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Thursday |
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The trickster Anansi, originally a West African spider-god, lives on in these tales. Why is this figure so universal? And why did so many African American folk tales recount his exploits, under one name or another? Anansi is the spirit of rebellion; he is able to overturn the social order; he can marry the Kings' daughter, create wealth out of thin air; baffle the Devil and cheat Death. Even if Anansi loses in one story, you know that he will overcome in the next. For an oppressed people Anansi conveyed a simple message from one generation to the next:--that freedom and dignity are worth fighting for, at any odds. |
| This Anansi was crafted by an artist named Dennis,
an older cat with a bum liver who talked Beat. I met him on the
Kalakala last year and drew with him once
at Trapeze. It's a sad irony that this Anansi is looking for a home, sitting
up on 8 legs in Steve's backyard
until they both have to leave the old hillbilly monkeyhut at the end of the
month, victims of anonymous informant neighbors. There goes Fremont... |
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