Resisting Against the System: Kreyòl, Patwa & the Matrix of Maroonage

Professor Geoffrey Philp traces the origins of language suppression as a tool of colonial policy in the Caribbean and the various forms of resistance in the work of Haitian and Jamaican writers such as  Manno Charlemagne, Bob Marley, Louise Bennett, and Felix Morrisseau-Leroy.

Geoffrey Philp, author of the e-book, Bob Marley and Bradford’s iPod, has also written five collections of poetry, two children's e-books, and two short story collections. An award winning writer, Philp is one of the few writers whose work has been published in the Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories and the Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse. He teaches English and creative writing at Miami Dade college where he is chair of Developmental Education at the North Campus.

"Preserving Global Creole Cultures and Languages"

International Creole Month

Thursday, October 23, 2014.   

9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Room 3249.

North Campus Conference Center, 

Miami Dade College

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.

Talkin Dub - Michael ‘Mikey’ Smith 60th Birthday Tribute

Talkin Dub - Michael ‘Mikey’ Smith 60th Birthday Tribute

Crafted in protest, powered by revolution, infused with reggae and blessed by Rastafari - Michael ‘Mikey’ Smith 60th Birthday Tribute.  Poets & Passion - A Caribbean Literary Lime 9th Season opener in celebration of the man, the artist; the activist.  

A program of film, music and performance poetry with guest poets AJA, jaBEZ, Queen Majeeda and Ras Osagyefo.  Presented by the Caribbean Cultural Theatre in association with Nicholas Brooklyn, Inc. and Big Sister Entertainment as a Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend event.  

Nicholas Brooklyn, 

570 Fulton Street (corner Flatbush Avenue), Brooklyn, NY

Thursday, September 18, 2014.  7:00pm.

Caribbean Cultural Theatre: 718.783.8345 

Nicholas Brooklyn: 718.858.4400

FACEBOOK: http://on.fb.me/1w7AfQ1

"Cry to Me": Fatherhood and Domestic Violence

The prevalence of violence, especially domestic violence with Caribbean families, has been one of the themes in my two short story collections, Uncle Obadiah and the Alien and Who's Your Daddy? 

In the short story, "Cry to Me," from Who's Your Daddy, which I've republished as an eBook, I've combined domestic violence with fatherhood in the story of David Hamilton, a respected professor, whose life is disrupted when his daughter becomes a victim of domestic violence.




I think "Cry to Me" is a precursor to a darker story that I am currently working on in which fatherhood turns ugly. Stay tuned.

WomanSpeak, A Journal of Writing and Art by Caribbean Women, Vol.7,

WomanSpeak, A Journal of Writing and Art by Caribbean Women, Vol.7, 2014, edited by Lynn Sweeting, brings together 30 contemporary women writers and painters of the Caribbean in a new collection especially themed, “Voices of Dissent: Writing and Art to Transform the Culture.”  Includes works by Opal Palmer Adisa, Lelawattee Manoo Rahming, Vahni Capildeo, Althea Romeo-Mark, Marion Bethel, Danielle Boodoo-Fortune, Sonia Farmer, Angelique V. Nixon and more. 


http://www.lulu.com/shop/lynn-sweeting/womanspeak-a-journal-of-writing-and-art-by-caribbean-women-vol72014/paperback/product-21293884.html

LETTER FROM MARCUS GARVEY: Connotations

For the past year and a half, I've been working on a collection of poems, LETTER FROM MARCUS GARVEY. Some of the poems have been published in Small Axe and  Susumba. Today, I received some great news from Connotations, which not only published poems #9, #18, and #35, but also an interview about the poems, Garvey's life, and my writing process.

Give thanks to Julie Brooks Barbour, who conducted the interview, and Kaite Hillenbrand, Poetry Editor of Connotations.

Here's the link: http://www.connotationpress.com/poetry/2413-geoffrey-philp-poetry

Sasenarine Persaud @ Edinburgh International Book Festival

Sasenarine Persaud recently returned from a successful eight (8) event reading tour of the UK, focused in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Sasenarine’s trip, funded mainly by the British Council, coincided with the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. As part of the Games, a poet from each Commonwealth country read and recorded a poem on the BBC’s (British Broadcasting Corporation) Poetry Postcard Program. Sasenarine’s poem, ‘Georgetown’ (from his soon to be released book, Love in a Time of Technology) is available here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p022ys3f 

The poem was printed on postcards and distributed throughout the Commonwealth Games. Sasenarine opened his tour with a reading and discussion on poetry and poetics, culture, homelands and exiles at the BBC in Glasgow in front a live audience.

This was followed by an interview and a reading at the Empire Café in Glasgow with an audience of over 200, and with the Scottish Minister of External Affairs and International Development introducing the evening. The Empire Café was formed to look at Scottish involvement with the slave trade and its association with the plantation system in the West Indies. The Empire Café commissioned Sasenarine to write a poem (‘Campbellville’) which was published by the Café in an anthology, and which led to the Café extending an invitation to visit Scotland.

Two (2) readings at the Saltire Society (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), in the historic courtyard building where Robert Louis Stevenson’s narrator of Treasure Island told the story of his iconic novel,followed.

Sasenarine rounded off his trip with three (3) readings at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF). He had the distinction of opening the 2014 edition of the EIBF on August 9, with a solo reading to a packed tent at a reading called “10 at 10”. Later in the day he read with three (3) other poets in an event billed as “Voices of the Caribbean Diaspora,” which occurred in the Baillie Gifford Main Theatre and which was introduced by Jackie Kay. His final appearance at the EIBF was at an event titled, ”Jura Unbound”, an evening of poetry, music and reflections, the evening before his departure.

***

          

On my bookshelf: Pepperpot

Pepperpot is the inaugural publication of Peekash Press, a joint imprint of 
Caribbean literature by Akashic Books (Brooklyn) and Peepal Tree Press (Leeds, UK). In collaboration with the Commonwealth Writers, the British Council, the Kingston Book Festival, and CaribLit, Akashic and Peepal Tree -- already recognized as publishers of high-quality Caribbean literature -- further their commitment to writers from the region with this exciting new imprint. Pepperpot gathers the very best Caribbean entries to the 2013 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, including a mix of established and up-and-coming writers from islands throughout the Caribbean.

Featuring short fiction by: 

Sharon Millar (Trinidad & Tobago)
Dwight Thompson (Jamaica)
Kevin Baldeosingh, (Trinidad & Tobago) 
Ivory Kelly (Belize)
Barbara Jenkins (Trinidad & Tobago) 
Sharon Leach (Jamaica)
Joanne C. Hillhouse (Antigua & Barbuda)
Ezekel Alan (Jamaica)
Heather Barker (Barbados)
Janice Lynn Mather (Bahamas) 
Kimmisha Thomas (Jamaica) 
Kevin Jared Hosein (Trinidad & Tobago)
Garfield Ellis (Jamaica)

***

Marcus Garvey: What Does it Mean to be a Man?

Today marks the 127^th birthday of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the first National Hero of Jamaica, and one of my spiritual ancestors.

Marcus Garvey through his life and work helped me to understand a question that has haunted me and many other Africans at home and abroad: What does it mean to be a man?

After travelling through the Americas and into the center of colonial power in the West Indies, Garvey realized that Africans at home and abroad in order to survive the brutalities of slavery had been reduced to a childish state in which they had relinquished personal and collective power. Cowed into submission, Africans at home and abroad lived in fear of outside forces over which they had no control, and even after gaining “freedom,” their existence was based on the level of servility to their former masters.

As Garvey saw it, Africans at home and abroad could either live in a reactionary state in which they only responded to crises (and once the crisis was over resume a passive, dormant existence) or take control of their lives by assuming personal and collective responsibility.

“A race without authority and power, is a race without respect,” said Garvey, and to remedy the situation, he created the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, which is celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year.

Men and nations assume responsibility for their lives. Personal and collective responsibility guided Garvey’s philosophy of manhood and nationhood, which were organized around these principles:

Redemption of Africans at home and abroad
Education
Self-Respect

Purpose
Economics
Community

Tradition

Garvey set a challenge before Africans at home and abroad when he wrote in the Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey: "The greatest weapon used against the Negro is disorganization.”

In the midst of Ferguson and other daily insults to Africans at home and abroad, either we can continue living in a childish, reactionary state where we do not assume responsibility for our lives or we can organize and plan accordingly.

The choice, as it was then and now, is ours.

***
The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

https://www.causes.com/campaigns/71936-urge-president-obama-to-exonerate-marcus-garvey

Thank you for your support.

Poetry Fundraiser: Franklyn March

A night of poetry, good food and raffle prizes to raise funds for Franklyn March, a sickle cell patient in Jamaica who desperately needs a hip replacement surgery.

Saturday,August 16, 2014

6:00 to 9:00 p.m

Florida international University, 

Biscayne Bay Campus, 

Wolfe University Center 

Room 155, 

3000 NE 151st Street, 

North Miami, Florida

If you cannot attend, please consider a donation to the gofundme campaign:

http://www.gofundme.com/9zwes4

One Heart.

Accepting Submissions: sx salon: a small axe literary platform

sx salon: a small axe literary platform

www.smallaxe.net/sxsalon

sx salon: a small axe literary platform invites submissions for Fall 2014 and Winter 2015. sx salon, launched in 2010 as part of the Small Axe Project, is an electronic publication dedicated to literary discussions, interviews with Caribbean literary figures, reviews of new publications (creative and scholarly) related to the Caribbean, and short fiction and poetry by emerging and established Caribbean writers. sx salon also houses the Small Axe Literary Competition, launched in 2009. Visit www.smallaxe.net/sxsalon to view past issues.

sx salon publishes a new issue every three months and invites submissions of the following:

Literary Discussions that engage issues relevant to Caribbean literary studies: 2,500 words. Anticipated discussions for Summer and Fall include “Chinese Caribbean Literature” and “Dub Poetry.”

Book Reviews of recent (published no more than two years preceding the date of submission) creative literary works by Caribbean authors or scholarly works related to Caribbean literary studies: 1,200 words. Please contact kbj@smallaxe.net to query available books.

Interviews with Caribbean literary figures: 2,500 words

Poetry and Short Fiction that engage regional and diasporic Caribbean themes and concerns: up to 2 poems or fiction of up to 4,000 words

Please visit http://smallaxe.net/sxsalon/submissions.php for more detailed guidelines for submissions.

INQUIRIES AND SUBMISSIONS
All inquiries and submissions should be sent electronically to the following addresses:

Literary discussions, book reviews, interviews: Kelly Baker Josephs kbj@smallaxe.net 

Short fiction and poetry: Andrea Shaw andreashaw@smallaxe.net

"A Prayer for my Children": Jamaican Poetry, Part Two

Give thanks to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for including "A Prayer for my Children" in the second part of their review of a hundred years of Jamaican poetry: Jamaican Poetry Part Two. 


The programme (notice the proper way to spell the word) also includes:

"The Ark by "Scratch" by Ishion Hutchinson

"Piece in Parts (Fi Tosh R.I.P.)" by A-dZiko Simba

"Where We . . " by Makesha Evans

"Roads (Remembering Aimé Césaire)" by Velma Pollard

"Jamaica Language" by Louise Bennett

'Dis Poem' by Mutabaruka

You can listen to the poems here: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/poetica/jamaican-poetry-part-two/5518114

Part One

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/poetica/jamaican-poetry-part-one/5294724

"A Midnight Woman to the Bobby" by Claude McKay

"Cameo" by Una Marson 

"Landscape Painter, Jamaica" by Vivian Virtue 

"Negro Aroused" by George Campbell 

"Dutty Tough" by Louise Bennett 

"Shelling Gungo Peas" by Gloria Escoffery 

"Letter to My Father from London" by James Berry 

"History and Away" by Andrew Salkey 

"Sometimes in the Middle of the Story" by Edward Baugh 

"Valley Prince"  by Mervyn Morris 

"Uncle Time" by Dennis Scott 

"Brief Lives" by Olive Senior 

"Last Lines" by Pam Mordecai 

"Mrs" by Lillian Allen

"I No Longer Read Poetry" by Heather Royes 

"Riddim An' Hardtime' by Lillian Allen 

Rootz Extravaganza: Sunday, August 17, 2014

Educational psychologist and Garvey scholar Dr. Umar Johnson will be the guest speaker at this year’s Rootz Extravaganza on Sunday, August 17, 2014, at the Lauderdale Lakes Educational & Cultural Center, 3580 W. Oakland Park Boulevard. The event is scheduled from 4.00 pm to 7.00 pm and will commemorate the 127th anniversary of Marcus Garvey’s birth as well as the 100th anniversary of the UNIA-ACL.

Dr. Umar Johnson

4.00 pm to 7.00 pm

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Lauderdale Lakes Educational & Cultural Center

3580 W. Oakland Park Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale