Two years ago, veteran journalist, Roy Davis published his first book titled "all is mine" a collection of Anansi tales. Since then, Davis has continued to spin tall tales about the clever spider of folkloric legend. Now ‘all is mine’ has been re-packaged, re-loaded and was today re-released under the Factory Books banner. But not just the same ole’, Davis has combined some rarely seen poetry and peerless illustration by Sean Gibson to deliver a product that is both rootsy and ready for the world. Alfonso Noble found out more.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
Roy Davis' Anansi party is the latest output from Factory books. The publication includes 7 previously released folktales featuring the crafty Anansi spider as well as a previously unreleased story. But aside from previously read stories the book includes 8 of Davis' poems that had not seen print since the Alkebulan newspaper days of the early '90's.
Roy Davis,
“They had this newspaper called Alkebulan and me and Boots Martinez were a part of. And I never bothered to try to publish them before up until now.”
Yasser Musa,
“This book has an added feature where we have included 8 of Roy Davis’ poems. I didn’t know he was a poet until we were almost finished with the illustration on the folklore side and then he brought the poems and I found them to be very interesting and important and so thought that it was important we include them. And I think this book can be targeted for both children, in the case of the folklore stories, and as for adults as you said there are very serious contemporary type poetry.”
Roy Davis,
“Most people don’t know me as a poet.”
[Excerpt from NO EASE]
The dying, the dead, the slaughter
The tears of sorrow that come after
Who can stand the pain?
Who should get the blame?
Seems like
Day after day
Week after week
Dah de same beat
Somebody get shot
Somebody get chop
Somebody get jack
[End Excerpt]
But the social commentary that Davis' poems contain are balanced by the other half of the book that features the witty and comical Anansi spider whom Davis is ready to admit he can identify with.
Roy Davis,
“I can identify with Anansi and maybe that is because I would consider myself an underdog.”
Today in particular Davis sees himself as an underdog because he's debilitated as both his feet are broken and he now has to depend on others to wheel him around. Never minding that however he's keeping on with the reprint of his stories that Musa says has double the pleasure.
Yasser Musa, Factory Books
“The opportunity for us to make a book that involves both a visual artist as well as a literary artist is a great one. Roy Davis is an excellent writer of short stories. His folk tales, 8 of them in this book, capture the great character Anansi which belongs to our folkloric history and belongs to our tradition. But combined with his great writing is the fact that we have Sean Gibson who is a young illustrator who was able to read each of Roy’s stories and then from his imagination try to bring out what it is Anansi was doing in the story, the great moment in each story. So we have managed to combine both the visual artist, the illustrator, as well as the literary artist Roy Davis.”
Roy Davis,
“The cartoonist, Sean Gibson, he did a very good job. The cover alone shows he has a lot of imagination.”
Imagination that on this occasion was derived from Davis' words, verifying that indeed this writer has the stuff to spark it.
The book sells for $10 dollars.
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Edited for the internet by Keith Swift