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Books by Lasana M. Sekou
37 Poems /
Brotherhood of the Spurs /
Big Up St. Martin /
Born Here /
Love Songs Make You Cry
Mothernation: Poems from 1984 to 1987 /
National Symbols of St. Martin /
Quimbé: Poetics of Sound
The Salt Reaper: Poems from the Flats
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Eterno tiempo de
siembra (Lasana Sekou, Saint Martin)
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Bio- Sketch
Lasana M. Sekou is a publisher, poet, and
the author of ten books of poetry, monologues and short stories.
He is the editor of National
Symbols of St. Martin -- A Primer (1996), about the
culture, historical personalities, and natural environment of
St. Martin and The
Independence Papers – Readings on a New Political Status for
St. Maarten/St. Martin (1990).
In 1991, Sekou produced Fête
– The First Recording of Traditional St. Martin’s Festive
Music by Tanny & The Boys. During the mid-1980s, he co-directed and
wrote for Traditions,
the island’s annual drama extravaganzas. Sekou’s books Nativity
& Dramatic Monologues for Today (1988), Love Songs Make You Cry (1989), and Brotherhood of the Spurs
(1997) have been classroom text at York University, Kenyon
College, and the University of St. Martin respectively.
The poetry and short stories of this James
Michener Fellow (University of Miami) have been taught in
various Caribbean high schools. He has guest-lectured on
history, culture, politics and literature at conferences and
recited poetry at high schools, universities and
literary/cultural festivals in the Caribbean, USA, Africa,
Europe and Asia. Sekou’s works have appeared in and has been
reviewed in literary journals and magazines such as Callaloo
(USA), The Caribbean Writer
(Virgin Islands),
Del Caribe (Cuba), The Massachusetts Review (USA),
De Gids (The Netherlands),
Revue Noir (France), Das Gedicht (Germany), Calabash
(New York University, USA). A graduate of the State University
of New York at Stony Brook (BA) and Howard University (MA),
Sekou is the projects director at House of Nehesi Publishers, a
small press based in St. Martin that publishes books by new
writers and senior authors such as George Lamming, Kamau
Brathwaite and Amiri Baraka. Lasana M. Sekou /
P.O. Box 460 / Philipsburg, St. Martin / Caribbean Nehesi@sintmaarten.net
/ Website: www.houseofnehesipublish.com
http://www.houseofnehesipublish.com/sekou.html
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Pelican Heart—An Anthology of Poems by
Lasana M. Sekou
Edited by Emio Jorge
Rodriguez
Passion
for the Nation is what comes out of Sekou’s
poems at a first glance and at a deeper
reading. The book is a selection gathered
from eleven of Sekou’s poetry collections
between 1978 and 2010. Rodríguez is an
independent Cuban academic, writer, and
essayist. He has been a researcher at Casa
de las Américas’s Literary Research Center
and founded the literary journal Anales del
Caribe (1981-2000). María Teresa Ortega
translated the poems from the original
English to Spanish. A critical introduction,
detailed footnotes, and a useful glossary by
Rodríguez are also found in the book of 428
pages. The collection has been launched at
conferences in Barbados, Cuba, and Mexico.
Rodriguez’s introduction to Pelican Heart
refers to Dr. Howard Fergus’s Love Labor
Liberation in Lasana Sekou, which is the
critical commentary to Sekou’s work that
identifies three cardinal points in his
poetics. I would add as cardinal points:
Belief or Driving Force of people in
political processes, like his political
commitment to make St. Martin independent,
as the southern part of the Caribbean island
is a territory of the Netherlands, while the
northern part is a French Collectivité
d’outre-mer; Excitement over his literary
passions, which led him to found House of
Nehesi Publishers at age 23; co-found the
book festival of St. Martin, organized with
Conscious Lyrics Foundation and to expand
his culture considerably; Enthusiasm, which
springs out of his eyes and words when you
listen to his poetry being performed or when
you speak to Sekou in person.—Sara
Florian |
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Lasana Slideshow Tribute
Lasana Sekou’s English/Spanish book represents Caribbean
Literature in Venezuela—Great Bay, St. Martin
(November 21, 2011)—Representing what is new or
canonical in Caribbean Literature is probably getting
more difficult as the region’s national literatures
continue to produce more writers within the various
countries and territories. But independent Cuban scholar
Emilio Jorge Rodríguez recently went to one of
Venezuela’s prestigious universities to do just
that.
“I was invited to
give lectures during two weeks in October to the Master
of Arts program on Ibero-American Literature, headed by
Professor Arnaldo Valero at the Instituto de
Investigaciones Literarias Gonzalo Picón Febres, of the
Universidad de los Andes in Mérida, Venezuela,” said
Rodríguez on Sunday. “As my last lecture in Mérida was
about Lasana M. Sekou, they decided to launch Corazón de
pelícano” on October 14, said Rodriguez.
And that is how the
St. Martin book Pelican Heart – An Anthology of Poems by
Lasana M. Sekou/ Corazón de pelícano – Antología poética
de Lasana M. Sekou was launched as a contemporary
example of Caribbean Literature at the University of the
Andes (ULA). In addition to the copies bought by
students and other guests, review copies of the book was
“presented to professors and researchers at ULA who
would make use of it in the classroom and in their
studies of Caribbean and Latin American literatures,”
said Rodríguez.
ULA is the
second-oldest university in Venezuela, dating back to
1810; and ranks among “the top 30 research institutions
in Latin America.” (wikipedia.com) The ULA request for
the Pelican Heart launch allowed Rodríguez to continue
his introduction of the St. Martin author to Hispanic
audiences.—
Caribseek
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Table
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Lasana Sekou guest speaker at New
York’s Hudson Valley college
Lasana M. Sekou returned here last Friday
following a solo-recital of his poetry,
fictions, and spoken word videos at Hudson
Valley Community College (HVCC) in Troy, New
York, on April 14. Louis Coplin, HVCC
Director of Student Life said that Sekou’s
work was “impressive” for its informative
and performance qualities.
The St. Martin
author spoke about his writings, Caribbean
literature, showed spoken word videos, and
read from his books Pelican Heart, The Salt
Reaper, 37 poems, and Brotherhood of The
Spurs. He also read new unpublished poems
“Citizen,” “Labrish,” “Libya Unfinished,”
and “Poem for the dead.”
In photo left: Lasana M. Sekou (L) with Louis Coplin (R), with recital
guest and retired art teacher Catherine Reavis. |
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New book about St. Martin’s Lasana Sekou
released in Cuba
SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba—The
Cuban release of
Pelican Heart—An Anthology of Poems by
Lasana M. Sekou
edited by Emilio Jorge Rodríguez took
place at the 30th annual
Festival del Caribe (7/5/10) in Santiago
de Cuba. “Among the people in the
audience at the launching of the
anthology was Abel Prieto, Cuban
Minister of Culture,” said Rodríguez
(L). According to Rodríguez, the launch
took place “at the most important space
of the Festival, the International
Colloquium ‘El Caribe que nos une’ (The
Caribbean that joins us.” The Cuban
scholar is promoting the bilingual book
as a way of introducing the St. Martin
writer to Spanish language audiences.
The outstanding Cuban poetess Teresa Melo (R)
introduced the Spanish-English book at the popular
festival organized by Casa del Caribe and which was
this year dedicated to Curacao and Pernambuco,
Brazil. Melo concluded the book party by reciting
the Spanish translation of the poem “On Caribbean
Aesthetics,” which is originally from Sekou’s
collection Born Here (1986) and is one of the
poems in the anthology published at the end of May
2010.
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The
428-page
Pelican
Heart / Corazón de Pelícano
with its critical introduction, notes, and poems
selected by Rodríguez from each of Sekou’s previous
poetry volumes, is available at Van Dorp and Arnia’s
bookstores. The title is now available in Cuba, at
Amazon.com and other online bookstores.
In
photo:
Rodriguez holds copy of Pelican Heart as he
discusses Sekou’s poetry at the launch panel while
Melo looks on. Casa’s academic coordinator Kenia
Dorta was instrumental in facilitating the book
launch, stated House of Nehesi, the book’s
publisher. (EJR foto/César
Caldas)
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Poetry and technology, a “flat world” to
reach people, says Angelo Rombley
GREAT
BAY, St. Martin (November 1, 2008)—The
Salt Reaper poetry/music CD by
Lasana M. Sekou, will be pre-released this
November, even though the launch date has
been postponed, said Jacqueline Sample,
president of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP).
Furthermore, “We want to make sure that the
CD recording comes with access to all these
platforms—PSP, iPhone, iPod, MP3s, and
eventually ringtones,” said Angelo Rombley,
the music producer
“The
world right now is flat because of the
digital platform. Reading has to compete
with a ‘click’ society –TV, email,
downloadable music.” |
“For example,
playstation and Wii are some of the different platforms
that we can put the spoken word, with music in the
background for a truly digital experience,” said Rombley.
On the CD,
The Salt Reaper – Selected poems from the flats,
Sekou is heard reading his poetry.
“Angelo steps up in
a bold way … . He digitally mixes instruments like the
steelpan, kalimba, and the violin, and music genres such
as European classical, Jazz, club, and Salsa,” said
Sample.
The CD was
scheduled for a November 8 launch. But the electrical
outage in the wake of Hurricane Omar, pushed back the
turnaround time for the CD art work – making a November
7 delivery of the CDs from the manufacturer “too close
for comfort,” said Sample.
Neither Sample or
Rombley would hint at the new launch and concert date,
saying only that the 2009 HNP recording would still be
pre-released this month in stores, on the air, and
iTunes and other online music and bookstores.
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The CD
is Rombley’s first exercise as a music
producer but he is no stranger to the
digital world.
“In
this ‘click’ society the people want
something entertaining but yet with some
substance to it. That was a motivation for
the type of music mixed for The Salt Reaper
poems,” said Rombley, an award-winning
graphic designer and digital artist.
“The
idea is for this Spoken Word or WordMusic
recording to step up, to be competitive.
That’s why we are also working on its
digital compatibility with media,
communication and game platforms, while
staying true to the message in the poems.”
“What
we are seeing is the evolution of poetry on
the island of St. Martin alongside the new
technology to reach the people,” said
Rombley. |
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“The audacity of the
adventure of House of Nehesi Publishers”—Throughout
our Caribbean Region economic activity is to a large extent
externally propelled. Investment initiates from outside and
the collective investors are elsewhere: tourism, insurance,
banking are some of the major pinnacles of authority which
determine what choices we make in exercising control over
our daily lives. The Governments may govern; but they do not
rule. It is against this background of an imagined
sovereignty and an enforced dependence that we must measure
the audacity — and there is no other word for what I mean —
the audacity of those who initiated from within the
adventure of House of Nehesi Publishers. Such boldness of
enterprise in the area of publishing can easily collapse in
five months; so the 25th anniversary of Nehesi
can arguably be celebrated as though it were the 50th.
And the evidence of the distinguished volumes it has
produced is so abundant that the founders and their
supporters are entitled to invent their own calendar for
this purpose. Year 25 should be accorded the applause due a
50th anniversary in recognition of Nehesi’s
capacity for digging deep in their indigenous human
resource, and surviving the perils of waiting for some
external force to determine your own agenda. We celebrate
House of Nehesi as a symbol of what it could mean to achieve
a genuine sovereignty of the imagination.—George Lamming. |
Editor’s
Note:
World-renown Barbadian novelist/scholar George Lamming
recently congratulated House of Nehesi Publishers on its 25th
anniversary in 2007. By May, the small press outfit had
already released nine anniversary-year publications. The St.
Martin publisher with a Caribbean-wide outreach has also
managed to publish a list of literati from within and beyond
the region, including Dr. Lamming, that belies its size and
admitted limited resources.
House of Nehesi Publishers
/
Offshoreediting@hotmail.com
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Male Male-Intimacy in Early
America
Beyond Romantic Friendships
By
William Benemann
Previously hard-to-find information on
homosexuality in early America—now in a
convenient single volume! Few of us are
familiar with the gay men on General
Washington’s staff or among the leaders of
the new republic. Now, in the same way that
Alex Haley’s Roots provided a generation of
African Americans with an appreciation of
their history,
Male-Male Intimacy in Early America: Beyond
Romantic Friendships will give many
gay readers their first glimpse of
homosexuality as a theme in early American
history.
Male-Male Intimacy in Early America
is the first book to provide a comprehensive
overview of the role of homosexual activity
among American men in the early years of
American history.
Male-Male Intimacy in Early America is the
first book to provide a comprehensive
overview of the role of homosexual activity
among American men in the early years of
American history. |
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This single
source brings together information that has until
now been widely scattered in journals and distant
archives. The book draws on personal letters,
diaries, court records, and contemporary
publications to examine the role of homosexual
activity in the lives of American men in the
colonial period and in the early years of the new
republic. The author scoured research that was
published in contemporary journals and also
conducted his own research in over a dozen US
archives, ranging from the Library of Congress to
the Huntington Library, from the United Military
Academy Archives to the Missouri Historical
Society.—Routledge
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 3 August
2008
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