The Signifyin' Woman (Charmaine Valere)

The Caribbean Review of Books, May 2010: Now fully online!

CRB editor, Nicholas Laughlin, tells us the May 2010 relaunch of the journal "marks a shift in medium, but not in purpose, direction, or ambition."

For those of us who will miss our nicely packaged hard copy version, Nicholas promises that in its new medium the CRB "will continue to provide serious (but not solemn) coverage of contemporary Caribbean books and writing via insightful, intelligent reviews and essays. Along with the critical writing for which (we hope) we’re best known, we’ll also continue to publish original poems and fiction, writers’ interviews, reflections, and memoirs, and occasional essays on Caribbean culture and current affairs more widely."

He tells us if there's anything new (or additional) to be expected from the CRB online, that may be "its closer attention to the Caribbean’s visual imagination, through portfolios of work by contemporary artists and exhibition reviews; and, every now and then, [it will] cast an eye on developments in music and film." [more of Nicholas's intro to the relaunched CRB here].

As I said before, I'll miss the old version, but I'm happy at the thought that this will open up the writing being done there to wider audiences.

Check out the current reviews and writings (including a review of Grace Nichols's Picasso, I Want My Face Back) and much more here.

Books for Christmas!

Books are by far the easiest and best gifts to give for Christmas. 

And the sweetest part is that you don't have to go further than the internet to buy and send them.  Perfect for us busy folks, right?  So here's my early internet gift to you--a list of some of the good books I read this year, and some of the journals / mags I subscribe to that I think are worthy of sharing:

1.  Night Women, Marlon James: An exciting page-turner for the adult reader who isn't too squeamish about violence, cussing, and little bit of sex.

2.  Lovely Guyana, Phillip and Suelle Williams: A thought-provoking pictorial perspective of Guyana that is appropriate for all ages.

3.  Sections of an Orange, Anton Nimblett: A powerful individual first in Caribbean (diaspora) writing about male homosexuality and about Caribbean home.

4.  Shadows Move Among Them, Edgar Mittelholzer: A titillating fantasy set in Guyana's jungle, soon to be republished by Peepal Tree Press in their Caribbean Modern Classics series. 

5.  Eating Air, Pauline Melville: This is Melville's latest work and I'm not quite done with it yet, but it's a great read so far.  It's as well-crafted and intriguing as Shape Shifter, which I brought to you earlier in the year.

6.  A subscription to GEM (magazine): A delightful mix of articles and features on who's who in Guyana, several aspects of Guyanese culture, and events in Guyana.

7.  A subscription to Caribbean Review of Books: An entertaining and informative place for writing on Caribbean arts.

8.  A subscription to Caribbean Beat (magazine): A packed place for all you can ever read about the Caribbean--its countries, its people, its various cultures...events...and more.

--Browse my Amazon store and Peepal Tree Press to find all the books listed.  You'll find those and many others to add to your list of the greatest gifts you'll be giving for Christmas.  Happy reading folks!

And, for those curious about the books imaged throughout this post.. They're eight books I'd love to find under my Christmas tree (even if I have to put them there myself).  From top to bottom:

1.  Poems Man, Stanley Greaves.

2.  The Island Quintet, Raymond Ramcharitar.

3.  Bougainvillea Ringplay, Marion Bethel.

4.  A Case of Exploding Mangoes, Mohammed Hanif.

5.  The Polished Hoe, Austin Clarke.

6.  Escape to an Autumn Pavement, Andrew Salkey.

7.  Hope's Hospice, Kwame Dawes.

8.  The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas.

Happy reading to me!

Help me compile a list of Guyanese poets

So far on this blog I've featured five Guyanese poets who have published collections of poems, and whose works have had varying levels of success and celebration.  Those five are John Agard, Balwant Bhagwandin, Martin Carter, Ian McDonald, and Grace Nichols.

I'm requesting the help of those of you who can add poets to that list for those readers who land on this site in search of names of Guyanese poets.

Other names I have are Berkley Semple, Sasenarine Persaud, Michael Gilkes, Cyril Dabydeen, and David Dabydeen.

Who am I leaving out?

---------

Nicholas Laughlin adds: For a start: A.J. Seymour, Ivan Van Sertima, Mark McWatt, Mahadai Das, Slade Hopkinson, Brian Chan, Fred D'Aguiar, Stanley Greaves, Mark Matthews, and don't forget Wilson Harris started out as a poet...

(Thanks Nicholas)

---------

Geoffrey Philp adds: Oscar Ronald Dathorne

(Thanks Geoffrey)

Google search: three renowned guyanese poets

Somebody in search of the names of three (renowned!) Guyanese poets landed on my site.  You think that person found what he or she wanted here?  Can you name three Guyanese poets (renowned or not) I've featured in some way on this blog?

Update: The first two persons to name three Guyanese poets I've featured on this blog will each win a copy of a collection of poems by any one of those featured poets.

Update 2: No, as much as I love 'em both, I'll not accept Ruel Johnson or Imran Khan as correct responses to the question.  Both Johnson and Khan have dabbled in poetry, and I even like some of their dabblings.  But no folks.  Keep searching.

Update 3 (I'm having Living Guyana flashbacks here): Malaika lists Grace Nichols, John Agard, and Balwant Bhagwandin, and as such is the first person to find three Guyanese poets I've featured on this blog.  Congratulations Malaika! 

In order to be the second winner, you'll have to list one of the aforementioned poets, and two others.  Here's a hint: One of the others was born outside of Guyana, but is now acknowledged as fully Guyanese.

Winter Thoughts, Grace Nichols (The Fat Black Woman's Poems)

Though Leslie Ramsammy probably wants us to believe a woman’s path may go something like this: SEX to HPV to CANCER to CERTAIN DEATH, with gardasil being the only heavenly intervention to help lengthen that line, his misleading statements about HPV and cervical cancer should remind us women that since we are the ones in charge of our bodies, WE have to educate ourselves to know what’s best for us. 

 

And, I’d rather think of a woman’s life as inventive, full of the comforts of home and love, powerful, sprawling, sex-filled and sated, hearty, changing, throbbing, continuous through progeny or legacy. 

 

The Grace Nichols poem below (from her collection titled The Fat Black Woman’s Poems) gives us those healing images.  This one’s for us women who have survived all the rotten destructive things told to us about our bodies and lives.

 

Winter Thoughts

 

I’ve reduced the sun

to the neat oblong of fire

in my living room

 

I’ve reduced the little

fleshy tongues of the vagina

to the pimpled grate

and the reddening licking

flames

 

I’ve reduced the sea

to the throbbing fruit

in me

 

And outside

the old rose tree

is once again winterdying

 

While I lay here sprawled

thinking

how sex and death

are always at the heart

of living

Poem for my mother on Thanksgiving day

I have many things to be thankful for--three of the biggest ones are hanging off my neck right now as I'm typing.  But, today I'm most thankful for my mother who understands that sometimes good company is miles better than a dish from a sick daughter.  Thanks mom.  This one's for you from Grace Nichols' collection titled The Fat Black Woman's Poems (and no, my mom's not fat):

 

Why Shouldn’t She?

 

My mother loved cooking

but hated washing up

Why shouldn’t she?

cooking was an art

she could move her lips to

then the pleasure

feeding the proverbial

multitude (us)

on less than a loaf

and two fishes

Happy thanksgiving to all!

An invitation from a beautiful, fat black woman

 

Invitation

1

 

If my fat

was too much for me

I would have told you

I would have lost a stone

or two

 

I would have gone jogging

even when it was fogging

I would have weighed in

sitting the bathroom scale

with my tail tucked in

 

I would have dieted

more care than a diabetic

 

But as it is

I’m feeling fine

feel no need

to change my lines

when I move I’m target light

 

Come up and see me sometime

 

2

 

Come up and see me sometime

Come up and see me sometime

 

My breasts are huge exciting

amnions of watermelon

your hands can’t cup

my thighs are twin seals

fat slick pups

there’s a purple cherry

below the blues

of my black seabelly

there’s a mole that gets a ride

each time I shift the heritage

of my behind

 

Come up and see me sometime

 

 

Beauty

Beauty

is a fat black woman

walking the fields

pressing a breezed

hibiscus

to her cheek

while the sun lights up

her feet

 

Beauty

is a fat black woman

riding the waves

drifting in happy oblivion

while the sea turns back

to hug her shape

_____________________

Other posts on Grace Nichols:

http://signifyinguyana.typepad.com/signifyin_guyana/2010/05/giving-her-tongue.html

The Fat Black Woman's Poems (1)

 

The following are the first two of four poems I'm featuring here from Guyanese poet, Grace Nichols' sexy little collection titled The Fat Black Woman's Poems.  The poems tell of a fat black woman's trials and tribulations, as well as her moments of triumph in a foreign land.  Enjoy!

_________

 

The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping

 

Shopping in London winter

is a real drag for the fat black woman

going from store to store

in search of accommodating clothes

and de weather so cold

 

Look at the frozen thin mannequins

fixing her with grin

and de pretty face salesgals

exchanging slimming glances

thinking she don’t notice

 

Lord is aggravating

 

Nothing soft and bright and billowing

to flow like breezy sunlight

when she walking

 

The fat black woman curses in Swahili/Yoruba

and nation language under her breathing

all this journeying and journeying

 

The fat black woman could only conclude

that when it come to fashion

the choice is lean

 

Nothing much beyond size 14

________

 

 

Looking at Miss World

 

Tonight the fat black woman

is all agaze

will some Miss (plump at least

if not fat and black) uphold her name

 

The fat black woman awaits in vain

slim after slim aspirant appears

baring her treasures in hopeful despair

this the fat black woman can hardly bear

 

And as the beauties yearn

and the beauties yearn

the fat black woman wonders

when will the beauties

ever really burn

 

O the night wears on

the night wears on

judges mingling with chiffons

 

The fat black woman gets up

and pours some gin

toasting herself as a likely win

 

[Coming Monday: "Beauty" and "Invitation."]

____________________

 

Other posts on Grace Nichols:

 

http://signifyinguyana.typepad.com/signifyin_guyana/2008/08/an-invitation-from-a-fat-black-woman.html#tp

Fully in the mood for Carifesta, but could somebody please give some specifics!

 For the next month I'm either going to be setting myself up for a huge disappointment, or for the best week of my summer.  Yes y'all, I'm living it up, reveling, throwing myself a big old pre-Carifesta bash here on this blog.

For those of you who may be a little late in coming to the pre-fete, I already got started with a salute to Caribbean woman writer, Edwidge Danticat whose Brother, I'm Dying is imaged above, top right.  In addition to Danticat, I plan on featuring the other women and their works imaged above.  They are from top left to bottom left: Cuban poet, Nancy Morejón (With Eyes and Soul: Images of Cuba); Guyanese poet, Grace Nichols (The Fat Black Woman's Poems); Trinidadian writer, Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw (Four Taxis Facing North); Haitian writer, Edwidge Danticat; and, Jamaican poet / writer, Lorna Goodison (From Harvey River). 

But, of course I have to acknowledge the things that threaten to upset my fete. 

One of those things is the lack of information available on Carifesta events.  There's an entire website dedicated to providing information on Carifesta, and at this point (about a month away from the start of the festival) one would think there'd be a schedule of events posted there.  There is none.  Don't the planners know at this stage what's happening when?  

I would like to know for instance, who are the writers launching books (I hear quite a few of them will be doing so), and when and where will those launchings take place?  And shouldn't there be a major publicity blitz around those books and authors?  Is there?  If so, please point me to what's being said about whom.  This Carifesta-supporting, book lover would certainly like to know!!!  And what about film events, theatre events, and one of the festival's main attractions, Mr. Derek Walcott?  When and where will he be presenting, talking, sitting, shaving, whatever? Tell us. 

Now I'm not just asking these questions because I have a tendency to nag and pick (and snoop).  My concerns are actually quite practical.  If I am to shell out my hard-earned money for the astronomical airfare to Guyana, then I'd at least like to know that I'll get to SEE Derek Walcott.  And, since I have no plan to pay another effing dime to check my bag, I need to pack my carry-on economically.  Should I pack rubber-soled shoes for a quick drop-tuck-roll-run, or should I pack my nice high heels for a classy affair?--very practical concerns, you see.

So please Planning Committee, all I ask is that you give us some indication that you are prepared to make Carifesta worthy for us all by supplying us with details of what's taking place where and when. Come on people, get your act together! 

[My review of Danticat's Brother, I'm Dying is next.]

Author profile: Poet Grace Nichols

John Agard's Lovelines for a Goat-born Lady is dedicated to Grace.  That Grace (Grace Nichols, I'm assuming) is a renowned poet / writer in her own right.  Read her extensive, stellar writer's profile here.

I've added three collections of her poetry and two of her children's books (From Mouth to Mouth is a collaboration with John Agard) to my growing catalog (see sidebar right).

 Imaged above from top left are the following: I Is a long Memoried Woman, The Fat Black Woman's Poems, The Poet Cat, From Mouth to Mouth, and Startling the Flying Fish, which is her most recent collection of poems. These are the collections available through Amazon Prime and Amazon sellers.

I just ordered my copies, so I'll read and share with you when they arrive.