June 17, 2013

Feeling the Love at the Anancy Festival 2013



It wasn't Father's Day and they weren't my children, but I could feel the love at the Anancy Festival on Saturday at the South Regional/Broward College Library.




The workshop, Anancy Writes Poetry, and the reading from The Christmas Dutch Pot Baby were well attended.  I was happy that my friends, Andrea Shaw, Malachi Smith, and Michele Fievre--all published writers--participated in the workshop and read unfinished pieces for the audience.





The children, of course, stole the show with wonderfully imagined poems that they were able to write by the end of the workshop.










The reading from The Christmas Dutch Pot Baby was a success and fulfilled my mission for writing children's books: to get Jamaican parents and children together to read a book that has characters that look and sound like us. The parents readily appreciated the subtle irony of the title because of the associations of Dutch pots with Jamaican colorism in a story I like to call "the redemption of Dutchie."




The children loved the story and were in awe of the graphics. It felt so good to say, "My daughter drew all the pictures!" To which a young asked, "Is she in art school?"





Thank you to all the parents and children who came to the workshop and the reading. Thanks also to the organizers of the Anancy Festival, Andrea Shaw and Xavier Murphy, for inviting me to read and to conduct the workshop. I'd be remiss if I did not include Valrie Simpson and the South/ Regional/Broward College Library for opening their doors to the festival and providing a space for the community. Much blessings.





I'm looking forward to Anancy Festival 2014!



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