By D. H. Lawrence | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery | D. H. Lawrence is best known for his novels and the persecution he endured for them, but he also wrote some 800 equally subversive poems. His 1923 collection “Birds, Beasts and Flowers” is a contemplation of the natural world and man’s relation to it.
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The fastest runner / is a boy / who leans against a cardboard tent…
Continue reading →By shaman Black Elk, as told through John Neihardt. From: Black Elk Speaks, Washington Square Press, 1972, originally published in 1932. The introductory chapter of a great classic on spirituality.
Continue reading →By Katherine Dunham, Doubleday 1969, University of Chicago Press Edition 1994 | YouTube | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. In 1936, Katherine Mary Dunham, a brilliant and adventurous young woman torn between dance and anthropology, went solo to Haiti to study primitive dance and ritual. Videos include Dunham in the dance sequence of Stormy Weather and in a 1962 interview.
Continue reading →By Pablo Neruda, with English translations by Donald D. Walsh: The Mountain and the River, Poverty, Little America, from the collection The Captain’s Verses (Los Versos del Capitan). New Directions Publishing, bilingual edition, 1988. Chilean poet Pablo Neruda is regarded as one of the greatest poets to have ever lived. (English | Spanish)
Continue reading →Originally by Clarence Gillis, as told by Tommy Douglas, Information Clearing House | You Tube | Mangas Verdes | Haiti Chery. “Mouseland was a place where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died. And they lived much the same as you and I do. They even had a Parliament. And every four years they had an election…. And every time on election day all the little mice used to go to the ballot box and they used to elect a government. A government made up of big, fat, black cats.” (English | Spanish, with video)
Continue reading →By B. Traven, Hill and Wang, New York, 1967 | Scribd | Wikipedia | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is regarded as B. Traven’s masterpiece, but this book, written in 1935, is merely the best-known work by a master storyteller who lived and wrote for another 34 years. Traven’s body of work celebrates wildness and chronicles the loss of individual freedom in his lifetime.
Continue reading →By Frederic Back, You Tube | Based on Jean Giono’s short story, The Man Who Planted Trees. Director Frédéric Back’s marvellous interpretation of Giono’s allegory won an Oscar for short animation. The story is a tribute to hard work and patience. (English | French | Portuguese | Spanish, 30 min.)
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The dance: a poem inspired by a conversation, the birds, and Bach’s little fugue in G minor.
Continue reading →By Walfredo Angulo, Prensa Latina | Granma | Haiti Chery. Jose Saramago wrote Claraboya in the 1950’s but received no word from the publisher for 40 years. The dictatorial regime of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar in Portugal had probably censored the novel. It has just appeared in Portuguese and Spanish (English | Spanish).
Continue reading →By Frederico Garcia Lorca | Translation by A. S. Kline | Paintings by Gabriel Alix | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Frederico Garcia Lorca describes the lullabies of Spain in their cultural contexts and with a singular respect for children’s appreciation of abstraction. One lullaby from the region of Burgos is reminiscent of Haiti’s “Dodo Titit.”
Continue reading →By Vaclav Havel, in: The Natural World as Political Problem – Essays on Modern Man (Prague: Edice Expedice, Vol. 188, Feb 1984).
Continue reading →By Staff, AHP | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Just out in Haitian bookstores: a new book by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide titled “Pwezi filosofik pou dekolonizasyon mantal” (Publisher: Henri Deschamps, 2012). It is the Creole version of “Philosophical Reflections for Mental Decolonization” (Publisher: Paradigm Press, 2011). (English | French)
Continue reading →By Michael Leunig, Spring Diary of a Small, Brown Bird | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The poem below is a favorite of mine and the only one I’ve found so far that describes falling in love entirely from the point of view of an animal. From a collection by Leunig titled: Short Notes from the Long History of Happiness (Penguin Books Australia, Ltd, 1996).
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