77th birthday of Ama Ata Aidoo

(Born 23 March 1942, Saltpond, Ghana)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe 

DISTINGUISHED poet, playwright, novelist, academic

(Alice Coltrane Trio, “Oceanic beloved” [personnel: Coltrane, harp;  Jimmy Garrison, bass; Rashied Ali, drums; recorded: Coltrane home studio, Dix Hills, New York, US, 6 June 1968]) 

*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of African Literature in Defence of History: An essay on Chinua Achebe (2001) and Readings from Reading: Essays on African History, Genocide, Literature (2011)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

146th birthday of Paul Laurence Dunbar

(Born 27 June 1872, Dayton, Ohio, US)

PROLIFIC poet, novelist, playwright, songwriter (writes lyrics for In Dahomey, the very successful 1903 musical which appears in Broadway and elsewhere), essayist, whose critically acclaimed output foreshadows the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s-1930s

(John Coltrane Septet, “Dahomey dance” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone, Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Reggie Workman, bass; Art Davis, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; recorded: A&R Studios, New York, US, 25 May 1961])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

87th birthday of Chukwuemeka Ike

(Born 28 April 1931, Ndikelionwu, Biafra)

Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

NOVELIST, university registrar, academic, Africa west region principal pre-university qualifying examination board (WAEC) administrator, one of the leading intellectuals in defence of the people during the Igbo genocide, phases I-III, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, carried out by Britain and its Nigeria client state led by Hausa-Fulani/islamist jihadists during which 3.1 million Igbo or 25 per cent of Igbo population are murdered in this foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa; Anglo-Nigeria launches phase-IV of the genocide on 13 January 1970 and this has continued unabated with tens of thousands of additional Igbo murdered; Igbo genocide is the longest, most gruesome, and most ruthless genocide in contemporary history

(The New York Contemporary Five, “Trio” [personnel: Archie Shepp, tenor saxophone; Cherry, pocket trumpet; John Tchicai, alto saxophone; Don Moore, bass; JC Moses, drums; recorded: live, Jazzhus Montmarte, Copenhagen, Denmark, 15 November 1963])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

76th birthday of Ama Ata Aidoo

(Born 23 March 1942, Saltpond, Ghana)

 Distinguished poet, novelist, playwright, academic

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

80th birthday of Ishmael Reed

(Born 22 February 1938, Chattanooga, Tenn, US)

PROLIFIC poet, essayist, novelist, pianist, composer, academic

(John Coltrane Quartet, “My favorite things” [personnel: Coltrane, soprano saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; recorded: live, Comblain-la-Tour, Hamoir, Belgium, RTBF radio & television network, 1 August 1965])

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

116th birthday of Langston Hughes

(Born 1 February 1902, Joplin, Missouri, US)

ONE OF THE most distinguished alumni of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s-1930s – prolific award-winning poet, novelist, playwright, columnist, freedom movement exponent

First published in 1926 by Hughes, just 24, the poems here in The Weary Blues are a preview of the enduring liberatory portraiture of a stretch of anthologies and other writings that the savant contributes to African American and world literature

(Wynton Marsalis Septet, “Black codes from the underground” [personnel: Marsalis, trumpet; Wycliffe Gordon, trombone; Wes Anderson, alto saxophone; Todd Williams, tenor saxophone; Marcus Roberts, piano; Reginald Veal, bass; Herlin Riley, drums; recorded: Berlin Jazzfest, Germany 3 November 1989])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

115th birthday of Arna Bontemps

(Born 13 October 1902, Alexandria, Louisiana, US)

AWARD-WINNING prolific poet, novelist, children’s writer, editor, biographer, historian, and librarian, whose work plays a cardinal role in the emergence of contemporary African American letters

(Andrew Hill Quartet, “Cantarnos” [personnel: Hill, piano; Joe Henderson, tenor saxophone;  Richard Davis, bass; Roy Haynes, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 8 November 1963])

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

93rd birthday of James Baldwin

(Born 2 August 1924, Harlem, New York, US)

Novelist, essayist, commentator, dramatist, arguably African America’s leading writer and intellectual during its age of freedom affirmation, 1950s-1990s

(The iconoclastic Baldwin in conversation with the Father of African Literature: … African Atlantic discourses, Gainesville, Florida, US, 9 April 1980…)

...Reflections on history, art, politics, brainpickings, 22 September 2014,

(https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/09/21/james-baldwin-chinua-achebe-art/), accessed 28 September 2014

(Sam Rivers Quartet, “Ellipsis” [personnel: Rivers, tenor saxophone; Jaki Byard, piano; Ron Carter, bass; Tony Williams, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 11 December 1964])

 Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

145th birthday of Paul Laurence Dunbar

(Born 27 June 1872, Dayton, Ohio, US)

Prolific poet, novelist, playwright, songwriter (writes lyrics for In Dahomey, the very successful 1903 musical which appears in Broadway and elsewhere), essayist, whose critically acclaimed output foreshadows the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s-1930s

(John Coltrane Septet, “Dahomey dance” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone, Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Reggie Workman, bass; Art Davis, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; recorded: A&R Studios, New York, US, 25 May 1961])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

68th birthday of Jamaica Kincaid

(Born 25 May 1949, St John’s, Antigua)

Versatile novelist (especially Annie John [1985], A small place [1988], Lucy [1990], Mr Potter [2002], See now then [2014]), essayist (especially in the New Yorker, 1976-1996), academic

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

79th birthday of Ishmael Reed

(Born 22 February 1938, Chattanooga, Tenn, US)

Prolific poet, essayist, novelist, pianist, composer, academic

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe