Thursday, January 31, 2013

Books: ON BLACK SISTERS' STREET by Chika Unigwe

Title: On Black Sisters' Street
Author: Chika Unigwe
Genre: Fiction
Published: 2009

As is often the case, my reading choices are made fairly haphazardly. Chika Unigwe's book must have come recommended by someone, somewhere because I have it on my Kindle. I read it in less than a week.
On Black Sisters' Street is a story of four African women: Sisi, Efe, Ama and Joyce all living in Antwerp, Amsterdam working as prostitutes.
Their stories, told from each one's perspective, about the events that led them to Amsterdam; to working under their Madam whilst paying off their debts to their mutual sponsor Dele, form the backdrop to the central story; the murder of one of their own.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Intellectualizing Hopper

Morning sun, 1952
I went to the Edward Hopper exhibition at the Grand Palais yesterday. It was refreshing to walk through an exhibition and not feel the need to find some intellectual meaning behind the paintings. Let me take a step back. The last exhibition I went to see was the Dali at Centre Pompidou. Granted that I cannot compare Dali and Hopper directly; one was a Surrealist painter, the other an impressionist-inspired Modernist. I can at least make some comparisons about the the emotions evoked by both.