Palapala Magazine

Palapala Magazine Vol 1, No.1 - Houston: Sweet Sweet Bayou

Editorial - Houston: Sweet Sweet Bayou!

Houston is a labyrinth of freeways and concrete, skyscrapers and shotgun houses, Banditos and Sheriffs, Enron and Hakeem the dream, millionaires and dope fiends, tacos and barbecue, steak and shrimp, pounded yams and crayfish. 

Houston is catfish and refried beans, sautéed tofu and deep fried chicken.  It is Finger Lickin’, Kitchen Near You, Soul on the Bayeaux, Caribbean Cuisine and the Breakfast Klub.  It is a platter of well done filet mignon with potato salad at the River Oaks country club. 

Fight the powART! A conversation with Robert A. Pruit of Otabenga Jones and Associates

Otabenga Jones and Associates [Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Jamal Cyrus, Kenya Evans and Robert A. Pruit] is a Houston based collective who cite black identity politics, sixties era symbols, black mythologies and late eighties hip-hop among their inspirations. They describe some of their work as images and texts juxtaposed and forced into dialogues, “to mess with witey” as they say on their mission’s statement. Below are excerpts of a recent powwow with Pruit, a mere quarter of the powerhouse quartet.

We did it for love (2004)

“We Did It For Love” was a sculptural piece created for the exhibition Amalgama at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Amalgama was an exhibition of collaborative artworks in Houston. For this project otabenga Jones & Associates installed an overturned police car recalling the riots and resistance movements of the sixties and seventies. From the car’s radio was playing police broadcasts from the Watts riots alongside a collage of music and speeches.

(Podcast) Subliminal Catharsis: A Poem by Kangsen Wakai

Originally published in Fragmented Melodies, Langaa Publishers, 2007.

blackwords_kangsen.mp3 - Kangsen Wakai

Saidda Carter - Letter to a Friend

Saidda Carter is a performance poet and songstress.  A Houston slam team alum, Saida has earned a reputation for invoking her creative Orishas to throw lyrical darts at the 'man'.   She has graced every and any self-respecting microphone in the city.

This is her letter to a friend, anonymous, of course.

Dear Friend,
I apologize but I’ve done it again
I choose not to ‘go out’ and decided to ‘go in’
Spirit called today
And I ignored your call
I didn’t want to hold the phone
I just needed some time alone
Drift to other worlds absent of time-zones
Prepare to take notes for the moment spirit spoke
I just feel like hibernating
Not into explaining my whereabouts or plans for the day
Nor clarifying who spirit is and what spirit had to say
Or reiterate that everything in my world will be ok.

Houston, Howard Harris and Jazz

Kangsen Feka Wakai

The Houston heat is oppressive, its vastness intimidating and its mood bluesy. Houston is a blues city and for many decades was home to one of the genre’s most influential record labels, Don Ruby’s Duke-Peacock Records. 

In fact, some in the business of chronicling the evolution of popular music attribute the later successes of black labels like Berry Gordy’s Motown Records and in later years hip-hop labels to Duke-Peacock’s model.

Fighting Forgetfulness and Recapturing Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow : A conversation with Abidemi Adedayo Olowonira

Interviewed by Kangsen Feka Wakai

Palapala talks to Abidemi Olowonira, visual artist from Ikeja, Nigeria whose works have been exhibited in many local galleries and museums in the Houston area.  He cites the cacophony of characters, sites and scenes that is Ikeja as a primary influence. Olowonira is responsible for some of the in-your-face visuals that grace the cover art for many dozens of writers on the other side of his border, English-speaking Cameroon. Abidemi is a drummer and alum of the Wonlande West African Dance and Drum Co.  He lives in Houston

Here are excerpts of a fascinating conversation on the role of art in reviving collective memory in Africa. 

 

Tribute to Bate Besong - A Portrait by Abidemi Olowonira

A Tribute to Bate Besong by Abidemi Olowonira was on exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (USA) in February 2008. The portrait, which honors the late Cameroonian playwright, poet and social critic Bate Besong, also graces the cover of Their Champagne Party Will End! Poems in Honor of Bate Besong.

Soaring Above The Gulf: A Review of Monday Drive EP

By Kangsen Feka Wakai

“The power of music to stir the feelings is actually at the center of the musical experience. This power is the reason music is more art than science. The range of feeling music can express is broad—from the mournful funeral march which constitutes the second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 3 to the exuberant ‘Wedding March’ from Mendelsshon’s Midsummer Night’s Dream music,” contends Leonard G. Ratner in his treatise on music, The Musical Experience.

About Palapala

Palapala refers to a brand of Cameroonian traditional wrestling. However, Palapala magazine is an online pan-African journal on culture, the politics of art and the media. Palapala is part of the on-going cultural, literary and political discourse taking place within Africa and its Diaspora. Palapala intends to become a canvass, grassroots-friendly of course, on which the fresh portraits of our experiences can be drawn. Palapala will evolve as circumstances permit but for the meantime, we shall publish six on-line issues a year that cover a variety of subjects.