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Posts tagged with: Bennett Louise
Lasana Sekou’s English/Spanish book represents Caribbean Literature in Venezuela
Great Bay, St. Martin (November 21, 2011)—Representing what is new or canonical in Caribbean Literature is probably getting more difficult as the region’s national literatures continue to produce more writers within the various countries and territories. But independent Cuban scholar Emilio Jorge Rodríguez recently went to one of Venezuela’s prestigious universities to do just that.
“I was invited to give lectures during two weeks in October to the Master of Arts program on Ibero-American Literature, headed by Professor Arnaldo Valero at the Instituto de Investigaciones Literarias Gonzalo Picón Febres, of the Universidad de los Andes in Mérida, Venezuela,” said Rodríguez on Sunday. “As my last lecture in Mérida was about Lasana M. Sekou, they decided to launch Corazón de pelícano on October 14,” said Rodriguez.
And that is how the St. Martin book Pelican Heart – An Anthology of Poems by Lasana M. Sekou/ Corazón de pelícano – Antología poética de Lasana M. Sekou was launched as a contemporary example of Caribbean Literature at the University of the Andes (ULA).
In addition to the copies bought by students and other guests, review copies of the book were “presented to professors and researchers at ULA who would make use of it in the classroom and in their studies of Caribbean and Latin American literatures,” said Rodríguez. ULA is the second-oldest university in Venezuela, dating back to 1810; and ranks among “the top 30 research institutions in Latin America.” (wikipedia.com)
The ULA request for the Pelican Heart launch allowed Rodríguez to continue his introduction of the St. Martin author to Hispanic audiences. Rodríguez is the editor of Pelican Heart/Corazón de pelícano (HNP, 2010), in which all of the poems are translated into Spanish by Maria Teresa Ortega from the original English. The editor wrote the critical introduction to the 432-page book. There’s an extensive bibliography by the editor and the poet explaining a number of words, terms, symbols, names, dates, and language fragments in the poems.
At the ULA lectures Rodríguez focused critically on performance poetry and what he terms the “oraliture” of a region that has produced a stellar number of world-class authors, across its different language zones, in a short historical period, and in a relatively very small geographic space. Rodríguez included video clips of writers, poets, and storytellers he discussed as central to the graduate class theme: Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados), Linton Kwesi Johnson (UK), Mutabaruka (Jamaica), Paul Keens-Douglas (Trinidad & Tobago), Louise Bennett (Jamaica), Elis Juliana (Curacao), Mikey Smith (Jamaica), and Sekou (St. Martin).
The Pelican Heart collection, which Italian literary critic Dr. Sara Florian calls “an election” of Sekou’s poems from 1978 to 2010, has been previously launched with critical introductions in Barbados, Cuba, and Mexico. A book signing for Pelican Heart was held in St. Martin last February at the Jubilee Library as part of the Tribute to the Great Salt Pond concert by Sekou (poetry) and Nicole de Weever (dance).
Louise Bennett – Colonization in Reverse
[David B. Dacosta writes: “My first real exposure to Caribbean poetry came in the form of Miss Louise Bennett, affectionately known as Miss Lou. As a child in Jamaica in the 1970’s, she was a larger than life figure on both television and in Jamaican society on a whole. She’s written many poems, but Colonization in Reverse (1966), stands out as one of her best. Miss Lou is a cultural icon. Her objective was not to be the greatest poet, but simply entertain. But she was definitely one of the greatest all around Caribbean entertainers to walk this planet. May she rest in peace.]
Colonization in Reverse
“Wat a joyful news, Miss Mattie,
I feel like me heart gwine burs
Jamaica people colonizin
Englan in reverse.
By de hundred, by de tousan
From country and from town,
By de ship-load, by de plane-load
Jamaica is Englan boun.
Dem a pour out a Jamaica
Everybody future plan
Is fe get a big-time job
An settle in de mother lan.
What a islan! What a people!
Man an woman, old an young
Jus a pack dem bag an baggage
An tun history upside dung!
Some people doan like travel
But fe show dem loyalty
Dem all a open up cheap-fare-
To-Englan agency.
An week by week dem shippin off
Dem countryman like fire,
Fe immigrate an populate
De seat a de Empire.
Oonoo see how life is funny,
Oonoo see de tunabout?
Jamaica live fe box bread
Out a English people mout’.
For wen dem ketch a Englan,
An start play dem different role,
Some will settle down to work
An some will settle fe de dole.
Jane say de dole is not too bad
Because dey payin she
Two pounds a week fe seek a job
Dat suit her dignity.
Me say Jane will never fine work
At de rate how she dah look,
For all day she stay pon Aunt Fan couch
An read love-story book.
Wat a devilment a Englan!
Dem face war an brave de worse,
But me wonderin how dem gwine stan
Colonizin in reverse.”
[from Caribbean Literary Salon]
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