Poets & Passion (Brooklyn, NY) : Wrap up of Season 4

One of the ways we Caribbean immigrants have cultivated an identity which sustains us by allowing us an outlet to document our experiences as “diaspora” people--one that in part resembles life in the Caribbean, and that in part looks nothing like it—is through our arts and letters. This Spring I had the pleasure of being included in an arts and letters project of that nature, which was sponsored by The Caribbean Cultural Theatre of Brooklyn, and curated by Anton Nimblett, a Trinidadian writer who made a guest appearance here last year, and whose collection of stories (Sections of an Orange), his first, I featured here as well (see review sidebar left).

I asked Anton to sum up his experience as curator for the past season of Poets and Passion, which ended earlier this month (June), and he kindly obliged.

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Poets and Passion (P&P) is one of several projects mounted each year by Brooklyn's Caribbean Cultural Theatre (CCT). P&P's host E. Wayne McDonald is sometimes asked why he does what he does, all the work involved with being director of CCT. He invariably deflects the question with a funny, self-effacing response, charming more than answering.  

This year I worked with CCT and E. Wayne on the Poets and Passions series, and the question "why" was never far from my mind. My answer is clear though: I believe in the mission of Posts and Passion. I believe in what it can do, what it wants to do. And I believe in continuing what I have seen the series actually do.

Posts and Passion is what we call a mix of featured performers and open mic, conversation and after-work lime. At Posts and Passion, the audience is integral to the performance. This season P&P met on the second Tuesday of each month at St. Francis College in downtown Brooklyn, and featured the following generous and distinguished writers: 

November - A reunion of Season 3 with Jacqueline Bishop (Jamaica), JaBez (Jamaica), Anthony Wendell DeRiggs (Grenada), Anton Nimblett (Trinidad), Yolaine St. Fort (Haiti)

February -  Cheryl Boyce Taylor  (Trinidad)

March-  Yolaine St. Fort (Haiti), Josophat-Robert Large  (Haiti)

April-  Geoffrey Philp (Jamaica), Charmaine Hamilton Valere (Guyana)

May - Elizabeth Nunez (Trinidad), Tiphanie Yanique (St. Thomas)

June- Thomas Glave (Jamaica), Mervyn Taylor (Trinidad), Stefhen Bryan (Japan/Jamaica) Jamaica

It's hard to know what to include in a “wrap up,” or where to start. So like any contrary Trinidadian I'll start from the end. After the June event, I thanked Thomas Glave for not only sharing his work and ideas that evening, but for being the first author to respond to the call we sent out. Thomas has a long list of accolades including an O'Henry Award, Lambda Literary Awards, and MLK visiting writer at MIT, to name the first that come to mind. But he willingly came to join us because, in his words "it's for community."  

It's just that spirit of community -- that spirit I saw over and over --  that seems to wrap up the season. Authors traveled by plane, train and automobile to join us. They shared spectacular, moving and thought provoking poetry and prose. And then, they thanked us! Audiences became impassioned about the discussions -- discussions that almost always took unexpected turns into realms of sex and religion and politics, riding on the path of "good writing" -- so passionate that we literally had to urge people out the door, knowing that we'd gone way over our allotted time in the space. 

I think everyone who attended, even once, has a story—a special memory. Meh know seh, as the Jamaicans would have it, that one of  E. Wayne's favorites was the passionate conversation about Haiti past-present-and future, Haiti of myth and misconception, Haiti in literature and in the news. For me: getting to host Cheryl  who has hosted me many times, who energized writers by her thoughts on craft; Geoffrey who seemed to walk in a halo of love (are there really still people who are that nice?); Charmaine coming back to join us after she featured  (and I can't say how her beauty stunned me in person because she won't print it [I most certainly did. Thank you!]); the close-to-full house that the January showcase brought out; friends new and old; family; and the writing, the writing, the writing. 

Published works featured this season:  Who's Your Daddy (Philp);  How To Escape From A Leaper Colony (Yanique); Anna In-Between (Nunez); Black Passenger In Yellow Taxicab (Bryan); Sections Of An Orange (Nimblett); The Torturer's Wife (Glave); Snapshots From Istanbul (Bishop); Convincing The Body (Boyce Taylor); Gone Away (M. Taylor); Keep On Keepin'On (Large).

Poets and Passion Season 4  delivered the poetry and the passion. 

If you want to know more about Posts and Passion or The Caribbean Cultural Theatre find the group Caribbean Cultural Theatre on Facebook, or call 718-783--8345

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"Poets & Passion Wrap-up" contributed by Anton Nimblett