-
A History of Reading
A few nights ago I finished Alberto Manguel's A History of Reading, which was on the reading list for a class taught by an instructor I'll be having this summer. Turns out it's not on the list for the class I'll be taking, but it was still very enjoyable ( Read more... ) -
Film: Pray the Devil Back to Hell
This was amazing. WOMEN are absolutely wonderful. Also, this is a piece of contemporary history I knew nothing about, and should have ( Read more... ) -
When the West Brings Civilization Back to Africa
I just came back from a screening of a locally made film, When the West Brings Civilization Back to Africa. I'm pretty sure the title is meant to be ironic, although the film did have an unfortunate tendency to equate "technology" with "civilization."
( More ) -
So many books
I spent last weekend plowing through Lisa M. Diamond's Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women's Love and Desires. It was good, really, but I had to finish it by Monday because I'd promised to review it for a newsletter ( Read more... ) -
Rehabilitating African Languages
Rehabilitating African Languages: Language Use, Language Policy and Literacy in Africa, Selected Case Studies, edited by Kwesi Kwah Prah (Capetown, South Africa : The Center for Advanced Studies of African Society, 2002).
A few weeks ago I posted about the book Afrikan Alphabets. I wanted to read more about African language issues and I'm fortunate ( Read more... ) -
Xiaolu Guo, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
This was rec'd recently on 50books_poc (and my comments are posted there also) and I enjoyed it greatly. It's about a young Chinese woman, Zhuang, whose parents send her to London for a year to study English. It's in first person, addressed to the British man she met and lived with during most of the year, and the narrative reflects her developing fluency in ( Read more... ) -
Afrikan Alphabets, by Saki Mafundikwa
Full title Afrikan Alphabets: The Story of Writing in Afrika.
Saki Mafundikwa is a Zimbabwean graphic designer and started ZIVA, the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts. About 20 years ago he became interested in the diverse writing systems developed in various African cultures, and started collecting info on them during his travels.
( More ) -
Ainadamar, by Osvaldo Golijov
I've been listening to the opera Ainadamar by Osvaldo Golijov. It's about the assassination of the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca in 1936, during the Spanish Civil War ( Read more... ) -
Andy Goldsworthy documentary
I just finished watching a documentary about the British artist Andy Goldsworthy called Rivers and Tides.I've loved his work for a long time. He makes outdoor sculptures from materials in nature: ice, stones, leaves, sticks, moss, sand. A few of his works will last for years or decades perhaps, like an undulating stone wall built for a museum in ( Read more... ) -
Dreams of My Father
I just finished reading Barack Obama's Dreams of My Father. I've had it on my bookshelf for months but didn't start to read it until Inauguration Day. (I wonder if I was unconsciously trying to protect myself from greater disappointment if Obama didn't get the nomination / didn't win the general election / or was prevented from taking office for ( Read more... )