05-01-2026
May Day. I am listening to the Ravel Bolero. 169 times do percussionists have to repeat the same rhythmic cell as the orchestra grows ever louder to a shattering finale! Quite a metaphor, on this day of praise for all the workers of the world who exhaust their energy in mindless repetitive tasks as billionaires revel in ever flashier luxuries.
In Charleston, there is no march. Only a gathering and cookout on Rivers avenue in North Charleston. But America’s youth is mobilizing with workers and calls for a “No work, No school, No shopping” at 3000 May Day events across the US. Against the low blow of the Supreme Court to minority voting rights, the ever more overt christian self-righteousness of far right politics, the Iran war and rising prices … yes America needs to embrace its youth, its aspirations and dreams of an equitable future.
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Yesterday, at the Creative Sync, the collective may have made good progress towards a more certain future. Gwylène, in part two of her three part workshop on ‘Collaboratorship’, seemed to push us to define certain words like leadership and mentorship, to get us to see their difference with collaboratorship. Then she switched to collaboration and the four types she could differentiate: task-oriented, network-oriented, community-oriented, a combination of.
Then … then, it came to me that if we were not going to agree on any definition it was because we had forgotten the lesson from the conNECKtedTOO/TINYisPOWERFUL Lexicon: it is not a dictionary. Its purpose is not to narrow down to a definition any of the key words we use in the collective, but – on the contrary – to expand their meaning in a spirit of constant transformation and inclusiveness. Because what is most important is to spread said spirit of transformation and inclusiveness thus getting ready to accept collaboration as an affirmation of the world’s infinite diversity.
Still, Collaboratorship strongly conveys community.
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Right now, the radio offers a mind-blowing array of Blues singers: John Lee-Hooker, T-Bone Walker, Hattie Hart and the Memphis Jug Band, Sleepy John Estes and, at the moment, BB King … what do I think?
I think that not even the strongest salt, forced on the open wounds of America’s racism, can erase such an example of deep sensitivity and diversity, which spells collective (un)conscious, roots, collaboratorship, without which there would be nothing … not even the shadow of some solitary individual desperately seeking comfort from some solitary other.
And now, a long series of Spanish Flamenco pieces, voice and guitar – an other amazing road to authentic vernacular. There are few experiences I love more than a Pena Flamenca! What about visiting a yearly festival of Spanish soul music and dance? To me, experiencing a flamenco piece is a mysterious trip to the roots of a people defined by the multiple layers of civilizations which settled the peninsula, from central Europe, North Africa; the major Hebrew/Jewish influence in al-Andalus … until an emperor and his Inquisition forced a TPS on them. Furia y nostalgia – when they break into music and song – make for existential, root experiences that cannot be shaken off, I believe. They too testify for a history of amazing diversity, collective unconscious, commonality … and collaboratorship, regardless of the history of violence experienced in the process.
Here I cannot but refer to the book ” Peace is our Future“, recently written by Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah et Israeli Maoz Inon, determined as they are to prove that there is no way to overcome fratricidal violence but fraternal love. Not that it was easy for the two authors to overcome the death that stuck the families of both, on October 7. But THEY chose reconciliation over hatred. They were tempted, they say, by the violence in despair. But …
What a process of collaboratorship the writing of their book must have been.
—–
Last night, after reading a few pages from Emilie Hache’s book, I jolted down one word, a scary word: obscurantism. She was writing about the diabolisation – throughout modern history – of women by Establishment white men or religious authorities, every time one of them seemed to outsmart men with knowledge and or knowhow. Today, of course, women are still being sidelined and assigned remedial roles, including being ‘yes women’ for the president. He certainly makes dumb blonds look like dumb blonds. Their sheepish acquiescence smacks of total submission! That is where, in such regressive behaviors, I see a wave of obscurantism invade the country, reminiscent of witch hunting days, enslavement and other barbaric discriminations.
05-04-2026
The tyranny of time. If successful, it turns into oppression, slavery – where time does not belong to the enslaved.
The opposite? Long term view, patience, grace, non-violence, peace – with Maoz and Aziz.
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AVERY: Friday, for no particular reason, I was at Avery and, once again, I was struck by the deep silence of the place, its solemn beauty, its quasi-mystic resonance. A mausoleum… No. The place is an active archive center for African-American History and Culture in the Low Country. Of course there may never be mobs of research fellows crowding the place! But still, I am puzzled by the fact that, after all, Avery is now an extension of the College of Charleston where, on Friday afternoon, just a few blocks away, as students are already crazed at the thought of the coming party weekend, Avery is closing for two days. It is my sense that Avery is under wrap, under control, although the true vernacular culture of Charleston screams for more public places where to show its vitality and its authenticity.
Yet, it is with patience and grace that the staff of Avery, every weekday, opens at ten and closes at five, with a required lunch break. I admire what I read as abnegation, self-control, patience, in the face of imposed heteronomy. Abnegation, self-control, patience – and grace – possible only if fed by the long term view that characterizes all the struggles of Black America for liberation.
05-09-2026
This is an article in ArchDaily, about Francis Kéré, a Burkinabé-German architect “… [my] only concern is that my work must have a positive impact on the communities in which it is embedded.” He received an Aga Khan award in 2005 and the Pritzker price in 2025.
Kéré talks about “mutual learning” with the locals who literally participate in the conception and building of the architecture he produces.
I will try to quote him in passing when I introduce my side of the ‘Reparations: Land and More’ Question Relay at Avery.
What if Kéré had been invited to come to Charleston and had made ‘vernacular’ propositions for the development of Union Pier?
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In the middle of the night, I went deeper into the VERNACULAR. This word I want to throw in, to introduce the Question Relay. Because, although for whoever knows it at all, it concerns mostly architecture or language, it extends its territory to art, culture, history, just as Illich says …. All this foraging into the Vernacular paradigm is so stimulating, providing such a major intersection of concepts from every direction!
Then ( same night), I got into BINARISM. The way it eliminates complexities,
nuances, growth, evolution; and is fixated on two opposites which define the spaces where imaginaries are born and mature, and to which it is – consequently – blind. The logic is clear of bringing up binarism along with the vernacular. It is a matter of generation, of history and continuity. The rhizomic nature of time and space. Their horizontality as opposed to the verticality of productivist time. Here I am back with Emilie Hache and André Gorz when they approach heteronomy, that state of dependency on a hierarchical entity. When artist Canupa Hanska Luger says that “what makes an artist is the beauty of his/her life”, he is advocating for a life liberated from authoritarian mandates, where individuals are free to choose a future and work towards it, supported in that by equally free
individuals. Together they can associate and constitute a social body capable of self-government. Of course, the difficulties of ‘making society’ depend on the scale of the enterprise. But they can also be incentives to create collectively and share the fruit of the collective labor. From there, one can imagine an infinite number of approaches to self-government. This diversity of possibilities, this complexity are at the basis of a free society …
—–
I just read a declaration by AOC, who was asked if she had larger ambitions for the future. That question was asked at a moment of public speculations around a run for president or one for Chuck Schumer’s job! Her answer was as clear as it was beautiful and forceful: “My ambition is to change the country” she declared!
Who will tell me that this is NOT the answer of an autonomous politician? I believe she is free. And not for sale! Hers is, I also believe, a dream she shares with a majority of first voters, frustrated non-voters and independents. At least, it is my bet for 2028. And that’s why I finally believe that the only chance for the the future of trumpism is to sabotage the next presidential elections. Romaric Godin speaks of “capitalisme d’Etat d’Urgence” or “State-of-Emergency capitalism”! A system which keeps its citizenry under permanent pressure, with violence, fear mongering and uncertainty about the future.
Don’t we all know that if it cannot convince the people, the State represses it?
05-10-2026
So much happens around you as soon as you pay attention!
Enough to make you believe that you are the center of the universe!
————
With Francis Kéré still on my mind …
he who gathers the vernacular vocabulary of the people he works with to create an updated architecture they will embrace as their own,
… I find a site showing the process of – every thirty years – building, on the same ground but with a wall between them, the exact replica of a traditional Japanese structure, to assure the transmission of building techniques from generation to generation.
What a lesson also, when you know you may spot a contemporary Japanese design for its essentialism.
I wish Charleston had not lost the essentials of its architecture and traded them for mainstream vulgarities.
Actually, somewhere in this Journal, I already talked about a Japanese temple being ‘copied’, down to the smallest detail, every 25 years, to preserve traditional woodworking skills.
05-13-2026
Today is important for TINYisPOWERFUL. It is the launching of our last weekend at Avery. It starts tonight at 5:30 with a Question Relay about Reparations.
Marcus and I are each covering a different aspect of Reparations. Here is my present take on reparations:
Reparations, land, of course, money, palpable assets. For sure.
As sculptures, all the pieces you see here and downstairs talk about reparations.
It all started as a dream, in 2020 … a poem, a Tale.
In “a Tale of Charleston …
Charleston was repairing itself without knowing.
Public transportation
Affordable housing
Green spaces and less traffic
Equity and Access
But it was just a Tale.
Then, at the end of 2023, the Union Pier development project came up.
I was a community stake holder.
Well …
When I saw the debacle,
‘a Tale of Charleston’ turned into ‘a Tale for Reparations’
An expression of my anger, my shame.
Union Pier, a space for Reparations ?
Where land also means culture? the environment? an inspirer? the binder?
I call this Generation, RE-generation.
This is my approach to Reparations tonight.
More history, more wisdom, more dialogue, more trust
More humanity – More love.
And a long term vision into the future.
The Tale started with art as a tool and TINYisPOWERFUL as a container.
It will continue with more IN/WITH community Art,
For Reparations.
My last word: when the time comes, let’s go vote “en masse”!
—–
Since we are at it, here is an other text meant to offer visitors a simple reading of the different pieces in the Tale and proposing a story line, to make the whole installation more accessible. And better integrated in the program of activities.
Beause ‘a Tale of Charleston/for Reparations’ is only one element in the whole output of TINYisPOWEFUL shown at AVERY.
Below is the full coverage:
TINYisPOWERFUL – COMMUNITY LAB at the AVERY CENTER
ACTIVITY TABLE:
ZINES and ZINE MAKING: at all times, we have the materials and equipment to make
zines, large or small. Take them with you or leave them with us. Sign up the contact sheet.
MONSTER MAKING: at all times, we also have the materials and equipment to make
monsters, large or small. Take them with you or leave them with us. Sign up the contact sheet.
INDIGO WORK will be performed outside, weather permitting. Take your pieces with you or leave them with us. Sign up the contact sheet.
WRITERS are encouraged to bring their work in progress.
FILM – VIDEO PROJECTIONS – RECORDINGS/DOCUMEMTATIONS:
Check the program and do not miss the RICHARD WRIGHT impersonation by poet Darryl Wellington and interactive Zoom conversation with the artist.
Recordings of/by participants at all times.
THE BLEACHER:
Every time TINYisPOWERFUL has a public event, we make sure there is a forum space for people to gather, exchange or practice ART IN/WITH COMMUNITY. At the AVERY there is a bleacher. A reminder that in/with community Art is a tool for dialogue, a way to facilitate exchanges, promote reciprocity, dedication to excellence, patient change.
QUESTION RELAY:
On Wednesday May 13th at 5:30 there will be a session around REPARATIONS: LAND and MORE. This topic was chosen in parallel with the visual art installation in view on the second and third floors of the CENTER and presented extensively below …
A TALE OF CHARLESTON/A TALE FOR REPARATIONS
This visual work was chosen by TINYisPOWERFUL to anchor the final week end of its residency at the AVERY CENTER. The storyline along which the TALE developed has been adapted to accommodate AVERY’s own programing and the awkward layout of the installation in two separate rooms: the Changing room on the second floor and the McKinley Auditorium on the third.
* * *
STORYLINE
On 04-07-2020, in my TINYisPOWERFUL journal, I noted that a French artist friend, had enlisted us, Gwylene and I, in a chain of poetry! We instantly identified a Financial Times article on MMT and a musical line from Stravinsky’s opera “a Rake’s Progress”[Tralala, tralala, tralala lala lala lala lala] as the two perfects poles defining a space for infinite creativity – poetry – with an improbable intersection: money!
“a Tale of Charleston” is all about a joyous Farandola dancing, around the city transformed into a green and affordable place, free of cars and Boutique hotels, where America street is as desirable as Broad street, not because of gentrification but thanks to the full recognition of our beautiful city’s history …. Tralala, tralala, tralala lala lala lala lala!
“a Tale for Reparations” takes shape when, in late 2023, TINYisPOWERFUL follows the ‘Union Pier’ saga. How developers are treating the last major piece of unbuilt downtown real estate is yet an other test of Charleston’s sense of private vs public ownership! Still in the mindset of the Tale, we imagine Union Pier becoming the Charleston Common! The perfect opportunity for Charlestonians to initiate a process of reparations.
Now, “this innocence makes me cry”.
However, between 2020 and 2024, we were compelled to create the work shown here, at the AVERY RESEARCH CENTER FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE, by TINYisPOWERFUL.
Tralala, tralala, tralala lala lala lala lala!
In the CHANGING ROOM (second floor):
MARTHA LOU’S: a memorial to the family which ran this Soul Food restaurant for decades and was swept away by gentrification, erasing one more bit of Black history in Charleston. It consists in an interpretation of the restaurant structure. And a deconstruction crane tangling its remnants at the end of a rope. A lynching?
BERTHA’S: an other Soul Food restaurant, threatened -in this case- by Charleston’s
overdevelopment. New I-26 exits drew such a polluting net over and around the site that
the family thought of selling the place. It was saved and followed by a grant from the National Trust from Historic Preservation and AmEx. Explainer: “These restaurants demonstrate the power that places hold. For generations, neighbors have gathered here … enjoyed regional cuisines that often reflect our nation’s global roots” – Bertha’s still operates today.
THE AGORA: a sketch of what a multi-use public space can offer. Inspired by Japanese Kabuki theater spaces where people, as they enjoy the art of Performance, can converse and be served/share food. Consists of: an elevated walkway, too flimsy to hold the weight of any adult person – a set of three benches to accommodate all ages – a make-believe Japanese tofu cooker – and a pile or two of white plates, conceptually functional.
To me, Japan is a tale-of-a-place, where contemporaneity does not affect myths. It does not seem to be easy for the young but, at least, there, imperial instincts have been tamed.
In the MCKINLEY WASHINGTON AUDITORIUM
A SOCIAL HOUSING PROPOSAL: isn’t one of the major potentials of social housing to offer proximity and community to populations otherwise threatened by the isolating tendencies of present individualistic modes?
Reparations means living “under a shared roof” regardless of differences – with a shared
“roof runway”, used as a common extension of the apartments, themselves relatively transparent, visually accessible. The opposite of silo living. Because the education of the young is a community endeavor, requiring the experience of shared spaces and shared ‘things’.
A CORNUCOPIA: The axonometric drawing of one of the social housing units is just a 2D representation. But what does the opening of four clerestory windows to the outside and a wacky assemblage of sawhorses permit a cogitating sculptor to do? To uncover the blossoming of a full array of fruit, vegetables and fishes, whose color makes the whole construction explode with humor and hope!
A FISH FARM: Yes, combining urban hydroponics, greenhouse farming and urban fish
farming is possible! It takes a parturient Mother Fish and separate pools for the different stages of a fish life. On the deck, pools are graphically represented by white outlines. Fish migrate between pools as they grow from TINY to mature. Also, pollution from fish farming is taken into consideration: with this coupling of fish and veggy production, the fish water, full of nutrients, is filtered and feeds the vegetables! Quality and proximity make the farm-to-table cycle virtuous.
A SEDAN CHAIR: A portable theater showing the dystopian contradictions feeding the present political scene. A double entry spectacle in two tableaux. One offers a wide open view of a generic Deliberation Chamber, heavy on decor and decorum but reduced to a pulpit with no officiant, seats for absent acolytes and no public but the occasional voyeur: you – yes,
YOU! Not sure whether it is tragic or laughable! The other tableau emulates what should be a puppet show theater for children of all ages, with three eternal characters: Pulccinella, Colombina and Gendarme who pursues/hurts/haunts them, constantly … But today, the Theater is closed. Sorry!
As for the books above, their covers, their spines … the map on their spines … only to situate Gaza in our (un)educated heads.
YOUR HOUSE, OUR HOME is the work of Abriel Myers, former in/with community resident artist with TINYisPOWERFUL. Her artist statement:
“[this piece is] a metaphoric reflective piece that touches upon critical topics as it relates to Charleston, SC and its residents that have inhabited it for generations. It explores complex subjects such as gentrification, climate change, and advocacy. It also alludes to the necessity for cultural awareness and the continuation of cultural preservation in this city that is now ever changing.”
05-16-2026
The last five days at Avery have been successful! For one thing, we have never had such an attendance. Not that there were crowds but up to 25 people at a time! Among them, quite a few we did not know; artists who may want to pursue a collaboration; old returning friends who understood they were missing something; even some nostalgic ones. And old Brother Dubuff, quite a talker who took much of our time but always for good reasons.
Tuesday
The Creative Sync started the day. Debating about Marcus’ poster and the invitation of a pro-Reparations group, unexpected and whose name appeared on the poster without the collective’s approval. Also, Daron, Avery manager, had received an email from Mama Afia, a local Gullah Geechee personality, who put into question TINYisPOWERFUL’s legitimacy to take a position on Reparations and, if I understand, did not want her name associated with the group in question, although Marcus was a co-creator of it. And she was not sure about pressuring Middleton plantation to cede 7,000 acres of its land to ignite a local Reparations process …
Daron called an afternoon Zoom meeting with Mama Afia. It took her a long time to make her opposition clear … although for no very clear reasons other than her belief that the issue was hers and nobody else’s! The poster was changed. It was sent again to our mailing list and we hoped for the best!
Marcus had invited an elder, I guess, to influence Mama Afia in our favor. The old man must have impressed her with his plea for the Young generation to take over the helm. She quieted down. Again, his name is Brother Dubuff.
Wednesday
The Question Relay session “Reparations: Land and More”, with Marcus and myself presenting, one the Land part and the other the More part. Victoria explained the process and facilitated the evening.
Finally, the session was intense, were it only for its scarily slow start and the monopolization of speaking time by Brother Dubuff! Good thing after all that Mama Afia did not show up! A Dubuff-Afia bout would have been hard to stop! It took all of us to improvise ways to keep the momentum going. By the end though, questions and answers kept rolling in. The whole musical chair process could have been longer but, Avery Rule … things must have an early end! Early end but good ending. A rich evening after all.
Friday
Not much I can say about the early afternoon of activities. Gwylène tells me it was a bit slow inside, for Zine and Monster making. I was left at home to cook for the evening! When I got there, around 5:30, there was a good bunch of participants, on the front lawn of Avery, next to the bottle-tree, where Arianne had pitched her Indigo workshop tent. Inside, at the auditorium, I was pleased to meet with Bill Carson, his wife and two young women in their 30’s who were intrigued by the Tale. They said they would come to the dinner! Gwylène also introduced me to the Indian woman who works at the Charleston Foundation for Spirituality. She was interested to meet further around the work of TINYisPOWERFUL.
All this looked much like a family gathering, with a lot of kids running around everywhere! I left early to get ready for the open house and dinner. Because, in the meantime, there was the much anticipated Zoom session with Darryl Wellington AS Richard Wright. Scheduled from 5:30 to 7:00, it extended to 8:00 or so!
People were taken by Darryl’s impersonation and the breadth of knowledge he showed when he answered questions from the audience. My only regret is that he did not perform what I thought to be a great moment of theater when – after his Santa Fe stage performance and a short Q/A segment – he loosened his very proper tie in a gesture of liberation and declaimed “Now you can ask ME question!” And questions there were.
Bravo Darryl! And thank you for the work.
Later on, then, around 20 people ended up at the house. It reminded us, GG and me, of the many Charleston Rhizome dinners we had before covid, when artists would be invited to present their work and the crowd would exchange around the arts, politics, social justice and such, until late in the evening.
Brother Dubuff improvised two poems, Precious improvised a dance following the ‘roaming’ function of a tuner set on fm radio. Tramaine sang a long variation on the word Alleluia. As for Omari, who was supposed to show up with three of his New Danger poets and to be the DJ for the evening … he is still waiting for his poets! But that’s fine.
It looks like we are going to have a meeting with Tramaine and Precious in two weeks and look at each other’s works. Encouraging I say.
Saturday
till 2pm it was a wonderful repeat of Friday at the AVERY, with a grounding by Gullah Geechee Elder Carlie Towne, the participation of the inter-generational Bee Collective and more. Gwylene bought the newly published book of Rooter Shannon Ivey, “Welcome to the Sh*t Show, A Memoir of Colorectal Cancer and the Power of Self-Advocacy.” And then read it in two days, going through unforgettable emotions.
05-20-2026
We took the rest of theweekend off, if I remember!
Then there were two days of moving out. For Avery, a routine exercise. A sad one for TINYisPOWERFUL.
When some of us went back the next day, for a final inspection of our cleanup, Avery was back to its usual function of historic African-American repository. The vast and now empty McKinley Auditorium was hosting a dozen elderly ladies having lunch around a single round table in the center of the grand space, void of any leftover TINYisPOWERFUL paraphernalia which had literally imprinted the place for two months. It felt a bit sad. Only the grass-green bleacher had been moved across the room, way to the side. That is where the only young person in the ancestral party was sitting, en solitaire! This felt a bit surreal. Yet the smell of fresh hot food was invasive and enticing!
Downstairs, the Changing room was silent but, on the first floor, another display of food was ready for a group of visiting students. There was more food than students and we were invited to share the abundant surplus!
Avery was back to its institutional pace, strangely made of long hours of silence, interrupted by the hyperactive choreography of staff setting up and removing heaps of tables and chairs, under the worried eye of Daron, Public Programing Coordinator, who guided us for the duration of our residency. Thank you Daron and everybody else.
We had counted on a gung-ho finale and we got it! Had every weekend been as active as this one, we would have accomplished a remarkable residency. Altogether though, I personally will remember a series of missed opportunities for our proudly interracial collective to so mingle with the people of Avery, that our two groups could become cousins, somehow! I guess my own dream was to erase, in me, the last traces of shyness vis-a-vis a culture I admire and love.
Not sure who missed what! For sure each of us, AVERY and TINY (as Victoria calls us now!), would have benefited from more interactions. Because, this is really what this city needs, if it really wants to overcome its exceptionalist
tendencies.
Yet, despite my slight disappointment (for which I blame myself primarily), I have developed a great affection and admiration for the rarefied staff of Avery. It seems to me that this small group of dedicated archivists and cultural workers had literally been sealed off from public life when it fell under the College of Charleston authority and control. To work there is a form of sacrificial love, of monacal dedication to a task that must be performed whatever.
This, definitely spells LONG TERM, a scope I fully admire Avery for. At a time when expediency has erased all other criteria, long term vision is a lost art. The dizzying aggressiveness of the present political scene can only bring about more civil injustice and more social violence.
So, thank you Avery and the African American sense of the LONG TERM I have now learned and hopefully integrated it. I believe it is a central element in VERNACULAR WISDOM. After all, there may be an arc of history, bent by/with patience and foresight. Not intentionality. Certainly not destiny.
I surmise: VERNACULAR WISDOM is also the capacity to take punches and keep a steady compass.
================================
05-22-2026
Yesterday Darryl asked me what I was reading these days. I told him about the “Generation” book by Emilie Hache. I described the way she is digging deep into Ancient Greek polytheism and the opposition with the monotheism of modern religions, the notion of revelation, dogmatic approaches to universal questions, binarism, simplified world views, manichaeism, and, ultimately, forms of authoritarianism, political or not … He sort of objected that there was nothing new there. This possibly defensive stance troubles me coming from such a knowledgable artist! It is why I often withdraw from serendipitous conversations. Last night, I did not have the heart to pursue! Of course most everything Darryl or I know is not all that new! But that’s not the point. The point is to remember that it is not what is known but what we do with what we know that makes the difference. How do we fit what we know with what others bring that we don’t know. How this changes our outlook or not. How, individually, we integrate or recycle newly acquired knowledge in the diversity of sources we have access to, without compromising the fluidity of the whole intellectual architecture … How to remain prudent, modest and daring at the same time, to make all the difference we can make …
Simple coincidence? This morning I was reading about a sociodemographic research by Patrick Simon, who is publishing his second study of the French immigration populations. In it, he covers how identities are built from/into patchworks of multiple origins, multiple cultural practices, but also of friendships and varied marital relationships … (my interpretation).
How about this added layer of complexity brought about by this Patrick Simon research? It makes the: “We already know all this, Jean-Marie!” a bit short in content! But no offense, Darryl. You got excited when I buttressed my argument with my take on contemporary ecofeminism, a liberation movement founded, on the refusal by women, often of Spanish expression, to submit to misogyny, or conform to norms, in this age of infinite diversity. Moreover since this cohort of writresses often comes from South America – where the social and political role of women remains a hot and permanent topic – and has chosen to migrate to Spain, where it all started, and where it can confront the beast of colonialism head on. Some kind of a revenge. Such a powerful leap of cultural pride across the sea!
Verbatim excerpt from Patrick Simon editor’s notes:
“[This] second work, built around more than 27,000 conversations between 2019 and 2020, was very much expected … co-written by thirty five researchers who, over 600 pages, sprinkled with graphics, analyzed a society in which identities form into patchworks of different origins, cultural practices, but also of friendships or diverse marital relationships.”
05-23-2026
Interview of Elias Sambar by Edwy Pleynel, last night.
Every voice of the murdered people of Palestine moves me to tears. Invariably though, this emotional reaction is followed always with my fear for the people of Israel. In its name, at arm’s length, its military machine, its youth, are erasing two million humans they may have, at one moment, imagined living with for the sake of their own humanity, that of their victims and of the entire world. Peace cannot be at such a horrible price. No. Who will be left to pity Israel when the silence of time does not appease its collective soul?
At this very moment, I am also listening to French music critics, comparing past interpretations of Franz Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” (the quartet). Guess who the winner is? The Jerusalem Quartet, ( 2007, Harmonia Mundi) . Bless its interpretation of a piece where a young woman in the shadow of death, still fights for her life – to the end. Coincidence I believe. Or is it the ubiquitous presence of violence that pits my mind?
05-24-2026
Back to Elias Sambar!
He affirms, speaking about the people of Israel and their relationship with genocide, that victimhood is not an identity and that victims do not only acquire rights for having been victimized. They also acquire duties. One of their duties, as members of the world community, it to make sure that what they suffered as a people will not be suffered by other peoples.
—–
And then, yesterday, also, there was Satyagraha, by Phillip Glass, performed at the Paris Opera a few weeks ago for yesterday’s broadcast on France Musique.
Part of a trilogy – with “Einstein on the Beach” and “Akhenaten”. Satyagraha is itself in three acts, each dedicated to a world figure Gandhi’s name is attached to: Tolstoï, Tagor and MLK. Opera inspired by the Bhagavad Gita and the promotion of Non-violence.
Yes! Philip Glass. Non-violence. An other coincidence? Or, again, this invasive urge to turn the page on terminal supremacy.