Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot

Essential Lines from 2009: "Big Wheels Keep on Turnin'"

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:02:00 +0000

You’d have thought that with eight previously published books that I wouldn’t be nervous, yet I was. I was reading at the Calabash International Literary Festival 2009: “The only international literary festival in the English-speaking Caribbean.”

And I was reading from a new book, Who’s Your Daddy? And Other Stories.

I wrote “Big Wheels Keep on Turnin': Calabash 09 (Part 2)” to capture my experience of reading “The Day Jesus Christ Came to Mount Airy” because it was a turning point for me in my writing career. It was the first time that I’d read to so large an audience in Jamaica, and as everyone knows, Jamaicans can be a tough audience. Especially with our own.

For you can write a technically competent story with a beginning, middle, and end about a character with whom you think the audience will empathize; you can set up the plot in such a way as to make the hero’s choices (whether is a comedy or tragedy) seem plausible; you can even try out the story with a few friends for a "dry run," and still fail to connect with an audience. In Jamaica.

Luckily, the reading was a success and I was proud to have been one the Calabash authors for the 2009 season.

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This is part of a group write project: Essential Lines from 2009: Group Writing Project.

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Dr. Opal Palmer Adisa Appointed as New Editor of The Caribbean Writer

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:50:00 +0000

The Caribbean Writer is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Opal Palmer Adisa as its new editor. Her appointment will begin in January 2010.

Jamaican born, Dr. Adisa is a poet and prose writer who brings extensive editorial experience to the anthology. She has published 14 books, and her writings have appeared in over 200 journals and anthologies. She is also a much sought-after speaker and has traveled throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean.

She has been recognized for her work in the form of many awards and honors, among them the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award for her poetry collection Tamarind and Mango Women and the Master Folk Artist Award for Storytelling from the California Arts Council. She has also received awards for both poetry and fiction from The Caribbean Writer and has served as an Advisory Board member of The Caribbean Writer since 1998. Her interview with renowned poet Kamau Brathwaite appears in Volume 23 (2009). Dr. Erika J. Waters, founding editor of The Caribbean Writer said she was “delighted the magazine was in such capable hands.”

Adisa, who has a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley, most recently was a professor at California College of the Arts. She previously taught both graduate and undergraduate courses at several universities including Stanford University, University of California, Berkley, and San Francisco State University.

Dr. Adisa’s editorship will begin with the 24th edition of The Caribbean Writer, submissions to which are currently being accepted. As usual, the Caribbean should be central to the work, or the work should reflect a Caribbean heritage, experience, or perspective. Besides poetry, fiction, essays and one-act plays, special sections are planned on Trevor Rhone and Wayne Brown. Deadline for submission has been extended to December 31, 2009. Visit www.thecaribbeanwriter.org for more information.

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2009 Top Ten Hits

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:48:00 +0000

The end of the year always brings opportunities to evaluate things that are important to us. As the old adage goes, “Whatever we value, we measure.”

For the past week, I have been reviewing the stats on my blog and I’ve been participating in several group write projects. This is part of a group write project @ Daily Blog Tips.

Using Google Analytics, I’ve compiled the 2009 Top Ten Hits—posts that received the most hits.

The results were surprising because they differed slightly from the posts that I considered to be the most important for other group write projects.

Here, then, are the 2009 Top Ten Hits:

10.       Remix Tonight: Does Jamaican Dancehall Music Incite Violence?

9.         The Commonwealth Short Story Competition

8.         Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Rastafari

7.         Am I a Writer? (Part Dos)

6.         2009 Short Story Competition

5.         Video: Dancehall Music and Jamaican Society: Which Influences the Other?

4.         Bad T'ings Mek Joke: Jamaican Humor

3.         Who's Your Daddy?: Gender Issues

2.         Master of the Tragicomic: Trevor D. Rhone (1940-2009)

1.         Michael Jackson: Spirit Dancer

You’ll have to come back tomorrow (12/9/2009) and on Monday (12/14/2009) to find out my choices for my other group write projects @ Middle Zone Musings and Confident Writing.

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Words from flickr

Created by kastner

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For My Children: Christmas 2009

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:38:00 +0000

I want you to know, you were chosen at birth
by a sheltering providence that guides your ways
that soon will reconcile your mind with this clay

thrust up from the depths of the earth
to become the mouth of limestone longing to say:
I want you to know, you were chosen at birth.

And from the music in your cells will come forth
the rhythm of your destiny, so that you can repay
the sun and rain on your face with gratitude each day.
I want you to know, you were chosen at birth.

***

"PALIMPSEST" by Mervyn Morris

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:33:00 +0000

PALIMPSEST

Grandma, much younger

than her age-paper,

is giggling on the floor

with baby Jon

as with his daddy

forty years ago. ‘Age

is just a number,’

as the slogan says.

Grandpa, seeming

buried in a book,

gives thanks for her

endearing gift

and mumbles Larkin,

‘What will survive of us

is love.’

***

MERVYN MORRIS is the author of six books of poetry, including I been there, sort of: New and Selected Poems (Carcanet Press, 2006).

Lorna Goodison on Claude McKay's Signature Poem

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:55:00 +0000

Jamaican poet Claude McKay wrote a poem in 1919 called, "If we must die" in response to race riots across American cities.

It was a poem of such quality that it became an anthem of resistance everywhere. Twenty years later British Prime Minister Winston Churchill used it as a rallying call to encourage troops in the second world war and to persuade the US to join the war. But Prime Minister and his speech writers never attributed the words to McKay.

BBC's Mark Coles recently discussed the poem with Jamaican poet Lorna Goodison.

Listen to Mark Coles' interview with Lorna Goodison

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Photo by James L. Allen

Video Friday: "The Angel's Message"

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:34:00 +0000

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Next week Friday: "Mary" from Twelve Poems and A Story for Christmas

Mark Your Calendar: December 12, 2009

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:41:00 +0000

Book Launch: Reception and Lecture: Eroticism, Spirituality and Resistance in Black Women's Writings by Donna Aza Weir-Soley

Come out and bring your friends and family for good Caribbean food and an exciting discussion on the nexus between black female sexuality and spirituality.

Dr Donna Aza Weir-Soley will be reading from her latest book, Eroticism, Spirituality and Resistance in Black Women's Writings, on Saturday, December 12, 2009, at Broward South Regional Library/Broward Community College campus, 3700 Pines Blvd., Pembroke Pines.

Praise for Eroticism, Spirituality, and Resistance in Black Women's Writings.

"In Eroticism, Spirituality, and Resistance in Black Women's Writings, Dr. Weir-Soley successfully undertakes an analysis of how black women writers, beginning with Zora Neale Hurston in her masterpiece Their Eyes Were Watching God, have used overlapping narrative depictions of sexuality and spirituality to recast the denigrated black female body and rewrite an empowered and fully actualized black female subject."

~Candice M. Jenkins, Associate Professor of English, Hunter College, City University of New York

"Weir-Soley speaks with an authority that comes from real knowledge of, investment in, and attention to the details of the African cosmologies and textual complexities she unearths."

~Carine Mardorossian, SUNY-Buffalo

"The most original and significant contributions are the often brilliant readings of Morrison, Adisa, and Danticat. The work is riveting, both methodologically and critically."

~Leslie Sanders, York University

Saturday, December 12, 2009

1:00pm - 4:00pm

Broward South Regional Library,

3700 Pines Blvd., Pembroke Pines

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Black Virgin - Modern Art Exhibition - Paris

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:50:00 +0000

For your Christmas pleasure, another view of the Virgin, who has appeared under various guises, most notably at the Chartres Cathedral. We know her in the Caribbean as Erzulie.

Related Post: "Erzulie's Daughter" @ peony moon

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World AIDS Day 2009: "not another aids poem."

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:29:00 +0000

Back in the early eighties when “not another aids poem” was written, our family was living in fear. My wife’s cousin, Hernando, was dying and nobody knew why. The doctors tried everything—interferon and other drugs used to treat cancer—but nothing worked. Then, we learned he had been diagnosed with AIDS.

My wife, who was pregnant with our first child, wanted to visit Hernando in Colombia, not only because she loved him, but because he was one of the first in our families who gave us his support. I still remember sitting in a small bar in Bogota, drinking aguardiente, listening to Andean music, and Hernando explaining to me why the preservation of indigenous music—the music of his people—was important.

In the end, my wife and I decided against the visit because we still didn’t know how AIDS was transmitted. Was it airborne? No one had any answers.

Today is World AIDS Day and we now have more information about the disease, but we are no closer to a cure. And it still doesn’t diminish our guilt and the pain that we feel at the loss of a life that was brilliant and filled with cariño.

Rest in Peace, Hernando.

not another aids poem

(for hernando)

when did the tissues,

the invisible barrier between cells,

break and send nuclei,

intent on their own destruction,

alerting an armada of antibodies

in your body's mutiny against itself?

i ask

because it's the only question

that i can understand,

with which i can console myself

while i mutter

a new alphabet of ddc, azt, ddi...

and you become a mottled ghost,

in a gown, transparent as

your skin, a part of the bed,

a network of tubes,

roots i cling to

that connect this life to the next

From: hurricane center (1998)

On Ash Wednesday: “not another aids poem.”

“You’re Not My Son Anymore”

Hope: Living and Loving with HIV

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An Early Christmas Present: “Palimpsest”

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:37:00 +0000

Mervyn Morris has just given me an early Christmas present that I’m going to share with you.

On Monday, December 7, 2009, I’ll be publishing his poem, “Palimpsest” on this blog.

As a student of Mervyn’s poetry, all the hallmarks of his craft are evident: brevity, dry wit, and multilayered meaning(s). This is also the first time that I have seen him deal with the theme of his mortality and the endurance of art in this way.

John O’Donohue in Divine Beauty mused about writers like Mervyn Morris: “The presence of the contemplative and the artist in a culture is ultimately an invitation to awaken and engage one’s neglected gifts, to enter more fully into the dream of the eternal that has brought us here to earth.”

Stay tuned and enjoy.

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MERVYN MORRIS is the author of six books of poetry, including I been there, sort of: New and Selected Poems (Carcanet Press, 2006).

Book Review: Visionware by Caridad Moro-McCormick

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:09:00 +0000

One of the pleasures of attending the Miami Book Fair International 2009 was discovering new books and listening to the authors read—especially when they did it well—from their work. Listening to Caridad Moro-McCormick’s reading from her chapbook, Visionware, was one of those delights because her voice captured the nuances and subtle ironies in the text.

This is not to say that her poems fall apart on the page. It was just so much better to hear her voice when she read a poem like “Analfabeta” about her earliest experiences in sixth grade with a racist teacher and her abuela’s attempt to understand American culture. Throughout the poem, the speaker highlights her abuela’s dignity in a system that seeks to denigrate her individuality and heritage:

You would have though her a dignitary, the day she walked
into my 6th grade classroom, staccato heels, her good black dress
ironed crisp as a dollar, all for a date with Mrs. Dempsey

The teacher, however, does not share the same feelings of respect for her abuela or her culture and she notes how Dempsey “sometimes slipped and called me ‘Spic, how she pounced/when I spoke to my friends in Español.” During the parent-teacher meeting, her abuela “caught most of the/ words Dempsey lobbed her way, but didn’t say a thing,” and she waits for the right moment, “as the words/too smart for her own good lingered in the air like the bells/ that ruled or days,” to assert herself, “Neber too esmart, mi niña, neber too esmart.”

Moro-McCormick chooses her instances of code-switching wisely and they are deeply poignant when she describes her family’s attempts to assimilate in “White Christmas in El Exilio, 1979”:

where you dreamed of Wise men,
Noche Buenas back home. women serving plate after plate:

lechon, frijoles, yuca, arroz.

Food becomes a trope in the collection which begins with this epigraph in the title poem:

“When you’re in love, everyday is a reason to celebrate. Every meal can be transformed into a special time to toast love, romance and your life together as a couple. Visions-cookware.com.”

Such bliss is short lived as her difficulty with the American utensils becomes a metaphor for her relationship with her husband:

Glass that never did learn
how to burn,
warming too fast

dinner scorched
night after night

Moro-McCormick uses food to define herself and relationship with American culture. Nowhere is this more evident than in “Compulsion: A Chronology” which details the various foods that are staples of her hyphenated identity as a Cuban-American: harina con huevo frito and Whoppers with cheese. Of course, the poem would not be complete without documenting the danger of using food in this way while trying to maintain the American obsession with weight-loss and Barbie-like perfection: “1999, Phentermine": "The pills are small and canary yellow, the closest thing to magic I’ve ever tried.”

Visionware represents a new chapter in the Cuban-American story. Moro-McCormick’s sometimes scathing indictment of discrimination is a reminder of the indignities that many immigrants suffer even when they are navigating holidays such as Labor Day or Veteran’s Day. And this doesn’t include family events such as weddings or quinceñeras. Or traumatic moments described in “Coming Out to Mami.” I am looking forward to Caridad’s next reading and a full length collection of her work.

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New Book: NIgger For Life

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:56:00 +0000

Neal Hall, M.D., graduate of Cornell and Harvard, ophthalmologist and poet, has published a critically acclaimed anthology of verse, Nigger For Life, reflecting his painful, later life discovery, that in “unspoken America," race is the one thing on which he is “first” judged, by which he is “first” measured, “first”, against which his life and accomplishments are metered diminished value, dignity and equality. All of which have everything to do with accessing choice, opportunity, power and freedom in America.

Nigger For Life reveals his deep sense of betrayal combined with his fervent passion for life and equality for “all”. His words pierce through in candid, gut wrenching clarity. He bares his intelligence, wit and dreams. His anthology is as confronting as it is illuminating, as disarming as it is thought provoking, as cathartic as it is filling.

Whether an ophthalmologist or poet, Dr. Hall’s reality is clear-cut - in the eyes of “unspoken America”, he is, a Nigger For Life.

Nigger For Life can be reviewed & purchased at: http://www.surgeonpoet.com

Email: info@NiggerForLifeBook.com

Online Interview of Dr. Hall: http://www.caribbeanbookblog.wordpress.com

“…a warrior of the mind … a warrior of the spirit, an activist, a poet.” - Cornel West, Ph.D.

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Happy Thanksgiving 2009

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:45:00 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving!

Blessings for You and Yours...

1Heart,

Geoffrey

Thanksgiving Sestina @ Wordle

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:21:00 +0000

"Thanksgiving Sestina (for Nadia)" @ Wordle

Here's the original poem: "Thanksgiving Sestina (for Nadia)"

"Thanksgiving Sestina" will be published in my next collection of poems, Dub Wise.

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Geoffrey Philp Wins Daily News Prize For Poetry

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:03:00 +0000

The Editorial Board of The Caribbean Writer has awarded Jamaica-born poet and short story writer, Geoffrey Philp, the Daily News Prize for his poem, “Erzulie’s Daughter.”

A talented writer in many genres, Mr. Philp has also won the Canute Brodhurst Prize for his short story, “Uncle Obadiah and the Alien.” The prize winning poem is included in Philp’s upcoming collection of poems, Dub Wise, which will published in Spring 2010 by Peepal Tree Press.

More @ Jamaicans.com: Geoffrey Philp Wins Daily News Prize For Poetry

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Poor Man's Copyright?

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:39:00 +0000

I have a dark secret and I owe one of my students an apology.

It began with two car accidents in consecutive years. Two cars totaled by drunk or careless drivers left me unable to work at the level to which I had become accustomed.

Then, the bills started to pile up.

It would be an understatement to say that I was hard up for money. I was desperate and when I saw an ad in a very reputable magazine for a screenplay, I answered the ad. I'd been tossing around this idea in my head for some time and I bit. I emailed a proposal. The agent followed up and asked for a treatment.

I sent him this synopsis, but just to be sure, I mailed myself a copy of the treatment and followed the advice that one of my teachers had given me: "Use Poor Man's Copyright."

It has been one of the biggest mistakes of my writing career.

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Synopsis of The Blackheart Man

Opening Scene: Westmoreland, Jamaica.

The camera moves lowly over rows and rows of cane fields under a gorgeous Jamaican full moon. It’s as if the camera is bending the heads of the cane stalks, but there’s no sound—just the movement of the camera over the canes. A light rain begins to fall. The pace quickens over a hill to a Great House and toward a beach and circles back to cane fields.

Spling! The sound that machetes make when cutting cane.

The sound intensifies and the camera moves faster and after over the cane fields and suddenly we see a couple obviously in love racing towards a fence that has a sign “Keep Out! On Pane of Deth!” They ignore the sign and almost as if seeking shelter from the rain they race towards the dilapidated Great House.

Spling!

We see the machete glinting in the moonlight. As they run, the woman begins to unwrap the skirt she’s been wearing. Obviously they are going to make love. We assume she’s going to lie down on the skirt. They enter the Great House cautiously, and then, race towards the center hall where they start to make out and then, to have sex.

Spling!

The rain begins to fall harder and they are getting wet while they are making love, but they don’t seem to mind—the sex is too good. They are both giggling and laughing and we have a close-up of the man’s face. He is loving this.

Spling!

In split second, the camera pans the woman’s’ face that goes from her own pleasure and giving pleasure to blood all over her face. The man has been decapitated. There is a thud on the floor. We never see the head. All we see is the look of horror on her face as the body falls on top of her and twitches. She screams. And screams. She picks up what she can and races out of the Great House.

The rain is falling harder. She is racing towards the beach. The sound of a heartbeat. We see the machete again.

Spling!

A hand reaches out to touch her, but she fights it off a runs even faster away from the hand. Close-up of her as she apparently reaches towards her legs as if she had been cut down.

Spling!

She falls and looks up at the camera, almost in recognition, but not quite. Scream…

Spling!

Bunny Wailer’s song “Blackheart Man” begins.

Trevor Matthews, the protagonist
Janice Williams, the love interest
Uncle Wallace, the antagonist
Henry DaCosta, weed smoker and comic relief
Norman Higgins, sidekick and betrayer
Beeline, wise old Rasta man
Blackheart Man, a dreadlocked force of nature
The Mistress, comic relief

Trevor Matthews, who works as a manger at a hotel in Miami, has returned to Jamaica to take over and run Hog Heaven Hotel that has been placed in trust to his Uncle Wallace until he is twenty-nine years old. Trevor is educated, has a degree in hospitality management, and knows the hotel business in a bookish way. He has never been tested in Jamaica where he is a bit of a fish out of water. He has invited his friends Henry (weed smoker and comic relief) and Norman (secretly a coward) with him so that they can help him run the hotel. They have been friends with him in Miami and he figures they will be with him through whatever problems he comes up against in Jamaica.

On the night before Trevor returns from Miami, the murder has already occurred. Uncle Wallace (ex-cop) covers up the murder of the Jamaican couple with little or no fanfare. Uncle Wallace thinks he is going to buy out Paul's portion of the business.

When Trevor returns to Jamaica, he tells Uncle Wallace that he intends to take over Hog Heaven. This upsets all of Uncle Sam's plans. A murder of a tourist occurs and Uncle Wallace doesn't cover it up. In fact, he makes it a media event. He wants to discourage Trevor from buying the hotel. He wants the hotel for himself and his very expensive mistress.

Enter Janice Williams, Paul's' old girl friend. She works for the Tourist Board of Jamaica and is there to help Trevor so he won’t lose any more tourist business. Trevor still loves her and she still loves him. Trevor wants to prove that he is no longer a dilettante( “You can always run back to Miami and leave us the way you’ve always run away from everything” she says to him) and she wants to prove that she's no longer Daddy's little girl (“Did Daddy get you this job, too?” Trevor asks her the first time they meet: “He’s dead” she counters, “but I guess you were too busy in Miami to follow what’s been happening here in Jamaica.”

Paul also meets up with the Rasta man Beeline who gives him the background story of the Blackheart man who has been stirred by the boundary transgression of the Jamaican couple and the tourists and Uncle Wallace’s plan to extend the hotel to the land that was owned by the Blackheart man. A murder of a cook who worked at the hotel when Trevor’s father was alive has occurred before when Trevor’s’ father tired to expand the hotel. But once Trevor’s father restored the fence, nothing happened again.

Another murder attempt occurs and Trevor must act to solve the mystery. If not, another tourist will never step foot in the hotel. Who is the Blackheart man? Beeline gives more information. Uncle Wallace sees this as the perfect opportunity to kill Paul. He hires a hit man to do the job ala the Blackheart man. The Blackheart Man kills the assassin.

Trevor tries to rebuild the fence, but Beeline tells him it is futile now. The Blackheart man wants blood. The fence is still repaired. The next day they find it broken down again.

Fear takes over the hotel. Everyone is fleeing, checking out. Going to other hotels and islands.

Trevor is betrayed by his friend Norman who decides to go back to Miami, “I don’t want to die, man.” Uncle Wallace has bought off Norman. Henry will stay for the weed that Beeline supplies

Together Trevor, Janice, Beeline and Henry must join to kill the Blackheart man.

The Blackheart man kills Norman who is one the way to the airport.

The Blackheart man also kills Uncle Wallace. His expensive mistress gets away without her weave. Trevor is next. They all join forces and they kill the Blackheart man.

Trevor is reunited with Janice. The hotel opens under new management with Trevor and Janice about to get married.

***

I never heard from the agent again.

Then, a few years ago, my son and I were walking through Blockbuster and we saw this movie, XYZ, that was set on a Caribbean island, so we decided to rent it.

As we settled back in our seats, a sickening feeling overcame me. This was my movie. A few changes had been made, but it was my movie. I'd been ripped off.

I called all my friends and then we contacted a lawyer, who after reviewing the case told me that because we couldn't prove a “material connection” between he agent and the production company, we couldn't bring a law suit. Plus, he added with the costs of expert witnesses, etc, the costs made it impossible to win.

I asked him about "Poor Man's Copyright."

After he finished laughing, he basically informed me about what is now found in Wikipedia: "There is no provision in copyright law regarding any such type of protection. Poor man's copyright is therefore not a substitute for registration. According to section 408 of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, registration of a work with the Copyright Office is not a prerequisite for copyright protection."

Dejected, I put away the information and thought I'd gotten over it until a few weekends ago when a popular cable station had a movie marathon with the movie.

I was steaming mad, but there was nothing that I could do about it.

And then I remembered the advice that I'd given one of my students about copyrighting his poems. I told him it was probably a bad idea to copyright every one of his poems because of the cost and the chance of his work being stolen was infinitesimal.

I'm wondering now if I gave him the right advice. I don't think I did. So, my student, if you are reading this, I'm sorry that I gave you bad advice and I hope you have not lost any work to unscrupulous agents or producers.

For in this Internet age when everything on the web can be scraped, copied, and mashed, unless you're willing to let go of the work, then you'd better apply for copyright: U.S. Copyright Office.

It may just save you from the rage that I am still feeling right now.

***

Words from flickr

Created by kastner

***

Video: "The Day Jesus Christ Came to Mount Airy"

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:04:00 +0000

"The Day Jesus Christ Came to Mount Airy" @ UVU

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Who's Your Daddy? @ Miami Book Fair International: Redux

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:06:00 +0000

I’d sent out dozens of invitations via Facebook, but I didn't expect to see so many friends on Saturday at the Weekend Author Sessions, Miami Book Fair International 2009.

The event got off to a great start after the introduction by Professor McKnight-Samms. I read one of my favorite stories, "My Jamaican Touch," which was first published on this blog. The audience loved it and laughed in all the right places. Even my mother-in-law, the antagonist in the story, laughed when I read, “She feels I have led her daughter away from the true Church, which according to her is "Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic!"

Next, Dylan Landis read from Normal People Don't Live Like This, the story of a troubled young girl and her relationship with her equally disturbed companions. Dylan captured all of the Sturm und Drang of a precocious teen growing up on the Upper West Side during the seventies.

We rounded out the event with Marc Fitten’s Valeria’s Last Stand about an elderly Hungarian widow’s attempts to cope with political and romantic changes in her life. If the first chapters are any indication of the rest of the book, then Valeria’s Last Stand will definitely be on my list for Christmas.

Give thanks to the organizers for putting together such an Irie reading for the Weekend Author Sessions. It was a pleasure to meet and read with Marc Fitten and Dylan Landis. But what was really heartwarming was to see all the friends who promised to come to the event and showed up!

So, the Events app. on Facebook works. Hallelujah.

***

For more photos of the event, please follow this link: Miami Book Fair International 2009 @ Flickr

For I will consider my Cat Buju

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:44:00 +0000

He is not supposed to be alive. My daughter heard his cries from inside a dumpster where she found a garbage bag sealed with duct tape. She tore the bag open and he licked her hand. He barely weighed a pound. And when he curled up between her palms, she remembered a scene from one of her favorite movies, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective: "My little Buju." He now had a name.

Our family nursed Buju back to health and when he was strong enough, we took him to the Humane Society to be neutered. Since then, Buju, who used to be scared of the slightest sound has grown stronger and bolder to the point where he has become a fixture in our lives: playing tag with my son, nuzzling my daughter, purring in my wife's lap.

Buju and I are the ones who are awake while the world sleeps. When I'm watching TV, he reminds me that I have a bald spot and licks the thinning hair on my crown. And when I'm falling asleep, he nudges me until I awaken and then he pads over to the window where he becomes, like Jeoffry,our guardian: "For he keeps the Lord's watch in the night against the adversary."

He also thinks that he is a writer.

On most mornings before I go to work, I begin my day by writing. Buju escorts me downstairs to my computer and sits beside me. He plays with my pens, chews on my pencils, and like any good critic, offers commentary at the appropriate time.

And when I refuse to listen to his endless carping or he disapproves of the text, he slaps his paw against the keyboard and holds down the keys for emphasis: asssssssssssssssssssssdddddddd

And despite my screams, "Buju!' which when he first came would have sent him scurrying under our beds where he would have stayed for days, he has now grown to the point where I don't scare him any more.

He must also think he's one of my children.

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Who's Your Daddy? @ South Florida Caribbean News

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +0000

MIAMI - Jamaica-born author, Geoffrey Philp will be reading at with Dylan Landis and Marc Fitten the Miami Book Fair International 2009 on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. in Room 3410.

More at South Florida Caribbean News

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Who's Your Daddy @ Nightly Business Report

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:46:00 +0000

I'll be appearing on WPBT's Nightly Business Report tonight (7:00 p.m EST) in an interview with Jeff Yastine. We talked about blogging, social media, Kindle, and publishing in the Internet age.

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Update: 11/13/2009:

NBR Transcripts-November 12, 2009 Thursday, November 12, 2009

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The "DC Sniper" & Who's Your Daddy?

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:52:00 +0000

I have often been asked if there was a real life story behind “Who’s Your Daddy?”. The inspiration for that story, John Allen Muhammad, was executed last night.

In 2002 when the first “DC Sniper” shootings began, America was gripped with fear. The shootings were so random. No one, it seemed, was safe. People stopped going to gas stations and some began to wonder if malls or supermarkets were safe.

Many of the profiles from experts in law enforcement suggested that the sniper was a white male and many of us in the black community breathed a sigh of relief. All we needed was another crazy brother with a gun out there for the rest of us to become scapegoats for his crimes.

So you can imagine the shock when it was revealed that the “DC Sniper” was John Muhammad and his young accomplice was a boy named John Malvo. The relief in the black community was now a collective: “WTF?”

The story fascinated me from the start. A young boy effectively abandoned by his parents, but more importantly by his father, who had fallen under the influence of a charismatic older male with a murderous streak. The seeds of tragedy were sown and the bitter harvest was being reaped: “In all, the sniping team would shoot 22 people, murdering 15 of them, in a deadly coast-to-coast spree that stretched from the Northwest to the deep South” (Victim's Brother Says 'Surreal Watching Life Sapped Out' of DC Sniper).

And when Muhammad was arraigned there was even a greater shock. But not with Muhammad. He resembled what I had imagined: a burnt out man who was a cross between a pool hustler and a failed evangelical preacher. But John Malvo? Behind that cherubic face, there was a sinister coldness in his eyes that mortified me. How could a child’s eyes be so deathly cold? How did this young man end up like this?

I began doing the research and it turned out that Malvo’s story is similar to the tale of many fatherless boys growing up in the Caribbean and in Miami—the “barrel” children, the children who have never known the love of a parent or grandparent and are easy prey for the Alpha males with whom they come in contact. These young Malvos are recruited for all kinds of criminality, from selling and transporting ganja, cocaine and heroin to committing murder. And the monetary rewards that they receive are minuscule compared to the risk (Steven Levitt: Crack Economics)—which suggests that the mixture of devotion, admiration and loyalty that these young Malvos have for these older males is something akin to love.

And the strange irony is that these young men grow up to be either Malvos or Obamas.

John Malvo was sentenced to life in prison without parole, and as Grace Nichols, author of "Genesis: The Bullet Was Meant For Me: D.C. Sniper Story Untold" has said, she is at peace with Malvo's sentence of life without parole because "he had the mind of a child who happened to be with a man who became diabolical."

Malvo may still be in prison, but his story is being multiplied in the Caribbean and South Florida. Malvo’s little brothers are still out there playing in the streets of Jamaica and Miami, waiting for another John Muhammad to appear in their lives to train them in the ways of terror.

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Photo: Wikipedia

Book Review: How to Leave Hialeah by Jennine Capo Crucet

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:27:00 +0000

An Open Letter from Marisella Veiga to Jennine Capo Crucet

Dear Jennine,

Initially, because you are a Cuban American woman fiction writer, I was interested in reading your first short story collection, How to Leave Hialeah. Then, your having won the 2009 John Simmons Award for Short Fiction and were the first Latina to win it—these facts were also a draw. When I learned the University of Iowa Press published the collection, I called for a review copy.

I am a Cubana fiction writer too. You were born in Hialeah in 1981. I was born in Havana in 1957 and arrived in Miami at age 3. Much of my childhood was spent in Minnesota, so I know something about learning to be a Cuban by living in the North.

I returned to Miami in 1968. As your book reveals, contrast helps people define themselves. I suspected your work would move me, and I was right. It has not stopped resonating. Your short stories bear witness to the many dynamics present among our exiled people. The characters you depict are on target.

Your last story, from which the collection’s title is taken, has countless examples. “You need more vitamin D than these Viking people, you have no choice,” you write, a tiny illustration of a myriad of differences.

Your well-crafted and written short stories are insightful, a powerful witness to the many dynamics present among our exiled people and within themselves. Your observations about the characters you’ve depicted are on target. I wonder how you, at such a young age, found the courage to depict so many hard truths in your stories?

Let me direct the next few lines to potential readers: Jennine’s last story, from which the collection’s title is taken, has countless examples. “You need more vitamin D than these Viking people, you have no choice,” she writes as a tiny example of the myriad of differences.

In “The Next Move,” a male first person narrator relates events two years before his wife Nilda, had died. He refused to go back to Cuba, but details her trip there to visit her sisters. His comments on the Tai Chi class he and Nilda took together are hilarious. The decision to enroll in the class was motivated by one of his wife’s sisters in Cuba. The narrator questions the wisdom of someone who hasn’t eaten a steak in years.

The narrator interacts with his daughter and grandchildren, “animal children” he calls them once. These children don’t speak Spanish as well as they should. They are clueless about what Cuba was or is. As assimilation continues, the inter-generational and cultural rifts grow. And so does lack of time and lack of appreciation for our elders’ stories.

The narrator reveals frustration with both, speaking for so many of our people: “I stood up from the bed and said, ‘Can’t I just tell a goddamn story!’”

This collection of 11 short stories accomplishes so much. It is a fiction that tells the truth of the lives of your characters, many of whom sprouted in the working class city of Hialeah, a place often sneered at by fellow exiles.

For readers who want to know about what is happening in our South Florida exile community, this book is important. For a closer look at what happens to immigrants and refugees as they begin to assimilate into the U.S. mainstream, it is crucial.

Maybe the book will educate a few people, in particular those who insist on seeing Greater Miami as a glamorous place—(read sexy), all those beautiful Latinos. After their South Florida jaunt, they can return home to their newspapers and televisions where they learn about us from a distance and complain about our ways.

Your book made me conscious of so many conflicts and pains and attitudes and traits that I’d rather ignore. I can easily do this, since I live in St. Augustine, way north of our Mecca. On the other hand, because I needed the confirmation and affirmation, I read on. I have emerged shaken, both sorrowful and joyous. Thank you for writing these stories.

How to Leave Hialeah by Jennine Capo Crucet (University of Iowa Press, paperback, $16.00, 184 pages.)

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Marisella Veiga was born in Havana, Cuba, and went into exile with her family in 1960. She was raised both in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Miami, Florida. She received a B.A. in English from Macalester College and a Master’s in Fine Arts in Poetry from Bowling Green State University. Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers and literary anthologies. Veiga has won The Pushcart Prize XX, Best of the Small Presses, Special Mention in Fiction, the Canute A. Brodhurst Prize for Best Short Story in The Caribbean Writer. She was also given the Evelyn LaPierre Award for Journalism in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a nationally syndicated columnist with Hispanic Link News Service. Recently, Veiga released a spoken word recording with Eclipse Recording Studios that has collected a few. The CD is Square Watermelons: Ten Essays on Living with Two Cultures.

Mark Your Calendar: Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009

geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com (http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:50:00 +0000

Miami Book Fair International 2009

Geoffrey Philp on Who's Your Daddy, Dylan Landis on Normal People Don't Live Like This and Marc Fitten on Valeria's Last Stand.

Saturday, Nov. 14, 2:00 p.m., Room 3410 (Building 3, 4th Floor)

Marc Fitten

Marc Fitten was born in Brooklyn in 1974 to Panamanian parents. He’s been published in Prairie Schooner, The Louisville Review and serves as the editor of the Chattahoochee Review in Atlanta. His first novel, Valeria’s Last Stand (Bloomsbury), set in a Hungarian village, is “a promising debut.” – Publishers Weekly.

Dylan Landis

Dylan Landis, author of Normal People Don’t Live Like This (Persea), has published fiction in Tin House, Best American Nonrequired Reading and won the California Writers Exchange Award from Poets & Writers. “The characters in Dylan Landis's debut story collection, Normal People Don't Live Like This, are blessedly extraordinary.” – Vanity Fair.

Geoffrey Philp

Geoffrey Philp is a writer and poet whose awards include a James Michener Fellowship at the University of Miami. Born in rural Jamaica, he is the author of four collections of poetry, a previous book of short stories, a novel and Who’s Your Daddy and Other Stories (Peepal Tree Press). He lives in Miami.

Schedule
Saturday, Nov. 14, 2:00 p.m. Free

Location

Miami Book Fair International * Miami Dade College
300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33132
Room 3410 (Building 3, 4th Floor)

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Source: Weekend Author Series

Links for 2008-04-18 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot: Aime Cesaire: An Online Memorial
Aime Cesaire and Negritude began one of the movements that Professor Rex Nettleford has called the “decolonization of the mind.” For poets such as Cesaire, freedom is not an abstract idea. His legacy is for us to pursue freedom (self-actualization) in
Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot: Derek Walcott for Calabash 08
Nobel Prize winning poet Derek Walcott is delighted about his upcoming appearance at Calabash 2008 (calabashfestival.org). The free three-day festival of readings and live music will be held at Jake’s in Treasure Beach, Jamaica, over the Memorial Day We

Links for 2008-04-14 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot:
One of the most vibrant Caribbean/South Florida poets, Adrian Castro's work scintillates with tonality, bilingualism, clarity of image and spirit.

Links for 2008-04-13 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot: An Evening With Geoffrey Philp
In celebration of Jamaica Awareness Week at the University of Miami, award winning author, Geoffrey Philp, will reading from his most recently completed manuscript, Nearing Fifty. The program which begins at 7:30 pm will be held at the Storm Surge Café,

Links for 2008-04-12 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot: Jamaican Memory Joggers
Yet, even as I write this, I realize that this is not merely nostalgia. These memories shaped what I have called the Reggae/Rastafari Generation (Benjamin) or the Caribbean Boomers, many of whom are now part of the Jamaican Diaspora. One of a writer's

Links for 2008-03-30 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot: Hope: Living and Loving with HIV
Behind the images of hedonism in Jamaica, the specter of AIDS has overshadowed the glitter and garish of the Tourist Board commercials. During the last four months of 2007, Kwame Dawes traveled to Jamaica and met with people who are living with the diseas
Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot: MiPOesias Magazine: The American Cuban Issue
MiPOesias Magazine's newly released issue showcases the work of poets of Cuban descent who live in the U.S. The results are stories spun from highways and oceans, lyric meditations on love's rough edges and potent homages to deities and to the departed. N

Links for 2008-03-25 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot: Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2008 Africa Winner: The Hangman's Game
Karen King-Aribisala has written a densely layered, challengingly ambitious work of fiction. There is the actual historical novel, the thoughts of the fictive writer about it, the drama of the narrator’s life in Nigeria and the seepage between the diffe

Links for 2008-03-24 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:00 PDT

Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot: A Jamaican in Las Vegas (Part One)
The minute I landed in Las Vegas--a city ripe for the destruction by the God of wrath from my fundamentalist childhood--I knew my ideas about sex, sin, and scarcity would be challenged. But here I was in the middle of "Sin City" celebrating my fiftieth bi