Millard Farizstadi has created two of the Rasta-reggae world's most sumptuously
beautiful books. Suffused with mythic red, gold and green imagery, Itations
Vol. I and Vol. II, are two thirds of a projected trilogy, designed to introduce
the culture of Rastafari, explain some of its tenets, reveal the vast internationalization
of the Movement of Jah People, and do it all in pictures so lush and juicy,
you can feel the heat rising off the pages. Millard is an amazing man. Of
stocky and compact build, with deep, piercing eyes and a darkbearded countenance
that amply reflects his more than dozen nationalities, Millard seems an
eternal wanderer flitting from his Jamaican birthplace to an art director's
gig in London for a major record label, to vagabonding around Europe, Ethiopia,
the Caribbean, and North America in search of a more rational way of living
in relation to the earth. Along the way he has also invented his own language.
Well, sort of. He has contrived his own peculiar phonetics for the patois
spoken in Rasta communities. His books are filled with it, and after a while,
it begins to make a skewed sense. On the linguistics' border, brother Millard
is riding a unicycle on the very edge. And there's nobody else out there
even remotely like him. These magical books are a feast for the optical
nerve, a stimulating jolt to the brainpan, rich with pithy Biblical aphorisms.
They offer a vivid glimpse into the new Millenium and are absolutely essential
reading for anyone seriously interested in penetrating the real meaning
of Rastafari.
