A local book reviewer described the latest Toni Morrison novel, “A Mercy”, as “ferociously beautiful”. (Actually, you can describe many of her books this way.)
Ms Morrison has such a fantastical, spiritual approach to her characters and plot, but she’s also got “edge”. She can set a tone, paint a picture, capture identifiable feeling/emotion and describe events so clearly and with such poetry that it makes you laugh or, it makes you cry. There are some passages in her much acclaimed book “Beloved” that are so painful that your throat clutches and closes.Her “truth”, cloaked in make believe, is sometimes difficult to handle – sort of a ground glass in the oatmeal type of thing. You feel it.
(“Beloved” won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and Ms Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.)
I think she is amazing and a real gift. “A Mercy”, by Tony Morrison
“Writing was … the most extraordinary way of thinking and feeling. It became the one thing I was doing that I had absolutely no intention of living without.”Toni Morrison
“for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf” at SouthwestArtsCenter until August 9.
Long title for a great play – saw it on Broadway in the late 70’s and recently saw a 1982 televised version on DVD. Perhaps not as shocking or controversial as it was when first seen, the collection of Ntozake Shange’s poems woven into a statement on love and relationships is still powerful.
The current “For Colored Girls…” revival has been updated with new music and choreography and is directed by Jasmine Guy. (Remember “Whitley” from the TV show “A Different World”?). Robin Givens and Nicole Ari Parker are featured in the 9 women ensemble that brings the play to life.
An article by Fred Kaplan, “1959: Sex, Jazz, and Datsuns” featured in the June 8, 2009 issue of New York Magazine determines that 1959 was an important year for music, politics, world dynamics, social issues, and the arts.The 60’s might have gotten more press, but, 1959 was the year of change, innovation, out of the box thinking.
The magazine piece is based on Kaplan’s book, “1959: The Year Everything Changed”.He presents his examples of some of the greatest happenings ofthis special year and they include:
Actor turned director John Cassavetes was perhaps the first “Indie” filmmaker with his partly improvised script for his movie “Shadows”.The GuggenheimMuseum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, changed the NYC sky line on the upper East Side. The first micro chip introduced by Texas Instruments. The release of the Miles Davis album (they were albums then) “Kinda Blue” (considered by many to be best jazz recording ever). Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro invited to NYC and staying at the St Teresa Hotel in Harlem. The emergence of Malcolm X and his conversations on race and politics.
Where were you in 1959?
(I was attending Paul Lawrence Dunbar JHS in the Bronx)
Both of these very talented song writer/ performers, born the same year, and passed away early in their lives. They come to mind because it’s Memorial Day Weekend or Decoration Day as it was first named.
Laura Nyro , who always interested me because she grew up in the Bronx (my first home) and she wrote such smart music as a teenager “When I Die” for Blood Sweat and Tears and “Stoned Soul Picnic” for The 5th Dimension. As a kid, Memorial Day each year was the first outdoor holiday and signaled that summer was not far off.
Warren Zevon’s “Keep me in Your Heart” about the “Difference” we want to make in the world. Nothing big, just to be remembered, which is what we do on this day.
Brooklyn playwright Lynn Nottage has won the 2009 Drama Pulitzer Prize for “Ruined” – a powerful play set in the African Congo at the height of its civil war. It follows the plight of a group of women amidst the brutality and the chaos – a celebration of endurance.
The CAC featured Stella Pope-Duarte, reading from her books and poems. Stella Pope-Duarte is the Arizona award-winning Chicana writer and author of Fragile Night, Let Their Spirits Dance, and The Women of Juarez. Musical entertainment was provided by Carmen DeNovais, who with her husband, Zarco Guerrero, are local influential fixtures in the Arizona and the Southwest arts scene.
Stella Pope Duarte
Carmen DeNovais
A mission of The Cultural Arts Coalition’s is that these artistic expressions will call upon our humane need to dialog, to create conversations and therein to promote shared understanding- causing us to pause for meaningful discussions in a public space around critical issues and public policies.
