“A poisonous, crucial element of this imposed expectation is that brown people and their books should look back, into a past and a place that may never have existed.”
This issue is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Abby Lippman (1939-2017). “As we were preparing to go on-line with this issue, we were hit with an emotional sledgehammer. Abby Lippman – a frequent contributor to Serai, a dear […]
Well, this is our annual ritual, so to speak. The literature issue. And the theme is spirit. Geist. And we shall be blunt about it. For several years, we have enforced a self-discipline so that we must, at […]
Since human beings are eminently perishable, they seem to have an obsession for permanence. It is normal for people to yearn for what they do not possess or do not have a chance to possess in their lifetimes. But […]
Artist Statement: “I want to be thoroughly used up when I die… for the harder I work, the more I live.” This is my mantra, which encapsulates the intensely and sometimes uncomfortable feelings I explore when I’m creating in […]
Qi or Ch’i is often defined as a spiritual force that emanates from, or animates, living beings. In Chinese, Qi literally means breath. So do the words psyche in Greek and atman in Sanskrit. It is perhaps no coincidence […]
[This tribute to Art Solomon is an adaptation of a radio documentary written for Radio Canada International in 1995, a year and a half before he died. Now, twenty years after his death, his words and actions and powerful spirit […]
Réflexions de l’artiste La photographie est entrée dans ma vie à l’adolescence et s’y est taillée une place unique. Suivant les traces de mon père, passionné de photo, je capturais tout ce que mon oeil curieux trouvait beau. […]
[NOTE: A different and shorter version of this essay, with another title, has appeared elsewhere.] Kabari ani? How are you? Hoori. Good. I introduce Morga, an invented language, with the above phrase, in my forthcoming novel, Land for Fatimah. […]
Musée Rodin, 1972 I saw this body I am sure of it. Flesh and bronze. In one long stare, In fixated, circular study, In love with this thoracic cage, Vertical breakline, rack Of ribs, sinews strong, Tying life and […]
Lorsqu’on nous regarde d’en bas, ça donne l’impression que notre vie est facile. On imagine les grands espaces, la liberté. Eh bien, je dirais que la liberté n’est possible qu’à l’abri des problèmes et la seule période sans problème […]
Cayo Santa Maria (Written in Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba in February 2017, right after meditation on the beach) Crashing wave reaching high up on to the beach, then disappearing like a dream, like some understanding, into silent sand (a […]
Selection of aphorisms from Yahia Lababidi’s forthcoming book,Where Epics Fail: Aphorisms on Art, Morality and Spirit – Unbound UK / Penguin Random House, 2018 The danger of cynicism is getting what you believe in: nothing. In the same way that […]
Talula Talula, my seven-year-old visitor, meets the ghost of my husband in my kitchen. Her father lifts her onto the bar stool at the counter where I’ve spread out a festive buffet of beads. Lately, Talula has been […]
Film Review of Mathieu Roy’s The Dispossessed (Les dépossédés) The camera shows a woman in a field. The ground around her is rough, with a bit of greenery in the distance. She goes down into a ditch, comes […]
Chronic Fatigue System Too tired to exercise (who gets mono in their 50s?), endorphins droop and symptoms of menopause return, drench night’s sheets. And the bones, breaking down, what that other poet said, ‘the leaking’ or ‘letting in of […]
