...Une Mot/Una Palabra/Uma Palavra/Nya Aɖe and, Ngugi forgive me, Ũhoro
Dear Readers,
Happy May Day!
I only subtitle the above title in a few other languages to remind myself, yourselves, that in spite of our several incarnations—The Wall, Witty Partition, and now, ta-dah! Cable Street, we are still the same journal, devoted to reading and writing internationally, translating when we can, and otherwise celebrating the literature of so many peoples and places. And, I would also add, the orature of still other cultures. Bienvenidos! Welcome!
While celebrating our new, spiffy website, please do note that on the top menu under “Archives” we provide a link to back issues 1-17 on our old site(s). Not to confuse you, but be aware that what may appear as Issue 18 on the old site is Issue 1, numero uno, Cable Street. We continue to add news, extras! and etceteras as they occur.
And so, a splendiferous Issue #2 of Cable Street! In it we are pleased to offer an opening section of Lyric Essays, by Fiona C. Hankerson and Ian C. Smith, and a Poetry section with work by Carmen Firan, Patrick Pritchett, And Stephanie Johnson, both sections curated by editor Dana Delibovi. Chris Sawyer-Lauçanno’s translation of Mallarmé appears under the ensuing section. Under the heading, The Internal Arts, we find a memoir by journalist Michael Dorgan which notably contrasts the violence of our species’ various wars and ad hoc entanglements with one another, versus the diminution of violence in the martial arts. (I can personally attest to that, having studied both T’ai Chi and Capoeira Angola.) Editor Eric Darton’s “Heaven Round, Earth Square” follows, with his account of his journey to the practice of Ba Gua Zhang, a Chinese internal martial art.
Close on the heels of the latest installment of “Becoming,” editor Chris Sawyer-Lauçanno’s Memoir, as yours truly, editor BGM, I offer my final piece on one of my mentors, the African writer, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and his orature-based later works.
We celebrate a magnificent Portfolio of work by Agnes Sioda. Under the rubric, Remarkable Reads, Elissa Favero continues to bring her insights to three books “on seeing and being seen” and I offer a review of A Darker Wilderness, a collection of African American nature writing edited by Erin Sharkey. Our ¡Vivas! are full, as the elders do continue to leave us, alas; but be of good cheer, for Eric Darton wraps up our issue with a timely Colophon.
— Bronwyn Mills, for all of us, the editors