August 27, 2008

Hunting

Today is Wednesday. The gods of the forest rest so hunters and loggers stay home and repair their equipment.

Just down the street from my chalet two hulking vultures perch high on a branches of a large tree. Their nest, about four feet across, is a angry knot of sticks and grass. Each day as I pass underneath their roost on my way to my office and every day I look up and worry about their droppings and wonder when and where on campus they scavenge. The “No Hunting on Campus” sign at the gate to the university stands as an ironic gesture to their inevitability. The sign however is meant for the members of the Apewosika village that divides the old campus and the new. As I had written earlier, the land where the village stands was purchased by the university, but they were unable to evict the residents so they continue to reside crowded in their mudhouses and dividing the campus down the middle. (Go to my photo album to look at the vultures, the “No Hunting” Sign, and other photos of campus. The link is: http://picasaweb.google.com/labanhill)

I suspect that the creatures the vultures hunt are rock hyrax. These small rodent-like mammals are more closely related to an elephant than any other animal and are very common. I have seen them sunning themselves on rocks. On the bus back from Accra last week, I saw children waving grilled rodents on sticks to sell. The creature, perhaps 18 inches long, were splayed on a cross with their arms and legs fully extended as if the creature were being cured in the sun. I realize now that these were rock hyrax. Cars pulled up beside the kids and bought hyrax on a stick for a cedi, or about a dollar.

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.