Pointer 4: My brother wrote a book

[liv]

My brother the poet has been involved in activism for and outreach work visiting the occupied territory of Western Sahara for some years now. His latest big project was bringing poems from the Saharawi bardic tradition to an English audience; he worked with interpreters who provided him with literal translations, which he then interpreted as poetry. And he's made them into a book alongside expert commentary and beautiful Arabic calligraphy illustrations by the senior translator and some original poetry.

I'm an academic, so I find it a bit strange that the first ever Saharawi poetry in English is coming out from a tiny little indie publisher and funded by a Kickstarter campaign, rather than being a scholarly work. But also admirable in the sense of trying to bypass the master's tools approach, it's somewhat less than it might be another incident of privileged people from former colonial powers continuing to profit from studying colonized peoples.

Anyway, it's a bit late to tell you about this, but in case anyone is free in London tonight, Sam is launching the book at a music and slam night this evening.

Comments

[lethargic_man]

I'm extremely unlikely to read this, as I'm really not a poetry person (and wasn't really grabbed the one time I heard your brother perform), but well done to Sam. The book cover is really beautiful. I'm amused, however, that the first word of the title in Hassaniya Arabic is almost the same as your first name. :o)

[liv]

I am not trying to convince people who dislike poetry to buy Sam's book! But it's an amazing project in itself, I think.

And I really must brush up on my Arabic reading, I completely hadn't noticed that title word, and I really ought to be able to recognize my own name...

[kass]

Oh, wow.

[davidgillon]

Colour me impressed :)

[siderea]

I'm an academic, so I find it a bit strange that the first ever Saharawi poetry in English is coming out from a tiny little indie publisher and funded by a Kickstarter campaign, rather than being a scholarly work.

The humanities are different, yo. There are something like four academic spots on the planet for scholars of the history of dance; some of the important work in that field was self-published on copiers (or ditto machines!) and basically passed around in samizdat. Meanwhile, the person I think is the world expert on 14th century gothic fitted dresses, Robin Netherton, is, to my knowledge, an independent scholar who primarily published to an email list and gives talks to mostly reënactors. (I've seen it. Her slideshow is just a stunning work of scholarship.)

ETA: It may explain something about me that one of the most important things I learned in college was just how much important scholarship was being done outside of academic institutions.

[liv]

Yes, very good point. And I might think of the first ever poetry from a particular oral tradition being published in English as an important milestone, but it's probably not important enough to attract competitive funding in academic humanities. Your dance history and fashion history examples are very pertinent.

[kerrypolka]

Oh no, I'm sorry I missed the launch but thanks for pointing me to it - it looks absolutely beautiful!

[liv]

I intended to give people enough notice that they could actually reasonably go to the event, but then I got distracted. But yes, the book is just amazingly pretty as well as being a very cool project.