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'The mouthmark Book of Poetry' is an anthology of the
individual-author titles published under the mouthmark poetry
pamphlet series, comprising the work of Nick Makoha, Inua Ellams,
Jacob Sam-La Rose, Jessica Horn, Truth Thomas, Denise Saul, Malika
Booker, Janett Plummer and Warsan Shire. The series was conceived
by flipped eye publishing's senior editor, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, as a
means to get poets from non-mainstream backgrounds - including
performance - into print. It was revolutionary for two reasons;
first, it was a pamphlet series developed with a specific aim
(later, tall-lighthouse would launch its pilot series, and, much
later, Faber would launch its New Poets Initiative); second, it was
a finite series - to end after ten pamphlets. After some success
with the first two pamphlets in the series, Nick Makoha's 'The Lost
Collection of an Invisible Man' (2005) and Inua Ellams' '13 Fairy
Negro Tales' (2005), the Arts Council of England provided funding
for the next four. It took six years for the series to be
completed, but its impact far exceeded expectations. Authors such
as Inua Ellams, Jacob Sam-La Rose (later editor of the last
pamphlet in the series), Nick Makoha and Warsan Shire, have risen
to international prominence; three of the pamphlets were cited by
the Poetry Book Society pamphlet selectors for their quality; five
of the poets have since been chosen for the ground-breaking
national Complete Works development programme for UK poets of
minority ethnic backgrounds; and Truth Thomas's from his pamphlet
'Party of Black' (2006) was chosen for Nikki Giovanni's 'The 100
Best African American Poems' (Sourcebooks, 2010). Crucially, the
series retailed admirably as well, with over 10,000 copies sold at
events - and through conventional retail channels. Now, with the
release of 'The mouthmark Book of Poetry', readers can experience
all nine individual poets published under the mouthmark poetry
pamphlet series in this collectible volume that retains hallmarks
of the iconic series, such as the distinctive brown paper-look
cover with bold black designs.
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The Geez (Paperback)
Nii Ayikwei Parkes
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R295
R239
Discovery Miles 2 390
Save R56 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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This stunning new collection from Nii Ayikwei Parkes features poems
which embrace play, love and the ephemeral such as water bodies,
blood/heritage, history and gossip; and a healthy dose of music and
popular culture. Concerned with the phase of life sometimes
referred to as the midlife crisis, The Geez navigates the blurred
lines between age and youth; the real and the imagined; what is
seen and what is - what catches the gaze and what lies beneath.
Conceived in four sections, the collection moves from play, to
love, to gossip and - finally - to explorations of the
intersections of self and contemporary culture, including a segment
inspired by blues legends, riffing on the myth of the crossroads,
as well as an eleven-part love letter to the African diaspora -
specifically African-Americans, whose sacrifices have contributed
to the still-suppressed freedoms of Black folk globally. A number
of the poems in The Geez are written in a form called the Gimbal,
which was developed by Nii - initially to work through his enduring
grief at the loss of his father. It evokes the workings of a
gyroscope - spinning but stable -a state that echoes the liminality
that anchors this collection.
'A delightful book that combines the basic tug of the whodunit with
the more elegant pleasures of the literary novel' Independent
Sonokrom, a village in the Ghanaian hinterland, has not changed for
hundreds of years. Here, the men and women speak the language of
the forest, drink aphrodisiacs with their palm wine and walk
alongside the spirits of their ancestors. The discovery of sinister
remains - possibly human, definitely 'evil' - and the disappearance
of a local man brings the intrusion of the city in the form of
Kayo, a young forensic pathologist convinced that scientific logic
can shatter even the most inexplicable of mysteries. As old and new
worlds clash and clasp, and Kayo and his sidekick, Constable Garba,
delve deeper into the case, they discover a truth that leaves
scientific explanations far behind.
Most migrants arrive at their destinations by a combination of
serendipity and choicelessness. This has been Nii Parkes' own
experience. The question - how did you arrive here? - is always
answered with a convoluted mix of myth, love, family ties, budget,
language, persecution, opportunity and interruption. In the answers
to that question lie the connecting lines of his scatter points -
Abidjan, Grimsby, Cape Coast, London, Accra, Manchester, Los
Angeles, and Dijon. To further answer that question he has brought
together a distinguished selection of contemporary writers who
share parallel experiences and invited them to contribute short
fiction to this anthology. With stories from Romesh Gunesekera, Zoe
Wicomb, Nam Le, Monica Arac de Nyeko, Tahmina Anam, Brian Chikwava,
Niki Aguirre, Junot Diaz and Naomi Alderman, this is a rich mix of
writing re-imagining the constantly evolving dynamics of
trans-national migration in the 21st century, exploring the complex
fabric of the world that contemporary migrants negotiate.
A woman spots a stunning blue-headed bird at the edge of a Ghanaian
village follows it. Sonokrom is a place that has not changed for
hundreds of years; the men and women speak the language of the
forest, drink aphrodisiacs with their palm wine and commune with
the spirits of their ancestors. However, the woman's intrusion and
ensuing events lead to an invasion from Accra, the capital city,
spearheaded by Kayo; a young forensic pathologist convinced that
scientific logic can shatter even the most inexplicable of
mysteries. But as events in the village become more and more
incomprehensible, Kayo and his sidekick, Constable Garba are drawn
into a world where storytelling is more powerful than any
scientific explanation. Tail of the Blue Bird is a poetic fable, at
once unsettling and heart-warmingly funny, that exemplifies the
futility of trying to categorise Africa, reminding us that the
boundaries of truth have never been clear cut.
Candid and sensitive, this collection journeys between Africa,
Europe, and the Americas as the poet explores his family history.
Told with wit and an engaging ambivalence, these narrative poems
explore areas of imaginative fantasy, including a consideration of
how the slave trade would have been different had its main mode of
transportation been the hot-air balloon rather than the slave ship.
Touching on both pain and rich rewards from the perspective of a
black British poet, this volume's goal is to entertain, instruct,
and encourage contemplation. Nii Ayikwei Parkes is the senior
editor at Flipped Eye Publishing and a contributing editor at the
Liberal. He is a performance poet and the author of Eyes of a Boy,
Lips of a Man; M is for Madrigal; and Tail of the Blue Bird. He is
the recipient of the Arts Critics and Reviewers Association of
Ghana Award for poetry and literary advocacy.
'The mouthmark Book of Poetry' is an anthology of the
individual-author titles published under the mouthmark poetry
pamphlet series, comprising the work of Nick Makoha, Inua Ellams,
Jacob Sam-La Rose, Jessica Horn, Truth Thomas, Denise Saul, Malika
Booker, Janett Plummer and Warsan Shire. The series was conceived
by flipped eye publishing's senior editor, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, as a
means to get poets from non-mainstream backgrounds - including
performance - into print. It was revolutionary for two reasons;
first, it was a pamphlet series developed with a specific aim
(later, tall-lighthouse would launch its pilot series, and, much
later, Faber would launch its New Poets Initiative); second, it was
a finite series - to end after ten pamphlets. After some success
with the first two pamphlets in the series, Nick Makoha's 'The Lost
Collection of an Invisible Man' (2005) and Inua Ellams' '13 Fairy
Negro Tales' (2005), the Arts Council of England provided funding
for the next four. It took six years for the series to be
completed, but its impact far exceeded expectations. Authors such
as Inua Ellams, Jacob Sam-La Rose (later editor of the last
pamphlet in the series), Malika Booker, Nick Makoha and Warsan
Shire, have risen to international prominence; three of the
pamphlets were cited by the Poetry Book Society pamphlet selectors
for their quality; two of the poets feature in the new Penguin
Modern Poets series; and Truth Thomas's from his pamphlet 'Party of
Black' (2006) was chosen for Nikki Giovanni's 'The 100 Best African
American Poems' (Sourcebooks, 2010). Crucially, the series has
retailed admirably as well, with over 50,000 copies sold at events
- and through conventional retail channels. Initially released
exactly four years ago as a hardback that retained hallmarks of the
iconic mouthmark series, such as the distinctive brown paper-look
cover with bold black designs, this low-priced paperback edition
seeks to introduce more readers to the work of the nine brilliant
poets published under the series.
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