Circumspecte

Sometimes all it takes for you to affirm who you are, is to see a glimpse of yourself in someone else. Two weekends ago I had exactly that opportunity when my friend Arame and I spent the afternoon interacting with some writers, poets and painters at the beautiful Goree Island- including Goree Institute cofounder, distinguished writer, painter and South African poet Breyten Breytenbach , renowned Tunisian painter Emna Zghal , acclaimed NYU professor, author of "Joe the Engineer", and poet Chuck Wachtel, Coordinating Editor of the Piroque Institute and Imagine Africa Cultural Fellow Adam Weidwitsch , as well as up and coming Senegalese poet and author of " Les Raisins du Baobab " Ibrahima Amadou Niang. During our time there we discussed a lot of things - the act of writing, the different styles and forms, how to draw inspiration, what it means to be a writer, the question of who forms/tells history, the act of documentation and preservation of art and history, etc. I...