kameelahwrites: sundry bits.

pink overcast.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:05:21 -0800

pink overcast.

where john died over a decade ago.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:05:16 -0800

where john died over a decade ago.

fall leaves.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:05:11 -0800

fall leaves.

laeticia: from portraits of africa ©john kenny [portfolio]

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:41:13 -0800

laeticia:

from portraits of africa
©john kenny [portfolio]

exiledsoul: booklover: libraryland:ianni490: Take me to your...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:39:54 -0800

exiledsoul:

booklover:

libraryland:ianni490:

Take me to your Reader

By Ton Turner

On precious and push:

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:26:38 -0800

exiledsoul:

igather:

In life, the character of Precious Jones is marginalized and invisible, ignored unless someone wishes to do her harm or use her in some way. Her only refuge is her mind, where she essentially keeps herself company. And thus, Sapphire – who reveals a bit of this sentiment in her interview with Katie Couric – makes the entire novel about her. It’s all about her thoughts, her eyes, her reactions, her perceptions. (The other girls publish their stories in a supplement after Precious’ story ends.) And so, shifting the focus to anyone else would ultimately start to overshadow the story of Precious. Even for a moment.

So while I think the film does an amazing job walking the tightrope between humanizing Mary and keeping her at arms length, ultimately, this story belongs to Precious.(via Long Day’s Journey into Night: Reading Push, Watching Precious)

But what I love about the book is that Precious is not a defenseless subject. She is a survivor who resists against her exclusion by striving for her own inclusion. She does this by learning how to read. She then uses her literacy to read about the lives of Black women through writers such as Alice Walker, Ann Petry, Ann McGovern and others. The story ends with her literally penning her own story fully epitomizing the agency she had all along despite sexual trauma and despair.

Given how pivotal negotiating representation is to Push’s rendering of Precious’ story, I was a little underwhelmed to notice one glaring discrepancy between a character in the book and a character in the movie. In the book, the description of Blue Rain, the half-messiah, half-educator that delivers Precious from the bondage of illiteracy and abuse is as follows: “She dark, got nice face, big eyes, and…long dreadlocky hair.” (39-40) This character in the movie is played by Paula Patton, a light-skinned African American woman with straightened hair. By no means do I doubt the talent of Patton, but it means something that the directors chose to cast one of the most central characters of the film against Sapphire’s original description. (via On Representation Push vs. Precious)

A friend pointed out that the “positive” characters have light complexions and the mean ones are dark. I didn’t want to comment on it because I haven’t read the book and wondered if it fits with the characters’ descriptions in it. Now that I’ve got the answer I’m very disappointed that they decided to deviate from the story in order to perpetuate this kind of bias. I haven’t seen the film so I’m not going to say it’s a bad one, but that detail does bother me. And other things as well…

musafir khana.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:23:21 -0800

musafir khana.:

salonika:

a documentary about male sex workers in pakistan.

DSC_0181

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:50:36 -0800

DSC_0181

DSC_0186

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:50:30 -0800

DSC_0186

suction.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:50:25 -0800

suction.

black streaks.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:50:17 -0800

black streaks.

blur bump.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:50:11 -0800

blur bump.

314/2009: a poem in three parts--richmond gang rape.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:34:18 -0800

314/2009: a poem in three parts--richmond gang rape.:

in response to the richmond, ca gang rape, i wrote this on october 31, 2009:

part I

when
rape is sport
unending spectacle

a uniform of purple sparkled dress, painted lips, silver shoes
…

Ludovico Einaudi - Divenire Live @ Palazzo Te (Mantova) (via...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:13:33 -0800

Ludovico Einaudi - Divenire Live @ Palazzo Te (Mantova) (via ludovicoeinaudi)

laeticia: youmewe

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:10:42 -0800

laeticia:

youmewe

PARADISE IS A FABULOUS SUIT

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:08:30 -0800

laeticia:

These are sapeurs, acolytes of a 25-year-old movement called la SAPE—La Societé des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (aka Kitendi, the religion of the cloth) — that revolves around the possession of the most expensive, most luxurious, most extravagant fashion in the world. Followers of SAPE wear $10,000 jackets and $500 shoes, but these mostly young Congolese men otherwise barely eke out a living in the rubble of Kinshasa and Brazzaville or the ghettos of Paris and Brussels, washing dishes or washing bodies, and sometimes selling their own.

The craze started with le Pape de la SAPE—intermediary between the gods of fashion and practicing sapeurs—the musician Papa Wemba, born Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba in the Kasai River region of the Belgian Congo. Papa Wemba, an emerging pop star in the late 1960s, fomented a revolution in self-presentation, agitating for pizzazz over the dowdy duds prescribed by Mobutu Sese Seko’s “authenticity movement.”

photo via africa is a country
(via colors magazine)

ageofdhool: An early photograph of Claude Lévi-Strauss and his...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:51:39 -0800

ageofdhool:

An early photograph of Claude Lévi-Strauss and his wife, Dina, in their tent while doing fieldwork in Mato Grosso, Brazil. [via]

Claude Lévi-Strauss, Anthropologist, Dies at 100 by Edward Rothstein

312/2009: palestinians denied water. & All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:08:04 -0800

312/2009: palestinians denied water. & All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was:

Israel is denying Palestinians access to even the basic minimum of clean, safe water, Amnesty International says.

In a report, the human rights group says Israeli water restrictions…

313/2009: south africans 'fought in gaza war.'

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:08:02 -0800

313/2009: south africans 'fought in gaza war.':

disturbing but not unexpected.

Efforts to prosecute those who may have committed war crimes in Israel’s war on Gaza have spread beyond the Middle East.

A lawyer in South…

healingsakina: spirithouse: highmagick: suninscorpio: awesome...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:03:22 -0800

healingsakina:

spirithouse:

highmagick:

suninscorpio:

awesomespaces:

artpixie:

imgfave | share your visual inspiration

[alhamdulillah…this is beautiful :)-K]