1,720,959 research outputs found
Compton, Wayde
No full textcurrentMA (Simon Fraser University)
Douglas College Faculty since 2018
Wayde Compton is the author of four books: 49th Parallel Psalm (finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize); Performance Bond; After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, and Region (finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award); and The Outer Harbour (winner of the City of Vancouver Book Award). He has also edited two anthologies: Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature and The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them (finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award). Compton is a co-founder of the Hogan’s Alley Memorial Project, an organization formed to raise awareness about the history of Vancouver’s black community. He lives in Vancouver and has recently joined the faculty of Creative Writing at Douglas College in New Westminster, BC
Neither illness nor wellness
No full textAn article written by the listed author above as part of the "Writing Black Canadas" issue.Peer reviewedFinal article publishe
Radio jazz remix: for GB
No full textAn article written by the listed author above as part of the "'Callaloo' and the Cultures and Letters of the Black Diaspora: A Special Thirtieth Anniversary Issue".Final article publishe
The diaspora's upper left-hand margin: Octopus and Callaloo
No full textAn article written by the listed author above as part of the "Prose Fiction and Non-fiction prose: A Thirtieth Anniversary Issue".Final article publishe
Bluesprint: Black British Columbian literature and orature
No full textIn the spring and summer of 1858, 600 blacks moved from San Francisco to the colonies that would eventually become British Columbia. The move was in part initiated by an invitation penned by the governor of the British colonies, James Douglas, who is commonly believed to have had African ancestry, a rumour he neither confirmed nor denied. His appearance was such that he could "pass" for white. By 1871, after swelling to over 1,000, the Black population in BC had dwindled to fewer than 500. But in the late 19th century, and on into the twentieth, Blacks continued to come to BC From the time of the first arrivals, the population and history of BC's Black community has been always in flux. If there is a unifying characteristic of black identity in BC, it is surely the talent for reinvention and for pioneering new versions of traditional identities that such conditions demand. And in all this time, BC's Black citizens created poems and stories and lyrics. Some were written, others spoken. "Bluesprint" is a groundbreaking, first-time collection of this creative output, and includes the work of such individuals as: Rebecca Gibbs, Nora Hendrix (grandmother to Jimi), Austin Phillips, Rosemary Brown, Yvonne Brown, Hope Anderson, Lorena Gale, Mercedes Baines, David Nandi Odhiambo, and many others dealing with issues surrounding race, community, gender, and genre. From the literal writings of James Douglas, a figure whose "Blackness" can only be construed from rumour and speculation, through to the contemporary hip hop lyrics of Rascalz, and including the work of poets, journalists, letter writers, biographers, fiction writers, and speech givers, "Bluesprint" is a comprehensive anthology of literature and orature by black British Columbians.Canadacultural studieshistoryBIPOCBlack literatureBritish Columbiaanthologiespoetr
After Canaan : Essays on race, writing, and region
No full text"Written from the perspective of someone who was born and lives outside of African American culture, it riffs on the concept of Canada as a promised land (or "Canaan") encoded in African American myth and song since the days of slavery. These varied essays, steeped in a kind of history rarely written about, explore the language of racial misrecognition (also known as "passing"), the failure of urban renewal, humor as a counterweight to "official" multiculturalism, the poetics of hip hop turntablism, and the impact of the Obama phenomenon on the way we speak about race itself."--Provided by publisher.BIPOCblack literaturecultural studiesCanad
The outer harbour: Stories
No full textCity of Vancouver Book Award Winner. "In his debut story collection, poet Wayde Compton explores the concept of place and identity in which characters and space merge to make narrative. These interconnected stories, imbued with the colour of speculative fiction, are towering in their conceits. As much as characters are revealed by what they do and say, in The Outer Harbour, places also speak, in the way that they shape us.
One strand of stories follows the relationship between an artist obsessed with shipping containers and a drug-addicted student, each of mixed-race, who seek in art a response to unclear identities. Another set of stories follows the geological development of a volcanic island in Burrard Inlet--Vancouver's harbour--which becomes the site of a radical Indigenous occupation, and later, in increasingly absurd shadings, a real estate development, and then a detention centre for illegal migrants. And a final suite tells the story of Donald and Albert, biracial conjoined twins, and their father, an eccentric figure whose enigmatic expression divides them.
Moving from 2001 through to 2025, The Outer Harbour is at once a history book and a cautionary tale of the future. Collectively, these stories condense and confound our preconceived ideas around race, migration, and home, creating a singular world in a city built on the legacies of racism and colonialism, hurtling towards a future both impossible and inevitable." --From publisher description
The blue road: A fable of migration
No full textLacuna is a girl without a family, a past, or a proper home. She lives alone in a swamp made of ink, but with the help of Polaris, a will-o'-the-wisp, she embarks for the fabled Northern Kingdom, where she might find people like her. The only way to get there, though, is to travel the strange and dangerous Blue Road that stretches to the horizon like a mark upon a page. Along the way, Lacuna must overcome trials such as the twisted briars of the Thicket of Tickets and the intractable guard at the Rainbow Border. At the end of her treacherous journey, she reaches a city where memory and vision can be turned against you, in a world of dazzling beauty, divisive magic, and unlikely deliverance. Finally, Lacuna learns that leaving, arriving, returning-- they're all just different words for the same thing: starting all over again. The Blue Road explores the world from a migrant's perspective with dreamlike wonder. --From publisher description.boo
Performance bond
No full text"In 'Performance Bond', Wayde Compton, among the most progressive and experimental poets in Canada, defiantly and eloquently confronts the globalization and commodification of black culture.
With poetry inspired by the insistent cadences of hip-hop and jazz, Compton fuses language, history, and contemporary black politics. He deals with black diaspora at the outer rim of geography and culture, concerned with the legacy of the slave trade, the memory and origins of hip-hop, and the ramifications of urban renewal on North America's inner cities.
Performance Bond, is supplemented with a CD that is a recording of Compton's musical performance of one of the book's sections, "The Reinventing Wheel," featuring the turntable mixing of his reading of the poem, prerecorded on vinyl, with musical beats, breaks, and samples." --From publisher description.poetrymusicBIPOCblack literatur
49th parallel psalm
No full textShortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize.
Now in its 2nd printing.
"Wayde Compton's first poetry book: a stunning set of poems documenting the migration of blacks to Canada, specifically when the first black settlers-facing an increasingly hostile racist government-left San Francisco and travelled north to British Columbia beginning in 1858.
With recurring themes of the unknowable, the crossroads, the trickster, and entropy, 49th Parallel Psalm jumbles history, time, and the Canadian black literary canon."
-- From publisher descriptionpoetry bookBritish ColumbiapoetryBIPOCblack literatur
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