Anna Packwood, Dr. Carrie Best, Tommy Simmons

In the 1998 Anna Packwood’s family and friends came from across continents to celebrate her 100th birthday. This was the culmination of research on the Positive Presence of Absence: a history of the African Canadian community through works in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. I can honestly say that of the ten years working at the NGC, this impromptu gathering — which almost did not happen because of security concerns over the large numbers and the last-minute arrangements — this was the high point of a decade of work there. The National Gallery of Canada now presents six images in their African Canadian section which the portrait bust of Tommy Simmons on their educational web site entitled Cybermuse.

One of the catalysts for my research in the early 1990s was a conversation with Fritz Benjamin, a Haitian-Canadian who was working at that time as a security guard. He asked me who Tommy Simmons was, the man portrayed in the larger than life bronze bust prominently displayed in the water court. I didn’t know but once I started looking there were more questions about more works of art. After sharing my interests with Mairuth Sarsfield, author of No Crystal Stairs and her sister Lucille Vaughan-Cuevas they became my mentors. Lucille in particular spent hours with me clarifying histories. I eventually met other members of the Montreal community and wove various fragments together so I could present this walking tour to friends, then to fellow graduate students and finally to the public. It was a personal project that the Gallery promoted from 1995-1997 when they advertised it and offered it as a contract tour.

The image is my first experiment in using Adobe Photoshop to create transparent .png images. I needed to learn .png for my new Google Earth community.

The Adobe Photoshop layers include Anna Packwood on the lower left, with a bronze of her daughter, Lucille Vaughan, an activist, educator and librarian. Beside them is Dr. Carrie Best, pioneer Nova Scotia journalist, activist and author. To the right of the water court is Jennifer Hodge Sarsfield, Anna Packwood’s granddaughter ,a pioneer in Canadian film narratology and beside her is the cover of Mairuth Sarsfield’s book entitled No Crystal Stairs, which was on the short list for Canada Reads filmmaker. A photograph taken in that part of Montreal Mairuth called ‘burgundy city’ shows Mairuth, Susan and Lucille, Anna Packwoods, daughters in the 1940? The collage of the family and friends from across the States, Canada and the Caribbean wasn’t large enough to include them all.

I wrote this in a May 3, 1998 thank you note to NGC Education Division Director, Mary Ellen Herbert, CC: Judith Parker, Mairuth Sarsfield.

After the luncheon celebration with Anne Packwood, about fifty of the invited guests came to the NGC. It was larger than anticipated but it was a huge success. Among the guests were Dr. Carrie Best, OC., Lucille Vaughan-Cuevas, Dominique Sarsfield, numerous friends of Anne Packwood from many different parts of Canada from Edmonton, Dartmouth, and of course, Montreal. There were guests from the United States and from Bermuda. The group included four or five elderly people in wheelchairs, a baby in a carriage, children of all ages. After a warm greeting under the Water Court we went to the Seminar Room. I showed about a dozen slides of the Picasso exhibition and a few of Orson Wheeler’s sculptures: Tommy Simmons and Lucille Vaughan-Cuevas. The group applauded warmly when they saw the bust of Lucille. Then we went to the Water Court to see Tommy Simmons. The discussion there is something I wish I had on tape. Many at first did not recognize the model by name or by the sculpted bust. But as we talked more and more people remembered something about him. One woman had babysat his children. Another played on teams that competed with his. Another told me of a Wheeler sculpture of an African Canadian model once owned by David? States. An artist from Detroit was excited by what could be done in galleries and plans on following up when she gets home. I invited Lucille to speak about her experience as Wheeler’s model for the 1950’s bust. It was captivating listening to her describe Wheeler’s special qualities as educator and artist. She had been particularly touched by his openness to Black history at that time. This experience was a highlight for me in my years at the NGC.

In the 1920’s awareness of black culture spread from Harlem in New York across the continent and the ocean. During this Renaissance African American arts and literature reached new pinnacles of celebrity. Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong inspired Canadians. Visual artists in Canada attempted to reverse negative stereotypes of black subjects. This sculpture of Tommy Simmons, which celebrates both his blackness and his individuality, gave the emerging artist Orson Wheeler a sense of accomplishment. Simmons was a Montreal sleeping car porter for forty-three years. Work conditions were difficult. The transcontinental trips meant days away from home. Severe employment limitations were placed on black workers. Many, including those with higher education, even doctors and lawyers, were obliged to become porters. Sleeping car porters became the economic elite and catalysts of change in African Canadian communities. Tommy Simmons was a dedicated coach of winning teams. His integrated baseball teams which included girls of African, French and Italian descent, were unprecedented in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Because he was bilingual he entered tournaments in French and English communities from Chicoutimi, Québec to St. John, N.B. [Interviews with Carl Simmons and B. Jones, 1995]

Sinking Neptune: some background reading for memory work praxis

See also MySwicki (in process)

Angelou, Maya (1994) Phenomenal Woman: four poems celebrating women, New York, NY, Random House

Assche, Christine Van (1993) Stan Douglas, Paris, Editions du Centre Pompidou

Auguste, A. (1993a) “If They Come for Me in the Morning”. Share Magazine, 8

Auguste, A. (1993b) “Tired of Being Your Niggers”, Toronto, ON

Baldwin, James (1955) Notes of a Native Son,

Berton, Pierre (1993) “Let’s Not Scrub Show Boat Too Clean.” The Toronto Star. Toronto, ON,

Best, Dr. Carrie (1977) That Lonesome Road: the Autobiography of Carrie M. Best, New Glasgow, Clarion Publishing Co. Ltd.

Blakeley, Phillis R. (1957) “William Hall, Canada’s First Naval V.C.” Dalhousie Review, 250-58

Blatchford, C. (1990) The Toronto Sun. Toronto, ON,

Boyd, Georgia & Tremaine, Carole (1976) Anne Marie Weems, Toronto

Brand, D. (1991) No burden to carry: narratives of Black working women in Ontario, 1920’s – 1950’s.

Brand, Dionne (1982) Primitive Offensive, Toronto, Williams-Wallace

Brand, Dionne (1983) Winter Epigrams and Epigrams to Ernesto Cardenal in Defence of Claudia, Toronto, Williams-Wallace

Brand, Dionne (1984) Chronicles of the Hostile Sun, Toronto, Williams-Wallace

Brand, Dionne (1988) Sans Souci, Toronto, Williams-Wallace

Brant, B. (1990) “From the Outside Looking In: Racism and Writing”. Panel Discussion, Gay Cultural Festival. Vancouver, BC,

Breon, Robin (1993a) “Protest Greets Prince’s Show Boat in Toronto”. American Theatre. 10

Breon, Robin (1993b) “The Thorny Roles of Race in North American Theater.” Communication: The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Breon, Robin (1993?) “Show Boat’s Comin.'” Theatre Perspectives International.

Breon, Robin (1994) “Rivival and Controversy: ‘Show Boat’.” The Toronto Review, 12:1-15.

Breon, Robin (1995) “Show Boat The Revival, the Racism.” The Drama Review: the Journal of Performance Review, 39.

Breon, Robin & Cudjoe, Vera (1994) The Story of John Ware, Toronto, Carib-Can Communications.

Butler, S. (1993) “Contested Representations: Revisiting ‘Into the Heart of Africa’.” Department of Anthropology. North York,ON, York University.

Cannizzo, Jeanne (1989) Into the Heart of Africa, Toronto, ON, ROM.

CBC (1993) Show Boat: Journey of an Epic Musical. CBC.

CBC (2006) 400-year-old play stirs controversy in Nova Scotia. Accessed November 14, 2006 http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2006/11/14/theatre-neptune.html

Chateaubriand, François-René De (1802 [1832]). http://un2sg4.unige.ch/athena/chateaubriand/chat_ren.html

Clairmont, Donald H. & W., Dennis Magill (1970) Nova Scotian Blacks: An Historical and Structural Overview, Halifax

Clairmount, D. (1987) Africville: the life and death of a Canadian community,

Clarke, George Elliot (1990) “Voices out of the Whirlwind: the Genesis of Afro-Nova Scotian Literature.” The Atlantic Provinces Book Review,

Clips (1991a) “Racism charges against gallery aired.” Vancouver Sun.

Clips (1991b) “Sweeping changes sought in Nova Scotia: advisory group makes 94 recommendations aimed at easing racism.” Globe & Mail. Toronto,

Cox, Kevin (1991) “Black culture sold short by tourist brochures.” Globe and Mail. Toronto,

D’oyley, Vincent (1978) “Black Presence in Multi-Ethnic Canada,” Toronto, Centre for the Study of Curriculum and Instruction

D’oyley, Vincent (Ed.) (1994) Innovations in Black Education in Canada, Toronto, Umbrella Press

Dabydeen, Cyril (Ed.) (1987) A Shapely Fire: Changing the Literary Landscape, Oakville, Mosaic Press

Drake, John Poad (formerly attributed to) (1820) “View of Halifax.” Ottawa, ON, National Gallery of Canada

Duberman, Martin Bauml (1988) Paul Robeson, New York, Alfred A. Knopf

Dubois, William Edward Burghardt (1970 [1903]) The Souls of Black Folk, New York, Washington Square Press

Elliot, Lorris (1985) Other Voices: Writings by Blacks in Canada, Toronto, Williams-Wallace

Essed, Philomena (1990) Everyday Racism.

Ferber, Edna (1927) Show Boat, Grosset and Dunlap

Fischer, Barbara (1987) Perspective 87, Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario

Flynn-Burhoe & Rainey, Matt (1999) “Interview on Charlottetown CBC with Matt Rainey about the Reflexivity exhibition.” Correspondence June 1999.

Forsythe, Dennis (1971) “The Black Writers Conference: Days to Remember.” IN Forsythe, Dennis (Ed.) Let the Niggers Burn: theSir George Williams University Affair and its Caribbean Aftermath. Montreal, Black Rose

Frances, Henry (1973) Forgotten Canadians: The Blacks of Nova Scotia, Don Mills, Ontario, Longmans Canada

Frones, Hugo (1991) “Ancestral Memory.” Globe and Mail. Toronto,

Gaffen, Fred (1985) Forgotten Soldiers, Penticton, British Columbia, Theytus Books

Gara, Larry (1960) “The Underground Railroad: A Re-evaluation.” Ohio History Quarterly, 69, 217-30

Grant, John N. (1970) The Immigration and Settlement of the Black Refugees of the War of 1812 in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. University of New Brunswick

Greaves, Ida (1930) The Negro in Canada, Montreal, Packet-Times Press for the Department of Economics and Political Science, McGill University, Montreal.

Hamilton, Sylvia (1989) Black Mother Black Daughter. Halifax, National Film Board of Canada

Hamilton, Sylvia (1991) “Our Mothers Grand and Great: Black Women of Nova Scotia.” Canadian Woman Studies: York University, 11, 45-48

Harris, Robert (1886) “Meeting of the School Trustees.” Ottawa, ON, National Gallery of Canada

Henry, Frances, Tator, Carol, Mattis, W. & Rees, T. (1995) The Colour of Democracy: Racism in Canadian Society, Toronto, ON,

Harcourt Brace & Co. http://www.yorku.ca/fhenry/colourofdemocracy.htm

Hill, Dan (1981) The Freedom Seekers,

Hill, Lawrence (1993) Trials and Triumphs: the Story of African-Canadians, Toronto, Umbrella Press

Holly, Ellen (1990) “Why the Furor Over ‘Miss Saigon’ Won’t Fade.” The New York Times.

Holman, H. T. Slaves and Servants on Prince Edward Island: the Case of Jupiter Wise. Acadiensis,

Hornby (1991) Black Islander: Prince Edward Island’s Historical Black Community, Charlottetown, Institute of Island Studies

Hume (1991) “Caribbean exhibit [Caribbean Festival Arts]: hot colors, cool politics.” Toronto Star. Toronto,

Hume, Christopher (1992) “Retro show finally introduces reticent artist.” Toronto Star. Toronto,

Humes, Christopher (1991) “Reflections on black history and artists.” Toronto Star. Toronto,

Hunter, Lynette (1992-3) “After Modernism: Alternative Voices in the Writings of Dionne Brand, Claire Harris, and Marlene Philip.” University of Toronto Quarterly, 62, 256-82

Ifejika, Nkechi (1991) “Dispelling African Stereotypes.” The Globe and Mail. Toronto,

Kreuger, Miles (1977) Show Boat, The Story of a Classic American Musical, Oxford University Press

Lacey, Liam (1991) “Topical shows probe cultural identity.” The Globe and Mail. Toronto,

Lewis, Dennis (1991) Hyphens and Hybrids.

Lippard, Lucy (1990) Mixed Blessings: New Art in Multicultural America, New York, Pantheon Books

Manette, J. A. (1990) Revelation, Revolution, or Both: Black Art as Cultural Politics. Toronto,

Matthews, J. S. (1934) British Columbia’s First Troops were Black: “The Victoria Pioneer Rifle Corps, “1860. Army and navy Veterans in Canada, Convention Number

Mcclare, Dale (1989) “Louisa Collins and Her World: the 1815 diary of a Dartmouth, N.S., Farm Girl: Louisa Collins, of Colin Grove,”

Morrison, Toni (1992) Playing in the Dark, Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, Harvard University Press

Nichols, Miriam (1988) Stan Douglas, Vancouver, Contemporary Art Gallery

Nollekens, Joseph (17?) Benjamin West.

Nollekens, Joseph (1766) Laurence Sterne. London, UK, National Portrait Gallery

Nollekins (1760) General Wolfe. Ottawa, ON, National Gallery of Canada

NSHRC, (1974) “Pictorial on Black History.” Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission

Nzegwu, Nkiru The Creation of the African-Canadian Odyssey, Toronto, The Power Plant: Contemporary Art at Harbourfront

Nzegwu, Nkiru (1989) “Encounters in aesthetic appreciation.” University of Ottawa

Nzegwu, Nkiru (1992a) “Celebrating African Identity: politics and icons of representation: rites of passage,” Toronto, A Space

Nzegwu, Nkiru (1992b) The Creation of the African-Canadian Odyssey, Toronto, The Power Plant: Contemporary Art at Harbourfront

OECA (1979) Identity: The Black Experience in Canada, Toronto, Gage Educational Publishing

Pachai, Bridglal (1979) Canadian Black Studies.

Philip, M. Nourbese & Fung, Richard (1992) “Letters from Nourbese Philip and Richard Fung in response to Lai’s article.” Fuse.

Philip, Marlene Nourbese (1988) Harriet’s Daughter, London, Heinemann

Philip, Marlene Nourbese (1989a) She Tries her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks, Charlottetown, Ragweed Publishers

Philip, Marlene Nourbese (1989b) “Where they’re At: Gut Issues in Babylon: Racism and Anti-Racism in the Arts.” Fuse.

Philip, Marlene Nourbese (1991a) The New Jerusalem-in two and a half minutes,

Philip, Marlene Nourbese (1991b) “The Six Per Cent Solution.” Fuse.

Philip, Marlene Nourbese (1992b) Frontiers: Essays and Writings on Racism and Culture, Stratford, Ontario, Mercury Press

Philip, Marlene Nourbese (1993) Showboating North of the 44th Parallel, Poui Publications

Philip, Nourbese (1992c) Frontiers Essays and Writings on Racism and Culture, The Mercury Press

Philip, Nourbese Looking for Livingstone: an Odyssey of Silence, The Mercury Press

Philips, Marlene Nourbese (1987) “The “Multicultural” Whitewash.” Fuse, 11

Rainey, Matt (1999) Interview on CBC with Flynn-Burhoe on exhibition ‘Reflexivity’ in Charlottetown. Correspondence. Aired June 1999.

Rich, Frank (2003) “So Much for ‘The Front Page’.” New York Times. New York, NewYork. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/02/arts/02RICH.html?th

Romney, George (1776) Joseph Brant Thayendanegea. Ottawa, ON, National Gallery of Canada

Ross, Sandi (1992) Into the Mainstream, Toronto

Ruggles, Clifton, 1995, “Black History Month is better than ever,” The Gazette,” Montreal, Thursday, February 23, 1995.

Ruck, Calvin Woodrow (1987) Canada’s Black battalion: 1916-1920: Canada’s best kept military secret, Halifax, Nimbus Publishing

Sadlier, Rosemary (1995) Mary Ann Shadd: Publisher. Editor. Teacher. Lawyer. Suffragette., Toronto, Umbrella Press

Salutin, Rick (1994) “More Magic Media Moments.” The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Washington Square Press

Sarsfield, Mairuth (2004 [1997]) No Crystal Stair, Toronto, ON, Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Crystal_Stair

Smucker, Barbara (1977) Underground to Canada, Toronto, Clarke, Irwin

Still, William (1879) The Undergound Railroad, Philadelphia, People’s Publishing

Talbot, C. (1984) Growing Up Black in Canada, Toronto, Williams-Wallace

Thiong’o, Ngugi Wa (1993) Moving the Centre: the Struggle for Cultural Freedoms, Nairobi, East African Educational Publishers

Thomson, Colin A. (1979) Blacks in Deep Snow: Black Pioneers in Canada, Don Mills, J.M. Dent and Sons Canada Ltd.

Troper, Harold (1972) “The Creek-Negroes of Oklahoma and Canadian Immigration,” 1909-1911. Canadian Historical Review,

Tudor, Kathleen (1983) “David George: Black Loyalist.” Nova Scotia Historical Quarterly Review, 3, pages 70-82

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W., Robin Winks (1968) “The Canadian Negro: A Historical Assessment.” Journal of Negro History, 53, 283-300

W.R.Riddell (1920) The Slave in Canada.

Walker, Clarence E (1991) Deromanticizing Black History. Critical Essays and Appraisals. Knoxville, The University of Tennessee Press

Walker, James (1976) The Black Loyalists: the Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783-1870, London, Longman

Walker, James W. (1984) The West Indians in Canada, Ottawa: Canadian Historical Association

Walker, James W. (1985) Racial Discrimination in Canada: the Black Experience, Ottawa:Canadian Historical Association

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Walls, Bryan E. (1980) The Road That Led to Somewhere, Windsor, Olive Publishing

Walls, Bryan E. (1983) “NAACP ends march at Canadian historic site.” Contrast.

Walls, Dr. Bryan (1986) “Resource Material for Black Studies prepared for the Board of Education of Windsor?”

Watson, Scott & Fiske, John (1992) Monodramas and Loops, Vancouver, The University of British Columbia

Wedderburn, H.A.J. (1968) From Slavery to the Ghetto: The Story of the Negro in the Maritimes. New Brunswick Human Rights Commission

Wheeler, Orson (1933) Tommy Simmons by sculptor Orson Wheeler (1902 – 1990). Ottawa, ON, National Gallery of Canada

Wheeler, Orson (1946) Head of a Girl (Lucille Vaughan now Lucille Cuevas). Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada

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Winks, Robin (1971) The Blacks in Canada: A History, Montreal, McGill-Queens University Press

Winks, Robin (1987) The Canadian Encyclopedia. 2nd. ed. Edmonton,

Winks, Robin W. (1968b) “Negroes in the Maritimes: an Introductory Survey.” Dalhousie Review, 48, 462

Winks, Robin W. (1969) Negro School Segregation in Ontario and Nova Scotia. Canadian Historical Review, 50, 68-69, 83.

Young, Jane (1986) The Mechanics of Memory: Installations by Marian Penner Bancroft and Stan Douglas, Surrey, B.C., Surrey

Art Gallery

Space invasion with fireplace and PC (1998-1999)

Flynn-Burhoe, Maureen. 2006. Digital image of: 1998-9. “Space Invasion with Fireplace and PC.” Acrylic on Arches Paper, 30″ x 22.5.” Lac Gauvreau, Québec, Canada. BY-NC-SA.Uploaded 2006/11/02

I was looking for an old website I had built in 2000 when I came upon Stefano Cazzella’s elegantly designed blog entitled, caccio’s blog: Building WORLD 2.0.

Using the Creative Commond license Stefano Cazzella had hosted text and image from my Flickr album or my WordPress blog on his site. It looks very good there so I hope he does not remove it. However, I have asked him to put my name on it. The digital signature is barely visible on the snow through the window of our A-frame cottage but I had not written my name in my Flickr description of the page. So I sent it to Stefano Cazzella and will wait to see what happens. Fewer than fifty people have viewed this on WordPress but over 200 visited the same image on Flickr since it was first uploaded on November 2, 2006.

I began making my first web pages when Dave and I lived here on Lac Gauvreau, Chemin de la Baie Ste. Anne, Ste Cécile de Masham, Québec. I had already taken my first contemporary social theory courses with Rob Shields. From that time onwards he has been a valued mentor for my grad studies. I was working on the year long PhD seminar course with Professor Wallot at the University of Ottawa. This Canadian Studies PhD was a life-transforming experience. It was education as its best. The institution provided everything a grad student could need including access to a super coach and computer lab. As always Dave and I were squeezing as much as we could with bare bones technology. I was using our first digital camera and this flat bed scanner. My son Dan, who was studying at the Cite collegiale in Ottawa, taught me just enough .html coding so I wouldn’t make too much of a mess for him to clean up. He was a bit of a purist.This acrylic painting was painted over the Christmas holidays in 1998-1999. I had already painted the tree outside our cabin by Lake Gauvreau. The next day the branches were so burdened with snow I had to repaint them entirely. I decided to let them invade the inner space of the cottage since their presence was so insistent.

The painting is 30″ x 22.5″ on Arches paper.

It was shown in March 1999 at an exhibition on Bank Street in Ottawa, ON and again in a gallery on Great George Street , Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in the summer of 1999.

Space invasion with fireplace and PC was one of the first images on my Carleton University home page and on the collaborative, innovative virtual space called artengine. It is one of my favourite images and after our chaotic move out west I really don’t know where the actual physical painting is or the great high resolution digital images the professional photographer took of my work in May-June? of 1999.

One of the challenges for me is to find the kinds of sites that provide me with ideas I can build upon. For example, currently I am unable to simply use a search engine to find useful information on the concept of memory work. I have kept track of this concept over the years using my EndNote bibliographic database. My sister Sharon introduced me to EndNote c. 1992?, an authoring software for creating digital databases with a powerful cross-referencing ability. Thousands of useful entries later and numerous upgrades later I continue to thank you Sharon.

The Creative Commons actually builds on a way of sharing, adapting, building knowledge claims that has been a part of teaching, learning and research for time immemorial. What I can illustrate in an image is difficult to argue in text. Basically we are all using communal memories, communal archives to build our own original creations. Creative Commons acknowledges that and goes against the current where academic capital has become a jealously guarded commodity, knowledge bytes are the new virtual gold. We are in the middle of a virtual gold rush.

I think this is my first complete reference blog-to-blog and I am touched. I had a professional photographer take slides of this series of paintings in 1999 and had Kodak produce a CD-ROM of them all in high resolution. (I lost the CD in our last move unfortunately but I still have the painting.) A lower resolution version of Space Invasion became my avatar for my first web page in 1999. It is was my first acrylic painting completed in the first few days of 1999 for my first exhibition in Ottawa, Ontario and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

I have written somewhere else on one of my blogs that working with Web 2.0 is like being trained by a cat to be at least minimally presentable to be associated with cat royalty. Feed owners learn what Web 2.0 tools like or not very quickly. Bricoleurs learn by trial and error not only how to design spaces that connect, but also how to frame and protect our content. This is a delicious example of how to learn-by-doing.

Maureen Flynn-Burhoe. 2006. “Space invasion with fireplace and PC (1998-1999).” speechless. https://oceanflynn.wordpress.com. BY-NC-SA

The Creative Commons license 2.5 that I use with all my work,

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada

BY-NC-SA

Creative Commons: Attar’s ‘Conference of the Birds’

This image of this painting by Habib Allah (c.1600) “The Concourse of the Birds” is available from the Wikimedia Commons. The original is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is an illustration of the Persian mystic, Faridu’ud-Din Attar’s allegory (c.1100?) “The Conference of the Birds” which I believe is also called Mantiqu’t-Tayr Language of the Birds. This work may have inspired Herman Hesse’s “Journey to the East.” It describes the seeker’s parallel journey to self-discovery, self-actualization, self-realization through the elusive search for God.

Tag clouds, Head in the Clouds, Love and Cyberdelirium

Attar is said to have met Jalálu’d-Dín Rúmí (1207-1273 A.D.) when the latter was still a child enkindling (sp.) him with the insatiable longing for the illusive and unknowable divine essence of all things. (I believe both these Persian mystics, who of course had great impact on Persian literature, also influenced European writers such as the German Romantic poets? Their work is important to me in terms of its philosophical, political and ethical implications during the period of colonization. But that’s another tag cloud.)

And I know she and I share a deep love for the Seven Valleys Haft-Vádí (1860). The Seven Valleys includes references and/or citations from Attar, Rúmí and Layla and Majnun.
According to Wikipedia, Kurdish poet Nezami (1100s?)’s famous adaptation of the story of Layla and Majnun (Leyli and Madjnun) from Arab folklore reads astonishingly like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. I believe that Layla and Majnin are to the East what Romeo and Juliet are to the West? There is even a suggestion that Eric Clapton’s song Layla was inspired by this Arab-Persian-Turkish-Kurd classic.

My Favourite citations-within-citations from Seven Valleys – Haft-Vádí (1860)

In the ocean he findeth a drop, in a drop he beholdeth the secrets of the sea.

Split the atom’s heart, and lo! Within it thou wilt find a sun.

From the Wikipedia entry on Seven Valleys – Haft-Vádí (1860)

the path of the soul on a spiritual journey passing through different stages, from this world to other realms which are closer to God,[1] as first described by the 12th Century Sufi poet Attar in his Conference of the Birds. Bahá’u’lláh in the work explains the meanings and the significance of the seven stages. In the introduction, Bahá’u’lláh says “Some have called these Seven Valleys, and others, Seven Cities.” The stages are accomplished in order, and the goal of the journey is to follow “the Right Path”, “abandon the drop of life and come to the sea of the Life-Bestower”, and “gaze on the Beloved”.

Creative Commons: Light Flickring on Water

Creative Commons from my online Flickr album is composed of multiple layers. They include a .jpg of the Google Earth generated globe which is inverted, stretched and manipulated in 3 other layers, ripples from an M. C. Escher print and a stunning photo by a Professor Andrew Davidhazy from Rochester, NY. described on a few of the 80, 000+ references to him on Google as modest, talented, a great teacher and a ghost expert for photography. I have just licensed my work on line with the Creative Commons. Their icon lets people know that they can use your work for non-commercial reasons if they attribute it to you; they can make derivatives but they have to share-alike. Of course the challenge with Goggle Images is some of the most popular images available are difficult to track down in terms of authorship because there are already so many derivatives. This was the case with this drop of water by this well-known professor who continues to do astounding work. I left a comment on his web blog but I re-entered it three times before I realized he had wisely included an administrator’s block for unedited entries. It may take him ages to even check his comments. When he does he will find to his annoyance in his busy life, that I’ve inadvertently left three. More than that I just emailed him instead of Flckr’s team re: emailing our Flickr photos to WordPress. He is going to put me on his ‘block permanently list.’

An Inuit friend reminded me that many Inuit of Canada view the world from a circumpolar point of view. In honour of my Inuit friends and students from time to time I view the earth through their lens. I positioned then froze the globe from a circumpolar point of view using a Google save screen option. So I have geotagged this to the north east of Baffin Island, perhaps somewhere near Pond Inlet. Hello to the family of Julia and Ernie! Their family photo in their traditional clothing taken when they visited you in Pond Inlet in 2005, is framed and hanging in our home on Vancouver Island.

I have recently (2006/12/23) reworked this image @ Ripple Effects Wave Algorithm /