Inxeba (The Wound)

The poster for Inxeba (The Wound)

Last year, a realist film set in Africa--South Africa, to be specific--debuted, both to great fanfare and considerable controversy that has only exploded in subsequent months.  Titled Inxeba, isiXhosa for "The Wound," and directed by white South African John Trengove, the story turns on a triangle of troubled desire involving three young Xhosa men, one a teenager on the cusp of adulthood, at an initiation ritual in the mountains of South Africa. Inxeba has since received a raft of awards, including the African American Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Film, the Durban International Film Festival's awards for Best Actor and Best Director, the L.A. Outfest's winner in the Outstanding International Narrative Award, the London Film Festival's Sutherland Award for outstanding first feature, and the Mumbai Film Festival's Jury Grand Prize. It also has provoked virulent denunciation, including a demand by the Xhosa King that it be shut down; death threats against its cast; and, recently, in response to the growing uproar online and on the ground, an extreme X18 rating, essentially reclassifying it as pornography, which is most certainly is not, effectively banning it from most movie theaters in its home country. This has sparked its own backlash online.

Nakhane, as Xolani, leading
a group of initiates; Niza Jay
as Kwanda is third from left

Critics have fixed on the fact that an outsider depicted a culture he does not know or belong to, as well as on the belief that the film reveals secret initiation rites, though the film's Xhosa executive producer (Batana Vundla) and writers (Thando Mgqolozana and Malusi Bengu), and its actors note that in fact, the charges are false, and that Madiba Nelson Mandela's 1994 autobiography A Long Walk to Freedom reveals far more information about initiation rites than the film, which mainly uses the ceremonial space as a backdrop. In fact, the director and executive producer even brought in a cultural expert to ensure they were getting this correct. What the protests obscure, perhaps intentionally in some cases, is that Inxeba is a groundbreaking film, for relative progressive (at least on paper) South Africa and the continent, as assured in its direction and action as in its cinematography, and the story it tells, about queer desire, masculinities, community, and cultural tradition in contemporary society, underscores the struggles its protagonist and so many like him face, not only in South Africa and across the continent, but the globe.

Nakhane, as Xolani, with his defiant
mentee, Kwanda, played by Niza Jay

The protagonist of Inxeba is Xolani (Nakhane [Touré]), a single, soft-spoken, DL factory worker, who heads to the Eastern Cape mountainside to participate in the annual Xhosa manhood initiation rites of ukwaluka, with other men in his community. In the all-male space, the organizers' goal is to create a deep spiritual, cultural, and social bond between and among the participants, thereby cementing their senses of connection as they age into fatherhood and the community's elders. Xolani has gone through the rites himself, and acquits himself with quiet restraint, thus making him suitable as a guide and mentee for a young man from the next cycle. This time through, a wealthy resident of Johannesburg requests that Xolani to serve as his son's guide, urging him to be tough on the young man, Kwanda (Niza Jay), whom he feels is "too soft." Kwanda is in fact effeminate, openly queer, and defiantly outspoken. He appears to care more about his expensive sneakers and the lack of comfort in his lodgings in than acceding to expectations of the initiation experience, which includes not just the traumatic ritual circumcision and gatherings with fellow initiates, but avowals and toughening exercises to ensure a particular understanding of cis-hetero patriarchial black manhood.

Bongile Mantsai as Vija, comforting
Nakhane, as Xolani

The third figure in the triangle is Vija (Bongile Mantsai), an outgoing, insistently physical, lighthearted former initiate who, we quickly learn, is also Xolani's secret lover. Vija is married to a woman and on the verge of becoming a father, but he also still possesses affection and desire for Xolani, and after their effusive greeting, they are soon making love in the secrecy of an abandoned building or the high grass, and openly tussling before a campfire, their embraces and exchanges hardly as innocent as the elders and young initiates around them may believe. While Vija enjoys the sexual relationship and is drawn to Xolani, his goal is to return to his wife; Xolani, however, is in love, but tries to maintain a thin façade of sublimation and covering, to use Kenji Yoshino's term, his struggle playing out not only in his attempts to regulate his emotions around Vija, especially when the other men are around, but in his treatment of Kwanda, whom he alternately approaches with severity and understanding. Above all, he offers the multi-edged advice, which he is trying his best to live out,  though perhaps he knows Kwanda is not going to heed it: "When you go home, you don't speak of what happened here."

Nakhane as Xolani, embracing
Bongile Mantsai, as Vija

This is not Las Vegas, and Kwanda, however, sees through Xolani's mask and performance. Representing not just a new generation but the product of decades of fight for racial, political but also social and sexual liberation, in South Africa and across the globe, Kwanda presses Xolani at one point, almost as a taunt and interrogation of his mentor's participation in the ritual, "What brings you back here? Don't you miss your friends? Or your girlfriend?" Later he sizes up Xolani in devastating fashion, saying, "I see what you are. But you can't admit it." The rites are not what is going to make a "man" of Kwanda, nor are the forced chants, the taunts against his sexuality, or the threat of violence. Instead, for Kwanda what counts is being true to yourself, whether that clashes with the society and culture around you. He even begins to orbit Vija's group of initiates, and Vija himself, spurring Xolani to panic. I will avoid spoilers, but Kwanda's instincts about Xolani and Vija are correct, his inquisitiveness upsets Xolani, and the results are tragic, suggesting that no matter how progressive national and metropolitan laws and attitudes may be, longstanding cultural strictures, and the worldviews they produce, particularly among embattled and oppressed people, can produce catastrophe when they collide. The wound remains open, and is bleeding.

Niza Jay, as Kwanda, with
Bongile Mantsai as Vija

Nakhane almost effortlessly captures the emotional and physical tension bristling in Xolani, his eyes dams holding back his longing, his suffering, his tenuous and continuous attempts at self-calibration. His ability to project a gentleness and fragility within an outward hardness rings particularly true. Based on this role, if he wants it and if there are enough roles for him, he should have a long and brilliant career. (Nakhane also is an acclaimed singer, and a published novelist.) Niza Jay's Kwanda is another linchpin, embodying both an acute and delicate vulnerability that leaves him constantly open to verbal and physical assaults, and a vocal, fearless defiance that serves, at least temporarily, as a shield, not only from the other young men and elders, but from Xolani. It would not be hard to imagine these two men standing side by side without incident or even interaction in a store aisle or in a gay bar in Cape Town, but in the socially pressurized space of ukwaluka, the actors convey, through looks, gestures and words, the cataclysm that ultimately seems likely to occur. Praise also should go to Bongile Mantsai, who effortlessly brings Vija to life. The viewer never once doubts that he can make love to Xolani one minute, then banter about women and be thinking about his pregnant spouse in the next. His ability to mark out the film's visual and psychic space, modeling a particularly form of corporeal hypermasculinity, also is impressive.

Niza Jay, as Kwanda

The writers have produced a taut, often tender, psychologically and socially perceptive script that, as Trengove, who served as a co-writer, has pointed out, took inspiration from but was not an adaptation of Thando Mgqolozana's A Man Is Not a Man. Cinematographer Paul Ozgur not only manages to show the striking beauty of the Eastern Cape mountain region, but also demonstrates an ability to provide visual clarity to Trengove's sometimes deep and carefully composed scenes. Perhaps in anticipation of the criticism to come, the camera often captures elders in the background, visible but somewhat blurred, seeing but not really looking at or grasping what is unfolding under their gaze; or rather, it is not their gaze through which we see what is happening, but the queer ones, of Xolani, Vija and Kwanda. Perhaps this is what has set off the critics more than anything. It also points to the fact that we--South Africans, Africans, and the world--need more such films, how uncomfortable they might make some viewers, to parallel and complement the deservingly lauded Afrofuturist fantasies of Black Panther. What we also need are stories that show the Xolanis, Vijas, Kwandas, and their cis and trans female, male and non-binary compatriots living their lives in a variety of settings; Inxeba demonstrates that if there is funding and audience support, the talent is there to make these future stories a reality.

Hugh Masekela, Trumpeter & Activist, Passes

South African trumpeter and musician
Hugh Masekela at St. Lucia Jazz
festival, May 2012. (Reuters/Andrea De Silva)

This past week brought a number of homegoings, taking from us the South African musician and activist Hugh Masekela (April 4, 1939 - January 23, 2017), a trumpeter of impressive talent, and a freedom fighter against apartheid and for full equality for Black and brown South Africans. A native of KwaGuqa Township, Witibank, Masekela began his musical career at age 14, after seeing Kirk Douglas in the Hollywood film Young Man with a Horn, and his first trumpet was a gift from Louis Armstrong, via an anti-apartheid Anglican archbishop, Trevor Huddleston.

Masekela would go on to an internationally renowned career, traveling the continent and globe and playing with many of the most important jazz, pop and world-music musicians of his generations, but he never ceased agitating for his people's freedom. Throughout his oeuvre are numerous pieces that address the toxins of apartheid, racism, slavery, social, political and economic inequality, poverty, and other ills. After the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre, in which South African authorities killed 69 protesters in cold blood, Masekela went into exile, and settling in New York, where he befriended US musicians and activists, and was able to study at the Manhattan School of Music, graduating in 1964, and briefly marrying the marvelous singer Miriam Makeba shortly thereafter.

Among Masekela's musical achievements were the chart-topping 1968 instrumental song "Grazing in the Grass," and his star turn with the pop R&B/jazz group The 5th Dimension, on their unforgettable hit "Up, Up and Away," in 1967. He also recorded with musicians ranging from Paul Simon to Abdullah Ibrahim to Kalahari, making a special point to engage other African and Black Diasporic, musicians, including Fela Kuti and Jorge Ben, and musical forms in his work. Throughout, he  enriched the century-long traditions of jazz music. Masekela founded the Botswana International Music School (BIMS) in 1985, an institution that continues, in different form but which still brings together young and established musicians from across Africa.

My introduction to Masekela's music came from hearing my father play both albums featuring his work and ones he issued, and then, in early adulthood, when he was one of the highlighted artists who participated in Paul Simon's famous album Graceland tour, which also included Miriam Makeba and brought to wider attention groups like Ladysmith Black Mambazo. (I may even have the Graceland LP in my collection!)

May he keep blowing his horn and creating beauty wherever he is now, and may we keep listening. In tribute to him, here are a few clips from YouTube. Enjoy!


Hugh Masekela, "Grazing In The Grass"


Hugh Masekela, "Afro Beat Blues"


Hugh Masekela, "Don't Go Lose It Baby [Rare Version]


Hugh Masekela, "Stimela" (with Graceland)
Hugh Masekela, "Blues for Huey"


Hugh Masekela, "Bring Him Back Home (Nelson Mandela)"

Visionaries: Keorapetse Kgositsile (+ Poem) + Kynaston McShine

Keorapetse Kgositsile

With the new year comes saddening news, and so it was with the emails, Tweets and posts announcing the passing in Johannesburg of Keorapetse "Willie" Kgositsile (September 19, 1938 - January 3, 2018). Kgositsile, whom I had the immense pleasure of meeting when he toured the US back in 2012, came to Evanston under the auspices of Northwestern University's Poetry and Poetics Colloquium, performing his work with his longtime friend, musician Douglas Ewart. At the time he was the Poet Laureate of South Africa. His visit was a special event, and I felt extraordinarily fortunate to have the opportunity finally to hear him read his work in person.

As I noted in my 2012 post,

Not only is Kgositsile one of the major poets of his country and of contemporary African literature, but during the 1960s and part of the 1970s was actively involved in the creation of the Black Art literary, cultural and political movement, and as such represents and embodies a link between the political and cultural liberation movements of Africa and the US and the Americas. The famous proto-rap group, The Last Poets, took their name from one of his poems; others who acclaimed his work included established figures like Gwendolyn Brooks, and peers like Amiri Baraka.

He had lived in exile in the US from 1962 until 1975, and is acclaimed in part as one of the first African authors to connect in his work 20th century African and African American poetries. He also was actively involved in Harlem's Black Arts Theater, formulating a revolutionary theory of theater that sought to transform Black artists' underlying assumptions about their work and its effects on Black people. To put it another way, he was a linchpin in terms of thinking through Diasporic artistic practices during the Civil Rights, Black Arts and anti-apartheid eras.

Kgositsile returned to South Africa, after a number of years living in other African countries, in 1990, and was active from that point forward in artistic and cultural activities. The South Africa he returned to had changed dramatically and improved considerably in some ways from the country he left, but the ongoing social, political and economic inequities remained, and he did not hesitate to criticize them in his work.  In 2009, he published Beyond Words: South African Poetics (Flipped Eye Publishing), with fellow South African poets Don Mattera, Lebo Mashile and Phillippa Yaa de Villiers.

Above and below are two poems by Kgositsile, from his 2002 collection If I Could Sing (Kwela Publishers), via Poetry International Web, that convey his later style, questioning approach and committed spirit. Also below are a few more links with much more information about him. Read his work, and remember him, and may he rest in poetry.

Huffington Post Black Voices: "Poet and activist Keorapetse Kgositsile, Who Celebrated Black Arts, Dead at 79"

News24: "National Poet Laureate and political activist dead at 79"

XXL: "Earl Sweatshirt's Father, Famed Poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, Dies at 79"

Pitchfork: "Earl Sweatshirt's Father, Poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, Dead at 79"

***

Kynaston McShine (center) at the opening
of "Primary Structures: Younger American
and British Sculptors," April 27-
June 12, 1966. The Jewish Museum, NY.

Outside the art world, the name Kynaston McShine (February 20, 1935 - January 8, 2018) is probably little known, but within it, and especially in New York City, it held considerable importance, for, as I blogged back in 2011, McShine played a key role as a curator at several of New York's major art institutions: the Museum of Modern Art, and The Jewish Museum. When I wrote my blog post, McShine did not have a Wikipedia entry--he now does, though it remains fairly threadbare--and some of my information, culled from various online sources, was incorrect. (I had seen his birth year listed online as 1939.)

Billy Sullivan's Kynaston (2001).
The Museum of Modern Art,
New York © 2018 Billy Sullivan

What led me initially to write about McShine? I had previously come across a mention of his striking name online, and assumed that he was one of many well-placed, powerful, clearly brilliant and far-thinking, possibly British white curators of his generation, but an image search brought back the face of a Black man, and so I had to dig a bit more and write something up here, though I am hardly an art historian or scholar in the field. As it turns out, there are numerous mentions of McShine, as the scholar and critic Dorothy Wang shared with me, in MoMA's online interviews with its former curators, and Sarah Kleinman, who was writing her dissertation back in 2011 and wrote me via my comments section, may have unearthed other nuggets about him. As she pointed out, though, at that time biographical details about him online, at least seven years ago, were scarce.

At ArtNet, Julia Halpern, in a moving memorial writeup, asserts that McShine might have been "the first curator of color to work at a major American museum," and quotes Sarah Kleinman making a key point about McShine: "In the context of 1950s and 1960s New York City, where curators and artists of color faced blatant discrimination, McShine’s work is even more significant and groundbreaking, opening conversations about the intersections of race, identity, and power." A second ArtNet piece by Halperin collects lovely tributes to him, from MoMA president emerita Agnes Gund and artist Billy Sullivan to curator Anne Umland.

Mr. McShine in a 1988 photograph by
Robert Mapplethorpe. Among the many
exhibitions he organized,  two have
become part of art history.  (© Credit
Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation,
via New York Times)

His New York Times obituary does give considerably more information, including the fact that he did stage solo shows of at least one Black, Sam Gilliam, and one Latino artist, Rafael Ferrer, the first through the pioneer experimental exhibition program he founded at MoMA in 1971, and included other artists of color, including Fred Wilson, in his large-scale exhibitions. The Times review also points out, though, that his 1984 show, "An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture" included only 13 women artists out of 165 total (ArtNet lists 169!), which spurred a group of women to found the now legendary Guerrilla Girls. In its tribute to McShine, the Jewish Museum also notes that in his landmark 1966 "Primary Structures: Younger American and British Sculptors," he included several women, including Judy Chicago (then Judy Gerowitz) and Ann Truitt. He received the CSS Bard Award for Curatorial Excellence in 2003, and served on the boards of several arts organizations. He retired from MoMA in 2008, and passed away just days ago. He was 82.

To quote The New York Times's obit, whose author Roberta Smith spoke with Ann Temkin, formerly McShine’s curatorial assistant at the end of the 1980s, and later chief curator of painting and sculpture at MoMA starting in 2008:

Kynaston’s sensitivity was deep and his opinions were strong. At the museum, he championed the poetic, the unexpected and the individual as opposed to the academic, the predictable and the institutional. His lasting contribution to the life of the museum, and to the lives of countless artists and colleagues, is immense.

What a fitting epitaph.

PS: In my original post I included Alex Katz's painting of McShine, and as part of this post I have included Robert Mapplethorpe's beautiful portrait of him, which accompanied the Times obituary, and Billy Sullivan's portrait, which was part of the ArtNet tributes. I now wonder whether there might be other images created or taken of him over the years. Something for someone else to suss out, I think.

Kobus Moolman Wins 2015 Glenna Luschei Prize + Poems

Kobus Moolman (b. 1964), a South African poet, playwright, and author of five individual collections of poems and two collections of plays, has received the 2015 Glenna Luschei Prize for his collection A Book of Rooms (Deep South, 2014). The judge was the award-winning poet and scholar Gabeba Baderoon, and the honor was bestowed by African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) based at the University of Nebraska. The recipient of numerous awards in South Africa, Moolman teaches at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.

Judge Baderoon says about the book: "“In this close reading of spaces, we trace walls, windows, curtains, corners, our attention caught by the cut beneath the door, illumination flaring from glints of memory…. Yet if his flesh is betrayed, and his heart breaks into silence and shame, the hole in his heart also opens into speech."

African Poetry Book Fund Director Kwame Dawes writes about Moolman, "Every time we bring attention to the wonderful poetry being written by African poets today, we are enacting something quite important for African literary arts, and Moolman, whose poetry I have followed for a number of years, is a poet that more people should know. Our hope is that in some small way, this prize will aid in that larger effort." Lastly, Moolman describes this volume as "a brave/foolhardy attempt to shake up the distinction between truth (fact) and fiction, between autobiography and invention."

Though I am affiliated with the APBF, I wasn't familiar with Moolman's work before this award, but having read it I can without question that it certain merits this distinction and high praise. And now, here are two of Moolman's poems, from Poetry International. Enjoy!

[The sheep move off]

The sheep move off.
The sky gets heavier.
The birds grow lighter.
The wind stands up and stretches.
The trees bend over to pick up the old leaves.
The horizon folds in half, then half again.
The sound of a train drags rough words across the hills.
The hills slowly empty of colour.
He sits down on a stone.
He moves his left hand in circles,
circles that narrow in upon themselves.
His skin crawls with flies.
He makes no attempt to drive the end
of the day away from his bare chest.
He throws his left hand against the wind.
He throws the earth far away from beneath his feet.
There is a tightness in his side again.
A tightness where his faith should be.

© 2013, Kobus Moolman

From: Left Over
Publisher: Dye Hard Press, Johannesburg, 2013, 978-0-9869982-2-5

***

IN BED WITHOUT

So most nights.

So every other night.

So every other night when not with.

So when usual and without surprise.

So together and far apart and beyond all at the same.

So at night time when leaving and standing, watching go

away.

So more or less, this way and that.

So opening, closing, in, out, attached and loose as

a nozzle.

So switched on.

So off.

So when the sky rolls over and on top and big is too
full and the wind is grey as cotton, hand-washed,
hanging up, dripping over the bath, and the plug is
breathless and blocked up with his hair that does
not stop, that does not stop falling, out.

That does not.

© 2013, Kobus Moolman
First published on Poetry International, 2013

Both poems © Kobus Moolman, 2013, 2016. From Poetry International, all rights reserved.

Nelson R. Mandela, 1918-2013

We have lost one of the true heroes and greatest statesmen of our era or any other. A brilliant person, a freedom fighter, a beacon of resistance, a visionary leader, an icon of peace. A person who, alongside others, bore arms when he needed to. A person who, alongside others, consulted the law when he needed to. A person who, alongside others, endured decades years in prison because he had to. A person who, alongside so many other women and men, brought a new dawn and a new day to one of the most benighted countries, wracked by the cancer of institutionalized and systemic racism and white supremacy known as apartheid. A man who chose democracy, who chose inclusion, who chose justice informed and enrichd by forgiveness rather than vengeance. A man who promoted economic, political and justice in the new South Africa. A man who assumed the role of President of a renewed country that was forever changed, giving hope to his people, all the people of his country, and to many more across the globe.

Nelson Rolihlahla MANDELA (July 18, 1918 - December 5, 2013)

The forthcoming New Yorker cover
by Kadir Nelson

Mandela in traditional clothing

A young Mandela

President Nelson R. Mandela

Mandela the young lawyer

Celebrating with Miriam Makeba

Mandela at an ANC rally

Winnie and Nelson Mandela
as newlyweds

"I am prepared to die" (1964)

Mandela at Robben Island

Nelson Mandela with Walter Sisulu

Mandela receiving the Nobel Peace Prize
with South Africa's last apartheid
leader, F. W. de Klerk

MADIBA

Mandela with actor and musician Will Smith

The landmark 1994 South African
presidential ballot

Rest in peace, Madiba, rest in peace.

Videos after the jump:

Kgositsile in Evanston + My Bookshelf

On Monday Keorapetse Kgositsile (1938-), the Poet Laureate of South Africa and a beacon in African and African Diasporic arts and letters, came to Northwestern to read his work. In lieu of a recap of his excellent reading, introduced by Reg Gibbons, and  graced by Douglas Ewart's pipe accompaniment on three poems, here are a few photos. I previously posted the itinerary for Kgositsile's travels throughout the rest of the spring here. His tour is winding down, and the dates and some of these final events may have changed so please check in advance, but I definitely recommend going to hear him if you can.

April 30th (Monday): Brown, 4:00 pm—arrive on Sunday the 29th and return to NYC on Tuesday

May 1st, with Chinua Achebe

Photos:

Kgositsile and Ewart (at right)

Kgositsile reading his poetry

+++

It's been a while since I posted what's on my bookshelf (including the books selected at right), but then I've had little time to read anything other than work-related material of late. These books, some begun a while ago, some recently brought into my personal orbit, are all for edification, education and enjoyment:

• Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, New York: Scholastic Press, 2008.
• Samuel R. Delany, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, New York: Magnus Books, 2012.
• Qwo-Li Driskill, Walking with Ghosts, Cambridge: Salt Publishing, 2005.
• Harmony Holiday, Negro League Baseball, Albany: Fence Books, 2011.
• Michel Houellebecq, The Map and the Territory, Gavin Bowd, translator, London: Heinemann, 2011.
• Michel Jouvet, The Castle of Dreams,  Laurence Garey, translator, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008.
• Reza Negarestani, Cyclonopedia: complicity with anonymous materials, Melbourne: re-press, 2008.
• Edith Pearlman, Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories, Wilmington: Lookout Books/University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2011.
• Charles Rice-González, Chulito: A Novel, New York: Magnus Books, 2012.
• Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, New York: Crown, 2010.
• Justin Torres, We The Animals, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2011.
• Jesmyn Ward, Where the Line Bleeds, Chicago: Agate Publishing, 2008.
• Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, New York, Pantheon Books, 2000.

Keorapetse Kgositsile, Spring Tour 2012

It's exam week, which for me is final revised short story-and-final essay week, which means (lots of and) yet more reading, so little to no blogging. This quarter has left me particularly bleary-eyed, but by next Monday the grades will be in and it will be a wrap. The following quarter begins a week later!

In lieu of one of countless things I would like to blog about, I am going to do something I haven't in a while, which is to post information about an upcoming event, or rather, a series of events, involving a living legend, the great South African and Black Arts poet Keorapetse Kgositsile (1938-), who has begun a spring tour of the United States.  Not only is Kgositsile one of the major poets of his country and of contemporary African literature, but during the 1960s and part of the 1970s was actively involved in the creation of the Black Art literary, cultural and political movement, and as such represents and embodies a link between the political and cultural liberation movements of Africa and the US and the Americas.  The famous proto-rap group, The Last Poets, took their name from one of his poems; others who acclaimed his work included established figures like Gwendolyn Brooks, and peers like Amiri Baraka.

A quote: "In a situation of oppression, there are no choices beyond didactic writing: either you are a tool of oppression or an instrument of liberation."

He has already begun his tour, with readings in Brooklyn, down at Virginia Tech (with Nikki Giovanni, I imagine), at today at the University of Oklahoma, but he will be traveling all over the country, so if you can, do go hear him read if you can.  Here's the itinerary (I cannot verify it, so please check with the institutions) that poet Tyehimba Jess forwarded to me:

March 15th (Thursday): University of California at Santa Cruz

March 16th (Friday): California College of the Arts in San Francisco, 6:00 pm

March 22nd (Thursday): Hammer Museum near UCLA, 7:00 pm

March 23rd (Friday): University of Texas at Austin

March 26th (Monday): Miami University in Ohio

March 28th (Wednesday): University of Vermont

March 29th (Thursday): U of Mass at Amherst (with Sonia Sanchez)

March 31st (Saturday): National Black Writers' Conference at Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, 7:00 pm

April 2nd (Monday): Labyrinth Books in Princeton, 6:00 pm

April 3rd (Tuesday): George Washington University (mid-morning class); Library of Congress, 4:00 P.M.
(Gathering at the home of Dolen Perkins-Valdez)

April 4th (Wednesday): College of Staten Island, CUNY, 2:30-3:30

: The New School (6:30 p.m.)

April 5th: (Thursday): University of Pennsylvania

April 7th (Saturday): CSI in San Francisco (Lecture)

April 9th (Monday): Institute of American Indian Arts, Sante Fe

UPDATED: April 10th (Tuesday): University of Illinois at Chicago - UIC Daley Library: Poetry Reading: 4:00 pm; Poetry Workshop: 6:00 pm.

April 12th (Thursday): Vanderbilt, 7:00 pm

April 13th (Friday): NYU, 5:00 pm

April 16th (Monday): Rutgers University, New Brunswick, 4:30 pm

April 18th (Wednesday): Fairleigh Dickinson University

April 19th (Thursday): Fairleigh Dickinson University
April 20th (Friday): CUNY Graduate Center

[Waiting to Confirm--April 21st (Saturday): Kalamazoo, Michigan]

April 23rd (Monday): Northwestern University

April 24th: (Tuesday): City of Asylum, Pittsburgh with Oliver Lake

April 26th (Thursday): Gaines Center

April 30th (Monday): Brown, 4:00 pm—arrive on Sunday the 29th and return to NYC on Tuesday, May 1st, with Chinua Achebe

FIFA 2010 World Cup Underway

Amid my reading of the final versions of the novellas, and the conceptual art projects, I've taken some time to catch some of the FIFA 2010 World Cup games, which began yesterday with host country South Africa's match against Mexico. To the relief of the South Africans, and perhaps the Mexican fans, the match resulted in a 1-1 tie. Draws in fact have dominated the tournament's first day; in the other opening day match, France and Uruguay finished 0-0. On Day 2, today, South Korea trounced Greece 2-0, while Argentina beat Nigeria 1-0, and nearly scored several more.
The match to catch (and I missed it because I've been at a poetics conference), however, was England vs. the USA. Despite having a team packed with Premier League stars, England could only manage a 1-1 tie, which counts almost as a win for the Americans.  The game started in heart-dropping fashion for the US when English midfield Stephen Gerrard scored only 4 minutes into the contest, based on a defensive lapse, the sort of harbinger of a US debacle to come. Yet the Americans were able to hang on from that point onwards, even surviving a potential injury to their star goalie, Tim Howard, when England forward Emile Heskey slid cleet-first into the Howard's chest, and, in one of the most remarked moments of the tournament thus far, tied things when Clint Dempsey kicked a squibbler towards the English net and goalkeeper Robert Green couldn't hold onto it before it crossed the goal-line. From that point onwards the US team made no significant mistakes, despite being outshot 10-4 and corner-kicked 8-4. A great deal of credit goes to Howard for unflappable play, and to Dempsey and Jozy Altidore, who nearly got another US goal, for penetrating the English defense.

Tomorrow's games should provide some excitement, though I forsee Germany tromping over Australia, and Ghana v. Serbia ending a tie while I predict Slovenia will defeat the unheralded Algerians. The game I'm waiting for is Brazil's opening match, on Tuesday, against North Korea. In tribute to the match, I even wore my Brazil socks yesterday.  Below are a few of the photos from the games that I was able to cull thus far.

South Africa's goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune (R) and defender Aaron Mokoena (C) try to stop Mexico's striker Giovani dos Santos (L) from scoring during their 2010 World Cup group A first round football match on June 11, 2010 at Soccer City stadium in Soweto, suburban Johannesburg. (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)

South Africa's midfielder Kagisho Dikgacoi vies with Mexico's striker Giovani dos Santos during their Group A first round 2010 World Cup football match on June 11, 2010 at Soccer City stadium in Soweto, suburban Johannesburg. South Africa and Mexico play in the opening match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU/AFP/Getty Images)

Rugby "Porn" (WC Championships) + Houston Dynamo MLS Champs

Keguro inquires in a prior post's comments about this year's Jstheater rugby "porn." T'was here (new and infrequent readers, they do have their clothes on), as I was celebrating midstream this year's Rugby World Cup in France. (The post received few comments, and zero from admirers of the muscly menfolks themselves, leading me to believe that brawn and thick thighs had become passé among my friends on the Internets.) I was remiss in not following up with a post on the championship game, but as Keguro notes, South Africa defeated England 15-6 to win it all and take their second World Cup. My favorite picture from the final is this one, showing the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, hoisted aloft by the diverse squad, an image that would have been impossible 20 years ago.

(Photo Getty Images)

South Africa's tight defense and timely penalty scoring, it appears, proved decisive, but England also suffered from the loss of its soon-to-be-retired star, real life action-figure Jason Robinson (below) late in the game, to a shoulder injury. Keguro broaches the historical parallel of the Boer War, so I'll leave him to pursue that at some point, because you know it'll be amazing. I'll only note that the 3rd place match featured new world powerhouse Argentina defeating host France 34-10. From what I can tell, this pillar of "Old Europe," which had defeated the heavily favored New Zealand "All Blacks" 20-18 and walloped nearly all its other opponents, save Argentina in the opening round, took the defeat pretty well. As for Robinson, he looks like he need some serious consoling.

(Getty Images)

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I used to follow Major League Soccer (MLS) when it began over a decade ago; I can recall DC United defeating Los Angeles Galaxy 3-2 back in 1996. Around the turn of the new millennium, however, I stopped following the MLS almost completely, though I have kept up with widely reported league news like the sale of New York's team, Kansas City's team's name change to a geographically neutral high-end scotch brand (Chivas USA indeed!) and the overhyped arrival of David Beckham and his wife, Victoria, which I pray someone out there missed.

Checking the sports roundup yesterday on Yahoo! Sports, I saw that the MLS championship game had just taken place, with the Houston Dynamo, who up until two years ago had been the unfortunately named San Jose Earthquakes, defeating the New England Revolution 2-1. Dwayne De Rosario, the cornrowed Guyanese-Canadian star below, scored the game-winning goal on a rare (for him) header, giving the Dynamo their second championship in a row and foiling New England's hopes for a sixth straight year. Below are a few photos from the contest. I just may start following the MLS again, if I can find the time.

Houston Dynamo's soccer player Dwayne De Rosario celebrates his game winning goal against the New England Revolution in the 2007 MLS Cup in Washington, November 18, 2007. REUTERS/Jim Young.

Brian Ching's tying goal breathed life into Dynamo. His PK helped them win last year's MLS Cup. (Steve Grayson/WireImage.com)

New England Revolution's Avery John sits on the field after the MLS Cup championship soccer game Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007, in Washington . The Houston Dynamo defeated the Revolution 2 -1 to win the MLS Cup championship.
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Houston Dynamo's goalkeeper Pat Onstad (2nd R) celebrates his team's win with teammates Craig Waibel (C), Ryan Cochrane (5), and Stuart Holden (2) as New England Revolution's Pat Noonan walks off the field in their 2007 MLS Cup soccer match in Washington November 18, 2007. REUTERS/Jim Young.

Houston Dynamo's Wade Barrett (C) holds up the 2007 MLS Cup after defeating the New England Revolution, 2-1, in the league soccer final in Washington, November 18, 2007. REUTERS/Jim Young.