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Books by Kalamu ya
Salaam
The Magic of JuJu: An Appreciation of the Black Arts
Movement /
360:
A Revolution of Black Poets
Everywhere Is Someplace Else: A Literary Anthology
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From A Bend in the River: 100 New Orleans Poets
Our Music Is No Accident /
What Is Life: Reclaiming the Black Blues Self
My Story My Song (CD)
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Message
from Kalamu
just
some quick notes from the field
1. i am well. i am in houston at the
moment (sunday, sept. 4, 2005), but will be traveling over the
next week or so. driving my daughter-in-law and her two
daughters to nashville tennesse. my wife is flying out to
oakland. the plan is i will drive from nashville to chicago for
a program at eta on saturday, 10 sept. 2005, and then on to
oakland, with a possible stop in detroit.
we were extremely fortunate, our house did not receive any flood
damage. a couple of trees fell on the house but there doesn't
seem to be any major structural damage. my son-in-law, who
elected to remain behind in new orleans, was able to walk over
to the house to check on it a couple of days ago. i live in the
algiers section of new orleans, which is on the west bank. new
orleans is divided by the mississippi river into two major
parts, the east and the west bank.
the east bank is the main part of the city where over 90% of the
population lives and is also the most developed. it is the east
bank that was 80% under water. however, there was widespread
wind damage, as well as fire and looting on the west bank. but
there is no urban infrastructure in place and at this point
people are not allowed back into the city, so i don't know when
we will be able to get back to the house or what shape it will
be in when we get there.
meanwhile we have to push on. we've got to live.
the short answer to a couple of unasked questions. i do not plan
to move back to new orleans. at this point i plan to travel
around to where the people of new orleans are. i plan to give
voice to those who are traditionally left out of history.
those of us alive are presented with an unprecedented
opportunity to write our own history. this is what i intend to
do.
2. e-drum will continue without interruption for as long
as i can get internet access—and i'm resourceful. some days,
such as yesterday, it might take us a number of hours to get
e-drum posted but it will continue.
our new music website, breath of life, will also continue,
although it will take a lot more work and coordination because i
don't have my cd/record collection (over 5000 cds / 3500 lps),
plus mtume is probably going to be in the los angeles area but
regardless, we intend to overcome all the obstacles and
continue.
we will expand our base domain "kalamu.com" to include
the "neo-griot new orleans project." or, at least,
that's the preliminary plan.
3. i am working on a major, long term project to document
the lives and views of our people from new orleans. in a
nutshell my goal is to travel around from shelter to shelter,
community to community and work with people so that they can
document their own lives and share their views with the world
via the internet.
as some people know, i have been intensively working with
digital technology over the past decade. i have been working
with computers since the late seventies. i started on a kaypro
with a cpm operating system, then went to dos, then to windows,
and now use macs almost exclusively. i have been teaching
digital video to high school students for seven years now.
the "new orleans neo-griot project" will include a
website that will stream audio and video in addition to text,
and possibly a bulletin board.
anyone who wants to help with the project can send me an email
and i will put you in our databank and get back to you as we
develop the specifics.
a luta continua (the struggle continues),
kalamu kalamu@aol.com
or kalamuya@yahoo.com
posted 1 September 2005 |
