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Spoken Word Poet Shane Koyczan’s homage to Charlie Chaplain

A novel in verse about a boy who was bullied. *****
A novel in verse about a boy who was bullied. *****

I first encountered Shane Koyczan’s work when he presented his poem We Are More at the 2010 Winter Olympics at Vancouver.  Like so many others, I was enraptured and sought out more of his poetry.  At that time all that was available were a few YouTube videos.  Since then, Shane has been on many tours and has published three books and a studio album. He is fast, furious, funny, compassionate and human. His ideals are real.

Shane is noted for his poems against bullying and about cancer, illness, loss, and eating disorders. One video of Shane’s anti-bullying poem To This Day (a TED video) has had nearly 1,900,000 views alone. Having said that, the version I like best is below, which has 7,000-plus views but is accompanied by dance and is delightfully artful. Shane’s Amazon page is HERE.

“We so seldom understand each other. But if understanding is neither here nor there, and the universe is infinite, then understand that no matter where we go we will always be smack dab in the middle of nowhere. All we can do is share some piece of ourselves, and hope that it’s remembered. Hope that we meant something to someone”  Shane Koyczan

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@ Woody Allen

Woody Allen (b. 1935), actor, playwriter,filmmaker, comedian
Woody Allen (b. 1935), actor, musician, filmmaker and screenwriter, comedian

Happy Birthday, Woody Allen!

“As an artist, you are always striving toward an ultimate achievement but never seem to reach it.”

Before the day is out, I have to take a moment to acknowledge Woody Allen on his birthday. He’s one of my favorites screenwriters and a quintessential New Yorker.  He debuted as a screenwriter in 1965 and has written at least one screenplay a year since then.  He’s won four Academy Awards, three for screenplays, and was nominated twenty-four times.

“That’s one of the nice things about writing, or any art; if the thing’s real, it just lives.”

My favorite Woody Allen movie?  Well, it does change from time-to-time. Tonight?  Midnight in Paris.  And Owen Wilson was so good at playing it Woodyesque.

Photo credit ~ Colin Swain under CC BY-SA 3.0 license

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this drought-full day

FullSizeRender-3it’s “drought-full” she says,
my japanese friend –
as though it were “dreadful”
which it is, dreadful
the five-year drought
i hunger for rain

drought-full, she says again
pensive, as we stroll B Street
in search of a café, a mojito
sugar, mint, caffeine, ice!

a black gentleman passes
with a nod at her he says
. . . . .Nǐ Hǎo
shizuko keeps walking,
. . . . .says nothing
the man looks puzzled, a bit hurt
he’d meant a courtesy,
greeting her in chinese,
i stop, rest my hand on his arm
“she’s japanese,” i say
by way of explantion,
he smiles then, and
on we walk, shizuko and me
on this hot drought-full day
seeking relief in a mojito

© 2015, poem and photograph, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved

 

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Sexism in Genre Novels …

Speculative_fiction_portal_logo_transparentI am ever eager to know what other writer’s think, to “listen in” on debates and to find good recommendations.  Happened upon this while rummaging through Staffer’s Book Review …

“How can so many (white, male) writers narratively justify restricting the agency of their female characters on the grounds of sexism = authenticity while simultaneously writing male characters with conveniently modern values?

“The habit of authors writing Sexism Without Sexists in genre novels is seemingly pathological. Women are stuffed in the fridge under cover of “authenticity” by secondary characters and villains because too many authors flinch from the “authenticity” of sexist male protagonists. Which means the yardstick for “authenticity” in such novels almost always ends up being “how much do the women suffer”, instead of – as might also be the case – “how sexist are the heroes”.

“And this bugs me; because if authors can stretch their imaginations far enough to envisage the presence of modern-minded men in the fake Middle Ages, then why can’t they stretch them that little bit further to put in modern-minded women, or modern-minded social values? It strikes me as being extremely convenient that the one universally permitted exception to this species of “authenticity” is one that makes the male heroes look noble while still mandating that the women be downtrodden and in need of rescuing. ” A response by Justin Landon in his now defunct Staffer’s Book Review (18 April 2012) to Michael J. Sullivan on Character Agency.

51GsM8UhdmL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_Michael J. Sullivan is a fantasy and science fiction writer. He is known for his popular series, The Riyria Revelations. His Amazon page is HERE, including bio and books.

Justin Landon writes for Tor.com, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Macmillan Publishers.

Landon’s weblog is a good site and I’m sorry to see that Landon is no longer posting; but sometimes we all have to move on. The good news is that he left the site up for us to explore. He said in his closing post:

“This is the last week for Staffer’s Book Review. You are probably weeping uncontrollably. I’m not. It’s not because I don’t love my site. I do. But, we’ve come to the point where it has reached its logical conclusion. I have said much of what I wanted to say, and I have found new outlets for the rest. In addition, I have become increasingly burdened with other responsibilities. My career continues to grow. My work at Tor.com is ever-expanding (until they get sick of me!). My children need more of me than before. And the truth is I need more time to do those things right. There are also things out there I want to explore and do, and keeping up a blog just isn’t conducive to that.”

Illustration by Nihonjoe under CC BY-SA 3.0 license