I am the rape
Marked on the map
The unpredictable savage
Set out on the page
The obsequious labourer
Who will never be emperor
My hips have rhythm
My lips an anthem
My arms a reckoning
My feet flight
My eyes black sunlight
My hair dreadlocks
Sit on this truth out at sea
Hit the shit when you go out to tea
Don’t want to hear what ears hear
Don’t want to see what eyes see
Your white body writhing underneath
All the centuries of my wayward fear
Goodness is not ground out of a stone
evil neither. men gnaw their chicken bones
Know that the electric shocks that seized my testicles
Which now you eat with lips of a sunrise
Your white body writhing underneath
All the centuries of my wayward fear.
This is a list of the solos to be presented by Tawanda on Nov 28th 2007, @ Hammond Hall, Winter Harbor, Maine.
*All proceeds go to ndini wako to fund the education of Zimbabwean HIV/AIDS orphans .
Hope to see you there! If you won’t be there, you can still buy some of the art work for the cause at the Art Sales link.
Program
Njiva: explores the nature of the bird in African folktales, as an archetype and as a manifestation of the divine Self. Njiva is the Shona word for Dove. There is also the dove as a messenger of peace in the Judeo-Christian mythology. This piece focuses on the journey and pain of uniting the animal and the divine, in a time of worldly chaos and hardship. The mbira music is traditionally used not only for entertainment but to communicate with the ancestors and seek guidance.
Dem Seh We Seh (They Say, We Say): In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe wrote “There is no story that is not true, the world has no end. What is good in one place is an abomination in another place.” In a time when Zimbabwean artists are in fear for their lives because of the government, some have had to leave the country. The words of the Zimbabwean poet Dambudzo Marechera’s Where the Bastard is God? guide this movement piece through anguish and rage of psychosocial amputation – a breakdown.
Red: Using the musical backdrop of Lees Waxul (Things Unspoken) by Yande Codou Sene and Youssou N’Dour Red explores the gestures of longing and worship. It is a meditative approach to gestures of isolation and longing – an attempt to see one’s psychological landscape through their skin. How do we read between the lines where there are none?
Afrolonialism: This is a narrative on the reversal and simultaneous assimilation of the process of colonialism. With sly, references to tap, jazz and ballroom, it moves through and the delicious rhythms of Afro-Jazz by Abdul Ibrahim. This dance is a play off how consolidation is a part of evolution and it is also partly, what it means to be African. Apartheid folds and fusion prevails for chaos always returns everything (including cultures) to dynamic harmony.
Devil’s Apron: Questions are raised: What type of apron does one need to wear to come to terms with the atrocities they perpetrate? What is this apron worn by dictators and oppressors over their conscience that makes it possible for them come away clean? Devil’s Apron moves through the transmutations: hero to villain, civil to bestial, joy to delirium and peace to violence. This dark piece explores the process of becoming the oppressor or the oppressed.
We Came: This earthy testimonial of a Zimbabwean “child of the soil” evokes and agitates the memories of the dust to call forth the elemental passion and energy of the African continent. This is a celebration of life at its most primal and honest. In We Came, you witness and explore the lyrical and chaotic aspects of freedom inspired the traditional rhythmic movements of Zimbabwe.
**Enjoy the program and remember there will be a brief question and answer segment following the performance if to wish to learn more about Tawanda’s creative process.**