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)
Misc.
I don’t know how to write this. I just learned of the passing from COVID of a past Wadadli Pen patron. In life, they didn’t want public credit and I don’t want to break trust with them now. So I will say, in their memory, thanks and walk with God. Gone too soon. Because this wasn’t an old smadee (for those who think youth will protect them and they don’t need to think about others). I guess I’m going there… stop playing with this COVID (double figures – 20+ people – dead in 108 square mile Antigua from one disease in one month? That we know of? Hospital so stressed that people can’t access any kind of non-COVID lab testing except for emergency surgery, other services impacted as well? and we still playing?!) Wear the mask. Social distance. Sanitize. and most importantly #getvaxxed (just as we have for polio, rubella, small pox etc). And please don’t be selfish, if COVID is in your home don’t take it out in to the community – tap home. (Source – Facebook)
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I didn’t think I’d be writing about Lil Nas X on this site but here we are. I was listening to a book vlog on booktube matching songs from his new album with books, and when the vlogger said Dominica (actually she said Dom-in-ik-a not Dom-in-eek-a as it’s actually pronounced but) my radar went up (I have a radar for all things Caribbean). So I wondered, wait, does this kid shaking up the industry and societal norms have Caribbean roots? Yes, yes, he does. Per Loop, his dad Robert Stafford is from Dominica. Okay, but what’s the ‘Dominica’ connection to the song? The song is pretty bleak after all, not a sign of the nature isle in sight. But, again, according to Loop, though not named ‘Dominica’ exists in the artist’s mind in opposition to the bleak reality in the song. ‘He explained that he choose to name the track Tales of Dominica “because I feel like Dominica is like that beautiful place.”’ So, there you have it, that’s why there’s a Lil Nas X song in this round up – catchy beat, melancholic lyrics, my kinda song.
(Source – Booktube)
Events
The Kingston Culture Forum.
Register here. (Source – Twitter)
Accolades
What a charmed journey this book (Love after Love by Ingrid Persaud) has had. Keeping up with the awards has been a challenge. This one is from June.
Opportunities
My next workshop will be with the Bocas lit fest and its focus will be writing children’s lit. Register from anywhere.
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Barbados-based, multi award winning writer Sharma Taylor, whose first novel recently sold at auction and is forthcoming in 2022, is for the first time offering writing courses and you can register from any where in the world.
(Source – email from Ayesha Gibson-Gill, Barbados Cultural Officer – Literary Arts + from the author )
See other Opportunities and Opportunities Too.
New Books
No Ruined Stone by Jamaican writer Shara McCallum was published by Peepal Tree Press this past July. It is described as “a story of slavery and colonialism, challenging the historical archive’s sheer, unyielding wall by going not over or around it, but fearlessly through”. Specifically, “her poems imagine the what-if-that-almost-was of Scotland’s best-loved Bard, following Burns into the life he might have lived as a plantation overseer in Jamaica—then seeing his enslaved granddaughter back to Scotland to claim a life reserved for white women.” – Peepal Tree Press (Source – John R. Lee email)
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West Indies cricket legend and sports commentator Michael Holding of Jamaica dropped a new book this past summer, a timely book. “Through the prism of sport and conversations with its legends, including Usain Bolt, Adam Goodes, Thierry Henry, Michael Johnson, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Makhaya Ntini, Naomi Osaka and Hope Powell, Michael Holding explains how racism dehumanises people; how it works to achieve that end; how it has been ignored by history and historians; and what it is like to be treated differently just because of the colour of your skin.” Ironic that the book has a ringing endorsement from Piers Morgan but maybe a testimony to how good it is. Especially as the book seems to be a part of the conversations around #BlackLivesMatter – specifically the 2020 uprising fuelled by the murder of George Floyd in the US. “Rarely can a rain delay in a cricket match have led to anything like the moment when Holding spoke out in the wake of the #BlackLivesMatter protests about the racism he has suffered and has seen all around him throughout his life. But as he spoke, he sought not only to educate but to propose a way forward that inspired so many. Within minutes, he was receiving calls from famous sports stars from around the world offering to help him to spread the message further.” This birthed Why We Kneel, How We Rise, in which Holding shares stories from some of the world’s most iconic Black athletes. “To say I was surprised at the volume of positive feedback I received from around the world after my comments on Sky Sports is an understatement,” Holding is quoted on the site of publisher Simon & Schuster as saying. “I came to realise I couldn’t just stop there; I had to take it forward – hence the book, as I believe education is the way forward.” Holding’s previous books are his autobiography No Holding Back and Whispering Death: the Life and Times of Michael Holding written with Tony Cozier. (Source – Twitter announcement from Kingston Bookshop initially, additional information from S & S website)
Arts news
Local designer Kevon Moitt partnered with Digicel to release a documentary (‘Own It – Our Festival; My Passion’) on his creative journey this past summer. Moitt told the Daily Observer (p. 3 of its August 4th 2021 issue), “I find that we don’t have much documentation in regards to Carnival, culture, designers, and designing processes, so I thought that being in the industry and having so much involvement in it that I needed to start the documentation process.” The doc is available in two parts on YouTube.
Part 1 begins here.
(Source – Facebook)
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This isn’t arts news but it is news worth knowing and there is at least one artist involved.
The Environmental Awareness Group in Antigua and Barbuda has a new executive that includes (top to bottom) mindfulness coach Chloe Johnston, Inland Revenue deputy Jermaine Jarvis, data processing controller at the Antigua Public Utilities Authority Kerri Gore, Lawson Lewis – an artist and filmmaker I mentioned back in April when he won a regional prize for one of his commercials, civil engineer Phikwe Goodwin, lawyer Rushaine Cunningham, private sector project engineer Stanley Barreto, previous president Tahambay Smith, and sustainable tourism minister with the Ministry of Tourism Vashti Ramsey-Casimir. It’s interesting to see the continuing changing face of the EAG – the country’s main environmental advocacy group, started back in 1988 – and that sounds like a good mix of capabilities, and it’s certainly a youthful looking line-up. (Source – Antiguanice on twitter)
Environment-related,
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Papillote Press out of Dominica has announced a “glittering new website” which it says is mobile and user friendly. The new website was done by Dominica-based designer Petrea.
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It is not yet known if a virtual option was considered nor when CARTIFESTA will return, and hosted by whom, as the Caribbean continues to struggle with the fallout from COVID-19 and its myriad variants including sharp economic decline, an overwhelmed healthcare sector, personal loss for those who have lost people to the pandemic, cancellation of other cultural markers like Carnival and beach days, and social turmoil. (Source – facebook)
Related PSA: Please inform yourself using verifiable and credible fact-based sources; and then, hopefully, get vaxxed. Meanwhile, care about the people around you enough to wear a mask, socially distance, sanitize, and seriously, think about getting vaccinated. (JCH)
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, Musical Youth, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, The Jungle Outside, and Oh Gad!). All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed it, check out my page on Amazon, WordPress, and/or Facebook, and help spread the word about Wadadli Pen and my books. You can also subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.
The book is targeted at late primary and early secondary school ages. The author, Joy, recently started writing non-fiction children’s books to help educate and inform curious, young minds. She and her husband, whose family originates from Antigua & Barbuda, raised their own children on our twin island nation. “This book was an idea long before I started writing it,” Joy said in an exclusive to Wadadli Pen. “When my children were younger, I wanted a book about Black role models to help inspire them and expand their minds. I knew this information was out there somewhere, but I couldn’t find anything in an organised format or in the form of a children’s book. I hope that everyone young and old will enjoy reading about the many Black inventors in our world and their wonderful contributions that help to improve our lives. I hope that they will be heartened by this. Our world has certainly benefitted from these amazing inventions!”
It explores the life of Dido Belle. The book is published with Papillote Press which debuted it with a reading by the author himself.
plus I saw the film starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw as the title character, Belle. Plus I would have learned about the Somerset case referenced in the film in history class in secondary school – remembered enough anyway to remember that I learned about it and that it was a pivotal precedent in the anti-slavery narrative. Scott’s video talks about trying to “redress the image and historical sense we have of Dido Elizabeth Belle” and I’m interested. I mean, I’m interested in a lot of the books I post here, so this isn’t new but nothing wrong with declaring it one time.
He won the main Wadadli Pen arts prize in 2010 and was honourable mention in the 10 year anniversary arts challenge in 2014. His new work can be seen in 
But vote sincerely for the books, stories, and writers who inspired and entertained you. Here’s 
Hackshaw is a University of the West Indies french literature and creative writing professor. “Stick No Bills confirms Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw’s lethal talent for inventing characters – like the journalist who has been pursuing a famous writer at a literary conference in Haiti, or the would-be writer who is finding a workshop less than rewarding – who have only a partial awareness of their ability to deceive themselves, or see the painful humour of their situations.” – 
British Virgin Islands writer Eugenia O’Neal’s latest book investigates Obeah, Race and Racism: Caribbean Witchcraft in the English Imagination. Her book is being published by UWI Press. A virtual launch is set for 
Caribbean Reads Publishing has announced that it is actively seeking #ownvoices manuscripts for middle grade readers, roughly 8 to 13 years, with a Caribbean setting. There’s no published cut off date but don’t sleep on it. 
