["Yellow Blue", Suria Kassimi (2018)]
A
colored man floats down out of the sky blowing a saxophone, and below
him, in the space between two buildings, a girl talks earnestly to a
man in a straw hat. He touches her lip to remove a bit of something
there. Suddenly she is quiet. He tilts her chin up. They stand there.
Her grip on her purse slackens and her neck makes a nice curve. The
man puts his hand on the stone wall above her head. By the way his
jaw moves and the turn of his head I know he has a golden tongue. The
sun sneaks into the alley behind them. It makes a pretty picture on
its way down. [Toni
Morrison »Jazz« (1992)]
Martin's
Blues
He
came apart in the open,
the
slow motion cameras
falling
quickly
neither
alive nor kicking;
stone
blind dead
on
the balcony
that
old melody
etched
his black lips
in
a pruned echo:
We
shall overcome
some
day---
Yes
we did!
Yes
we did!
[Michael
S. Harper (1971)]
Jazz
speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties,
and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the
hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out
with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music.
[Martin
Luther King, Jr. »On the Importance of Jazz« (1964)]
["Licht und Raum", Suria Kassimi (2020)]
Dreams
Hold
fast to dreams
For
if dreams die
Life
is a broken-winged bird
That
cannot fly.
Hold
fast to dreams
For
when dreams go
Life
is a barren field
Frozen
with snow.
[Langston
Hughes (1922)]
You
were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and
in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being.
You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to
make peace with mediocrity. [James
Baldwin »The Fire Next Time« (1963)]
["Blue", Suria Kassimi (2017)]
Utopia
brothers
brothers
everywhere―
and
not
a one
for
sale.
[Johari
Amini (1969)]
It
is rare indeed that people give. Most people guard and keep; they
suppose that it is they themselves and what they identify with
themselves that they are guarding and keeping, whereas what they are
actually guarding and keeping is their system of reality and what
they assume themselves to be. One can give nothing whatever without
giving oneself -- that is to say, risking oneself. If one cannot risk
oneself, then one is simply incapable of giving. [James
Baldwin »The Fire Next Time« (1963)]
