What makes it even better is that I am not just producing random works about anything that inspires me, but am working towards a very definite goal and an exciting project. I mentioned it briefly in my last post; my friend Nox Mafu, who is from PE but is living in New York while obtaining her PhD, is a wonderful poet, and we are working towards a collaborative exhibition, where I do a series of paintings to express the themes she covers in her poetry, and she writes poems on her reaction to some of my paintings. We will exhibit them as duo-works. We have had a wonderful time sparking ideas off each other. The project now has a name, "ConneXion2" and has grown from the original idea of a single exhibition, into an ongoing process in both the USA and South Africa, involving book publishing, teaching of children by giving workshops in low income areas, and exhibiting annually, alternating between US and SA. We have also been developing a website, so things are humming along nicely.
One of the reasons for my long silence is that I did not want to pre-empt the exhibition by posting the work beforehand. But I do not have a huge readership here, and the first exhibition will take place in New York, where it is unlikely many people will have seen the work here, so I decided I might as well post pix to show my friends what I have been up to, so I'll add a few at a time in the coming weeks.
Although both the poems and paintings are able to stand alone, I am publishing them both together because in a sense they gave birth to each other and because you might enjoy seeing how they relate to each other.
An X marks a Spot, 900x900mm
An X marks a Spot
An x, is an x
Not just an x
More than just an x
That we see,
It can mean anything!
When written as x;
It is two c's attached
On the backs, look at
The paces above and below
The attached part, that
May as well be occupying something,
It can mean anything!
x can represent any value;
When written as x;
Are two criss-crossed lines,
Four v's facing; South,
East, West and North,
A sign of incorrect,
It can mean anything!
To make a mark; x is used;
Vote, signature of illiterate,
And a difference occurs,
X is more than just an x
Can you really tell what it is?
We lose them, They Expand 1000x1000mm
We Lose Them, They expand
A girl next door, got pregnant,
She was older than me a few years;
The prospective father was an activist,
In one of radical political organizations,
Geared at eliminating the apartheid regime
During that time; he got killed;
Attending an underground meeting,
Just, after his infant was conceived.
What a loss, losing men fighting for our freedom
What a loss for her
What a loss for that unborn child,
What a loss for the family
What a loss for the nation,
It never occurred to me,
That the thought would be with me
This much even after 20 years,
I still remember
The cries, the grief,
That made the backbone erect,
The cloudy atmosphere,
Streets with blazing tires’ smoke,
Tear gas fiercely shot at us,
With reddened eyes my people
Charged with the spirit of no return,
I remember the pain my people felt,
A boy was born, named; Ayanda:
Meaning: “They are expanding”,
Be it the people die, they expand;
The soldiers are expanding.
I saw him growing up as I also grew,
It never occurred to me,
That the thought would be with me
This much even after 20 years,
I still remember
It still strongly touches my heart,
In high school, with my dearest friend,
We prepared to go for a protest,
The brigadier had to be overthrown
From oppressing the people,
The masses were mobilized;
Taxis, buses, most people with cars,
Trucks, vans had them open free of charge
For the masses to protest,
In the midst of it all; an announcement,
We heard, before we got at Bisho;
There has been a massacre,
The blood of innocent people,
Flowing in the streets, a greedy
The policemen like hunter men; butchered,
without remorse. As some pushed to move ahead,
I remained captivated by the sorrow around me,
In the midst of everything,
It was dispatched that, amongst,
Many of our friends,
Many of my people,
My best friend’s brother,
Had been killed,
What a loss, losing men fighting for our freedom
What a loss for her
What a loss for the family
What a loss for the nation,
What a loss to us
It never occurred to me,
That the thought would be with me
This much even after 20 years,
I still remember,
It still strongly touches my heart,
What a loss, to the nation
The Desperate Ones 1200x1000mm
The Desperate Ones
They come in
They come out
And we stay
They go in
They go out
And we stay
The desperate ones
Do whatever, damn
And we stay,
Them, chow whatever
Out there and here
And we stay
Them, chow however
Whenever, from whoever
And we stay,
Right here, whoever,
Whenever, whatever,
And we stay,
The desperate ones,
Pin up-down, search,
And we stay,
Zoom nearer-farther,
Whatever-however
And we stay,
Them, flip and flop
With cold touch
And we stay
The desperate ones
They live as
And we stay
We stay and we stay
We stay as
The desperate ones
Call Me a Snob, 1200x800mm
Call me a snob
For I was born in the south of the continent of our Motherland
As you were born in the United States of America by the parents
Given birth to by the sons and daughters of Motherland, for that
I call you a brother, I call you a sister; we are of the same origin
Yes of I strive to speak like you in your language for in this land
I need to be sounding like you for you to take me as you, yes of
Course; call me a snob for I buy the stuff you buy for your children
For my children, I also buy the name brand labels and send home
Yes of course call me a snob because I am becoming Americanized
I am becoming you; Is there shame in becoming the being you are-I am?
Yes of course.
How could I have disregarded the obviously sorely at home
of nobody wanting and becoming me? The worse is the divide;
You see no brother no sister in me but an alien that is mimicking you
You call me a snob for I’ve forsaken my peoples’ ways while living
In your land, suddenly I reckon that I am not welcomed in your land
Yes, you’re a foreigner not just to me but yourself for you see me not
In you but an alien wanting to be another alien in you, call me a snob.
One Woman’s Protest 900x900mm
One Woman’s Protest
I refuse to take it anymore
I will not take whatever
You tell me that I am
I will not dare listen
I move on with what is in me
You take it or leave it
You called and told me
That I am black woman
I took that as non-black I am
See I am brown and when I reckoned
That what this black you attach
To me pertains which has
Pained for the most part of my life
But I embraced, nursed and cherished
The pain of being a black woman
And I watched you living a better life of not
being a black person, I kneeled as required, and
as a black person under your supremacy,
I envied you given a status and priviledges, yes you
As a non-really-black person who marveled it all
And never wanted to be called a black person
This has been going on as much as you wish
Until you get to be where you want to be
Which is not - you – being – me, oh but you
In your own blackness that again and again
Puts me in otherness of who I have always been
But, now, right now, put me nowhere than I want
To be. I refuse to be given my whom I am
I just give you what you want to be, just be
For I am whom I am with what is in me
You take it or live it and that’s there to it!
I long for my land 1500x800
I long for my land
While the sun sets when afar from home,
With each boom of every hour I endure,
As several storms, winds, cold, heat of
Each of every second of a period, not to
mention the doom of the minutes surely
I am reminded of home and I am an alien.
A gaze on the changing sky, over the sea,
Hills and the mountains, around me, and
When the moon shows, I long for that
Woman with a baby on the back, tightly
Tied with a towel to her limbs to feel the
Heartbeat and remain connected to the baby
As is I am to come back home soon, yes
For when the sun sets, I seek for who I am
I seek for your comfort in the surrounding
Everywhere, in vain until I admit that, yes
I also have a home, but here I am an alien,
The nest 1 600x500mm
The nest 2 900x900mm
The nest
It may appear shaggily built,
but it is intact patterned
with disparate breeds of grass
and chips of woods.
The deeper gist is known by
the inhabitants within, but for
The one who has it built
There is a reason.
I wonder about such skill,
The power and love that have driven
To provide such a compound,
To protect us and others that might visit.
As she provides, some seem to snatch,
Such voracious chicks that instead of
Receiving, but gracelessly demand from
The hen of her maggots as a result of her
Toil and strength, the nest, it may appear
To be light; it is made up of complexity;
Which is love and it is indefinitely strong
To lift the load beyond the thunderous wind
blow, even if the nest falls, it remains intact
Without being smashed by the grounds.
Even idiotic utterance and actions, from
Juvenile boys and huntsman of the birds,
Unconsciously confirm such wondrous art,
Begotten from the receiver,
She who reckoned
From within;
The need and therefore,
Fulfills it, with the nest.
Conflict Resolution 1100x900mm
Conflict Resolution
You are you,
I am I,
You are yours,
I am mine!
But; there is One,
Whom you belong to;
And also the One
Whom I belong to!
But you; not to me,
And me; not to you!
Just a wish….
When the buzzing occurs,
Urging reasoning to reign
Within, I reckon that, truly
I am I and you are you, as
I am mine, you are yours,
While either belong to the One,
For we are distinctive; with each
Tic, tic we agree-disagree and
Sometimes drift like the nations
Spread through out the universe.
Then, accept that as is
For we are unique beings,
The privilege is that;
Treat you, as you're yours,
While
I, treat me, as if I'm mine!
For even the One and only One;
That each belongs to; treats us
In a manner that each deserves.
If a fight erupts, we need
To reckon and cease fighting for
What is not ours, moreover,
Figure out if whatever is yours,
Is worth fighting for, if it belongs to
Somebody else.
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