bryanjazz

It has been a long time since I've been back to California. The 49th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival is what brings me here. I flew into Los Angeles on Wednesday, and drove up to Monterey on Thursday. The drive was great. Living on the East Coast for the past 15 years, it was nice to re-view how beautiful California really is, especially once you emerge from the metropoli of Southern Cal. Before going to the festival on Friday night, my cousins and I spent the day driving around Pebble Beach and the Del Monte Forest and Point Lobos State Reserve on the Monterey Peninsula. "Breathtaking" is, in my view, an inacurate word to desrcibe such beauty. For it is more like breathing anew: each time I am in such a place, I sense each breath as an infusion of Spirit, a reminder not only of beauty in the world, but of the beauty of my own being.
To combine such visual beauty with the aural tapestries of jazz for the weekend, is indeed, enjoying the sweetness in life.

(*listening to Alice Coltrane's "Om Supreme" from Eternity)

It has been a while since I've posted here. There's been a whirlwind of activity, of which I will begin to share more. Right now I am vacationing with my family in Costa Rica. Actually, I leave today. LOL. Just wanted to have a "for the record" on the site. ;-)

Costa Rica has the finest coffee in the world. Well, that's what they say, and I certainly would not debate it at this point. I knew something was different when I said "yes" to coffee after dinner. Generally, I just don't drink the stuff after 2pm. It affects my sleep. But the coffee here truly is some of the best I've tasted.

What I did not know until I started investigating the country before my trip, was that it is also one of the most bio-diverse places on earth, and also one of the most eco-conscious. About 25% of the country's land is protected, largely through a national park system. It is also a reputation for being a peaceful place, enjoying many years of political stability and the absence of a military since 1948. All of this has facilitated a huge tourism industry, now the country's biggest. (Interestingly, one of the biggest industries here is an Intel chip processing plant.) Being a country of largely Spanish descendants (there are a few enclaves of indigenous peoples, and a large Jamaican population on the Caribbean coast) race has no doubt played a significant contributory role in facilitating the country's economic and political stability, as it does in the rest of the world's geo-politics.

My experience here has been wonderful. I have been staying at a lovely hotel with an excellent, friendly staff, and wonderful views of Costa Rica's Central Valley. The Valle Central is home to San Jose, the country's capital and major city. San Jose is a major urban metropolis, like many others around the world, with busy streets, cars, traffic and commerce, so it is not really the destination of most tourists, and not even highly regarded by many of its own citizens. City dweller that I am, however, I found it to be quite an interesting place, with an energy that I'd like to explore more of should I make another visit.

I also got a chance to experience some of the country's other offerings, notably a visit to a coffee plantation, Arenal (one of the most active volcanos in the Americas), and Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio (a tropical rain forest) and its nearby beach.

Overall, my short trip (8 days) to Costa Rica has been relaxing and restful. In many ways it made me think of Ghana, and has definitely increased my appreciation and desire for more international travel.

Who woulda thunk it? That I would be in Ghana on the occasion of one of the rare spectacles of nature. It was a pretty amazing site to see. The photos are only a pale artifact of the phenomenon of seeing the sun blackout and experiencing few moments of darkness midmorning.

Photos by J. Amuzo

Perhaps you can experience the next one on Aug. 1, 2008 in one of the following locations: Nunavut, Greenland, Siberia, Mongolia and China (source).Hmmmm....that's not a bad idea. (more photos here)

there is so much
how can i tell you all
i cannot

you must come

After my last trip to West Africa, I wrote an article about my travels (which was published last summer in a quarterly periodical, Pulse, produced by Gay Men of African Descent). I even mention it in my bio page. Well, since a year has past, I figure I should finally post the essay on my site. As I begin to feel more and more acclimated here, and as I ponder the meaning of home, the significance of my first journey increases. Enjoy!

A Journey of My Own Choosing

The sun was shining, breezes were blowing, and the waves were crashing on the shore. I walked toward the water, away from my friends, stepping into full consciousness that this was the moment I had created for myself. Looking out across the water, I allowed all the thoughts and feelings to rise to the surface: the realization of who I was, based on my history and actions…based on my heritage. Long ago my own ancestors were taken from these very shores, on a journey not of their choosing, to a new world of struggle and suffering, of endurance and triumph over adversity. And I had chosen to return, several generations later, a son coming home to the land of his ancestors.

Traveling to Africa has been a desire of mine for several years. I’ve known for some time that I must go and “see for myself” the land and the people about which so much has…and has not…been written. I wanted my own sensory experience of it, slashing through all of the media images, literary references and cultural stereotypes of the continent. I frequently retell the experience of seeing my first African film when I was much younger. The film opened up with a wide shot of a sprawling African metropolis, with cars hurriedly rushing by crowds of pedestrians and tall buildings, on their way to take care of the business of the day. It was a simple and beautiful, establishing shot. Yet for a few seconds I was startled by the image. It was not that I didn’t know, intellectually, that there were big cities in Africa; it was that I had never seen them in film. The few images I had actually seen were largely of the African countryside, and interior shots of African political officials in the news (when Africa makes the news). It was a revealing moment for me, one of those that helped to formulate my desire to supplement my intellectual understanding with tangible experience.

My choice of where (and when) to go on this vast continent of thousands of cultures was influenced by my own experience studying African spirituality (specifically of the Dagara people of Burkina Faso) and by the fact that a good friend had spent the majority of the past few years in Ghana. Since Ghana is bordered by Burkina Faso to the north, it felt as though my ancestors were clearly indicating in which region I should begin my exploration.

Upon exiting the airport in Accra...(see full text here)