6 Global Parties
Posted on December 15, 2021
In the party mood, or not so much? Here are six selections from WWB Campus that provide unexpected—and sometimes even clashing!—perspectives on celebrations around the world.
A (Very) Modern Cinderella Story, from Cuba
Posted on December 08, 2021
We all know the story of Cinderella . . . or do we? In Ena Lucia Portela's mischievous update of the famous folktale (translated into English by Pamela Carmell), the heroine is as virtuous, beautiful, and downtrodden as one might expect. But Cleis (as Cinderella is called here) also dreams of becoming a soap-opera villainess and knees a would-be assailant—the story's sole "prince"—in the crotch.
In Wales, a "Blue Book" helps a mother and son cope with an apocalypse
Posted on November 22, 2021
"Sometimes I think it's impossible for someone to be as beautiful and ugly as my mother," comments the fourteen-year-old co-narrator of Manon Steffan Ros's award-winning Llyfr Glas Nebo (The Blue Book of Nebo). The Welsh novel, recently published in English translation and excerpted in Words Without Borders a few years back, is in the form of dual diary entries from a boy and his mother following a world-ending war.
From South Africa, Affirmation and a Call to Action
Posted on November 10, 2021
(This post follows up on some of the ideas in last week's article, "I Affirm…," which gives background on the South African rapper SIEP, his translator Andre Trantraal, and the Kaaps language.)
"I Affirm the Soul in Each Person": Hip-Hop Poetry from South Africa
Posted on November 03, 2021
I affirm the soul in each person
I affirm the soul in each person
It’s clean as a bone with the vocal tone
Who is still suffering?