April, 2014 - Fred L. Joiner

April 29, 2014

Scenes from Togo #002

The following images are me playing around with the Pano feature on my iPhone. I was trying to see what would happen if i did “vertical panoramas” instead of horizontal ones.

I am not totally happy with the result, but is was phone to play…I will keep trying in different contexts to see how it alters my experience.

From left to right, the 1st and 3rd are pictures in the courtyard of the hotel we stayed in in downtown Lome. In the 1st image if you look carefully you can see my feet. The 2nd pic is of this awesome tree I saw that had grown like an arc over the basin of the Kpalime waterfall. The 4th pic are of the waterfall in Kpalime, if you llook closely you can see Melanie down there at the bottom. During rainy season the waterfall would be much more impressive.

April 25, 2014December 26, 2020

Scenes from Togo #001

While in Togo we took a ride up to Kpalime, which is in the next prefecture up from the prefecture that Lome is in.

This was a cool totem at one of the artisinal markets in Kpalime. Although the had some really nice items we found that things were a bit pricey when compared to similar items in Lome.

Totem Front

Totem Side

Totem Back

Totem Side

This area is very close to the border with Ghana, thus the people in this area are part of the same ethnic group, Ewe. The Ewe, span both Togo and Ghana. In the month of November, the inhabitants of this area has a festival called Kpalikpakpaza , the first festival was held in 1997. “The festival is meant to remind the Kpalime people of the valour of their ancestors during wars in the ancient days.”

I am going to do some more research about this festival, because I have long been searching for a festival (or celebration) to replace Kwanzaa, which I have never quite been a fan of or quite understood why African Americans with genetic and cultural lineage to West Africa would accept a festival whose lingua franca is Swahili (East African) and whose founder has such a problematic past. Anyway, that is a discussion for another time…

Stay tuned…

April 19, 2014April 23, 2014

Scenes from Togo #000

Over the Easter Weekend, Melanie and I had a great time in Lomé, Togo. I can now understand one of the many reasons why Togo has found such a special place in Melanie’s heart and many others in our circle of friends. I will be posting some pics that we took and some that our friends took on our visit.

You can also visit “With a Poet’s Eye”, my Instagram for some other views of our trip to Lomé and in general to keep up with what we are up to. http://www.instagram.com/fjoiner

Lome, Togo you can see difference between the Coast areas and the Sahel. Lome is much more lush than Bamako.

ASky, African owned airline

A main street in Lome, I forgot the name. I think that the commerce of being a port city contributes to the greater prevelance of infrastructure than I see in Bamako.

Renaud and Damigou’s (Melanie’s sister) compound

Renaud chopping coconut. I looked away for what could not have been more than 5 minutes and a coconut was being prepared for us

mmmm…coconut water

Melanie and Damigou

April 14, 2014April 15, 2014

half note #002

Every since I first saw The Roots “Do You Want More?” album cover, something about it has always seemed like “a visual sample” of Romare Bearden’s “Pittsburgh Memory”. Although I am not quite sure that the structure over the head of the character on the right in Bearden’s collage is a bridge, but it is definitely some type of city infrastructure that suggests the same type of feeling from a visual standpoint.

As I think about Bearden’s eye, I think it is safe to say that he and The Roots have/had their eyes/ears/bodies steeped in the concerns of “the folk” , the everyday people that poem beauty and ugliness into song that sings on canvas, stage, page, tongue, arm, leg, leg, arm, head, whatever…

What I enjoy most about The Roots, whether or not i totally dig the album from a musical angle, is that their albums always give me something to think about as an entire package, cover, liner notes (those Major Jackson joints were the bomb), song titles, ideas in the songs, etc, etc…and that is what I am most looking forward to in this new album…Ear up!