Author: Kelly Baker Josephs

sx salon, issue 4 (April 2011)

The new issue of sx salon is now available. (Table of contents below.)

In this issue of sx salon, we publish poetry from two emerging voices, Monica Minott, first-prize winner of the 2009 Small Axe Literary Competition, and Keisha-Gaye Anderson, who was shortlisted in the 2010 competition. Also in “Poetry & Prose” is a peek at a memoir-in-progress from Patricia Powell. We have a similar mix of emerging and established voices in “Interviews,” where Lakshmi Persaud discusses the beginnings of her career and what motivates her to continue, five novels later. We also hear from Anthony Williams, editor of Caribbean Book Blog, who has recently published his first novel.

Also in this issue is our first review of a theatrical performance: Soyica Colbert reviews a production of Derek Walcott’s Ti-Jean and His Brothers staged at Boston University earlier this year. We also publish reviews of two academic monographs—Sonjah Stanley-Niaah’s Dancehall: From Slaveship to Ghetto and Michaeline Crichlow’s Globalization and the Post-Creole Imagination. Rounding out the “Reviews” section is a review of Austin Clarke’s novel, More.

This issue’s “Discussion” section features a discussion of Edwidge Datnticat’s Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work, winner in the nonfiction category of the OCM Bocas Prize. J. Michael Dash, Elizabeth Duchanaud, and Martin Munro each offer thoughts in short articles on Danticat’s collection of essays, and Danticat’s response is as open and engaging as the pieces in Create Dangerously.

Continue reading sx salon, issue 4 (April 2011)

Aimé Césaire’s Solar Throat Slashed

Cuba Inside and Out: Book Presentation – Aimé Césaire’s Solar Throat Slashed

Tuesday, May 10, 2011
7:00 p.m.
Americas Society
680 Park Avenue
New York, NY
More information here.

Clayton Eshleman, the foremost translator of Martinican poet Aimé Césaire (1913—2008), and A. James Arnold, the leading editor of Césaire’s French works, read from their translation of the poet’sSoleil cou coupe (Wesleyan University Press). Arnold will discuss the importance of Cuba and Cubans—including Lydia Cabrera and Wifredo Lam—in launching Césaire´s poetic career during WWII.

This program will be in English with bilingual readings. 

In collaboration with Wesleyan University Press, the Cuban Cultural Center of New York, and InterAmericas®.

Glissant’s Contact Vernacular

by Rose Rejouis, Literary Studies, Eugene Lang College/The New School

My response is shaped by the fact that the session began with Agnès B.’s documentary about Edouard Glissant , Utopia Station (2003), and was followed by J. Michael Dash’s remarks on the arc of Glissant’s work.

First of all, let me say that, in respectively interpreting the work of Edouard Glissant and of Patrick Chamoiseau, Michael Dash and I are both readers of contemporary writers.  In “The Translator’s Task,”[1923] Walter Benjamin cautions against such readings when he writes that “the important works of world literature never find their chosen translators at the time of their origin.”  What Benjamin means is that readers of contemporary works do not have the benefit of a work’s literary history.  It is to the literary history of Glissant’s Poétique de la Relation [Poetics of Relation] I wish to turn here.  I wish to examine whether the passing of time, 20 years, has allowed for a kind of historicization of Glissant’s work, not present in the first reading.

Continue reading Glissant’s Contact Vernacular

Caribbean Intransit Arts Journal (CFP)

*THE POLITICS OF THE VISUAL AND THE VOCAL IN CARIBBEAN SPACE*

From carnival costumes to music, from paintings to folktales, from sculptures to spoken words, artists and storytellers have used the cultures of the Caribbean Basin to create unique expressions that critically filter our perceptions of socio-cultural identity. These artistic forms are historical or more contemporary forays into the region’s politics and economies. In recent years, several artists have emerged to illustrate a shared heritage such as Laurent Valere in Martinique and Antonius Roberts in the Bahamas or have solidified their international standing such as Edouard Duval-Carrie. Artist-scholars such as Rex Nettleford and Leroy Clarke have interrogated the critical links and the constructions of identity realized through the artist’s eye. Continue reading Caribbean Intransit Arts Journal (CFP)

Sidney Mintz Lecture at NYU

Distinguished Professor Sidney W. Mintz will be giving a guest lecture, “Quijote and Caliban: A Different Look at Creolization,” on Monday, APRIL 4th at 5:00pm at New York University’s King Juan Carlos Center Auditorium, 53 Washington Square South (sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Research Colloquium Speaker Series, New York University). For more information, please visit www.clacs.as.nyu.edu.

Simon Gikandi Lecture at Baruch, CUNY

Addison Gayle Lecture Series Presents Dr. Simon Gikandi

Simon Gikandi, Robert Schirmer Professor of English at Princeton University, will speak on “The Black Aesthetic in the Age of Globalization” at a ceremony commemorating the 17th Annual Addison Gayle Memorial Lecture Series at Baruch College, CUNY.

March 31, 12:30 – 2 PM
151 E. 25th St. (bet. Lex & 3rd Aves)
Newman Conference Center 7th floor
(646) 312-3935
Free & open to the public

For more information, click here.

Theorizing Homophobia(s) Project

Call for Submissions, from Angelique Nixon, PhD.

The Caribbean Region of the International Resource Network (IRN) seeks to connect academic and community-based researchers, artists, and activists around the Caribbean and in the diaspora in areas related to diverse sexualities and genders. The IRN is housed at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York, funded through the Ford Foundation, and located on the web at http://www.irnweb.org.

Continue reading Theorizing Homophobia(s) Project

Haiti: One Day, One Destiny (screening)

Natasha Gordon-Chipembere, Assistant Professor of English, Medgar Evers College will be hosting a free screening of Michele Stephenson’s film “Haiti: One Day, One Destiny” on:

Wednesday, March 30, 6pm
Medgar Evers College
EOJ Auditorium (new science building on Bedford and Crown).

Haiti: One Day, One Destiny follows filmmaker Michele Stephenson as she travels to the island six weeks after the devastating earthquake and tells the story of the tragedy from the Haitian perspective—the day‐to‐day struggle of recovery, Haitian reflections on the profound loss they are coming to grips with, and the role culture plays in rebuilding. Stephenson will be on hand for Q & A after the film.

 

 

Seminar Session: Remembering Glissant

Our next seminar meeting will be on March 25, from 2-4:30pm. In this session we will be discussing a selection from Glissant’s Poetics of Relation and a screening of Glissant in the film Utopia Station. Rose Rejouis, Assistant Professor of English at The New School, will offer comments on the reading and Michael Dash, Professor of French at New York University, will present on Glissant’s life and ideas in connection with the film.

Details:
Friday, March 25, 2-4:30pm, Room C197, The Graduate Center, CUNY

Flyer available here. Reading available here and at The Center for the Humanities site.

Third International Maroon Conference

“Independence,” in Charles Town, Portland, Jamaica
June 22-25 2011

This multidisciplinary conference seeks papers and panels that explore representations of Maroon culture in history, literature, art, music, political theory, cultural studies, film, linguistics, and theatre. With its theme “Independence,” it strives to revisit the roots of Maroon values and practices, considering the ways they have endured, transformed and resonated in the Caribbean, Canada, South America, Europe, the United States and Africa.  Offering a unique combination of scholarly panels and cultural events, the third international Maroon conference aims to increase awareness of Maroon contributions to contemporary societies, bringing together descendents of Maroons with scholars interested in Maroon heritage and indigenous cultures.

The conference cultural events and entertainment will commemorate the Annual Quao Victory Day (June 23), and they are part of a larger effort to develop strategies for sustainable development and wealth creation in Maroon communities.

Please send abstracts by 30 March or inquiries to fbotkin@towson.edu