chantal-fleur sandjon watches letters crumble away

no coincidences

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:00:05 +0100

the other day i met this woman. she is loud, offensive, a go-getter and a loyal friend. she brings quite a bit of conflict into the story but also a truckload of support for the MC. and i knew straightaway that her name was Cecilia.

then later when i looked up the meaning of this name i found out that it can be translated to “the way for the blind”. and, well, my story deals a lot with blindness, in a real & metaphorical sense of the word.

~~coincidences~~ incidents like this show me, that i am on the right way. that this story is just channeled through me but already exist in another dimension, another sphere. my task is only to sit down and write this story down, nothing more, nothing less.

"For the sad fact remains: there is far more poetry in the world than justice."

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:00:06 +0100

“For the sad fact remains: there is far more poetry in the world than justice.”

- Paul Auster: Invisible.

"We live in the present, but the future is inside us at every moment. Maybe that’s what writing..."

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 10:00:05 +0100

“We live in the present, but the future is inside us at every moment. Maybe that’s what writing is all about. Not recording events from the past, but making things happen in the future.”

- Paul Auster: Oracle Night

"Words could kill, he discovered. Words could alter reality, and therefore they were too dangerous to..."

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:00:06 +0100

“Words could kill, he discovered. Words could alter reality, and therefore they were too dangerous to be entrusted to a man who loved them above all else.”

- Paul Auster: Oracle Night

"Odds don’t count when it comes to actual events, and just because a thing is unlikely to..."

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:35:10 +0100

“Odds don’t count when it comes to actual events, and just because a thing is unlikely to happen, that doesn’t mean it won’t.”

- Paul Auster: Invisible [a beautiful reminder to all writers]

"It always stimulates me to discover new examples of my own prejudice and stupidity, to realize that..."

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:33:38 +0100

“It always stimulates me to discover new examples of my own prejudice and stupidity, to realize that I don’t know half as much as I think I do.”

- Paul Auster: Oracle Night

note to self

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:15:59 +0100

THINK less about writing,
WRITE more.

usually when writing, i listen to classic or post-rock. quiet,...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:13:59 +0100

usually when writing, i listen to classic or post-rock. quiet, soothing sounds, instrumentals.

today i worked on a sub-plot & a character study for my novel while listening to Sleigh Bells all the way through. the story needed more of those unfiltered, raw aggressive sounds, Sleigh Bells defo did the trick.

hard to believe that there was a life before kindle.

Wed, 04 May 2011 14:03:51 +0200

hard to believe that there was a life before kindle.

Freedom Roads featured on english radio stations!

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 02:26:26 +0100

I contributed a text on the Afro-German poet May Ayim and performed as part of Freedom Roads, an exhibition on the colonial footprints in German cities with a focus on colonial streetnames, last year.

To now hear these lovely features on BBC (from about 11:00) and DW-World is so exciting as this is a topic that we need to place in the media and push into people’s heads.

Words are so powerful, streetnames are landmarks, symbols and frames of our everyday life. Yet, we still got streets in Germany named after colonial figures and former German colonies. We repeat these names and have them engrained into the palms of our hands, included in the stories that our passports & IDs tell. We constantly and unknowngly speak things into existence that only the wind should whisper about.

if you need 1 reason to head to vienna, this is...

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 11:07:29 +0100

if you need 1 reason to head to vienna, this is it.

book-of-flights:

I think this is the Hofbibliothek, Hofburg Palace, Vienna (Austrian National Library.)

Photo

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 10:00:08 +0100

Lunatic Blackness on Badilisha Poetry X-Change

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 02:12:00 +0100

Lunatic Blackness on Badilisha Poetry X-Change:

My poem home or the journey to my lunatic blackness has been published as a podcast on the Badilisha Poetry X-Change. It’s a beautiful Capetown-based platform for many different African & Diasporan voices. Enjoy!

and still, i write.

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 02:05:21 +0100

though my focus has been on my MSc course for this season, i have been fortunate enough to have an article published on body’politics & the framing of bodies of Colour in the december ‘10 issue of arranca as well as poems in the most recent freitext. a beautiful performance in berlin on top of that were i finally felt like i claimed the space, made it my own, shared from the heart without the fear of being wounded /or rather, embracing the vulnerability of that moment.

writing is such an amazing process to me and i hope that it will never lose its magic, its transformative powers in my life. there are times where all i write is transcripts of conversations in & outside of my head, joined by b/w pictures of momentarily truths. it does not make me less of a writer, and i know that there are stories growing inside of me that like new life will have to be brought into this world sooner or later. i am pregnant with a dozen silences that will be left unheard if i do not record them.

right now, i am blessed to share my words every once in a while. my belly grows rounder by the day. last night i felt the first kick.

grateful for the people that i get to share my story with and...

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 01:54:00 +0100

grateful for the people that i get to share my story with and that let me become part of theirs. true friend’ship ain’t a titanic, it will never go down.

Performance in Berlin 09/02

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:15:00 +0100

Wednesday 09/02 at 8pm I will be reading/performing at the Werkstatt der Kulturen in Berlin. Only realised today that this will be a major first: So far I have always performed either only a few poems or in collaboration with other artists. This is the first time of full nakedness with the audience - just them, me & a mic. I couldn’t be more excited, hey…

Here is all the info (in German)!

"There is no unassailable solitude. All roads lead to the same point: to the communication of who we..."

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 16:06:22 +0100

““There is no unassailable solitude. All roads lead to the same point: to the communication of who we are. And we must travel across lonely and rugged terrain, through isolation and silence, to reach the magic zone where we can dance an awkward dance.””

- Pablo Neruda

The Double Life

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:24:41 +0100

The Double Life:

In one of my lives, I’m a writer. This means, essentially, that I contemplate the human experience while wearing my pajamas.

Spending half of my christmas holidays in bed, reading “vanishing” by Deborah Willis (the other half is divided into cooking and eating). Beautiful stories, am really enjoying her style. Quiet stories, simple, yet remarkable details and sentences that get burnt into my mind. Things i do hope to be able to say about my own writing one day, too.

On her website you can find a great story about “the double life” of being a writer and a bookseller - and what happens when these two worlds collide.

there is a story growing roots inside me. every time i open my mouth, i fear burping up golden leaves and bleeding buds.

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 22:15:00 +0100

"we just have to make peace with being beings whose surroundings constantly change, while we..."

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 13:10:51 +0100

“we just have to make peace with being beings whose surroundings constantly change, while we constantly evolve as well. we have to find or create a place of peace and permanence within.”