Stone into merciful Heart of Flesh.” (p. 58)
​
She invests faith in her “boundless love” for River to a degree that, as Beyonce once sang of such obsessiveness, is DANGEROUS. In a letter, she writes: “…My beautiful River, my Judas, my Patron Saint of Torments, I love You, and I will never permit you to abandon me… May I eat your wounds?”  (p. 95-96)
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​Witnessing the extreme back-and-forth of this schism between abandoned moral convictions in pursuits of success, and the physical punishing guilt that can follow, immediately brought to mind passages by James Joyce. And perhaps Flannery O’Connor’s Hazel Motes from Wise Blood. Annoyingly, I kept picturing Joyce at times grimacing, laughing nervously, or crying. O’Connor might have been secretly impressed and just as quietly alarmed by Clare’s use of self-harm as a path to divine grace or love. 

​It is in Clare’s story that readers may experience the clearest sense of the author’s interest in how socioeconomic hierarchies make and break individual lives, and how those who maintain them spawn the darkness-versus-light narratives that dominate many people’s day-to-day existence. Majernik curve-balls his own narrative when sharing the views of one of Clare’s wealthier connections, Etienne Leclerq:
 
“…Money made the poor believe that they were alive, they shopped and indulged in order to live…  Power was the one true value in the world, an immovable object, the undefeated timeless effort, the stone that held the sword. Money owned the poor. Power owned the rich, and the rich didn’t mind” (p. 80).
 
Should readers attribute such musings to Majernik’s stated fondness for classic authors like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Emile Zola? Or should they simply consider it a natural outcome of economic and racial inequities observed worldwide prior to the pandemic and suffered dramatically during it?

The Philosophical Question

The author on occasion has described himself as “an agent of the absurd” that rings with loud truth as readers get to know River Fearne a lot better in the third final section. A barrage of explosive and implosive occurrences bring his character and the novel as a whole into a greater focus. Exactly what role River might play in any final resolutions or conclusions is, at first, hard to anticipate because the nature of his character can be interpreted in different ways.

He appears at times to be a transplanted victim of his society’s institutionalized bias and his wife’s neurotic ambitiousness. In his best moments, he comes across as a sentimental thug, reciting to anyone who stands still long enough to listen: “Did you know that all matter in the universe comes from collapsed stars? You and I are stardust.” This poetic scientific refrain was first popularized by the late astronomer Carl Sagan and seems River’s way of affirming he is as good as anyone else, despite any societal data or individual behaviors suggesting otherwise.
​
In total contrast to the letter which his lover Clare wrote him earlier in the story, he types the following to his wife Berlin: “Your life is a monument to gamble, and I can no longer live life on a constant edge, in constant anxiety, in constant fear of losing everything… you always run into unsettled situations. A hard life with no resolution in sight” (pp. 121-122).

​At his worst, River numbs the pain of his anguished frustrations with an overload of  drugs and alcohol. The resulting blurred lines between reality and hallucination lead inevitably to the death of an innocent at, of all things, a baseball game. The word ‘death’ instead of murder is used intentionally here because the philosophical question which follows it becomes similar to one posed by the predicament of Richard Wright’s Bigger Thomas in the novel Native Son. Is this death more the fault of the one who finds blood on his hands? Or that of the machinations of a society which, arguably, make such outcomes inevitable?
​
The anticipated resolutions to all that has occurred before––or the “click” as termed by Majernik––does arrive. It comes in the form of a string of absurd, and even comical, events which function to both punish River for, and absolve him from, his transgressions. I will leave the details of these events for readers to discover on their own.  

Only a Single Glimpse

Authors who have boldly ventured into the unconventional territories of transgressive and naturalist fiction include such contemporary notables as Megan Abbott, Bret Easton Ellis, and Chuck Palahniuk; plus, more classic talents like Williams S. Burroughs, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and the aforementioned Joyce. There is much in Majernik’s novel o suggest he might one day earn a solid place among them.
​
What makes his bitches brew of a book called Mechanical Bull worth reading is how finely he renders his characters against a subdued background of conflicting societal demands. These demands routinely grind out barely-surviving metaphors of a humanity still blessed with tremendous opportunities for genuine fulfillment but too scarred by perpetual trauma to realize them. This is only a single glimpse, albeit through a mirror darkly, of our chaos-plagued world but one luminous and revealing nonetheless. 

READERS ARE INVITED TO POST ANY RELEVANT COMMENTS BELOW.

Aberjhani
author of These Black and Blue Red Zone Days
Co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance


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Remembering Earth-Angel Christia Cummings-Slack

12/15/2022

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Pictured from far right to left are: “Christie” Cummings, Aberjhani, John Beary, Zoe Randall, Javier Matos, and Susan Patrice. (April 6, 1996 Creative Loafing photo by Marcus Kenney from Bright Skylark LP Archives. Originally published with story titled “Commune Strives to Blend Art and Life Into One Big Picture” by Bob Ruggiero)

Some like-minded, and like-spirited, friends once told me that because we had spent so much time “meditating in the light together” we would always be connected on certain levels. That is how I feel about my now departed multi-talented friend Christia Cummings-Slack (?-2022): artist, spiritual coach, women’s empowerment advocate, angelologist, and courageous compassionate human being.

We met in the mid-1990s during the hey-day of the former Blue House, described in Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah as a place were: “…artists, poets, musicians, soldiers, and social theorists had gathered to share their talents and talk about possibilities for Savannah’s future. There were black, white, Latino, male, female…” She was then a recent graduate of SCAD and I a bookstore manager also recognized as a columnist and poet. 
​Christia, known then as Christine Cummings, was also a principal supporter of the now legendary Blue House and a member of the production team for its “’zine” journal publication: OUT OF THE BLUE. The theme for its fall 1996 issue was “A Celebration of Home.” Among the contributors were: now well-known artists like Marcus Kenney and James Russell May; plus, an excerpt from work by poet Audre Lorde (1934-1992) and poems by Blue House founder Susan Patrice, Kathleen Thompson, Don Newman, Louisa Abbot, and Zoe Randall (among others).
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Christine and I also contributed to that special historic issue. My contributions to the journal were the poem “Calligraphy of Intimacy” from I Made My Boy of Poetry, and a review of a mini-concert by a beloved acid-jazz rock group called the Hunab Ku Quartet.   

Christine may have been the most prolific contributor of us all to that second issue of Out of Blue. In addition to drawings and ads about workshops she was conducting, included was an untitled prose piece in which she reflected on the emotional pros and cons of going home for Thanksgiving. Within her words are clear signs of an evolving spiritual seeker as she notes observations like:

“I have been learning lately that if you really need to do something or want something that is ultimately good for you, the energy will be there to make it so.” In response to an aunt’s interpretation of the sudden appearance of certain caterpillars, she later states: “…I feel as though I am in my cocoon already emerged in the darkness and beginning to transform into a soul that can fly free…” 

Christina also contributed to the Out of the Blue journal something which took me completely by surprise. It was a poem: 

Autumn by Christine Cummings 

           She tires easy now
          The wind blows cooler
          Her color changes
          The wind blows faster
          Her color fades
          She misses the warmth of the sun
          and children playing around her.

          Soon she will be barren
          She will get sleepy
          and draw within herself
          and dream while
          her roots draw
          nourishment from the
          Great Source, the Great
          Mother, feeding her
          dreams of belonging
          and of coming HOME.
The Blue House had to close its doors after a few years and our life paths led us in different directions determined by personal obligations. Via occasional in-person visits and a new thing called email, we managed to lose touch with each other reconnect many times over the years. We shared a passion for angel lore, which in her works manifested as inspiring art and channeled insights. In mine, it took the form of poems that gave birth to the book The River of Winged Dreams. We also both greatly appreciated and drew encouragement from the poetry of Rumi. 
All of this meant we were able to encourage each during uncertain times in our lives. She thought I got it wrong when I said a popular journalist friend of mine would likely become a friend of hers as well because I felt the essence of their natures to be very similar. She later decided I got it right. When we discussed the “possibility” of her becoming engaged to Richard Slacks Jr., something in her voice told me it was already a beautiful done deal, and one that would bless both their lives for a long time.

It was an honor to watch, from a short distance, as she evolved in the manner which she sensed was to come when writing in Out of the Blue and became: Christia. I smiled to read the different testimonies of people who said she touched their lives in healing and sometimes life-changing ways. Almost like an Earth-Angel they had never dreamed of encountering. 

"BE LOVE"

For her part, she knew her approach to spirituality would be viewed as “radical” by some and did not apologize for it. Just the opposite in fact: “I AM A Certified Angelic Life Coach, an Ordained Minister, Usui Reiki Master/Teacher, and hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts  and a Master of Fine Arts in painting.” Such radicalism, if it really can be called such, seemed an essential antidote to the extremes of violence and hatred which flooded the world throughout her lifetime. 

This remembrance tribute to my friend could have ended with her poem. At this particular time in history, however, I feel it more important to end with the following words from her 2005 op ed letter published in CONNECT Savannah: “Now is the time to be Peace, Love, and Understanding in the face of conflict, pain, and suffering. Now is the time to BE LOVE.”

Think of how much the world could gain at this very moment if humanity chose to take to its collective heart those extremely simple and profoundly wise words.

Aberjhani
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
Creator of Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

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A Grandmother’s Gift: Juneteenth and the Novels of Robert T.S. Mickles Sr. (part 1)

6/4/2022

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("Hands Reaching out for Freedom and Justice" Postered Chromatic Poetics for Aberjhani's Bright Skylark Literary Productions 2022)
​President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., declared Juneteenth a  federal holiday in celebration of the official end of legalized slavery in the United States of America on June 18, 2021. More than a decade before that momentous event, the late author Robert T.S. Mickles, Sr. (1953-2021) published the novel Blood  Kin, A Savannah Story. Mickles’ novel takes readers inside the painful ambiguities of slavery as his ancestors, some of whom were slaves, and some of whom were slave traders, experienced them.  The following foreword from Blood Kin is the first of two statements scheduled to acknowledge Mickles’ enduing literary legacy, and, in observance of Juneteenth 2022.

Foreword to Blood Kin, A Savannah Story

As this book goes into publication (2007), the city of Savannah is involved in the process of reinterpreting the significance, artifacts, and impact of slavery that was practiced here during the 1700s and 1800s. This reinterpretation is not so much
about dredging up the pains and shames of an inglorious past as it is about setting straight the historical record of people who lived daily through “the peculiar institution of slavery.” As much as facts tell us about specific events and practices in history, they rarely give us the full story of the human hearts beating in the shadows of those events.
Blood Kin is a story of those human hearts as told by Robert T.S. Mickles, Sr.,
great-grandson of former slaves on his father’s side of his family and a descendant of Portuguese slave traders on his mother’s side. Born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1953, Mickles moved with his family to Washington D.C. just three years later. Growing up in Washington, he knew nothing about his deeper southern roots. That changed when he turned thirteen years old and his mother sent him back to Savannah to live with his father in the city’s historic community of Sandfly.
 
In Savannah, his grandmother, Mrs. Beulah Tremble, told him stories of what
life had been like for slaves in the region. Having been born in 1888, first-hand
accounts of slavery were typical subjects of conversation while she grew up herself. She kept and shared the knowledge passed on to her until her death at the age of 100 in 1988. Mickles recalls that many of her stories were about harsh
times, but a lot were about days of memorable joy. In addition to his grandmother, many others shared their stories with Mickles throughout his teen years, entrusting to him a rare treasury of valuable folk history.
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With the legacy of his grandmother’s stories and his community’s history,
Mickles stepped behind Savannah’s fabled “moss curtain” to reveal an original literary vision of human beings discovering their deepest humanity in the midst of war, racial oppression, individual fear, and individual hope. 
Although Savannah for a period was a major location for the import and sale of slaves, Mickles shows how it was also a place where the line between those who were “free” and those who were enslaved was sometimes a bit more relaxed than in many rural areas of the South. This is not to say that the author excuses an institution ultimately responsible for the death of untold millions, or that he views slavery through proverbial rose-colored glasses. It is, however, to say that he is willing to examine the cracks and crevices of history in order to tell a story others might not be willing—or even able, for that matter—to tell. It is the story of how Blacks and Whites stumbled across the dividing lines of race and slavery only to discover that each was as flawed, needy, and human as the other.
 
Above all, Mickles provides us with an insightful novel of how our sense of
humanity preserves itself when assaulted with the degradation of denial, shame,
and physical brutality. His Blood Kin is a story that retrieves dignity from the
trash pile of disgrace and restores it to a place of honor and value. It is one with
which many can identify and which, quite possibly, all should embrace.

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


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Voices of Poets on War and Peace

2/24/2022

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(Quote from The River of Winged Dreams. Art: 2022 Digital version of detail from Luca Giordano’s 1666 painting “The Fall of the Rebel Angels” by Bright Skylark Literary Productions.)
PLEASE NOTE: This post is a continuation of Voices of Poets on War and Peace started in the blog post titled: Angel of War and the Year 2022. The full text of the poem "Angel of War," from  the book The River of Winged Dreams, is in included with the original post. Responses from different commenters have been included because nearly all are accomplished poets in their own right and what they shared go beyond reactions to a single poem to the kind of thoughtful meditations on the nature of war and peace many may find useful in light of Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine. Their words begin below the video. (To view original post with poem please click here.)


Voices of the Poets

 
Reviewed by Sage Sweetwater
"Wings of centuries
flutter chaos through children’s
bones, dreams, screams, and blood."

The CHILDREN'S CRUSADE of 1212. The story is that an outburst of the old popular enthusiasm led a gathering of children in France and Germany, which Pope Innocent III interpreted as a reproof from heaven to their unworthy elders. None of the children actually reached the Holy Land; they were all sold as slaves, settled along the route to Jerusalem, or died of hunger during the journey.

Angel of War outlines the fall of man which has existed for centuries. After the Christianization of the Vikings, Slavs, and Magyars, meant that there was an entire class of warriors who now had very little to do but fight amongst themselves and terrorise the peasant population and time hasn't changed it. The Church tried to stem this violence with the Peace and Truce of God movements, which was somewhat successful, but trained warriors always sought an outlet for their violence. The Crusades were every way a defensive war. The Church tried to stem this violence with the Peace and Truce of God movements, which was somewhat successful, but trained warriors always sought an outlet for their violence, a defensive reaction to an injury perpetrated by another. Angel of War has elements of the nine crusades, Aberjhani...would be nice if this could be a turning point write for countries to reunite in Peace, rebuild both structure and mankind, and reinstate pilgrimages.
Sage

Reviewed by Linda Luna (Reader)
Thank you for this excruciating howl - questions right on...painful reality expressed as always so well..you have put words to the confusion of why? Why do we continue to seek this 'angel' to save us when there is no forgiveness for what is done in war's game.
LL*
Reviewed by richard cederberg
A brilliantly executed, and scathing indictment against war, laced also with vivid images, and the regrettable onset of confusion that such calamity invariably brings to the psyche and heart.

Most comments below have added succinct realization and opinionism to the quandary of your biting construct Aberjhani. People are very passionate about this. Children are not the only innocents that become collateral damage in the madness of warfare.

"If missiles are faux dildos ... " I would suggest to you that anyone splattered by bombs, children or otherwise, are the diseased evil orgasms of the war-mongering, profit-mongering intelligentsia. There are no easy answers, and even reviewing these horrid realities ofttimes seems a moot point!
Richard Lloyd Cederberg

Reviewed by Jerry Bolton (Reader)
Dittoes Eileen. I am about aorn out trying to make sense of everything which is going on in our world these days. The only sense it makes is, if you believe in the Bible, it is prophecy. "There will be wars and rumors of wars." Maybe, in the long run, we have no choice in the matter. I DO know that some much of the blood shed these days come from religious teachings. I also know that some of the absolute worst man has done to man has been in the name of some damn godor other. Will we someday beat our swords into plowshears and study war no more? I haven't the foggest idea. I would sure as hell like to think so. The poem was your usual excellent write, Aberjhani, I am just to weary in my heart today to give it that much attention, except to say what I have.

Reviewed by Sandie Joyce
This poem is metaphoric! Yet, it speaks of the purposeless wars and the way it affects the nations. Aberjhani, you have spoken volume with this poem!
Sandie May Angel a.k.a. Sandie Angel :o)

Reviewed by Tinka Boukes
Masterfully done Aberhjani!!
Love Tinka
Reviewed by Andre Bendavi ben-YEHU
"Angel of War" bears the voice of a heart that pumps knowledge from the veins of intuition
and heedful obeservation of reality. Its words dance with intelligence in the cadence of life
and depicts the colective infifference of our days.

"Hear... oh, sailors furtune hunter of life’s voyage,
You can still dive to find an oyster bearing pearl;
Wear a diadem of flawless huge brilliant cut diamond,
And tear the web of scorn with a sharp sword of love!"
LXII – “The Humanity Of The Gods”

I Salute You, Poet.
Andre Emmanuel Bendavi ben-YEHU

Reviewed by Susan de Vegter
We may pass violets looking for roses. We may pass contentment looking for victory.
-Bern Williams

In this poem you call the shots. The power play of those making the moves on the great chessboard of our world forget one thing...they can be taken down one at a time when WE stand up and decide, universally, to stop being their pawns.

You are the master of words, thoughts and passion. Your deep thoughts are the inspiration we need for action.

Love, peace and a kiss for our Savannah Lady.
Susan

Reviewed by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
WOW! That's all I can say, Aberjhani!
(((HUGS))) and much love, your friend in Tx., Karen Lynn. :D

Reviewed by E T Waldron

I agree with Peter, a masterful indictment of war!
To me war is anathema...But the nagging question that I can't answer, if someone attacked my family especially my children, could I let them continue to annihilate us all without any defense. When so many want to commit genocide on another nation, must they accept it withiout a fight? Where lie the answers? Heart breaking write Aberjhani!

Reviewed by Peter Paton
Aberjhani A symbolic and allegorical master class write that condemns the absurdities and machinations of mindless war and aggression..

From your gifted pen, flows the innate wisdom of the ancients my friend.. 
Kudos and appreciation to you for championing the cause of the oppressed and suffering in humanity.. When will we ever learn ?..once sang Marlene Dietrich..

Shalom
Peter
My deepest gratitude to all of the poets above for sharing these comments and their own writings their much-needed wisdom and love for humanity.

And my sincere heartfelt prayers and good wishes for a peaceful resolution to the war crisis in Ukraine. It is never too late to #GivePeaceAChance.

Aberjhani
Author of The River of Winged Dreams
Creator of Original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

    Contact Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions 

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African Americans Far from Home (part 2): Intimacy, Ethics, and Take-Aways

2/17/2022

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Relationship building, arguably, comprises the heart of Gartrell’s institutional success and the soul of his memoir’s emotional intelligence.

(If you missed part 1of this article you can click here to check it out.)

Connecting with the right people to help establish and staff his Wisdom21 schools presents a challenge repeatedly met in innovative ways. Often crucial in this regard are women. His relationships with the same––notably, per the text, repeatedly initiated by them––at times blur what would be considered in the U.S. as lines of professional propriety. You might even say they were completely erased in certain cases. Gartrell is not insensitive to the point and wrestles with its implications and potential consequences. 


​Loneliness and Rules of Engagement

In a chapter titled “Land of Ladies,” he theorizes that during his time in the country, Japanese women were “especially lonely and in desperate need of love.” This, despite having a reputation for making “the best marriage partners on earth” (p. 108). A variety of factors are cited as possible reasons for their loneliness and desperation but the dangerous end result was an apparent (at least to the author) acute vulnerability which made them easy prey for unscrupulous foreign tourists. As for the author:    

“…Back in the U.S., I led a fairly typical life and tended to shy away from romances not suitably cultivated, wholesome, or clean. In Japan, however, the rules of engagement were radically different. In many respects, there were no rules at all... As an aspiring businessman, community leader, and person of conscience, I felt it my duty to address…concerns as appropriately as I could…” (p. 110).

Given the radicalized and revolutionized factions of gender equality activists around the world in 2022, much more could be written about the author’s observations of and experiences with Japanese women. This writer would encourage exactly that for one important reason. A key component to surviving the transitions from homogenous cultural models which many have experienced in the past to more diverse communities currently forming  is this: a willingness to understand how members of different cultures experience that of “others.” Powerful examples are presented throughout the subject text. 
​A definitive example of the possible pitfalls and drawbacks of mixing private intimacies with business ambitions may be seen in what the author describes as a “paper marriage” convenient for legal purposes. In addition to proving herself an extremely competent business partner, his native-born wife Kazumi calmly overlooks her husband’s involvement with two mistresses (a practice widely documented as acceptable in Japan). However, just as the expanding Wisdom21 enterprise begins to spiral downward, her expertise and devotion both disappear.   

Black Community in an Asian World

Something many will likely be surprised to learn about when reading 21 Years of Wisdom is the extensiveness of the Black presence in Japan. The discovery makes for a completely different scenario from the solitary status reported by James Baldwin in “Stranger in the Village”––or for that matter by explorer Matthew A. Henson as he planted a flag with Robert E. Peary at the North Pole in 1909––and thereby increases its value as a recent addition to the literature of Black expatriates. 
The nonprofit Japan African American Friendship Association had been established in the country some years before Gartrell’s arrival. His rapid rise in prominence, however, made him a suitable choice to lead it following the 1995 passing of the previous president, Harry Stevenson. He would hold that position for a decade.

​Interaction with one particular African-American from Atlanta proved exceptionally useful when the school founder clashed with the Yakuza (mob) over a dispute concerning a former employee’s dismissal. Before things could turn violent, his fellow expatriate handled the matter without the boss’s consent and informed him afterwards. Moreover, interestingly enough, it to a city with a more than 50 percent Black population that Gartrell returns at the conclusion of his Japanese odyssey. 

5 Teachable Take-Aways

In the Author’s Note for 21 Years of Wisdom, readers are cautioned that people who identify with certain demographics may find some passages in his memoir offensive. He’s probably right. But many of those same individuals are likely to sidestep any sense of personal slight out of appreciation for the larger philosophical, geographical, and historical contexts in which the central story is embedded. They might also find Shannon Roxborough’s insightful foreword useful towards that end.
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More than a few commenters have noted the stylish novel-like quality of Gartrell’s narrative. With that in mind: how interesting would it be to see a director such as Spike Lee, Steven McQueen, Regina King, or Quentin Tarantino produce a film adaptation of the book? Time will tell. For now, the following are 5 of what I consider to be important teachable take-aways from 21 Years of Wisdom: ​
  1. Harmonious interaction between members of converging cultures is as dependent upon those entering a host country as it is upon indigenous communities accommodating them.

  2. The literature of the African-American expatriate experience is one deserving of greater study within the contexts of both American academia and world literary forums.

  3. The potential for mutually life-enriching experiences shared by immigrants and native residents on various shores is an extensively documented one, the study of which could serve America well as the country continues to evolve from one of a majority-White rule to one of a minority-majority population.

  4. Alongside any strategies for raking in maximum profits, effective organizational leadership requires ethical practices which safeguard the integrity of an organization’s products, its image, and it personnel.   
    ​
  5. The mindful practice of cultural literacy provides an effective deterrent to mind-less violence between people of different nationalities, religious background, and other social distinctions.

By Aberjhani
Author of Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah
and Greeting Flannery O’Connor at the Back Door of My Mind
Creator of Original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle

    Contact Author-Artist Aberjhani at Bright Skylark Literary Productions 

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