Aberjhani's Blog: Notes of a 21st Century Digital Scribe, page 40

Shining a Bloglight on Two Birthday Boys: Duke Ellington and Johnny Mercer (Part 2 of 2)

  It's always nice when a writer can acknowledge some minor connection to the subjects of a blog such as this. In regard to Ellington, I can only say it was a great pleasure to write the article on him featured in Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts On File). However, where Mercer is concerned we actually share the same home town of Savannah. Also, as it happens, we are both featured ...

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Visionary Vibes Comes to Red Room

  Visionary Vibes started out as a somewhat bold experimental column published in the Creative Loafing weekly entertainment news magazine during the mid 1990s.  It has since made appearances on in a number of publications and on such web sites as AuthorsDen, Blogit, and Bright Skylark Literary Productions. Its purpose was to explore the different ways that people employ various forms of culture ...

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Shining a Bloglight on Two Birthday Boys: Duke Ellington and Johnny Mercer (Part 1 of 2)

  The existence of music itself is reason enough for some of us to approach each day with an attitude of gratitude but--some of its more accomplished craftsmen and craftswomen provide us with real opportunities to stop, look, listen, and celebrate, especially with Jazz Appreciation Month only a few days away. That's exactly what lovers of fine lyrics and melodious genius have already started ...

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The Great Book Lovers Appreciation Day 40 Percent Off Sale

Following its publication almost a year ago, ELEMENTAL The Power of Illuminated Love won continuous critical acclaim, achieved commercial success, and generated exhibitions of art from the book. These fortuitous events have prompted a 40 percent off sale that will drop the acclaimed gift book's regular price from $39.95 to $23.97 at the AuthorsDen Bookstore from March 5 to March 10, 2009 at this url: http://www.authorsden.com/visit/vieww... .

The book's creators have supported the limited time discount "as a statement of appreciation to those individuals who have carried ELEMENTAL all over the world and out of a sense of solidarity with everyone else on the planet currently rising to the challenge of our current economic issues."

They have also set aside a number of copies for donation to libraries. Any library interested in receiving the book should submit the request to Aberjhani via AuthorsDen or his Amazon.com profile. Donation requests will need to be verified.

In addition to the sale on AuthorsDen, ELEMENTAL is currently available at the following locations: Barnes and Noble; Black Books Plus; The Book Lady (912-233-3628); The Diaspora Market Place (912-232-2626); The I.P. Stanback Museum and Planetarium SC (803) 536-7174; The Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum (912) 231-8900); and The Telfair Museum Jepson Center for the Arts Gift Shop (912) 790-8831.

The Woman Who Lit the Smoking Poet's Cigar

Writing professional reviews about the works of other creative artists is an artform in itself, and few have mastered that artform so brilliantly as Zinta Aistars, the author of threee books composed in the Latvian language and the much adored editor-in-chief of THE SMOKING POET E-zine. Ms. Aistar’s most recent contribution to this specialized literary craft focuses on a title that features the work of not one, but two creative artists, and may be enjoyed at these urls:
http://www.thesmokingpoet.net/id15.html

http://zintareviews.blogspot.com/2009...

As readers will see, Ms. Aistars nearly outdoes herself taking on the challenge of writing with the keenest aesthetic perception and style about a book that many have described as two in one: ELEMENTAL The Power of Illuminated Love. What makes Aistar’s review so profound in this instance are her balanced insights into the book’s two complimentary mediums––fine visual art combined with poetry and essays––and the manner in which she blends those insights into her own superb literary flavors.
As uncanny as Aistar’s gift in this area may seem, in some ways it is only natural considering she is a daughter of acclaimed artist Viestarts Aistars; and, has written previously about how she inherited from her father the impulse to create but has expressed that impulsed through literary art rather than visual.

And then there is what she does as the editor-in-chief of Smoking Poet: identify and showcase the modern voices and visions giving memorable creative substance to New Millennium art and literature. It seems inappropriate to quote a review of a review of my own work so I will resist doing so. Instead, please allow me to invite you to click or paste the above links and discover and enjoy the thrilling world and works of Zinta Aistars .


Aberjhani
The American Poet Who Went Home Again

A Black History Month Like None Other

With the world still becoming accustomed to the election of the United States' first African-American president, Black History Month 2009 is already guaranteed to down in history like none other. Below are links to works on African Americans both famous and not-so-famous, though every bit as significant. The first is a poetic tribute to my Grandmother, who made history just by living her life. The second is a review of collected nonfiction by the great Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison; the third an inaugural poem dedicated to President Obama; and the fourth a review of poetry by the Inauguration Day poet Elizabeth Alexander. I hope you enjoy them all.


Photographed Light of My Grandmother’s Soul url:
http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewp...

Review of Toni Morrison's WHAT MOVES AT THE MARGIN url:
http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewa...

There upon a Bough of Hope and Audacity url: http://www.authorsden.com/categories/...

Review of Poetry by Elizabeth Alexander url: http://authorsden.com/visit/viewartic...