Imagined Nations, 50 Years Later: Reflections on Independence and Federation in the Caribbean

The 31st Annual Meeting of the West Indian Literature Conference

Imagined Nations, 50 Years Later: Reflections on Independence and Federation in the Caribbean

Caribbean Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Miami

October 11-13th, 2012

University of Miami 

Coral Gables, Miami, FL

Conference Description

In 2012 Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica celebrate the 50th Anniversary of their independence from Britain. However, while 2012 marks these very auspicious occasions, it is also the 50th anniversary of the collapse of the West Indies Federation. Anniversaries encourage and even demand reflection and re-visitations of the expectations, opportunities lost and those well used, the failures and achievements as well as the considerations that attended these occasions. For more than fifty years, novelists, poets, visual artists and other cultural workers have been actively involved in imagining, revising and challenging the project of independence and the future it promised for so many. 

The 50th Anniversary is an excellent opportunity to revisit the movement towards and attainment of independence; the arts movements that emerged out of these nationalist projects; the cultural institutions that gave expression to the changes taking place; the rise and collapse of the West Indian Federation and the implications of all of these developments for the Caribbean region in the new era of globalization. Moreover, this occasion provides an important critical crossroad for us to consider the extent to which dialogues about independence and Federation have preoccupied not only writers, but also artists working in a number of different mediums in the Caribbean region. To this end, the 31st West Indian Literature Conference invites writers, cultural practitioners and scholars to submit papers that engage a wide range of critical perspectives on the various representations of both independence and the rise and fall of the West Indian Federation.

Panel presentations will consider these and other themes and topics:

Literary Nationalism in Trinidad and Jamaica
The Architecture of Independence
Narrative Intentions: Mapping the Landscapes of Independence
Bodies of (In)difference: Gender, Sexuality and Nationhood
Flexible Citizens, Rigid Borders: Migration and Diaspora
Pan-Caribbeanism and discourses of regional integration
States of Independence – Puerto Rico and the US
Political Leadership: Past, Present and Future
Caribbean Women's Literature: Configuring of a political voice/space.
New artistic articulations and revisions of the (post)independence project
Rhythm-Nations: Music, Poetry and Performance
Pedagogies of Independence
Colonization in Reverse: Caribbean and Britain
Comparative Contemplations: Decolonization in the French, Hispanic and Dutch Caribbean

Cultural Performance and the Politics of Nation

For more information: http://www.as.miami.edu/windianlitconf/

***

Blog Disclosure Policy

Geoffrey Philp’s Blog Spot receives a percentage of the purchase price on anything you buy through links to Amazon, Shambala Books, Hay House, or any of the Google ads or Google Custom Search.




***

Disclaimer of Endorsement

The documents posted on this Web site may contain hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links and pointers are provided for visitors' convenience. I do not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any linked information. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers to other Web sites or agencies is not intended to assign importance to those sites and the information contained therein, nor is it intended to endorse, recommend, or favor any views expressed, or commercial products or services offered on these outside sites, or the organizations sponsoring the sites, by trade name, trademark, manufacture, or otherwise.

Reference in this Web site to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the site's visitors, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by this blog.

Friday Links: Lectures, Conferences, and Workshops

Cropper Foundation

13th International Conference of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars

The 31st West Indian Literature Conference

Publishing in Caribbean Studies:
A Workshop with Cathie Brettschneider
Humanities Editor at the University of Virginia Press

Book Launch

Caribbean Literature and the Public Sphere: From the Plantation to the Postcolonial
Dr. Raphael Dalleo


Sex and the Citizen: Interrogating the Caribbean
Edited by Dr. Faith Smith

Saturday January 28, 2012
7:00 p.m.
Books & Books, 
265 Aragon Ave. Coral Gables

Reception prior to launch at 6:00 p.m.

Bob Marley Symposium at Americas Society

Inaugural Event: Chris Blackwell and Christopher John Farley—A Conversation

Tuesday, November 16, 7:00 pm

Blackwell, the founder of Island Records and the man who launched Bob Marley and The Wailers, and Farley, the author of Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley (2006) and a Wall Street Journal editor, will discuss Bob Marley—the man behind the music. more

Panel Discussion: Ibo Cooper, Robert Hill, Herbie Miller, Christopher Winks

Wednesday, November 17, 7:00 p.m.

Cooper (Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts), Hill (UCLA), and Miller (Jamaica Music Museum/Institute of Jamaica), moderated by Winks (Queens College, CUNY), will address Bob Marley as a consummate musician and as a national hero of Jamaica. more

Launch of Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas (Bob Marley and His Legacy; Fall 2010):
Jacqueline Bishop, Kwame Dawes, Lorna Goodison, Herbie Miller, Shara McCallum. Christopher Winks.

Thursday, November 18, 7:00 pm

The launch of Review 81 will feature comments by guest creative editor Goodison and guest academic editor Winks; and readings of texts inspired by Bob Marley by poets/prose writers Bishop, Dawes, McCallum, and Miller.

With the collaboration of the Consulate General of Jamaica in New York and InterAmericas®.

Americas Society is proud to participate in the 5th Annual Latin American Cultural Week, produced by PAMAR (www.pamar.org/lacwnyc/).

Reservations are required.

Americas Society Members: Reserve today at membersres@americas-society.org

Non-Members: Visit our website and make your reservation online approximately five days before each event.

Related Events

Sound System Night with DJ Bunny Goodison, Sunday, November 21, 10:00 pm, at Nublu (62 Avenue C, New York, NY) more

Concurrent to the symposium, the Consulate General of Jamaica in New York will present an exhibition of images from Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae: The Photographs of Kim Gottlieb-Walker (Titan Books 2010) in its space at 767 Third Avenue, 2nd Floor, NYC.

Americas Society gratefully acknowledges Honorary Benefactor Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat and The Reed Foundation for their generous support of the Literature Program. The Fall 2010 season is also made possible in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts; with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; and in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

Location and HoursAll our culture programs are free, open to the public, and take place at Americas Society, unless noted. We are located at 680 Park Avenue at 68th Street in New York City. To arrive by public transportation, take the 6 train to 68th Street / Hunter College. Map. For wheelchair access, kindly call in advance.

Gallery hours are Wednesdays to Saturdays from 12 pm to 6 pm.

For more information, visit www.americas-society.org. If you have questions or comments, please email us at culture@americas-society.org.

About Americas Society Americas Society is the premier forum dedicated to education, debate and dialogue in the Americas. Its mission is to foster an understanding of the contemporary political, social and economic issues confronting Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada, and to increase public awareness and appreciation of the diverse cultural heritage of the Americas and the importance of the inter-American relationship.

Images: Left: Photo courtesy of Adrian Boot-Bob Marley Music Inc. Right: Review 81 cover; image by Alicia Mihai Gazcue.
 

***

FIU/ Books&Books International Writers Conference: Grand Cayman

FIU/Books&Books International Writers Conference

2010 FIU/Books& Books International Writers Conference--Grand Cayman

Co-sponsored by FIU's MFA Program in Creative Writing and Books&Books.

Co-Directors:  Mitchell Kaplan, Books & Books;  Les Standiford, Director of FIU's MFA in Creative Writing

Dates:  October 21-23, 2010

Conference Faculty

KAYLEE JONES (Lies My Mother Never Told Me) Non-Fiction/Memoir

ANN HOOD (The Red Thread) Novel

GEOFFREY PHILP (Dub Wise) Poetry

MARLY RUSOFF (The Marly Rusoff Agency, NYC) Literary Agent

DANIEL HALPERN (ECCO Press, NYC) Editor & Publisher

DAN WAKEFIELD (New York in the 50's) Mind, Spirit, Non-fiction

DEBRA DEAN (The Madonnas of Leningrad) Novel

CAMPBELL McGRATH (Shannon: A Poem of the Lewis & Clark Expedition) Poetry

LES STANDIFORD (Last Train to Paradise) Narrative Non-Fiction

JOHN DUFRESNE (Requiem, Mass.) Fiction

DENISE DUHAMEL (Ka-Ching!) Poetry

LYNNE BARRETT (The Secret Names of Women) Fiction & Revision

Tuition:  Special early-bird rate--$300, prior to July 15.  


Mss. Conferences:  Limited, $50


Conference Hotel:  Sunshine Suites, Grand Cayman.  $100 studio; $110 deluxe studio; $125 deluxe 1BR suite.  Call 877.786.1110, toll free.  E-mail sunshinesuites.com.  Code:  FIUWW


Nine daily classes in all genres; afternoon editing and publishing symposia; evening readings.


DOWNLOAD THE REGISTRATION FORM HERE


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CALL 305.919.5857 or e-mail:  campbet@fiu.edu.

***

Caribbean Film Distribution Company to be launched...

This month Barbados will become home to CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution: the first ever of its kind film distribution company in the English-speaking Caribbean aimed at creating moneymaking opportunities for producers of Caribbean content.

The company will be launched at a Press Conference in Bridgetown on May 19th 2010.

One of the many tangible outcomes of the recently concluded and highly acclaimed Best of CaribbeanTales Film Festival held in Barbados earlier this year, CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution is being established to represent Caribbean Filmmakers to the international community.

It will also position Barbados as a "centre of excellence" for film in the region.

CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution intends to acquire a broad-based catalogue of Caribbean-themed films from the Region and its Diaspora, and to market these products through its Festivals and other international markets such as Cannes and Mipcom as well as at trade fairs, missions and conferences.

According to CEO and renowned Filmmaker Frances-Anne Solomon, “there is an explosion of product coming out of the region and there is a need for a focused distribution strategy to ensure that this content gets the best deals on the international market.”

“Other companies exist around the world, but Caribbean cinema has its own aesthetic, which unfortunately is marginal to such entities. We wanted to create something that will take care of our own.” Says Solomon.

Solomon believes that the Caribbean is a reservoir of stories that will appeal to a wide cross-section of people because of the diversity that exists in the Region.

“In fact our literature is a testament to the wealth of material there is to mine.” She says.


CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution is in the process of acquiring content from filmmakers and will showcase its inaugural Catalogue at the annual Caribbean Studies Association Conference that this year will be held in Barbados May 24 – 28, 2010.

CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution is founded by Solomon, herself an accomplished international filmmaker. Other principals include Dr Keith Nurse, Director of UWI's Shridath Ramphal Center at Cave Hill, well-known Trinidadian Producer, Director and Media Personality Lisa Wickham, New York-based Barbadian publicist/entrpreneur Bevan Springer. and Jamaican filmmaker Mary Wells ("Kingston Paradise").


CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution Inc is a proud partner of the Barbados Business Enterprise Corp. a company formed by Dr Basil  Springer, that  provides Shepherding and Seed & Venture Capital services to businesses.

Via  Newz from CaribbeanTales

***

The Vistas of Caribbean Literature@ UWI

The 29th Annual West Indian Literature Conference starts on Friday presented by the Department of Literatures in English, UWI.

Special guests include Lorna Goodison, Shara McCallum, David Chariandy and winners of the Small Axe Literary Competition 2009 : Tanya Shirley, Ashley Rousseau and Monica Minnott.

The conference is open to the public with no cover charge.

Please follow this link for the program: (.pdf format): Caribbean Vistas @ UWI

***
Via: YardEdge

Word Alive International Literary Festival: March 25-28, 2010

***

With the unwavering support of the 1st National Bank St. Lucia Ltd, the WORD ALIVE Performance poetry event has now evolved into the WORD ALIVE INTERNATIONAL LITERARY FESTIVAL.

WORD ALIVE began five years ago as a brainchild of St. Lucian poet and economist Adrian Augier. A performance poetry competition was inevitable for a poet who was also an actor, a producer of major theatre, and a carnival master. It brought to the fore several new talents working in a form that was increasingly popular wherever poets met to present their work.

Earlier this year, Mr Adrian Augier was named Anthony N Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence Laureate in Arts & Letters, 2010. It is a well deserved award for this St. Lucian artist who has also become a successful pioneer of the fledgling creative arts industries. As a poet, actor, playwright, director and producer, this professional economist has made his mark on the arts and culture landscape of St. Lucia and the Caribbean. His Rituals Carnival Band attempts to return St. Lucian carnival to quality creative costume design with all the drama of this unique Caribbean street theatre. He has also created the annual Kalalu World Beat Music festival, which has brought international performers to his Samaans Park venue.

Augier’s St. Lucia Arts Festival Company has been the producer of WORD ALIVE and his many other creative arts ventures. He sees the evolution of the five year old WORD ALIVE performance poetry programme as a “logical progression” and a “tangible manifestation of movement and growth of the arts in an area that has already earned a place for St. Lucia on the Caribbean stage.”

This is St. Lucia’s first ever international literary festival. This year it will serve as a special tribute to Nobel  laureate Derek Walcott who celebrates his 80th birthday this year. Mr. Walcott endorses the festival by presenting the premiere book launch of his new publication White Egrets. 

This takes place at the opening event scheduled for Thursday March 25th at 7 pm. Mr. Walcott will be introduced by the preeminent Walcott scholar today, Professor Emeritus Edward Baugh of Jamaica. The evening will also feature a visual art exhibition by secondary school students. Their theme will be the poetry of Derek Walcott.A video installation by local film director Davina Lee will also be on show that night featuring her film interpretation of the work of several St. Lucian poets, including Walcott and Augier.

Adrian Augier sits as Co-Chair on Caricom’s Task Force on the development of cultural industries. Appropriately, he gives a focus to creative arts professionals by creating a forum opportunity at this Festival. The forum will examine the film industry.  Prominent Trinidadian film maker Frances Anne Solomon will join Mahmood Patel of Barbados, Anita Bully of Dominica and a number of local film experts on Friday March 26th for a one day conference on various aspects of the developing Caribbean film industry. Invitations have been extended to the Ministry of Tourism and other relevant interests to participate. Films by Ms Solomon will be screened at Samaans Park on Friday night and are open to the public at a nominal fee of $10.00.

On Saturday March 27th, the film makers will have the opportunity to participate in a workshop on cinematography led by Mahmood Patel of Barbados.

The signature event of the Festival, the WORD ALIVE Performance poetry competition, takes place on Saturday night at 7 pm. Two guest poets of international stature will make appearances, Kei Miller of Jamaica and Roger Bonair-Agard of Trinidad and Tobago. A number of local poetry talents are expected to compete this year.

From the opening of the Festival on Thursday, patrons will have the opportunity to visit a book fair where readings and signings by visiting and local authors will be scheduled. Food courts and musical entertainment will be part of all activities. The book fair and various exhibitions remain open during the festival.

On Sunday the 28th the major international literary stars will dominate the stages. Among those already confirmed to read their work are Kei Miller, Edward Baugh, Earl Lovelace, Lorna Goodison. George Lamming, who was expected to attend, is now unable to do so. These well known literary voices will be joined by local published writers including McDonald Dixon, John Robert Lee, Kendel Hippolyte, Adrian Augier. Former winners of the WORD ALIVE competition will make an appearance, including Lisa Dublin and Katherine Atkinson.

The organizers are hoping to present a discussion with the major writers in which they will offer their views on  the shaping  of an agenda for Caribbean Arts and Literature for a new generation.

The local arts fraternity responding to the Face Book Page for the Festival has been unanimous in its support of this new venture and in applause for the genuine interest of a corporate entity like 1st National Bank St. Lucia Ltd. “1st National has always shown a real interest in the development of the creative arts and are putting their money behind their support. I have always found them willing to listen and to help in whatever way they could,” says St. Lucian poet John Robert Lee. “In the absence of the M&C Fine Arts Awards, and the apparent lack of direction from other quarters, it is very encouraging that 1st National has stepped up to the plate at this time,” added Lee.

The Festival opens on Thursday March 25th and runs till Sunday 28th. All events are open to the public.

Related articles by Zemanta

• My St Lucia: poet Derek Walcott (guardian.co.uk)
• "42, for Lorna Goodison" by Derek Walcott & the "Envy Test" (geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com)
• 42 (poefrika.blogspot.com)
• Untitled (poefrika.blogspot.com)
• Happy Birthday, Derek Walcott (2010) (geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com)

Mothering and Migration: (Trans)nationalisms, Globalization, and Displacement.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) and the University of Puerto Rico are hosting a conference on Mothering and Migration: (Trans)nationalisms, Globalization, and Displacement.

February 18-20, 2010, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico

We welcome submissions from scholars, students, activists, government agencies and workers, artists, mothers, and others who work or research in this area. Cross-cultural, historical and comparative work is encouraged. We encourage a variety of types of submissions including academic papers from all disciplines, workshops, creative submissions, performances, storytelling, visual arts and other alternative formats.

Topics can include (but are not limited to):

Representations/images of mothers and migration and (trans)national issues; globalization of motherhood; empowering migrant mothers; reproduction and movement of mother workers; migrant and (trans)national mothers and capitalism; migrant and (trans)national mothers and activism; public policy and migrant and (trans)national mothers; legal responses to migrant and (trans)national mothers; transnational movement and (anti-) racism in parenting; LBGT migrant and (trans)national mothers and social justice issues; suffering and survival of migrant and (trans)national mothers; impact of globalization on mothering; creating and maintaining family relationships; mothering and immigration policies; resistance of migrant and (trans)national mothers against cultural oppression; migrant and (trans)national mothers and politicians; transnationalism and adoption; migrant and (trans)national mother movements; race and (anti-) racism within the migratory context; theories of mothers who migrate; globalization of reproductive technologies and reproduction; the effects of migration on mothering; communal support for migrant and (trans)national mothers; employment and migrant and (trans)national mothers; raising children and migrant and (trans)national mothers; migrant and (trans)national mothers and the loss of identity; migrant and (trans)national mothers who build communities and networks; climate change and migrant and (trans)national mothers; mothering and cultural globalization; migrant and (trans)national mothers and language; migrant and (trans)national mother activists; migrant and (trans)national mothers and loss; displaced mothers; mothers on the margins; pregnant migrant and (trans)national mothers and heath care; migrant and (trans)national mothers and economic inequality; migrant and (trans)national mothers and homelessness; migrant and (trans)national mothers and education; transnational motherhood; violence against migrant and (trans)national mothers; migrant and (trans)national mothers and mental health issues; migrant and (trans)national mothers and disabilities; mothering and class issues; caregiving and motherhood in global movements; transnational movements; online communities of migrant and (trans)national mothers; ideologies in migrant and transnational communities

If you are interested in being considered as a presenter, please send a 250 word abstract and a 50 word bio by September 1, 2009 to: arm@yorku.ca.

Association for Research on Mothering

726 Atkinson, York University

4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3

Phone: (416) 736-2100 x60366 FAX: (416) 736-5766

Email: arm@yorku.ca

***

The West Indian Literature Conference: ‘Quiet Revolutions’

Most of the leading critics and several scholars in the field of Caribbean literature will assemble in Guyana this week for an international conference on West Indian literature hosted by the University of Guyana. The activities of this meeting will focus on three themes: a celebration of the centenary of the birth of Edgar Mittelholzer, a programme and academic panels in honour of Wilson Harris, and the main conference theme ‘The Quiet Revolutions in West Indian Literature.’

clipped from www.stabroeknews.com Another major West Indian writer whose work and theoretical ideas created a few ‘quiet revolutions’ in the literature is another Guyanese, highly celebrated fiction writer and critical theorist Wilson Harris. Harris, rather like Eddie Kamau Brathwaite, has been recognized as one of the most original Caribbean writers. He has influenced such radical departures from the former trends in modern fiction that he has created more than a quiet revolution; his style of narrative and “fictional autobiographies” have swept up such a storm among critics and writers that they have shaken up the complacency of the English novel.

Call For Papers: Going Caribbean!

ACT 22

CALL FOR PAPERS

International Conference

Going Caribbean!

New Perspectives on Caribbean Literature and Art



Centre for Comparative Studies.

University of Lisbon, November 2 – 3, 2009

In an age of intensifying globalization and interdependencies, «being Caribbean» means more than fashioning a particular identity. Being Caribbean refers to a complex, particular condition, which transcends regional boundaries. Who is Caribbean? And who is «going Caribbean»? Are we all Caribbean now because we live in «urban archipelagoes» (Clifford)? Around the globe, cultural archipelagoes are quickly emerging as a result of the complex process of creolisation, which is taking place in regions and nations far beyond Martinique, Aruba or Jamaica. In the heart of Europe, for instance, —something nobody would have thought of a few decades ago—where nations claim separate cultural identities, from Scotland to Cataluña and the Balkan.

In spite of this exciting and celebratory view of the Caribbean as the paradigm of creolisation, critics still lack a deeper understanding of the intra-Caribbean reality, for a simple reason: in approaching the Caribbean we have almost never crossed linguistic and national boundaries. Although there has been growing academic interest over the past few decades, Caribbean culture is usually studied according to the nationality or language: Cuban writers are part of Cuban or broader Spanish-American literature, Martinican novels belong to Francophone or French literature, Dutch Antillean poetry is part of Dutch literature. Whatever the writers or artists´ background is, they are rarely seen as the protagonists of a common Caribbean cultural identity. As a result, important parts of Caribbean literature and art, especially the multilingual «Dutch» Caribbean where writers express themselves in many languages (not only in Dutch), remain largely unknown. How to resolve the problem of this critical «insularism» so often entrenched in academic departments? Can we go beyond such a limited, artificial view on Caribbean culture?

This conference aims to open up new perspectives through the comparative study of Fiction and Art from the broader Francophone, Hispanic, Dutch, and Anglophone Caribbean as well as their respective Diasporas. A comparative perspective urges us to unveil hidden connections, influences and dialogues between writers, artists and intellectuals. How can a Caribbean nation be imagined beyond geographical and linguistic boundaries? What are the convergences between authors and artists that at first have little in common, like, for instance, Caryl Phillips, the incisive writer from St. Kitts, and Frank Martinus Arion, from Curaçao, who three years ago was the focal point of the Dutch publishing industry's "Holland reads!" campaign? Is there a literary connection between Edwidge Danticat, one of the fascinating voices of the Haitian diaspora, and Patrick Chamoiseau, the Goncourt winning novelist from Martinique? Are the «Puerto Rican» paintings of Arnaldo Roche in dialogue with the Dutch Antillean work of José Maria Capricorne? Finally, how does a transnational, multilingual, perspective on their work shed light on current processes of creolisation inside and outside the Caribbean? Beyond the possibilities, what obstacles and objections persist in undertaking a comparative study of Caribbean culture?

Keynote Speakers (Confirmed):

• Mayra Santos-Febres (Puerto Rico)


• Ineke Phaf-Reinberger (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)


• Kathleen Gyssels (University of Antwerp)


• Aart G. Broek (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies)


• Theo D´haen (Catholic University of Leuven)


• Frank Martinus Arion (Curaçao)

Suggested topics for papers and sessions:

We welcome all comparative approaches to Caribbean Literature and Art in relation to the following areas and topics:

• Representations of Caribbean Identity


• Arts from the Caribbean Diaspora(s) and Exile


• New Directions in Caribbean Studies


• Influences on Dutch Caribbean Art and Literature


• Translation of Caribbean literature (specially to Portuguese): problems and perspectives


• Memory and Trauma


• Visual Arts


• Cultural Studies


• Impact of circular migration on Caribbean culture


• Caribbean Philosophy


• Postcolonial theory


• Cultural and Literary Reviews


• Creolisation in the Caribbean in comparison to Cape Verde

Paper submission:

• Papers may be presented in Portuguese, English, French or Spanish


• Abstracts (max. 300 words) and a short biography (100 Words) should be sent electronically via attachment to: Caribbean@fl.ul.pt

Deadline for submission of papers: May 31, 2009.

For more information, please visit: http://www.comparatistas.edu.pt/actividades/2007-2010/act-22---going-caribbean.html

***

Peepal Tree Press and Sable LitMag at the AWP Book Fair

Peepal Tree Press is the home of challenging and inspiring literature from the Caribbean and Black Britain. They have been publishing fiction, poetry, literary criticism, memoirs, and historical studies since 1985.

SABLE is a 132 black and white international LitMag, that has been published in the UK since 2000. It features work from emerging new writers and established writers.

OUR PUBLIC APPEARANCES

Our next public appearance will be at the AWP Bookfair at the New York Hilton from 30 Jan- 2 Feb 2008. The bookfair is open to the public on 2 February from 8.30am-5.00pm at Americas 1, Booths B74/75 where we look forward to meeting you!

Kadija Sesay, Dorothea Smartt, Koye Oyedeji, and Jeremy Poynting, publisher of Peepal Tree Press will be available to chat to you about SABLE and Peepal Tree Press throughout the bookfair.

Hilton New York (midtown)

1335 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10019

Telephone: 212-586-7000

3rd Floor, Americas 1, Booths B74/75

SABLE will have T-shirts and posters available and special offer subscriptions for institutions and individuals. Purchase a subscription at AWP and get a free copy of Cotton Field of Dreams by Janis Kearney, (featured on the Essence Bestseller List, 2005).

Kwame Dawes, Associate Poetry Editor, Peepal Tree Press, will be signing his books at the Peepal Tree Press Bookstand at 3pm Thursday 31st Jan, Booths B74/75 America's Hall 1, 3rd Floor.

Dorothea Smartt , SABLE Poetry Editor will be reading from her latest book Samboo's Grave/Bilal's Grave (Peepal Tree Press) at the

Pan PALF Reading

in support of its Inaugural Writer's Conference: GHANA'08

[with]

Yusef Komunyakaa

Quincy Troupe

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi

[where]

The New School

Wollman Hall

65 W. 11th Street

Fifth Floor

[when]

Wednesday, January 30th

6:30 p.m.

Pan African Literary Forum. A literary study abroad programme.

A programme with an edge.

Tickets available at New School box office, 66W. 12th St.

$5 general public, free to New School students and alumni.

www. panafricanliteraryforum .org

***

"On my first trip to the Modern I turned a corner,
rooted before the ridged linen of a Cèzanne.

A still life. I thought how clean his brushes were!
Across that distance light was my first lesson."

~Tieoplo's Hound~
Derek Walcott

Happy Birthday, Derek Walcott!

***
Peepal Tree Press

Call for Papers: The Caribbean: Embracing the Diasporas Within and Without

Call for Papers and Panel Submissions

DEADLINE: December 12, 2007

The Caribbean Studies Association (CSA) hereby issues its formal call for papers for its XXXIII annual conference to be held in San Andres island, Colombia, from May 26-30, 2008. We invite papers on all aspects of the Caribbean and its diasporas, whether we are focusing on those that fall within the region, or those more traditionally constituted in the large metropolitan centers of non-Caribbean countries. The first may include, for example, the long-standing English-speaking populations in Spanish-speaking Caribbean countries such as Puerto Limon (Costa Rica), Colon (Panama), Bluefields (Nicaragua), or Baragua (Cuba), while the second may speak to the traditionally constituted Caribbean diasporas in New York, Toronto, or London.

The idea is to interrogate the historical and contemporary processes of migration (whether forced or voluntary) to the region, and later away from it, with a view to celebrating the Caribbean zeitgeist, and highlighting the role played by the diaspora both in spreading the culture and idea of the Caribbean abroad (second, third and later generations of migrants away from the region) and in nourishing political, economic, literary and cultural expression back in the homeland or home region. In all of this the links among geography, history, society, and identity are central.

We are seeking scholarly papers spanning the broadest disciplinary and
methodological range whose work focuses on all aspects of the Caribbean and its
diasporas. In this we include and encourage:

Contributions from professionals, those engaged in the formulation and implementation of public policy, and public and private sector administrators.

Papers that interrogate the theme of connections across the Circum-Caribbean and diasporas.

Papers that strive to enhance the preserve the rich cultures of the region.

Presentations from artists in film, music, and theatre.

Presentations and Panels from graduate students are very welcome.

While we consider individual papers, we strongly encourage submissions of
entire panel proposals with themes intended to provoke stimulating discussion
and debate.

Program Chair: Professor Dwaine E. Plaza (dwaine_plaza@yahoo.com)

Local Committee Chair: Professor Yusmidia Solano Suarez (ysolanos@unaledu.co)

President: Professor Anton L. Allahar (allahar@uwo.ca)

Conference Theme:

The Caribbean: Embracing the Diasporas Within and Without.

For more information on submitting individual paper and panel proposals please visit our website at http://www.Caribbean-Studies.org/en/index.html

***

The Asian Experience in The Caribbean and The Guyanas: Labor and Migration, Literature and Culture

A CARIBBEAN LITERARY STUDIES CONFERENCE

University of Miami, November 1-3, 2007

CORAL GABLES, MIAMI -- The University of Miami's Caribbean Literary Studies will host an international conference entitled The Asian Experience in the Caribbean and the Guyanas: Labor and Migration, Literature and Culture from November 1-3, 2007 at the University of Miami, Coral Gables. This multi-disciplinary conference seeks to reconfigure a Trans-Atlantic geographic and historic paradigm of slavery and colonization to include the coerced migration of South Asians and East Asians to the Americas. This cross-cultural dialogue envisions the reclamation of Asian culture that is so deeply entrenched in the Caribbean’s history and culture and the exploration of the roles of and contributions of Asian communities during colonial, post-independence, and contemporary Caribbean society.

Scholarship presented during the three-day conference will represent the fields of Gender Studies, Geography, History, Economics, Sociology, Anthropology, Communications, and Literature. Topics will include Diasporic Dislocations and the Production of Home and Identity; Asian Immigrants: Politics and Labor in the Caribbean; Discourses of difference in the formation of “Asian-Caribbean” identities; Stereotypes and Exotification in Caribbean Literature and Popular Culture; Indo-Caribbean Literature, Art, and Cultural Practice; Chinese Caribbean Literature, Art, and Cultural Practice; Hybridity and Discourses of Mixed Race; Gender and Sexuality.

Keynote Speakers will include visual artists, creative writers and scholars in the humanities:

Willi Chen

Author and Artist, “An Evening with Willi Chen—A Keynote Visual,” Nov. 1, CAS Gallery, 7:00pm

Cyril Dabydeen

Author, Reading, Nov. 2, UC, 1:00pm

Cheuk C. Kwan

Filmmaker, Film Viewing and Panel Discussion: On the Islands: Chinese Restaurants, Oct. 31, CAS Gallery, 7:30pm

Walton Look Lai

Professor of History, "Images of the Chinese in West Indian History," Nov. 1, UC, 9:15am

Jan Lowe Shinebourne

Author, Reading, Nov. 2, CAS Gallery, 6:30pm

Lelawattee Manoo-Rahming

Poet, Reading, Nov. 2, CAS Gallery, 6:30pm

Brinda Mehta

Professor of French, “Subversive Creolizations and Dougla Liminality: Framing Indo-Caribbeanness in French Caribbean Literature.” Nov. 2, UC, 9:00am

Rajandaye Ramkissoon-Chen Poet, Reading, Nov. 1, UC, 1:00pm

All events will be hosted on the University of Miami campus and are open to the public. Registration is required.

CONTACT: Lara Cahill or Nadia Johnson

EMAIL: Caribbeanlit.english@miami.edu

For scheduling and registration information, please visit: scholar.library.miami.edu/cls, email: Caribbeanlit.english@miami.edu, or call 305.284.1124

***

Call for Papers: "Poetic Ecologies: Nature as Text and Text as Nature in English-Language Verse”

International Conference: “Poetic Ecologies: Nature as Text and Text as Nature in English-Language Verse”

Université Libre de Bruxelles, 14-17 May 2008

Deadline: October 31st, 2007

In the last fifteen years, the emergence of ecocritical theory has meant a radical challenge to the anthropocentrism and dualism between Culture and Nature inherited from classical humanism. Likewise, in its attempt to initiate a much more sustained dialogue between literature and the primacy of biological networks posited by Deep Ecology, ecocritical thought has also seriously questioned the very concept of “nature writing” as traditionally understood in the pastoral and Romantic traditions.

Within the framework of an ecocritical paradigm that is still constructing itself, this international four-day conference to be held in Europe’s capital city wishes to explore the multiple and changing forms of ecological and ecocritical consciousness in English-language verse, past and present. As such, this forum will not only interrogate the very notion of ecology and ask what actually constitutes “ecocritical” and ecologically-engaged poetic practice; various panels/sessions will also seek to shed light on the ever so complex issue of “Nature” versus “Text” and on the possible interrelationships between ecological texts and textual ecologies, between the systems of Nature and those of Culture.

The conference will not privilege any English-speaking poetic tradition in particular, but invites papers from all areas of the Anglophone world, from Canada to the Antipodes. Poetry will be given precedence over other genres, but papers devoted to texts breaking down the traditional boundaries between prose and verse or exploring poetry within the framework of multimedia experimentation (including digital and performance poetry) are also welcome. More theoretically-oriented papers whose insights are mainly based on poetics and poetic corpora will likewise be considered. Contributions from poets addressing the questions of ecological/ecocritical aesthetics and compositional practice are equally encouraged.

Across the wide body of poetry produced in the English language, possible topics and areas of investigation include (but are not limited to) the following:

• “Ecological texts” versus “textual ecologies”
• “Shallow” versus “Deep” Ecology
• The influence of ecological systems on textual ecologies
• Nature as “representation” versus Nature as “process”
• Nature as “simulacrum” versus essentialist visions of the natural world
• The place of human consciousness in the ecological web
• Bioregional sensibilities and the sense of place/space
• Urban and suburban ecologies
• Enclosed versus open spaces
• The “wild” versus the “tamed”
• The concept of landscape: re-invented landscapes, underrepresented landscapes, the interaction between “mindscape” and landscape, “landscape” versus “environment”
• The poetic shattering of the realist-naturalist “mirror of Nature”
• Verse experiments transcending the pastoral legacy; experiments in “cooperative” writing with Nature
• Contemporary ecologically-engaged poetic practices and aesthetics
• The interaction between scientific and poetic discourses
• The fluid boundaries between human and non-human organisms
• The utopia of biocentrism; the myth of anthropocentrism
• Eco-metaphors and the problem of translating Nature into Language
• Evolving images/metaphors of Nature within a given culture; parallel and contrastive images/metaphors of Nature across different cultures and poetic traditions
• Postcolonial challenges to traditional understandings of categories like “wilderness,” “species,” and “dwelling”; re-invented images of the postcolonial wilderness and of the “natural Other”
• The possible intersections between postcolonial and ecological discourses of emancipation
• Ecofeminist perspectives
• Mysticism, “ecopieties” and nature religions from First Nations to postmodernity
• Judeo-Christian versus non-theistic discourses on Nature
• The search for a possible site of reconciliation between Nature and Culture

The conference will include a series of plenary lectures by noted scholars and poets as well as a number of parallel paper sessions. To further enhance the sense of eco-community amongst the participants, the programme will also fuse praxis and pleasure by offering, on the Friday afternoon, an outing to the estate of Meise, which houses the national botanical gardens of Belgium, listed as one of the most important botanical collections in the world.

A selection of papers presented at the conference will be published in conference proceedings.

Twenty-minute paper proposals should be received no later than 31 October 2007. Please kindly e-mail abstracts of approximately 250-300 words, together with a short biography, in RTF format to:

Dr. Franca Bellarsi
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
fbellars@ulb.ac.be

Acceptance of proposals will be notified in the second half of November 2007 so as to allow the authors of selected submissions to apply for travel funding from their universities in due course.

***