Toward a Floribbean Literature

 

One of the insights I gained from the Florida Humanities Council’s conference, Florida and the Caribbean: Historic Ties and Cultural Connections, was the realization that there was a growing body of writing created by Caribbean authors living in Florida.  The collection could be called the “Literature of the Caribbean Diaspora in Florida” or the demotic “Floribbean” literature,” which I prefer. This term would include, but would not be limited to the following  Caribbean writers in whose work the distinguishing characteristics are that the speakers, narrators and/or main characters in their poems, short stories, novels and/or non-fiction are originally from the Caribbean (first or second generation), and the setting is in Florida.

Achy Obejas

Adrian Castro

Ana Menéndez

Carolina Hospital

Celia Lisset Alvarez

Delia Poey

Donna Aza Weir Soley

Elisa Albo

Emma Trelles

Edwidge Danticat

Felix Morisseau Leroy

Gonzalo Barr

Geoffrey Philp

Gustavo Perez Firmat

Ivonne Lamazares

Leonard Nash

Malachi Smith

Marisella Veiga

Max Pierre

Ricardo Pau-Llosa

Richard Blanco

Sandra M. Castillo

Virgil Suarez

Floribbean literature would be a subgenre of of Caribbean diasporic literature, which as been influenced by European, Asian, African diasporas and shares with these literatures these thematic concerns:

Displacement, Marginalization, and Alienation—from the dominant ethnic/cultural groups and within intra-national communities.

Effects of the Middle Passage and the “Limbo Gateway.”

Effects of political oppression

Hybridity (borders, mixing, change).

Identity (race, language, music, culture, customs, food, religion, gender issues, indigenous issues, etc.) and vis-à-vis American culture and the culture of the homeland.

Immigration issues (illegal immigration, “boat people’).

Impact of American culture on the family and extended family.

Impact of American personal and psychic violence.

Language (retention or assimilation), nation languages, creoles.

Postcolonialism .

Subalternity and/or the “Jazz” Novel.

Use of Christian and Yoruba based religions (Voudoun, Lukumi, and Obeah) and/ or these themes.

Use of magical realism.

Use of techniques from oral cultures (disruption of linearity, circularity--call and response).

Although the appearance of Floribbean literature is largely a twentieth century phenomenon, another of its more salient features, as a result of geographic proximity and the similarity in climate, flora and fauna, is a particular type of anxiety—from nostalgia to anger--in the narrators, speakers and/or main characters in the poems, short stories, novels and non-fiction of these Floribbean authors. For unlike the writing produced by writers in similar circumstances (Windrush, Negritude), the increased ability of the Caribbean populations to remain in contact with each other and with their homelands, either physically or through technology (Internet, etc), decreases the possibility of isolation and creation of discreet populations, so the hope of return to the homeland or the reasons for the impossibility of return  are even more pronounced.

It will be interesting to see if Floribbean literature will be as ephemeral as many of the strategies for survival of hurricanes, reflected in the lifestyle and architectures that link Florida and the Caribbean, or if in time, younger writers will build on the work of the these writers that will truly establish a tradition.

***

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Joanne C. Hillhouse: Musings on The Boy

Joanne C. Hillhouse’s writing has been described as “honest” and “real,” also “poetic” and “lyrical.” Born, raised, and resident in Antigua, Joanne’s culture – its people, language, music, issues, and more – shines through, prompting Island Where to remark “Obvious is the ‘writer’s ear’ for effective characterization and narrative that stays true to Caribbean island experience.”

Her first book, The Boy from Willow Bend, is being reissued in 2009 under the Hansib imprint. Joanne is also the author of Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, and her fiction and poetry have appeared in Caribbean, U.S. and African literary journals.

A University of the West Indies graduate, Joanne has won coveted spots at the prestigious Caribbean Fiction Writers Summer Institute (University of Miami) and the Breadloaf Writers Conference (Middlebury College, Vermont). She’s also the 2004 recipient of a UNESCO Honour Award for her contribution to literacy and the literary arts in Antigua and Barbuda. That contribution includes, in addition to her writing, involvement in writing and reading programmes (Wadadli Youth Pen Prize, Cushion Club, Great Young Minds etc.), organization of/participation in literary showcases (Word Up! and others), conducting various literary workshops and judging literary competitions (A &B’s Independence literary competition etc.).

Joanne has read in Jamaica, Barbados, Toronto, Antigua, and New York. In 2008, a Moonlight street festival celebrating her book, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, capped off an “official summer read” campaign organized by the Best of Books bookstore and the Antigua and Barbuda International Literary Festival. Also in 2008, The Boy from Willow Bend was added to the Antigua schools reading list.

As a freelance journalist and writer, Joanne has received health and environmental journalism awards; published feature articles in Américas, Caribbean Beat, and CLR James Journal; worked in local television/film – including as associate producer of Antigua’s first feature length film The Sweetest Mango; and consulted on campaigns – by the Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation and others, as well as corporate, book, and anthology projects.

Writing and reading have remained her twin passions, however. In an Authors on My Space interview, Joanne said, “I was influenced to write by my desire to tell stories, to impact readers in the way that my favourite stories impacted me…I’m just a sucker for a good story.”

Musings on The Boy

My book, The Boy from Willow Bend, has been re-issued as a Hansib imprint and added to the Antigua and Barbuda schools reading list.

I am happy for The Boy.
 
His name is Vere. His world is a dead end alley, where he imagines jumbies watching from the willow trees, makes up ghost stories to tease his friends – the Buckley kids, and plays in the pond though his Tanty has warned him not to. He’s a sensitive child, made that much more sensitive by the absence of his mother and never having known, beyond rumor, his father. Vere knows deep longing for his mother, deep love for his Tanty, and deep fear of his grandfather.

As a writer, it was a pleasure to spend time in Vere’s company. I was thrilled to discover that in spite of the book’s heavy themes of abandonment, identity, loss, and survival of the spirit, others felt the same. One woman, in casual encounter, shared her delight at her husband’s laughter, as he read the book, filtering in from another room. I’ve also encountered some who told me it made them cry – including one family member who remembers as I do our own Tanty. In fact, an editor (from my other life, as a journalist) wrote to tell me, when the book first came out, “The Boy is funny, heartbreaking, and at the end, you made me cry.”

Tears, like laughter, are good if they indicate – as I think they do – readers connecting with the character. But, as a reviewer wrote in She Caribbean: “This is no long streak of misery; the reader never feels overwhelmed by hopelessness. She accomplishes this by allowing Vere to retain a child’s enthusiasms, mental diversions, and irrepressibility.”

It’s probably ill-advised to admit this, but I didn’t ‘allow’ Vere to do anything. He came fully formed spent some time with me, and trusted me to be tell his story, authentically.

So, I told of his childhood adventures and fears, his forays into music, his first love and first girlfriend – not the same person, how he nearly lost, yet held on to himself as he lost all that was important to him.

I’m one of those readers who knows the power of stories to transcend their particular place and spark something in people worlds away.

Growing up in Antigua, there were few books by us and about us available to me, so most of my reading was about other places. And yet, not only was I transported there – even if there, was a damp English boarding school or a little house on the prairie – but, well done, there was a real connection with the characters and their journey. The core of human experience, the passions that drive us, I learned, were not that different after all.

At the back of my mind, I hoped that Vere would be that kind of experience for readers. I hoped that anyone who read it would be able to relate – if not to the experience of chasing butterflies in the summer or stealing sugar cakes from the kitchen counter – then, to the passions and potential that existed in this young boy.

For this reason, one of my favourite reviews shortly after the book’s original release was in the Trinidad Guardian online: “The characters in Hillhouse’s book feel real and best of all they feel Caribbean, but the story could have held up in any culture. Change the names and the setting and this could be any teenage boy’s story. Still, Hillhouse has managed not to make this just a ‘boy’ book. I quite enjoyed reading it and I think teenage girls will also enjoy the novel because of Vere’s need for a mother.”

One of the more out-of-left-field responses was an email from an Italian student at the University of Pisa, who wrote to tell me that they’d selected it from several options presented by their course instructor and liked both the character of Vere and the window to Caribbean life and atmosphere the book presented.” All I could think was…imagine that!

My hope now is that the book continues to find an audience and that new readers continue to enjoy Vere’s company.

Wishful thinking? Perhaps like Vere, I’m something of a dreamer.

Praise for The Boy from Willow Bend:

“The coming of age story is well crafted, lively and absolutely believable.” – Daily Observer

“This is a great and insightful look at Caribbean life and the future of our children.” – Expand Your World, Daily Observer

“Hillhouse in The Boy from Willow Bend effectively addresses several issues prevalent in Caribbean society.” – Sun Weekend

“…a story of the triumph of spirit over situation…the book stands out as an example of self-redemption, self-motivation, and self-preservation...” – She Caribbean

“The plot is exciting and moves swiftly.” – Trinidad Guardian

***

Mark Your Calendar: Friday, October 16, 2009

2nd Annual Poetry Fundraiser

Hosted by Professor Donna Aza Weir-Soley and Food for the Poor.

Date: Friday, October 16, 2009

Time: 7:00pm - 11:30pm

Location: FIU--BBC Campus--Mary Ann Wolfe Theatre, Wolfe University Center

Street: 3000 NE 151 Street (Biscayne Blvd. and 151 Street)

City/Town: North Miami, FL

A Night of Poetry, Spoken Word, and Live Music by the Ra-Ra Rock Band!

Featured Poets:
Geoffrey Philp
Malachi Smith,
Empress Addi,
Aza Weir-Soley,
Haiti Bluez,
Jonathan Escoffery,
Dawn Parris
Carl Vitente
Dariel Suarez and many more on the open Mic!!!

Bring your email list of friends and your laptops to solicit donations all night long or until they kick us out!!!

This event will benefit the less fortunate in Haiti. Bring your friends and your positive energy!!!! No cover charge, but we need and welcome your donations!!!!

Prizes and Surprises!!! Raffle tickets $5 ONLY

First prize: Relaxing Massage by a professional massage therapist and a critically acclaimed book by one of our featured poets. $120 value!!!
2nd Prize: A CD by Jamaica's World Class Dub Poet Malachi Smith!!!
3rd Prize: Another amazing book of poetry!
4th Prize--A nice surprise just to show you we love and appreciate you just for coming out in support!!!

***

New Book: Unanimous Night by Cyril Dabydeen,

Cyril Dabydeen’s new book, Unanimous Night, promises to garner further literary acclaim for Dabydeen. Dabydeen’s poetry is "filled with the spirit of exploration, fused with the challenges of immigration and indignation at issues of political injustice," says the publisher’s blurb, and that "his language whisks the reader off in a whirlwind of iconic figures and exotic locations" as diverse as Guevara, Havana, Newfoundland, Shimla, New York, and Guyana. 

The epigraph juxtaposes American poet Robert Lowell with Jose Marti, known as the father of the Cuban nation, to set the tone for the range in the Guyanese-born Canadian writer’s work. Of note is that this new book is the author’s twentieth, and his ninth collection of poetry; indeed, Dabydeen began his writing career with poetry in Guyana after having won the Sandbach Parker Gold Medal for Poetry before he was 20 and not long after he won the first A.J. Seymour Lyric Poetry Prize (1967). More recently, in 2007, Dabydeen was co-winner of the top Guyana Prize for Fiction with his novel, Drums of My Flesh (TSAR Publications, Toronto): a work noted for its symbolic evocations with Dabydeen splicing time and space, Eastern and Western religions and philosophies, and North and South polarities with Jungian underpinning. 

In this new poetry collection, following closely on his Uncharted Heart (Borealis Press, 2008), Dabydeen awakens us to his sense of social justice adumbrated in his first published collection in Canada, Distances (Fiddlehead Books, University of British Columbia, 1977). Then, it was pointed out that Dabydeen goes back "through consciousness or history to describe an original condition of unfragmented wholeness" (Fiddlehead magazine). That same vein is sustained in the new book’s first three sections, beginning with "Out to Sea," with poems that deal with journeying, as the author writes, for instance, of Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator (after his visit to Lisbon, Portugal in 2006), and links it to discovery of a presumed New World a la Columbus; but Dabydeen circumvents linearity with classical touches from Greek mythology as he references, for instance, Odysseus and Poseidon; and throughout the volume, Dabydeen’s imagery is not without the sense of irony in history’s inexorable march. 

Dabydeen also introduces to the yearning for solitude or meditation after 9/11 in the USA with his ambitious poem "Cross-legged in Moonlight" which classically introduces to the wide range in the poet’s thinking as he invokes Manu (Indian) and Socrates (Greek), East and West, in his wide sweep. Other poems do the same, for example, "On Meeting Her Excellency Ram Devi"–Governor of Himachel Pradesh, India--as he also touches on language itself in the title poem, "Unanimous Night," an evocation of Dabydeen’s take on famed Argentine writer Borges, the source for this particular poem dealing with the interiority of poetic language and what’s lost and yet sustained in translation, if only be escaping "the solitude of the labyrinth" in almost authentic Borges’ manner. 

Dabydeen is keenly aware of language and its poetic use as he writes in "On Liberty Avenue," as he quotes Derek Walcott, that a poem is "perfection’s sweat...fresh as raindrops on a statue’s brow." References to key figures such as Franz Fannon, Joseph Conrad, and Nelson Mandela give the book its focussed socio-political status, as Dabydeen avoids needless self-reflexiveness or solipsism in sometimes minimalist expression. 

A poem such as "Revolution" is also about language in the context of metaphor or motifs, and change occurring all around us with rap music and ghetto violence often being hand in hand. In the third section of Unanimous Night named "A Dim Moon," Dabydeen deals with immigration and the fate of personae from the Third World being universalized with their angst, especially in a poem such as "Niece," as Dabydeen works back through memory in his longing for a "condition of unfragmented wholeness." 

The final section titled "Simple Pleasures" deals with love where Dabydeen’s tonality maintains its ironic tone by touching on love’s elusiveness in often simple but deft lines, even as he invokes the penumbra of Indian mythology in the god-figure Shiva in one of the most arresting poems in the volume, "Cosmic Dance" (remarkable for its conversational tone and idiomatic rhythms), and cultural icon Marilyn Monroe in contextualizing popular myth with human foibles and tragedy. 

Unanimous Night is a numbered publication of Black Moss Press’s Palm Poetry Series, specially designed, according to publisher-poet Marty Gervais of the University of Windsor, who adds that the series is structured along the lines of beat-generation poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Books in San Francisco; the Black Moss series is a hit with libraries and regular readers of poetry, according to the book publisher; and Cyril Dabydeen’s Unanimous Night is no exception for its sustained vision. 

Book Launch : Oct. 25, from 2 to 4.30

Sasquatch Reading Series, 

Royal Oak Restaurant on Laurier Ave. E. 

Open set first, before book launch. 

Free event.

 

Cyril Dabydeen, Unanimous Night, Poetry. Black Moss Press: Ontario, Canada, 2009. $16.95.

 ***

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Introducing Town

Town is an experiment in low-budget, non-profit literary publishing at a time when print periodicals in many parts of the world are under severe financial pressure (as I know all too well from my experiences with the Caribbean Review of Books). We're thinking about how to share literary work with unconventional audiences, how to use nearly-free online publishing tools while retaining some of the aesthetic pleasures of ink on paper, and how to enlist our readers in the publishing process--not by asking them to pay a subscription, but by encouraging them to help print the magazine via their own desktop printers.

Our modest plan is to publish a new issue every six to eight weeks, each containing just four or five pieces of writing--poems and very short fiction and essays--and three or four images.

Like any sensible literary journal nowadays, Town will publish the full contents of each issue online--you can see our first issue here:

http://cometotown.blogspot.com/

Contents

1:1....A World, by Vahni Capildeo

1:2....A Fable about a Transformation, by Kelvin Christopher James

1:3....How to Say This, by Anu Lakhan

1:4....A Place to Start, by Nicholas Laughlin

1:5, 1:6, 1:7....Images from The Dimming series, by Nikolai Noel

Notes on contributors

***

Barack Obama Wins Nobel Prize for Peace

LONDON (Reuters) - A surprised world greeted the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to U.S. President Barack Obama with a mixture of praise and skepticism on Friday.


In its announcement, the Norwegian Nobel Committee hailed Obama's "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg made clear the award carried big expectations, saying: "This is a surprising, an exciting prize. It remains to be seen if he will succeed with reconciliation, peace and nuclear disarmament."

[More...]

Photo: Telegraph.co.uk

***

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Limits! What Limits?

In the midst of the free verse and dub poetry movement in Jamaica, I wrote a sonnet. And not just one sonnet. About twenty. And in Jamaican "nation language."Only ten survived my final editorial cut and I sprinkled them liberally throughout my first collection of poems, Florida Bound, which opens with “Dancehall”:

Dancehall

Man, mek me tell yu dat was a fete!
Riddim was wile, an de dawta dem a grine,
de idren dem a smoke de sweetes lamb's bret
straight from St. Ann, de bes colly we cud fine.
Security did tight, yu cudn even see a rachet,
fa de local top ranking stan up broad by de gate
till one fool-fool rumhead decide fe chuck a yute,
bwai, me neva see one man eat so much bullet.
We kotch de bwai pon a speaka, an call him girlfren’,
she search him till she fine de gole ring inna him ves’
an shub him dung a dutty, figet him like de res’.
Now das when de dance look like it was gwane en,
den we put on sum oldies, an leggo de bass,
fa yu cyaan cum a dance widdout a gun inna yu wais'.

Now despite what some of my friends had thought, I didn’t write the sonnets to prove my almost legendary stubbornness, but because I’d always marveled at the suppleness of line that Derek Walcott displayed in his first collection of poems, In a Green Night, when he wrote the sonnet sequence, “Tales of the Islands.” Walcott was the master and I was his student. So, I transformed the first line from “Chapter VI” “'Poopa, da' was a fête!” into “Man, mek me tell yu, dat was a fete!” However, unlike “Chapter VI,” which examines the hypocrisy of the “Oxbridge” educated versus the Creole class and the ironies of colonial life vis-a vis religious practices, “Dancehall” observes some of the disturbing trends of violence and disrespect of women in what was then an emerging phenomenon in Jamaican music.

Some of my contemporaries viewed these sonnets almost as an act of treason. For in a time when every European art form and value was suspect, the sonnet was seen at the epitome of “whiteness.” And in a time when “freedom” was the buzzword, I was often asked at my readings, “How could you write something in a form that was so white and limiting?”

I thought the opposite. I also knew that there are some things that unless you experience them for yourself (which is why I’ve become so mellow with my children), you’ll never know what you’re talking about. What I learned in writing sonnets—this limiting form—has become almost an aphorism: there is freedom in form.

For although the sonnet is comprised of fourteen lines with an octave and a sestet and uses varying rhyme schemes (Petrarchan, Occitan, and English), the limits that these impose, create a habit of precise thinking in language. The practice of poetry grows from this habit of thinking, which is a combination of the precise image, symbol, and word (alliteration, assonance, connotation, denotation, and metre) to express emotions and ideas.

But that was not the only issue. What about rhyme? Wasn’t rhyme also limiting freedom of expression? That didn’t scare me either. Bob Marley, the freest man in Jamaica who smoked weed and grew his dreadlocks, was using rhyme in some of the finest narrative poems from that period: “I Shot the Sherriff” and “No Woman, Nuh Cry.” As with everything else, it’s not the tool that matters, but how the tool is used. And Bob was showing that he could fuse the social, economic and the erotic—the “Reggae Aesthetic”—within the limits of four lines to speak about freedom and that Jah lives in the communion of bread. The words from "No Woman" still linger with me:

Then we would cook cornmeal porridge
Of which I’ll share with you,
My feet is my own carriage
So I’ve got to push on through.

If Bob could do use rhyme, so could I. I had his permission. The so-called limits of the sonnets led to a greater freedom. The issue is never the form, but the novelty that the poet brings to the form. Walcott showed that the sonnet could be used in a Caribbean setting to explore social and racial concerns; Marley demonstrated that rhyme could be combined with the revolutionary message of Rastafari, social justice and love, and Florida Bound confirmed that patwa or “nation language” could be incorporated into the vocabulary of the sonnet—the province of English verse.

Since writing “Dancehall,” I’ve experimented with a few other “limiting” forms including the ghazal, sestina, villanelle, and with a long poem using rhyming couplets, some of which will be included in my next collection of poems, Dub Wise. Helen Keller once said, “Obstacles and limits exist only in the mind.” It all depends on how we view them. And as the other well known philosophers of the human condition, En Vogue, also sang, “Free your mind, and the rest will follow.”

***

This is part of a group write project @ Middle Zone Musings: What I Learned From...Limits"

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“Always Think it’s Bigger Than Me”: Dr. Joe Leonard's Visit to Miami Dade College, North Campus

Miami Dade College has had a long history of attracting dignitaries who have a keen interest in tertiary education. We have had visits by Bill Clinton, Arne Duncan, Dr.Jill Biden, and Barack Obama to name a few. As the chairperson of College Prep. at the North Campus, I have had the opportunity to meet with some of the three thousand students in my department and to learn from the professors whom I supervise. Occasionally, I get the chance to encounter someone like Dr. Joe Leonard Jr., Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights, United States Department of Agriculture, who met with the students, professors, and administration of the North Campus. It was experience we’ll never forget.

First of all, Dr. Leonard spoke with an understanding of the circumstances that many of our students face. He’s lived and survived the challenges. After a brief introduction by Dr. Jose Vicente, who described the metamorphosis that was taking place on our campus, Dr. Leonard began his heart-to-heart discussion with students in Professor Joann Brown’s class—an inspired choice by Dean Hoffman.

Professor Joann Brown, a versatile and accomplished educator, has served the college for the past twenty-four years and possesses a vast knowledge of student needs. She is also fearless. Professor Brown was one of the first to volunteer for one of our learning innovations in College Prep.—a paired reading and writing class that allows students, if they are successful, to complete the curriculum in half the time and to begin freshman composition.

So far, our experiment with Professor Brown’s assistance has worked, and we have seen an increase in pass rates from three to fifteen percent. And lest anyone think that this was due to grade inflation, the students in the upper levels of developmental education at Miami Dade College must pass an exam that is mandated by the Florida Department of Education. Besides, Professor Brown’s pass rates are usually above department averages because of the mixture of compassion and erudition that she brings to her vocation.

Dr. Leonard could sense her passion for education, and he assured the students that teachers such as Professor Brown, who didn’t want “anything from them,” but only wanted “excellence for them,” would always be there to assist in any way that they could. “Just don’t block your own blessings,” and “always listen to that little voice” he reminded them. Dr. Leonard then warned the students about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, and that using these narcotics—“they don’t call them spirits for nothing”—could lead to a dulling of their ability to hear that “little voice,” which could lead to dire consequences.

The students tuned in and hung on his every word as Dr. Leonard spoke about his life journey and some of the obstacles to success that he overcame. The climax of his speech was the revelation of his struggles with dyslexia and the methods that he used to navigate his educational career.

“You know, it’s like when you have a knee injury, you learn to compensate.” Dr. Leonard’s techniques for compensating involved rewriting his essays “nine or ten times,” and reading aloud so he could fully comprehend what he was reading. With these strategies he graduated high school and college, but he knew something was wrong.

It wasn’t until he was working as a teacher in Louisiana and he took a workshop about how to teach children with dyslexia that he realized his condition. It changed his life. Surprisingly, that was when he decided to purse his doctorate.

“Always think it’s bigger than me” he told the students, and gave personal examples to prove his point about locating themselves in history. Dr. Leonard traced his family lineage back six generations to Jose Leonard, an escaped slave form Cuba, who ended up in slavery in Texas, but managed to become a free man by the end of his life.

“Your actions have consequences,” he said and showed the students how the actions of his forebears, not only affected him, but that his actions and their actions would affect future generations: “I can’t afford to fail,” he said emphatically. “I won’t fail. Too many before me have paid the price, and too many in the future are counting on me to succeed.”

The import of his message sunk in. But Dr. Leonard didn’t leave it there. He left the students with hope. He extended an open invitation to the students to work for him at the USDA once they had graduated. “I’d love for all of you to come and work for me one day.” He hoped that we would be able to open doors the way that others such as Rev. Jesse Jackson and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. created opportunities for him and an entire generation, either directly or indirectly or by their words and deeds.

Dr. Leonard’s interaction with the students was remarkable and he promised the students that he would return in December to see how they were doing. I know that Professor Brown, her students, the administration, and I are looking forward to seeing him again and to hear more of his inspirational story.

***

A Celebration of Two Jamaican Icons

Miami, Florida (October 5, 2009). In commemoration of the awards to be bestowed on Ms. Norma Darby and the Hon. Mervyn Morris during National Heroes Day in Jamaica, the Friends of Norma Darby and Mervyn Morris, will be hosting A Celebration of Two Jamaican Icons at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Family on October 29, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.

“We couldn’t think of a better way to show our admiration for these two exceptional artists,” said Reverend Easton Lee of Episcopal Church of the Holy Family. “Norma Darby and Mervyn Morris represent the scholarship, passion, and commitment to calling that we should all strive to emulate.”


A Celebration of Two Jamaican Icons will feature readings by local writers, Malachi Smith, Donna Aza Weir Soley, and Geoffrey Philp, as well as performances by the Jamaica Folk Revue and Tallawah Band.

A Celebration of Two Jamaican Icons

18501 NW 7th Avenue, Miami Gardens, FL 33169-4441

October 29, 2009 @ 7:00 p.m.

Contribution: $10

For more information, please contact Friends of Norma Darby and Mervyn Morris, 18501 NW 7th Avenue, Miami Gardens, FL 33169-4441, Tel: (305) 652-6797, Cell: 305-302-5365.

***

If you have enjoyed the work of either artist and would like to contribute to the event, please use the secure PayPal button located at the top right sidebar on this blo.

"You're Not My Son Anymore" by Geoffrey Philp

Pausing by the hospital door, I took a deep breath. The last time I’d seen my dad, Harold Sr., I was lying on my back looking up at his fists and twisted face.

"You think you can fight me? You think you are a real man? You'll never be a real man. You and your little friends!"

I pushed the stethoscope deep into the side pocket of my jacket so that I wouldn't be confused with the other doctors who worked at the hospital. Gently opening the door, I braced myself for a sight that I'd seen so many times at the hospice where I’d worked, yet to which I’d never grown accustomed.

"Who's that?"


"It's me, Dad."


"What are you doing here? Didn't I tell you I never wanted to see you again?"

It was as bad as I’d imagined. AIDS had ravaged my father’s body. A stroke had paralyzed his left side and he was now almost blind.

"I wanted to see you, Dad."


"You mean to see what's left of me? Look and leave. I've spent your inheritance. You’re not even in my will."

Dad tried to pull the sheet over his chest, but he couldn't. The tell-tale signs of Kaposi's sarcoma covered his body.

"I don't need your money, Dad."


"Then, what are you doing here? I told you before. You are not my son anymore.


"I don't want to fight anymore.I've come to make peace."


"Peace? What peace? Go and look for that somewhere else. You forgot about the last time? My God, if I could get up out this bed, I'd knock you down again."

He tried to raise his tired arm over his head, but failed.


I swallowed hard and slumped into the visitor's chair. A web of IV drips surrounded his bed.

"Dad, it doesn't have to be this way."

"What way do you want it? Or is that how your confused battyman friends--the ones who spread their disease to real men like me--used to ask you?"

I bit my lip. I wanted to say, "Dad, my friends didn't give you this disease. If you'd just worn a condom when you were having sex with your girlfriend, you wouldn't be dying now. If you'd worn a condom, my mother--the only person who kept you alive by giving you your meds regularly--wouldn't have died three months ago after you infected her.”


But I didn't. Instead, I gazed at the beam of light that lanced across the headboard and gilded the charts that declared his death sentence.

“Battyboy!"

He kept on cursing and I listened and waited until his tirade ended. A nurse poked her head through the door. I told her that everything was all right. From the look on my face, she knew I could be trusted with his care. She left without a word.


Dad was so exhausted from his rants, he collapsed into a deep slumber.


Rising from my chair, I brushed the wisps of hair over his head, so that if anyone saw him, he would still resemble Harry Lewiston, Sr. And not what he had become--a scarecrow in defeat.


I pushed the chair close to the bed and walked toward the door. Although I had said as much as I could, I still felt as if I had left a shadow in the room.


And, somehow, as I closed the door, I couldn't shake the feeling that the next time I’d see my father, I’d be closing the lid of his casket.

***

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Geoffrey Philp @ Backyard Labrish

In case you missed my interview with Margaret Marshall of Backyard Labrish on September 30, 2009, here is the link:

Tribute to Trevor D. Rhone with Geoffrey Philp

Also check her past interviews with Hon Rex Nettleford, Beverly Manley, Dr. Monique Ford, and Dr. Joy Lumsden.

***

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Tribute to Trevor D. Rhone @ Backyard Labrish

 Geoffrey Philp, a successful Jamaican poet and novelist in the Diaspora, joins The Backyard to help us celebrate and honour the late Trevor D. Rhone.

Mr. Rhone, a leading Caribbean playwright and screenwriter, co-wrote the 1972 hit, The Harder They Come, which helped introduce reggae music and urban Jamaican culture to international audiences. Rhone also wrote and directed several other hits including Smile Orange and School’s Out. Considered a "Master of Tragicomic,” Mr. Rhone leaves a strong cultural legacy.

This week's featured guest, Mr. Geoffrey Philp, was referred to as "Funny and Fearless" by The Daily Gleaner in a review of his short story collection, Who's Your Daddy: "Philp writes without fear or favour. He tells his stories with honesty, throwing away the pen of pretentiousness to weave simple, but poignant plots with a down-to-earth style, which is refreshing.”

Mr. Philp, who earned his Master of Arts in Creative Writing, is the recipient of several awards and has penned several articles, poems, children's books, short stories, and maintains an active blog: Geoffrey Philp’s Blog Spot.

Join us as we welcome fellow Kingstonian, Geoffrey Philp, to The Backyard to help us honour the accomplishments of Trevor D. Rhone as we continue to preserve the rich culture of Jamaica, "Land We Love."

To join The Labrish and share your stories call:

718-766-4558 on Wednesday 9/30/09 at 8:00PM EST

or

Listen in by clicking the link below:

Backyard Labrish

To set a reminder: GO NOW to this link & click on the Remind Me button.


We welcome your questions and comments.

Call us @ 718-766-4558 on Wed. 9/30/09 at 8:00PM.


Join the Labrish!


Margaret Marshall

Producer & Host

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