Path To My African Eyes By Ermila Moodley

Author: Ermila Moddley
Publisher: Just Us Books,Inc.
ISBN: 978-1-933491-09-7
Price: $10.95
Reviewer: Sojourner Ahebee


Path To My African Eyes by Ermila Moodley, published by Just Us Books, deals with the issues of cultural identification and self- love. I thought these were interesting topics to write about because of the global movement of people.

The main character, in Path To My African Eyes, is Thandi Sobukwe. She is a fourteen year-old high school freshman from South Africa. She had to move from Cape Town, South Africa to Buena Vista, California. The reason that Thandi and her family had to move was because her father, who is a professor, got a job to teach in California. Thandi is excited about her new school, country, and culture.

When Thandi first arrives at her new school, some of the students ask her ignorant questions about Africa. She makes it clear that she is from the country of South Africa and that Africa is a vast continent. Also two of her male classmates tease her because she has short hair. They comment by asking Thandi if she is a boy or girl or male or female. She also doesn’t quite fit in with the African- American students either. Her discomfort about herself is both cultural and racial.

Once she arrives in California she meets two friends, at her new school, named Chrystal and Jennifer. These girls are white Americans whose physical features Thandi wants and admires. After one day with them, she completely wants to change her image. She urges her parents to buy her a bike, new clothes, a boogie board, a surfboard, and she sneaks out and relaxes her hair. Her hair is initially short and kinky and her mother preferred it that way for political and cultural reasons.

This book is about the discovery of loving and cherishing yourself, especially when you are in an environment that doesn’t always affirm who you are. I think teens all around the world could relate and enjoy this book. Ms. Moodley extremely connects with the reader not only because the book is written in first person but because these cultural issues of identity are issues many teens face in life. I urge anyone to read this book because I’m sure you will love it and learn a thing or two about yourself and a little about South Africa.

I plan to interview the author, Ermila Moodley, in the near future.

Here's the link to Just Us Books. Check out their other great books.

http://www.justusbooks.com/

High School Student Philip Hayes Wins National Debate and $150,000

Last night at the National Constitution Center, in Philadelphia, the Now Debate This! competition was held. As I shared yesterday, this was the final round and the finalists were Malik Neal of Pennsylvania and Philip Hayes of Texas. It was so exciting to witness a live debate and in one of the grand auditoriums of the National Constitution Center.
The moderator of the debate was Professor Robert George of Princeton University. He was quite impressive. Also there were Dr. Josephine M. Templeton and Dr. John Templeton, who first envisioned the whole idea of young people learning about historical figures like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and debating about their contributions. Ms. Mary Hagy, the executive producer of Now Debate This! gave a warm welcome.
Malik argued that Lincoln was the greatest president and Philip argued that George Washington was the greatest president. I was amazed at how articulate they were and how much knowledge that had managed to keep in their heads. They were both inspirational to me and my friends-Daniel, Gideon, Brandon and Kiera and my brother Auguste. We are all 13 years old or younger and we might just be a participant in Now Debate This! in the future.

Today on Fox News and Friends it was announced that Philip was winner of the debate. He won a$150,000.00 in scholarship money and Malik won $50,000.00 in scholarship money. Here is the link to the Fox News and Friends show with Malik, Philip and Dr. John Templeton. Remember, if you know someone who will be a junior in high school this year, they too can try to participate in this great debating program.

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3040521&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/foxfriends/

High School Debaters Compete to Win $150,000.00 in College Scholarships

This past Saturday, I went to an event-an reenactment of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass speeches-at the famed Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia. This was the church started by Richard Allen. Anyway, at this event ,I met Malik Neal ,who is 16 years old and a senior at West Catholic High School.

Malik is a finalist in Now Debate This!, a national competition where students have to debate American history topics. Students from all over the country entered this competition and there were several rounds of competitions, but now the contest is down to Malik from Philly and Philip Hayes from Texas.

The final debate is tonight at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia at 7:00 p.m. Malik will argue that Abraham Lincoln was the best US President and Philip will argue that George Washington was the best president. The public decides the winner. You can attend the event live and for free at the Constitution Center or watch online and vote. The winner gets $150,000.00 in scholarship money and the runner-up gets $50,000.00 in scholarship money.

Malik Neal reminds me a lot of James Farmer, Jr., the youngest debater in the movie The Great Debaters.

Now Debate This! is produced by Pinnacle Performance. Mary Hagy is the President of this organization which specializes in heritage education.

For more information and to see videos of Malik and the other contestants
go to http://nowdebatethis.com

* Portrait of Lincoln by Robert Shetterly

The National Constitution Center
525 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA
http://constitutioncenter.org

Massive and Majestic; The Paintings of Kehinde Wiley

New York is fabulous and Harlem is vibrant ! As you know, I was planning to go to New York to see the Kehinde Wiley exhibition-The World Stage:Africa Lagos-Dakar. –at the Studio Museum in Harlem. It is absolutely magnificent. All the paintings were created in 2008, so this is his most recent work. For those unfamiliar with Kehinde Wiley, he is the master of blending the new world with the old. He does these massive paintings of contemporary black and brown men in their urban clothing.

My favorite paintings of his are Hunger, Rubin Singleton and Three Wise Men. Kehinde Wiley’s work is very large and very detailed. In Hunger, you feel the pain of the young men in this painting. You feel this through their eyes. One thing about Kehinde Wiley, his paintings are full of strong looking, powerful males of color. They look majestic.
According to the Studio Museum “Wiley is known for his stylized paintings of young, urban African-American men in poses borrowed from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European figurative paintings, a practice he started in the early 2000s while an artist in residence at the Studio Museum. Over the last two years, Wiley has expanded his project by living and working abroad; he temporarily relocates to different countries and opens satellite studios to become familiar with local culture, history and art. His “The World Stage” series is the result of these travels.”

Born in Los Angles in 1977 and educated At Yale University, Kehinde Wiley is based in New York City. His work has the feeling of old master portrait painters such as Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough , Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and Titian. The style of Kehinde Wiley’s work is both contemporary and traditional and the black male if always his focus; black males that are commanding.

Kehinde Wiley will be at the Studio Museum, to speak ,sometime in October. You may contact the museum to get more details. I want to thank Amanda, from the Studio Museum, and other staff members for the warm reception they gave me and my Aunt Mona. And I thank my aunt for thinking that it was important that I see this museum and this artist. Thanks ,Tante Mona.

Do try to visit this museum and see Kehinde Wiley because seeing his artwork is an opportunity you don’t want to miss. The exhibition runs through October 26, 2008.

The Studio Museum in Harlem
144 west 125th Street
New York, New York
212-864-4500

http://www.studiomuseum.org/

Ain't Love Grand

When I started this blog, I had decided I would stay away from politics,even though my mom always says that everything is political. Though I am not old enough to vote, I am an Obama supporter. I also like the image of Barack and Michelle. I like to see a couple of color who just oozes togetherness. I think this is a needed image. Have a look at this video of Barack and Micelle. Just click on the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPYMaF2vAmg

The African Presence in the Americas

I’m back on the block! I’ve been away at camp. This was my first overnight camp experience and it was great. I’m ready to roll with the info. My city of Philadelphia, like many cities in the United States, has a growing and diverse Spanish-speaking community. I find this fact very exciting. I play kickball with a couple of boys from the Dominican Republic. I use to go to school with a boy from Costa Rica. I love that I can easily get tamales wrapped in corn husk (Mexican-style) or have tamales wrapped in plantain leaves ( Honduras-style). I love that The Philadelphia Art Museum just had a major exhibition of Frida Kahlo’s paintings. Frida Kahlo was a great Mexican painter. You already know some of the Spanish-speaking music I listen to. ( Check out the sidebar on the left and listen, again,-Lila Downs and the B-Side Players.)
I am slowly getting an appreciation of just how diverse these communities really are. For example, I don’t think most non-Latin Americans know that there are communities of people of African descent in Mexico, Central and South America. On of my favorite writers is Veronica Chambers. She is an African-American of Panamanian descent-her family is from Panama. Veronica Chambers writes about everything including Latin communities in the U.S. Give a read-out to Marisol and Magdalena: The Sound of Our Sisterhood, Quinceanera Means 15 and Celia Cruz; Queen of Salsa. These are great books that feature African-Hispanic characters.

Also, The African-American Museum in Philadelphia is featuring a special exhibition called The African Presence in Mexico; From Yanga to the Present. This exhibition celebrates the African legacy in Mexico and the Americas. The exhibition closes October 25th.

The African-American Museun

701 Arch Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106

215-574-0380

Pump Up The Violin

When I played the violin, all I played was Bach, Beethoven, Schuman, Mozart – the old heads. Which was great, but a lot more can be played on the violin. Damien and Tourie Escobar, the two brothers who formed the duo Nuttin’ But Stringz, are showing just that and are attracting young , urban kids to violin music and violin playing.
Damien and Tourie are from New York City and started playing the violin when they were 7 and 8 years old. In their tough neighborhood, it wasn’t easy moving through the streets with violins. Despite great obstacles , they ended up getting accepted to Juilliard-how about that. Juilliard is one to the best music schools in the world. They played in New York City subway stations for pocket change.
“We would play the trains and we had a captive audience. We broke down the trains on a marketing level. Damien chose the C train for its demographic and I tackled the A train. We raked in over $300 each in 2 hours and we did it 3 times a week.” Damien adds, “The subway is the equivalent of playing several performance hours each week and we were able to refine our technique before a live audience.”
It was their subway playing that got them noticed. They were able to get a manager and a record deal. Nuttin’ But Stringz plays classical music, hip-hop, jazz and R&B. Please listen to Broken Sorrow and Thunder to hear how amazing they are.
Vanessa-Mae is another young violinist whose style of playing is attracting young audiences to the violin. Click on the sidebar to the left to hear Nuttin’ But Stringz
and Vanessa Mae.

Stone Soup; The Magazine By Young Writers and Artists

Hey you guys………! Did you know there are a lot of magazines for young people which are looking for your poems, short stories and artwork? One of my favorites is Stone Soup Magazine for Young Writers and Artists. It’s a favorite because I had one of my poems published in Stone Soup. And guess what, you get paid on top of having your work published in an international magazine. When my poem was published, I got a kick out of going to bookstores and libraries and picking up a copy of the Stone Soup Magazine in which my poem appeared.
Stone Soup Magazine has been publishing the writing and artwork of young people, up to the age of 13, since 1973. You can go into any major bookstore and public library and find a copy. Stone Soup Magazine is published six times a year and is distributed throughout the world.
Do check out its website. It’s amazing. You can read many stories and poems
from children who come from many places. You will see incredible artwork. You can even hear some writers read their work.
All the information you need about how to submit your work can be found on the website. So, go have a look and get started now making your voice heard.

http://www.stonesoup.com

Kindred Cool-A Photo Exhibition by Laylah Amatullah Barrayn

In about a week, I'll be going away to camp. But, when I return, I'm heading straight for the Big Apple-New York-to see Kehinde Wiley's paintings at the Studio Museum in Harlem(*see previous posts on Wiley and Studio Museum )and the photography of Laylah Amatullah Barrayn.

Ms. Barrayn is a photojournalist and her new exhibition is called Kindred Cool . It will be shown at the MoCADA-The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts. What a mouthful, huh? Kindred Cool is a series of portraits inspired by three friends who loved jazz-the artist Romare Bearden, the novelist Richard Wright and the essayist Albert Murray.

I know the work of Romare Bearden. I haven't read anything by Ralph Ellison. My mom said in the next couple of years I will definitely be reading his book Invisible Man. (Has anyone read it yet? And I have not read anything by Albery Murray. I put both writers on my Future Reading List. These are books I'll read sometime in the future.)

"I've known the works of these giants individually. However, I was introduced to the friendship between Bearden, Ellison and Murray through Horace Porter's book Jazz Country: Ralph Ellison in America," recalled Barrayn, who discovered the book as a student while at NYU in 2002. “I've always been moved by jazz, particularly as it relates to the Black experience in America. I wanted to make a contribution to the ever-continuing conversation on jazz."

"It was important for me to show the diversity of what I like to call the ‘jazz society - not only musicians who create the music, but those individuals who engage the music and perpetuate the culture through an array of ways: writing, visual art, dance. I also wanted to highlight people who are inspired by the music,” explained Barrayn.

Kindred Cool opens August 3rd and closes September 14th, at

MoCADA

The Foyer Gallery

80 Hanson Place

Brooklyn, New York 11217

(Around the corner from the

Brooklyn Academy Of Music)

info@kindredcool.org
http://www.mocada.org/

Check it out if you can with your family and let me know how you experienced it.

*Look to the left for some of the work of Romare Bearden.

Speaking Me; A Youth Anthology

Osbey Books, Inc.

Paperback

ISBN-978-0-9752-6624-3

Teen Poetry/ Short Stories

5 Stars

Speaking Me, edited by Pam Osbey, is an anthology primarily of poetry and a few short stories and full of the exuberance of youth. Many of the writers in this unique collection are teens and they share lessons and explore very honestly some of the difficult realities teens,regardless of class or ethnicity, deal with daily.I had such a strong emotional response to the short story "A Single Shard" by Ericka Dickerson. It deals with some of the family hardships teens face like the deterioration of the family and teen suicide. The author's style of writing is simple, yet very direct and powerful."Red Black Green" by Gabriel C. Tyler is one of my favorite poems in Speaking Me. This poem addresses issues of racism, stereotypes,expectations and self-love. I love reading this poem aloud because it speaks a personal truth to me, but it is full of rhythm and energy.Here are a few lines:…

So we refuse to be labeled by stereotypes

And seen as just crack heads and hypes

Just babies raising babies

We will not be limited to being boxed up and locked up,

Idleness

For we transcend limitations

We are intricate revolution

We are notes in the key of jazz….

Other poems like "Bruised Heart" by Tamasia Johnson which address physical abuse by a loved one or " You Say Sorry… Little Girl" by Marah Langellier ,which challenges readers to see a homeless girl as their child, are just a few examples of talented young people voicing their concerns using the power of poetry and other literary forms.

The book is available online:

www.authorsbookshop.com/speakingme

http://www.amazon.com/