Nalo Hopkinson

The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson

 Fantastic science fiction writer, Nalo Hopkinson, author of several books in the science fiction genre that center people of color, posted a great essay to her blog, entitled “Looking for Clues”  addressing the oft posed question: Why do you write science fiction? In her blog essay, Hopkinson tackles representation, the power of envisioning the future, and the importance of being seen and imagined into the future.  She begins her essay, originally a speech she gave at Wiscon, by saying,

“There’s a thing that often happens at some point when I’m being interviewed about my writing. The interviewer, whatever part of the world or whatever       subculture they come from, will put on a curious look and say, “And why do you write science fiction?” the implication being, “Why are you, a black woman from the Caribbean, interested in a literature that still is largely by and about white people, largely men, using technology largely made by the dominant cultures, to turn the world and the people in it to their desires?”"

Hopkinson is a talented writer, creating powerful worlds where gender, sexuality, oppression, racism, and issues of power are not avoided but directly confronted, challenged, or reimagined. I’m (embarrassingly) new to Hopkinson’s work, but when I discovered her this summer through her book The Salt Roads, I felt much like I felt when I first stumbled upon Octavia Butler: as if I had been presented with a very special gift, selected specially for me.

What I appreciate about Hopkinson’s essay is that her voice comes clearly through – and that she uses that voice, to paraphrase Audre Lorde, “in the service of her vision,” to directly address the lack of diversity, diverse stories, and the erasure of people of color in science fiction. She fully embraces the genre, while also pointing out the dangerous cracks in its foundation – namely the racism and sexism that are ground into the genre. Hopkinson shares a startling anecdote about a science fiction story she read as a child:

There was a book I read when I was little; it was a story in which a group of children had to endure a number of dangers and travails. At the end, they reached a fantasy land where they would live happily ever after and they were each rewarded with their heart’s desire. The white children asked for horses, castles, jewels; in other words, property, title and money. And what words did the writer put in the mouth of the one black child to make the journey safely? He asked for a small everbearing watermelon patch and all the watermelon he could eat. And he got it. He spent the eternity of Paradise lying outdoors in a watermelon patch with a huge smile on his face, devouring slice after slice of watermelon the size of his head. The writer intimated that this was quaint and charming and oh so culturally specific and appropriate. My child’s brain understood it as the best to which I would be able to aspire.

What an analysis! I am particularly struck by Hopkinson’s incisive observation that,”The white children asked for horses, castles, jewels; in other words, property, title and money.” This captures, to me, the early indoctrination about what one as a child, can or should possess, and how that is conveyed and messaged using every available resource – even our literacy and imagination. We’re always told that reading makes us better – we can broader insights, and certainly, I would never truly disagree with this central principle as a reader. Yet, I also hold that it’s true that depending on who the author is, reading may also narrow what we can even begin to imagine for ourselves. Hopkinson throughout her essay, repeatedly quotes Samuel R. Delany, the Black gay science fiction writer who points out that, “we need visions of the future, and our people need them more than most.” 

I’d argue that Black diasporic cultures are deeply familiar with the science fiction genre because of our history of syncretism, as a result of colonialization and slavery, and the importance of storytelling in many Black diasporic cultures. Both Delany and Hopkinson are right. And I hear echoes of James Baldwin in both of their sentiments. Folks of color must imagine and vision ourselves in the future, and in some cases, in a very different (and healthier) future than the present we currently inhabit. Hopkinson challenges the idea that having characters in science fiction who are solely white really represents an effectively imagined future, saying,

My friend Ian Hagemann, a regular at Wiscon, once said on a panel that when he reads science fiction futures that are full of white people and no one else, he wonders when the race war happened that wiped out the majority of the human race, and why the writer hasn’t mentioned such an important plot point.

Perhaps the science fiction futures where there are only white people represent a fantasy of sorts for a world without people of color – and that too is deeply disturbing, but makes it all the more important to have diverse representation within the genre. Hopkinson’s essay is a must read – not only for those who are fans of science fiction, but also for authors of color and readers thinking critically about representation. Thank you Ms. Hopkinson!

I’d love to hear Hopkinson’s thoughts on Zane and the explosively popular “urban fiction” genre.

Over at The Root recently published a piece titled, “The Root Rewrites the Western Canon,” in which staffers suggest 25 books that could replace/be considered part of the Western Canon of literature. I appreciate the list as it names some authors and titles that may not be well known, though it also neglects some key figures and gems, including Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, Octavia Butler, George C. Wolfe, James McBride, Patricia Hill Collins, and Ann Petry - who in my humble opinion is consistently overlooked, though she was a mighty talent who’s naturalism rivaled (and outdid Wright).

What do you think? What books would make your rewrite of the Western canon?

Yinka Shonibare Mbe, A Series

In recognition of Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare Mbe, who has two exhibits up in the U.S. – one at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the other at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, I’ll be doing a series on Shonibare and his art. In an earlier post I linked to the National Museum of African Art’s foray into using social media and blogging to introduce the public to their exhibitions.

Tonight the National Museum of African Art hosted a very elegant and extremely well attended opening reception for the show. The opening was convened by the new Director of the museum, Dr. Johnetta B. Cole, and co-hosted by Dr. Camille Cosby, and Her Excellency the First lady of Nigeria Hajiya Turai Umaru Yar’ Adua. Guests included Lonnie Bunch the Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, as well as the Deputy Director of that museum Kinshasha Holman Conwill.

The artist, Yinka Shonibare Mbe, spoke briefly about the importance of challenging normativity and the great power of art; particularly in art’s power to directly confront, engage, and deconstruct concepts of race. He also joked gamely about being good at art bringing “ladies.” The event went smoothly until one of the guests passed out from the heat. Shonibare was unperturbed, pausing considerately until the situation was handled, and then continuing on graciously.

I’ll post pictures and additional thoughts as Part II of this series. I imagine that I’ll write 5 parts to the series, discussing Shonibare’s exhibit in Washington, DC; the exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum; Shonibare’s positioning in the art field; the role of identity in his work; and Shonibare’s own unique perspective based on his global citizenship, race, gender, and ability – which I am particularly interested in exploring as it impacts how his art his produced.

Plarning: New Uses for Recycling Bags

A sink full of plarn

Plarning. What is it? It’s using old plastic bags to make yarn, thus plarning. You take the plastic bags and tie them together until they become yarn that you can crochet, knit, or knot. It’s a great way to recycle plastic bags, and it lends strength and longevity to your knit or crochet projects.

You can learn how to plarn at myrecycledbags.com.  Plarning is incredibly easy, and makes a fun project for youn crafters.

Used globally to make bags, jewelry, and all manner of useful things, plarning has become a popular and useful technique for U.S. crafters as well – especially those who are environmentally conscious.  You can learn how make a handy plarned bag that makes a great gift over at Organic Sister – just click here. 

Incidentally Organic Sister, a site I stumbled upon, has some solid information on how to incorporate earth friendly practices – and nice pictures for visual learners. Learn how to make bows and plarned boxes here. Now, while I appreciated the site, it is taking everything in me to refrain from noting the class and racial dynamics,  since I’m on this environmental kick, it’s one big happy world, right?

Miss Cleo Sees Your Life

I’ve been thinking a lot about Miss Cleo….man, this takes me back in the day

Maybe Miss Cleo could tell us what she sees for the future of Health Care reform….

20 years Later: The Fall of the Berlin Wall

Just Stunning

Kerry Washington

Rod Stewart Teaches Us to Have Soul

Ok. Whose idea was it to let Rod Stewart release his Soulbook album, singing the way, “only his unique voice can.” ? Somehow I am supremely annoyed by this. I just don’t understand why this is happening.

Is Rod Stewart really that cool?  What is going on? There’s no way that Rod Stewart is going to be able to sing any of these songs, better than the performers who originated them.

The whole thing feels a little bit Elvis Presley-esque to me. It represents a history of white artists covering music originally recorded by Black musicians – and producing, in some, but certainly not all cases, less compelling music, while the role of Black culture in pop music becomes eclipsed. Keven Phinney wrote about this in his book, Souled American: How Blck Music Transformed White Culture. 

 A white artists of dubious talent covering and releasing soul songs from currently living Black artists, in a way that is designed to up his “rock and roll,” or  smooth and cool industry credibility reads problematic to me.  I don’t see how this album will keep Rod Stewart relevant….maybe that’s just me. It is not like Rod Stewart is Robin Thicke, Dave Matthews, Pete Seeger, John Mayers or even Michael Bolton…yes I did just reference Michael Bolton (but he can sing, kind of, better than Rod Stewart at least). It’s Rod Stewart! Where is the talent. This ploy isn’t original, but it is still irksome.

I’m plum puzzled.

Somehow this represents the complete downfall of culture in the U.S. to me. You can read more about covers and culture in the music industry here in a Time Magazine article and here.

Looklet Look of the Day

Oprah, Accents & Black Masculinity

Why is it that whenever Oprah goes anywhere and meets people with an accent, she starts mimicking the accent, even when her she in nowhere close to imitating the accent of the person she’s speaking to?  I’m really confused by this behavior.

Oprah & Jay-Z from O Magazine's October 2009 Issue. Photo Credit Unknown

And in other Oprah news, recently I read O Magazine’s interview with Jay-Z. I don’t know why, but this interchange between Oprah and Jay-Z seemed so revealing to me:

O: How were you in school? I’ve heard that when you were in the sixth grade, you tested at a 12th-grade level.

Jay-Z: I was bored and distracted.

O: Did you like anything about school?

Jay-Z: I loved English

O: I know you love to read now. Were books part of your childhood?

Jay-Z: No. I don’t remember that.

O: And I thought we had so much in common!

Jay-Z: I jut daydreamed a lot.

O: You didn’t listen in class, you didn’t read books – and you still tested as a 12th grader. You must have a naturally high IQ.

Jay-Z: Or I’m an idiot savant.

Good one Jay-Z. Good one.

What I found in this interview, is that you still an entire man, despite some of the interchanges. And I am particularly struck by how Jay-Z positions and frames his own masculinity. His discussion of what it was like to grow up as the youngest of several brothers, of his father walking out on his family because of his won pain, and how dealing with his issues with his father opened the door to his being able to genuinely love someone.

While Chris Rock is busy suggesting that hair that Black men can run their fingers through might help intimacy between Black men and womyn, Jay-Z has another idea, pointing to his own relationship with masculinity and his father. He tells Oprah,

“Because when you’re growing up, your dad is your superhero. Once you’ve let yourself fall that in love with someone, once you put him on such a high pedestal and he lets you down, you never want to experience that pain again. So I remember just being really quiet and really cold. never wanting to let myself get close to someone like that again.”

Jay-Z also works to position the womyn in his life, explaining how his mother helped facilitate his healing around his father’s abandonment. It’s just such a thoughtful, beautiful, and honest discussion about fatherhood, expectations for family, and love.

Speaking of how Black masculinity has evolved over the last 20 years:

 

Infographic Maps

The 2009 CSS awards have been given, and I’m particularly interested in the winners for  the “30 Best Infographic Maps.” Above, is a map that looks at both the location and gross income of McDonald’s and Starbucks. Not only do McDonald’s and Starbucks make billions in the U.S., but their placement globally has spread – even in locations that have a rich history of coffee bean cultivation; though this I imagine has stymied much of Starbuck’s growth. You can see a larger version of this interactive map here.

The map looking at health care costs by state is particularly pertinent giving all the debates about health care costs. Two words: public option.

To see a larger version of this map, check it out here. What I like about these maps is that they both tell a story, deal with a great deal of information, and do so over a large geographic area. Which is great for visual learners and those who need more guidance or support when looking at and understanding data. It makes the information more accessible, and I would argue, easier to digest and convey.