#In the Mecca

[afrotumble]

This was the Pulitzer Prize-winner's first new collection of poetry after a gap of nearly ten years. "I was to be a Watchful Eye; a Tuned Ear; a Super-reporter," Brooks said. "I began writing about whatever I thought I knew, whatever I experienced." What she knew and experienced in those years resulted in poetry charged with a new power and urgency. The book takes its title from a long narrative poem set in a huge decayed apartment house in Chicago's black ghetto, a building called the Mecca. A tragedy in the Mecca gives rise to Brooks' extraordinary poetic evocation of its dense personal miseries and sense of life. Nine shorter poems follow, and these too, in large part, have their source in contemporary figures and circumstances: Medgar Evers and Malcolm X, "the Blackstone Rangers gang," the astonishing prideful mural painted on a ghetto wall one summer. The universality that transcends the immediate event, and is the mark of poetic sensibility, distinguishes all the poetry here. Gwendolyn Brooks' stature as a poet who "induces almost unbearable excitement"--As Phyllis McGinley described her--is here enriched by the new dimensions her work encompasses.--Adapted from book jacket.

[odinsblog]

Thread on alternative views of iconic landmarks you (probably) haven’t seen before 🧵

1. Mount Fuji from a plane window.

2. Arc de Triomphe, Paris

3. Aerial view of Kaaba, Mecca

4. A view of the Taj Mahal that you do not usually see, highlighting the stark contrast between opulence and poverty divided by a single wall.

5. Top down view of the Statue of Liberty

6. The backside of Tutankhamun's burial mask

7. The dome of St. Peter’s Basilica seen through Rome's most famous keyhole.

8. The worn steps of the Tower of Pisa

9. Photographer Alexander Ladanivskyy, in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism, captured an extraordinary drone shot of the Great Pyramid of Giza from an unusual perspective.

10. The Shanhai Pass, where the Great Wall of China meets the ocean.

for images 11 - 25, please see the source, here

[angela-yuriko-smith]

Celebrating 106 Years of Gwendolyn Brooks

Tomorrow's Authortunities mail out will feature American poet, author, and teacher Gwendolyn Brooks.

Tomorrow’s Authortunities mail out will feature American poet, author, and teacher Gwendolyn Brooks born 106 years ago today on June 7, 1917. She was known for her work that often celebrated and examined the personal struggles of ordinary people in her community​. Brooks was the first child of David Anderson Brooks and Keziah (Wims) Brooks. Her father wanted to be a doctor but he traded that…

[safi-soliman]

Cats in mosques

[ebrahimsharabash]

"You are in this world to build a place for you in heaven, do not forget that"

[yearningforunity]

Salvador – the capital city of the state of Bahia – has the largest Black population in Brazil and known as a Black Mecca.  

[fishfingersandscarves]

1,839.9 km

[insects-in-every-hole]

[zegalba]

Lightning striking the Clock Tower in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

[todayinhiphophistory]

Today in Hip Hop History:

Digable Planets released their second studio album Blowout Comb October 18, 1994

[realnyhiphop101]

Pete Rock & CL Smooth “Mecca and The Soul Brother” Era

[suhyla]

makkah ١٤٤٦

[xxviviennevincentxx]

MTV'S Downtown (1999)

[2001hz]

Mecca DNM 'JeanTherapy' ad print in The Source magazine issue n°132 (2000)

[manga-and-stuff]

Source: Fullmetal Alchemist Hagane no Renkinjutsushi 鋼の錬金術師

by Hiromu Arakawa

[sowhatifiliveinasmalltowninjapan]

Cabaret Voltaire (1981)