David Campbell is a deeply gifted poet & songwriter. Of his many albums, the one that I have listened to one hundred thousand times, because it appealed to my young children and most equally, it appealed to me, is called, "Through the Eyes of a Child."
Here is a gifted teacher, sharing what he knows, not only with the children of the world, but with the aged children now grown, parenting, struggling with the past and the present and sometimes the future, too. (This is harkening back to my first two decades of parenting.)
These are basic lessons in values and compassion, useful for all: not only all of the challenges that young people can be expected to navigate, but for all of the adult situations, too, where we are invited to turn against the people of the world, to abandon them, to agree to or to tolerate their mistreatment.
David Campbell, Songmaker
"Song making is a "calling" for me, and that has powered me to writing hundreds of songs. I am also a
performing artist, singing and accompanying myself on guitar, and a
recording artist with 29 cd's, the first 4 with record companies."
"Born in Guyana, South America, Arawak Indian and Portuguese ancestry, toured, and appeared on radioand television in several countries. 300 videos and counting, on YouTube, mainly of original songs. Currently writing a book. Resident of Vancouver,
Canada, and is a Canadian citizen."
About DAVID CAMPBELL SONG MAKER
"This channel celebrates the creativity and abundance I've been blessed with...
containing some of the original songs I've created exercising my first creative
love song making. It has been known in the past as the "Marakakore" channel.
Two of my 29 cd's are now
available online: "My Kind Of Song" with
"Thanksgiving Song". at:
http://CDbaby.com/cd/dcampbell2
My CD "Pretty Brown" at:
http://CDbaby.com/cd/dcampbell
Thanks to all who have
sent in encouraging messages to this
channel. Peace. David Campbell
a.k.a marakakore."
David Campbell is the living embodiment of the power of the muses
that come from a special place in the geography of Guyana's music. He is
an expert wordsmith and clearly one of Guyana's most important
lyricists. His ability to draw upon multiple landscapes makes him an
inclusive and integrating spirit.
David has been an important ambassador and is a cultural hero. For his
inspirational work, he was awarded a Wordsworth McAndrew Award by the
Guyana Folk Festival Committee in 2003.
gallery gachet 88cordova; Rizome cafe 317 e broadway:brandiz 122 east hastings:sacred circle 33 cordova Shandon Gallery in Tinseltown aka International Village 88 West Pender
Opening night: by Rose Point (a Sto:lo and Musqueam elder) and Hank Bee
March 30th Gallery Gachet 88
cordova STAND UP FOR MENTAL HEALTH 7p.m -9p.m ... Jay Peachy;Patricia Bene Hoolo;Clifford Daniel Moses; Jari Wilkman.
Opening by Cease Wysse march 30th Venue 5: FUNDRAISER FOR BUTTERFLIES IN SPIRIT - MISSING AND MURDERED ABORIGINAL WOMEN'S PROJECT Shandon Gallery in Tinseltown aka International Village 88 West Pender Street 5PM to 9PM Opening by Cease Wysse with 15 minute prayer circle lead by fn anglican minister viviane seegers Friday March 30th 5-9
March 31st DENESULINE SOVEREIGNTY Fundraiser at the Rhizome Cafe 7pm-10p.m Opening by Cease Wysse Alexander Reyes, Chronic Vibe, JB the first Lady, Ostwelve, Niska Napoleon, Blues Puppy, comedy by Jay Peachy,and frog song by Super Dan proceeds will be going to the Denesuline Nation for the Gathering in May 2012
March 31st venue 3
FUNDRAISER FOR BURNS LAKE VICTIMS at Bradiz 122 Hastings 8:30p.m -1a.m Wayne Lavallee, Hummingbird SIngers,;Rez Warriors; with slam poetry by Theo campbell , the host of late night with savages
March 31st Venue 5: FUNDRAISER FOR BUTTERFLIES IN SPIRIT - MISSING AND MURDERED ABORIGINAL WOMEN'S PROJECT Shandon Gallery in Tinseltown aka International Village 88 West Pender Street NOON to 9PM Friday March 3oth;,Saturday march 31st, 12-9; Sunday April fools day M girls, Hummingbird singers,Artist Gerry Whitehead, and Rory Dawson !!!
APRIL FOOLS DAY JAM @ Brandiz 122 E Hastings 1a.m-6p.m
April 1st Venue 4/Sacred CIrcle Opening by Butterflies in Spirit and Hank Bee 1a.m-6:30p.m artist Andre Williams on site, Woody Morrison, butterflies in spirit and melanie Rita Lecoy
April 1st/Venue 3/Brandiz 122 East Hastings Opening
by Butterflies In Spirit Bradiz by night 8:30-12;00a.m with slam poetry by theo campbell , the host of late night with savages RedSoulBlues Machine; Shed Nation;Rez Warriors
"In the beginning there were stories and like all surviving stories this
one begins with a storm. On September 7, 1962, the fishing packer The
Loretta B keeled under a violent westerly blow submerging five men and
one woman to the dark sea.
"The sinking of the Loretta B joins a long legacy of fishing tragedies
that have ended in the drowning of men and women but in this one Eileen
Lorenz, on the eve of her 18th birthday was a survivor. After being
tied to fish crates by her husband and fellow crewmate, Eileen was set
afloat, as one by one, four men including her husband and brother
surrendered to the ocean, their bodies never to be found. After six
hours in the eye of the dark storm, Eileen Lorenz was plucked from the
water to bring in this new day one year older and eight months pregnant.
"Women in Fish weaves this tragedy together with the bigger tragedy of
the worlds fishing industry. This story reveals women’s contributions to
what was once a top industry. Little is known about the strong role
women played in this industry, from waiting on shore to owning and
operating their own vessels, as cannery workers and raising their
children on the boats."
Working with urban ink's then-Artistic Director Marie Clements, Rosemary
tracked down Eileen, who had moved away from Galiano and not spoken
about the incident since it happened. Together, the three women
developed the show collaboratively and interwove Eileen's survival story
with those of other women from the fishing industry to tell the larger
tragedy of the decline of the world's fishing industry.
Directed by Marie Clements (Governor General Nominee-Burning Vision) and Kathleen Flaherty (CBC Radio)
Dramaturgy by Paula Danckert (Playwrights Workshop Montreal) Featuring award winning designers including: Tim
Matheson, Noah Drew, John Webber, Sandy Scofield, Jonathan Ryder,
Richard Wilson, Rosemary Georgeson, Mia Perry, Julie Moore and David
Kerr. Written by Marie Clements with Rosemary Georegson, Eileen Lorenz and the WIF Participants. View WIF Archival Website
Performed byRosemary Georgeson With Hours of Water Ensemble:Ben Cardinal, Patricia Collins, Steven Hill, Renae Morrisseau, Suzie Payne & WIF community voices
Live Performance Animated byDiane Roberts
"Women in Fish was produced by CBC as a radio documentary and a 4 part
radio series and has been short listed for a prestigious Jack Webster
Award for Best Documentary. Women In Fish: hours of water opened Think
Vancouver in 2005 with a performance at The Vancouver Aquarium. The live
version begins touring in the summer of 2010 and includes an
installation as a memorial of the contributions of women to the
industry, youth programming activities, public workshops and a live
performance of the award winning story."
I am just enchanted by this video (top), by the adapted performance at the Shadbolt last year, and by the stories chosen to tell. The ease with which any can identify with the challenges life brings, and the generosity with which people in crises often do respond... touches the core of "we."
The weight of cumulative grief that is crushing the Missing Women Inquiry, the need for some to be exonerated leading to cascades of official cruelty to bring the original callous and inhumane treatment outward to every door in the province, and the country, is painful to behold.
Poor Wally Oppal, sitting alone with his two dozen tax-payer supported lawyers,* every one of them there to defend the dirty fingers of the state, with all two of the new lawyers appointed to represent every other person and group, living and dead.**
Christy Clark has a lot to answer for. Come on, Vander Zalm, where's your populist fervour now? I got my shovel, where's yours? When have we had a more important issue to put to the voters of BC: what do we want to pay for, collectively, with our tax payer dollars? Who do we want to hear from, officially, with all this time we have on our hands?
Okay, officially, the new lawyers are there to represent "the interests of
Aboriginal people," as general, specific, and diverse, as that may be. The horror of the frank racism of the state's
cumulative decisions in this matter has got to be affecting a huge swathe of people, though,
who are not indigenous, and also made voiceless, by the twin sins of not being invested
in burying the sins of the state, and not being detached enough from the
emotion of what is going on to effectively expose and attack the
mechanics of what is going on.
How deeply delving is a commission led by
the culpable expected to be? There are limits to humanity, and it is a
rare saint indeed who can see clearly past his own contributing
education, conditioning, perspectives and decisions to be able to spot everyone else playing "not
my fault."
My vague impression of Mr. Oppal as a man of character was severely over-stretched when he failed to effectively protest Christy Clark's flagrant settlerism, her soccer mom approach to killing off the opposing team, then dancing across the field calling woot woot! Now there is a lady who definitely enjoys her purse strings.
Why is it that women can be so utterly callous toward women's interests?
How is it that the twin cloaks of privilege and power make people believe they are both invisible and not accountable?
I know it is the weight of grief that is doing us in, because for myself, i tend to flinch away from the whole thing. I tune in periodically, but most of the time i spend with my mop, dealing with being a woman among the walking wounded who has a number of sisters who are the walking wounded, who live within a family of the walking wounded, within a cluster of families of the walking wounded, within communities of the walking wounded, and, all of the reverberations and the cascading effects of the same. These are the facts as i see them, and spending decades in therapy has not made me more white nor more middle class, and has not improved my economic status one iota. (The glass ceiling in my neighbourhood has been set astonishingly low. I have been thoroughly educated in all the wrong things, it seems.)
If only I could say that I was the only woman in my family who survived a near-fatal attack, then I could be the designated wounded one and everybody else could pitch in and help. But that's not how social oppression works, is it? It is whole swathes of people marked OKAY TO ATTACK, and whole swathes of people taught, THIS IS WHAT YOU CAN DO TO RELIEVE TENSION. It is clearly marked categories of humans who must be correctly identified, and unrelenting systemic attack on all of these and all of their allies.
If only I could say that I was the only woman in my family who, as a teen, fled a hostile sexist-racist milieu in one province, only to find an even more dreadful open season of options in another (province or territory or state). We have been run ragged seeking out our safe space, and have settled across two countries and three provinces, just waiting for the white ball to come rolling this way again, and relocate the all of us, scatter me more.
To say that all of my siblings survived to adulthood, is that really what counts for Canadian-style "bragging rights"?
Okay, i've found something positive to say. Perhaps i can truthfully say this: I was probably the only one in my family who, within months of escaping the dangers that beset me in one province, spent an entire day in a court room listening to two witnesses in a gang rape, murder, and dismemberment trial, the victim a young woman of undisclosed race.*** The witnesses were an 18 year old male participant and the coroner. The day went on and on forever, and it still goes on, each one endlessly telling and retelling the same deeply painful, deeply shameful tale, each in his own words.
Quite the education for a girl about to turn 16.
Too bad that Christy Clark hasn't seen half the shit I've seen.
Just for the record: financial abuse by the state registers the same, in the body politic, as the physical attack of any individual human being within that collective. Policy abuse shines through window dressing and spin, all day, every day.
As for the prospects for a national inquiry, well, at least all of us who have felt pursued by the violence against poor + brown + isolated + female + small enough to pick up and walk off with, or demonstrably and officially deemed timid enough not to "effectively protest" when out numbered and out gunned, all who have been deemed prostitutes by virtue of class, race, geography, all of the actual prostitutes, all of the allies of all of the above, of whatever class, origin, or location: we will all be able to begin to weave a fuller cloth of the in-your-face truth of Canadian social history, that the official versions of "us" have been working overtime in keeping apart. Why keep the pig farmers separate from the barbers, to whose advantage is that?****
If we want clarity, we have to take a step inward, opening hearts and minds, as well as a step outward, encompassing the full picture.
Let's call that the Two-step Solution, and dance.
The three or five people who most applaud Christy Clark will not be speaking out for her come election time, she is just another misled patsy, and not a Patsy Cline.
Likewise, the UN stirrings of interest, we have faith in it and expect nothing to come of it, all at the same time. That is what must be done to survive.
Let's talk about sexism just a little more. Why should we expect
these new lawyers, with no structural changes to the commission, to fare
any better than the lady officers back in the day, talking to the empty heads and the empty hearts of their bosses? Who will nourish these two lawyers to the degree that they can bring about, in conjunction with Mr. Oppal and that flock of well-paid other lawyers, any thing much at all?
Good luck, ladies, wherever you are.
* + ** I am not clear whether these general figures include the lawyers for the families of the identified victims, and certainly i mean no harm and no disrespect to any of the friends and allies and families, or to any who do hold some hope for the inquiry.
*** no doubt the coroner + press disclosed it at the time
**** i have no grudge against farmers, this is a reference to serial killing & official neglect
When i was a girl, one of my uncles had a big house in Winnipeg, and rented out rooms. One fellow who rented a room for a time, between work sessions in the North, moved away, and left a packet of photos behind, in an old broken down suitcase. Somehow, these photographs of sled dogs and oil spills came into my possession, and one I favoured above all others depicted: the narwhal. In grand proto-poet style, i wrote across the back in my best hand, "this photograph is an example of the near distinct narwhal."
Today I was among the poets, authors, and organizers recognized by a new organization, Writers International Network (Canada), for our contributions to our communities and to the world of letters. I wore my sash and shared a song and a poem, and received my medallion.
The variety of performers, the twined loves of literary traditions and social justice shared by all, made this a nourishing day. My thanks to Ashok Bhargava, Alan Hill, Roberta Price for her beautiful welcome, and all of the organizers, volunteers, and performers.
Once home, I looked into the envelope I had received, and found two letters, one from the visionary/organizer, Ashok, and another from The Honourable Yonah Martin. Coming from a community that is all about "making do," and perforce accomodated to our lives on the sidelines, I was surprisingly affected by the simple notes of recognition and affirmation.
I am feeling like a "near distinct narwhal" today, or better, as are all of the other honourees.
Many blessings on those who gathered today, and my prayers for the longevity of the Writers International Network (Canada).
In 2009, i became profoundly annoyed with my beau, and ended up writing a longish sideways rant called "World Poetry Day 2009," published in three parts on Schroedinger's Cat. In the interim there have been changes and corrections to the piece, but, overall I am happy to share it as is/as was,
One of my subsequent discoveries was a critical review of one of the papers whose reflections are imbued in the piece. This is a very interesting essay,
The critical response found later considered the possibility that the perception of Buddhism and the times was perhaps unduly coloured by a modern appreciation of the impact of Christianity in the New World, and across Europe, a retrojection that was probably completely inappropriate to the actual context (time and place) under review. (See Isabelle Crossley's thoughtful paper, here.) Keeping the mind open...
The map above, and the wall mural below, visually represent the fusion of divinity~landscape. The Supine Demoness: here's the short version introduction:
I had the pleasure of spending a day at Stanley Park with a number of poets, at a World Poetry sponsored picnic in the spring of 2010, including Jamie Reid (Canada), Hadaa Sendoo (Mongolia), Ariadne Sawyer (Canada), Alejandro Mujica-Olea (Chile-Canada), 談 衛那/Venus Cheng (?Taiwan-Canada), Peter Lojewski (Germany-Canada), Diane Laloge (Canada), and more. Not everyone performed a poem or flashed a camera, but many did, and everyone shared food and conversation.
Alejandro, photo by Jamie Reid
Sendoo & Venus
Venus 谈卫那的诗
@@ Poet! You are the ladder @@
The following was translated by Willie Wang:
****** ******
Piles of writing papers are drafts of poems;
They cannot be considered to be food all over the table,
But they have spent all the precious years of my youth.
Poems, in spoken or written languages
Make you find the way upwards,
Absolutely not the tools for you to make a living.
Jamie read a lovely long poem that evoked the spirit of the place we were standing in, gazing from one promontory to another and spying a temple monastery across the way. Alejandro wowed us with extemporaneous poetry, a popular form in Chile that left me thinking again about all of the strengths of orality and oral literary traditions. Hadaa and Venus and several other poets performed, and the translators translated for us. It was a good day.
In May, World Poetry is hosting another International Festival in Richmond. Fingers crossed that all who need visas will get visas, and looking forward to seeing and hearing everyone!
Photos sent by Jamie and Venus, links to Venus' work sent by Venus
Here's a brief clip of the day, also posted by Venus, one of several that she shared with us:
~to listen~ In its early days, before Isle Royale became a national park in 1940,
the island was home to loggers, miners and fishermen. Most were
Scandinavian immigrants. However, there are people whose ties to the
island go much farther back, and their story is often overlooked. In
this edition of Moments in Time, we look at the story of the Anishinaabe
and their connection to the island. They have a different set of uses
for the land, and a different name for it.
Music by Keith Secola and the XX. Photo courtesy of MDuchek on Wikimedia.
~to listen~ The history of the Anishinaabeg and Lake Superior is very long. Early
French and English documents named the native people Ojibwe or
Chippewa. But they call themselves Anishinaabe. They call Lake
Superior, Gichigami. Wild Rice is manoomin, and waawaashkeshi is the
deer. Names such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Manitou, Chequamegon, Keewenaw
are from the Anishinaabe.
The Anishinaabe still speak their language. Wes Ballinger is one of
several people making sure it will be heard for hundreds of years to
come. Ballinger is working in the language, using it, teaching it,
learning it, and preserving it. It’s his job, as head of the language
department for the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Commission, at Bad
River, WI.
~to listen~Bob spoke March 2 with Sharon Day, an enrolled member of the Bois Forte
Band of Chippewa, in Minnesota in the Marten Clan, who holds a 2nd
degree designation as a M’dewiwin water keeper for her tribe. She
discussed the role of women in protecting the precious resource of fresh
water, and her role last year in the Mother Earth Water Walk.
7 pm, March 22, SB 301 (Lecture Theatre)
Emily Carr University, Vancouver BC
Readings by Lee Maracle & Michael Blackstock
Screening of Samaqan: Water Stories, with Director Jeff Bear
Free and open to the public
Bios:
Lee Maracle, granddaughter of Chief Dan George, is one of the most prolific
aboriginal authors in Canada. Her books include Daughters Are Forever (fiction,
Raincoast, 2002), Will's Garden (Theytus, 2002), Bent Box (poetry, Theytus
Books, 2000), Sojourners & Sundogs (fiction, Press Gang, 1999), Ravensong
(Press Gang, 1993), I Am Woman (nonfiction, Press Gang, 1988) and Bobbi Lee,
Indian Rebel (fiction, Women's Press, 1975). She has received the J.T. Stewart
Voices of Change Award, and she contributed to First Fish, First People, which
won the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award. Maracle has taught at
the University of Toronto, the University of Waterloo, Western Washington
University, South Oregon University, and many more places.
Michael Blackstock is an independent scholar, poet, artist, and forester who
has served as a member of the UNESCO-IHP Expert Advisory Group on Water and
Cultural Diversity. He has published two books of poetry: Salmon Run: A Florilegium
of Aboriginal Ecological Poetry and Oceaness. Of Gitxsan (Hazelton) and
Euro-Canadian descent, Blackstock has a MA in First Nations Studies. His first
book, Faces in the Forest (McGill-Queen's UP), examines tree art in conjunction
with First Nations cosmology, citing carvings, paintings and writings on trees
within Gitxsan, Nisga'a, Tlingit, Carrier and Dene traditional territories.
Jeff Bear (Maliseet) produces, writes and directs independent documentaries
with director Marianne Jones (Haida) at Urban Rez Productions in
Vancouver. Since 2000 Urban Rez has produced the 26-part series Ravens
and Eagles, for broadcast on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, as well
as Storytellers in Motion, a 39 part documentary series about indigenous storytellers,
and currently, Samaqan: Water Stories. The first documentary that Bear and
Jones shot together, Burnt Church: Obstruction of Justice won the 2001
Telefilm/APTN award for Best English Language Production.
Bear has worked in video and television steadily for the last 24 years.
He received the 2000 Leo Award for Best Information Series as the
producer of First Story, an aboriginal current affairs program broadcast
in Canada on CTV. A past editor-in-chief of Kahtou magazine, he has written
widely about indigenous political and cultural representation in Canada. Bear
speaks the Maliseet language fluently and was raised in Tobique First Nation,
New Brunswick.
The Local Onlyz *featuring the Cottage Party, left or right
The Local Onlyz left or right
Scott Neuman, Christopher Merk, Brad Bellegarde, Jayde Goodon, Thomas Roussin, Nathaniel Bowen, Sheenah Ko, Jesse Rae Archibald Barber, Matthew Kaip...
VISIT The Local Onlyz on SOUNDCLOUD (all tracks)