Cherisse Moe

What do you get when writ­ers, au­thors, po­ets and or­a­tors all gath­er un­der one roof? An ex­plo­sion of cre­ative tal­ent. And that's ex­act­ly what the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny Bo­cas Lit Fest is all about. The fes­ti­val will open its doors to the pub­lic to­day till Sun­day at the Na­tion­al Li­brary, Port-of-Spain. Founder and fes­ti­val di­rec­tor Ma­ri­na Sa­landy-Brown as­sures that it's an event worth at­tend­ing. Now in its sec­ond year, this "cel­e­bra­tion of books and writ­ing" promis­es to be big­ger and bet­ter, with 70 cel­e­brat­ed writ­ers and speak­ers from the re­gion and around the world al­ready booked to at­tend.

The event, she be­lieves, will help to ex­ploit and en­hance the fes­ti­val's pres­ence on the world's stage. "This is some­thing that I've al­ways want­ed to do. I love lit fests," said the for­mer BBC pro­duc­er. "When I came back to Trinidad, af­ter spend­ing most of my adult life liv­ing abroad, I re­alised that we didn't have a lot of av­enues for writ­ers to show­case their work. The op­por­tu­ni­ties for writ­ers have dwin­dled, and that's a prob­lem. I de­cid­ed to start this be­cause we need­ed a fo­rum to bring all these writ­ers to­geth­er." The fes­ti­val will fea­ture more than 90 events, which in­clude read­ings, per­for­mances, work­shops, book sign­ings, dis­cus­sions on his­to­ry, cul­ture, cur­rent af­fairs, sport and fash­ion, as well as open-mic fo­rums.

His­to­ri­an Prof Brid­get Br­ere­ton, for­mer fash­ion jour­nal­ist Rose­mary Stone and writer Dr Kim John­son are on­ly a few of the speak­ers card­ed for the fes­ti­val. Sounds in­ter­est­ing? Sa­landy-Brown as­sures it is. "It's a fo­rum for read­ers, for all peo­ple who love books," she added. "We want to cel­e­brate the Caribbean's lit­er­ary achieve­ments in a fes­tive at­mos­phere." And to com­mem­o­rate T&T's gold­en ju­bilee in Au­gust, Sa­landy-Brown says this year's in­stal­ment will shine the spot­light on sev­er­al per­ti­nent is­sues such as pol­i­tics, the econ­o­my and cul­ture.

A dif­fer­ent di­men­sion

Who can at­tend? Every­body.

Sa­landy-Brown says the fes­ti­val caters to any­one in­ter­est­ed in writ­ing, read­ing, learn­ing and shar­ing their ex­pe­ri­ences. A for­mer ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor of the T&T Film Fes­ti­val, Sa­landy-Brown says an­oth­er im­por­tant as­pect of the fes­ti­val is that it will pro­vide an av­enue for bud­ding writ­ers of fic­tion and po­et­ry to gar­ner feed­back from ex­perts. "In the re­gion, for in­stance, there aren't many peo­ple who pub­lish fic­tion, so there isn't that much of an op­por­tu­ni­ty...Putting your work out there takes on a dif­fer­ent di­men­sion. It's a fo­rum for ex­chang­ing ideas out­side of acad­e­mia." Dur­ing the fes­ti­val, the nom­i­nees for the Bo­cas Prize for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture-the ma­jor award for lit­er­ary books by Caribbean writ­ers-will al­so be an­nounced.

Open to writ­ers of po­et­ry, fic­tion, and lit­er­ary non-fic­tion, the cov­et­ed prize in­cludes an award of US$10,000. T&T's own Derek Wal­cott copped the prize last year for his book White Egrets. Sa­landy- Brown says the ini­tia­tive was launched to re­ward writ­ers for their com­mit­ment and con­tri­bu­tion to the lit­er­ary field. Nicholas Laugh­lin, the fes­ti­val's pro­gramme di­rec­tor, an­tic­i­pates that this year's event will be a suc­cess-"That's if last year is any­thing to go by," he added. "It will have tons of peo­ple at the li­brary this week. It's very ex­cit­ing to have writ­ers from all over the Caribbean. The fes­ti­val is a great chance for read­ers to hear from and meet some of the favourite writ­ers. "But it's al­so a great chance for the writ­ers to meet their read­ers, which is equal­ly im­por­tant."

More In­fo

Short­list for this year's Bo­cas Prize for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture:

Po­et­ry win­ner:

The Twelve-Foot Neon Woman, by Loret­ta Collins Klobah (Puer­to Ri­co)

Fic­tion win­ner:

Is Just a Movie, by Earl Lovelace (Trinidad and To­ba­go)

Non-fic­tion win­ner:

George Price: A Life Re­vealed, by God­frey P. Smith (Be­lize)

(The three win­ners in the genre cat­e­gories now com­pete for the over­all prize to be an­nounced on April 28.)

FES­TI­VAL WEL­COME

The 2012 NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest kicks off with Pene­lope Beck­les, Al­bert Laveau, Dr Ken­neth Ram­c­hand, Ce­cil­ia Salazar and Dr Bhoen­dra­datt Tewarie.

9-10 am • Old Fire Sta­tion

To com­mem­o­rate 50 years of In­de­pen­dence, lo­cal lu­mi­nar­ies read from clas­sic works look­ing back to the In­de­pen­dence era: fic­tion by Samuel Selvon and VS Naipaul, po­et­ry by Derek Wal­cott, a speech by Dr Er­ic Williams, and satire by the fa­mous "Macaw" colum­nist of the Trinidad Guardian.

WORK­SHOP

Get­ting start­ed

10 am-12 pm • 1st Floor Sem­i­nar Room

For be­gin­ning writ­ers

Fic­tion

Sharon Leach and Kei Miller

10.30-11.30 am • AV Room

Read­ings by Ja­maican au­thors

Dis­cus­sion

The lessons of the past: how we learn our his­to­ry with Kevin Baldeosingh and Tony Mar­tin; chaired by Dr Brins­ley Sama­roo

10.30-11.30 am • Old Fire Sta­tion

How are our ideas of our­selves and our so­ci­eties shaped by the way we learn about the past? Au­thors of re­cent his­to­ry text­books share their per­spec­tives.

PER­FOR­MANCE PO­ET­RY/OPEN MIC

Lunchtime jam

11.30 am-12.30 pm • Aber­crom­by Street Ar­cade

Per­for­mance po­ets and mu­si­cians take their vibe to the streets of the city. Plus a chance for bud­ding writ­ers to share their work.

SHORT TALK

Rose­mary Stone on a half-cen­tu­ry of style

11.30 am-12.00 pm • Old Fire Sta­tion

The au­thor of Spir­it­ed But­ter­fly talks to de­sign­er Meil­ing about 50 years of fash­ion in T&T.

FILMS

La Im­a­gen y la Pal­abra (The Im­age and the Word)

Di­rec­tor Mar­i­lyn Birch­field

12-1pm • AV Room

Short film adap­ta­tions of po­ems by Venezue­lan writ­ers.

NEW TAL­ENT SHOW­CASE

12.30-1 pm • Old Fire Sta­tion

Stephen Narain reads from his fic­tion and dis­cuss­es his work.

PO­ET­RY

Kendel Hip­poly­te and Lasana Sek­ou

1-2pm • AV Room

WORK­SHOP

Your life as mem­oir

With Monique Rof­fey

1-4 pm • 1st Floor Sem­i­nar Room

DIS­CUS­SION

What is Caribbean art? Why we need art his­to­ry

With Anne Walm­s­ley, Christo­pher Co­zi­er, Andy Ja­cob, and Mar­sha Pearce

1.30-2.30 pm • Old Fire Sta­tion

MU­SIC

Fifty years of pan

With Dr Kim John­son

2.30-3.30 pm • AV Room

Sup­port­ed by the An­tho­ny N Sab­ga Caribbean Awards for Ex­cel­lence pro­gramme

FILM

Son­ny Boy

Di­rec­tor Maria Pe­ters

4-6 pm • AV Room

A young Suri­namese man trav­els to the Nether­lands in 1920.

FIC­TION

Er­na Brod­ber and Karen Lord

4.30-5.30 pm • Old Fire Sta­tion

Read­ings by nov­el­ists from Ja­maica and Bar­ba­dos

PER­FOR­MANCE PO­ET­RY/OPEN MIC

Af­ter­noon jam

4.30–5.30 pm • Aber­crom­by Street Ar­cade

BOOK LAUNCH

Pic­tures from Par­adise

6.30-10 pm • Medul­la Art Gallery, 37 Fitt Street, Wood­brook

Launch of a new book sur­vey­ing con­tem­po­rary Caribbean pho­tog­ra­phy.

All events take place at the Na­tion­al Li­brary, Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain, un­less oth­er­wise stat­ed.

www.bo­caslit­fest.com

See Page B29