{"id":2489,"date":"2014-04-22T00:34:28","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T00:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/?page_id=2489"},"modified":"2014-04-22T00:34:29","modified_gmt":"2014-04-22T00:34:29","slug":"tendai-r-mwanaka-april-2014","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/archives\/tendai-r-mwanaka-april-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Tendai R Mwanaka, April 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

White Girl, black boy<\/strong><\/p>\n

The human skin is now the only existing surface
\nThat has survived a history of self recognition, of expositions.
\nThe dermis has become an interlocutor of presencing, as a surface
\nIt both limits, transcends the contours of the landscape and flesh<\/p>\n

I imagine, imagining my imaginations
\nWhat if white is not?
\nReally white!
\nA smudgy pinkish colour?<\/p>\n

The black boy thinks: If i was really black, i might not really be seen
\nBecause I could hide things in my own blackness and if she were really white
\nWhen she is being white, white as genetically white
\nShe wouldn\u2019t see me, for she would only be the wind
\nLight stripes of wind, pinned around my corporeal clothes
\nLike cold tasting light, itself in the mouth of itself<\/p>\n

The white girl thinks: It is a black skin muddled, annihilated of its truth
\nNo more his own skin; crythematous-patches, necrotic tissues-indurated
\nSkin boiling in its blackness
\nThe black thing always, wanting, needling\u2026
\nGetting in the way,
\nEven now<\/p>\n

Like the deadly white of the sky
\nShe inherited the whiteness
\nThe sugar coating whiteness
\nIt is whiteness
\nAs witness<\/p>\n

She thinks, and you can\u2019t deny her that: This is what has been passed down to me
\nA white horned hunger to live, live and live and live
\nIn this whiteness
\nWhiteness as white-coloured white?<\/p>\n

The two, the white girl and the black boy, are talking of the premonition of presence that is always hovering on either side of this threshold( the threshold is the skin), which attempts to harness a centrality of spirit, and the rituals each of the two enacts to draw it out in their relationship.
\nBut, I will do an Alice walker here
\nAnd I imagine, with Walker, the psychic liberation of black if it understands
\nBlack is not really black
\nI imagine, still with Walker, the exhilarating feeling of white if it could walk (doing a Walker with me) away from the caged feeling
\nOf its body, in its own skins<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

autumn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Forward to a reddish autumn
\nMulti-layered, multi-
\ncoloured paths
\nEmblems of our archetypes<\/p>\n

And metaphors
\nof our times
\nUnthinkable parameters
\nIf colours could swap?
\n <\/p>\n

Tendai R Mwanaka: ”<\/p>\n

I was born in the remote eastern highlands district of Nyanga, Zimbabwe, inMapfurira village, grew up there and did my primary, secondary, and high school\u00a0in that area. Left Nyanga for Chitungwiza city in 1994, and I started exploring\u00a0writing that year, when I was barely twenty. I have also worked in the sales\u00a0and marketing field for over 8 years, and have a graduate diploma in marketing\u00a0(GradSaim). I have stayed in South Africa for two and half years, but I am now\u00a0back in Zimbabwe, where I stay in Chitungwiza city. My first\u00a0book to be published, VOICES FROM EXILE, a collection of poetry on\u00a0Zimbabwe\u2019s political situation and exile in South Africa was published\u00a0by Lapwing\u00a0publications, Northern Ireland in 2010. KEYS IN THE RIVER: Notes from a\u00a0Modern Chimurenga, a novel of interlinked stories that deals with life in\u00a0modern day Zimbabwe\u2019s soul was published by Savant books and publications, USA\u00a02012. A book of creative non-fiction pieces, ZIMBABWE: THE BLAME GAME,\u00a0was published by Langaa RPCIG( Cameroon 2013), a poetry collection entitled\u00a0PLAYING TO LOVE\u2019S GALLERY will be published by DIP PRESS(USA, 2014), a novel\u00a0entitled, A DARK ENERGY will be published by Aignos publishing company(USA, 2014). Poetry books: Revolution, Logbook written by a drifter, and Voicesfrom exile, were both short listed by the Erbacce press poetry prize in2012, 2011, and 2009 respectively, another poetry book entitled Pearls of Awareness<\/em> was short listed for the Twoz creations chapbook prize (2012)..<\/p>\n

I was nominated for the Pushcart twice, 2008, 2010, commended for the Dalro prize
\n2008, work has been translated into French and Spanish. I was nominated and
\nattended The Caine African writing workshop, 2012. Published over 250
\npieces of short stories, essays, memoirs,
\npoems and photographic\/visual art in over 150 magazines, journals, and
\nanthologies in the following countries, the USA , UK , Canada ,
\nSouth Africa, Zimbabwe, India , Mexico, Kenya, Cameroon, Italy ,
\nGhana, Uganda, France , Zambia, Nigeria, Spain , Romania, Cyprus,
\nAustralia and New Zealand. I am also a musician
\nand sound artist with a number of songs and sound recordings playing on
\ninternet music places like Radio Airplay,
\nSoundcloud… This year I have been a contributor to several anthologies,
\nWE WILL SURVIVE; this is a wonderful book of hopeful stories … Not just
\nhopeful, but personal stories of survivors. They all have one common theme, and
\nthat is Gloria Gaynor’s hit “I Will Survive.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

White Girl, black boy The human skin is now the only existing surface That has survived a history of self recognition, of expositions. The dermis has become an interlocutor of presencing, as a surface It both limits, transcends the contours of the landscape and flesh I imagine, imagining my imaginations What if white is not? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":934,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2489","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nTendai R Mwanaka, April 2014 - Full Of Crow: Poetry (Archives)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/archives\/tendai-r-mwanaka-april-2014\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tendai R Mwanaka, April 2014 - Full Of Crow: Poetry (Archives)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"White Girl, black boy The human skin is now the only existing surface That has survived a history of self recognition, of expositions. 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