Feed: Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot - AggScore: 72.4

Dust (For Kwame Dawes)

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Call For Submissions: CaribbeanTales 2012

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For the 3rd consecutive year CaribbeanTales will be holding a festival in beautiful Barbados.


The Caribbean Diaspora's most dynamic film festival group --- with bases and events in Toronto, Barbados and New York, and partnerships across the region and the globe --- showcases Caribbean themed films of all genres. Our programming celebrates the unique voice of the Caribbean in all its shapes, incarnations and diversity, including: culture, comedy, animation, sci-fi, diapora stories, stories of cultural identity and multicultural relationships.
We are looking for short films and features for our Barbados Showcase, which this year will take place between April 11-15th 2012.


Please fill in the guidelines attached below and send to our Programming Director, Penny Hynam, at pennyhynam@gmail.com.


Please send us your film via a password protected Vimeo account or other secure online carriage.  We look forward to seeing and screening your work.
The CaribbeanTales Barbados Team.
 
FINAL DEADLINE: Monday, March 12, 2012 (NO ENTRY FEE)


SUBMISSION RULES:


• All lengths and genres accepted.
• CT seeks works made by filmmakers from Caribbean backgrounds and/or that celebrate and explore Caribbean themes, and themes of interest and relevance to people from the Caribbean Diaspora.
• Preview copy must be sent through secure online storage for example a password protected vimeo account. Submission should be sent via email to: Penny Hynam, Programming Director, CaribbeanTales @ Island Inn Barbados 2012,  pennyhynam@gmail.com. Please also adress any questions or concerns here.
• Label previews with director’s name, film title, length, country, contact info, genre and year
of completion, as well as 150 word Synopsis.
• Films in foreign languages must be subtitled in English.
• The participant must pay print shipping costs to Barbados. The festival will pay the cost of shipping
exhibition prints back to the participant.
• Please do not send preview or screening copies by courier to Barbados, as often they charge large customs and duties charges. CT will not cover the resulting customs and duties charges, and will refuse the package.
• All preview tapes will be added to CT's archives for considertation to our year-round international
programming, unless filmmaker indicates in writing that they do not wish it so.
 
CaribbeanTales is a group of companies that produces, markets and exhibits Caribbean-themed films for regional and international distribution. These include:  CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution, that links producers and buyers of quality filmed entertainment; the CaribbeanTales Film Festival Group that produces annual events in Toronto, Barbados and New York;  the Caribbean Incubator Program for Audio Visual Entrepreneurs that delivers training for filmmakers, and CaribbeanTales.ca, a non profit that promotes citizen participation through the medium of film, contributing to an inclusive Canadian society.


Founded in 2010, the CaribbeanTales Film Festival @ Island Inn Barbados is a multi facetted event that includes a Film Festival, an Industry Symposium, and a Content incubator, all aimed at stimulating the development of a vibrant world class Caribbean film and television industry.


CaribbeanTales Worldwide • 38 Concord Avenue • Toronto, M6H2P1

"My Crazy Valentine" by Geoffrey Philp

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I could tell you stories about morning skies
That held trees wider than the span
Of your arms, but this would be a lie.
For you would prefer tales about hurricanes
That split hulls, rip masts like kites,
dreams trapped in rotting galleys
splintered on the skin of limestone. 

I could tell you fables from deep in the earth
Circular as caverns that reach upward to slivers
Of light. But you'd prefer tales dark as the stains
Of pomegranates on my fingers that awaken
The desire of fruit bats from soundless berths,
Red as the hunger that drives them into the night.

Jacqueline Bishop: Conversation Quilts @ Meredith Art Gallery

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Virginia State University’s Meredith Art Gallery will host The Conversation Series, a collection of 24 quilts by Jamaican visual artist and writer Jacqueline Bishop, on loan to VSU from Jan. 30 through March 8, 2012. The artist will speak about the exhibition at an Opening Reception on Monday, Jan. 30, 2012, at 5:30 p.m. in the Meredith Gallery, located in Harris Hall.


Bishop blends poetry and textiles as she celebrates the landscape of her homeland and the creative life of her great grandmother and other women. While visiting VSU, she will visit several classes and make a presentation at the university’s Writing/e-Portfolio Studio (Harris Hall 113) on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012, at 2:00 PM. The Bishop exhibition and presentations are being sponsored by the department of music, art and design, Honors Program, Quality Enhancement Plan and the Dr. George H. Bennett Office for International Education.


The Conversation Series began with several quilts originally stitched by Bishop’s great grandmother and repaired or finished by Bishop as a tribute to her great grandmother after death. The pieces in Odes to the Mountains of Jamaica celebrate the landscape of the artist’s native country and facilitate a means of communicating with the unknown textile makers of Jamaica. The Hand of Fatima quilts incorporate Moroccan women’s embroidery as Bishop pays tribute to the unseen and unsung work of women. The Homage Series utilizes both African and French textiles as the artist traces the Triangular Trade Route from Africa to the Americas to Europe and back to Africa as she focuses on women’s collective experiences. The pieces are paired with poignantly written odes and together serve as an extended conversation among women across generations.


Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Bishop currently teaches writing at New York University. She is a former Writer-in-Residence for the Teachers and Writers Collaborative of the New York City Department of Education and founding editor of CALABASH: A Journal of Caribbean Arts and Letters. She earned a MFA in Creative Writing and a MA in English from New York University; she also attended the L’Université de Paris in France and Concordia University in Montréal, Canada. Her visual art has been exhibited in New York City as well as in Belgium, Italy and Morocco.


The former Fulbright Scholar has authored five books: Snapshots from Istanbul (Poems), Writers Who Paint/Painters Who Write: Three Jamaican Artists (Non-fiction), The River’s Song (Novel), Fauna(Poems), and My Mother Who Is Me: Life Stories From Jamaican Women in New York (Non-fiction). She is completing a documentary film entitled “I Came Here by a Dream: The Jamaican Intuitives,” which explores a talented group of untrained Jamaican artists, and is writing a novel.


For more information contact Dr. Thomas Larose, Department of Music, Art & Design (tlarose@vsu.edu); or Dr. Maxine Sample, Director, Dr. George H. Bennett Office for International Education, (msample@vsu.edu).

Jourdan Anderson: A Letter to His Old Master

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On August 7, 1865,  Jourdon Anderson, a former slave of Colonel P.H. Anderson, respoded to his former master's request to return to work on the farm for a wage.


Here is  Jourdon Anderson's reply, which was published in The New York Daily Tribune.


LETTER FROM A FREEDMAN TO HIS OLD MASTER.


[Written just as he dictated it.]


Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865.




To my old Master, Colonel P. H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee.


Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.


I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the[266] folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.


As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq.,[267] Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.


In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.


Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.


From your old servant,
Jourdon Anderson.




Newspaper: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7035/6790780585_466117fe88_o.jpg




Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38479/38479-h/38479-h.htm#Page_265


The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Freedmen's Book, by Lydia Maria Child


This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org




Title: The Freedmen's Book


Author: Lydia Maria Child


Release Date: January 3, 2012 [EBook #38479]


Language: English


Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1


Produced by Suzanne Shell, Henry Flower and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)


Image Source:http://web.gc.cuny.edu/ashp/toer/whowastoer.html

Maddie’s Story: The Power of Social Media

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We’ve all heard about how protestors in Tahrir Square and in the Occupy movement have used social media as a tool to achieve their goals. And some of us might have concluded, “That’s great for big political causes that excite others, but that doesn’t affect me at all. Social media can never be used in my small circle.” But you would be underestimating yourself and the power of social media.


Recently, my daughter was brought face to face with animal cruelty. She posted her experience on Facebook and shared it with her family and friends.

“Hello, Facebook! Sending out feelers: we need someone who is willing to foster the dog we found yesterday at my school. Her medicine would be taken care of, but I need someone with the space and most importantly, time, to help get this girl back to full speed.” 

28 January at 19:40

Then, she did a Google search for  American Bulldog Rescue, Florida Chapter. In between posts, she cared for Maddie’s ailments:

Calling yourself an animal lover during the daytime is sweet and all. But, at three in the morning, it's money where your mouth is time, LOL

29 January at 03:37 via Mobile ·

Maddie’s Story soon circulated around the net and was picked up by our ABC affiliate:

WPLG Local 10
Just received this from a Local10 viewer. Incredible case of animal cruelty.

I work at an elementary school in North Miami and yesterday, I and a few other teachers happened across a dog that we suspect someone was trying to hang from the fence. I ended up in primary care of her and took her to the vet.

They’ve told me in very simple terms that she has a very bad case of demodectic mange and probably be put down upon admittance at any shelter.

The money isn't that huge of a barrier, as I, and two of the other teachers will be pooling to pay for treatment for her, but none of us (myself included) have the time or the space to foster her for the time it would take for her to be back at 100% (three weeks).

Even if she weren't an incredibly sweet animal, I would struggle with just taking her to a shelter, and was wondering if anyone on the site could help.

Thanks for reading, and even if the answer is no, I appreciate your time in responding with any haste you can spare. :)

30 January

The post on the WPLG Facebook had 80 shares and 32 LIKES, and that’s not counting the shares of her friends and family. My daughter became so attached to Maddie, she worried that if she took the dog to a local shelter, the dog would be euthanized. 


Then, the miraculous happened:

MADDIE'S GOT A HOME!!! Details to come.
30 January at 16:01

Which was quickly followed by:

So, here's the story:

On Friday, I had e-mailed the American Bulldog Rescue Chapter in Florida and waited Saturday and Sunday for a response. Today, they not only contacted me, but also contacted a local news station who put the pup's story up on their Facebook.

I didn't get one, or two, but a couple DOZEN e-mails from people who wanted to help, even just by sharing the story with friends.

But the best part of the story is that the pup got placed! She will be going out (hopefully soon) to Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Wellington where she will be rehabbed and then placed in a forever home.

Thank you so much to everyone who commented, liked and texted me about the situation. Her situation was a sad one, but tonight, it's infinitely better, thanks to you. ♥

30 January at 18:59

On Tuesday, she took Maddie to Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Wellington. Maddie and my daughter lived happily ever after.

Still think you’re powerless? Find your passion and share it on the web. You are not alone.

Happy Birthday, Brother Bob!

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“bob marley in the daycare center” imagines where a reincarnated Bob Marley would choose to work in his next life. The inspiration came from the "One Love" video of Bob at a birthday party with some children in England. He was clearly having a lot of fun and they were happy to be with him.



"Trench Town Rock" says, "Never let the children cry/ Or you gotta tell Jah-Jah why." If he didn't choose to be a musician the next time around, he would most likely choose a life where he could protect as many children as he could, and being the natural storyteller that he is, working in a day care in a hospital named Mount Sinai would probably work for him.


 

when i first glimpsed him, the smile,
as he played peek-a-boo in the communal playpen,
inside the  young president's club, mt. sinai,
after circle time with the toddlers, reading
real-life stories of heroes whose only weapons
were words aimed at the dragon's heart,
they stared, transfixed, at the sound
uncoiling from his mouth like smoke;
he placed them gently on their blue cots
while the older kids built castles with blocks,
unsteady as jericho's wall to the rastaman's song,
then  retreated to the infants' area to sponge bathe
the early risers--he'd burned through life so fast,
he'd never really grown accustomed to this
human softness--no longer the hard, bitter seed
filled with a desperation that couldn't wait to shatter
its shell, like the eucalyptus pods that fell
on the playground where he'd decided
almost a lifetime ago, this time, he'd take it slow.

Happy Earth Day, Brother Bob!

African-American Read-In @ Miami Dade College, West Campus

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"La Sirene" by Geoffrey Philp

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Whenever her song from the first time
I rowed to where the horizon was as wide

as my despair, rises with bubbles that froth
the tips of the surf and lap the sides of my boat,

I feel like flinging my body beyond the luminous
fish that glide away from the light (such beauty

I know I will never possess) desperate
as her pleas, the promise of wholeness

beneath the waves that knot my tangled
lines in the roots of her hair. But the scent

from star-apple stormed valleys
that ache with the strain of desire

and cripple, like my love,
anchors me to that distant shore.

Voices of Haiti: A Post-Quake Odyssey in Verse

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The initial shock of the earthquake has passed but Haiti continues its struggle to overcome both man-made and natural disasters.


Poet Kwame Dawes presents his multimedia exploration of Haiti's earthquake through the lives, and voices, of Haitians confronting the ongoing consequences of this disaster, especially those living with HIV/AIDS.








Featuring:


Kwame Dawes (featured poet)
Kevin Simmonds (composer and performer)
Valetta Brinson (soprano)


With the photography of Andre Lambertson


And multimedia by Robin Bell, Nathalie Applewhite and Maura Youngman
Voices of Haiti is a multimedia performance based on poems by Kwame Dawes, set to music by composer Kevin Simmonds. The work grew out of a year-long Pulitzer Center commission to report on Haiti after the earthquake with reporter/poet Kwame Dawes, reporter Lisa Armstrong, and photographer Andre Lambertson. While in Haiti Dawes wrote poems in response to the stories he heard. These poems are at the heart of Voices of Haiti: A Post- Quake Odyssey in Verse. The work explores the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS after the devastating earthquake. It is a celebration of their lives and their survival. The project also encompasses reporting featured in USA Today, The New York Times, The Daily Beast,The Atlantic, and PBS NewsHour. Voices of Haiti premiered at the 2011 National Black Theater Festival in August 2011.


Voices of Haiti premiered at the 2011 National Black Theater Festival.
Learn more about this reporting initiative, After the Quake: HIV/AIDS in Haiti




Watch the featured video poems, set to music.


The Performers:


Kwame Dawes, a Ghanaian-Jamaican writer and poet, is the author of sixteen collections of verse, as well as the Emmy Award-winning, Pulitzer Center-sponsored, Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica, which explores the experiences of people living with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica. Dawes is also the author of numerous plays, essays and books. He is a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the editor-in-chief of Prairie Schooner and a former Distinguished Poet in Residence at the University of South Carolina. He is the executive director and founder of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative. He is the director of the University of South Carolina Arts Institute as well and the programming director of the Calabash International Literary Festival, which takes place in Jamaica in May of each year. His most recent work Bloom of Stones: A Tri-lingual Anthology of Haitian Poems After the Earthquake collects the work of more than thirty Haitian poets, many who live in Haiti and others who are part of the large Haitian diaspora.


Kevin Simmonds is a poet, musician and performance artist originally from New Orleans. He has three forthcoming books: the poetry collection Mad for Meat (Salmon Poetry), the edited anthology Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion & Spirituality (Sibling Rivalry Press) and the edited collectionOta Benga Under My Mother's Roof (University of South Carolina), by the late poet Carrie Allen McCray-Nickens. His gene-defying short film feti(sh)ame, based on interviews with gay men, premiered at 2011 San Francisco's Frameline Festival and Provincetown International Film Festival. His newest multimedia project ORIENT: a new anthropology, about Asian-Black relations, will debut in San Franciso and Los Angeles in 2012, the twentieth anniversary of the LA Riots.


Valetta Brinson. A native of Memphis, soprano Valetta Brinson has performed in the UK, Japan and throughout the US. She specializes in the music of Bach, Mozart and Strauss and has performed with the Nashville Opera Association, Mississippi Opera Association and Opera Memphis in such productions as Der Rosenkavelier, Madama Butterfly and Gianni Schicchi, Die Zauberflöte and Falstaff. In 2004, she created the role of Coretta Scott King in the opera, The Promise, by composer John Baur. She is currently completing the Doctorate of Musical Arts at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music where she is a Hohenberg-Scheidt Scholar. She received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Morris Brown College and the Master of Arts degree from Middle Tennessee State University. She teaches at Southwest Tennessee Community College.
(en français ci-dessous)


The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Presents:




Voices of Haiti: A Post-Quake Odyssey in Verse


The initial shock of the earthquake has passed but Haiti continues its struggle to overcome both man-made and natural disasters.
Poet Kwame Dawes presents his multimedia exploration of Haiti's earthquake through the lives, and voices, of Haitians confronting the ongoing consequences of this disaster, especially those living with HIV/AIDS.
The performance will include select Kreyol interpretations of the music and poetry.








Featuring:


Kwame Dawes (featured poet)
Kevin Simmonds (composer and performer)
Valetta Brinson (soprano)
Andre Paultre (Kreyol performer)
Marie-Pascale Verly (Kreyol performer)
Andre Lambertson (photographer)
Nathalie Applewhite and Maura Youngman (multimedia)


Voices of Haiti is a multimedia performance based on poems by Kwame Dawes, set to music by composer Kevin Simmonds. The work grew out of a year-long Pulitzer Center commission to report on Haiti after the earthquake with reporter/poet Kwame Dawes, reporter Lisa Armstrong, and photographer Andre Lambertson. While in Haiti Dawes wrote poems in response to the stories he heard. These poems are at the heart of Voices of Haiti: A Post- Quake Odyssey in Verse. The work explores the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS after the devastating earthquake. It is a celebration of their lives and their survival. The project also encompasses reporting featured in USA Today, The New York Times, The Daily Beast,The Atlantic, and PBS NewsHour. Voices of Haiti premiered at the 2011 National Black Theater Festival in August 2011.


Learn more about the performance and performers.


See the facebook listing.


The Pulitzer Center is a non-profit journalism organization dedicated to promoting in-depth engagement with global affairs through its sponsorship of quality international journalism across all media platforms and an innovative program of outreach and education.


Le Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting présente:

Voix d'Haïti : Une odyssée post-séisme

Le choc initial du tremblement de terre a passé, mais Haïti continue sa lutte pour surmonter les catastrophes à la fois homme et naturel.


Poète Kwame Dawes présente son exploration multimédia du tremblement de terre d'Haïti à travers la vie-et les voix-des Haïtiens qui font face aux conséquences de cette catastrophe, surtout ceux qui vivent avec le VIH /SIDA.
La performance inclura des interprétations en créole de la musique et poésie.
Gratuit à FOKAL le vendredi, Février 4, 18 heures.
La représentation inclura des interprétations selectes en créole de la musique et poésie.












Avec:
Kwame Dawes (poète)
Kevin Simmonds (compositeur et interprète)
Valetta Brinson (soprano)
Andre Paultre (Kreyol interprète)
Marie-Pascale Verly (Kreyol interprète)
Andre Lambertson (photographe)
Nathalie Applewhite et Maura Youngman (multimédia)


Voix d'Haïti est une représentation multimédia basée sur des poèmes de Dawes, et mise en musique par le compositeur Kevin Simmonds. Ce travail est né d'une commission tout au long de l'année par le Pulitzer Center pour des rapports sur Haïti après le séisme avec le journaliste/poète Kwame Dawes, journaliste Lisa Armstrong, et le photographe André Lambertson. En Haïti, Dawes a écrit des poèmes en réponse aux histoires qu'il a entendues. Ces poèmes sont au cœur de Voix d'Haïti: Une odyssée post-séisme en vers. L'œuvre explore la vie des personnes vivant avec le VIH / SIDA après le séisme. C'est une célébration de leur vie et de leur survie. Le projet englobe également des rapports présentés aux Etats-Unis dans USA Today, The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, et PBS NewsHour. Voix d'Haïti à eu sa première au National Black Theater Festival, en août 2011.


Apprenez plus sur la représentation et les artistes.


Voyez l'announce sur Facebook.


Le Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting:
Le Pulitzer Center est une organisation de journalisme dédiée à la promotion d'engagement, en profondeur, dans les affaires mondiales grâce à son parrainage de journalisme international de qualité à travers tous les médias et un programme novateur de sensibilisation et d'éducation

Marcus and the Amazons @ Opa Locka Branch Library

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Just what makes that little old ant 

Think he'll move that rubber tree plant 

Anyone knows an ant, can't 

Move a rubber tree plant 

But he's got high hopes 

He's got high hopes 

He's got high apple pie 

In the sky hopes. 

So any time you're feelin' low 

stead of lettin' go 

Just remember that ant

Oops there goes another rubber tree plant 

Oops there goes another rubber tree plant.

Black History Month @ MDC, North Campus

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Black History Month in Jamaica

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Source: http://www.yardedge.net/happening-on-the-edge-2012/february-is-black-history-month

"Buxton Lady Under Lock Down" by Cynthia James

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we would sit in the elephant ear of a marble queen, 
icing dusting the skylight, listening to the wattle 
wheezing through the atrium, the karaoke 
tinkle of Ol’Virginny, Ol’ Kentucky Home inside


warm apple cider drunk, she’d say, “Those songs 
we learnt in school, is only when I come I understand. 
But I is from Kaywana stock; this place make you 
more black. You must bring me some cocoa butter 


when you coming next time,” rubbing Buxton spice;
we watched cars swish, slip, slurping past grey fingered trees
“Was a day like this that send me here; white, no headlights; 
I didn’t see, nobody see, nobody say, nobody talk for me; he


burn like crisp; if wasn’t for my Buxton pride I dead already.”
but summer she was different; then we went out on Wheel-Trans. 
“Look,” she says, “Imagine me who make with nail, tinin and 
hammer, grater from scratch, buying coconut in frozen 


quarter pound square pack. You know bout metamgee?  
conkie? A tumbler of swank, Man, down the hatch!”
Then we would join the ladies for some checkers, bingo, 
even take in the fashion show. “Is a man you know! 


Wait till she start to strip. We ask the recreation people 
for her every year.” And she shouting loud, “Go more! 
Take off the shirt!” And bad talk Victor, her one and only son,
full of guile who just so, she-say-he-say, “Let’s go for a drive ...”


but she going back for her gold ring on the bureau
the Deceased Egbert give her. Now that was man!
“I could teach you the computer; you’ll like Facebook,”
“Unh-unh,” she said, “is a long long way to Tipperary.
 Dawg a lay down, ashes cold.”

©Cynthia James 2012




 
About Cynthia James




 
Cynthia James is a Trinidadian, living for the past 3 years in Toronto. She writes poetry and fiction and her work can be found in publications such as Callaloo, Caribbean Writer and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse.
 

Miss Lou Reading Festival Celebrates Jamaica’s 50th Anniversary

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The fifth annual Louise Bennett-Coverley Reading Festival, an evening of rich cultural performances, will be staged on Saturday, February 11, 2012, at the South Regional Broward College Library in Pembroke Pines.


​The show titled “Fifty years A We Kulcha – Pantomime to Ring-Ding” will celebrate Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of Independence and observe February as Black History Month along with several other activities planned at the Library. 


​Under the patronage of Jamaica’s Consul General, Sandra Grant Griffiths, the milestone event will feature special guest, the eminent Marjorie Whylie, an ethnomusicologist, and musical director of the National Dance Theatre Company.  Oftentimes described as a "national treasure," Ms. Whylie, is also known for her long and close association as performer and student with the late Hon. Louise Bennett Coverley.
​ 
The annual Reading Festival was started in 2007 by Mrs. Norma Darby, former Executive Director of the Jamaica Folk Revue, following the death of the Hon. Louise Bennett Coverley, O.J. who passed away at age 86 years old in Toronto, Canada.  Ms. Lou was buried at the Jamaica’s National Heroes Park in Kingston.


According to Mrs. Darby, “As we celebrate Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of Independence, here in the Diaspora, the performers at the Festival will interpret significant works of our esteemed Miss Lou through acts of song, dance and drama.”   The Reading Festival, over the years, has explored and addressed the immense influence the works of the late Hon. Louise Bennett-Coverley has had on Jamaicans at home and in the Diaspora.


​The event is free to the public and will also include performances from a selection of notable Jamaican artists from the South Florida Diasporic community who had worked with the Jamaican cultural icon and international renowned folklorist, comedienne, author, and social commentator during her long and expansive career.  They are Dr. Ivy Armstrong, poet and public speaker; Dr. Susan Davis, actress, poet and educator; Geoffrey Philp, author and educator, and Malachi Smith, dub poet.  Other performers expected to participate will also include the Jamaica Folk Revue, Tallawah Mento Band, and Body Nation Dance Theatre.


​Proceeds from sales of Miss Lou’s works – books, CDs, and other memorabilia will continue to support of the Louise Bennett Coverley Scholarship at the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston.  The scholarship was named, posthumously, in honor of Jamaica’s cultural ambassador and is awarded to a student at the college pursuing studies in the performing arts.  To date, six students have been recipients of the scholarship at the Schools of Drama and Dance, and Music.


​Ms. Valrie Simpson, Regional Library Manager at Broward’s South Regional –Broward College campus has said that the Friends of the Library and the Broward College are pleased to partner in the annual Cultural Tribute saluting the legacy of Jamaica’s cultural ambassador and that Nation’s significant milestone of Independence.   Other supporting organizations include the Broward College, Friends of the Broward Library, the Jamaican Folk Revue and the Jamaica Tourist Board.