"Imagine your own future, or someone else will do it for you"
The University of the Virgin Islands held a two-day webinar on
July 18 and July 19, 2020 to launch Volume 34 of its annual literary publication, The
Caribbean Writer; it also held the space for the annual Virgin Islands Literary
Festival.
The theme, Diasporic Rhythms: Interrogating the Past,
Re-imagining the Future was anchored by writer of children's books and the Editor-In-Chief of The
Caribbean Writer, Alscess Lewis-Brown.
DAY 1
On the first day, July 18, the rhythms and the
past came early in the programme in the form of Calypso with a discussion on
the forthcoming book "God, The Press and Uriah Butler", by its author and the first speaker for the event, Calypso
King Hollis,
"The Mighty Chalkdust" Liverpool. Tubal
Uriah Butler was a spiritual, labour and political leader in Trinidad
and Tobago who participated in decisive public issues between the 1930s and
1950s. Hollis views the mission of Butler as incomplete, and this book
serves to open discussion about the man, his work, and the role of media in
bending the public view. Butler himself was given great honours during his lifetime. He holds the country's highest honour, the Trinity
Cross. To show the magnitude of respect, the North/ South highway on Trinidad is named for him; while the East/West highway is called the Churchill-Roosevelt after the 1940-1945 war years world leaders of the United Kingdom and the USA.
The
Speculative Fiction workshop featured writers Cadwell Turnbull whose most
recognised work is the novel "The Lesson" and Tobias Buckell whose Halo novel was
listed on NY Times Bestseller List for Paperback Trade.
This
workshop was more a discussion between the two authors who interestingly spent
parts of their young lives in the USVI and also fielding questions from the
audience. When asked how they believed the Caribbean experience could fit into
persistent themes in science fiction, both agreed that living on an island was akin to living in the shadows of an empire, and facing immanent alien invasions. Such invasions can be viewed from the past
with the migration of Central American peoples through the islands- as pursued and pursuers - to the
arrival of the Europeans and the peoples they introduced. For the present, these invasions can be interpreted as tourism and expatriate workers.
Turnbull and Buckwell also insisted that works of science fiction
was an an opportunity for Caribbean people to imagine a future of our own.
Buckell retold his feelings of dismay when he read a serious passage about islanders building a spacecraft, and realized
that the audience found it funny and even ridiculous. Hurt, he did not read that passage for
many years until he was invited to the Caribbean. The response of the
Barbadian audience to the same text was understanding and appreciation.
Caribbean people have no difficulty imagining ourselves as world leaders in any
space that we choose to occupy. For this, Turnbull and Buckell insist that if
you do not imagine your own future, someone else will do it for you. Such
imagining seems even more relevant now during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Attendees
were invited to visit a blog with a bibliography of Caribbean Science Fiction
writers: http://caribbeansf.com/
Canadian
university lecturer born in South Africa, Rozena
Maart, hosted the workshop Memoir Writing and what she calls Life Writing.
In her guidance, Maart urged writers to place themselves at the centre of their
stories, but to consider the writing process similar to that of peeling away
layers of an onion to discover and to present "what is hidden, what is
forbidden and what is repressed".
Maart
also encouraged writers to deeply explore the language that they will employ to
tell the story in the memoir. She notes that she gave privilege to the patois
that she spoke at age eight in her first life story writing project.
Maart herself grew up in a world where English and Afrikaans were the official
languages where she lived.
Encouraging
writers, Maart put forward the position that each individual inherits not only
the physical traits and perhaps talents of ancestors, but also their dreams and
that it should be among the pieces of evidence that a life writer must
research.
Interspersed
with the workshops, writers whose works have been published in The Caribbean
Writer read their stories and poetry. Among them were poets Biko McMillan author of
"Writing on Roots" (StCroix); Timothy Hodges (Anguilla); Andre
Bagoo (Trinidad and Tobago); Corrine Binnins (Woodside, St Mary,
Jamaica) and Joshua Nelson (India).
Short
story writers and novelists included Natalie Corthesy (Jamaica); Mary Rykov
(Canada originally from Puerto Rico); Joanne C Hillhouse "Musical
Youth" (Antigua and Barbuda).
DAY 2
The
featured speaker for the second day was Caribbean storyteller Paul
Keens Douglas (Trinidad and Tobago), who encouraged writers not to
think about conforming to the language as written in texts, but to use the
language as a tool for for real creativity. He even went to say that he may
wish to recite one verse of a poem and dance the second verse. He acknowledged
being greatly influenced by the writing of Louise Bennett Coverley whose Anancy
Stories written in patois were published in the 1940s in The Daily Gleaner in the newspaper of record in Jamaica.
The poetry workshop was led by writer Ana
Portnoy (Puerto Rico) with two writers from the USVI Tiphanie
Yanique "How
to Escape from a Leper Colony: A Novella and Stories" and Richard Georges "Epipheneia".
Yanique,
read two of her poems which led to a question of whether she was suggesting
male dominance. One poem was about a bull awaiting a mate and the other about
an island, which was referred to in the feminine. Yanique said that each poem
was a separate reflection on issues relating to the sexes. Georges read
from his award winning work about the effect of Hurricane Irma on the Virgin
Islands which upheld the view that devastation does not mean destruction.
Content
writer and blogger, Ellie Hirsh, led the workshop on
Writing for Children and books that are targeted to young audiences.
Charlene
Abramson Joseph (USVI) read her book, The Vienna Cake Mystery where the
guilty has to be found out and restitution done to restore good order.
Winnifred "Oyoko" Loving (USVI) read her book "My Name Is Freedom" which is conversations of self-awareness and encouragement between children and the older members of their family. The book creates an opportunity for the discussion to continue in the minds of the readers.
Publisher, Denene Milner, gave a background to her mission of being a publisher for Black
children's stories written by and illustrated by persons in the Black
community. Milner's mission is to publish books that place the humanity of contemporary
black children at the centre. She read from Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut written
by Derrick Brown and illustrated by Gordon C James. The book highlights
the affirmations and well-being that flows with a boy's visit to the barber
shop.
Other
readers who were listed included Kirk Ramdath (Canada and
T&T); Shenny De Los Angeles (Dom
Rep).
View the
full programme of the webinar at the link below.
END