nadinestorying

nadinestorying, 11 months ago to sciencefiction

“I didn’t make up the problems. All I did was look around at the problems we’re neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters.“
— Octavia E. Butler, who would've been 76 today, on not being a prophet

#OctaviaButler
#SpeculativeFiction
#ScienceFiction
#OnThisDay
#Quote

nadinestorying, 8 months ago to Plants

Isn't this magical? A Crested Senecio Vitalis succulent that resembles a mermaid's tail! 🧜🏾‍♀️ 😍

(Photo credit: plantgroovy on Instagram)

#Plants
#Succulents
#HousePlants
#Mermaid

nadinestorying, 9 months ago to art

The late Tamara Natalie Madden, a Jamaican-born painter & mixed-media artist, was born on August 16, 1975.

“She once wrote: “... The golden headpieces worn by all of the subjects in my paintings represent mystical crowns, halos, armor and weaponry for the spiritual warriors. The birds in my paintings are symbolic of my personal struggle with illness and a representation of my survival and freedom from it.”“

https://www.artsatl.org/obituary-tamara-natalie-madden-atlanta-artist-spelman-professor/

#Jamaica
#Art
#Artist
#BlackFedi
#BlackMastodon
#OnThisDay

nadinestorying, 7 months ago to random

“Oh rascal children of Gaza. You who constantly disturbed me with your screams under my window. You who filled every morning with rush and chaos. You who broke my vase and stole the lonely flower on my balcony. Come back, and scream as you want and break all the vases. Steal all the flowers. Come back..Just come back..”
— Khaled Juma, a Palestinian poet from Rafah, Gaza, penned this poem in 2014

nadinestorying, 1 year ago to random

On this day in 1494, the mass murderer and colonizer Christopher Columbus (may he wander the wastelands forever) landed in Jamaica. The Spanish changed the Taíno name Xaymaca to Jamaica.

A historical inaccuracy is that he exterminated the Taíno. Their descendants are alive and well in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean and Americas.

#Jamaica
#JamaicanHistory
#Caribbean
#OnThisDay

nadinestorying, 6 months ago to random

“The job of the writer, sometimes, is to remind people that they have feet still capable of dancing.”
— Ibrahim Nasrallah, Palestinian author, on joy as resistance

nadinestorying, 1 month ago to climate

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

If you’re a Caribbean writer who resides in the Caribbean, submit your poetry, fiction, or non-fiction by June 7, 2024 to Writing for Our Lives, “an anthology of stories illuminating the urgency of the climate crisis for people and communities of Caribbean states marked by their varied yet substantial vulnerabilities”.

Learn more:

https://thecropperfoundation.org/writingforourlives/

#Caribbean
#CaribbeanWriters
#ClimateJustice

nadinestorying, 6 months ago to folklore

During the First Maroon War in Jamaica, the Maroons were near starvation and Grandy Nanny had been on the verge of giving up. It's said that she had a vision in which her ancestors encouraged her not to surrender. When she awoke, she found three pumpkin seeds in her pocket. Shortly after planting them on a hillside, now known as Pumpkin Hill in Portland, the vines bore enough large pumpkins to save the Maroons from starvation.

#MythologyMonday
#Jamaica
#JamaicanFolklore
#Folklore
#Folktale

nadinestorying, 5 months ago to random

Registration is now open for the very first International Black Speculative Writing Festival! This festival celebrates Black British and international speculative writers. It will be held at Goldsmiths University, London from February 2–4, 2024. Check it out if you live in the area or qualify for the virtual version.

https://brittlepaper.com/2024/01/register-for-the-first-international-black-speculative-writing-festival-in-london-feb-2-4/

#BlackSpeculativeWriting
#BlackSpeculativeFiction
#BlackWriters
#BlackMastodon
#BlackFediverse

nadinestorying, 7 months ago to random

Happy Jounen Kwéyòl (Creole Day) to Dominicans and St. Lucians everywhere! 🇩🇲 🇱🇨

Since 1984, Jounen Kwéyòl has been celebrated on the last Friday of October in Dominica, and the last Sunday of October in St. Lucia. Moreover, October is Creole Heritage Month in St. Lucia.

#JounenKwéyòl
#CreoleDay
#Dominica
#SaintLucia
#Caribbean
#Creole

nadinestorying, 8 months ago to books

"... the Caribbean isn’t a geographical area, but rather a cultural one. It doesn’t only cover the Caribbean Sea. For me, it begins in the south of the United States – everything that is Louisiana and Florida – and extends to northern Brazil. That is, it’s not a geographical territory, but a cultural territory."
— Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian novelist and the winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature

https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-10-02/an-unpublished-interview-with-gabriel-garcia-marquez-maybe-the-myths-about-me-are-more-interesting-than-my-life.html

#Caribbean
#Culture
#Books

nadinestorying, 5 months ago to random

The Caribbean People is an oral history database project of the Create Caribbean Research Institute in Dominica that aims to archive the ways that knowledge about the Caribbean is preserved, democratized and shared. If you're interested in helping to document the region's stories or know someone who could be a part of the project, complete the form at the following link to register.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScuEgegP-a_HPG0PChTmtHvCqUcXGCQQrgW7e_lT8D5E-QaCw/viewform

#Caribbean
#CaribbeanHistory
#Dominica

nadinestorying, 1 year ago to blackmastodon

Hey, Black Authors!

If you're currently completing a book-length manuscript on Black women’s history, applications for the Black Women's History Series Incubator are open.

About the Black Women’s History Series Incubator: https://uncpressblog.com/2023/05/03/announcing-the-black-womens-history-series-incubator-program/

Apply here: https://uncpress.org/black-womens-history-series-incubator/

#BlackWriters
#BlackAuthors
#BlackWomen
#BlackHistory
#BlackFedi
#BlackFediverse
#BlackMastodon

@blackmastodon
@BlackMastodon

nadinestorying, 7 months ago to fantasy

It means so much that my speculative poem "Sonnet for Birds" was accepted, and is now published in Strange Horizons. I'm in wonderful company for this Caribbean SFF Special Issue.

http://strangehorizons.com/poetry/sonnet-for-birds/

#SFF
#Fantasy
#Jamaica
#Caribbean
#Poetry
#SpeculativePoetry

nadinestorying, 19 days ago to Writers

“No writing is wasted. Did you know that sourdough from San Francisco is leavened partly by a bacteria called lactobacillus sanfrancisensis?... Even a failed loaf is not wasted. Likewise, cheese makers wash the dairy floor with whey. Tomato gardeners compost with rotten tomatoes. No writing is wasted: the words you can’t put in your book can wash the floor, live in the soil, lurk around in the air. They will make the next words better.”

— Erin Bow

#Writers
#Writing

nadinestorying, 11 months ago to random

A blessed Eid al-Adha to all who celebrate.

Based on an annotation in an Islamicate manuscript that was acquired in the Caribbean, in 1773, an enslaved West African person in Léogâne (Haiti) wrote an Arabic charm in the presence of Pierre DuSimitiere. The talismanic charm is “mostly comprised of several repeated verses from the Qurʾān [with] a few words in Soninke.”

Charm: https://archive.org/details/b10_f4

Re the manuscript: https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0012/html/961_f_5d.html

#Caribbean
#Arabic
#Africa
#WestAfrica
#Muslim

nadinestorying, 3 months ago to random

Toni Morrison on respecting writer's block, excerpted from Black Women Writers at Work

#ToniMorrison

nadinestorying, 10 months ago to random

A blessed Independence Day to my fellow Jamaicans everywhere. 🇯🇲

We still have a long way to go.

#IndependenceDay
#Jamaica
#Jamaica61
#Caribbean

A black-and-white scan of the front page of The Daily Gleaner dated August 6, 1962 with the headline: JAMAICA CELEBRATES INDEPENDENCE Princess opens first Parliament A photo of the Royal family and other officials is under the headline.
A black-and-white photo of Jamaica's first Independence Float and Parade. The location could be Downtown Kingston. An image of Jamaica's Coat of Arms is on the front of the Float. The onlookers are quiet and taking everything in. The only people smiling are the women on the float. Even the child in front and the two men towards the back are serious. Things and times have changed because our public events are usually scenes of jubilation.

nadinestorying, 4 months ago to random

Ways we can help Tigray:

1. Donate to provide food, emergency medicine, medical supplies, and sanitation supplies to those in dire need:

https://secure.givelively.org/donate/ethiopian-community-development-council-inc/tigray-s-famine-our-response

2. Sign the petition to resume humanitarian assistance in Tigray:

https://resist.bot/petitions/PAXHAV

3. Participate in the global email campaign:

https://www.callitagenocide.com/

#Tigray
#TigrayFamine
#TigrayGenocide

nadinestorying, 3 months ago to folklore

When someone loses a tooth, a Jamaican custom is to throw it on the rooftop and say, "Rat-a-tat! Rat-a-tat! Tek mi ole teet' an' gimme a new one." The belief is that this prevents the rat from coming for the rest of one's teeth and ensures that one would receive a new tooth.

#MythologyMonday theme: Teeth
#Jamaica
#JamaicanFolklore
#Caribbean
#CaribbeanFolklore
#Folklore

nadinestorying, 3 months ago to shortstory

Today, I learned that "The Black Vampyre: A Legend of St. Domingo is an American short story published in 1819 by the pseudonymous Uriah Derick D'Arcy. It is credited as "the first black vampire story, the first comedic vampire story, the first story to include a mulatto vampire, the first vampire story by an American author, and perhaps the first anti-slavery short story"" with proximity to the Haitian Revolution. (Wikipedia)

https://archive.org/details/the-black-vampyre-a-legend-of-st.-domingo-by-uriah-derick-d-arcy

#ShortStory
#BlackMastodon

nadinestorying, 1 month ago to poetry

The Early Caribbean Society will host Poetry for Liberation: From Haiti to Palestine on Friday, May 10, 2024 at 12 p.m. EST with readings from poets, students, and instructors. Donations to Care for Gaza.

Meeting registration:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcpcu2uqT0qGdxZPN8zvFxYbiodxc-2Y7QT#/registration

#Caribbean
#Poetry

nadinestorying, 1 year ago to worldwithoutus

In recognition of #AfricaDay, here are a few of my memorable African reads:

Things Fall Apart
Who Fears Death
Stay With Me by A. Adebayo
Africanfuturism: An Anthology ed. Wole Talabi

In the photo is a spoon with kola nut, which is native to West Africa. We call it “bissy” in Jamaica. It saved my life when I was a teenager.

Gratitude to my Grandmother land (credit to Manbo Jessyka Winston for the term)! I salute you from Jamaica, my Motherland.

#Africa
#AfricanLiterature
#BlackMastodon

nadinestorying, 10 months ago to food

Johnny cakes (fried dumplings) were originally called 'Journey cakes' because they were packed as lunches or snacks to sustain enslaved Africans in Jamaica on their long journeys. Now, they're a traditional Jamaican breakfast side dish.

#Food
#Jamaica
#JamaicanHistory
#Caribbean
#CaribbeanHistory

nadinestorying, 2 months ago to random

TIL about a Japanese legend for finding cats that leave and never return home (and I’m so soft rn 🥺):

Talk to the street cats in the neighbourhood as if you would talk to anyone and ask them about your cat. Describe your cat, tell them your cat’s name, and ask them to help you find him/her. Tell them how much you love your cat and want him/her to come home. They will communicate with each other to help your cat return home.

(via Malin Chinthaka)