Prof Funso Aiyejina, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the University of the West Indies, says the Caribbean anthology–Moving Right Along–was named after one of the favourite expressions of the late John Cropper. The book was also compiled in honour of Cropper's late son Dev and dedicated to John Cropper. Moving Right Along was launched by the Cropper Foundation in commemoration of its 10th Anniversary. The launch was twinned with a lecture on the Environment: Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development at the Engineering Theatre, UWI, St Augustine, on Wednesday.
In the preface, Aiyejina, and fellow UWI lecturers Merle Hodge and Dani Lyndersay crafted An Appreciation. It is a collection of short stories by past participants in the Cropper Foundation Residential Writers' Workshop. At the launch, Rhoda Bharath and Barbara Jenkins read snatches of the work to the delight of the audience. Ardent listeners connected with images of the "red woman"–that mixture of Spanish and Portugese and traversed the country with place names like San Rafael. Mariel Brown, Janice Rogers, Mohamed Yasin, Renuka Maharaj, Robert Clarke, June Aming, Kei Miller and Judith Theodore have contributed to the anthology.
Genesis of Moving Right Along
According to the preface of the book, Moving Right Along, he would chip along whenever discussion was straying. Precision in planning and execution was of paramount importance to John. But, given the disorganised temperament of writers, John never lost his cool as he worked around writers from one workshop to the next." They remembered his love for his son Dev. "The enthusiasm of John and Angela for the Caribbean Writers project, born out of their desire to celebrate the memory of their son, Dev, as well as their wish to give back to the society, resonated in all of us who have been running the project."
He had come to us as people in the field to seek advice on how best to honour the memory of Dev through a structured programme of help for Caribbean writers." In its introduction, Aiyejina said the stories raise awareness about self-awareness, filial duties, privileges, abuse–spousal, psychological, physical and sexual, class division and conflicts.
