Our October Author: Peter Akinti (Forest Gate)

This month we are reading Forest Gate by Peter Akinti. Kicking off our supplemental links this mont, Akinti introduces his book in this video:



The book comes with a supplemental essay and interview.  If your edition doesn't have them, check here.  The Bookbag has an interview,

BB: For this ex-Londoner, Forest Gate draws some very painful parallels between war-torn Somalia and life on some of London 's streets. Yet Armeina defends London. Why does she?


PA: When I wrote Forest Gate one of my aims was to provide a snapshot of young black people in London, to try to paint a truer picture of their mixed identity and or culture. I wanted to show what life was like under the full effects of constant migration; how much globalization is affecting us in ways we are yet able to fully grasp. I didn't want to compare London and Somalia. I wanted to compare two lives that clash in London; to show how very different two young black people living in London might be, the causes and effects of that interaction.

And  SoulCulture asks about the reality behind the fiction,

SoulCulture: The book contains a lot of difficult but compelling chapters vividly describing sexual abuse and violence. Was this a realistic representation of their stories or extreme content needed to make a certain point?

Peter Akinti: Some of it is definitely to make a point. There’s a point where two boys get stopped and searched by the police and someone asked me what I thought about stop-and-search. They thought it was me trying to say something about stop and search but it wasn’t, it was much more to do with an experience I had with my niece.

One of her friends got involved in something crazy and I took her to the police station and I took a statement and they were really rough with her, and when she came out I said ‘what did you think of that?’ and she said she never wanted to do anything like that again, it felt like abuse. And that struck me. That’s where it came from, that first one.

So a lot of the things that happened aren’t me trying to be clever; a lot of these things really happened. A friend of mine had a younger brother who jumped off a tower block in East London and that’s where that came from. I just wanted to show that’s how a lot of people feel once they’ve had that experience, especially the Metropolitan police – they’re really rough with young, black people.

In addition to those two interesting interviews, Akinti has a couple pieces in the Guardian you may want to check out:  Looking back on New Labour and Why London is no place for a young black man.

For December: The Protest Singer by Alec Wilkinson

For December, we have chosen The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger by Alec Wilkinson:

A spirited and intimate look at American icon and activist Pete Seeger, and his life and his accomplishments. Pete Seeger transformed a classic American musical style into a form of peaceful protest against war, segregation, and nuclear weapons. Drawing on his extensive talks with Seeger, Alec Wilkinson delivers a first hand look at Seeger's unique blend of independence and commitment, charm, courage, energy, and belief in human equality and American democracy. We see Seeger, the child, instilled with a love of music by his parents; Seeger, the teenager, hearing real folk music for the first time; Seeger, the young adult, singing with Woody Guthrie. And finally, Seeger the man marching with the Rev. Martin Luther King in Selma, standing up to McCarthyism, and fighting for his beloved Hudson River. The gigantic life captured in this slender volume is truly an American anthem.

For January: No God but God by Reza Aslan

For January, we have chosen Reza Aslan's No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam,

Though it is the fastest-growing religion in the world, Islam remains shrouded in ignorance and fear for much of the West. In No god but God, Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed scholar of religions, explains this faith in all its beauty and complexity. Beginning with a vivid account of the social and religious milieu in which the Prophet Muhammad forged his message, Aslan paints a portrait of the first Muslim community as a radical experiment in religious pluralism and social egalitarianism. He demonstrates how, after the Prophet’s death, his successors attempted to interpret his message for future generations–an overwhelming task that fractured the Muslim community into competing sects. Finally, Aslan examines how, in the shadow of European colonialism, Muslims developed conflicting strategies to reconcile traditional Islamic values with the realities of the modern world, thus launching what Aslan terms the Islamic Reformation. Timely and persuasive, No god but God is an elegantly written account of a magnificent yet misunderstood faith.

Our September Author: Dan Everett (Don't Sleep, There are Snakes)

This month's author, Dan Everett (Don't Sleep, There are Snakes) has his own webpage at Illinois State University, (although a note there says he has taken a position elsewhere, so the page could vanish at any moment). He does have quite a bit there to explore. This section is a good place to start. My favorite file is this song.

Here is a bit of spoken Pirahã:



As a supplement to the book, I highly recommend this New Yorker profile: The Interpreter. It will give you some idea of how others in the field of linguistics view his work. If you don't have the time for that, try this NPR profile which also contains a nice demonstration of whistle and hum speech or this Guardian profile which includes a couple sound files as well. The hardcore language buffs among our Esteemed Readers will want to check out this article and Daniel Everett/Steven Pinker exchange.

Here's a talk for courtesy of Fora.TV:




There is a documentary about Everett, it seems with no release date as yet. More info and trailer can be found here.

Other fun stuff:

Further reading--

The Last of the Tribe: The Epic Quest to Save a Lone Man in the Amazon. Interview with author Monte Reel here.

Recent NYT article, Does Your Language Shape How You Think? by Guy Deutscher author of the new book Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages.




Explore the National Geographic map of endangered languages.

More on indigenous peoples: Survival International and Cultural Survival.

Recent Amnesty International press release: Peru: Missionary defending Amazon tribes must not be deported

Updated: Fresh action today from Amnesty International:

80 members of the Guarani Kaiowá Y’poí Indigenous group in Brazil have been threatened by armed men hired by local farm owners. The group reoccupied farmland they claim as part of their ancestral territory near Paranhos, Brazil, in April. They have been threatened and being prevented from leaving their encampment. This has left them in a critical situation with no access to water, food, education and health.

The Federal Indigenous Health Agency (FUNASA) has not provided care to the community allegedly claiming this is due to lack of security. The community’s children are falling sick due to the lack of medical assistance, water and the dry weather conditions. The community has denounced their situation, but so far no action has been taken.

More info. Take action here.

For November: The Blessing Next to the Wound by Hector Aristizabal

For November, we have selected The Blessing Next to the Wound: A Story of Art, Activism, and Transformation by our good friend and collaborator Hector Aristizabal:

Hector Aristizabal grew up in the barrios of Medellin, Colombia, where he and his siblings had to use all their wit, wiles, and wherewithal to survive poverty, the ever-present allure of cheap drugs and very dangerous money, and the endemic violence from leftwing guerrillas, rightwing death squads, cocaine cartels, and the armed power of the State. As a young actor and psychology student, Hector was seized by the military, held in secret, and tortured. He survived and went on to find meaning in his ordeal as he channeled his desire for revenge into nonviolent activism both in his homeland and during decades of exile in the United States.

While challenging the State-sponsored causes of much suffering in the world, Hector reached out to some of society s most marginalized at-risk and incarcerated youth, immigrants, and many others using his theatrical skills and psychotherapeutic training to help people shape their own stories and identities. He sought to understand his own identity as well as that of one brother who was a revolutionary and another who was gay and how his belief in personal integrity and political freedom might square with the realities of a country under the yoke of toxic ideologies. Hector was forced finally to examine his own motivations and commitments, and begin to heal his own gaping wounds.

Shockingly honest, heartbreaking, and vibrantly told, The Blessing Next to the Wound is a passionate and evocative memoir that, amid enormous suffering and loss, is a full-throated affirmation of life.

Cut This!

Courtesy of the ACLU of Northern California, timeout for a little PSA aimed at our California readership (though the argument is really applicable in all death penalty states) regarding maintaining the death penalty in a time of budget crisis. You can take action at the ACLU's site:

Cut This: The Death Penalty from aclunc on Vimeo.

Bonus inspirational video from Amnesty-France:

Our August Author: Stieg Larsson (The Girl Who Playes With Fire)

It's our mystery month and this time we chose Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played with Fire.  I'm not sure who is behind the site, but for a compendium of Stieg Larsson links, you could start with stieglarsson.com or try this Life of Stieg Larsson interactive feature from the New York Times.  In addition, the NYT offers a couple of useful articles on the backstory of the series, The Afterlife of Stieg Larsson and Pippi Longstocking and Lisbeth Salander.

The Daily Telegraph has an account of Larsson's only interview on the series with some tips for further reading...

Every spring and autumn, back when he worked for the news agency, he was assigned to write reviews that summed up the season’s releases of translated crime fiction. “I’d include the top five crime novels at that particular time,” he said. “Some of the writers I’ve praised are Sara Paretsky, Val McDermid, Elisabeth George and Minette Walters. Strangely enough, almost all are women.”

If you'd like to get a jumpstart on the discussion, check out Slate's Culture Gabfest on Stieg Larsson. Otherwise you can dig in and wrestle with some of the issues the book raises:

Is Lisbeth Salander a feminist icon or male fantasy figure? There's no shortage of opinions. Here's a sampler:  Why we should cheer Lisbeth Salander, Stieg Larsson’s girl gang, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: feminist, or not?, Did Stieg Larsson have a problem with women? Feminist or misogynist?
 
How does Larsson's Sweden match up with the reality? Here is a trio of articles to check out: Millenium's distorting mirror, Understanding Swedish society through Stieg Larsson's popular fiction and Foreign Policy's  We're All Swedes Now, 

The sex-trafficking subplot didn't move sufficiently beyond lecture to where it emotionally engaged me, but the NYT's Nick Kristof is hopeful that the books might raise some awareness of the issue.

A tip of the hat to Larsson's English translator, Reg Keeland who has a blog.

Just for fun you can get a peek at the 'Dragon Tattoo' tour of Stockholm.

And finally, don't miss Nora Ephron's Stieg Larsson parody The Girl Who Fixed the Umlaut in The New Yorker.

Our July Author: Tracy Kidder (Strength in What Remains)

Strength in What Remains (Random House Reader's Circle)Our July author, Tracy Kidder (Strength in What Remains), has his own website: Tracy Kidder.com, a good place to start.  But readers of this book will probably find it more rewarding to spend some time at Village Health Works which features many videos about the clinic and the people it serves as well as descriptions of the ambitious programs the VHW is undertaking. You can also find VHW on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

There are several good interviews with Tracy Kidder available. You can download the Los Angeles Public Library and CSPAN interviews from iTunes. On Point brings in VHW's executive director Sarah Broom for the second half of the program and Radio Open Source goes deep on genocide and public health here.

Here is a short video excerpt of an interview from PRI's The World:


An Interview with Author Tracy Kidder from Clark Boyd on Vimeo.

Finally, be sure to check out this NYT editorial by Tracy Kidder: A Death in Burundi.

For October: Forest Gate by Peter Akinti

For October we have selected Forest Gate by Peter Akinti:

A profoundly affecting novel that forces the reader to connect, on a very personal level, with the stories behind the headlines, it is a coming-of-age story which finds hope in the midst of modern London’s urban deprivation. Peter Akinti was a seventies child, born of Nigerian ancestry, in London. He read Law at a London University. He has written for the Guardian, and worked for four years at HM Treasury Chambers before founding and editing Untold Magazine for five years. Untold was the first independent British magazine for black men and had a wealth of gifted contributors from all over the diaspora. Peter spent eighteen months in Nigeria, running a restaurant, beer parlour and cinema in Ondo Town, Southwest Nigeria. He currently lives in Brooklyn.  Forest Gate is his first novel.

Our June Author: Frank Huyler

This month we read the novel Right of Thirst by writer-physican Frank Huyler.  This brief audio interview from KUNM radio gives a good explanation of the themes and events that inspired the novel.

In this UCPress interview, Huyler is asked for his views on healthcare reform and puts in a plug for a Rights Readers favorite, W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz.

From New Mexico Magazine:

Q: What unique insights, as a physician, do you bring to your fiction?
A: I don’t know that I bring special insight, but being a doctor often reminds you of the real forces in the world. As a doctor, you’re around dramatic events. You’re seeing people in extreme circumstances. There’s an enormous advantage to seeing that all the time. Being exposed to elemental forces is an advantage. It’s the antithesis of the ivory tower—the dark tower, perhaps. It’s very much the real world

And here's a short video introduction to the book from the author:



Finally, The Guardian has a profile focused on his earlier memoir, The Blood of Strangers, an excerpt of which can be found at LOST Magazine.

Here's a little bonus on the subject of relief workers: a trailer for the film Living in Emergency about Doctor's without Borders.  Now playing Pasadena!

ProSorata

Frank Huyler, author of this month's selection, Right of Thirst, is donating some of the proceeds from his book to an NGO that provides health care to women and children in Bolivia.  I'll give him a chance to tell you about it:





Learn more about ProSorata at their website.  And while you are at it you can check out Amnesty International's campaign for maternal health here.  Don't forget to take action!

Alaska Action

Fresh off our most recent discussion (and what a handsome group of discussants!) of Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People by William L. Iggiagruk Hensley, Amnesty International has joined with Defenders of Wildlife to urge the Obama administration to rescind offshore drilling leases in the Chukchi Sea:

The people of Alaska's Inupiat Eskimo communities have lived in relative harmony with nature for centuries. Their hardscrabble existence is dependent on hunting and fishing. It's how they support their families.

The Inupiat way of life - and the delicate balance of nature that supports it - could soon fall victim to the same sort of offshore drilling disaster now occurring in the Gulf of Mexico.

Shell Oil wants to make millions of dollars from these pristine waters. But there's a cost to that greed.

A spill in the Chukchi - even the day-to-day damage done by offshore oil drilling operations in these waters - could spell disaster for the people, polar bears, whales and other wildlife that rely on the Chukchi to survive.
The Inupiat lead a subsistence lifestyle that depends on their ability to hunt bowhead whales, walrus, seals, beluga whales, polar bears, birds, and fish, all of which depend upon the health of the Chukchi Sea ecosystem.

Shell's drilling plans could decimate Chukchi ecosystems - and the communities that rely upon them to survive.

Any day now Shell will start to send ships up to the Chukchi. Under the oil company's plan, huge 514-foot-long drill ship and an armada of support vessels and aircraft would patrol the waters of the icy Arctic Ocean -- generating industrial noise, and emitting tons of heat-trapping gases and both air water pollutants.

The catastrophic oil spill that is devastating the Louisiana Gulf Coast right now is truly a call to action. As we send this out to you the horror of the Gulf disaster is spreading and oil is decimating fisheries and dependent communities. We need to make sure that the same does not happen to the Inupiate people of Alaska.

The last time a disaster of such proportions hit Alaska was the Exxon-Valdez spill in 1989. To this day, human and wildlife communities have not fully recovered.

Thirty years later, there's still no effective, proven technology to clean up oil spills in broken sea ice conditions, such as those found in the Chukchi Sea - that means an oil spill could doom rare arctic whales, threatened polar bears and other wildlife to extinction and destroy Inupiat communities if drilling proceeds.

The Inupiat communities -- like the wildlife of the Chukchi Sea -- are unique and irreplaceable. Please take action today to protect them.

For September: Don't Sleep, There are Snakes

For September, we have selected Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle by Daniel Everett: 

A riveting account of the astonishing experiences and discoveries made by linguist Daniel Everett while he lived with the Pirahã, a small tribe of Amazonian Indians in central Brazil.

Daniel Everett arrived among the Pirahã with his wife and three young children hoping to convert the tribe to Christianity. Everett quickly became obsessed with their language and its cultural and linguistic implications. The Pirahã have no counting system, no fixed terms for color, no concept of war, and no personal property. Everett was so impressed with their peaceful way of life that he eventually lost faith in the God he'd hoped to introduce to them, and instead devoted his life to the science of linguistics. Part passionate memoir, part scientific exploration, Everett's life-changing tale is riveting look into the nature of language, thought, and life itself.

Our May Author: William L. Iggiagruk Hensley

This month we read Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People by William L. Iggiagruk Hensley.  As usual we have a few links to supplement our up-coming discussion. The author has his own website where you can find additional photos and a blog of links to events, reviews, interviews and other writing such as this NYT Op-ed, In Alaska, Qiviters Never Win, published at the time of Sarah Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska or this remembrance of Stewart Udall.  You may also wish to browse the website of the First Alaskans Institute, where he is chair of the board of trustees. Hensley participates in an interesting discussion spurred by the 50th anniversary of Alaskan statehood at NPR's On Point.

Here is a brief interview with Audubon magazine: 



Also of general interest is this recent NPR report on Rosetta Stone's efforts to aid Native Alaskan's in saving Inupiaq.  And remember that film from Inuit film from a few years back, The Fast Runner?  Apparently it's part of a trilogy which I plan to investigate, especially the last, Before Tomorrow, in the series (trailer) which the NYT describes as "the only film in this series to focus on women’s roles as storytellers and repositories of folk wisdom; its perspective might be described as Inuit feminist." The makers of the film have created an Inuit and Indigenous multimedia forum, IsumaTV, which includes videos exploring indigenous languages, Inuits and climate change and native justice issues.  It looks like a fun place to browse and expand your worldview! 

Mr. Hensley has kindly dropped by this blog once already (thanks!), so who knows, he may be back in comments with his own favorite links...

For August: The Girl Who Played with Fire

For August, our mystery month, we have selected The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson:

Part blistering espionage thriller, part riveting police procedural, and part piercing exposé on social injustice, The Girl Who Played with Fire is a masterful, endlessly satisfying novel.

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.