Updates July 2010: Pornography of War

Namaya update July 11, 2010
Creative Window: I am having a marvelous time waking up in the morning with pencils, pastels, pen and paper, my guitar close by, and a camera on the tripod. My creative tools are at the ready. One morning, I was watching a butterfly dance on an echidnae flower, and the words could capture part of the dance, but the camera was a few meters away from the butterfly, and I caught her dance. For a small window of time, I have created this time to write, draw, design, write music, and most importantly, allow my spirits to soar. In this age where so much is in the public domain, and our history and lives is an open book to the wider world the time to be alone to create from the core of who I am and my connection to life is a gift. I value this privacy of time to create and the time by Blue Heron Pond.
Beatnik Cafe we had a wonderful run in Boston and in New York City with this. The video and the film are on the web at www.beatnikcafemusical.com. Our plans are to take it to various colleges within the New York City area. We are also shopping for promoter or producer to take this project forward. I have been thinking about this and a number of ways. I love the idea of the story of Jack Kerouac, Charlie Parker and the way this musical revue puts the story together. It is a powerful, wonderful story. Though I believe in a Broadway run, producers will try to make it more about the beatniks, which was the least interesting part of the period, humorous at times, but largely not very interesting. The real interesting work was the jazz and this period of tremendous social transformation. Stay tuned for more notes.
I also like how my understanding of the music deepens and greater understanding of this music called bebop and jazz evolved.
I also wanted to capture my growing appreciation for Kerouac and understanding of him, he was very committed to his writing, and some parts of the writing are sublime.
Terrific group of singers, performers, musicians. Finally, with a good director, and a lot of work this production is moving forward. Maggie one of the Beatnik singers is off to Poland and is trying to secure shows there and in Scandinavia. Always it is about following the money
Four Prophets:
This is the other main project in the next year- Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, and Satan meet in a public restroom. Satan calls for Judgment Day. She says, “Humans are not to be trusted.” This will be shot as a 10 minute trailer in a local studio and hopefully interest a theater or production company to take this play forward.
This is a major work and after my extended creative hiatus need to refocus on getting this out. I have a feeling that it will make its debut in Europe not the US, this is a hunch, as the funding climate to put on new works is limited, and this is so controversial.
Video
Women of the Veil
I had a fascinating vision one night. I was deep in the Sahara and the moon was up, there was a woman standing on the dune she was dressed in a long black sharh shaf, the wind was blowing, I heard music an oud and this melody, and the song started this chant, “Women of the veil. Women of the book. Daughters of the prophet. Let you spirits be free. Let your veil fly free. Let your hair flow.” The wind blows, the veils rise, then more and more women appear. The Uuuala sounds out. More women appear. The wind blows the veils back and away, the chadors blow away, the hair now flies in the wind. “Women
of the book let your hair fly free, let your spirit sail in the wind, let true freedom for women begin.” A short 3 minute video
Pornography of war:
This is one of the main directions I am moving in and over the course of the next five years, perhaps even longer. The pornography of war is a multimedia, photography, installation, sculpture project. The one we are starting with now is called make love not war .
The outside of the exhibition space looks like a cheap porno shop, with the entrance blocked, “No one under 18 permitted.” Inside is the PORNOGRAPHY OF WAR.
Artistic Statement: Simply, two people having sex, or people naked is not pornography, but one person killing an another is obscene. In the words of one judge, “Pornography, I know it when I see it.” It is not only raising the voice against war, it is posing the dialectic question: Is War Pornographic? I also see it is vital to offer the alternative – war is Thanatos & life is Eros. We squander our children’s future with militarism
Make love not war is a series of photos of men, gay and straight and couples making love. It shows a man and a woman in their uniforms. Taking their uniforms off and making love.
Be All That You Can Be: this has been in my vision for about four years or more. I think with the social media sites we can now move forward with this. The idea is very simple. 4800 people, men and women, children walking through the streets of Washington DC with helmets, Army ponchos, each with an 8 foot length of rope, and army boots. Each one of the participants have the name of the soldier killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. They would be walking marching in a single file through the streets of Washington, connected with the rope that is knotted. One to another. It moves through the streets of Washington filmed and recorded. They would move towards the Vietnam Memorial and pass in front of the Vietnam Memorial. They would then proceed to an open spot. There is a cauldron or a small vessel placed in the center and the names of each one of the soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are then called out. There is a gong that rings out with each name called.
Return Home: This is a sculpture about 15 feet long of black sand with impressions of feet and soldiers returning home from war. There are a series of prosthesis marching with boots on, some others without. The bed of black sand is about 2 feet wide
$680 Billion Dollar Penis:
This project is long in the works. We are shooting some samples in the next few weeks. There will be the 14 foot tall penises as the US penis is the largest since the US spends app 51% of all global military money – or app 20 -25% of US GNP. The other countries like France, Germany, China, Russia, Israel, Iran, Brazil,etc
PENTAGON MAN:
Series of cartoons of Pentagon Man the man with the ICBM penis that I’ve been drawing.
The Wall: Recreating the wall of separation in Palestine in a museum
PEACE GARDEN: as I had detailed in previous writings and in the sketch attached.
Audio Book.fm.
Love Tap Message – Daily inspirational messages. We are starting a url called
www.yourlovetap.com
www.wakeupamericans!.com is the other new dimension of our on-going podcass

Luscious Wet Kisses
A friend reminded me I had been talking about this project for five years. It is a series of nudes/ partial nudes in nature at Blue Heron Pond with male and female models. Then combining this with poems from previous books EROS TO GODHEAD and GOD SEX POLITICS. Probably, it will inspire a new series of poems based on the photos. First photo shoot tomorrow 12 July.
Love in an Age of Aids
This is another photo shoot using saran wrap. Two models male/ male or male female nudes. These photos are done on a stage and will be part of a dance/ stage performance
of Love in An Age of Aids. The lovers meet, then the saran wrap surrounds them, it is the attempt to reach and to get close, but the density of fear and AIDS, impedes that journey
“Dinner Party at the World Economic Forum” – The dinner party at Devos

A few of the projects we are working on - Create Loving rEvolutions. This is the imperative.

Enjoy your own creative journey.

Namaya

Namaya Update - Post Beatnik Cafe

Curious, writing continually, drawing, new design projects, but not a great interest in blogging these days. Not feeling as if I want to draw people into my creative journey except when it comes to the finished work. In the past month, I've been intensely working on Beatnik Cafe and discovering a lot of new dimensions to the work. I've been working with a good cast and a solid director Debra Whitfield. Post the 11 April show i went back and reworked the script based on some suggestions and feedback. A far more solid show in this incarnation with a more fluid time line. The characters not cutout figures but real flesh and blood folks ... Jack Kerouac as a genuine person who was innocent and naive, who loved jazz and life, and then drowned in fame. I was very pleased with my script and the show in Boston.

Creative projects in the next six months


Celebrate Life! Absurd & delightful - CD of stories, music, and poems.
Vermont My Home: Vol 1 Stories, music and poems that celebrate the Green Mountain state.
On the Island of Binga Bonga: Tio Namaya children's stories.This is already on my home co
Jazz Mu - Jazz Avante garde stories - Murder in the Cathedral of Love.
*** Not to sound maniX, but I have about six good CD length work that I've been struggling to figure out how to get the work out. I have so much material and stories

Beatnik Cafe
Shooting a studio quality video of this show. Also, seeing if there is a producer or promoter who wants to take this on. It really has turned into a very solid show.

Love Tap - Available at www.namayaproductions.com - Appearing as an MP3 file for download and as an I-phone application. Positive messages, secular, focusing on celebrating life.

Four Prophets: Jesus, Mohamed, Moses and Satan meet in a public restroom. It is a play and installation project

$680 Billion Dollar Penis Project Wall Art that illustrated how much the US and other countries spend on the military.

Coming back to Vermont, guests at the end of the week, new assistant/ associate for the web and the projects. I need this quiet space to work and dream again.

minor chords
key of Q

screaming violet

iNdigo…

who was never one to suffer
the indignation

of a Question that
lingered
like
rain in a puddle.

Q
like a key to
a world in side

of the rarely
spoken

laughter of a relative
sixth

V
violent shades
of indigo

whispered like a
siren waiting dockside

for the sailors from
the sixth fleet.

the allurement of
love in the guise of
desire

vermillion cool
v bop – voutee mo’

Bach in a fugue
falling to a simple
gracious

f minor.

curious to wind up
in the room where
the F minor was
lounging in a peignoir

a slatternly
amorous amalgam

of Blues basted with
be bop thrilling
arpeggios and slow
roasted in the savory
stew of an unresolved

32 bar blues… E7
to A then a minor B
in the transcendent key

of desire.

When the Bird and I would
jam, him rifting in the seductive
shadows of heroin,
and I in the garden tending
lilacs and poppies, hearing rooms
imagined with the sweet ascension.

Was he talking to god?
Did he imagine god as a lover,
seen, but never held.

Peonies purple, lilac,
luscious
plump

a juicy ripe C brimming
delightful with the
possibility of redemption.

Cheery, bright without
any of the existential
angst of minor chords - -

fragmented shards of
atonal rifts…
Coltrane make rapturous
l
o
v
e
with the goddess of memory.

Memory

god and the divine

we draw sustenance
from.

Not poppies nor Lethe,
we are not absolved
by bathing in Styxs

memory
desire
love

a blues in
one
four
five

flat the seventh
and open the
soul to the
seventh house

love is the
transcendent
note

alpha
omega

and

key of Q

querulous
little bugger.

to give
to love
to surrender.

Quom.
Q
Kwa

Notes in
the key of Q.

Mi Amor

we’ve had a tempestuous
relationship over these years…

much love and tenderness,
intimacies unimagined.

our love and love making
voracious and savage…

passionate,
sotto voce,
much kindness.

voyages to the
inner sanctum of memory.

journeys to the
periphery of imagination.

mi amor,
mi poesia,
mi alma.

Peacable Domain

kings of old would be jealous.
emperor’s fortunes envious.
no standing armies to keep,
no widows mourn and weep.

in my dominion, no need for war.
violence, a tale from days of yore.
so peaceful some would be bored
with the sounds of pleasant snores.

every child loved and well cared
not a whisper of lonely despair.
not an ache or worry to fear,
someone to care for each tear.

in our peaceable dominion of love
we’re graced by the power of love

Grace Cares Update

“A girl from Chestnut Ridge inspires hope in Dominican Republic”

Grace Goldberg-Springer a twelve-year-old girl from Chestnut Ridge means it when she says she believes in taking action to help other people. Grace began helping children in La Lomita an impoverished community in the Dominican Republic when she was 10. For her 10th birthday, she asked her friends not to bring her presents, but instead school supplies to help the approximately 100 school age children who live there. Her commitment to the community did not stop there. This year Grace is in the process of raising $1,500 by making and selling necklaces and earrings to start an egg business in La Lomita. This will help the community become more economically sustainable. Part of the proceeds will support and feed the poorest people in the community.

Grace learned about La Lomita through GRACE Cares a 5013C not-for profit founded by her aunt Dr. Zoe Kopp, uncle Dr. T. Namaya and cousin Ken Giancola. The acronym for the organization is: Growth, Resources, Action, Community, Empowerment. The not-for-profit helps with small sustainable community development projects that assist poor communities to become self- sufficient.

La Lomita and surrounding communities are some of the poorest on the island with a lack of food, education, clean drinking water, high birthrates, lack of employment, and a host of on-ongoing needs. With the participation of the local community and Dominican project leader Ruben Ottenwald it was decided to start a small enterprise of raising chickens to produce eggs for the children as well as for sale. This project will provide both health and economic benefits to the community.

This past week Grace Springer-Goldberg traveled to the Dominican Republic to meet the people of La Lomita, and help build the chicken coop that will hold 100 chickens. Her experience at the farm at Green Meadow School in Chestnut Ridge prepared her to help not only with the building of the coop, but enabled her to share her knowledge of growing beans and tomatoes.

While in the Dominican Republic, Grace participated in meetings with community leaders to review future projects, which will include the formation of a local community non-governmental organization and an agriculture cooperative. Grace said, “We must continue to focus on helping people help themselves.” The people of La Lomita were inspired and grateful that someone so young from so far away had done so much to assist them.

Community Development in San Jose DR

Over the past few days in San Jose section about twenty minutes from Santiago. At Ruben and Anna Marie's place with all of their kids and extended family, always someone is around, Viejo, Andres, Pablito, and the girls Roselita and Naomi. Feels like our extended family, food prepared, house open, and of course it is a two way street. But so value their open, gracious hospitality.
Over the weekend with Frederico and Fatima and their kids, with Theresa and her family, so much fun. DR is always about family and friends. Americans would have freaked out, we had shown up with a group of maybe ten people, Frederico and his families opened their arms wide. Thoroughly enjoyed connecting with him as it had been too long. My close friends and buddies scattered around the globe. The visionaries, the rainbow makers, the rEvolutionaries, and dreamers, and the do ers.
Zoe, Grace, and I working with Ruben and Theresa, and others in helping Ruben articulate his vision of development for this community. At first appearance it is an overwhelming task but the question is how to bring this vital discourse forward to an organized development process. Identifying what needs to change, what are the elements for transformation, how to engage people in a genuine conversation. The work of Paulo Freire always stay with my mind, engaging people in the critical dialectic "What is your condition?" "What is your poverty?" Respecting folks, even the poorest of people that they have the possibility of changing their poverty. The challenge as the educated is that we believe we "know" we only know "our" perspective of "their poverty" The hubris is that as change agents we can only initiate that conversation.
I am not a patient person, I am by nature a visionary, a poet, and view the world with the lens of that perspective. The vision of what is possible, not always pragmatic, not defined or limited.
Enjoying the time to get back to community development work, meeting with Ruben and the workers, and exploring and understanding what are the needs of the community. We are trying to help Ruben set up a foundation/ development organization that harnesses his vision and helps to translate it into a long term and sustainable vision. The UGGGH part that I hate to do, the institutional, the formalization of informal relations. The part that I struggle with in my art work, the artist working with the tools of organization, structure, taking the idea and vision and making it real.
I'm missing the daily writing, the daily attention to the new productions, the new plays, and other work, nevertheless,I'm enjoying stepping back to this much slower pace, the pace of late nights under cloudy nights with Ruben and talking. The time to spend with Gracie and getting to know her, watching her open her eyes to the world of the less fortunate, the poor. At times those labels of poor and wretched are ripped away, and the laughter is heard. Most times, for the poorest of the poor, which is the La Lomita community, the poverty is so overwhelming. The poverty that leaves me exhausted, overwhelmed, but ultimately from this we are able to articulate a few programs to assist Ruben and the community.
The other component is a program of art, drawing, music. In development, with the most desperate of circumstance, we forget that music, art, all of this elevates the spirit. This was especially true in Haiti with the art and musical instruments we were able to provide. The kids playing music.
Tomorrow we go back to NY, back to the Beatnik Cafe, and where there is much to do. Also in taking the program to the next level. Much work to do in the world. I also see the balance between this community development work on a pragmatic level, and the art work like Peace Gardens, the Brothel projects, Four Profits, and other art.