Multi cultural aspects of life.

I live in Antwerp in an old high rise. This implies there are a lot of different nationalities, that several languages are spoken in the building, yet from high blond to black we greet each other as neighbors and some times take the time for a chat, or to admire a new baby or pet a dog. A friend of mine asked me a while ago whether I could talk for an hour explaining about multiculturalism to a a handful of girls. I am also bringing some books by Native American authors I really like.

My favorites: Sherman Alexie, Scott Momaday, MariJo Moore, Luci Tapahonso, Ramson Lomatewama, Simon J. Ortiz, James Kale McNelly.

I also need to buy some multicultural cookies. I have "baldheads" (Kletskopjes) and "mini bagels" and Rochers "rocks" made of coconut....

Now when the kids finally arrived we were two hours late and the task description was totally different. When I had finally figured out that they wanted some very different I could do it: they wanted a person's life story, that is to say mine, because they happened on my doorstep (actually my daughter's doorstep). Then I concentrated on a light introduction, encouraged them to ask questions and they seemed to enjoy themselves. So one person will be writing a portrait of the person they think I am. They were happy when they left.

Then I ran out to find a stack of books that I thought I would need and couldn't find: all my Native American  Poetry... Those books are hard to replace when you are a continent away... I retraced my steps where I had been and with a sigh of relief found them huddled together. I read a lot of poetry, find it intriguing, refreshing and beautiful.

The attack of the flying Cars

My daughter Maya is a long term futures researcher and, since yesterday was the day that Mac Fly would arrive in his future she was interviewed on Canvas, the cultural channel of the Flemish speaking TV. So as a proud mother I give you all who understand Dutch the link to the interview on Canvas: She did great since she did explain about changes in how to interpret the reality around us. She is a realist and stated in answer to a question that world peace would be nice, but that it would already a big feat if we all learn to live together without bashing in  each others head.

http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/videozone/programmas/deafspraak/2.41492?video=1.2475135

Well done. She spoke to message, without superfluous stuff or superficially and she once again made me think about the concepts we hold dear and how the evolve or have to evolve to go on  in a good way for all.

Thank you Maya!

Johan de Boose interviews Lucienne Stassaert

 This post is a little late, almost a week after the facts. As an interviewer of writers Johan de Boose is just great. He researches thoroughly and digs up interesting information. I remember it happened when he interviewed Marleen De Crée and now again with the interview with Lucienne Stassaert. I have known both authors for a very long time and yet he managed to surprise me. He reads thoroughly, and asks sometimes difficult questions. Of course the bio is dealt with: Lucienne started out as a musician, even participated in the Queen Elizabeth Competition. Yet it was her fathers dream, not her dream. She gave concerts till in the late sixties and then gave her piano to her daughter who is a singer accompanying herself on the piano. Lucienne now paints and writes prose, wrote radio plays, she translates and writes mainly poetry. 

As Dickinson would say:

I dwell in Possibility -                                                                                  
A fairer house than Prose -

Currently she is working on her memories...

In Lucienne a poem will usually come about because of a word she found, a word which opens the possibility of saying something new, or in a new way. Very often after the first poem a second poem will come and it might even turn into a cycle of poems, or even a whole book. She was part and parcel of several literary movements like Labris, yet she distanced herself from those, being too much of a rebel, of an individualist. With age comes more and more introspection and also loss. A poem in my translation from her last book: Nabloei 

I'll quarantine death
now the bleakness of a new season
robs the light of its overtones
when in the night a blackened child
closes off the crossroads where the past thrives.

So life, reckless as an endangered spring,
can shoot up in a wild bush
in all nerve knots
I give free passage to the word
raging in seas a self-lighting sea.

African authors

Olivia Rutazibwa hosted a lunchtime event called "Writing to Africa"Schrijven aan Afrika" with four African authors . Lunchtime? Yes the conversations were held in the Ethiopian restaurant Toukoul under Olivia's gentle, artful questioning. These authors learned Dutch and do write in Dutch. Alphonse Muambi from Congo, with his book Democracy goes hungry is a regular contributor to 'Trouw' a Dutch newspaper. Babah Tarawally (Sierra Leone) published in Dutch in 2010 The blue-eyed God and seriously considers returning to  his country. Also Sayadin Hersi (Somalië) lives in and publishes his work in The Netherlands. Jean Bofane from Congo lives and writes in Belgium. Mathématiques Congolaises is his first novel. Sayadin Hersi (and it was obvious the other interviewees knew what he was talking about) remarked that readers always ask him whether his novel 'Verloren vader', Lost father is autobiographical. Smiling he said I am a writer, I do tell stories. I write them differently for a European readership than for African readers. They each expect a different way of storytelling. Living in Holland and Belgium these authors however do still love Africa, they follow what happens there; often they are critical of their own country and government.

The food was yummy. Sadly the sound wasn't too good, so I can't tell you more about the other authors.

Friday night in Brussels

Rain, wind and darkness, dangerous driving by tired lorries swerving out of their lane and the expected standstill on the roads into Brussels. One of the tunnels into town was closed off because of a European Summit meeting. Yet following the signs for the detours, I ended up in the tunnel and got well in time to the salons of the Liaison Office Brussels-European Union where the reading was to be held. The languages used that evening where: French, English, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish - in the Chilean variety which I love, Dutch, German, Alsatian, Romanian and Greek (both old and new). It was lovely to listen to the former or still active ‘Eurocrats’ who all defended their creative irk against or not withstanding hard work and a no-nonsense atmosphere when at work. The poems were always read first in its original language and then in a translation. Some people also sculpt or paint, or do graphics, make  music. The singer, Hugo Bossut, we were sorry to hear, was ill, some people, seen the chaos on the road didn’t make it. Yet there was a good group of excellent listeners. I had been involved with the Literary circle over 20 years ago and then lapsed. Finding in a publication a poem by Huguette Bastin, who was my contact then, I decided to contact her. Thus I ended  up as the mystery guest at the end of an evening. Huguette did a wonderful job introducing her colleagues, keeping time gently. The way she presented and interviewed me was delightful. She read the Dutch versions of my poems and I read them in my variety of Mid-Atlantic English: too European for Chloride, Arizona, too American for sensitive British ears. People were generous with kind comments and some even bought Traces/Sporen, published by world-internet-books.com. So it turned out to be a happy evening with light refreshments afterwards and conversations with interesting people.
My colleagues that evening were: Danial Guggenbühl, Catherine Koecks and Archie Clarke, Frederique Frahan-Dupont and Bruno Delmotte, Joqé Ponce Vicencio, Andrei-Paul Corescu, Paolo Pego, Fontini, Chiou, Isabelle Bielecki and Huguette Bastin. The second name always is the one having done or reading the translations.

Johan de Boose interviews Marleen de Crée

A chill, a touch of blue and two days gone by. Thursday noon in the Permeke library in Antwerp, a captivating author in his own right Johan de Boose and Marleen de Crée held a very interesting conversation. I have known Marleen's work since over 30 years and the talent of the interviewer dug out some interesting information and insights new to me. It must be challenging and wonderful to be interviewed by someone who knows "the metier", the necessary skills as well as the interviewee. Then the answers can open new perspectives. When one listens to Marleen it all seems so logical and as it is supposed to be. This isn't quite the right formulation since she is also strong willed and has an original mind of her own. All this packed in the beauty of her sonnets and rondeau's. She perverts, changes these traditional forms: strange punctuation, no rhymes, no open lines... You name it, she has done it. I now also know how the musicality of her verses came about. She went to a good boarding school where they had a choir. She had a very high soprano voice and so she sang in the choir. Their school won most contest because of this soprano voice. At home too there was a lot of singing, and many books. She started reading the books on the top shelf and worked her way through all the books. One could say that was her classical period. She adores Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu and all the poetry by Rainer Marie Rilke. She would joyfully reread them, but so little time, so many books to read and write. Here you find 3 wonderful video-poems made with Marleen's poems, a happy collaboration with Swoon Bildos who is invited to many Video festivals to showcase his work.