"Miami Extensions: 305 Creativity, Alive and Thriving"
(L-R )Jason Fitzroy Jeffrers, Filmmaker, Co Founder of Third Horizon Caribbean Film Festival; Maria Ketsia Theodore-Pharel, Author of Rope; Caridad Moro-Gronlier, Author of Visionware; Dr. Patricia J. Saunders, University of Miami.
There are conferences, and then, there are
Conferences. The 37th Annual West Indian Literature Conference was one of the best
Conferences that I’ve ever attended. The program offerings were diverse,
fascinating, and riveting with a remarkable blend of lectures for critics and creative writers.
"Publishing Workshop for Creative Writers"
Johnny Temple, Publisher, Akashic Books, Brooklyn, New York
I got to meet many of the writers and critics whose
work I’ve always admired, but with whom I’ve never broken bread. 
(L-R) Oonya Kempadoo, Author of Tide Running, Ifeona Fulani, Author Seasons of Dust, Nelly Rosario, Author of Song of the Water Saints.
“Caribbean Women’s Textile/Textual Practices as Archives of Memory and Mourning”
Rachel L. Mordecai, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Rachel L. Mordecai, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
"Frame Work: Imaging and the Afterlife of Things"
Kevin Adonis Browne, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Author of High Mas,
The Caribbean Memory Project
Kevin Adonis Browne, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Author of High Mas,
The Caribbean Memory Project
“An Aesthetics of Federation and a Federation of Aesthetics: West Indian Literature and the Project of Regional Unity”
Alison Donnell, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom
“Manscapes: Grooming New Jamaican Iconography”
Isis Semaj-Hall, University of the West Indies, Mona
Isis Semaj-Hall, University of the West Indies, Mona
“After the Collaboration: The Kamau Brathwaite Bibliography"
Kelly Baker Josephs, The City University of New York
Kelly Baker Josephs, The City University of New York
And then, on Friday night, there was the public
performance of Zong! by M. NourbeSe
Phillips for the Africans lost in the Maafa. Imagine a host of Caribbean
writers, all dressed in white, descending on Historic Virginia Key Beach—the Black Beach-- to offer benedictions for the ancestors and you will have some idea of
the moment.
M. NourbeSe
Phillips, Author of Zong!
One of the highlights of the Conference was the
lecture by Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert (Vassar College), “The Debris of Caribbean
History: Literature. Art, and Archipelagic Plastic,” in which she masterfully wove
the ecologic degradation of the Caribbean to the legacy of imperialism and showed
how plastic is being used by artists and writers, including Derek Walcott and
Kamau Brathwaite as metaphors of colonial trauma.
“The Debris of Caribbean
History: Literature. Art, and Archipelagic Plastic,”
Give thanks to Pat Saunders & her team for
hosting the 37th Annual West Indian Literature Conference, which brought together
academics and writers to discuss issues that are essential to our understanding
of Caribbean literature and a framework for moving ahead into the brave new
digital world of text production, critiques, and archival.
Patricia J. Saunders, Associate Professor, Department of English
On a personal note, I would like to thank Pat for
inviting me to launch Garvey's Ghost at the conference and giving me the
space to introduce my work to professional critics, professors, and graduate
students. It is a memory I will always cherish.
Bless up, Pat. You have done a mighty, mighty work
Bless up, Pat. You have done a mighty, mighty work
