Stockholm Bombay Mix

Mahabharata Podcast

An English language re-telling of the ancient epic Mahabharat.

Internet Sentences: 0064

Rise and shine sweety pecker 8-D

Visual Poetry II by Gary Cummiskey

Victoria Williams: 0297

Tell him… tell him I still love him, and I’m going to burn down his house. He will be the victim of my roving, indiscriminate affections.
I’ll tell him you said hi.

Pulp Fiction

BY ANY OLD LIGHT

Visual Poetry by Gary Cummiskey

Feeding the Revolution by Vashna Jagarnath

"Food – not eating it as much as eating it – has always been tied to political action."

Victoria Williams: 0296

Who are the people that open windows at this time of year? You need to go to the doctor because there's something wrong with the way your body regulates temperature. Buildings are for sheltering us from the outdoors. Windows are there so that we can look at the outdoors without actually having to experience it. Humanity had survived by coming indoors. Why are you flying in the face of history? In short, if you love the outdoors so much why don't you go out there and marry it?

Fall

Challenged By The Sun by Gary Cummiskey

Max Moodley: 0083

Victoria Williams: 0295

I can’t drown, or burn, or linger in pain. I’ll be alone, which is necessary. I would like to curl up into some kind of sleep and get lost in my own memory. Somewhere in that honeycomb, must be myself…

Max Moodley: 0082

That Certain Smile by Gary Cummiskey

The English And Scottish Popular Ballads

Trafficking Gqom To Europe

"In this second of a two-part series on selling contemporary African beats to colonial Europe, Lloyd Gedye explores the power relationships in these trafficking circles, and what it means for the artists and the scene. Just who benefits from feeding Europe’s dance floors?"

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I Hope Lovely Day.

As The Fish Failed To Fathom The Depths Of Non-Knowledge by Gary Cummiskey

5 Questions for Pole Pole Press

"Earlier this year, I interviewed Fouad Asfour of the Johannesburg-based Pole Pole Press, about the press’ first publication, Emzana Shack Recollections, by Lungile Sojini, and what he learned as he dipped into the world of publishing and distributing books. At “close to 100 pages in 12 pt Times New Roman on A4, single spacing,” it was “not exactly a short story,” but something about its “peculiar style” got a hold of Asfour. He wanted readers to encounter the writing as is, rather than have it shaped by teams of editors. What followed was an entertaining email conversation about his “experiment” to “show that it’s possible to make publishing more broadly available”; the “dictatorship” of paper production companies that “molest” people “with the whiteness of [their] oh so clean bonded paper, ignoring requests for recycled or unbleached paper”; and why the low readership in South Africa is more attributable to the fact that the “current book market clearly does not produce for the large audience…but for a small, mainly white middle class” in the country." Continue reading.

Internet Sentences: 0062

I've got 5,730 reason you should be excited.

On The Chip Sandwich

A culinary monstrosity and a favourite of stoners, drunkards and layabouts, Pravasan Pillay bites into the potato chip sandwich.

We Did Not Know What Was Happening by Gary Cummiskey

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 A_Discrete_Solution_To_"!ErectileDysfunction!"

Victoria Williams: 0294

I tried to drive their happy voices away from my door,
With a temper tantrum,
But they just laughed at me,
And then at something else.
One day my tantrums will be good for something.

Internet Sentences: 0060

Are they Cheating on You?

Once Upon A Time In A Landscape by Gary Cummiskey

Shaggy Extracts

"Oh the stories... I’ll be gleaning many a tale of wisdom and joy from the rich fields of memories we’ve harvested together this year and I’ll be storing them away carefully in my neurological silo, ready to be ground into the flour of happy contemplation when one day I decide to bake for myself the nutty, gluten-free, sour-dough bread of my dotage."

Victoria Williams: 0293

Safety Pin #2
(by David Fullerton)
Pinny pin
pokey poke
My chinny chin,
strokey stroke
Ooh disaster
Hurry, quick,
Fetch sticky plaster

Te, Kaffe, Kryddor, Chutney, Pickles

Entering The Dream by Gary Cummiskey

Eva Jackson: 0099

Pentimento by Diana Bloem

In Her Own Language

In Her Own Language by Pravasan Pillay, published on The Con.

Standing In The Doorway Looking For Her by Gary Cummiskey

Eva Jackson: 0098

Girls by Pravasan Pillay in Prufrock

Marikana: A State Of No Apologies

The families of slain miners seek compensation for their losses – and an apology from government, writes Niren Tolsi.

Out There by Gary Cummiskey

Eva Jackson: 0097

Victoria Williams: 0292

Safety Pin #1
The safety pin,
Beat its tiny silver wing.

Shaggy At The London Book Fair

I Have Noticed The Other Children Are Not Like Me by Gary Cummiskey

Graffiti and Notions of ‘Public Space’ by Percy Zvomuya

"Graffiti art is, perhaps, one of the few professions that allows its practitioners the room to traverse separate geographies and make a mockery of the town planner’s divisive hand. It may be because of its ancestry and DNA, at once secret and public, borderline illegal and somewhat official,  anti-establishment and co-opted." Continue reading.

Shaggy Ebook

Shaggy now on sale as an ebook. R85. Really affordable laughs.

Kierkegaard's Grave

Sinclair Beiles

Sinclair Beiles, le poète excentrique du Beat Hotel, by Bruno Sourdin.

Eva Jackson: 0096

Candles

Victoria Williams: 0291

You know how some people are supposed to be bad liars? Well I’m bad at telling the truth.

Bangladeshi Bites

Pravasan Pillay samples the deep-fried snacks from a food stall in Chatsworth’s Bangladesh Market.

Eva Jackson: 0095

Outlaws

Bounty hunter #1: A man's got to do something for a living these days.

Josey Wales: Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy.

Houses, Heritage And Public Art by Lloyd Gedye

“This precinct is closed by the community,” reads the notice stuck to the inside of a shattered window with a few blobs of Prestik. “No one is allowed on the premises without the presence of the red location steering committee. We are not liable for whatever happens to a person that enters by order of the chairperson,” it continues... Continue reading.

Launch of Arja Salafranca's Beyond Touch

Photos from the launch of Arja Salafranca's Beyond Touch at Love Books, Melville.

Eva Jackson: 0094

Victoria Williams: 0290

Advice on your fourth birthday:
Life will not be about eating candyfloss. You’ll be sailing underground rivers, examining the moss that you scrape from stone walls.

Crocodile Farm - KZN South Coast by Diana Bloem

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Pleased to meet you my pussy f#cker . r u bored? i'm h0rny and want to f#ck !

Sinclair Beiles On Mental Illness And Being An Outcast

"In 1975 Sinclair Beiles gave an interview to Michael Butterworth, shortly after he had completed a lengthy in-patient treatment for mental disturbance at Bowden House." Continue reading.

Eva Jackson: 0093

Cannibal Pot

In the cannibal pot.
Finally
I feel appreciated.

St. Lucia, KZN by Diana Bloem

Bronze Is A Hollow Heritage by Niren Tolsi

"The unused, broken, cooling towers off Harvey Street in Bloemfontein wear the tattered dress of hubris and violence. Save for John Dube and Albert Luthuli, the drapes that once showed the faces of previous ANC presidents are frayed, ripped to almost nothing, and trail in the wind like the shredded clothes of a survivor of a brutal assault. Many of the faces have long disappeared." Continue reading.

Eva Jackson: 0092

Invite To The Launch Of Arja Salafranca's Beyond Touch

Victoria Williams: 0289

You know when you wear the wrong jumper? It seems like the right jumper first thing in the morning but then when your day actually gets going you realise that it is definitely wrong, and all day long it gets worse and worse and becomes more and more oppressive until eventually you feel like you need to strip off and run through a purifying rainstorm?

changed by Colin Mee

she tore
ripped
screamed

she shook
broke
crushed

we crept out
shattered
rebuilt

slowly

we hurt
smiled
knew

she had changed
we had too
and grown

Eva Jackson: 0091

Matt by Diana Bloem

I finished draping the washing. I can’t do it like you. I am
thinking about you. All the time. I want you at home. I never
thought sleeping alone could be so wrong. The washing felt
matt. I didn’t use enough fabric softener. It smells like you.

See Me Coming by Gary Cummiskey

New From Tearoom Books: 30 Poems by Pravasan Pillay

30 Poems by Pravasan Pillay collects a selection of poems written mostly between 2003-2006 and published in South African journals. The themes of the poems are old, new and broken love; sex; marriage; failure; vanity; and quitting smoking.

Eva Jackson: 0090

Dangerous Logic

"The heart is like a needle,
The mind is like a knife,"
Said the long-ago man who would
Make me his wife.
I guess he thought of a needle as mending
I guess he thought of a knife as rending.
But knives can make delicious stews,
And sever these semantic blues.
If I try to use mine often
Does that make me a savage boffin?
And needles are known for provoking a whimper
If you've ever been a small kid with a splinter.
They're famed for piercing, and removing,
As much as sewing up your clothing.
With only needles and no knives
We'd all be living frightful lives.

Victoria Williams: 0288

I don't think I've ever worked through or let go of or forgotten a single feeling I've ever felt. They're all still there in my chest cavity and this explains heart burn.

Internet Sentences: 0058

Although, you may wonder why I am so soon revealing myself to you without knowing you, well I will say that my mind convinced me that you may be the true person to help me.

Titles by Gary Cummiskey

The Secret Hour, Dye Hard Press, 1994
Lost in a World, Dye Hard Press, 1994
Conspiracies of the Interior, Dye Hard Press, 1994
Visitations, Dye Hard Press, 1995
River of Dreams, Dye Hard Press, 1995
City, Sun Belly Press, 1995
When Apollinaire Died, Firfield Press, 1996
Head (with Roy Blumenthal), Dye Hard Press, 1998
Reigning Gloves, Dye Hard Press, 2000
Bog Docks, Dye Hard Press, 2005
April in the Moon-Sun, Dye Hard Press, 2006
Today is their Creator, Dye Hard Press, 2008
Who was Sinclair Beiles? (co-edited with Eva Kowalska), Dye Hard Press, 2009
Romancing the Dead, Tearoom Books, Durban, 2009
Sky Dreaming, Graffiti Kolkata, 2011
I Remain Indoors, Tearoom Books, Stockholm, 2013
Off-ramp, Dye Hard Press, 2013

H:2

More Than A Black Philosopher

"Earlier this year the philosopher Mabogo Percy More was awarded the 2015 Frantz Fanon Lifetime Achievement Award by the Caribbean Philosophical Association. Previous winners have included the likes of Enrique Dussel, Nigel Gibson, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Michel-Rolph Trouillot. The award not only served to highlight More’s academic journey, which began with enrolling for philosophy at the University of the North (Turfloop) in 1969, it also shed light on the racism that continues to constrict academic philosophy in South Africa." Continue reading.

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Tearoombooks, Stop dating. Start fornicating!

Sinclair Beiles: Poet Of Many Parts And Places

"Dyehard Press has re-issued Who Was Sinclair Beiles? in a revised and expanded edition. I posted an item about the first edition when it was published five years ago. It’s hard to believe so much time has passed. As I wrote then, Beiles was best known for his association with the Beats. He collaborated on Minutes to Go with William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Gregory Corso, and helped to shepherd Burroughs’ manuscript of Naked Lunch into print at the Paris-based Olympia Press, where he worked as an editor. “Best known” is a questionable term, though. If he was known at all, it was only among a certain segment of avant-garde expatriate writers and artists living in Tangier, Paris, London, Rotterdam, Athens, and other far-flung places, where he spent many years scraping by in various capacities." Continue reading here.

Victoria Williams: 0287

If my train is full of ridiculous Black Friday bargain hunters I am gonna tut so loud...

Snipes by Joan McNerney

Have you always been this stupid or did it come on suddenly?

Forthcoming From Tearoom Books: 30 Poems by Pravasan Pillay

How: A Dye Hard Interview With Joan Metelerkamp

Joan Metelerkamp is the author of several books of poems, including Stone No More, Requiem, carrying the fire and Burnt Offering. Her poems have been widely published in local and international anthologies, and she has taken part in readings and literary festivals in South Africa, Europe and America. She edited the South African poetry journal New Coin for some years and has also written poetry reviews and essays. She lives on a farm near Knysna.

Joan’s eighth collection of poetry, Now the World Takes These Breaths, was  published by Modjaji Books in 2014. She was interviewed by Alan Finlay. Read the interview here.

Eva Jackson: 0089

Max Moodley: 0081

Talking Tits (1997, Gudari Press) by Max Moodley. 8 page hand-made chapbook. 3 copies made. Out of print.

Soho Hops On The Bunny Wagon by Sarah Dawson

Durban’s favourite meal has hopped on to a London street but its culinary gentrification may stick in your throat.

Chops Chutney

Chops Chutney is a short story of star-crossed love and samoosas by Pravasan Pillay.

Poetry In South Africa – New Coin 50th Anniversary Issue

Gary Cummiskey, the editor of New Coin asked several people to write about the state of SA poetry as they see it. One of the people he asked was me (Colleen Higgs). So here’s my take, I urge those of you who are interested in poetry in South Africa or in the world at large to subscribe to New Coin and in particular to order this copy from the ISEA.

Eva Jackson: 0088

Internet Sentences: 0056

Lonely_Russian_Girls are_looking for_Boyfriends!

Victoria Williams: 0286

New Year, you are a test I refuse to take.
Time is a toilet bowl.
Everything I’ve ever wanted is already in the past,
And I never had it anyway.

The Day of the Jekyll by Imraan Coovadia

To resolve the situation at the University of Cape Town that was sparked by the statue of Cecil John Rhodes, I believe we must demand the reinstatement of former vice chancellor, Dr Max Price. On his installation in 2008, Price called for an Afropolitan university, encompassing the globe without short-changing the continent. Six years later, in 2014, the same man (or what appeared to be the same man) was reduced to the argument that a black woman had once been a professor at his institution.

Gary Cummiskey Interviews Philip Hammial

Philip Hammial was born in the USA and emigrated to Australia in 1972. Two of his twenty collections of poetry have been shortlisted for a New South Wales Premier’s Award. He is also a sculptor and the director of The Australian Collection of Outsider Art.

Eva Jackson: 0087

Struggle Credentials

Mixed preschool in the Cape, ‘89:
Maybe one of the very first. Lantana plants
In the yard, and forced naps.
Next to the school, an army training barracks.
One day they teargassed us by accident or intent.
That’s it. That’s all.

Internet Sentences: 0055

$$$$$$HIT ME UP SERIOUSE PEOPLE ONLY

Black Label, Milk Stout

A Special Sandwich Review

In homage to the weekend’s debauchery, Pravasan Pillay revisited Kara Nichha’s takeaway to eat one of his favourite sandwiches – a greasy symbol of egalitarianism, and the perfect cure for the Monday blues.

New Coin December 2014, Edited by Gary Cummiskey

Published by the ISEA, Rhodes University, Grahamstown. With over 200 pages, this bumper edition contains poems by Alan Finlay, Moira Lovell, Arja Salafranca, Mxolisi Nyezwa, Abigail George, Rethabile Masilo, Khulile Nxumalo, Bernard Levinson, Kobus Moolman, Angifi Dladla, Genna Gardini, Medzani Musandiwa, Nedine Moonsamy, Kyle Allan, Kelwyn Sole, David wa Maahlamela, Natalia Molebatsi, Dashen Naicker, Nazlee Arbee, Joop Bersee, Diana Bloem, Dawn Garisch, Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese, Raphael d' Abdon, Gerard Rudolf, Mick Raubenheimer, Saaleha Indrees Bamjee, Unathi Slasha, Vonani Bila, Lesego Rampolokeng, Gail Dendy, Jim Pascual Agustin, Jeannie Wallace McKeown, Brett Beiles, Hans Pienaar, Colleen Higgs, Mphutlane wa Bofelo, Erica Glynn Schofield, Robert Berold, Lionel Murcott, Marike Beyers, Denis Hirson, Lee-Mari Gower, Elme Vivier, John Simon, Justin Joseph, Leslie Howard, Damain Garside, Haidee Kruger, Julian de Wette, Linda Ndlovu, Tim van Niekerk, Tony Ullyat, Mbongeni Khumalo and Allan Kokski Horwitz.

The issue also contains a symposium on the state of SA poetry, with contributions from Mxolisi Nyezwa, Kobus Moolman, Kelwyn Sole, Dashen Naicker, Raphael d'Abdon, Colleen Higgs, Denis Hirson, Haidee Kruger, Lesego Rampolokeng and Allan Kolski Horwitz.

There are book reviews by Kelwyn Sole and Tlhalo Sam Raditlhalo, and a tribute to Mafika Gwala by Robert Berold.