Tuesday, August 21, 2018

SYMPOSIA

(Book Proposal)

Book Title:   S Y M P O S I A

Author: Asafa Tefera Dibaba (PhD)

Category: Poetry    

Word Count:  32, 233.    Page: 292

Overview:

SYMPOSIA is an Anthology of poems in English. It depicts the ugly faces of exile, the form and the force of assimilative hosting culture, living with the living memory of homeland as an imagined community, and more. To do so, acutely attentive to the vying pressures of personal and historical experiences, SYMPOSIA dips into the reservoir of African (Oromo) values, thoughts, and worldviews to cast light on the shades of nervous human condition, to find meanings in the turn and twist of life, and to tap into the human relentless search for truth, justice, and freedom.

Significance:

Why SYMPOSIA? It takes more than analysis to empower the reader and to help overcome the perils of living in exile or in estrangement in one’s home. Here is a book that empowers the reader to passionately and critically relate to their personal stories and embrace their vulnerability.

Audience:

Primary:
The millions of Africans in the Diaspora who do not ever want to spiritually drift and be disconnected from their homeland. The book is for those who feel deeply concerned when marginalized by the hosting culture, miss their home dearly, and for those who live on exile on their homeland estranged and humiliated, and who try to cling to their imagination not to begin to experientially lose their hope. 

Secondary:
The book is written also for those interested in Oromo culture—the poetic surge of its creative originality, as it is for those who waffle in Waffle House or chase ladybugs in the prison-house elsewhere.  

Purpose

In exile, everyone can face crisis of life, career, family, and culture-shock. As there can be opportunities, there are also prices to pay, and at times, costly and too much to regret about—life in exile is bitter-sweet. Those pivotal times are part of everyone’s journey in the wonderland. Some people are resilient and can emerge from the crisis with their dreams intact while others give up (and turn to alcohol, drug, and crime). Life on exile in one's homeland is another alianation and humiliation; it is a disempowering experience that leaves an open scar. 

The poetic voices in SYMPOSIA are the strong breed emerging (or struggling to emerge) from the crisis with their hope and dream still alive and vibrant while purposefully maintaining their goals (kaawoo) and personality (sansaka) intact.

Edward W. Said’s Reflections On Exile, with a blend of its aesthetic and political concern, has noted in its collection of literary and cultural essays this fact of exile, namely, the vying pressure of personal and historical experience one can encounter in exile. Chinua Achebe’s Home & Exile is equally hard to differ to as Achebe keenly discusses the notion and ideas of social justice in his work and the painfully offensive facts of being in exile in one’s homeland. No African writer to my knowledge offers a brilliant and detailed analysis of African values and ways as Achebe does providing a parallel reflection on the subject of exile compared with the European literature that often undermines African sense of worth.

The common thread of theme that runs through SYMPOSIA is that deep and dreadful fear of living in exile (Diaspora or Home) and the painful longing for home moderated at times but exacerbated by the hosting culture.

Brief Author Bio:

Asafa (Assefa) Tefera Dibaba of Gombo Koora, Jarso, is the author of anthologies of poems in English and in Oromo Language including Anaany’aa, Edas-Edanas, Finfi (Ilyaada), Decorous Decorum, and The Hug, and prose: Danaa, Eela, Theorizing the Present (reprinted as Beyond Adversities), and more. He is a poet, educator, and researcher relocated to the USA in July 2010 as a 2009/2010 IIE/SRF Scholars Fellow from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, after repeated persecutions and imprisonments for his dissident writings and for speaking to the repressive power. 

He is a PhD graduate (2011-2015) from Indiana University, USA. While reading and writing on “Resistance Poetics” and “Social Resentment,” his research also focuses on “Ethnoecology”/ “Ecopoetics,” an interdisciplinary approach to the role of alter/native indigenous knowledge and practices to balance human-ecology solidarity in rural Africa.

In this profound collection, SYMPOSIA, while grappling in exile with grief at the death of his father and mother back home, the poet channels the rhythms of life in exile, traverses the sorrows of unbearable human condition, and practices, among other things, Ecopoetry to express his strong human & ecological concern.

Book Delivery Date: Anytime soon (Completed Manuscript)

Introduction & Sample Chapters:

Introduction to First Edition
_________________________________________
Prologue

(A Short Note on “Symposia: Poet to Poet”)
 
Three issues are at stake in poetry writing at present: first, whether or not we can write an emotionally charged (subjective) material/topic such as freedom, love (loving, not loving, not being loved), and justice effectively with artistic objectivity. This is more complicated by the notion of choices (and voices,), self-sufficiency, free-love, and individual sanctity over collectivism

Voices say this: Humankind have choices, choices have consequences, consequences have risk or reward! It is those Voices (heeded or ignored) and Choices (risk or reward) that make lines or volumes and make us who we are as Poets—living and dying with our Choices!
 
Second, poets are of a tender-heart, vulnerable, and victims to violent shifts of response and emotions that human conditions bring to us. We are sensitive; however, so being, we are beneficiary of human benign neglect and gross oblivion around. We do a great deal out of something ignored as trivia! 
 
Third, whether we poets are misfit in a misshapen society or misshapen at a misfit time, really I am not quite sure myself! But one thing I am certain of is this: the poet struggles with SOMETHING bigger than himself/herself: to be able to see the relations of the unrelated, to curve out a creative originality, and to muse about if pleasurable pain (painful joy) is bearable and if living and loving truly is ever possible of to date! For no wrong life can be lived rightly! 
 
Less than that, what good is Poetry for?
 

            Overture   

Dear Poets,

In this Symposium, “Poet to Poet,”
we reflect on the following major themes
as an ongoing dialog in ecopoetics to date:

-human sociality of the poet:
  -self and other, individual and society
-the ongoing tragic dialectic between
a traumatized subject and unattainable “other”
-a poetic search for social medicine—a panacea for the contemporary deficient subjectivity

-indispensable human/nature interconnectedness

-impossible love: 
-choice and fate, will and  determinism in human relationships 
-male dominance and intensity, female resistance and withdrawal
  -gender and genre, sex and social norm (safuu) 

                      -artistic honesty
-poet the author, poet the persona, and the character poet as appeared in the poem/song
-the meditative tone that resonates in the poem or song,
-qualities of a good poem: deep joy, enchantment, and the aspiration to know self and “other”
  -“transition,” “mind set,” and the individual struggle to communicate self

-language vacuum,

In the next session, we share our thought process using one case example:

“Autumnal Peregrination”

Here we will concentrate on what is happening
in “Autumnal Peregrination,”
a poem by Dr. B.,
and I open it with three provisos:

First, I should make it clear at the outset that,
for personal reasons, I must reserve more details
to the poet herself,
as to the reader to find out what remains
unsaid in what has been said—
both inside the poem (and outside it) and
in the dialogue.

Second, the poem, “Autumnal Peregrination” should be read as an initial exploration of
an unpublished poem which will ultimately
see the light of the day,
let us hope, with other collections by the poet.

Third, because “Autumnal Peregrination”
is a journey poetry, it is irrefutably necessary
to work on its connection with “nature”.
Hence, for contextual reasons, I
introduce ecopoetics, as a working theory
of oral/literate culture interface, here
to study in the present poem
the poet’s engagement with the social aspect
of the indispensable relationship between human
and nature, which I call ethnoecology.

Undertaking a critical consideration of work
by a close friend can be a daunting task.
The reason is, the knowledge of
direct experiences & unfathomable memories
after separation
is impossible to catalog.

The common grounds and differences
are also hard to tell without an intuitive sense of effective comparisons between the primal and the trivial.

Next, I  hasten to open the poem for reading and discussion: let us hear the rebellious cry, the blankness and despair in the young poet’s voice, and the inestimable value this  intimately personal but paradoxically comprehensive voice can impress on our thoughts about matter-of-fact concerns: love, relationship, solitude, truth, uncertainty/indeterminacy, and intensity.

Our Speakers will be: Poet L., Poet D., Poet S., Poet R., Poet T., Poet N, and myself.

Now, I invite Dr. B. to the stage to read her poem. Please welcome Dr. B.
 
(As stated above, the “Symposia” follows—discussions among imagined poets, hence, “poet-to-poet”—on a sample poem titled “Autumnal Peregrination”.)

Annotated Table of Contents:

C O N T E N T S

SYMPOSIA (Poet to Poet)                           12

Introduction to First Edition                       12
Prologue                                             12
            Overture                                              14 
           “Autumnal Peregrination”                  17

            ON OUR ANCESTORS’ BONE                60
                (Songs of Resistance)
                                                                
Songs of Resistance I                                    62
Children Of the Blue Moon                            62
Let Us Lay Down Our Burden                       64

Songs of Resistance II                                  66

Songs of Resistance III                                86
            Bullets Into Bells                                             86
It Is Time To Converse & Act                         88
What If We Don’t Find…                               89
Bare-bone Truth                                              91


NATURE POEMS                                        96

Nectar Quest                                                   98
(Honey Bee & the Wildflower)
Uume: Another Humanity                              112
                     
AMERICA’S HYPOCRISY                       120

Anatomy of Oppression I                               122

Anatomy of Oppression II                              125
(Fear & Social Control)

Eidos of History                                              131
Jackass Conversation                                      134
 “Limp Dick”                                                   138
All Rise                                                           142
Testimonial                                                      145
            Esoteric                                                           148
Indiana                                                            150
Decay & Decline                                             151
(When In-Laws Turn Out-Laws)
America’s Hypocrisy                                      161
 (The School of Resentment)

SONGS OF LOVE & LIGHT                     167

Confession                                                      169
Entrapment                                                      172
(Of the Rebel/Poet Self and the Tame Elite Self)
When Muse Whispers                                     175
Thus Prays A Desperate Lover                       179
 
Songs of Lonerism I                                       180

Songs of Lonerism II                                      185

Songs of Lonerism III                                     187

Could be Worse!                                             202
 “Dr. Janitor”                                                   203
Hurly-Burly” Poem                                       206
            (In Memory of the US Election, Nov. 2016)
What Went Bad, the Fishing or …                  208
Poetic Madness                                               210
Aftermath                                                        211
            Landlord & Tenant                                          214
Bridging the Gap                                             217 
Intensity                                                          219
When Will We Walk This Road?                    220
Hell Is Inside Your Head!                               226
Remote Hope                                                  228
Being at Home & Not at Home                       230
Remembering to Forget                                   231
My Heart Is Like a Lonely Hunter                  233
Some Magic Persists                                       235
Hooray! Beautiful Losers                                237
Autumnal Madness                                         238
In Need of a Social Medicine                          241
Either-Or                                                         243
Of An Unbearable Lightness of Being       244

Ode To My Father I                                        245
(Mijuu Abbaa)

Ode to My Mother II                                      256
(Mijuu Ayya)

No Distance is Too Far                                   259
In Love & Light                                              261
Solitude                                                           262
Exile Note                                                       265
Thus Speaks Molu Kulu                                 267
Defiance                                                          268
(My Comrade Is My Chi!)
Song of Self                                                    270
Your Language Is Your Country                    271
God is a Lonely Man Without the Poor          274
Ode to a Broken Plate                                     275
Beyond “-ISM”                                               278

SONGS OF VULNERABILITY                  282

Songs of Vulnerability I                                  284

Song of Vulnerability II                                  291
                  
(Poet’s Recap)

Curriculum Vitae / Resume:

Assefa Tefera Dibaba, Ph.D. (CV)
2661 E 7th St. Apt. E Bloomington, IN 47408 atdibaba@umail.iu.edu  
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Folklore (& Anthropology) (June 2015), Indiana University, BloomingtonDissertation: Ethnography of Resistance Poetics: Power & Authority in Salale Oromo Folklore and Resistance Culture (Ethiopia, Northeast Africa). Advisor: Dr. John McDowell scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/20243
M.A., Comparative Literature (July 2003), Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia B.A., English Language Teaching (July 1997), Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia Diplomas in Continuing Education:
Environmental Education: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Addressing Wicked Problems
Cornell University (online), February–April 2016
Reclaiming Broken Places: Introduction to Civic Ecology
Cornell University (online), September–November 2016
Environmental Education Outcomes
Cornell University (online), November 7 – December 18, 2017
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Ethnoecology / Ecopoetics (Environmental Folklore & traditional ecological knowledge, TEK) Oral Traditions, Personal Experience Narratives (and Life Histories)Folk Beliefs, RitualsResistance Culture
Women’s Folklore Children’s Folklore Comparative Literature Nature / Earth Poetry
AWARDS
Indiana University, Doctoral Scholars Program Award (2014-15)American Folklore Society, Gerald L. Davis Fund Travel Grants (2014, 2010)American Comparative Literature Association, Travel Grant (2013)Folklore Institute, Indiana University, Harry M. and Alma Egan Hyatt Fellowship (2012-13) Folklore Institute, Indiana University, Harry M. and Alma Egan Hyatt Award (2011-12) Folklore Institute, Indiana University, Folklore Fellowship Award (2011-12)Institute of International Education, Scholars Fellowship Award (2009-10)
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Finfi (Ilyaada) (Anthology of Poems in Oromo Language). Finfinne/Addis Ababa: Subi Publishers. (2014).
 The Hug (Poems). X-Libris Publishers, (2011).
 Beyond Adversities. Munich: VDM Verlag Publishers, (2010).
 Themes & Patterns of Traditional Oromo Marriage Counseling. (ed.). Finfinne/Addis Ababa: East African Publishers. (2010).
Decorous Decorum (Poems). Finfinne/Addis Ababa: Artistic Printing Enterprise. ( 2006).Anaan’yaa. (Poems in Oromo Language). Finfinne/Addis Ababa: Artistic Printing Enterprise. ( 1998/2006). Theorizing the Present: Toward a Sociology of Oromo Literature. Finfinne/Addis Ababa: Bole Printing E. (2004).
Danaa. (Short Stories in Oromo Language). Finfinne/Addis Ababa: Artistic Printing Enterprise. (2000).Eela: Seenaa Oguma Oromoo (History of Oromo Literature). Finfinne/Addis Ababa: Artistic Printing Enterprise, (2009). Edas-Edanas. (Poems in Oromo Language). Finfinne/Addis Ababa: Artistic Printing Enterprise. (1997).
Articles
“‘God Speak to Us’: Performing Power and Authority in Salale, Ethiopia,” Journal of African Cultural Studies, 26/3 (June, 2014): 287-302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2014.901165 “‘Great Man’ or ‘Great Myth’? Meles Zenawi: Historic or Mythic Ideologue?” Journal of Oromo Studies, 20/1&2 (July 2013): 91-131.“Salale Oromo Women’s Songs of Resistance (Oromia, Ethiopia),” International Journal of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, 7/3 (2014):47-66.
“OROMO SOCIAL RESENTMENT: Re-envisioning Resentment Theory (An African Perspective), Oromia, Ethiopia,” Africology: Journal of Pan African Studies, 11:7, May 2018.  
Presentations  
“OROMO SOCIAL RESENTMENT: Re-envisioning Resentment Theory (An African Perspective), Oromia, Ethiopia,” presented at the ALA Annual Conference 2017, “Africa & the World: Literature, Politics, and Global Geographies,” Yale University, June 14-17, in Africology: Journal of Pan African Studies, 11:7, May 2018.  
“ECOPOETICS OF PLACE: Reclaiming Finfinne, Past & Present (Ethiopia), Presented at DERT Conference organized by the Department of Folklore & Ethnomusicology at Indiana University, IUB,, March 3-5, 2017. Paper submitted for publication, September, 2017,
“Ethnographic Mystic: The Politics of Ethnographic Search.” Presented at MELUS 2011. Conference Organized by Florida Atlantic University, April 7-11, 2011.
“Founding a National Council of Oromia: To Sketch a Roadmap for Oromo National Liberation Struggle,” paper presented at the 30th Anniversary of Oromo Studies Association, DC, July 2016.
Works in ProgressOROMO FOLKSONGS: Ecopoetic Approach (Theory & Practice), Ethiopia/Northeast Africa.”
 “ECOPOETICS OF PLACE: Reclaiming Finfinne, Past & Present (Ethiopia), Paper submitted for publication, in DERT book (Diversified Environmentalism Research Team), September, 2017.
“ETHNOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF OROMO FOLKLORE STUDY (Part I & II),” Work in Progress.
Poems
On Ethiopia Observer“The Metaphor of ‘Being’ Self in Exile” http://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2016/07/the-metaphor-of-being-self-in-exile/
“Confession”
http://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2016/06/confession/ “Solitude” http://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2017/09/solitude/
On Addis Standard“Vulnerability” http://addisstandard.com/vulnerability/
Talks
“Personal Stories Are Not So Personal. They Are Informed by the Collective Experience,” at “Art & Refugees” Symposium Organized by the Center for the Study of Global Change, Indiana University, Bloomington,
April 6, 2017. (https://sgis.indiana.edu/news-events/sgis-news/2017/2017-04-10-art-and-refugees.html)
“Oromo Resistance Narrative: How it Informs the Contemporary Oromo Resistance Struggle," July 3, 2012
Oromo Community Center, Minneapolis, MN. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLB8SnGwiWo)
InterviewsAddis Journal, 2006
https://arefe.wordpress.com/2006/11/12/interview-with-poet-asafa-tefera-dibaba/amp/
EXPERIENCE TEACHING
African Studies Program, Indiana University, Bloomington. “Contemporary Africa” (Fall 2013 & Spring 2014)
MLA and Folklore Collection, Wells Library, Indexer (AY 2012-13 and Summer 2013) College of Education, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia (2005-2010)
Folklore Genre(s) (2005-2010)Introduction to Folklore (Graduate) (2005-2010) Introduction to Folklore (Undergraduate) (2005-2010) Introduction to Literature (2005, 2007, 2009)Verse and Drama (2009)Literature in Language Classroom (2008)
Jimma Teachers College, Department of English Language, Oromia, Ethiopia (1998-2001, 2004) English Language Teaching Methodology (1998-2001)English for Academic Purposes (1998-2001)Writing (2002)
Literature (2000-2001)
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Academy of American PoetsAmerican Folklore Society (AFS)Collaborative Peace and Development Network Methodspace (Connecting Research Communities) Oromo Studies Association (OSA)Resistance Studies (Goteborg, Sweden)Diversified Environmentalisms Research Team (DERT) Association of African Literature (ALA)

Scholars Rescue Fund (IIE/SRF

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