Category Archives: Poetry

Tuareg Rebel Music

Ansari is a beautiful poem and song by Tartit, a Tuareg group from Mali.

Hopefully I will find time soon to transcribe and translate it. I thought I would post it in advance of translation because it’s been stuck in my head lately as I read the news about Libya.

I mentioned the Tuareg rebels in 2007. Interviews from 2009 with a Tuareg group called Tinariwen give more insight into their struggle, including time spent training in Libya; it showed up in the Music of Resistance series.

A Brief History of the Bohemian

The BBC, in an investigation called “What is bohemian?”, quotes Puccini’s character Rodolfo in La Boheme

I am a poet!

What’s my employment? Writing.

Is that a living? Hardly.

I’ve wit though wealth be wanting,

Ladies of rank and fashion

All inspire me with passion;

In dreams and fond illusions,

Or castles in the air,

Richer is none on earth than I.

Those who embrace the identity of the bohemian may in fact be capturing the essence of “outsider”, which has the most profound effect on fashion and fad, or other industries that favor constant change:

“Everyone has a view of what the bohemian is,” says [writer Virginia] Nicholson. “The bohemian is an outsider, defines themselves as an outsider and is defined by the world as an outsider… A lot of people regard them as subversive, elitist and possibly just a little bit immature.”

In other words, they are less likely to follow tradition and may express an ability or a want to live beyond the confines of localized control. That could be seen as immature if a viewer associates the ability to easily change and adapt around standards to a lack of maturity. The OED is also quoted. It emphasizes a male identity and uses the terms “irregular” and “vagabond” instead of “immature”, which reveal that the terms to emphasize an outsider may be dated.

The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition mentions someone “especially an artist, literary man, or actor, who leads a free, vagabond, or irregular life, not being particular as to the society he frequents, and despising conventionalities generally”.

Snap Judgement: Marc Bamuthi Joseph

Snap Judgement has posted their “first ever LIVE show! No notes, no do-overs, no safety net–the nation’s best storytellers join host Glynn Washington and rock San Francisco’s Brava Theatre”

In an amazing performance, Marc Bamuthi Joseph uses his many gifts to transport an entire live audience from San Francisco to the heart of Africa. National Poetry Slam champion, Broadway veteran, GOLDIE award winner, Marc is also an inaugural recipient of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship which annually recognizes 50 of the country’s “greatest living artists.”

“The first African American woman that I ever met was a white chick…from Lubbock, Texas…”

Excellent stories based on themes of identity and trust — an American who is black turns to the white African American for help with a trip to Africa.

When most people hear the term “African” they immediately are biased towards a particular image of a person. An attacker leverages preconceived notions like “African” to manipulate and engineer responses from a victim. Our presentations for the past eight years, based on research and linguistic analysis of 419 scams, have illustrated how bias sits at the root of our vulnerability to attacks like fraud.

“Urgent/Confidential — An Appeal for your Serious and Religious Assistance”, National Association for Ethnic Studies (NAES) Conference, April 2003