Friday, 28.11.2008 - Conductors - a poem & song from Bird Head Son
Albert Joseph, Santa Cruz, Trinidad, August 2007. Photo by A. Joseph
Conductors of his Mystery is a poem inspired by my father. Its in the new Bird Head Son collection, as well as on the Bird Head Son album, due in January 2009. The song was recorded in Paris last spring and features The Spasm Band joined by the great Joseph Bowie on Trombone and David Neerman on electric vibraphone. You can hear an excerpt from the song at http://www.myspace.com/adjoseph
This is the full poem:
Conductors of his Mystery
The day my father came back from the sea
broke and handsome
I saw him walking across the savannah
and knew at once it was him.
His soulful stride, the grace of his hat,
the serifs of his name
~ fluttering ~
in my mouth.
In his bachelor's room in El Socorro that year
he played his 8-tracks through a sawed-off speaker box.
The coil would rattle an the cone would hop
but women from the coconut groves
still came to hear
his traveller's tales.
Shop he say he build by Goose Lane junction.
But it rough from fabricated timber string.
Picka foot jook wood
like what Datsun ship in.
And in this snackette he sold red mango,
mints and tamarind.
Its wire mesh grill hid his suffer well tough.
Till the shop bust,
and he knock out the boards
and roam east
to Enterprise village.
Shack he say he build same cross-cut lumber.
Wood he say he stitch same carap bush.
Roof he say he throw same galvanize. He got
ambitious with wood
in his middle ages.
That night I spent there,
with the cicadas in that clear village sky,
even though each room was still unfinished
and each sadness hid. I was with
my father
and I would've stayed
if he had asked.
Brown suede,
8 eye high
desert boots. Beige
gabardine bells with the 2 inch folds.
He was myth. The legend of him.
Once I touched the nape of his boot
to see if my father was real.
Beyond the brown edges of photographs
and the songs we sang
to sing him back
from the sweep and sea agonies
of his distance.
Landslide scars. He sent no letters.
His small hands were for the fine work of his carpentry.
His fingers to trace the pitch pine's grain.
And the raised rivers of his veins,
the thick rings of his charisma,
the scars — the maps of his palms —
were the sweet conductors
of his mystery. Aiyé Olokun.
He came back smelling of the sea.
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Friday, 17.10.2008 - BIRD HEAD SON AND THE SPASM BAND
and...drumroll/./././ finally, here is the cover of my forthcoming collection on the already legendary Salt press in November 08. The image is of my brother and I one Carnival Monday, up Ramkissoon Trace, San Juan, Trini circa 78/79, getting ready to go downtown, in new tracksuits we got from England. Dennis, of course, is in red with the gangster lean.
And now mesdames et messieurs : The Spasm Band, high powered version :
Pic by Aiste, London Sept 2008. This is from a recent photoshoot in Greenwich, London.I'll post some more 'at some point'.
l-r standing Colin Webster - sax/flute, Andrew John-Bass, Anthony Joseph - vocals, Christian Arcucci - Guitar, Sitting l-r Craig Tamlin - percussion, Paul Zimmerman - Percussion, Paul Brett - Percussion. Our new album 'Bird Head Son is released January 13 from mighty French Independent Naive. feat. Keziah Jones, the great, Mr Joseph Bowie, and French Vibes genius David Neerman. The first single 'Vero' is out now on 12" and digital download. Check Itunes and the like. Meanwhile listen to a few tracks from the album at www.myspace.com/adjoseph
So, its been a busy start to autum, went to Cape Town with the band, was deep. Came back, went to Paris, played the Cigale, spiritual, heading back to Paris this weekend, still with very little French in my throat. And in between all of this, lecturing and teaching, academic stuff. More soon...
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Wednesday, 10.09.2008 - NEWS - Spasm Band in Cape Town, South Africa & New video channel
PAN AFRICAN SPACE STATION, CAPE TOWN
In the first week of October, Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band travel to Cape Town to play at the Pan African Space Station Festival "a 30-day music intervention from September 12 - October 12, on radio and the internet,
as well as venues across greater Cape Town." Its destined to be a historical event.
The Pan African Space Station (PASS) is a 30-day music intervention from September 12 - October 12, on radio and the internet, as well as venues across greater Cape Town.
It is an opportunity for Capetonians and visitors to engage up-close with the rich and complex web of creative expression which binds Africans across the globe.
PASS is also an exploration of and an intervention into spatial and cultural ghettos in the city and how to link them physically (through the music venues) and conceptually (on radio and the internet). PASS Radio
The highlight of the project is a unique freeform music radio station that will broadcast 30 days of cutting edge music from global Africa to the greater Cape Town. The radio will launch with a 24-hour event to be held at the Pan African Market on September 12 (Biko Day), and will broadcast on FM until October 12. Thereafter, broadcasting will continue online. Live Events
Between October 1 - 4, PASS plays host to genre-busting music outfits from global Africa dedicated to exploring new musical territory. They'll all be playing at disparate venues across Cape Town that both affirm and disrupt the musical geography of the city - from Langa's Guga S'thebe and the Assembly in District Six, to Mowbray's Town Hall, The Kimberley Hotel in the CBD and the Slave Church on Long Street.
Artists
Participating artists include:
the Lagos-Accra based Afrobeat fanfare Ayetoro; famed drummer Cindy Blackman and her quartet (New York); Trinidadian jazz-poet Anthony Joseph and his Spasm band; Electronica-jazz group Bibi Tanga and Professeur Inlassable (Bangui/Paris); Kinshasa's underground poet laureate Bebson de la rue and his band Tryonix; Carlo Mombelli and his freestyle chamber jazz ensemble Prisoners of Strange (Jhb), Joburg's art-rockers Blk Jks, Afrofuturist bluesman Madala Kunene (Durban), two Cape Town based collaborative projects, namely Goematronics and the all-female electro project Science Feline and from Joburg, Deejay blaq T as well as R.U.I.'s Dub Vaults by Rui Sorero and Paulo Chibanga.
I am pleased to announce that we now have a dedicated video channel on youtube where you can find videos of the Spasm Band live and Anthony's spoken word performances. Check back regularly as new videos are being added weekly. The url is http://uk.youtube.com/user/ajosephspasmband
and finally,
RIVER BREAKIN BICHE - from 'Bird Head Son'. Audio
River breakin biche is a poem from my forthcoming collection 'Bird Head Son'(Salt 2008).
The poem speaks of 'breakin biche' or 'playing truant'. (Biche = fr -Bush) - So we left school and went to the river bush...it speaks of these adventures along the banks of the San Juan River...from San Juan Government Secondary. I'll be posting more poems and audio here leading up to the books publication later this autumn, so check back often.
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Sunday, 31.08.2008 - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band @ Cargo - Videos
OBRIGARDO SINES
Just back from playing The Sines world music Festival in Portugal. We were due to be on at 230 this morning, and were wondering what the organisers were thinking, but the people came, in their thousands, down from round Vasco de Gama's castle, to see the Spasm Band play, the huge stage set up by the ocean with the wave pulse permeating each breath and tone and the spirit song tranceing over the waters.
We had the honour of having Mr Joe Bowie blow the trombone with us - blew with us and had to catch a quick taxi to the airport, gig in Bologna with Defunkt, It was a 7 piece strong Spasm Band that was telecast and broadcast simulteneaously by paralax television throughout the cobbled streets of Sines town. freefunkvoodoopunk.2 encores. the sun's eye opening over the bay.
So I would like to say thank you on behalf of the band, to the people of Sines for their warmth and passion, to the beautyfull Brazilian waitress working 9 months straight with no day off and still doing it with grace and style, to the fish grillers sweating in smoky backroom kitchens, to the hotel receptionists at Sinerama, the coach drivers, the sellers of batik and second hand ties, to the cowrie shell weavers, the people who told us they loved us, walking through the streets this sunflashed afternoon, to the two radio artists for their self searching interview questions, to the fire jugglers and the two women who worked the catering backstage with love and such, to the organisers of the festival - much thanks for having us.
Hope to see you next year.
Obrigardo,
Anthony
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Sunday, 22.06.2008 - NEWS - Dream on Corbeau Mountain - in studio & forthcoming workshops in Brighton & London
Dream on Corbeau Montain live in Studio de Meudon near Paris, France. You will find it on Anthony Joseph and the Spasm Band's forthcoming album 'Bird Head Son' to be released in fall 2008.
Featuring :
Anthony Joseph : vocals, Andrew John : bass, Colin Webster : saxophone
Adrian Owusu : guitar, Paul Zimmerman : congas / djembe, Paul Brett : irons / snare / cymbals, Craig 'Cigar' Tamlin : misc percussions, special guest : Joe Bowie on trombone, Jean Paul Gonnod : sound engineer, Julien : engineer assistant, Antoine Rajon : producer. Filmed and edited by Martin Meissonnier and 'Campagne Première' crew
WORKSHOPS
Here are infos on a couple workhops I'm facilitating this July. Book early, spaces are limited.
Sounds of Poetry
Music and poetry course to commemorate the Windrush Anniversary. Work alongside musicians to create work in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the arrival of 492 Caribbean men and women on the Empire Windrush at Tilbury docks in June 1948. Participants will explore aspects of identity, exile and diaspora and how the influx of Caribbean musicians in particular changed the cultural landscape of the UK, introducing Calypso, Ska and Reggae to Britain. Tutor: Anthony Joseph
Wednesdays 9, 16, 23, 30 July 7pm – 9pm Venue to be confirmed £50/£30 concessions Number of participants: 8 Please phone 020 7735 3111 or visit htp://www.spreadtheword.org.uk for more information or to book tickets.
The King Died, the Queen Died: Understanding Plot with Anthony Joseph Saturdays 12th & 19th July
12 - 3 pm at Brighton Writers' Centre
£32/£30 concs, Friends of THE SOUTH £30/£28 concs
Plot at times takes on a mysterious quality. This workshop aims to dispel the myths and to show the universality of plotting in storytelling. Participants will work individually and in groups, examining the relationship of characterisation to plot, generating stories and taking part in writing exercises which will develop suspense and tension in their fiction.
To book and for more info : http://www.thesouth.org.uk/workshops.html#event8
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Monday, 09.06.2008 - Sounds of Poetry course at Spread the Word
Here's some info on a course I'm facilitating for Spread The Word in July. Space on the course is limited so book early.
Sounds of Poetry
Music and poetry course to commemorate the Windrush Anniversary. Work alongside musicians to create work in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the arrival of 492 Caribbean men and women on the Empire Windrush at Tilbury docks in June 1948. Participants will explore aspects of identity, exile and diaspora and how the influx of Caribbean musicians in particular changed the cultural landscape of the UK, introducing Calypso, Ska and Reggae to Britain. Tutor: Anthony Joseph
Wednesdays 9, 16, 23, 30 July 7pm – 9pm Venue to be confirmed £50/£30 concessions Number of participants: 8 Please phone 020 7735 3111 or visit htp://www.spreadtheword.org.uk for more information or to book tickets.
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Wednesday, 28.05.2008 - First glimpse : Cover art for new Spasm Band 12
This is the cover art for the New Spasm Band 12" - 'La Diablesse' released June 2008 on parisian label Heavenly Sweetness, the first single from our forthcoming album 'Bird Head Son'. The tracks are :
* Vero (ft Keziah Jones on Guitar and backing vocals)
* Robberman
* Poverty is Hell - Cover of a Trini soca classic by The Mighty Shadow, exclusive to this release and done in the inimitable Spasm way.
'Vero' & 'Robberman are taken from 'Bird Head Son' which is out this autumn.
I will put samples up soon.
brightmoments, aj
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Tuesday, 06.05.2008 - Bird Head Son and Keziah Jones on Arte TV, France
Pic by Antoine Rajon
Have a look at a work in progress video, filmed 'live in the studio' in Meudon, Paris, with Keziah Jones, working on the track 'Bamboo saxophone' for the forthcoming album by AJ & The Spasm Band 'Bird Head Son'. We are on about 2/3 through the show. Its in French.Enjoy.
http://plus7.arte.tv/fr/detailPage/1697660,Grid=1636906.htm
Thanks to Jones, Martin Messonier and Heavenly Sweetness.
brightmoments,
a.
Early next week The Spasm Band go to Paris to play at the Banlieues Bleues Festival. The next day we go into a sky lit studio on the outskirts of Paris to record our new album with a 10 piece band which includes Joseph Bowie, Keziah Jones, Adrian 'Sun Blooz'Owusu and Jamika Ajalon. The legendary sophomore album blues is upon us but we are blessed by the weight of heavy music and liquid textology.
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Friday, 29.02.2008 - Spasm Band live at Cargo - London Word Festival
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Friday, 15.02.2008 - THE TIMES TOP TEN LITERARY STARS OF 2008
The Time's recently published thier Top ten literary stars of 2008. I was honoured to be included.
Check the full list at
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3358452.ece"
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Monday, 28.01.2008 - New Review of The African Origins of UFOs
Book reviews can take anything up to a year post publication to appear. The fact that they appear at all is cause for celebration, more so when they speak positive things. Here is the most recent AOUFOS review from Caribbean Beat Magazine's Jan/Feb 08 issue, published by the same company that publish the excellent Caribbean Review of Books, so hopefully a more substantial one will appear there at some point.
"Anthony Joseph might be the Ishmael Reed of our region and our generation. The poet, whose first novel, The African Origins of UFOs, was released in 2006 by Salt Publishing of the UK, has turned a corner with this latest effort. Part memoir, part sci-fi story and part poem, this book is a delightful but difficult treat for readers who aren’t afraid of a little excitement." Lisa Allen-Agostini, Caribbean Beat
Tuesday, 08.01.2008 - Streaming Numoon Video now online!
Streaming video of the recent Numoon festival where I performed alongside Ursula Rucker, Dwight Trible, Joseph Bowie, Mark De Clive Lowe, Bembe Segue, Kain and the Numoon Orchestra, all of whom are on the video. Beauteous vibrations. Recommended viewing, Kain invoked the deeply dark.
Just played an amazing festival in Rotterdam. The Numoon Festival, with Ursula Rucker, Joseph Bowie (defunkt), Bembe Segue, Mark de Clive Lowe, Kain the Poet. Collective improvisation with the Numoon Orchestra conducted by Hanyo van Oosterom. I was there from Friday to Sunday in cold Rotterdam. Went walking round the block and came upon Kain in a record shop buying a TS Eliot album. Kain has long been an inspiration to me, ever since a friend gave me The Blue Gureilla LP, which every spoken word artist must hear. The whole vibe of the fest was beautiful. The people were open and warm, the music; and it was all about the musiC - was spellbinding with Halle, Colonel Red, Spoonface, Pan Africans, even the Silent Disco where folks dance round with headphones. I guess you can tell a festival is special when there is no merchandise stall and DJ Gea is spinning Louis Armstrong. The concerts were filmed and will be shown in the Netherlands on New Years Eve I believe, it will also be available to view online at www.numoonlab.tv.
For more info on the Numoon Lab see www.myspace.com/numoonlab
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Monday, 03.12.2007 - News
The Spasm Band, 3rd encore, New Morning, Paris
The Spasm Band's 2007 'Leggo de lion' tour ended with a marathon 3 encore show at New Morning in Paris on Nov 13. After a hectic year that's taken us from Greece, Amsterdam, Morocco to all over France etc we are taking time out now to write material for our next album.
My next solo performance is at Crockatt and Powell Bookshop, Lower Marsh, London on Dec 11, followed by a show on Numoon TV festival in Rotterdam on Dec 15. The Spasm Band return to the stage on March 11 next year with a performance at Cargo in London.
I've added lots of photos of the band on tour and new photos in all the other categories. Winter is a very productive time for me, apart from doing a PhD and teaching 2 classes I am working away at 2 books that are being published in the new year. One is a selected works, the other a new work, both are due in September. Look out for excerpts in the textology section soon. In the meantime here is short preview :
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Friday, 30.11.2007 - A short film by the managing director
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Wednesday, 31.10.2007 - Acoustic Avant Gardism
Ronnie McGrath - Acoustic Avant Gardism - streams of consciousness poems for neo-surrealists (Ankhademia Press 2007)
Footprints more abstract than flower stems set their homes in dusty bookshelves (Perpendicularities..)
All you hipsters, so-called blak dada intellegenics, performance poet dons having portraits taken leaning against brutal doorways, all you post modern poem writers suffering sick in attics waiting for something new, here it is. This is mouth music for your mind, shifting paradigms with the blistering texture of words and abstract Jazz feeling. It MUST be heard.
For copies contact Ronnie at info@ankhademia.com - do it now!
I just got back from doing a reading with Ronnie McGrath in Acton. It was the reading, of all the readings I've done this year, that I was most excited about. Because of course I love Ronnie's work - we share an estatic aesthetic sensibility - a vision of the liminal, also because it was billed as 'The Black Avant Garde' - as such as this, a historic event, a forum for experimentation. And the response from the audience was a beauty-full thing/one woman said how she felt her whole body open up, had a physical reaction to the poetry, exposed her vulnerability. We are attempting here to re-locate, re-design and re-focus the meandering nature of our legacy as it wanders narrow to the edge of definition and installation in time by kente cloths and black fists. More soon!
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Monday, 22.10.2007 - Photographs
Returning home
with the blistering salt
of longing on his lips...Leroy Clarke
Photographs from my recent trip to Trinidad are now ready to view. Have a LOOK
There are a few more to upload at some point and some labels to write, but in the meantime, hope you enjoy these.
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Saturday, 22.09.2007 - A quick one
Well, the MA is finished. Getting ready to teach this term, still missing Trinidad, new work added to the New and Uncollected section of Textology, have a read.
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Friday, 24.08.2007 - Trinidad
Back from the curious island of my dream I call hoMe. More photos soon, but first I must crack the seal on that flask of puncheon.
Malick, Trinidad
Daddy G
Uncle Christo
Auntie Ursula
Maracas Mountainside
Reading at The Reader's Bookshop, Port of Spain
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Tuesday, 24.07.2007 - The Unconsolables
I have been away a while. Touring. Played the North Sea Jazz a couple weeks ago, saw Sly, which was sad, Snoop, who was great. Also dealing with the tragic death of a friend in a car accident a few weeks ago. A very close friend. Knew him 11 years. A fellow writer and lover of Jazz. It's been a shock. Just earlier this year when I was still going through my Tibetian Book of Living an Dying struggles, we were at the Sun & Doves in Camberwell, talking about the 'unconsolables' as he called it. And he was saying how he wasn't religious but wished there was some way consciousness survived, even for a few minutes so he could find out what was there, in the heavy aftermath.
I was listening to Donny Hathaway when I got the call."He aint...
The Next day I had to fly to Greece to do a show, on the beach at Thessaloniki that night, we played Alfred Mac for Kem, the naked blues, then I walked out to the ocean and asked him "What have you gone an done now? What Have you done?" He was 34.
I loved him madly.
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Saturday, 09.06.2007 - ANTHONY JOSEPH & THE SPASM BAND live at the Spitz June 21 - Only London date!
Next week the Spasm Band head to Morroco for the legendary Jazz au Chella Festival in Morrocco. Its the latest leg in our ongoing Leggo de Lion tour thats taken us so far to Lyon, Dijon, Marseille, Amsterdam, Paris, Manchester and Bristol. They've all been amazing performances. On June 21st we play the only London date of the tour at soon to be poncified Spitz in Whitechappel.(see below) After London we head to Greece, France and the Netherlands for the North Sea Jazz Festival. See www.myspace.com/adjoseph for more gig infos. Hope to see you at one of our gigs, come up and say Bright Moments!
ANTHONY JOSEPH & THE SPASM BAND Thursday 21 June @ The Spitz, 109 Commercial Street, London E1 6BG www.spitz.co.uk Doors:7pm Tickets £8. Support:Shabaka Hutchings and Splay & DJ Zak Akhimien
To celebrate the launch of his new album Leggo de Lion (Kindred Spirits), acclaimed poet and performer Anthony Joseph brings his five-piece band to East London for the only London date of The Leggo de Lion tour - a night of ‘Wild Island Jazz’. The Spasm Band create a sound infused with Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist rhythms, deep, hypnotic basslines, free Jazz sax and heavy hand percussion – this is music made to cause possession spasms…
***
Dubbed ‘the leader of the Black British avant-garde’, Anthony Joseph is the author of The African Origins of UFOs (Salt), whose fans include Kamau Brathwaite and Linton Kwesi Johnson. His unique brand of ‘liquid textology’ fuses myth, metafiction and Afrofuturism. Solo and with The Spasm Band, Joseph has appeared on BBC Radio and toured extensively in the UK, US and Europe.
***
Fans of Mos Def, Fela Kuti, Gil Scott-Heron, Saul Williams, Albert Ayler and Foucault listen up – Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band have landed. So mark the Summer Solstice with voodoo lore, intoxicating calypso and naked island funk.
Go be hot! Drum skin bust! Leggo de lion on dem!
'Pure African spiritual Jazz brilliance!' Fly.co.uk
‘The spoken word revelation of the year’ Vibrations Magazine
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Sunday, 20.05.2007 - Germany
Reading in Heidelberg, Photo by Jan Wittmann
I am in the middle of a 7 city reading tour of Germany taking me to Bamberg, Heidelberg, Jena, Dresden, Dortmund, Leipzig and Chemitz. The readings include performances at literature conferances and Universities. Lots of great, attentive audiences and strong food. Always a pleasure to be in Germany.
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Thursday, 26.04.2007 - UPDATES : Leggo De Lion!! + Performances + New Critical Essay + Will Alexander
Leggo the Lion(Kindred Spirits) - OUT NOW!!
Tracklist
01 . Buddha
02 . Black Dada
03 . Extending Out To Brightness
04 . Wallerfield
05 . Kneedeepinditchdiggerniggersweat
06 . On Kunu Land: Alfred Mac
07 . Killer Joe
08 . Hummingbird
Initial reviews have been incredible with Vibrations Magazine calling the album 'The spoken word revelation of the year. Spiritual and surreal.' While Simon Harrison says,
"Lyrically this is an intense album which requires your full attention. Daydream for a second and you'll be lost, then you're back to the rewind button, to start again. Driving in whilst listening to this became rather fun and games because I must have listened to this four times over. The jazz soundtrack by The Spasm Band is just perfect, with a real feel of the 70s and Strata-East or Impulse classics, to ensure this is essential for your collection."
UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
Next Spasm Band gig is at Contact Theatre, Manchester on May 3. Then we are in Bristol on May 9, then onto Europe, including Amsterdam for the album launch at Paradiso,Dijon for the Tribu fest. On June 21 we return to London for the UK album launch at the Spitz.
Solo, I am at performing at Renaissance One's London Liming event on April 24. Details below.
CRITICAL ESSAY
There is also new essay called Spew and Revolution: The Revolutionary Impulse in Caribbean Poetry in the Essays and Further Writing section of Textology.
As usual. Email your comments to aj at anthonyjoseph.co.uk
WILL ALEXANDER
I was in New York recently reading at the Bowery and at Rutgers University. I met a deep brother from LA there, a spellbinding and radical poet called Will Alexander. Radical in the sense that his work challenges the reader in a way not often encountered. It creates its own self sufficient universe, what my friend James Oscar used to call 'the metaphysics of another world', a world in which the nomenclature of scientific fact and poetic possibility and resonance co-exist within the same strope. It is a difficult work which in places reminds me of some of Nathaniel Mackey's work - 'Splay Anthem' - it does not give up its secrets easily, yet anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Brother Will from Los Angeles, his poetics bringing to mind what Mingus said about Raashan Roland Kirk, that those who think he's all about a gimmick should just listen to him with their eyes closed. And this, reference to Alexanders' Canticles, with the back cover blur by Eliot Weinberger who says 'His erudition and vocabulary, like MacDiarmid's are vast:read Alexander with a dictionary and you'll see how precise he is.'
yes
poetics
its force
jettisoned by "hypotaxis"
by...paratactic co-ordination
& fire
From Will Alexander's The Stratospheric Canticles.
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Monday, 02.04.2007 - THE SPASM BAND ON TOUR + A NEW REVIEW OF THE AFRICAN ORIGINS OF UFOs
THE SPASM BAND ON TOUR
I have been on tour with the Spasm Band for much of March, playing dates in Lyon, Marseille, Paris in readiness for the release of our album on April 24. I even managed to catch a long weekend in New York to read at Rutgers University and the legendary Bowery Poetry Club. Here are a few pics from the Spasm Band - leggo de lion tour, which continues in May with dates in Amsterdam and Dijon.
NEW REVIEW OF THE AFRICAN ORIGINS OF UFOS:
"...his book is unlike anything else I have read in a very long time and I believe it demands to be noted and discussed in Cordite for its arrival on the contemporary Anglophone poetry scene."
The Melbourne-based poet and writer Ali Alizadeh has written an informed and incisive review of The African Origins Of UFOS for Cordite.org.au
'The book’s formal quirks and innovations – including comics-style ink drawings and adequately strange poetic endnotes –complement its discursive and thematic playfulness and complexities. Its general argumentative drive traverses the imaginary domains between a historical past and a fictional future. Towards the concluding sections these domains overlap and produce a philosophical contemplation on the themes of belonging and identity, culminating in the iconography of the UFO as a symbol of dislocation; of being “lost in space, drifting from place to place, still trying find where they come from”.
The African Origins of UFOs conflates a culturally aware attitude towards a collective literary identity with an adamantly individualistic pursuit of – artistic and stylistic – freedom. Its author is both a faithful heir and an agnostic rebel; a Black poet haunted by Africa’s past as well as a bilingual post-modernist amused by the possibilities of the future. Contemporary literature doesn’t come a lot more sophisticated and intriguing than this.'
Sunday, 04.03.2007 - Spasm Band live! Listen. & Blog
SPASM BAND LIVE - LISTEN!
On Saturday 24 Feb 2007 The Spasm Band played a sweaty gig at Kungadread's Rooted Music night in Hoxton, London.
I am trying to create a podcast of the gig, however some people have pointed out that my attempts have been unsuccesful so far. In the meatime you can download and listen to it by right clicking and saving as on the link below.(It should also stream).It shouldn't take longer than a few mins. to download and is well worth hearing. (Spasm Band shook dem till dey drum skin bust)
I'm not great at daily updating but I've been trying to update this site and my myspace page with so much going on at the moment. I am also currently blogging at www.birdheadson.blogspot.com I will be using it as a free-speak space, generally freewriting swift and such and also more important/ly as a place to publish photos, new work and work in progress. Please have a look/read and leave me some comments, communicate.
Reading Nate Mackey's Splay Anthem at the moment. Shows, it probably. Contagious. It was a journey we were on....
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Tuesday, 20.02.2007 - News
The Spasm Band as seen by Aiste/Maya Photography
Ok, so things are a bit hectic at the moment, been hardly able to sit still, caught like a whirl in the wind thing. Just a couple vibrations while I have the time.
Things are in fervour motion for the Spasm Band album release. The album, Leggo de Lion is out on April 24. In the meantime you can have a peek listen on the Kindred Spirits website. www.kindred-spirits.nl . Look in the 'Label' and 'Artists' sections.
I've just started a blog at www.birdheadson.blogspot.com . There's not much there yet but there will be. I'll be putting new/as yet unpublished work there so please post your comments.
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Saturday, 13.01.2007 - New News
CSULA Exhibit by Margaret Lopez
Museum Exhibition on African American Poetry 2007. Exhibited at The Natural History Museum,
Los Angeles.
The text is 'Watercolourpaperman' from my 1st collection 'Desafinado'. There's a slighty larger version in photos/visual poetics.
Greatings, and all the best for the long 7.
Just now, seeping into the new year, which has begun pretty much like the last one ended with lots of things happening/coming up. On Sat 27th I appear on BBC3's The Verb, talking about and playing a new audio work commisioned by the BBC 'Town'. The 7 minute piece which features a reading with an ambient soundscape deals with the memory and pull of 'Home', in my case Trinidad. I also have a 3 night run at Camberwell's Blue Elephant Theatre from 1-3 March. This is a one man show based on The African Origins of UFOs and features live music from the Spasm Band. I'll be trying to bring some of the characers - Bo Nuggy, Joe Sam - to life. .
Speaking of the Spasm Band, we have our album 'Leggo de lion' released by Kindred Spirits on April 14th. I'll also be doing a series of European gigs with the band around this time, followed by solo dates in the US and Germany, after which, my gosh its been 5 years, i'm going home to Trinidad to reconstitute myself...
peace, a.
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Sunday, 03.12.2006 - NEWS : African Origins nominated for the Commonwealth Prize
My book, The African Origins of UFOs has just been nominated for the Commonwealth Writers Prize. Wish me luck.
And if anyone has read it do send me your reviews and responses.
For those who havent read it, you can buy it via www.saltpublishing.com Or on www.amazon.co.uk
I'm currently working on a one man African Origins of UFOs show which will be touring the UK during the new year. I'm also going to be touring the US in 2007, taking the mothership to the big sky country.
The Spasm Band Spirit Lash 12" continues to gain attention, check out this review by Gerry Hectic on Fly.co.uk. In the meantime, in South-East London, beginning to get that spirit feel, something in those yuletide tunes.
muchlove,
a.
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Wednesday, 15.11.2006 - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Spirit Lash - out this week!
The new and first Spasm Band 12" single Spirit Lash is out this week on Heavenly Sweetness. This is a review from Rush Hour Dist. in the Netherlands
Spirit Lash is the first 12" of the Spasm band and its leader/poet Anthony Joseph. A cult figure of the spoken word scene in the UK, Anthony has just released this month an acclaimed poetic novel 'the African origins of UFOs''. His music is a deep afro-carribean funky trance influenced by the rhythms of his nativeland Trinidad and the deep spirited jazz of the 70S. You will hear echoes of dub poets, Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Fela, Sun Ra cosmic visions, but the Spasm band has definitely a sound of its own . Tip!
Buy it now from
http://music.rushhour.nl
For more info see
Heavenly Sweetness Or my myspace page.
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Tuesday, 07.11.2006 - Birthday greetings at the launch of The African Origins of UFOs
Wednesday, 01.11.2006 - NEWS : Kindred Spirits, Heavenly Sweetness & All Saints day
KINDRED SPIRITS I recently signed an album deal with the fantastic Dutch label Kindred Spirits. Expect the Spasm Band album to arrive in April 2007. Obviously the band and I are deeply pleased. More info on
www.kindred-spirits.nl
HEAVENLY SWEETNESS
But even before that, we have a 12" single out this month called 'Spirit Lash', released by the Paris-based label Heavenly Sweetness. It's called 'Spirit Lash' and features 'Buddha' and the 10min 'Bo Nuggy' which is exclusive to this release - it won't be on the album, this 12" will be the only place to find it!
Also, to everyone who has bought a copy of my latest book 'The African Origins of UFOs' : a huge and generous THANK YOU. Hope you enjoy it.
See you at the launch!
Bo Nuggy.
On All Saints Day
November the first was my grandmother's birthday. All saints day and she would light candles all round. On each beam of stair, on the bannisters, the window sills, even in the harsh concrete corners of the yard, candles on the gate posts and the wall. White candles. For as many souls and saints as she could feed, till the house glowed with flickering flames where sandflies and mosquitoes would lose their wings in the wax. The candles were her birthday ritual. What she looked forward to. And she would light each one with a prayer and a sigh, remembering the dead but with light for the living. (her blues, cool as cool pools of candle wax)
Tonight I light a single candle for her, and for my mother. A hefty beam of a white candle, its flame sharp and silent.
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Thursday, 26.10.2006 - On Tour
Live on tour in Stockton on Tees, introduced by a drag queen, stayed in the best hotel in Stockton, the whole 5th floor fume was jazz cigarettes. Didnt use the trouser press. Next day travelled to Birmingham, city of arcades, almost always under something. killed time in the cinema, saw scorcese, ate nachos, feet up on my suitcase.
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Sunday, 01.10.2006 - Here it is...
My friends,
My book The African Origins of UFOs, a book with one of the longest gestation times known to modern literature, is sitting in my hand. It's like a new born child, beauty-full. Postman woke me up yesterday with my copies.
It's in the shops from Monday 2nd Oct.
Hasn't sunk in yet....
Peace,
anthony
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Wednesday, 06.09.2006 - AOUFOs Tour 2006-2007 - dates announced & Creative Writing Courses
The African Origins of UFOs Tour 2006-2007
To coincide with the publication of my new book The African Origins of UFOs in October, I'll be going on a UK/European starting in London at the 2nd La Langoustine est morte then to Brighton on Oct 2nd, then moving through the UK including a performance at the Ilkley Fest. On to Vienna, to France (dates TBC), then back to the UK. More dates will be added when they are confirmed. At a couple of the dates I'll be joined by the Spasm Band. Have a look at the list of upcoming shows for details. The tour is partly managed by Tom Chivers at www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk. There are only a few dates left for bookings, if you're a promoter please get in touch with Tom.
The Spasm Band also have their debut 12" "Spirit Lash" released by Parisian label Heavenly Sweetness in late October, so there will be more Spasm Band dates to coincide with this. More soon.
&LoVe,
Anthony
The tour dates confirmed so far :
Sep 18 2006, La Langoustine est Morte, London
Oct 2 2006, Komedia, Brighton Brighton, UK
Oct 5 2006, Ilkley Literature Festival, Ilkley, West Yorkshire
Oct 6 2006, Coldpitts Poetry Durham
Oct 13 2006, Vienna Lit - Literature Festival Vienna
Oct 18 2006, The Georgian Theatre Stockton-on-Tees
Oct 19 2006, MAC Arts Birmingham(with the Spasm Band)
Oct 30 2006, Norwich Arts Centre Norwich
Creative Writing courses at South Thames College, London with Tutor Anthony Joseph
For anyone interested in Creative Writing courses, I am teaching two
12 week courses at South Thames College in Wandsworth and Tooting.
This is my 4th year lecturing at South Thames College. Both courses
cover poetry as well as fiction and are open to all levels of
ability. We work on writing short fiction, Haikus, Sonnets,
autobiographical writing, developing characters, plotting fiction,
dialogue, surrealism and lots more. Classes follow a workshop format
and involve discussion, exercises and weekly assignments.
Most importantly we have fun.
There are still places on both courses, but book now.
The classes are:
Tuesdays 7-9pm at the South Thames College, Wandsworth High Street.
(starts 19 Sept)
Wednesdays 11-1.00pm at South Thames College, Tooting High Street
(starts 20 Sept)
See http://www.south-thames.ac.uk for info on enrolment or call the
admissions office on 020 8918 7777.
Contact me via info@anthonyjoseph.co.uk if you have any questions
about the courses.
See you there.
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Wednesday, 30.08.2006 - New Spasm Band music
The Spasm Band were in the studio, mid august, recording the 2nd Spasm Band album, tentatively titled 'Leggo de lion' We had planned on doing 5 tracks, ended up with over 70mins of music. Is so it go sometimes. You can have a listen to one of the tracks, 'Blackdadamasonsong' on my myspace page or on the Spasm Band page of this site.
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Wednesday, 02.08.2006 - News
Poetry Web International
I was recently asked to contribute some work to the PWI website. Read a beautifully written and perceptive introductory essay by Melanie Abrahams, plus some writing at Poetry Web International
Straight No Chaser article
In early June I was intervied by Straight No Chaser magazine, the article/interview is in this months issue.
I discuss The African Origins Of UFOs,and the music of The Spasm Band. Worth reading if you can find it but at some point I'll steal it for this site.
Harlem Studio Museum
I have a poem in this summers's Harlem Studio Museum's magazine 'Studio'. I was comissioned to write a text to accompany a series of 5 photographs by Leslie Hewitt. The poem is called 'The Sweet Conductors of his mystery'. If you can pick up a copy it's on page 32. later this year I will be visiting the HSM for readings/workshops around the African Origins of UFOs.
The Spasm Band The Spasm Band @ Standon Festival, l-r - Colin Webster(sax/flute), Andrew John(Bass), AJ, Paul Zimmerman(percussion
The Spasm Band are eagerly outgrowing their page so I will be doing some re-arranging later this week. Last weekend we played the Standon Calling Festival in Hertfordshire. We played a shocking set, as far-out as you imagine, the sax bleeding sideways and the bass well plump. I'll be writing more about this later. In August we return to the studio to record several new tracks. Then, in October our debut 12" 'Spirit Lash' is released on the Paris based Heavenly Sweetness label.
New Poems
I've just added some new poems to the textology section, as always, works in progess. See new and uncollected work.
La Langoustine myspace
And finally, the myspace page for La Langoustine est morte, a new series of events presented by myself and Sascha Akhtar.
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Friday, 30.06.2006 - News
Soca Warriors in Kaiserslautern The stadium was sold out. 46,000. Most of them Trini. The place pack out red red red. On the streets was a lil'carnival, on streets that've never known this mas. Lavantille Riddim Section jamming mama drum. Drum youth man have to straddle to strum with ox bone. After we get our two goals and man humble and wine, was a steelband mystery band come running the sweet sound down, and the street get ram. That night we fell asleep in bars, next morning we slept on the train to Frankfurt, slept in a Frankfurt park, ate good wurst. Glance a red white and black shirt, say hail sa', nice nice. yeahman, we play good man. Just one goal woulda been nice though.
Spasm Band 12"
The Spasm Band have just agreed a deal with nouveau cool Paris based spiritual jazz label Heavenly Sweetness who are releasing a 12" of Buddha b/w Bo Nuggy in autumn 2006 (probably around the same time AOUFOs is published). More info on this soon.
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Sunday, 04.06.2006 - Spasm Band live video
There's finally some live footage of the Spasm Band in the multimedia section.Performances of Bo Nuggy & Buddha recorded at The Oval House Theatre, London in April.
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Thursday, 18.05.2006 - African Origins Podcasts and new Myspace page
Podcast My publisher Salt Publishing has just added podcast readings to my page on their website. The recordings feature excerpts from my forthcoming book, 'The African Origins Of UFOs' and were made ealier this month at the NFT, London. Some of the excerpts were performed live for the first time at the recording session. I think they turned out better than I remember reading, definitely worth a listen. You don't need any special software, just your ears. The book is out on 1st October 06.
Myspace
I've finally joined the Myspace community. My page will feature exclusive music from the Spasm Band, readings, itinearies, a blog and all the usual myspace bachanalia. Expect content to change regularly.
www.myspace.com/adjoseph
Also, check out the new Spasm Band live video in the multimedia section. Recorded at The Oval House Theatre, London last April.
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Friday, 28.04.2006 - The Spasm Band at Oval House, London, 26 April 06 : podcast
Photos by Paul Brett
See the Spasm Band page in Photos for more pics from this series.
You can also listen to a podcast of the entire performance by copying the address of the podcast feed below and adding it to your podcast application. Be careful and ensure that the full address is copied. http://www.anthonyjoseph.co.uk/spasmbandliveatovalhouse.rss
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Monday, 24.04.2006 - Nathaniel Mackey in Cambridge
On Saturday 22nd I drove up to Cambridge to hear Nathaniel Mackey read at The Cambridge Conference on Contemporary Poetry. I have corresponded with Prof. Mackey since 2005 when I submitted some work for his journal Hambone. He accepted 4 of my pieces which will be published in Hambone 18, this autumn. He has also kindly agreed to contribute a 'back cover blurb' to my forthcoming book The African Origins of UFOs. Prof Mackey is without doubt one of the most individual voices in modern poetics and along with Wilson Harris and Kamau Brathwaite one of my major poetic influences. Everyone interested in experimental poetics and prose should read his books especially Bedouin Hornbook, Song of the Andoumboulou, 18-20, What Said Serif and his new book Splay Anthem from which he read on Saturday. He read in a gentle but forcefully rhythmic voice, full of silent beats and tight spaces, like a drum...in the spaces between the beats
Halfway through the reading he invited a double bass player to the stage, I heard him say 'pizzicato' and the bassman started walking the spirit bass...
We went for wine and conversation afterwards, round the backstreets of Cambridge, we spoke of Trinidad, of books and writers and on the line of spirit possession that stretches from the Spiritual Baptists to Albert Ayler - the tensing, stiffening of spine and reed when the eyes roll back....All the while the poet was kind and accomodating.
With deep teachers and babas like Mr Mackey, things said in passing conversation later reveal/unravel themselves as resonant truths. I have had this same experience everytime I've met Kamau Brathwaite, no doubt this will happen here too.
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Saturday, 08.04.2006 - Washington
On April 8th 2006 I presented a paper at the Black British Aesthetics Today conference at Howard University in Washington. My paper was titled 'The Continous Diaspora: Experimental Practices in contemporary Black British poetry. In the paper I tried to answer the question of why there wasn't an identifiable avant garde within Black British poetry, I put forward some ideas. I also focussed on my evolution as an experimental poet.
I was part of a panel that included (l to r) Tony Medina (moderator), Su Andi and Prof Lauri Ramey.
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Saturday, 01.04.2006 - New Machine
My web tech brother Jacob Sam La Rose has contructed a new engine for me. Now you're able to view my itenieray or read my periodical journal/news entries. It may take a while for things to shank and settle, is so new engine stay.
muchlove,
anthony
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Tuesday, 21.02.2006 - The African Origins Of UFOS
The African Origins Of UFOs First, some good news for everyone who's ever asked me " Yes but when will this book be out? " : The African Origins Of UFOs will be published this autumn by Salt Publishing. My friend and mentor Kamau Brathwaite has kindly offered to write the Introduction to the book.
Much more info to come soon. In the meantime you can read excerpts in the Textology section.
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Wednesday, 25.01.2006 - A Film
She swam in heaven
All this month I've been editing a short film/slide show, The film uses original photographs of Trinidad and my recording of the poem 'She swam in heaven' with The Spasm Band. I am indebted to my friend and fellow trini poet Vanessa Richards for the in/spiration. A few years ago she made a beautiful and truly moving short film 'Travelling Light' which explored the same themes; exile and longing, the pull of family, the muscle of islands...I am attempting something similiar here.
Have a look in the multimedia section for my most recent edit.
brightmoments,
aj
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Wednesday, 21.12.2005 - xmas
The Josephs, by meena iere
Christmas means my grandmother busy cooking on Christmas eve, pulling out jars of rum soaked raisins, currants, citrus peel for black fruit cake, sponge cake, sweetbread. In rum since July. She would bake all Christmas eve and into Christmas morning, way past midnight mass, roast a pork’s leg pickered with carrot darts and garlic, black roast, boil ham with cloves, shell sorrel, twisting her small knife around its frizzle head, brew ginger beer, set it in the sun, next to the pepper sauce, on the wall, cut neck and season chicken, duck, shell pigeon peas, sweeten mauby, grate coconut.
She did all this by herself. By Christmas eve as she sang around her kitchen all 4 burners blazed. I tried to stay up with her, offered to help, to pinch the hot bread, but I’d always fall asleep, enticed by the promise of morning.
My grandfather, he’d be bringing in the stocks that whole xmas week; the beer, the malt, the Johnnie Walker, white label, whisky, whiteways peardrax and Bristol cream, the chasers, the cider, sweet drink, fat Solo bottles, a case of coca cola, the pastelle and payme pies his friends gave him on his rounds round town, corn meal wrapped in fig leaf with raisins or minced meat. I wonder how many of these his mistress cooked.
He would paint the front stairs a deep signal red, paint the front gate a sparkling, sticky silver. But he would move through the rooms like a lumberjack, without a smile.
On christmas morning new curtains would be sewn and hung in the drawing room, the couch and chairs dusted, clear scent and gleaming pine, the smell of cinnamon and mint through the house, carols on the radio and frosty on the TV, ham and eggs and homemade bread. We were happy at Xmas; it was the sweet release from the year’s grind. Our reward. Tin and rubber cars with rugged wheels, sweet 70s plastic. And we were so Xmas, all we needed was snow.
Late xmas morning my grandfathers friends would pull up in their wide cars. They’d sit out in the yard, stretched in the wooden chairs drinking rum and whisky and eating slices of salted ham with hot sauce and mustard. My grandfather would pull out his old sparrow albums and play them on the grammophone. He'd lay his ladder on the coconut tree; pick the youngest bunch of green coconuts to chase with white rum.
Why does the past become beautiful?
Each December I also remember 1984. We all have a special year, for me it's the year when Prince did Purple Rain. I was in love with love, with life, poetry and music, going up to Macoya, liming with the guys on the block, watching them breakdance.
In Trinidad, that year, I was working in Carenage as a stores clerk on a building site, my uncle arranged it, by the sea, the fisheries, my holiday hustle. I remember the workers made fish broth everyday, hauled from that morning’s catch of kingfish or carrite. And the weekend before Christmas at Kirpalani's mall in Barataria with my brother and best friend how I blew my wage on new Ac/Dc and Iron Maiden albums, new shoes, cologne, jeans and pizza. We had a ball that day. And cried in the cinema on Boxing day, when Prince played the first chords of Purple Rain.
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Thursday, 01.12.2005 - Home is an island
Adding new photos of Trinidad, it's almost as if I'm etching a memorial, as if the island died and i missed the funeral. But the photos capture moments that still seem to pulse within me; I can still hear the surf ripple on the rocks at Carenage bay, or feel the rugged bush against my thigh, climbing up Arouca mountain. And there is 'a haunting ache' here that needs healing, a part of me that begs to return, again. I used to believe that home was wherever you wanted to be, that I wanted to be in London so London was home, but I was missing the island still, carrying it with me like a sleeping child. Recently one of my students, a wise buddha of a man,told me that the place you gain consciousness maintains a pull on you, which is why it always feels like a special, magical place and why so many people try to return 'home' to die. But there is also the problem of distance and time; the Trinidad I left in '89 does not exist anymore, except in some sentimental space. Its become a floating island, an island that floats in my memory, to which I can never truly return. Until I do, I have photograhs.
brightmoments,
a.
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Monday, 28.11.2005 - A quick hello
As the year rolls to a close, much work to be done/image gifts of plastic arts & surrealist dreamscapes that need to be materialised, hills and mechanics, wide sloping vistas of ragged valleys, cliffs and gulleys...but more on this later
I've just uploaded a couple photos from my recent visit to Chicago(in the portraits and performance sections.
I was there for 4 days, not long enough to say I know the city. I stayed in the downtown area, didn't get to go southside, to the funky part of town, but I did find the biggest Jazz & Blues Record shop in the world on Wabash, which isnt that big really, but it was filled with gems.
Also, a new item added to the multimedia section
speak soon,
anthony
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Wednesday, 16.11.2005 - Soca Warriors !
Trinidad & Tobago 1 - Bahrain - 0
Just got back today from Chicago in time to catch the Trinidad v Bahrain world cup qualifier. I snuck a jerky live feed from Israeli TV and saw the warriors win this historic match. We are only the 4th Caribbean nation to qualify for the finals, after Cuba in 1938, Haiti in 1974 and Jamaica in 1998, and after many nearly years and tears. On the streets of my country tonight there'll be proper bachanal, plenty liqour and heavy music till dawn and beyond. Of course, I long to be there, but I'll drink my rum here. I'm hoping that this eruption of joy and national pride helps to derail some of the crime/stress we've been suffering lately.
And Germany, believe me, you not ready for this party!
peace, aj
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Saturday, 12.11.2005 - The Fifth Dimension - Floating Islands
Europe is literally the creation of the Third World - Frantz Fanon
...Morning rises slowly, the sun cuts spires off center...It's my birthday and I'm on the 17th floor, Hotel Allegro, West Randolph Street, Chicago,drinking warm coffee and listening to the Fifth Dimension sing...i'd like to place/a long distance call/to a number in west/LA...I'm here to read tomorrow at the Chicago Humanities Festival, most likely my last public performance this year. But today i'm off to hunt books and music, the worlds largest blues and jazz record shop is just a long walk across the river. And then hopefullly to catch the Trinidad v Bahrain game. What a day it'll be if we win, what a carnival...Soca Warriors comin' down!
Coming into Chicago yesterday,in the taxi the driver asked me what the other islands of the caribbean were like, i had to admit i didnt really know, hadn't travelled there, just as he hadn't travelled outside Nigeria, except to come to the US, to the city of his dreaming eye & desire. We are so eager to leave,without knowing where we begin, without truly knowing the landscapes and seascapes of our natal land, the paradise at our door, like fishes we don't notice water. This is the lasting imprint of the post/colonial state, that leaves us with an eternal longing to return, but once we step out of sync and leave, the island we know ceases to exist, rather, what remains floats in our memory, in dreams of valleys and the blue sea between, a car leaning on the culvert...luminous mountains, the smell of feathers..
muchlove, anthony
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Friday, 21.10.2005 - Compose wordless poems
Why do we write? What it is? so many reasons. for me the original impulse seemed to be about recording moments of lucidity, to map the adventure of consciousness. But then also, to create song, as fruit is the song of trees.
New Link added for London Surrealist Group. At their reading last week at Treadwells in London,I felt something within shift and lurch, it began to move forward, and i came home to write..
write now
compose
wordless poems
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Wednesday, 12.10.2005 - A New House
I'm sure many people can relate to this, developing a new website is like decorating a new house. You do it bit by bit until it's just right, then rearrange again. But welcome. Everyone.To the space. All the sections are now functional; photos, audio in the multimedia section, Spasm Band etc. enjoy, and do send your comments.
Plenty thanks is due to Jacob Sam La Rose, who made it work well.
This is an ongoing project, not a static site so over the coming weeks I'll be adding more content and updates. Bright moments!
anthony
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Thursday, 22.09.2005 - Fruit is the song of trees
Constuction continues. More updates to the textology section which now includes essays and an interview.the spasm band section is also 90% functional.Some news just in that 4 excerpts from The African Origins Of UFOs will be anthologised in the fortcoming journal Hambone. Hambone is a prestigious,legendary journal edited by Nathaniel Mackey and published annually.Its truly an honour to be included.
For the history of sources we should substitute the history of figures: the origin of the work is not the first influence, it is the first posture: one copies a role, then, by metonymy, an art: I begin producing by reproducing the person I want to be.
JOURNAL 
Spasm Band at Cargo March 2008, pic by Lexxie. 
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