Laban Carrick Hill

Biography Books Poems Events Groundnut Soup Articles Ghana Poetry

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Blogradio Inerview with Laban Carrick Hill

Buy books from Flying Pig Books and other independent booksellers.

Ghana Poetry Porject
This week's featured poet: Nii Lantey Lamptey

Ghana Poetry Project
This week's featured poet: Rhyme Sunny

Ghana Poetry Project
This week's featured poet:
Novisi Dzitrie

Ghana Poetry Project
This week's featured poets: Crystal Tettey and Black.

Ghana Poetry Project
This week's featured Poet: Mariska Taylor-Darko reading "I Love Ghana."

Listen to an interview with Laban Carrick Hill

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Recent Articles and Publications

KPAM Radio Interview (6.7MB)

"Rose." Planetary Stories Project.
http://www.blackearthinstitute.org/PS_Ghana.html

"Two Faces of Ghana." New York Times Sunday Travel Section, August 9, 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/travel/09ghana.html

Radio Interview: KPAM Radio Travel Show, Portland, OR, August 22, 2009.

Blogradio Interview with Laban Carrick Hill

Passions and Possibilities Radio Show
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/passionsandpossibilities/2009/05/29/The-Passions-and-Possibilities-Project-Special-Guest

Article

"A Jazzed Up Hughes" Smithsonian Magazine
A report on the multimedia performance of Langston Hughes's epic poem "Ask Your Mama" at Carnegie Hall.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/A-Jazzed-Up-Langston-Hughes.html

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Essay

"The Energy Monster"
An essay about depression and my relationship with my daughter.

http://www.mybodyofknowledge.com/chapter4_interaction/chapter_pieces/Energy_Monster_content.html

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Poem

Samuela's Fufu at the literary journal One Ghana, One Voice

http://oneghanaonevoice.com/2008/10/samuelas-fufu-laban-hill.html

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Article

Why Can't Wall Street Be More Like Ghana

This piece looks at the Wall Street debacle from the perspective of living in Ghana.

http://www.modernghana.com/news/189161/1/why-cant-wall-street-be-more-like-ghana.html

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Ga Ga for Obama

A piece about how the people of Ghana respond to Obama as president.

http://www.7dvt.com/2008ga-ga-obama

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In the Company of Men

This is a piece I wrote for Cigar Aficionado on smoking cigars.

http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Archives/CA_Show_Article/0,2322,529,00.html

Do you like my web site?

Click and type in a question or comment

I read your piece in the NY Times and I really liked it. Unfortunately you committed the proverbial crime by calling "hkatenkwan" a peanut stew. Oops, Nkwan means soup and it is definitely a groundnut soup. But, I liked your vivid recount of the trip. My name is Sydney Casely-Hayford, I publish a newspaper for Ghanaians in the US Diaspora. Why don't you find a moment a call me on 301-755-7734. I would like to publish some of the poems on my website and in the newspaper. Take care.

Your web site is lovely, but most of all you seems to capture the essence of Ghana beyond the grasp of most westerners. I am very proud of you.

It's exciting to see such a prolific and stimulating presentation of one man's work. Thanks Laban. - Vidda Crochetta from Vermont

I like it very much!
-- Susie from Idaho

Selected Works

1. Nonfiction

DJ Kool Herc
The first picturebook biography of the founder of rap and hip hop, DJ Kool Herc!

America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s
"Phenomenal."–Howard Zinn "Excellent."–New York Times Book Review

Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance
“Harlem Stomp! is a wonderous new book: it celebrates a time, a place, an energy, and a people who refused to be held back and so they created a culture the entire world is still reeling from.”

--George C. Wolfe, writer, director, and producer of the Public Theater, NYC

3. Poetry

Dave the Potter
A picturebook poem describing the life of the slave potter Dave. Illustrated by Bryan Collier.

Contemporary Poetry of New England
“Contemporary Poetry of New England offers a vivid portrait of a region, its colors and smells, its physical and emotional textures, and the people…. It presents a range of poets, few of whom would call themselves a “region poet,” although each has taken to heart in a private way Frost’s haunting dictum: ‘Locality gives art.’”

--from the Introduction

2. Fiction

A Brush with Napoleon
A seventeen-year-old is plucked out of the Grande Armee to sit in place of Napoleon for a portrait of the Emperor by the artist David.

Casa Azul
"I felt like a kid reading every word on the page! I liked the strains of "magic realism" coming through in Frida's house! Children will relate to this very much! The story is charming and reads like a thriller." –Margarita Aguilar, Assisant Curator, El Museo del Barrio

4. Middle Grade Series

Xtreme Mysteries
These kids love extreme sports--snowboarding, skateboarding, rock climbing, wake boarding--and are ready to fight when the right to do their sport is threatened.