Skysoaked: Jibanananda Das

Haile Gerima: I’m not sure I deserve such an honor because of the few films I have done in the world. I didn’t have the resources to have done more. Sankofa (1993), I should have done at least ten sequels because I have fifteen scripts. And so, in a world where one is denied the tools and resources, in that kind of dire state of struggle to gain my right to tell a story, to think of such very insightful emotional dynamics in my work is really a blessing. Now for me, I am a human being who’s been lied to. So when I shoot, it’s, for me, a rifle, it’s a gun, it’s an explosion. Every film is a staircase to respond to my interest to cleanse my own state of occupation. It’s kind of a decolonizing journey, and no one is going to finance me, no one is going to say, “Here’s money to tell another story.” Unless she drives Miss Daisy I have no chance of being financed by the present arrangement.

Read: Love Visual: A Conversation with Haile Gerima on Aperture Magazine’s website.

The news of Irrfan's death has left both the film industry and his fans in shock and mourning. As we grieve the loss of this extraordinary artiste, we look back at his rich career path that bears a testimony of his struggles, triumphs and consistent brilliance over three decades.

Be contemporary. Have impact. Strive for it. Be of the world. Move it. Be bold, don’t hold back. Then the moment you think you’ve been bold, be bolder. We are all alive today, ever so briefly here now, not then, not ago, not in some dreamworld of a hypothetical future. Whatever you do, you must make it contemporary. Make it matter now. You must give us a new path to tread, even if it carries the footfalls of old soles. You must not be immune to the weird urgency of today.

Wisdom from Ian Bogost’s commencement address at the University of Iowa, a fine addition to this ongoing archive of timeless advice. Pair with Greil Marcus’s fantastic 2013 School of Visual Arts commencement address.

(↬ austinkleon)

IMG_0333 by Pooja Pant on Flickr.

Working Women's Day Celebrations, Nepal.

Hips Liberated Because the Feet Have Been Shackled

Hips Liberated Because the Feet Have Been Shackled

Originally posted on COOLIE WOMAN:

Michael Goldberg Collection, U.W.I., Trinidad. http://www.cooliewoman.com

For the new Indian site Scroll.in, I wrote about my affection for chutney music. Here’s the piece:

Bollywood and my mother’s bhajans were the background music of my childhood. Growing up in New Jersey in the 1980s, any and all yearning for lost homelands was set to the score of…

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Estonian Art And Literature: Big Ideas In A Small Country

Communist, Scientist, Activist and Dreamer Daya Varma (August 23, 1929 - March 22, 2015) : Harsh Kapoor

Communist, Scientist, Activist and Dreamer Daya Varma (August 23, 1929 – March 22, 2015) : Harsh Kapoor

Originally posted on Kafila:

Guest Post by Harsh Kapoor

Dr. Daya Varma, life-long communist, scientist, activist, dreamer, pharmacologist, professor emeritus at McGill University, Montreal, passed away on 22 March 2015 in St. John’s Newfoundland, Canada. Former member of the undivided Communist Party of India, founder of Indian People’s Association in North America (IPANA) and the…

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On View: Imran Qureshi’s Rooftop Installation at the Metropolitan Museum

Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi’s installation And How Many Rains Must Fall Before the Stains are Washed Clean in The Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Rooftop Garden is as arresting as it is unconventional. Delicate floral designs sprawl out across the museum’s rooftop, painted like a mural on the floor. The painstakingly-rendered flowers are drowned in crimson paint. The work’s delicate beauty becomes bittersweet, tainted by the violence of the red stains. Qureshi created the installation as an expression of sorrow for violence across the world; the floral patterns amid the blood-like splatters speak to a hope for regeneration. Take a look at some photos of Qureshi completing the work as well as the finished installation courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Hyla Skopitz. The installation is on view at the Metropolitan Museum through November 3, weather permitting.

MORE: http://hifructose.com/2013/07/11/on-view-imran-qureshis-rooftop-installation-at-the-metropolitan-museum/