"Write it Now": Creative Writing Workshops With Caribbean Writers

The Louise Bennett-Coverley-Heritage Council (LBHC) in association with the South Regional/Broward College Library and the friends of the South Regional Broward College Library is pleased to announce its hosting of a one-day writer’s clinic - “Write it Now”- on Saturday, September 8, 2018, 10 am – 5 pm at the South Regional BC Library, 7300 Pines Boulevard, Pembroke Pines, FL 33024.

Three workshops, Fiction, Poetry and Performance Poetry will be held simultaneously and a session on Independent Publishing will be held in the afternoon. The sessions will cover: character and plot development, stage craft and delivery, playing with rhyme and rhythm, and other topics. To celebrate Louise Bennett-Coverley’s iconic contribution to Caribbean literature, the Writer’s Clinic will be taught by four outstanding Caribbean writers who live in Florida.

Christine Craig will host the Poetry clinic. She was born in Jamaica and is a graduate of the University of the West Indies. Her short stories and poems have been published in British, American and Caribbean journals. Described as “One of the Caribbean’s most original and innovative poets” - her poetry collection All Things Bright…and Quadrille for Tigers was published by Peepal Tree Press, UK. Her short story collection Mint Tea and other Stories, and children’s fiction Bird Gang, were published by Heinemann Caribbean.  

Geoffrey Philp,  an award-winning author from Jamaica, will host the Fiction clinic. He has written two novels, two collections of short stories, and three children’s books, His work is represented in nearly every anthology of Caribbean literature including the Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories and the Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse.

Malachi Smith is the presenter of the Performance Poetry clinic. He is a fellow of the University of Miami’s Mitchner Caribbean Writer’s Institute, an alumnus of Florida International University, Miami-Dade College and Jamaica School of Drama. Malachi was a founding member of Poets in Unity. He has recorded seven CD collections of his poetry and has read and performed his poetry internationally.

Judith Falloon-Reid will host the Independent Publishing session. She is an author, screenwriter, poet and award-winning film maker. She has several published works to her credit and is the writer and director of two award-wining Jamaican films, The Gift Everlasting and Just Another Friday. Her poetry collection, Screeeem and Riot, was published in 2018. 

Lunch and handouts will be provided compliments of South Regional BC Library and the LBHC. Applicants are required to submit a sample of their writing. For poetry and performance applications, email Malachi at malismith@aol.com .

For Fiction applications, please follow this link: Fiction Workshop
 

                                               

Garvey's Ghost, Rastafari, and Marcus Garvey

For the past three years, I have had the pleasure of introducing students to Rastafari and the work of Marcus Garvey via Garvey's Ghost. 

Here are two videos that my students created as part of their project and a partial list of sources:

Barnett, Michael. Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader. Syracuse UP, 2012.

Barrett, Leonard E. The Rastafarians. Beacon, 1997.

Dawes, Kwame Senu Neville. Natural Mysticism: Towards a New Reggae Aesthetic in Caribbean Writing. Peepal Tree, 1999.

Grant, Colin. Negro with a Hat. Oxford UP, 2010.

Hill, Robert A., and Barbara Bair. Marcus Garvey, Life and Lessons: A Centennial Companion to the Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers. U of California Press, 1987.

Middleton, Darren J. N. Rastafari and the Arts: An Introduction. Routledge, 2015.

Preserving the Caribbean's Literary Heritage

‘Inspired by the Archives’ panel chaired by Kei Miller, with Anu Lakhan, 

Breanne Mc Ivor, Andre Bagoo and K. Miller (left to right)

Caribbean Literary Heritage (CLH) is a Leverhulme-funded research project that focuses on raising awareness about the importance of Caribbean literary legacies and their preservation, as well as generating and promoting research on literary archives, author’s record keeping practices and fuller literary histories. Led by Professor Alison Donnell and award-winning Jamaican author and Professor Kei Miller, this three-year long project will explore these issues from a variety of angles with the objective of connecting the past and present of Caribbean literature in thinking about future long-term preservation.

At Bocas Lit Fest, where CLH collaborated with the festival around the theme of literary heritage, Alison Donnell explained how this project had been in her mind for a long time. Introducing ‘Secret Lives: Why Literary Archives Matter’, one of the panels she chaired at the festival, Donnell pointed out: "Sometimes I find the name of a woman writer [in the archives] but no work, sometimes I find the work but nothing about her, so it had always been my dream to be able to have a project that could look seriously at this.”

 ‘Secret Lives: Why Literary Archives Matter’, from left to right: Evelyn O’Callaghan, 

Kei Miller, Alison Donnell and Shara McCallum.

Kei Miller, Caribbean literary scholar Evelyn O’Callaghan and poet Shara McCallum joined Donnell on this panel at Bocas Lit Fest. In reflecting about the role of archives, Miller talked about how the eloquence of Alexander Bustmante’s letters challenges popular portrayals and myths about him, adding the poignant question: “How do the archives counter-stories”?

As stated in the project’s website, Caribbean Literary Heritage is concerned with the Caribbean’s literary past and the region’s tangible and intangible literary heritage. It is particularly interested in neglected writers and writings at risk of being lost, and in thinking about what influences such precarity. At present, there is no established platform to access the location and scope of authors’ papers, including many scattered and undocumented sources. The literary histories that researchers and students can access are often incomplete and privilege male writers, as well as those who migrated and published with presses in the global north. This project wants to enable fuller literary histories to be told and their sources to be known, preserved and made accessible.

The main aims of the project are:
•    to create a fuller literary history of the period 1940-1980
•    to recover stories of forgotten writers and writings
•    to help writers save today’s manuscripts and papers for tomorrow’s researchers
•    to bring together academics, archivists and writers to discuss the changing nature of Caribbean literary archives across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

Part of the team Caribbean Literary Heritage at Bocas Lit Fest. 

From left to right: Zakiya McKenzie, Jennifer McDerra, Alison Donnell and Kei Miller.

You can check out this link to find out more about the project’s team members:
https://www.caribbeanliteraryheritage.com/people/

The project’s blog publishes stories and reflections around literary archives and research from a variety of perspectives and experiences: those of writers, researchers, librarians and archivists. It aims to be a space for dialogue, sharing and collaboration and we invite those interested to contribute by getting in touch with us via our site’s contact form or email address (www.caribbeanlitheritage@gmail.com) 

The partnership between CLH and Bocas Lit Fest also resulted in the commission of three Trinidadian writers: Andre Bagoo, Anu Lakhan, and Breanne McIvor visiting and responding to a variety of local archives at the Alma Jordan Library, UWI St. Augustine. They shared powerful creative writing inspired by that experience in a Bocas Lit Fest event chaired by Kei Miller and wrote three engaging pieces for our blog. You can enjoy them, and all our other blog posts here: https://www.caribbeanliteraryheritage.com/blog/

There is also a section entitled 10 Questions on Caribbean Literary Heritage in which Caribbean writers discuss their first piece of writing, their first and current readings, and their interest in the literary past.
https://www.caribbeanliteraryheritage.com/ten-questions/

 

Zakiya McKenzie interviewing Breanne Mc Ivor at Bocas Lit Fest

We would like to share our call to Caribbean writers and those of Caribbean descent. Please check out and fill in our author questionnaire about your own working papers and recording practices. We are very interested in hearing writers’ views!

https://www.caribbeanliteraryheritage.com/writers-survey/ 

***

You can follow us on Twitter: @CaribLiteraryH, Facebook: Caribbean Literary Heritage, and Instagram: caribliteraryh

(!) TUNE IN on Twitter and FB for International Archives Day, this Saturday 9th June!! Follow our links as we celebrate archives, and tell us about your experiences and best memories in the archives using the #CaribbeanLitHeritage and #InternationalArchivesDay

25th Miami Annual Sunrise Ancestral Remembrance

25th Miami Annual Sunrise Ancestral Remembrance of the Middle Passage Ceremony, honoring the memory of all who endured the Middle Passage, known as the Transatlantic "slave trade"  (the millions who perished and those who survived to give life to future and present generations).

Traditional Native American and African as well as multicultural contemporary prayers and meditations, performances, open "Village Talk" and the welcoming of offerings of fruits, flowers, grains, and other appropriate items to be carried out to sea. 

Spiritual leaders, drummers, musicians, performers, creative artists specially invited.
WHEN:

Sunday, June 10, 2018, 5:30 - 8:00 a.m.
The second weekend in June has been selected by a growing number of cities around the country and in the African Motherland as the date for Annual Remembrance ceremonies.

In Miami, the sunrise hour has been traditionally chosen because the land is clean and refreshed, and also in remembrance of all those who had to work form "Can't see in the morning until can't see at night." 


WHERE:
Historic Virginia Key Beach Park
4020 Virginia Beach Drive (off Rickenbacker Causeway)
Miami, FL 33149

Directions:
I-95 or US 1 to Rickenbacker Causeway/Key Biscayne
Rickenbacker Causeway (Sunpass toll) to Virginia Key and left turn at second traffic signal, just before the bridge to Key Biscayne.
Park entrance is 1/4 mile ahead.

WHO:
 
All are welcome.
The Annual Remembrance is free and open to the public.

The ceremony is not limited to any particular belief or ideology.

For further info: 305-904-7620 or 786-260-1246.


"The wholeness of the living is diminished when the Ancestors are not honored."

Graphic: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/374009944039844394/

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