A reminder that the process with these Carib Lit Plus Caribbean arts bulletins is to do a front and back half of the month, updating as time allows as new information comes in; so, come back, or, if looking for an earlier installment, use the search window. (in brackets, as much as I can remember, I’ll add a note re how I sourced the information – it is understood that this is the original sourcing and additional research would have been done by me to build the information shared here)
Wadadli Pen News
Wadadli Pen has donated 4 copies each of the Collins Big Cat #ownvoices Caribbean titles to the Public Library. Donations were also made to the Cushion Club, and the Wadadli Pen Challenge winning author has received copies to contribute to a school of his choice.
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The Wadadli Pen Awards were held on May 30th 2021. For the second year, it was virtual due to COVID-19 safety concerns. But you can see clips from the awards on this Playlist on the Wadadli Pen YouTube Channel, you can read all the winning stories from this and past years, You can read who won what?, and You can see our photo gallery of people collecting their prizes, as well as our video gallery.
Congrats to our first ever father-daughter winners and all finalists; thanks to our patrons.
(Source for all Wadadli Pen news – in-house)
Other Awards News
Barbudan Go had an animation competition to raise awareness about fisheries regulations. Entrants were required to create an animation for their favourite existing ad, and post with #booyardfisheries. The announced winners are Eshe Mussington for a parrotfish closed season animation and Dell Dell for a special area fishing permit animation. The prize is $1000. Barbudan Go is a registered community non-profit. (Source – facebook) Per the Daily Observer, Barbudan Go also organized an exhibition at Barbuda’s fisheries complex for World Oceans Day, featuring students from the McChesney George Secondary School.
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See Opportunities for more on the Prince Claus Fund.
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At Night All Blood is Black has been adjudged winner of the International Booker Prize, given for the best work in translation. Written by David Diop and translated by Anna Moschovakis. It is “a short novel about a Senegalese soldier’s descent into madness while fighting for France in World War I”. Writer and translator will share the 50,000 pounds prize. Chair of judges Lucy Hughes-Hallett said during the virtual ceremony, “The whole of tragedy depends on the dichotomy between the awfulness of what you’re being told, and the beauty of the way it’s being expressed…You feel like you’re being hypnotized. It’s an extraordinary novel.” (Source – BookTuber Eric Karl Anderson and details from The New York Times)
Book + Art Events
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CARICON is described as a celebration of Caribbean Literature; it runs online from June 4th to 6th. The event is a diaspora-focused Caribbean American Heritage Month in Southern California. The line-up of participants includes, on June 4th, St. Kitts-Nevis Dr. Robertine Chaderton (One Caribbean Story event), Jamaica’s Dr. Amina Blackwood-Meeks (So You want to be a Storyteller! interactive workshop), Montserrat’s Myrle Roach (The Poetry Hour); on June 5th, Dr. Donna Aza Weir-Soley (a conversation on New Horizons among the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars) and Dr. Opal Palmer Adisa (a panel on Rebirth: a Journey of Political and Social Change, Renewal, Revival, and Cultural Identity) – both of Jamaica; and on June 6th, Jamaica’s Diana McCaulay (in a discourse on Confronting Climate Change in the Caribbean – Inside a Dry-weather House) and Guyana’s Fred D’Aguiar (a workshop on How to write a Winning Beginning). For more and to register for CARICON visit here. (Source – online somewhere)
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The Barbados Art Collective is holding a fundraiser for St. Vincent and the Grenadines which has been disrupted thanks to volcanic activity. A number of artists have contributed pieces to an art auction running from June 4th – 5th. Cherise Harris who illustrated With Grace (my book) is contributing a development sketch (i.e. one of those pieces that didn’t make it in to the book). The exhibition is being held at the Art Splash Gallery in Barbados. (Source – Cherise Harris’ facebook)
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Antiguan-Barbudan New York resident Carol Tonge Mack had a book signing event at the Best of Books bookstore for her memoir Being Bernadette: from Polite Science to Finding the Black Girl Magic Within. (Source – Best of Book’s facebook page)
See also the database of Antiguan and Barbudan Writing and Antiguan and Barbudan Non-Fiction.
ICYMI
Celebrating one of the great ones George Lamming who celebrated a birthday, his 94th, in early June. The Barbadian is one of the lions of the Caribbean literary canon.
“The depths of Lamming’s understanding of social, political and historical issues were soon revealed in his first four novels: In the Castle of My Skin, (1953), The Emigrants, (1954) Of Age and Innocence (1958) and Season of Adventure, (1960).” – read more at Barbados Today (Source – Facebook)
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Here’s what you missed so far this year if you missed CREATIVE SPACE: Articles on arts support, fashion, books, gardening, cinematography, artisans and artrepreneurship, visual arts on canvas and in illustration form. (Source – Me)
As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, Oh Gad!, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure and Spanish language edition Perdida! Una Aventura en el Mar Caribe, The Jungle Outside, With Grace, and Musical Youth). All Rights Reserved.
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