Kola articles from March 2008

Kola archives from March 2008

In memory of Dr. Lorris Elliott, Ph.D. (1932-99): a founding author and critic of African-Canadian literature.(Editorial: 20 Years On)
March 22, 2008... This special issue of Kola is occasioned not merely by its twentieth-year milestone but also by the need to recognize its absolute distinctiveness. Indeed, though its subtitle names it "A Black Literary Magazine," it publishes Caucasian and...

Editorial.(Editorial)
March 22, 2008... The Kola nut is a symbol of hospitality in African(West African Society. A traveller is welcomed into the house of his guest with the eating of kola nut and the drinking of palm wine. The ritual is significant, for the ceremonial breaking of...

Africville Blues.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... Africville Blues Sometimes the seaview african united baptist church would bear all our burdens. we would enter Zion, crossing over Bedford Basin into campground. but no more-- because Africville is...

Slave Womb.(Poem)
March 22, 2008... Slave Womb wombtime in the morning time blackness on black, Echebe pounds plantain in the dashine bowl Okonkwo plants seed for the noontime harvest and Oumari sings the blues last night the message came ...

Market Woman.(Poem)
March 22, 2008... Market Woman Me wid elephant sappadilla rear walk tall elegant more poised than vine-models of Vogue Fi me life-line is not de whisper delicacy of a rose's petal it tells de...

Illuminated Depression.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... Illuminated Depression Today I drank your reflection from a glass of alcohol it was fine to hear and feel the music with you running through my system. I tried to blow the world from my...

Return to Biafra.(Short story)
March 22, 2008... Mrs. Nkwatcha sliced the beef and dropped it into the stew that was simmering in two big black pots on the fire. She took an extra split stick of petrified wood and slipped it under one of the pots, dropped a handful of chopped okra in and...

Grandma's house.(Short story)
March 22, 2008... In Edwards, Mississippi, there is a house; stripped of paint and character, unsteady on a hill. The house is drafty in winter, humid in summer. Family pictures warp against the walls at night. This house has the look of robbery, leaning too...

Summer 1981.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... Summer 1981 Nothing matters while we're here as stars hurl themselves against the sun I would have said that a year-- sometime ago, and I might add: Their bodies and the darkness, one.

Bones.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... Bones them bones them bones them bones between the sheets bones that choked you made you spit up blood with memories of black cherrypickers and outstretched fingers them bones buried in the soil yielding...

Interview with George Lamming.(Interview)
March 22, 2008... George Lamming was born in Barbados, the West Indies, in 1927. He was educated at Combermere, secondary school, under the tutelage of a great English master, Frank Collymore. Upon his graduation from high school, Lamming immigrated to Trinidad...

Maude.(Short story)
March 22, 2008... Maude brought the chopper down onto the steak board she used as a chopping block with all her force. These people must think that she didn't have to eat. She reached for the telephone that she had trailed into the kitchen from the living room...

In memoriam: rub-a-dub three ... in a tub.(Short story)
March 22, 2008... "The tailored look" breezed into Marlborough House. "The look" was essentially a contraption of angles neatly piled on top of place--meticulous. Nothing could be out of place. "The look" was a very real legacy the Brits had inherited, for all...

Mixed Up.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... Mixed Up never knew i came from a mixed marriage. thought a mixed marriage meant black and white, not baptist and catholic. alternating churches every week i was afraid of the baptist church. afraid...

It Ain't Necessarily So.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... It Ain't Necessarily So It ain't necessarily so, that I've been using and losing. Because my daddies, daddies, daddy was from Africa. It ain't necessarily so, that I've lost touch with what's mine, and I'm...

Pagan babies.(Short story)
March 22, 2008... "Tell your parents you are going to hell," said the priest. "What you've done is immeasurable. There's nothing else I can do for you. You've done too much. Go home. Tell your father and mother you are going to hell! I stood up, pulled the...

The Street Man.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... The Street Man In New York City I saw a ragged man limp Around Rockefeller Plaza. I sat admiring red roses. He hunted soda cans and crumbs In trash barrels to feed garbage bags. Curious, I watched him depart,...

I Cherish Daily.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... I Cherish Daily My blackness is Something that I Cherish daily. I love the way it Flows Over my body, covering Me with the warmth And passion of a lover's Embrace. My blackness gives ...

Conjugal Bliss #2.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... Conjugal Bliss #2 My side of the bed is cold. Yours is too. The smell of you has faded from your pillow and there is no point to stealing the sheets. My body seeks a heat that is never there. I...

7 x 7 x 7.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... 7 x 7 x 7 Prosser crooned a blues chorus, wailed for a New Richmond. hanged! betrayed by house Judases. Vesey beat the ju ju drums for mass uprising to come; betrayed! hanged like fresh deer meat. Cinque...

Soir d'Hiver.(Short story)
March 22, 2008... Ah! Comme la neige a neigh! Ma vitre est un jardin de givre. Ah! comme la neige a neigh! Qu'est-ce que le spasme de vivre A la douleur que j'ai, que j'ai? "Soir d'Hiver," Emile Nelligan The last time I saw...

Bohemian jazz boys hit the town.(Short story)
March 22, 2008... It was hotter than a motherfucker when the band pulled into Grover's Ferry, Maryland. I was driving with Po' Head Simmons, the drummer. His girl, who I guess he'd been with longer than any of his other girls, now I think about it, was passed...

Hush.(Short story)
March 22, 2008... "Hush! Hush! Somebody's calling my name." Beyond a shadow of doubt, that must have been their absolute favourite song. Why they had to have been the most hand patting, foot tapping, junk jointing, rump rumbling, butt bumping, holy rolling,...

Africkville.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... Africkville but when I journeyed back to that place of dark skins I did not see flowers I was told flowers bloomed brighter here just as the sun, and I could remember the days when light danced off these...

Why I Am A Slave You Ask?(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... Why I Am A Slave You Ask? Because I heard it from my chromosomes They tell me I am herded like cattle And bound hand and foot in fetters of steel. I travelled for many days and nights, and Without much to eat or...

Metro Blues.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... Metro Blues ev'ry mornin' 'pon de Metro people face looking like corn meal widdout okroe yuh getting off, dem turnin' stiff yuh getting on dem turnin' stiff ah wonder why dem a-doing so?...

My Name is Mr. Nobody (Lament of the warrior).(Poem)
March 22, 2008... My Name is Mr. Nobody (Lament of the warrior When you arrived on our land the trash of Europe With greed, larceny, and barbarism in your hearts Disease in your bodies with rum soak brains A bible...

A rejoinder to prospero: an interview with M. Nourbese Philip.(Interview)
March 22, 2008... M. Nourbese Philip was born in Tobago and educated in Trinidad up to the secondary level. Ms. Philip undertook post-secondary studies in Jamaica at the University of the West Indies and continued those studies at the University of Western...

On Becoming a Black Canadian.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... On Becoming a Black Canadian Growing up Black in Montreal Believing I was a somebody. That I could be anything I wanted to be. School presented contradictions. The very first day in grade one. The teacher...

One Griot speaks out: the West Indian-Canadian connection: interview with Austin Clarke.(Interview)
March 22, 2008... Austin Clarke was born in Barbados, the West Indies, on July 26, 1934, the son of the late Kenneth Trotman and Gladys Irene Clarke. He is a distinguished author, educator and social activist. A prolific writer during the past three decades, his...

The Bodies Which I Know Best.(Poem)
March 22, 2008... The Bodies Which I Know Best human being according to skin colour the complex weakness of language in describing the colour of skin as you burst pink past the shower curtain dropping salt water and soap into my...

Racing pigeons.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... "There are four pigeon racing clubs in Victoria and together they lose over 100,000 pigeons a year. In 1993, 8000 pigeons, racing in Eastern Australia went missing during a storm." Margaret Berryman, Freedom For Birds the hours moved...

Editorial.(Editorial)
March 22, 2008... KOLA celebrates its tenth anniversary as a black literary magazine, the voice of the Black Writers' Guild (Quebec) and forum for writers in the Diaspora to express their creativity. Founders of the Guild are novelists H. Nigel Thomas and Horace...

Diamond jubilee.(Short story)
March 22, 2008... "Inez, d' hurricane coming 'bout six," Peter Smith shouted to his wife, his voice reaching the buxom Inez, despite the howling wind and humming rain. "Um, just come through. Things terrible. Flooding all 'bout the place. Houses blown down....

Life's Road Signs.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... Life's Road Signs Another precious life All too soon Cut short. Such promise! Victim of time's constant stalker, DEATH? He didn't see the signs: Born into poverty... ROUGH ROAD AHEAD ...

Nikon.(Poem)(Brief article)
March 22, 2008... Nikon There is a wicked hole in my history Black space--I cannot own, A picture of me among family members, friends-People whom I once knew and at one time loved-I drew a knife from deep in my pain and cut my image...

Purple is the flower.(Short story)
March 22, 2008... "I'm just going to the store, Weasel. Be a good girl for Mama and watch your baby brother." "Do I have to, Ma?" "Won't be long baby, I promise. Not like I'm running away or something." Mama's all dressed up. Got on her red pumps...

The nature of black writing in Canada: an interview with Cecil Foster.(Interview)
March 22, 2008... This interview was conducted by Horace I. Goddard and the late Clifton Ruggles. They interviewed Cecil Foster, who was on a Canada tour called "The Three Griots." Goddard: Welcome to Montreal, Cecil. I've listened to you last night and you...