Introduction of Marlon James at Cornell University by Carole Boyce Davies

  Carole Boyce Davies and Marlon James, Ithaca, NY, 12 Oct 2017. 

Photo by Stephanie Vaughn

MARLON JAMES INTRODUCTION
The Creative Writing Program of the Department of English, Cornell University
Fall 2017 Barbara & David Zalaznick Reading Series
presents:

Marlon James, Novelist

Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned;
Until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation;
Until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes;
Until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race;
Until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained.
Until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and good-will;
Until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven;

The chorus as we know is:  “There will be war,” a promise of unending violence. And we already know that these wars are both across national boundaries; but often internal as well. And in the case of the Americas, the violence of indigenous genocide, the African maafa and the succeeding three centuries of enslavement and continuing colonialism, American imperialism and its attending ills, have cumulatively produced a certain unending violence, often re-enacted within groups. 

These words from Haile Selassie’s  1963 speech to the United Nations are just as relevant now as they were over fifty years ago. I begin with them deliberately.  They inspired  and were charged by Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley in one of his classics. It is significant to mention these two conjunctions, as they are precisely what animates Marlon James’s classic text.  Bob Marley functions as a veiled fictional presence in Marlon James’s prize winning,  A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014). Bob Marley was the voice of  resistance, throughout the US and Caribbean Black Power period, (1970’s-90’s) engaging political and knowledge fields like Pan Africanism,  Rastafari, the African Diaspora, Human Rights but also Love, Sexuality and liberation, for a generation, with rhythms and lyrics that became movement anthems that still endure.  In many ways the singer, as he is termed in this novel,  becomes the creative metaphor  or center of the text, if one exists;  but also the one who in many ways generates the text and around whom but also to whom, some of the killing is directed. Marlon lets us see the singer through the eyes of several male characters but also through the voice of Nina Burgess the most fully developed woman in the text, who lives to migrate to the U.S. 

But around the singer as around Nina Burgess, who functions as a witness,  there is an extreme masculinized violence  in language, as in politics and definitely in practice, that populates this not at all brief history.  Some call it a polyphony others a cacophony  or even a whirlwind of voices, another,  a collage of voice through which these stories are told in a cast of characters already made it seems for screen and optioned by HBO.   Here the dead speak right from the start. Here assassins execute; CIA agents operate; killers kill; drug dealers deal in what all reviewers agree is an epic novel, taking Caribbean literature fully into new possibilities.  For one of his fellow Jamaican writers, Geoffrey Philp author of Garvey’s Ghost  the following assessment:  “Compared to earlier writers, Marlon does not prettify or romanticize the violence.  He pushes the boundaries of what is possible in Caribbean writing and goes to places in his writing that many of us have not dared to go.”  

For me, a Caribbean-American feminist critic,  Marlon James had revealed his ability to develop a space for women and resistance in The Book of Night Women.  (2009)  set in plantation Jamaica in which before “Django”  we have an enslaved woman, killing a rapacious slave master and burning down a plantation great house (think of a Linda Brent who does not hide in the attic for seven years) and walking away from the act.  Still my favorite is his John Crow’s Devil  (2005 )  an experimental and surprisingly beautiful encounter  with his version Caribbean magic realism,  sexuality, insanity, possession, the supernatural with corrupt evangelical ministers as the lead characters,  all carried out in a Caribbean country side,  which will never make it into the tourist brochures. This book we learn was rejected over 70 times. For the would-be writers in the audience:  Courage!

Marlon James who describes himself as a post-post-colonial, in the sense of no longer having to deal with the UK but with the USA was born in Jamaica in 1970.  He writes about his coming into himself as a writer and in claiming his sexual identity in “From Jamaica to Minesota to Myself” New York Times, March 10, 2015. And finding himself in Minnesota,  even as he gains international fame, he remains grounded,  as  he wrote, after the acquittal of the police killer of Philando Castille, the realities of  the psychic and physical violence of continuing racism and the possibilities of accidental  or deliberate police execution  as a reality for black people in America.  It is a classic critique which I recommend to all titled:  “Smaller, And Smaller, and Smaller” (June 17, 2017) which my Writing Black Experience read today and had amazing responses to:

I have a big global voice, but a small local one, because I don’t want to be a target, and resent that in 2017, that’s still the only choice I get to have. … I go out of my way to avoid police, because I don’t know how to physically act around them. Do I hold my hands in the air and get shot, Do I kneel and get shot? Do I reach for my ID and get shot?

Do I say I’m an English teacher and get shot? Do I tell them everything I am about to do, and get shot? Do I assume than seven of them will still feel threatened by one of me, and get shot? Do I simply stand and be big black guy and get shot? Do I fold my arms and squeeze myself into smaller and get shot? Do I be a smartass and get shot? Do I leave my iPhone on a clip of me on Seth Meyers, so I can play it and say, see, that’s me. I’m one of the approved black guys. And still get shot?

… You will never know how it feels to realize that it doesn’t matter how many magazines articles I get, or which state names a day after me. Tomorrow when I get on my bike, I am big black guy, who might be shot before the day ends, because my very size will make a cop feel threatened. Or if I’m a woman, my very mouth. And a jury of white people, and people of colour sold on white supremacy will acquit him. And even me hoping for hipster points on my fixed wheel bike, is countered by them thinking I probably stole the bike.

Marlon James won the 2015 Man Booker Prize for A Brief History of Seven Killings, and has also won many other prizes for his other works.  He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota and teaches English and creative writing at Macalester College.

Thomas Glave in  his introduction to  Our Caribbean.  A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles, (2008)  says:  “What would it be like to attend – to truly hear,  for once – the many conversations that we have had with each other and still need so very much to hear? What would it be like to listen to and now, by way of a gathering of voices like this once, actually observe these conversations between ourselves?”   

I invite you to listen to Marlon James.




. 

Download Garvey's Ghost @ Book Fusion

When Kathryn Bailey's teenaged daughter disappears from their home in Miami, the single Jamaican woman pursues every possible angle to find her. Kathryn's search leads her to a meeting with Jasmine's college professor, Jacob Virgo, a devout Garveyite and Rastafarian. Although their initial encounter is unpleasant, they must join forces to find Jasmine before it is too late. Through the teachings of Marcus Garvey, they learn to break down subtle barriers and find an unexpected bridge to new understandings and love.

 https://www.bookfusion.com/books/116198-garvey-s-ghost

An Evening With Orlando Patterson

 
 
On Saturday, February 13, 2016, the Florida Atlantic University (FAU), College of Business, will host internationally renowned Harvard sociologist, Orlando Patterson, Ph.D., O.D., The forum is free to the public, with registration at Eventbrite.com, and begins sharply at 5:00 p.m., at the FAU Liberal Arts Building (Room LA 120) 3200 College Avenue, Davie, FL 33314.

Dr. Patterson will speak on "Institutions, Culture and Economic Performance in Jamaica: A Comparison with Barbados” at the first in a series of lectures, jointly organized by the University of the West Indies (UWI) Alumni Association Florida Chapter, Coalition of Jamaican Alumni Associations of Florida and ReadingPaysMore, Inc., a South Florida based non-profit reading initiative with the generous support of the Florida Caribbean Students Association. Further lectures are slated for dates to be announced on The Evolution after the Revolution: Jamaica at 60, Books Too! promoting and preserving our culture: Integrating Reading with Sports and Entertainment for a Prosperous Jamaica.

Described as one of Jamaica’s, and the Caribbean’s foremost sons, the intellectual and literary icon, Dr. Patterson is the author of Slavery and Social Death, Freedom in the Making of Western Culture, The Sociology of Slavery, The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth, and the Caribbean classic, The Children of Sisyphus.

Dr. Patterson was awarded the Order of Distinction by the Government of Jamaica in 1999. 


An Evening with Orlando Patterson
February 13, 2016
5:00 p.m.
Florida Atlantic University (FAU),
College of Business,
FAU Liberal Arts Building (Room LA 120)
3200 College Avenue, Davie, FL 33314.

Excerpt from "de book of Mary" by Pamela Mordecai

JESUS TAKES LEAVE OF MARY AND GOES INTO THE DESERT

Plenty hard to believe my son turn
thirty dis winter season just gone!
Not dat me never watch

every minute, each day, as him grow.
But is like you see and you don’t notice,
and den, all of a sudden dis big

somebody hold you face in him hand
kiss you on you forehead,
say, “Mums, I going now.”

Never mind how much time
I protest and ask why him must go
off alone to a place wid no water, no food,

not a green thing to lift him spirit...
“Mums,” him say “why I would
leave dis house, you and Gran, best cook food

in dis town, my sistren and bredren,
and de whole family, plus de woodworking, too,
all I love, if it was up to me?”

I breathe deep, gaze on him
from him head to him toe, one last time.
“See three loaf of new bread I just bake

in dat bag, and a wineskin your gran
send wid Judith daughter dis morning.
She say, send, tell her when you going.

“I going stop by de yard
as I leaving, to tell Gran goodbye.
Big thanks for de eats and de drink,

but you know my food in de wild
going be fasting and prayer, my Mums.
I sure you don’t want my Papa up so...”

and him turn him eye up to de sky,
“to vex wid me right as I start out?”
“Why you can’t pray here, son?

I will keep food and drink far from you.
I will honour your fast. Is a thing I do for
Joseph plenty times when him was still wid us.”

Him bend down and kiss me,
say, “Mums, dis not de worst.
Me must get ready for some dread things.”

When I go to answer, him put one finger on
my lip. “Hush, Mums,” him repeat,
“believe me, if de choosing was mine

I would stay.”
And him look round de room,
touch de big water jug, scuff de rug

wid him foot, take him staff
and walk through de door –
never turn him head round to look back.


From de book of Mary

About Pamela Mordecai

Pamela ('Pam') Mordecai’s previous collections of poetry include Journey Poem (1989); de Man, a performance poem (1995); Certifiable (2001); The True Blue of Islands (2005), and Subversive Sonnets (2012). de book of Mary, from which “Jesus Takes Leave of Mary and Goes  into the Desert” comes, will appear in fall, 2015. In 2006 she published Pink Icing, a collection of short stories; her first novel, Red Jacket, appeared in February, 2015. She has edited and co-edited ground-breaking anthologies of Caribbean writing including Jamaica Woman (1980, 1985, with Mervyn Morris); From Our Yard: Jamaican Poetry since Independence (1987); Her True-True Name: An Anthology of Women's Writing from the Caribbean (1989, with Betty Wilson) and Calling Cards: New Poetry from Caribbean/ Canadian Women (2005). Her play, El Numero Uno had its world premiere at the Loraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People in Toronto in 2010. In spring 2014, she was a fellow at the prestigious Yaddo artists' community in upstate New York yaddo.org. Pam and her family immigrated to Canada in 1994. She lives with her husband, Martin, in Kitchener, Ontario.

On My Bookshelf: Providential by Colin Channer

Channer’s debut poetry collection achieves an intimate and lyric meditation on family, policing, loss, and violence, but the work is enlivened by humour, tenderness, and the rich possibilities that come from honest reflection. Combined with a capacity to offer physical landscapes with painterly sensitivity and care, a graceful mining of the nuances of Jamaican patwa and American English, and a judicious use of metaphor and similie, Providential is a work of “heartical” insight and vulnerability.

No one, since Claude McKay’s folksy Constab Ballads of 1912, has attempted to tackle the unlikely literary figure of the Jamaican policeman. Now, over a century later, drawing on his own family knowledge of the world of the police, on the complex dynamic of his relationship with his father, and framed within the humane principles of Rasta and reggae, Channer has both explored the colonial origins of that police culture and brought us up to date in necessary ways. Here are poems that manage to turn the complex relationships between a man and his father, a man and his mother, and man and his country and a man and his children, into something akin to grace. Providential does not read like a novelist’s one-off flirtation with poetry, but an accomplished overture to what ought to be a remarkable literary journey for a writer of immense talent and versatility.

“…Written with pitch-perfect rhythm and a keen eye for supple, limber turns.” —Lorna Goodison, author of From Harvey River

“Channer writes with a moving vulnerability and much lyric grace, revealing new facets to familiar themes—home, family, history, and the evolving journey of self. A universal, timeless meditation.”
—Chris Abani, author of The Secret History of Las Vegas

Born in Jamaica to a pharmacist and cop. Colin Channer is named by Junot Díaz calls him “one of the Caribbean Diaspora’s finest writers.”

On My Bookshelf: Red Jacket by Pamela Mordecai

Mervyn Morris @ Liberty Hill Great House

Book Review: A Brief History of Seven Killings

When New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani described A Brief History of Seven Killings as “epic in every sense of that word,” I thought my reaction would be similar to Dr. Johnson’s response to another epic, Paradise Lost: “None could have wished it a word longer.” Coming in at just under seven hundred pages with a cast of at least seventy-six named characters from the laconic Josey Wales to the inscrutable Nina Burgess, A Brief History of Seven Killings spans three decades of Jamaican history during the post-independence era.

While A Brief History of Seven Killings could be reduced to the chronicle of Rolling Stone journalist, Alex Pierce, who stumbles on to information about the assassination of Bob Marley, which puts his own life in danger, that would be only one of the plots. And such a reductionist view would be a grave injustice to this monumental work. For Marlon James is updating many of the questions raised in Jamaican classics such as Brother Man, an exploration of the influence of Rastafari; Voices Under the Window, which captured the race, class, and colour conflicts of Jamaican culture, and The Children of Sisyphus, a Dantesque vision of a Jamaican ghetto. 

James is also asking questions that affect the life of every Jamaican at home and abroad: Why was the CIA involved in the destabilization of the Jamaican government from 1972-79? Why did the peace movement fall apart? Why would anyone try to kill the famed prophet of reggae and Rastafari? Only a writer with the prodigious talent and assiduous attention to the craft of storytelling that Mr. James possesses could have attempted such an ambitious project and created this spellbinding narrative. As someone who lived through those turbulent times and who is knowledgeable about many of the facts, rumors, and half-truths about the attempted assassination, I was impressed not only by James’s approach, but also with his treatment of the events surrounding December 3, 1976.

Perhaps, the most intriguing aspect of this novel is the shift in perspectives. Just when I thought I knew a character such as Josey Wales, the brutal leader of the Storm posse, I found myself in the middle of a tender scene between him and his son: “I smile with the boy so that he don’t feel like I threatening him too much, but he is sixteen now, and I still remember sixteen, so I know the hunger growing in him. All this talking back is moving from a little cute to a little threat. Part of it sweet me, seeing this little shit puff him chest out.” Or another killer, Weeper, who reads books such as Bertrand Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy and will not hesitate to murder and maim, yet still finds time to enjoy moments with his lover: “He thinking I going to be the one to look away first, but I not going look away and I not going to even blink.”

A Brief History of Seven Killings, which was dubbed the “Great Jamaican Novel” by Fader, has rightly earned this title. For even after six hundred and eighty eight pages, I was still concerned about the fates of Alex Pierce and the enigmatic changeling, Nina Burgess. Or whatever she calls herself these days.

Malachi Smith to Perform at African Caribbean Diaspora Presidential Inauguration Ball

Jamaican dub poet Malachi Smith is billed to perform at the African Caribbean Diaspora Presidential Inauguration Ball on January 21 in Washington, DC.

The gala is one of many events marking President Barack Obama's inauguration that day in the American capital.


Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/Malachi-Smith-for-inaugural-ball_13383570#ixzz2Hyo9IVrZ



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"A Family Man" by Dennis Scott

Dennis Scott

A Family Man

At night when the ordinary loves have settled

like dust drifting a little in my son’s cough, my wife’s

                 breath, my daughter’s sigh,

I call them in. From the dark side of leaves,

from the countries of desire, from the cracks in the road,

from the places I went to and never gave back

at the border, the faces I wanted and never forgave

for dying, from the dark side of leaves, they come

softer than smoke, shadows on paper,

like dust drifting a little in my wife’s cough, my son’s

                 sigh, my daughter’s breath.

They make hoarse journeys in my head. They cry

at the lamp’s white pain. I silence them.

They orbit, tongueless. They die like stars; they cool

to ash. I trace their stain on paper, and sign it.

                Watch them

wind my life down like small, burnt moons. Watch them

                 fall

like dust drifting a little in my daughter’s cough, my wife’s

                 sigh, my son’s breath.

Dennis Scott was born in Jamaica in 1939. He had a distinguished career as a poet, playwright, actor (he was Lester Tibideaux in The Cosby Show), dancer in the Jamaican National Dance Theatre, an editor of Caribbean Quarterly and teacher. His first collection, Uncle Time (1973) was one of the first to establish the absolutely serious use of nation language in lyric poetry. His other poetry collections include Dreadwalk (1982) and Strategies (1989). His plays include Terminus, Dog, Echo in the Bone, and Scott’s work is acknowledged as one of the major influences on the direction of Caribbean theatre. He died at the early age of fifty-one in 1991.

Dennis Scott: Dennis Scott Biography - (1939 –91), Caribbean Quarterly.

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The Jamaica-born Grandmaster of Chess: Maurice Ashley

 

By Opal Palmer Adisa
 
“Chess is an intellectual discipline masking as a game,” says Maurice Ashley, who is touted as the first African-American International Chess Grandmaster in the history of the game. But Ashley is actually Jamaican, born in Kingston, where he attended Seaward Elementary School. His formative years were spent in Tower Hill, where his grandmother raised him and where he came to know himself. At the impressionable age of nine, his older brother taught him how to play chess, but Ashley remarks, “Back then, it was just a game. I liked it, but I didn’t know at that time that the game was going to be my destiny.” He later attended Wolmer’s High School for Boys before immigrating to the USA, at the age of twelve, to join his mother. 
 
Excitement about living with his mother for the first time with his two siblings was partially tempered by his new environment that belied the American dream. “Coming out of poverty in Jamaica, the mere fact that you are standing on American soil, is an advantage, but the reality was a lot of day-to-day violence --the level was worse in Brownsville, Brooklyn. There were drug-dealers and prostitutes,” Ashley recalls. However, he learned to navigate and steer clear of the numerous traps that were everywhere in his new community.
 
School gave Ashley direction, and because of the friendships he formed, his keen interest in chess grew. “I started to take it seriously in high school in Brooklyn. I thought I was smart, until I lost to a friend. Then I saw a book in the library and I started reading. I didn’t know there was a strategy to chess. My friend had also read all of these books. He had been reading and playing, and that’s when I knew knowledge is power.” So Ashley became an avid student of chess and was determined to be at the top of his game. He studied and taught himself.
 
Still, Maurice Ashley did not recognize his talent until he was a student at City College, New York. His passion and love for the game spews from his mouth as he recounts his journey. “I was so in love with chess, I was doing it all the time. It was like a force. I would beat people and I loved the feeling of beating people, and I just wanted to keep doing it. I never thought of chess as a profession.”
 
Chess became not only a profession for Ashley, but also the very foundation of his life. In 1993 when he was only 20 years-old, Maurice Ashley, as a result of coaching the National Champions from Harlem to victory, became the first ever African American Master in US History. In 1999 Ashley was honored as the first Black person in history to become an International Grandmaster.
 
Maurice Ashley’s love for chess and his international recognition, has led him to his mission: to share chess with young people around the world. The release of his book, Chess for Success: Using an Old Game to Build New Strengths in Children and Teens, serves as a cornerstone of his advocacy.


Ashley’s success begs the questions: How does a Jamaican boy from an impoverished neighborhood, without a father present, become a chess master? Is it simply destiny or are there other forces at work? Ashley contributes his success to his mother, who left him as an infant, and labored hard in the USA for ten long years so that he and his two siblings could eventually join her and be united as a family. 

And despite the vices in their immediate surroundings that could have mitigated their success, Ashley states categorically: “My mother made sure that I understood coming from Jamaica that you hold on to your opportunities. She kept us focused. You had to go to college; all of us were going to college.” And indeed Maurice Ashley and his two siblings all went to college and are at the top of their respective fields.
 
Perhaps an additional secret to his success is connected to dogged determination. In chess, Ashley found his passion, and a drive to beat his opponents, which led him to study and practice continuously. His assiduousness paid off when in 2002, he became the first African-American in history to qualify for the US Chess Championship. The crowning event came in 2003, when United States Chess Federation awarded him the title of Grandmaster of the Year. 
 
But Ashley still identifies as a Jamaican, and his bond to this island and its culture is deeply embedded in the food, especially ackee and salt-fish with roast breadfruit, and of course jerk chicken that he loves. However, his Jamaican-ness goes deeper, and he stays committed to his culture and the development of the island.
 
In an interview on October 13, 2011, I asked the following questions:
 
OPA: What do you love about Jamaica or being Jamaican? 
 
MA: The fact that we are some of the hardest working people on the planet. Give us an opportunity and we will run with it. Just try to catch us and you won’t.
 
OPA: What are you hopes for Jamaica? 
 
MA: That our people become well-educated and using initiatives like chess to bolster that effort, we can show the world the advanced skills of which we are capable. I think a polished and comprehensive educational system has to be developed in Jamaica, where we can use our talents as a means of helping bigger countries to carry out some service that they may needed. That means we have to create an extremely comprehensive educational base, so those countries do not automatically link Jamaica with tourism --that Jamaica becomes known for technology as well. I hope that Jamaica goes the way of some of those countries in Asia --finding our niche in technology. 
 
I don’t think more advanced techniques are available to the general population, like what I do with chess: deep thinking. When you start with a platform with young people, it will magnify in a few years.

OPA: Why should children learn to play chess? 
 
MA: All the skills we want our children to have, problem solving, analytical reasoning, focus and concentration, are embedded in the game itself, in the playing of the game itself, so kids have fun and learn at the same time and they don’t even know it.
 
Chess strategy doesn’t begin until you realize that there is another mind playing against you. Most people are about themselves, but the competition is about someone trying to beat you, so you have to take that into consideration. 
 
The great thing about chess is that you are punished for bad thinking; you are punished for impatience. You have to stop and plan ahead before you move, or else you are going to lose the game. Kids don’t want to lose, so if they have a good coach they begin to play and play well, and those are skills they can use in life to be successful.
 
OPA: What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome to succeed?


MA: I believe that life is a series of challenges that we are consistently overcoming. I am challenged even now in my life. I embrace challenges--that is the way you become successful by embracing the challenges of life.

With every challenge one gains experience that has to be harnessed in order to move to the next level. Ashley uses these stepping-stones, and that has helped him to navigate his life. These are the lessons that he has honed as a man, and that he wants to impart to young people. The proud father of two children, a seventeen-year-old daughter who is an "A" student and a nine-year-old son, Ashley models his practice on his children. “I started teaching my children chess when they were three years-old. I made sure they both had a foundation for chess. My daughter didn’t pursue it, but she is good. Now my son and I do chess puzzles every day.”
 
Until very recently, Ashley had stopped playing chess to be a full time, stay-at-home father, so that his wife, who had put her career on hold to allow him to travel, had the opportunity to pursue some of her dreams, including being principal of a school. But Ashley is excited to be playing chess again. Back on the chess trail, Ashley is embarking on a six-island tour to promote chess in the Caribbean for young people, and visited Jamaica from November 10-12, 2011.
 
Ashley says, “I am bringing chess technology, much of which is donated, to assist the chess efforts in these countries, to lend the voice to the idea that chess is great for kids and it should be supported.”
 
In addition to being a Grandmaster, an author, and an inventor, Maurice Ashley is also the designer of a smart phone application: “Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess,” which was launched in 2010 and has sold in more than 25 countries. Still he remains close to his cause, which is to promote chess as a viable mode of education for young people. To this end, he has traveled widely to speak to, and encourage youth in indigent neighborhoods throughout the USA, South Africa, and Central America.

 
Ironically, Maurice Ashley says he isn’t sure in what concrete ways he contributes to Jamaican society, but acknowledges that when people know that he is Jamaican it engenders a sense of pride. Reflecting more he adds, “I support chess initiatives in Jamaica, and what they are trying to do to build up chess on the island. I do what I can to support the Jamaica Chess Federation.”
 
Whenever someone does something, great or small, it reflects on his family, as well as his country. Maurice Ashley’s achievements are but more evidence of the global contributions of Jamaicans. Perhaps it is the yams as sports fanatics have been attributing to Usain Bolt’s phenomenal achievements; maybe it’s in our water, in the very air, or maybe it is in the foundation and dreams that have been instilled in us by parents and others who made endless sacrificed to keep us focused, and made us dream beyond what could even be imagined.
 
Regardless of the source of our greatness, Jamaicans such as Maurice Ashley are helping to create a more diversified and accomplished profile of who Jamaicans are and the new frontiers we are traversing. 
 
As Maurice Ashley says, “Knowing that chess is a blessing for kids helps me to keep spreading that message.” So I invite you to introduce a child in your life to chess as well as other endeavors that could guide them towards success.
 
Learn more about Maurice Ashley and all that he is doing to promote chess and keep the Jamaican flag waving high by visiting his website: www.mauriceashley.com
 
Please contact Opal Palmer Adisa at 50jamaicans@gmail.com if you have a story to share. She plans to do a profile of 50 Jamaican women and men, living in the greater Jamaica Diaspora who have had exceptional accomplishments. Also, Adisa’s novel, Painting Away Regrets, is set to release this November 2011.

Marcus and the Amazons @ MBFI

http://www.miamibookfair.com/events/discover_new_worlds_geoffrey_philp_on.aspx

Marcus and the Amazons:

Print:
http://www.amazon.com/Marcus-Amazons-1-Geoffrey-Philp/dp/0615490859/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_5

E-Book:
http://www.amazon.com/Marcus-Amazons-Blue-Mountain-ebook/dp/B0054R9RCG/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_3
 

Andrene Bonner to Speak at National Council of Teachers of English

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is pleased to announce that Andrene Bonner will be speaking at the 2011 NCTE Annual Convention.

Bonner, of Mount Vernon School District, New York, will be presenting during the panel session, "MINING GOLD: THE WRITER, THE STORY, AND THE STORYTELLER." An excerpt from the description of this session in the Convention Program reads:

This workshop and panel presentation explores ways to engage students in writing their memoirs and fictional stories. The storyteller refers to best instructional practices for bringing literature to life in the classroom.

The session will be held from 1:15 PM to 2:30 PM on Saturday, November 19, 2011.

Each year, the NCTE Annual Convention draws thousands of K-12 teachers, college faculty, administrators, and other educational professionals from around the world. They gather to hear award-winning speakers, attend idea-packed sessions, share best practices, participate in workshops, and test the latest teaching materials. The 2011 NCTE Annual Convention will be held November 17-22, in Chicago, Illinois.

For more information, or to register for the Convention, visit http://www.ncte.org/annual.


About Andrene Bonner

Andrene Bonner is an educational consultant, arts administrator and writer with over twenty years of experience in theatre production and education, child advocacy both in the non-profit arena and the public sector, school reform, motivational storytelling and diversity. The Jamaican, who first trained as an actress, toured extensively as a solo performer. She got her feet wet in film and television production at Warner Bros. and Stan Lee Media in Los Angeles, but soon changed direction to serve in the classroom. She teaches English, dramatic arts, and public speaking at Mount Vernon High School in New York. Her research interests are in Classical Literacy in Urban and Rural Schools; Linguistic Variations Across Cultures; and Reading and Writing as Ritual and Identity.

Bonner’s coming-of-age novel, Olympic Gardens garnered the 2009 Lorna Goodison Caribbean Award for Transformative Literature. Selected poems have appeared in Kapu Sens Literary Review and The Caribbean Writer. She attended Merl Grove High School and the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica. She holds an M.A. in Language and Literacy, M.S. in Education, and a B.A. in Theatre Arts and Dance, Acting and Directing. When not teaching and writing, the veteran actress continues to perform selected theatrical works. Visit her websites at www.andrenebonner.com and www.egwechipublishing.com.

New Ebook: Rastafari -- The New Creation by Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah

RASTAFARI - THE NEW CREATION (Gold Medal Edition) [Kindle Edition]

Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah (Author)

Digital List Price: $35.00 

Kindle Price: $35.00

Product Description

The first book on the Rastafari religion written by a member of the faith. First published in 1980, the book contains information on the principles and philosophy of the faith including chapters on Emperor Haile Selassie I, Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, the founding fathers, the Ganja sacrament, and reggae music. Fully illustrated with rare colour and black & white photos and icons of the faith.

From the Author

This book was written in 1981 while I was researching Marcus Garvey at the Schomberg Museum in Harlem, New York. It grew out of five articles published in the STAR newspaper in Jamaica in 1977 and was first self-published in New York in 1981. The second edition was published in Jamaica, then in 1983 an edition was published in London, England.  Since then there have been two revised editions and the book took on colour covers.  The 6th edition was  published in 2007 in Jamaica.  This Gold Medal edition is, as all the others, fully revised with additonal information and pictures.

About the Author

BARBARA MAKEDA BLAKE HANNAH is a Jamaican who has been writing all her life and is the author of four books and numerous articles on Jamaican culture, entertainment and humanist philosophy. She is also a film maker, directing 8 films including the noted documentary 'Race, Rhetoric, Rastafari' for CHANNEL 4 UK in 1983.

After moving to London in 1964, Barbara gained notoriety in 1968 as the first Black journalist on British TV (THAMES, ATV, BBC). Returning to Jamaica in 1972, she adopted the Rastafari faith and wrote the first book on the religion written by a practising member. It has been re-published in 7 editions and though copies are sold only in Jamaica, the book has travelled the world and been read by people of all nations.

Her second book, the novel 'JOSEPH - A RASTA REGGAE FABLE', was inspired by the life of her friend Bob Marley and was re-published in 2005 by Macmillan. Her third book 'HOME - THE FIRST SCHOOL' recounts her experiences as Jamaica's homeschooling pioneer, educating her son Makonnen from birth until he made world history in 1998, when he was appointed Youth Technology Consultant to the Jamaican Government at age 13 years.

In 2010 Hansib Publishers UK published Barbara's fourth book 'GROWING OUT: Black Hair & Black Pride', a memoir of her early years and the decade she spent living in England.

Given the Ethiopian Orthodox Church baptizmal name Makeda in 1984, Mrs. Hannah was appointed an Independent Opposition Senator in the Jamaican Parliament, and gave birth to her son in 1985. The Ethiopian Crown Council awarded her a Gold Adowa Centenary Medal in 1998 for her services to the Ethiopian Royal family, and in 2010 the Rastafari Youth Initiative Council (Jamaica) awarded her the Empress Mennen Award.

She has lectured at the Universities of the West Indies (Jamaica & Guyana campuses), New York, Vienna - Austria, US Virgin Islands and Florida International University, and was a member of the Jamaican delegation to the United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) held in 2001 in Durban, South Africa.

Barbara has organized several film festivals in Jamaica since 1974. In 2008 she initiated an annual Reggae Film Festival screening films that include or document Jamaica's reggae music culture. In her spare time Barbara enjoys the beauty of Jamaica's countryside, beaches, foods and people. She writes a weekly entertainment blog and participates in television and radio programmes on Jamaican culture.

New Book: The Goat Woman of Largo Bay

The location of the Shad Series is a fishing village on the northeastern coast of Jamaica. Bathed by ever-constant sea breezes and brushed by aquamarine waves, Largo Bay appears to the tourist as a picturesque little community on the main road to Kingston. In reality, it is a ferment of human dreams and fears, like any other place.

The Goat Woman of Largo Bay, the first in the amateur detective series, introduces the hero, Shadrack Myers. He’s a man who refuses to see his life as limited, despite his lack of options. Born to a father who abandoned his mother, and to a mother who abandoned him to his grandmother, Shad has few grudges. He is a joyful character, brimming with hope and compassion, and what he lacks in book learning, he makes up for in life experience and common sense.

The book starts when Shad and his disillusioned American boss, Eric Keller, notice a moving spot on the island offshore from the bar. Although he first thinks the spot is a goat, Shad discovers that it is a woman, a woman who wants to be alone. Simone refuses to leave the island and opts to rent the island and live in the ruins that were once Eric’s small hotel. Needless to say, her presence on the island attracts attention, drama, and political intrigue.

This and the other books in the series are told from three perspectives, allowing the reader to enter the minds of locals and visitors who interact with Shad and his fellow Largoites.


About the Author

A personal mantra of "Leave no stone unturned" has led Gillian Royes to a life of adventure in five countries. It was not her intention to become a writer, although she was a prolific journal-keeper from the age of twelve. But after being an editor, an entrepreneur, a corporate executive, a communications consultant, a project manager and a university lecturer, the only occupation left to her was writing.

Born in Jamaica on the shores of Kingston Harbour, Gillian left the island to attend Colorado College in Colorado Springs – the beginning of her life journey. She experienced California in the mid sixties, Europe in the late sixties, Brazil in the early seventies, the heyday of youth empowerment.

After marching in Madison, Wisconsin (while earning a Masters in Journalism), protesting against the bombing of Cambodia, she worked as an editor at the Institute of the Black World, a Pan-Africanist think-tank in Atlanta. This was followed by marriage, a doctorate from Emory University, and a teaching position at Clark College.

The Caribbean Sea still ran through her veins, however, and it pulled her back to Jamaica to work as a communications consultant and entrepreneur in craft distribution. She authored her first book, Business is Good, a history of the Canning’s Corporation, a historical Caribbean company, while living in Trinidad. Returning to Jamaica for the last time, she worked with a large charity in the ghettoes of Kingston, coming face to face with drug dons and war lords.

Atlanta was calling, however, and she returned to work as a communications consultant, and to lecture at Clark Atlanta and Georgia State Universities. Now living in the US Virgin Islands, she writes and teaches journalism, the gorgeous Caribbean Sea within sight every day.

http://www.gillianroyes.com/index.html

Two Children Review Marcus and the Amazons

5.0 out of 5 stars Comments from an 8 year old girl and 10 year old boy, August 9, 2011 By  C. M. "CM" (Virginia) - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Marcus and the Amazons (Blue Mountain Series) (Kindle Edition) It is not often that both of my children enjoy the same book, but Marcus and the Amazons  was one exception. My daughter read it first and loved it. Her comments: "I liked the adventure especially when they had to rescue the princess. I enjoyed the end." My son would not read it at first. His sister enjoyed it so he assumed it must be "girly",  but eventually he started it and was so engrossed that he did not put it down until he was finished.  He is looking forward to book two. Source:  http://amzn.to/lIE8Ym Blessings to the children. One Heart, Geoffrey

Marcus and the Amazons: Now in Print!

Marcus and the Amazons

(Print)

Authored by Geoffrey Philp 

Designed by Andrew Philp 

Illustrated by Patrick Pollack 

After traveling through the forest, Marcus returns to his home and discovers that Amazons have enslaved his colony and imprisoned Princess Amy, his bride-to-be. With the help of his friends from the forest, Marcus must save Princess Amy and rally his colony to stand against the Amazons. But during his stay in the forest, Marcus has also renounced violence. Will Marcus succeed?


About the Author:


Geoffrey Philp is the author of Grandpa Sydney's Anancy Stories and several other books. He teaches English at Miami Dade College and is the chairperson of the College Prep. Department at the North Campus. A critically acclaimed author, his work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including the Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories and the Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse. Geoffrey lives in Miami with his wife, Nadia, their three children, Anna, Christina, and Andrew, and their cat, Buju.

Publication Date: Aug 04 2011
ISBN/EAN13: 0615490859 / 9780615490854
LCCN: 2011935591
Page Count: 94
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 6" x 9"
Language: English
Color: Full Color
Related Categories: Juvenile Fiction / Animals / Insects, Spiders, etc.

http://amzn.to/n6UoaG

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Marcus and the Amazons (Kindle)

http://www.amazon.com/Marcus-Amazons-Blue-Mountain-ebook/dp/B0054R9RCG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308386665&sr=8-1

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Also available for download:

Free Activity Guide for Marcus and the Amazons

Ebook Description

The Activity Guide includes a crossword puzzle, a vocabulary quiz, and questions based on Bloom's taxonomy. Ideal for the classroom and for parents/ guardians who wish to discuss Marcus and the Amazons with their children.

Ebook by Geoffrey Philp

Published: July 19, 2011

Words: 591 (approximate)

Language: English

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/74929