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New Titles Winter/Spring 2008Page: 3/3
Throughout his 76 years - 27 of which were spent in prison - Joao Francisco dos Santos always challenged the stigmas of being Black, gay, poor. With a remarkable ability to enter the skin of different characters, he defined himself as the "son of Iansa and Ogum (deities of African origin, who continued to be honoured by slaves), and devout follower of Josephine Baker." He created a number of personae for himself such as Divina La Negra; Jamacy, the Queen of the Forest; the Shark; the Wild Pussycat. Through the character of Joao Francisco, a son of ex-slaves, this film examines the blossoming of an urban Afro-Brazilian culture that emerged in Rio de Janeiro in the post-abolition years, a culture forged after 1888 as an expression of resistance to a society that had no use for Black people after the abolition of slavery. Madame Sata is not only the story of a courageous life character, but also an attempt to bring to light a crucial moment in the Afro-Brazilian Diaspora.
Hailing from Yemen, Iran, Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Canada, and the United States, the contributors insist on a politics and spirituality that command knowledge - but not dusty facts fixed long ago. They demand knowledge that is fluid, contextually engaged, and dynamic. And in their pursuit, they are sharing wisdom of their own. They engage in conversation concerning their bodies and their communities and share compelling stories: a woman mourns the death of a cousin killed in a suicide bombing; a transexual man remembers with fondness the donning of the veil he no longer wears; a woman confronts sexism and hypocrisy on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia; several experience being judged on the basis of skin color and political and religious affiliation that is far more blatant and ubiquitous since the September 11 attacks. Click here for more details on the contributors and Montreal book launch last year!
"Canadians" did own slaves, and treated them viciously. In The Hanging of Angelique poet and historian Afua Cooper provides an overview of the subject and tells the smaller story within it of Marie Joseph Angelique, a Black Portuguese domestic servant in the Francheville household in Montreal, who was convicted of setting a fire that destroyed nearly half the city in 1734. She was tortured and hung for this crime. |
