Nigeria

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Celebrated RPCV Film “Bushman” Restored (Nigeria)
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Ron Singer (Nigeria) reads from NORMAN’S COUSIN & OTHER WRITINGS in NYC
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Paul Newman (Nigeria) | Authority on the Hausa Language
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New books by Peace Corps writers | May — June 2023
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Mary-Joan Gerson (Nigeria) | Children’s Author
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Some Early Peace Corps Books You Might Have Missed
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“Poets Take Note” — Philip Dacey (Nigeria)
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NAKED poems by Bobba Cass (Nigeria)
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The Legendary PCV Post Card
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Retired architectural photographer RPCV Tom Crane (Nigeria) dies
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Tim Carroll (Nigeria) goes home and remembers his childhood
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Review — THE REAL PRESENCE: A NOVEL by Ron Singer (Nigeria)
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16 New books by Peace Corps writers — May and June, 2022
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Review — BREAKING KOLA: An Inside View of African Customs by Katherine Onyemelukwe (Nigeria)
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“When the Right Hand Washes the Left” by David Schickele (Nigeria)

Celebrated RPCV Film “Bushman” Restored (Nigeria)

  A new 4K restoration of David Schickele’s (Nigeria 1961-63) Bushman (1971) will make its North American debut this year, marking the first time in decades that this celebrated landmark of American independent cinema will be widely available. Overseen by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) and The Film Foundation, the restoration will be distributed worldwide in all media by Milestone Films and Kino Lorber. Funding for the restoration was provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, with additional support provided by Peter Conheim, Cinema Preservation Alliance. Following a spotlight presentation in January at BAMPFA as part of the museum’s annual preservation film festival To Save and Project, Bushman will have a weeklong theatrical run at New York City’s BAM Rose Cinemas beginning on Friday, February 2. That presentation will coincide with the restoration’s West Coast premiere at BAMPFA on Saturday, February 3, which will include an onstage conversation with . . .

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Ron Singer (Nigeria) reads from NORMAN’S COUSIN & OTHER WRITINGS in NYC

Jefferson Market Library 425 6th Avenue, NY,NY Saturday, September 30, 3pm   Ron will be reading from his latest novel Norman’s Cousin & Other Writings (Unsolicited Press, Portland, OR, June 2023). The engine for this selection of writings from Brooklyn and Manhattan (1974-the present) is story-telling, but beneath the plots lurk layers of madness and magic, as well as startling, genre-busting juxtapositions. For example, two related stories, “Buying a Car” and “Selling a Car,” are N.Y. City picaresques combined with technical automotive detail and the history of a marriage. Written almost three decades apart, these two stories mirror their times, from the 1970s recession to the wave of immigration that was a by-product of the war in Afghanistan Norman’s Cousin & Other Writings is full of allusions to literature and the other arts. “Simple” takes its title from Langston Hughes, and alludes to the history of rhythm-and-blues. “Carla, the Copy-Shop Girl,” . . .

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Paul Newman (Nigeria) | Authority on the Hausa Language

Paul Newman (Nigeria 1961-63) is the world’s foremost authority on the Hausa language. He is also an attorney with special interest in the intersection of language and law. He was a member of the first Peace Corps group to go to Nigeria back in 1961. He has held academic positions at Yale, Bayero University Kano, University of Leiden, and Indiana University. He has published over 20 books and was the founding editor of the Journal of African Languages.     Distinguished Professor Emeritus Paul Newman received his B.A. (Philosophy) and M.A. (Anthropology) from the University of Pennsylvania, and his Ph.D. (Linguistics) from UCLA (1967). Newman also has a law degree (J.D., summa cum laude, 2003) from Indiana University. He is a member of the Indiana Bar. He has held academic and administrative positions at Yale University, Abdullahi Bayero College (now Bayero University Kano), Nigeria; University of Leiden, The Netherlands, and . . .

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New books by Peace Corps writers | May — June 2023

  To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers  to order a book and/or  to VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT.  See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a free copy along with a few instructions. P.S. In addition to the books listed below, I have on my shelf a number of other books whose authors would love for you to review. Go to Books Available for Review to see what is on that shelf. Please, please join in our . . .

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Mary-Joan Gerson (Nigeria) | Children’s Author

Mary-Joan Gerson, Ph.D., ABPP, is an Adjunct Clinical Professor, Supervisor and has served as the Director of the Advanced Specialization in Couple and Family Therapy at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Active in Division 39 of the APA, Dr. Gerson is the Founding President of Section VIII, Couples and Family Therapy, as well as Founding Co-Chair of the Committee on Psychoanalysis and Health, and the Committee on Psychoanalysis and Community. She is the author of many journal articles and book chapters including a full-length book, The Embedded Self: An Integrative Psychodynamic and Systemic Perspective on Couples and Family Therapy (second edition. 2009); Routledge. She has served in Nigeria (1965-67)  in the Peace Corps, had a Fulbright Fellowship in Namibia, and has taught all over the world, as well as published five award-winning cross-cultural books for children: People of Corn: A Mayan Story Why The Sky Is . . .

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Some Early Peace Corps Books You Might Have Missed

  The Early Years of Peace Corps in Afghanistan: A Promising Time by Frances Hopkins Irwin and Will A. Irwin | Feb 13, 201 The Peace Corps: The Early Years by Charles Jones and Keith Jones | Feb 7, 2015 My Years in the Early Peace Corps: Nigeria, 1964-1965, Volume 1 by Sonja Goodwin | Sep 17, 2021 My Years in the Early Peace Corps: Ethiopia, 1965-1966, Volume 2 by Sonja Goodwin Eradicating Smallpox in Ethiopia: Peace Corps Volunteers’ Accounts of Their Adventures, Challenges and Achievements by James W. Skelton Jr. , Alan Schnur, et al. | Nov 26, 2019 I Miss the Rain in Africa: Peace Corps as a Third Act by Nancy Daniel Wesson  | May 1, 2021 A Few Minor Adjustments: Two Years in Afghanistan: A Peace Corps Odyssey by Elana Hohl  | May 6, 2021 Mariantonia: The Lifetime Journey of a Peace Corps Volunteer by Robert L. Forster | Sep 22, 2021 BUILDING COMMUNITY : ANSWERING KENNEDY’S CALL by HARLAN RUSSELL GREEN | May 16, 2022 Moon over Sasova: One American’s Experience Teaching in Post-Cold War . . .

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“Poets Take Note” — Philip Dacey (Nigeria)

by Philip Dacey (Nigeria 1963-65) • Peace Corps Volunteers, returned or current, who are turning their experiences into poetry and looking for appropriate publishing outlets, ought to know about WordTech Communications of Cincinnati, publisher of my most recent book. Owned and operated by Kevin Walzer and Lori Jareo, WordTech specializes in poetry, utilizes print-on-demand technology, but — and this is important — is not a vanity press. The publishers are determined to make poetry profitable for all concerned without requiring subsidization by the poets themselves. One sign of their seriousness is their ability to attract contemporary American poets who have a significant following already. Their list includes Barry Spacks, Allison Joseph, Frederick Turner, Rhina K. Espaillat, and Nick Carbo. Jareo and Walzer are in fact well aware of the automatic association of p.o.d. technology and vanity publishing. They aim explicitly at severing that connection, demonstrating by their own example that . . .

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NAKED poems by Bobba Cass (Nigeria)

From creative writing at Leicester 2/25/23   Bobba Cass is a gay man, father and grandad. He grew up in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. where he benefitted from education for all, not just the selected. He now lives in Leicester. He has a liberal arts degree from Willamette University, and advanced degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and De Montfort University. Transformative was Peace Corps and subsequent life in Nigeria, 1963-1967. In addition to travelling along the cadences of poetry, he has written a collection of creature fables for children in the series, From Gramps with Love, as part of Creatures Creatives Collective. He has completed three semi-autobiographical novels taking himself from childhood in Seattle to being evacuated from Nsukka, Nigeria at the beginning of the Biafran War. His new collection of poems is one of a series of limited editions of poems including four and twenty, fourteen and Leicester Skies. Websites are here and here. About naked by Bobba Cass naked is a collection . . .

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The Legendary PCV Post Card

  Marjorie Mitchelmore was a twenty-three-year-old magna cum laude graduate of Smith College when she became one of the first people to apply in 1961 to the new Peace Corps. She was attractive, funny, and a smart woman and was selected to go to Nigeria. After seven weeks of training at Harvard, her group flew to Nigeria. There Marjorie and the other Trainees were to complete the second phase of their teacher training at University College at Ibadan, fifty miles north of Lagos, the capital of Nigeria. By all accounts, she was an outstanding Trainee. Then on the evening of October 13, 1961, she wrote a postcard to her boyfriend in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Here is what she had to say: Dear Bobbo: Don’t be furious at getting a postcard. I promise a letter next time. I wanted you to see the incredible and fascinating city we were in. With all the . . .

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Retired architectural photographer RPCV Tom Crane (Nigeria) dies

Tom Crane, retired architectural photographer, Peace Corps volunteer, and ‘obsessive handyman,’ has died at 82   He collaborated with writer Roger W. Moss to publish three books about historic Philadelphia architecture, and reviewers called his photographs “excellent,” “fabulous,” and “beyond superlative.”   by Gary Miles Philadelphia Inquirer  Jan 23, 2023 • Ralph Thompson Crane III, 82, of Bryn Mawr, retired prolific architectural and interior photographer, Peace Corps volunteer, and self-described “obsessive handyman,” died Jan. 9, of multiple system atrophy at St. Francis Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Darby. Known professionally and by his family and friends as Tom, Mr. Crane’s photographs were published in many publications, including The Inquirer, for decades. His work is also found in books, online, and elsewhere, and he teamed with writer Roger W. Moss to publish Historic Houses of Philadelphia in 1998, Historic Sacred Places of Philadelphia in 2004, and Historic Landmarks of Philadelphia in . . .

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Tim Carroll (Nigeria) goes home and remembers his childhood

  “I just had to live a long time,” Beloved Old Mission memories turned into children’s coloring book by Tim Carroll.   By Jessie Williams June 19, 2022   MAPLETON — As a fifth-generation Old Mission Peninsula resident, Tim Carroll has an abundance of stories about his home. “I’ve always been interested in the history of this place, and I love my roots,” Carroll said. Carroll, 83, is sharing his perspective on the Peninsula’s history in a new coloring book, Once Upon A Peninsula, which features stories from his boyhood on the Peninsula. The book, which includes coloring and other activities, features stories and pictures from the Old Mission Peninsula during Carroll’s youth. Once Upon A Peninsula was illustrated by local artist Yvette Haberlein, who previously illustrated “The Traverse City Coloring Book” project. Carroll is a regular presenter at Peninsula Community Library, hosting the monthly history-focused “Talk with Tim” program. . . .

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Review — THE REAL PRESENCE: A NOVEL by Ron Singer (Nigeria)

  The Real Presence: A Novel Ron  Singer (Nigeria 1964–67) Adelaide Books, May 2021 236 pages $19.60 (paperback) Reviewed by Lucinda Wingard (Nigeria 1966-68) • Many of us RPCVs will agree that our lives were significantly altered by living and working in a foreign country. For author Ron Singer (Nigeria 1964-67) the years since Peace Corps have included serious attempts to understand and write about the evolution of his country-of-service. The Real Presence opens with two Igbo characters each taking a chapter to describe for an indeterminate audience their lives before and up to independence in 1960. Addressing the reader in distinctly regional cadence, Lydia Ogochukwu and her much younger brother Jerry (Jeremiah) tell of village life, tribal customs, and their education from the 1930s to the 1950s. They attempt to correct the reader’s misconceptions about their birthplace and the region’s history. The third character is Peace Corps Volunteer Bob Shepard . . .

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16 New books by Peace Corps writers — May and June, 2022

  To purchase any of these books from Amazon.com — CLICK on the book cover, the bold book title, or the publishing format you would like — and Peace Corps Worldwide, an Amazon Associate, will receive a small remittance from your purchase that will help support the site and the annual Peace Corps Writers awards. We include a brief description for each of the books listed here in hopes of encouraging readers  to order a book and/or  to VOLUNTEER TO REVIEW IT.  See a book you’d like to review for Peace Corps Worldwide? Send a note to Marian at marian@haleybeil.com, and she will send you a copy along with a few instructions. In addition to the books listed below, I have on my shelf a number of other books whose authors would love for you to review. Go to Books Available for Review to see what is on that shelf. Please, please join in our Third Goal . . .

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Review — BREAKING KOLA: An Inside View of African Customs by Katherine Onyemelukwe (Nigeria)

      Breaking Kola: An Inside View of African Customs Katherine Onyemelukwe (Nigeria 1962–64) Peace Corps Writers November 2018 251 pages $14.62 (paperback); $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Tom Hebert (Nigeria 1962-64)   • Like military veterans, Peace Corps Volunteers never put their stories and accomplishments behind them. As we say, “Once a Peace Corps Volunteer, always a Peace Corps Volunteer.” But very few of us have been as totally immersed in a new culture as the author of this intense but bright and sunny book. Having taught cross cultural communication at the State Department, I knew this author wrote truthfully when I read these words on page 16: “Breaking Kola is my attempt to explain African, especially Igbo customs that that build this deep sense of community.” I mention that because for over 58 years more than 235,000 Americans have served in 141 countries. And, when they return to this country, . . .

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“When the Right Hand Washes the Left” by David Schickele (Nigeria)

  David G. Schickele first presented his retrospective view of Volunteer service in a speech given at Swarthmore College in 1963 that was printed in the Swarthmore College Bulletin. At the time, there was great interest on college campuses about the Peace Corps and early RPCVs were frequently asked to write or speak on their college campuses about their experiences. A 1958 graduate of Swarthmore, Schickele worked as a freelance professional violinist before joining the Peace Corps in 1961. After his tour, he would, with Roger Landrum make a documentary film on the Peace Corps in Nigeria called “Give Me A Riddle” that was for Peace Corps recruitment but was never really used by the agency. The film was perhaps too honest a representation of Peace Corps Volunteers life overseas and the agency couldn’t handle it. However, the Peace Corps did pick up Schickele’s essay in the Swarthmore College Bulletin and reprinted it . . .

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