This work delivers vivid images and a structured and illuminating account of a momentous event.
A debut photography book explores a religious festival in Benin.
Landau takes readers on a journey to the African town of Sakete in 2017. Every three years in Sakete, an event takes place among the Yoruba people. For some 16 days, individuals in trances dressed in full-body costumes (no skin is shown to the outside world), who are known as Egungun, make their way around the town. The Egungun have retinues that can range from one to 100 people. Several Egungun dance or are accompanied by drummers and singers. Some Egungun are violent, chasing and whipping bystanders with atoriwhips. Others are peaceful, bestowing blessings or predictions. The book catalogs 130 Egungun with photographs by the author and biographical sketches. For instance, in 2017, Egungun Elègba sported a vibrant yellow and red costume (most of the participants also have pictures from 2011 when many of them looked quite different). This Egungun was “instituted by the sages to invoke the benefits of the deity called Elègba who is appealed to” for protection “against evil spirits that lead men to misunderstandings.” For those unfamiliar with Yoruba or Egungun practices, the book has a great deal to offer. The Egungun costumes are striking. Whether they are brightly colored with images of animals or comparatively drab, they make for a memorable presence. To simply look at the many photos is to see what a bustling event this festival must be. That all of the Egungun have their own personalities and purposes provides further depth to the images. Still, several aspects of the Egungun backgrounds can be lost on the uninitiated. For instance, many backstories involve people consulting the Ifa oracle. How they created “an outfit of the kind recommended by the Ifa oracle” is unclear. Likewise, the author’s personal experiences warranted further elaboration. He mentions leaving the festival early in 2017 for safety reasons (and advises readers to by no means attend the celebration without a chaperone), though the specifics are not mentioned. Nevertheless, the volume provides an engrossing experience.
This work delivers vivid images and a structured and illuminating account of a momentous event.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 599
Publisher: manuscript
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.
Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.
“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780063304413
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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