JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, May 4, 2025

UWI pays tribute to Walcott on 80th birthday

by

20100112

St Lu­cia is renowned as the birth­place of 1992 No­bel Lau­re­ate for Lit­er­a­ture Derek Wal­cott. There's even a bust of the lit­er­ary gi­ant in the Derek Wal­cott Square. The is­land, fond­ly dubbed the "He­len of the West In­dies", was al­so the home of the late Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) lec­tur­er Dr Pa­tri­cia Is­mond.

Is­mond al­so had the dis­tinc­tion of ex­am­in­ing Wal­cott's work in "Aban­don­ing Dead Metaphors: The Caribbean Phase of Derek Wal­cott's Po­et­ry".

As the No­bel Lau­re­ate cel­e­bra­tions for Wal­cott at UWI in St Au­gus­tine com­menced yes­ter­day, he un­veiled a gift to UWI from the es­tate of Is­mond. The piece was a paint­ing of Gros Islet, which is lo­cat­ed a short dis­tance from Cas­tries, St Lu­cia's cap­i­tal. It took place at prin­ci­pal Prof Clement Sankat's of­fice, UWI Cam­pus. The launch al­so co­in­cid­ed with a launch of art­work from Wal­cott's fam­i­ly – his for­mer wife Mar­garet Wal­cott and his daugh­ters, UWI lec­tur­er Eliz­a­beth Wal­cott-Hack­shaw, and Stan ed­i­tor (UWI's mag­a­zine) An­na Wal­cott-Hardy. Pas­toral scenes de­pict­ing hors­es at sun­rise and mu­si­cians at play in "Coun­try Fete" are high­light­ed in the col­lec­tion.

Pri­or to the un­veil­ing, an emo­tion­al Wal­cott did not de­liv­er any fea­ture ad­dress, but the emo­tion in his voice be­trayed the thanks he had for UWI's recog­ni­tion of his artis­tic and cre­ative en­er­gies. A re­lease said: "UWI ho­n­ours Wal­cott on his 80th birth­day by of­fer­ing T&T four days of his work, in­clud­ing a spe­cial evening when he reads. UWI show­cas­es Wal­cott's work and lit­er­a­ture in an aca­d­e­m­ic con­fer­ence ti­tled In­ter­lock­ing Basins of a Globe. Hap­py birth­day from UWI." Sankat said UWI was pleased to ex­tend best wish­es to Wal­cott –an oc­to­ge­nar­i­an – and to pref­ace the cel­e­bra­tion of such an im­por­tant mile­stone with the se­ries of ac­tiv­i­ties ded­i­cat­ed to Wal­cott. He said UWI was pay­ing trib­ute to Wal­cott's con­tri­bu­tions as a writer, drama­tist, artist, crit­ic and cul­tur­al and po­lit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored