Search results for ""Author Nii Ayikwei Parkes""

Filigree typically refers to the finer elements of craftwork, the parts that are subtle; our 'Filigree' anthology contains work that plays with the possibilities that the word suggests, work that is delicate, that responds to the idea of edging, to a comment on the marginalisation of the darker voice. Filigree includes work from established Black British poets residing inside and outside the UK; new and younger emerging voices of Black Britain and Black poets who have made it their home as well as a selection of the Inscribe poets who we have nurtured and continue to support. They have all responded in compelling ways to the concept of 'Filigree'. Tolu Agbelusi – Sui Anukka – Raymond Antrobus – Lynne E Blackwood – Siddhartha Bose (Sid) – Victoria Bulley – Michael Campbell – Nana-Essi Casely-Hayford – Maya Chowdhry – Rishi Dastidar – Tishani Doshi – Zena Edwards – Samatar Elmi – Christina Fonthes – Patricia Foster – Kat François – Nandita Ghose – Nikheel Gorolay – Keith Jarrett – Maggie Harris – Joshua Idehen – Sumia Jamaa – Pete Kalu – Fawzia Kane – Rachel Long – Adam Lowe – Nick Makoha – Roy Mcfarlane – Ronnie McGrath – Momtaza Mehri – Sai Murray – Selina Nwulu – Louisa Adjoa Parker – Aisha Phoenix – Barsa Ray – Akila Richards – Maureen Roberts – Roger Robinson – Selina Rodrigues – Seni Seneviratne – Ioney Smallhorne – Degna Stone – Hugh Stultz – Ruth Sutoyé – Keisha Thompson – Gemma Weekes

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Azúcar is a novel about belonging in a world where all things are on the move: people, ideas, foods and not least music. Oswald Kole Osabutey Jnr, henceforth Yunior, leaves his family in Accra to travel to the mythical Caribbean island of Fumaz where the revolutionary philosophy of peopleism just about keeps its flame alive against the forces of an old-style command centre political bureaucracy and a stifling trade blockade from the big imperialist neighbour to the North. Yunior brings the knowledge of the scientist, the skills of a farmer and the heart and invention of a musician to his life in Fumaz. As scientist, he must find some way of rescuing the island’s famed sweet rice industry from collapse; as a farmer, he sees how much of his West African food has journeyed across the Atlantic to make the island’s unique cuisine; as musician he becomes part of the spirit that puts the island on the world stage, out of all proportion to its size. This is a novel of ideas – how much is accidental in the world? How much can be planned? It has much to say about the impact of colonialism on the fragile ecology of the island – but it is the pursuit of love and the tragedy of death, the interweaving of moments of harmony and moments of conflict and the motives of vividly drawn characters that are the drivers of this sometimes zany narrative. And there is always the texture of the language to enjoy in a book whose prose is as flowing, elegant and heartfelt as the music that moves freely back and forth across the seas between Africa and the Caribbean.

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'A delightful book that combines the basic tug of the whodunit with the more elegant pleasures of the literary novel' Independent Sonokrom, a village in the Ghanaian hinterland, has not changed for hundreds of years. Here, the men and women speak the language of the forest, drink aphrodisiacs with their palm wine and walk alongside the spirits of their ancestors. The discovery of sinister remains - possibly human, definitely 'evil' - and the disappearance of a local man brings the intrusion of the city in the form of Kayo, a young forensic pathologist convinced that scientific logic can shatter even the most inexplicable of mysteries.As old and new worlds clash and clasp, and Kayo and his sidekick, Constable Garba, delve deeper into the case, they discover a truth that leaves scientific explanations far behind.

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Nii Ayikwei Parkes' début collection encompasses the story of a triangular trade in reverse – a family history that goes from the Caribbean back to Sierra Leone, and in his own life from London to Ghana, and back again.His gift as a poet is for the most rewarding kind of story-telling, including those stories told with wit and an engaging ambivalence about himself. His narratives move unerringly to a perfect punch-line, but in the collection as a whole there is a refreshing lack of complacency in his willingness to move out of his comfort zone and explore areas of imaginative fantasy, as in his Ballast series, a tour de force of defamiliarisation, where he imagines how the slave trade would have gone had its mode of transport been the hot air balloon, rather than the slave ship. There is much humour, but it comes from a family tradition of knowing that 'our jokes weren't really funny, they were just sad/ stories we learned to laugh at'. Like all poets with a largeness of heart, with no embarrassment about embracing the deepest feelings, Parkes has an especial sensitivity to the promise and acute sensitivities of childhood, both his own and others."An astonishing, powerful remix of history and language and the possibilities of both" Ali Smith, The GuardianNii Ayikwei Parkes is the author of three poetry pamphlets. In 2007 he was awarded Ghana's National ACRAG award for poetry and literary advocacy.

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Most migrants arrive at their destinations by a combination of serendipity and choicelessness. The question – how did you arrive here? – is always answered with a convoluted mix of myth, love, family ties, budget, language, persecution, opportunity and interruption. This has been Nii Parkes' own experience, and in South of South he brings together a distinguished selection of contemporary writers who feel the same way. With stories from Romesh Gunesekera, Zoe Wicomb, Nam Le, Monica Arac de Nyeko, Tahmina Anam, Brian Chikwava, Niki Aguirre, Junot Diaz and Naomi Alderman, this is a rich mix of writing re-imagining the dynamics of migration in the 21st century.Nii Ayikwei Parkes was born in the UK and raised in Ghana. A former Poet-in-Residence at the Poetry Café, he has performed on major stages across the world, including at The Royal Festival Hall and at the London Mayor's vigil on July 14, 2005 in response to the London bombings. His most recent collection is The Makings of You (Peepal Tree, 2010). His poem 'Tin Roof' was selected for Poems on the Underground in 2007 and his novel Tail of the Blue Bird was published by Jonathan Cape in 2009. Nii also co-edited the groundbreaking Tell Tales: Volume I short story anthology (2005) with Courttia Newland.

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This stunning new collection from Nii Ayikwei Parkes features poems which embrace play, love and the ephemeral such as water bodies, blood/heritage, history and gossip; and a healthy dose of music and popular culture. Concerned with the phase of life sometimes referred to as the midlife crisis, The Geez navigates the blurred lines between age and youth; the real and the imagined; what is seen and what is - what catches the gaze and what lies beneath. Conceived in four sections, the collection moves from play, to love, to gossip and - finally - to explorations of the intersections of self and contemporary culture, including a segment inspired by blues legends, riffing on the myth of the crossroads, as well as an eleven-part love letter to the African diaspora - specifically African-Americans, whose sacrifices have contributed to the still-suppressed freedoms of Black folk globally. A number of the poems in The Geez are written in a form called the Gimbal, which was developed by Nii - initially to work through his enduring grief at the loss of his father. It evokes the workings of a gyroscope - spinning but stable -a state that echoes the liminality that anchors this collection.

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A collection of hugely entertaining stories, drawn from the rich folklore of many countries throughout Africa, and brought sparklingly to life with humour and rhyme by Ghanaian author, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, writing under the name used for his children's work, K. P. Kojo. Find out how selfish Lion gets his comeuppance, go to a Frog wedding in the Sky Kingdom, discover the days when the earth's creatures were all mixed up and much more in tales which reflect the very best and the very worst of human nature.Includes endnotes with a glossary, additional information, and activities that children can do to explore the stories further.'Needs to be three times as long and sitting on a shelf in every school library' - Mark Haddon

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