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rfmcdonaldLast night, I went to the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West) at 7 o'clock to catch Afua Cooper's interview with George Elliott Clarke, followed by a reading. Cooper, Clarke's interlocutor and questioner, is rightly gaining recognition for her new book, The Hanging of Angélique, a text that takes the life of one slave, Marie-Joseph Angélique, who was executed for burning down a good chunk of Montréal in 1734, and not only reanimates Angélique but points out how well early 18th century New France fits within the "Black Atlantic". Clarke, who wrote the preface to The Hanging of Angélique, is very well-known in his own right as a writer of note, using his origins in Nova Scotia's African-Canadian community to inspire both poetry (1990's Whylah Falls) and prose like his recent novel, George and Rue, most recently producing the volume of poetry Black.
The conversation between Cooper and Clarke was glorious. One recurring theme in the dialogue concerned the need for Canada's African-Canadian community to not only know its own history, but to develop and transmit it. The potential dissipation of this ability concerned Clarke, who talked about how Nova Scotian communities like his fiction Whylah Falls dissipate through out-migration and suburbanization while new urban communities are still forming, as well as about his vision of "Africadia". The revalorization of the word "black" as a positive descriptor was also discussed by the two, with no small amount of laughter. (What's wrong with "blackmail" after all, Clarke suggested?) After an enjoyable forty-five minutes of this, Clarke began his readings, selecting poems from the 2001 Blue and the more recent Illuminated Voices before heading on to Black. Clarke's poems are wonderful, with a perfectly judged use of the sensual world balanced against humour. He reads wonderfully.
This event was part of Pages Books & Magazines' ongoing "This Is Not a Reading Series." If the quality of the other events in this series is anywhere near comparable to last night's, it easily qualifies as a must-see series.
The conversation between Cooper and Clarke was glorious. One recurring theme in the dialogue concerned the need for Canada's African-Canadian community to not only know its own history, but to develop and transmit it. The potential dissipation of this ability concerned Clarke, who talked about how Nova Scotian communities like his fiction Whylah Falls dissipate through out-migration and suburbanization while new urban communities are still forming, as well as about his vision of "Africadia". The revalorization of the word "black" as a positive descriptor was also discussed by the two, with no small amount of laughter. (What's wrong with "blackmail" after all, Clarke suggested?) After an enjoyable forty-five minutes of this, Clarke began his readings, selecting poems from the 2001 Blue and the more recent Illuminated Voices before heading on to Black. Clarke's poems are wonderful, with a perfectly judged use of the sensual world balanced against humour. He reads wonderfully.
This event was part of Pages Books & Magazines' ongoing "This Is Not a Reading Series." If the quality of the other events in this series is anywhere near comparable to last night's, it easily qualifies as a must-see series.
