Nii Ayikwei Parkes is Booktrust's second online writer in residence.
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'Constellation' - an exclusive poem by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
Posted Friday March 12th 2010
by Nii Ayikwei ParkesI leave you with this, a poem I have been playing with on and off for the last year and a bit, which I hope I’ve finally nailed; something that speaks of perseverance and high aspirations, both needed for those that dream of writing. It’s called ‘Constellation’ and I hope its small voice remains with you after the fire of my blogging has long burned out. Peace, love and mangoes from Accra.
Constellation
In his father’s house they dance on sand,
they turn their noses up at concrete
and when asked why they will speak
of the star-flecked night before he left:His father has thrown him a party
and he is dancing with the colourful
abandon and sweat of transition. His
uncle – the peacekeeper who returned
from a tour of duty with a sturdy stick
where his left leg, his footballing leg,had been – taps him on the shoulder
and tells him to go out into the world
with the kind of fire and fearless light only
a child knows, to never give up, to reach
for the stars. Then the uncle performs
his party trick, whirling on the leghe still has – his fugu…
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The Balancing Act
Posted Friday March 12th 2010
by Nii Ayikwei ParkesWhat I have loved about this residency is the fact that it’s allowed me to be who I am. Very often people ask me to be a novelist, or a children’s writer, or a performance poet, or an editor or a page poet or a dramatist – rarely just Nii Ayikwei Parkes, who can answer to all those labels even though he may not agree with the specifics of them.
Here, I’ve been able to talk about my journey as a writer, my work for children, my process, fatherhood, my choice of pen name, a fellowship, my performances and readings, my workshops… It’s a long list. I realise that I haven’t spoken much about my work as an editor, but I think that’s because it’s such a midnight job for me that I don’t even think of it as a job. It fits in a little crevice between all the things I do to earn money (being a family man and all) – and I do it for some reason that can only be called madness or love. Last night, for instance, I was overseeing the layout of Adrienne J. Odasso’s début, Lost Books, while trying to put… -
Broken Translations
Posted Tuesday March 9th 2010
by Nii Ayikwei ParkesI’m doing some research out in Ghana right now. I’m loving and resenting the heat in equal measures and, of course, I’m constantly amused to be back in the place where almost all the languages I ‘respond to’ come into play. The amusement comes mainly because in my first few days back I’m hypersensitive to tones, inflections, cadences and the odd twists of translations.
OK, maybe I’m moving a bit fast; to give context, having been formed by colonial whim rather than with respect to pre-existing sovereignties, Ghana has more languages than you can count on your fingers – so the language of officialdom is English. The result of this is that our Englishes are the result of myriad permutations of textbook English via the filter of the native tongues of Ghana. The trouble is that many of the languages are tonal and some of the early translations done by missionaries who had transcribed what they heard spoken do not take this into account. For me, the most amusing results are the names Father and Mother. I was walking down the main Kaneshie – Abeka road when I heard a young boy calling out Mother; I was struck… -
Nii Parkes performs a poem exclusively for Booktrust
Posted Monday March 8th 2010
by Nikesh ShuklaWatch a video of writer in residence, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, performing 'By Yourself Boy' from his forthcoming collection, The Makings of You:
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Interview with Nii Ayikwei Parkes [3]
Posted Monday March 1st 2010
by Nikesh ShuklaThis week, watch Nii talk about the inspiration behind his novel, Tail of the Blue Bird:
