Finding your evolving lane

Greetings,

Here are my seven random things.

1. Growing older in a world that seems to place greater value on the young is an interesting thing. I turned 50 this year and while it isn’t old - although my children think otherwise - I do feel as if I have entered a different phase. A phase where I don’t feel the need to be plugged into everything. A phase where it feels like I should be getting out of the way and letting those younger find their space. A phase where I carve a very different space for myself. Sometimes, it feels a contradiction. How to Keep Life from Becoming a Parody of Itself: Simone de Beauvoir on the Art of Growing Older

2. Recently, jazz musician Pharoah Sanders passed away. To be honest, I only got into his music a few years ago and, while I lament not getting into him earlier, the beauty is that there is still so much for me to experience and, with streaming services being what they are, I don’t have to hunt as much for the music. “I Just Have To Make Sure I Mean Every Note…” Pharoah Sanders Remembered.

3. I am a fan of John Oliver and his show Last Week Tonight, which is very different from the other US late night talk shows because they delve deep into topics. Although it felt a little left field, because it wasn’t a music interview, I really enjoyed his interview on Questlove Supreme

   I have previously shared my thoughts on and links to pieces around how so many of our history sits in Western museums, having been looted during the colonisation of the continent. Oliver recently did an episode on Museums which is really worth the watch.

4. My father amassed a collection of several thousand books over his lifetime, books that formed the foundation of my reading habits. He eventually had his assistant label them. I don’t has many as he accumulated but have run into the typical space challenge that faces many readers. I have a good thousand or so books sitting in boxes in storage now. And I keep promising myself to create some type of order. How to nurture a personal library.

5. The lens through which we view the world is shaped and guided by the content we consume. I am yet to watch The Woman King but haven’t been able to run away from the ‘controversy’ surrounding the movie, which I won’t get into, but it has reminded me of how easy it is to manipulate our understanding of African history and how there is rarely an emphasis on nuance when it comes to perspectives on Africa because, if we are honest, we will recognise that a lot of it is from a Western perspective.

   The kingdom of Dahomey and the Atlantic world: a misunderstood legacy

6. One of my favourite songs at the moment is Black Sherif’s Kwaku the Traveller.

   He has just released his new album The Villian I Never Was which has been on high rotation.

7. I love sneakers and one of my favourite sneaker collaborations ever has been the one between Adidas and Yohji Yamamoto, Y-3. To celebrate the 20-year partnership and his 79th birthday, Sneakerfreaker wrote about Five of Yohji Yamamoto’s Most Influential Adidas Y-3 Sneakers.

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And if you would like a copy of my book Listen To Your Footsteps, it is widely available online and in bookshops (primarily in South Africa but also on Barnes & Noble and Amazon) both in digital and physical form.

Easy

Kojo