Hello my name is Ava Brown

I  have just started a project   to raise funds with the view in mind of converting book Bamboo & Fern into a movie. Your help will be greatly appreciated . The main focus of the project is to raise funds and start a Safe Home for children( in particular girls ) who are in situations I found myself in while growing up in Jamaica. Yes I was a homeless child at one point. 

Remember every contribution will help me get closer to the goal.  Much appreciated .

Every little helps and donations can be made by visiting the link here – http://www.gofundme.com/un4b5k

A bit about the book : In this courageous story of growing up in one of the poorest areas of Jamaica, Ava Brown learned the life lessons of perseverance and survival. From a young age, Ava’s self-taught belief that she was destined for more then the community’s recreational activities of sex, raising babies and going to the farm gave her the courage to forge a very different path than the one expected of her.

Her story starts in a poor rural area, where the need to find food often won out over school attendance, and follows her journey through her adolescent years, which were encased in the dark shadows of incest and sexual abuse, to her young adult years when the event of being held at gunpoint finally led her to flee her home country in order to save her sanity. Yet, her resilience and love for her native country allowed her to see all of her harsh and disappointing experiences as stepping stones to becoming a strong and self-reliant woman, one who is capable of helping our society to break the cycle of poverty and its effects.

We welcome you to share in Ava’s journey through her book, Bamboo & Fern. Using the metaphor of the bamboo, her childhood experiences gave her strong roots to grow but made her tough and bendable like the bamboo plant, she is also like a fern, vulnerable but with a huge capacity for survival. You will experience her triumphs, setbacks and trials.

Bamboo & Fern will break your heart, before it makes you smile. Be prepared for a roller coaster ride that breaks hearts, will undoubtedly motivate, Inspire and fuel the desire for change.

To  learn more about me check www.avabrown.org

I’m born of English-Nigerian parentage and was  brought up listening to

mostly African music in the UK, although I have very broad musical taste.

​

I began my musical life aged 11, as a self-taught guitarist, but was progressively  drawn towards the drums of my childhood; eventually being trained by traditional drummers in the early 1990’s, specialising in Yoruba talking drums (dundun), as well as learning  sakara, ashiko, dunun and   many other African percussions. Much of my training was whilst playing at the frequent all-night African community events in London.

​

I’m also an accomplished studio engineer/producer, having originally  trained at London’s old Matrix Studios network, where I was fortunate enough to work with a wide array of top engineers, producers and major artists from around the world. All my studio work is now freelance.​

​

​I dedicate my working life to my two main passions: African Drumming and Music Technology, both of which I teach regularly.

I love to perform, record, travel and share my enthusiasm with others.

EDUCATION

Richard is a highly motivational, experienced and fun teacher, with a BA in Literature and PGCE teacher training.

He successfully works with a wide spectrum of ages and abilities/special needs. His enthusiastic teaching style 

is characterised by a sharp focus, mixed with great humour! He also teaches Music Technology to 17-19 year olds.

Richard is popular in a number of different Institutions who invite him back for repeat sessions and residencies.

IT IS MORNING, AFRICA

From the north, the trees flash their teeth
And the clouds waking from the south
Wear white gowns and moved
Like a procession of crawling cherubs.

A DEAD RIVER MARK

a mourning flood your face
the pillow has been drinking
your moistness and building
a small ocean
but when your river
went off-course
but when your river
burns off-course
a cylinder styled
mark a dead river mark
the dead river mark was
running to your pillow
to build a flood

THE DATE HAS NOW BEEN SET FOR THE OFFICIAL AWARD CEREMONY FOR THE AFRICAN WINNERS BASED HERE IN THE UK. (SEE FLYER)
AFRICA4U4U AWARDS FOR AFRICANS IN THE UK- FRIDAY THE 12TH OF JUNE – 6PM AT THE WHITE LION IN STREATHAM (A FREE EVENT) AT THE STABLES HALL, WHITE LION, 234 STREATHAM HIGH ROAD, STREATHAM, SOUTH LONDON, SW16 1BB.

ALL TEN WINNERS WILL RECEIVE THEIR AWARDS ON THE DAY – COME AND BE PART OF A COLOURFUL EVENING OF NETWORKING, INSPIRATIONAL SPEECHES, SPECIAL PERFORMANCES, ENTERTAINMENT AND DANCE
Jen Titi-Lola Da Sweetnezz Real O’Rael , Henry Kofii Nwiido AND Deoba Authentic WILL ALL BE PERFORMING AND RECEIVING THEIR AWARDS ON THE DAY.
Ethel Elaka Gondwe Alicia Queen Atta Kouassii Abdulkareem Idris King Mambo ( Pamtengo )AND Rukayat Aderewa Basaru WILL ALSO BE RECEIVING AWARDS

Bob McNeil recalls reading A Child’s Garden of Verses at the age of six. As a result, a love of all things poetical bloomed. Later in life, the Imagists and Negritude Movement nurtured him. Tenaciously, Bob McNeil tries to compose poetic stun guns and Tasers, weapons for the downtrodden in their effort to trounce oppression. His verses want to be fortresses against despotic politics.

After years of being a professional illustrator, spoken word artist and writer, Bob still wants his work to express one cause—justice.

What people say about Bob McNeils work

“Bob McNeil is relentless in so many ways. His poetry takes unexpected turns, connecting this moment with that idea in a manner that is both engagingly fresh and enlightening. And he does not let go until he has connected every turn of an idea – and then, he’ll offer another perspective. Thoughtful, relevant, and intelligent, McNeil’s work is always a

worthy read.” –Max Rodriguez, QBR/The Black

Book Review

“Bob McNeil bares his heart and soul into his poetry. His style is unrestrained and unforgettable. ‘Blessed Meals During Cursed Times’ is my personal favorite. It pays tribute to women who have known great sorrow and he channels their strength in a way that sears the soul. Bob McNeil would make JamesBaldwin holla Hallelujah.” –Cheryl Wills, TelevisionPersonality/Author

“The message is clear, the music is solid and the presentation is strong. The consciousness in Bob’s poetry is so very much needed today.” –Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets

“Bob McNeil is a genuine American poet with a feel and the heart to carry the word.” –DannySimmons, artist/poet   “Your poetry is beautiful. It has the spirit of revolution and renaissance carried in the world. It is an unforgiving stand to understand what is around us and to speak it. I was also very touched on how much you talked about the power of a woman. I loved it. Thank you for sharing your work with me.” – Ramya Ramana, Youth Poet Laureate

“It is very common knowledge brilliant writers say one thing while meaning something totally different. In that regards, the three pieces I read fit this criteria. Your use of language was far more interesting than most spoken word artists I’ve encountered over the last five years. It’s inspiring to find someone who obviously studies the art form, which means youmust read other Black poets.” –Reg E Gaines, spokenword artist/poet

“Very nice work with a good vision. You have some good work there that deserves publication. As in any manuscript there are some poems that I like more than others and some seem more fully realized than some others. All and all very nice work that as I said deserves publication.”—Gary Johnston, Literary Editor Blind Beggar Press

Midnight Memoirs:

We’d hear sounds of aching missiles
Banging the door of our happiness
Against the lock of divine anguish.
We’d hear the moan of painful demise
Fainting tick by tick as the wind blows beyond
To bury voices in the equator of a silent world.
We’d hear war sing of boredom where
Grounds cry for bloodstains.
Behind our home, hue of grim
Would cover the naked eyes of the land.

We would not sleep.

We’d sniff the dirty smells of  death
And see flood of bodies on our streets.
Bodiless heads will be planted in gutters
For in due time, they’d be the relics; the map
That leads our children to their homes.
We’d pant our life through the nostril’s of terror
Painting our fear with the colour of a faded faith
Leaving the shadows of distuned hopes to fall on it.

We would not sleep.

We’d remember this story every night
When the scars of sleeplessness
Stings the pains of a looted peace in our vessels.
We’d stand to sing dirges whose lines die
In the middle of passionate rhythms.
We’d sit to cry for the sons who sailed beneath,
For the daughters who strolled beyond our views,
For the mothers who wailed for all
For those searching for tears with torches.

We would not sleep.

©tohquality

Adedayo Adeyemi Agarau blogs at http://qualitypoets.wordpress.com

Professor Karen King-Aribisala was educated in Guyana, Barbados, England, Nigeria, Wales and Italy. She is a professor of English in the Department of English, University of Lagos. She is a writer of fiction and has published several short stories and poems in journals such as Wasafiri, Presence Africaine, Moving Worlds and The Griot; her work has been anthologized.

She is the recipient of several local and international awards, grants fellowships and Artists Residencies, among them a James Mitchener Fellowship and Scholarship; British Council Awards; Ford Foundation Grant; Residencies at The MacDowell Colony, USA; The Camargo Foundation, France; The Djerassi Foundation, USA; Yaddo, USA; she represented Nigeria at ROMAPOESIA, in Italy as a poet; and in India at a Women’s Writing Seminar.

She is the author of novels, among them The Hangman’s Game and Kicking Tongues; short story collections: Our Wife and Other Stories; and poems. She is the winner of the  Commonwealth Prize for Literature: Best First Book (African Region 1990/91); winner of the Commonwealth Prize for Literature: Best Book(African Region 2008); long listed for the IMPAC Literary Dublin Prize and shortlisted for the Guyana Prize for Literature.

TWO TRIBUTARIES

Ladidi! Ladidi!
A poet and his pen
Two entities
Can forge the earth
Into a rolling piece