“Folklore rules the mythical landscape of Mike Ejeagha’s music; his lyrical calibrations are more about the prosody of folksongs and folktales; his language of the music is Igbo, and the purpose is didactic,” Brilliant essay about Mike Ejeagha by Chimezie Chika.
“Doris Lee’s example shows us that humor can be as legitimate as seriousness, simplicity as valid as complexity, joy as rational a response to one’s time as despair — and that they can and do exist together at the same time.”
“The night is the time when the order of the day loses its grip, the time when spirits come out. Ana calls the Spirit again, repeating her name: ‘Soy Ana’, and we hear the sound of the train as if the Spirit has responded.” A beautiful essay by Magda Mariamidze
A collection of all the articles we’ve published over the past month, for those who like to savor their Magpies’ tidings as an issue.
Late winter ramblings from the pigeon spaces of the mind.
“Burnett’s cinematic poetry arises from the hundred small “sensory-motor disconnections” of every damn day, gaps and dislocations from which a sad but resilient emotion flows.”
“I see that. In one sense it’s a war because of all the cheating, plunder, rape, and so forth, but it’s different from all other wars because it’s a religious war and therefore pleasing unto God.”
As a flâneur of insatiable curiosity, he abandoned the main boulevards for the lushness of Riverside Park, the crowds at Madison Square, the excavation site for Pennsylvania Station, the kids at play on Coney Island, the private clubs where illegal boxing could be staged for paying members, and the “river rats” of the East River.
“Helen Levitt’s pictures haunt like intimate ghosts – ever present, never forceful, curious, receptive.”
“First of all, let me say: Chinelo Okparanta, you have my heart. For daring to write a novel that tackles so many taboos – queer love, religion, politics – all wrapped in the language of African idiom and folklore.”
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