Geoffrey Philp Wins Literary Medals in Jamaica

MIAMI, November 7, 2007—The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission has awarded Geoffrey Philp, author of Grandpa Sydney’s Anancy Stories, a Silver medal for his short story, “The Day Jesus Christ Came to Mount Airy,” and also two Silver and Bronze medals for his poems, “Letter from Marcus Garvey,” “Beyond Mountain View,” and “Warner Woman (For Edward Baugh).” The National Creative Writing Competition Awards Ceremony & Exhibition Opening, scheduled to begin at 6 pm, will be held at the Knutsford Court Hotel on Wednesday, November 7. The ceremony will also mark the official opening of an island wide exhibition tour to the thirteen parish libraries and features the medal winning pieces in the categories of poetry, short stories, plays, novels, and essays.

“I am deeply indebted to the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission,” said Philp, who will be appearing at the Miami Book Fair International on Saturday, November 11, 2007. “These awards mean a lot to me and I am honored to be a part of the literary tradition of Jamaica and the Caribbean.”

The JCDC National Creative Writing Competition encourages writers to sharpen their skills through the annual competition. Writers are invited to improve their craftsmanship and style, writing in Standard English or Jamaican Dialect. The Creative Writing Competition has spawned and celebrated many recognized professional writers in Jamaica including playwright Basil Dawkins whose 2005 gold medal winning entry “Hot Spot” has not only gone successfully to the stage locally, but has also toured internationally..

Geoffrey Philp is author of the children’s book, Grandpa Sydney’s Anancy Stories, a novel, Benjamin, My Son, a collection of short stories, Uncle Obadiah and the Alien, and five poetry collections, including Exodus and Other Poems, Florida Bound, hurricane center, xango music, and Twelve Poems and A Story for Christmas. Geoffrey teaches English at Miami Dade College and is the chairperson of the College Prep. Department at the North Campus.

For more information, please contact:

Danielle Hopkins

Public Relations Coordinator, Jamaica Cultural Development Commission

The Public Relations Department

Tel: 926-8768/ 371-3423

http://www.jcdc.org.jm/index.php

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The Eric Williams Memorial Collection Essay Competition

Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago--The Eric Williams Memorial Collection (EWMC) at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago, announces the inauguration of the “Eric Williams ‘School Bags’ Essay Competition.” In honour of the 2007 Bicentenary of the British Abolition of the Transatlantic Trade in Africans, this regional effort is co-sponsored by the Jamaica National Bicentenary Committee.

Dr Eric Williams, noted scholar/historian and the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, authored the classic Capitalism and Slavery, which is widely considered to have “defined the study of Caribbean History.”

Throughout his life, Williams gave special emphasis to learning. He often said “to educate is to emancipate.” On August 30, 1962, the eve of his country’s Independence from Britain, he exhorted:

“You, the children, yours is the great responsibility to educate your parents, teach them to live together in harmony…To your tender and loving hands, the future of the Nation is entrusted. In your innocent hearts, the pride of the Nation is enshrined. On your scholastic development, the salvation of the Nation is dependent…you carry the future of Trinidad and Tobago in your school bags.”

The contest is offered to all final year Sixth Form students in the former and current British-colonized Caribbean countries: Anguilla, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos. It will be held from September 15 through December 15, 2007. Winners will be announced on March 1, 2008.

All entries will be based on Eric Williams’ seminal work and will discuss two questions: How has Capitalism and Slavery shaped current debates on the commerce in African slaves and the abolition of slavery? What relevance, if any, do these debates have for today’s student?

First prizewinners will receive a four-day trip for two to Trinidad and Tobago with airfare, hotel accommodations and two meals daily; a tour of the Eric Williams Memorial Collection and University of the West Indies campus; a US $1000 educational voucher; courtesy calls on the President of Trinidad and Tobago and the Speaker of the House of Representatives; a tour of Parliament; a set of Eric Williams’ books; and a framed certificate. The winning essay will also be published. In the event of a Trinidad and Tobago winner, a trip to Jamaica will be substituted.

Patrons of the Eric Williams Memorial Collection’s ‘School Bags’ Essay Competition are: Caribbean Airlines, Ltd.; Caribbean Development Bank; CARICOM; CL Financial, Ltd.; Digicel Trinidad & Tobago, Ltd.; LIAT (1974) Ltd.; Trinidad Hilton; University of the West Indies. Detailed information and runner-up prizes are listed on the EWMC’s website: www.mainlib.uwi.tt/eric.html.

The Eric Williams Memorial Collection constitutes the Library, Archives and Museum of Eric Williams. It was inaugurated by former US Secretary of State Colin Powell in 1998, and named to UNECSO’s prestigious Memory of the World Register in 1999.

For more information, please contact Erica Williams Connell, Eric Williams Memorial Collection P.O. Box 561631, Miami, FL 33256-1631, USA. Tel: (305) 271-7246; Fax: (305) 271-4160; Cell: (305)905-9999 Email: ewc.suilan@juno.com or Helen Kitti Smith Tel: (214)546-4535; Email: kittismith@earthlink.net. Other website information: http://palmm.fcla.edu/eew/.

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Wisdom for the Soul of Black Folk.

Following the award-winning anthology of quotations, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing, Gnosophia Publishers has released October 2007, Wisdom for the Soul of Black Folk. This collection is drawn from the collective wisdom of Africa and its diaspora, from Khemetic times to the present, organized chronologically and by subject. Featuring the wisdom of sages, slave narratives, the literature of resistance, protest and self-assertion, through to reggae philosophy and New Age spirituality, the contribution of Black thinkers to world culture has been as life-affirming and phenomenal as it is unknown. This anthology brings to light much that is timeless, profound and inspirational, universally applicable to the human condition.

“We are truly blessed to have access to this treasury of voices speaking so eloquently of ancient wisdom and contemporary understanding. The ancestors must be extremely gratified to behold the assemblage of truth-seekers and teachers who have shared their insights with us,” comments Malidoma Somé, Author of Of Water and the Spirit and The Healing Wisdom of Africa.

Caribbean authors include Frantz Fanon, Aime Cesaire, Edouard Glissant, George Lamming, Wilson Harris, Kamau Brathwaite, Derek Walcott, Earl Lovelace, Patrick Chamoiseau, Jamaica Kincaid, Edwidge Danticat, Fred D’Aguiar, and Dionne Brand. Of particular interest to Jamaicans is the inclusion of quotations from Robert Wedderburn and Mary Seacole, both voted among 100 Great Black Britons, Marcus Garvey, Claude McKay, Peter Abrahams, Stuart Hall, Dennis Scott, Bob Marley, Rex Nettleford, Mutabaruka, Michael Lee Chin, and pioneer aviator Barrington Irving among others.

Wisdom for the Soul of Black Folk, first edition, trade paperback, 6 x 9, 736 pages, ISBN 978-0-9773391-5-0, $19.95, is available online at http://www.wisdomforthesoul.org along with related quotation card sets, and to the trade from Baker & Taylor, Ingram, and New Leaf Distributors. The title has been well received at the Baltimore Book Festival and Black Authors Showcase in Washington DC. It will be shown at the Miami Book Fair International, November 9-11.

Larry Chang, author and publisher, is available for television, radio, and press interviews, and for personal appearances to conduct readings, seminars and workshops. Call 202 545 0869 or write info@soulventures.org for availability.

GNOSOPHIA Publishers, PO Box 3183, Washington, DC 20010-0183

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The 3rd Annual Asili Nights @ MDC

Asili is the seed, or essence, of a culture. It is the collective spirit of a group of human beings who are either related by blood or through shared experiences. In this instance, the experience applies to a three-day poetry gathering better known as Asili Nights.

Presented by Miami Dade College (MDC), the InterAmerican Campus’s School of Education in collaboration with Barcardi, the events will feature four award-winning authors and poets in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of Asili: The Journal of Multicultural Heartspeak. Both the literary magazine and annual poetry event were founded by MDC professor Joseph McNair.

The celebration will begin at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 5, during the 2007 Miami Book Fair International Write Out Loud program at MDC’s Wolfson Campus, 300 N.E. Second Ave., between Fourth and Fifth Streets. The four guest poets – Reginald Lockett, Devorah Major, Eugene B. Redmond and Al Young – will be joined by local poets who regularly contribute to the Asili journal for a “One Poem Round Robin.”

"We revel in the fact that such illustrious Poet Laureates will grace our institution and enrich our students, faculty and the community,” said North Campus President José Vicente. “The North Campus has been the convener of Asili Night at the College for three years now, and we look forward to yet another presentation of excellence in poetry and the spoken word".

Additional readings by the guest poets will explore the themes of love, death, spirit, self-transcendence, and sex at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6, at the Tower Theater, Cinema One, 1508 S.W. 8th Street and at 5:40 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 7 at MDC’s North Campus, 11380 N.W. 27 Ave., Room 2147.

This year, legendary Oakland, California poet, Reginald Lockett will make his second appearance at Asili Nights. He is the author of Random History Lessons, Good Times & No Bread, The Party Crasher of Paradise and Where the Birds Sing Bass, which won a PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award in 1996. His poetry, articles, and reviews have been published in over fifty anthologies, periodicals, and textbooks. He has a new volume, Bro. Radio, which is scheduled to be published in 2008. In addition to writing, Lockett teaches at San Jose City College and performs with the WordWind Chorus in Oakland, Calif., where he lives. He is a contributing editor for Asili.

Devorah Major, the former Poet laureate of San Francisco, California (2002-2004), received the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence in 1997 for Street Smarts and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association First Novelist award in 1996 for An Open Weave. She is also the author of Brown Glass Windows, Where River Meets Ocean and With More Than Tongue. Major has taught poetry and creative writing as a community artist-in-residence and college lecturer for more than 20 years. She also publishes, records, and performs with Opal Palmer Adisa in the performance poetry group Daughters of Yam and has been a featured poet on six CD albums.

Eugene B. Redmond, the Poet Laureate of East St. Louis, Illinois, has been called “the preacher of poetic rhythm” by Maya Angelou. His collection of poetry includes River of Bones and Flesh and Blood, Songs from an Afrophone, In a Time of Rain and Desire: New Love Poems, and The Eye in the Ceiling. Additionally, he is the author of Drumvoices: The Mission of African American Poetry: A Critical History and founding editor of Drumvoices Review: A Confluence of Literary, Cultural and Vision Arts. His photo exhibit, Visualizing Black Writers: An Extra-literary Exhibit from the Eugene B. Redmond Collection, is currently touring the world, including the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He is a contributing editor for Asili.

Al Young, The Poet laureate of California, is a poet, novelist, author of musical memoirs, and a pioneer of the Black Arts and Post Black Arts movement period. His book Bodies and Soul: Musical Memoirs earned him the American Book Award. Other works include Heaven: Collected Poems, 1956-90, The Blues Don’t Change: New and Selected Poems, Geography of the Near Past, Some Recent Fiction, The Song Turning Back into Itself, and Dancing: Poems, which won the Joseph Henry Jackson Award. Young is also a contributing editor for Asili.

The 3rd Annual Asili Nights

WHEN/WHERE:

Monday, Nov. 5, at 7 p.m. Miami Book Fair International Write Out Loud tent, 300 N.E. Second Ave., between Fourth and Fifth Streets.

Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 6:30 p.m. The Tower Theater, Cinema 1, 1508 SW Eight Street.

Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 5:40 p.m. MDC North Campus, 11380 N.W. 27th Ave., Room 2147.

WHY:A celebration of cultural diversity and community education.

For additional event information, please contact: Professor Joe McNair, School of Education, 305- 237-8485 or 305-450-9042.

Asili the Journal of Multicultural Heartspeak is 10 years old.

http://asilithejournal.com

http://asilithejournal.com/ASILI/a.htm

http://asilithejournal.com/ASILI/Archives.htm

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In My Own Words: Celia Alvarez

Celia Lisset Alvarez’s parents left Cuba after the Castro revolution during the freedom flights of the 1970s for Madrid, Spain, where she was born. They then joined the rest of their family in Miami, where they have been living ever since. Alvarez holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, and her stories and poems have been published in Iodine Poetry Journal, Powhatan Review, Tar Wolf Review, Poui: The Cave Hill Literary Annual, zingmagazine, and Mangrove, and in the anthologies White Ink: Poems on Mothers and Motherhood (Demeter Press, 2007) and Women Moving Forward: Narratives of Identity, Migration, Resilience, and Hope, Vol. 1. (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006). Her debut chapbook of poetry, The Stones (Finishing Line Press, 2006) was followed by the award-winning Shapeshifting (Spire Press, 2006). She currently teaches composition, literature, and creative writing at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Florida.

I wrote Shapeshifting out of anger. I had been avoiding admitting to myself that I had failed as a writer and as an academic for years, and had taught and taught and taught composition and literature without ever looking at my own writing and why I was not writing anymore. I could tell my students what was wrong with their writing and how to fix it or what was great about other writers, but I couldn’t write myself, just could not do it. My inability to complete the doctoral program in literature I had been in for near a decade had divested me of my academic identity, and my inability to come to terms with my creative writing had left me essentially and literally blank. I did not know who I was anymore.

I began the journey towards Shapeshifting backwards. I opened up the files and looked for poetry I had written in my early twenties. To my surprise, it wasn’t as bad as I remembered. I started sending it out. I started writing again. I wrote what I wanted—I read what I wanted. I began to realize that what had kept me from writing for so long was the notion of what I was “supposed to be” writing. I was supposed to be writing prose, for one thing, because that is what I had been told I wrote best. I was supposed to be writing about being Hispanic in Miami, because that’s what I am. Well, I didn’t want to be either of these things anymore, a fiction writer or an immigrant. I was bored with these identities. I had been for a while. I wanted freedom. I still want it.

I wrote poems about being a child in no place special with a mother whose fears transcend culture and ethnicity. I wrote poems about my favorite uncle and itinerant farm workers and my grandparents in Cuba (because I felt like it) and about being old, which I felt though I wasn’t—am not—and about Frances Lucy Wightman and abused wives which I wasn’t/am not/have never been (my poor husband), about Hialeah and Castro and Sylvia Plath and my anger at all of these. I wrote persona poems, I suppose, but the worst kind, the kind that a stranger might think true. I wrote free verse and traditional verse and made up my own verse. I wrote most of the poems in the collection in three months and called it Shapeshifting because I couldn’t call it anything else. I felt possessed and liberated, and at once.

Only after the collection had been picked up did I realize I was doing something quite political. It is impossible for “a woman of color” to write without negotiating that identity. You can embrace it, shape it, or reject it, but you must deal with it. I had dreamed as a little girl about being a writer because it had seemed the perfect way to be all things at once. I retained this naïve association between writing and imagination well into adulthood. I could never accept the boundaries that my identity as a Cuban immigrant threatened to place on that imagination. It’s not that I reject the Caribbean, although my Caribbean cannot be my parents’. My Caribbean is Miami, where I have spent all my life, and it does indeed include mangoes and black beans and Cuban coffee, but it also includes Wal-Marts and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and reruns of The Brady Bunch, and I demand my right to write about all of these. I happen not to like salsa music, and I refuse to pretend to in order to fit someone else’s idea of what it means to be a Cuban woman. Sometimes, I get sick of Miami, and have to leave it for a little while, return to it homesick and lovesick, able to write about it once more.

I have been told that I lack a distinctive voice, and I like that. I don’t have a voice, I have voices. Having been (almost) an academic, I am aware of the danger of laying claims to universals, how they often don’t include people like me, immigrants, Hispanics, women. But I don’t think that a true multicultural literacy is about being content with only what we know, unable to make the empathic leap into another’s soul, saying this is mine and only mine and you can’t understand, you can only look (maybe even pity). Neither do I think that my work is capable of “expanding” or even “redefining” someone’s notion of what it is to be a human being, of complementing—or, worse yet, supplementing—some other, unmarked way of being. Screw that. I am ashamed, in fact, of things that I have published that I now see as flaunting my “strangeness” for others to consume like a trip to Disney World. I wish I could take some of it back.

Shapeshifting was about rejecting all of that, about refusing to be pinned down. The reaction I’m going for when I write is recognition, not disassociation. Not I wonder what it must be like to feel like that but I know what it is to feel like that. If I stop believing this is possible, I can’t write anything that matters to me. And everything matters to me. The woman in pink Goody’s rollers sitting at the bus stop in 90° weather who could very well be my aunt. The kid slipping on the ice in Juneau who thought, nah, I can make it to the store, just like I did, in a warmer place, a different time. I know him, too, and he knows me; I write for him.

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Miami writers
Miami
South Florida writers
florida cuban poets
Cuban American writers

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