Author: Kelly Baker Josephs

Associate Professor of Caribbean Literature and/or Latino/a Literature

Florida Atlantic University has announced an open faculty position for Caribbean literature. The deadline for applications is 29 February 2016. 

fau

Job description

Associate Professor of Caribbean Literature and/or Latino/a Literature

The Department of English at Florida Atlantic University invites applications for an Associate Professor to begin August 2016. Candidates must have teaching and research interests in Caribbean Anglophone Literature and/or U. S. Latino/a Literature. Candidates who combine these areas will be given special consideration. In regard to U. S. Latino/a literatures, special attention will be given to candidates whose work speaks to the culture and geography of South Florida.

We seek a candidate who will balance high-quality scholarship, excellence in teaching, and committed service. Faculty typically teach a 3-2 course schedule. Faculty teach and mentor graduate students in the department’s Master’s Degree programs as well as the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters interdisciplinary Ph. D. program. Ideally, the new hire will also contribute substantially to the university’s developing Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Initiative.

Requirements include a Ph. D. in English or Comparative Literature, or related field, at time of appointment, publication record in field, and relevant teaching experience at the college level. Send letter, vita, three letters of recommendation, and a writing sample to [email protected], with the subject line, “Caribbean/Latino search.” Applications must be submitted by 29 February 2016. Applications must also be submitted online at http://jobs.fau.edu, position number 01004271. A copy of the candidate’s transcript must be attached to the jobs.fau.edu submission. A background check will be required for the candidate selected for this position.

FAU serves a culturally and ethnically diverse six-county region in Southeast Florida (Broward, Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach, and St. Lucie counties) whose total population is more than five million people. FAU is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access Institution and respects diversity in all its forms. FAU has recently been named a Hispanic-serving Institution by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.

 

Above adapted from emailed announcement.

Between Two Worlds: Jean Price-Mars, Haiti, and Africa CFP

Book chapters sought for anthology to be edited by Celucien L. Joseph, PhD

Deadline: 300 word abstract by 29 February 2016, emailed to ([email protected])

Call for Papers

Jean Price-Mars (1876 – 1969), Haitian physician, ethnographer, diplomat, educator, historian, politician, was a towering intellectual in Haitian history and cultural studies, and a Pan Africanist who called to reevaluate the contributions of Africa in universal civilizations and to revalorize African retentions and cultural practices in the Black diaspora, especially on Haitian soil. Through his writings, Price-Mars, whom Leopold Sedar Senghor called “the Father of Negritude,” sought to establish connecting links between Africa and the Black Diaspora, and the shared history and struggle between people of African descent in the Diaspora.

For many scholars, Price-Mars is the father of Haitian ethnology and Dean of Haitian Studies in the twentieth-century, and arguably, the most influential Haitian thinker that has graced the “Black Republic” since the death of Joseph Auguste Anténor Firmin in 1911. In Haitian thought, Price-Mars has exercised an enduring intellectual and ideological influence on the young Haitian intellectuals and writers of the generation of the American Occupation in Haiti (1915-1934) and the post-Occupation culture from the 1930s to 1970s. He is especially known for launching a cultural nationalism and an anti-imperial movement against the brutal American military forces in Haiti.

The writings of Price-Mars were instrumental in challenging the Haitian intellectual of his leadership role in the Haitian society, and in promoting national consciousness and unity among Haitians of all social classes and against their American oppressor. Comparatively, his work was a catalyst in the process of shaping and reshaping Haitian cultural identity and reconsidering the viability of the Afro-Haitian faith of Vodou as religion among the so-called World religions. His thought anticipated what is known today as postcolonialism and decolonization.

Moreover, scholars have also identified Price-Mars as the Francophone counterpart of W.E.B. Du Bois for his activism, scholarly rigor, leadership efficiency, and his unremitting efforts to challenge Western racial history, ideology, and white supremacy in the modern world. Unapologetically, Price-Mars challenged the doctrine of white supremacy and the ideological construction of Western history by demonstrating the equality and dignity of the races and all people, and their achievements in the human historical narrative. As Du Bois, he was a transdisciplinary scholar, boundary-crosser, and cross-cultural theorist; in an unorthodox way, he had brought in conversation various disciplines including anthropology, ethnography, geography, sociology, history, religion, philosophy, race theory, and literature to study the human condition and the most pressing issues facing the nations and peoples of the world, as well as the possible implications they may bear upon us in the postcolonial moment.

Between Two Worlds: Jean Price-Mars, Haiti, and Africa is a special volume on Jean Price-Mars that reassesses the importance of his thought and legacy, and the implications of his ideas in the twenty-first century’s culture of political correctness, the continuing challenge of race and racism, and imperial hegemony in the modern world. Price-Mars’ thought is also significant for the renewed scholarly interests in Haiti and Haitian Studies in North America, and the meaning of contemporary Africa in the world today. This volume explores various dimensions in Price-Mars’ thought and his role as medical doctor, historian, anthropologist, cultural critic, public intellectual, politician, pan-Africanist, and humanist.

Hence, the goal of this book is fourfold: 1) The book will explore the contributions of Price-Mars to Haitian history, thought, culture, literature, politics, education, health, etc., 2) This volume will investigate the complex relationships between Haiti and the Dominican Republic in Price-Mars’ historical writings, 3) It studies Price-Mars’ engagement with Western history and the problem of the “racist narrative,” and 4) Finally, the book will highlight Price-Mars’ contributions to Postcolonialism, Africana Studies, and Pan-Africanism.

Successful applicants will be notified of acceptance in the first week of April 2016. We are looking for original and unpublished essays for this book. Translations of Price-Mars’ works in the English language are also welcome. Potential topics to be addressed include (but are not limited to) the following:

Price-Mars as Historian
Price-Mars’ engagement with Western history
Price-Mars’ interpretation of Haitian history
The function of Haitian heroes and heroines in Price-Mars historical writings
The Origin (s) and History of Haiti and Dominican Republic in Price-Mars’ works
Particularism and Universalism in Price-Mars’ historical writings
Price-Mars as Cultural Critic and Public Intellectual in Haitian Society
Price-Mars as cultural theorist and literary critic
The role of Price-Mars’ thought in the Haitian Renaissance in the first half of the twentieth-century
Price-Mars and the Crisis of Haitian Intellectuals
Price-Mars and the Crisis of Haitian bourgeoisie-elite
Price-Mars, Vodou, and the Haitian culture
The Haitian peasant in the writings of Price-Mars
The Education of the Haitian masses in the writings of Price-Mars
The problem of Race in Price-Mars’ writings
Haitian Women in the thought of Price-Mars
Price-Mars’ contributions as Medical doctor in Haitian society.
Price-Mars as Politician
The Political career and goals of Jean Price-Mars
Price-Mars, Haiti’s Ambassador to the nations
Price-Mars and the American occupation and American imperialism
The political philosophy and democratic ideas of Price-Mars
Nationalism and Patriotism in Price-Mars’ thought
Price-Mars as Pan-Africanist
African history or the meaning of Africa in the writings of Price-Mars
The Black Diaspora in the thought of Price-Mars
Price-Mars’ Postcolonial Rhetoric and Linguistic Strategy
The Vindication and Rehabilitation of the Black Race
The Role and Contributions of Pre-colonial African civilizations to world civilizations
Price-Marsian Negritude or Blackness

About the Editor

Dr. Celucien L. Joseph is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Indian River State College. He received his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Texas at Dallas, where he studied Literary Studies and Intellectual History. Professor Joseph also holds an M.A. in French language and literature from the University of Louisville. In addition, he holds degrees in theological and religious studies. He serves in the editorial board and Chair of The Journal of Pan African Studies Regional Advisory Board; he also the curator of “Haiti: Then and Now.” He edited JPAS special issue on Wole Soyinka entitled “Rethinking Wole Soyinka: 80 Years of Protracted Engagement” (2015). Dr. Joseph is interested in the intersections of literature, history, race, religion, theology, and history of ideas.

Above adapted from H-Net announcement.

 

 

Journal of West Indian Literature now online

The Journal of West Indian Literature is now available online. Starting with Vol 23 , issues 1 & 2 (April/November 2015), JWIL will be fully online and available for purchase in PDF format. For a limited time (as in, go get it now now now) the first issue is available for free here. Below is more information from the editorial board about the journal, its history, the transition to online, and this special offer (TOC of free-for-now issue also below).

JWIL currentissue_23

The Journal of West Indian Literature has been published twice-yearly by the Departments of Literatures in English of the University of the West Indies since October 1986. Edited by full-time academics, the journal originated at the same time as the first annual conference on West Indian Literature, the brainchild of Edward Baugh, Mervyn Morris and Mark McWatt. It reflects the continued commitment to provide a regional and extra-regional forum for the dissemination and discussion of anglophone Caribbean literary and artistic culture. Initially featuring contributions from scholars in the West Indies, it has become an internationally recognized peer-reviewed academic journal.

JWIL’s editorial board welcomes articles in English that are the result of scholarly research in literary textuality (fiction, prose, drama, film, theory and criticism) of the English-speaking Caribbean; comparative assessments of non-Anglophone Caribbean texts are also accepted, provided that translations into English of the relevant parts of such texts are incorporated into the submission. JWIL will also publish book reviews.

In 2011, founding editor Mark McWatt celebrated JWIL’s twenty-fifth year of publication as a regional, UWI-led Caribbeanist project invested in highlighting and critically examining the prolific literary production of the Anglophone Caribbean. McWatt observed at the time that there was talk about the journal, which printed its first volume in 1986, “becoming exclusively an on-line publication” in the interests of international recognition and access. Of course, things moved slowly when the editors were all full-time academics juggling multiple responsibilities across the three campuses of the University of the West Indies, but only four years afterward, JWIL has indeed transitioned to an online platform. http://www.jwilonline.org/ is the journal’s first website, and it will be the platform for the first online volume: the double-issue Vol. 23 Nos. 1&2, which will appear in late December 2015, and will be open access for a limited time.

Table of Contents for latest issue:

“I Married My Mother”: Jamaica Kincaid’s See Now Then
Daryl Cumber Dance

On Scanning Louise Bennett Seriously
Ben Etherington

The Interplay of Political and Existential Freedom in Earl Lovelace’s The Dragon Can’t Dance
Tohru Nakamura

Pamela Mordecai’s Poetry: Some Questions for Further Consideration
Stephanie McKenzie

“Your journey, even when bumpy,/will be sweet”: Jamaica in Kei Miller’s A Light Song of Light
Bartosz Wójcik

“Our words spoken among us, in fragments”: Austin Clarke’s Aesthetics of Crossing
Paul Barrett

Sounding Out Spirit Thievery in Erna Brodber’s Myal
Anne Margaret Castro

Reading the Critical Pastoral in Lovelace’s Salt and Roffey’s White Woman on the Green Bicycle
Erin Fehskens

Book Reviews

Jean Goulbourne
Parable of the Mangoes
Aisha T. Spencer

Marlon James
A Brief History of Seven Killings
Philip Nanton

Vladimir Lucien
Sounding Ground
Laurence A. Briener

Notes on Contributors

On Caribbean Archaeology, Conservation and Material Culture

Archaeological Society of Jamaica, George Lechler & Karen Thompson-Spence Memorial Symposium
University of the West Indies, Mona
16-17 March 2016

On Caribbean Archaeology, Conservation and Material Culture

CFP deadline: 11 December 2015 (though extensions seem available)

The Archaeological Society of Jamaica will be holding its 14th Symposium, with a half day meeting on Conservation on the afternoon of Wednesday, 16 March 2016, and an all day meeting on Thursday, 17 March at the Multifunctional Room, Main Library, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica.

Proposals are invited for individual papers or panels on Caribbean Archaeology, Conservation, and Material Culture, broadly conceived. Papers on Heritage, Archives and Museums will also be welcome. Given Mr. Lechler’s and Ms. Thompson-Spence’s interests, papers on the history of collections and on Jamaican archaeology would be particularly welcome. These should include the presenter(s) name(s), a title and an abstract. Please also indicate if you will need equipment beyond Microsoft Power Point. The first call has a deadline of 11 December 2015.

There will be an opportunity for members to display paintings, drawings or photographs inspired by archaeology and history at the Symposium. Proposals are also invited for poster sessions.

Send e-mails to Dr. James Robertson, President, ASJ, [email protected] or to ASJ Board Member Zachary Beier, [email protected]

Paper copies may be sent to Dr. Robertson or Mr. Beier, at the Department of History & Archaeology, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica.

A membership of the A.S.J. is not required to submit a proposal. There will be a registration fee of J$1000.00, for ASJ members J$800.00, or for students and pensioners, J$500.00, payable at the conference.

Above adapted from an emailed first call for papers.

Haiti in the Hispanophone Caribbean literary imaginary

Deadline: Proposal due 15 January 2016 and full article (2000-2500 words) due 1 April 2016

photo credit: Image taken from page 52 of 'British Possessions and Colonies.

CFP: Haiti in the Hispanophone Caribbean literary imaginary 

In her masterful 2012 study, From Sugar to Revolution: Women’s Visions of Haiti, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, Myriam J. A. Chancy issues a stunning, and accurate indictment of the fields of American, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies for their disciplinary exclusion of Haiti. She writes that her aim is “to highlight the ways that racist essentialism has demarcated Haitians and other groups of African descent within the Caribbean as subalterns without agency” (xv). In an effort to contribute to the correcting this exclusion, sx salon: a small axe literary platform seeks discussion essays for a special section on Haiti in the literatures of the Spanish Caribbean. We welcome writings that represent the literary relationship between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, between Haiti and Cuba (the subject of Ada Ferrer’s 2014 work Freedom’s Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution), and between Haiti and Puerto Rico.

This special section on Haiti in the Hispanophone Caribbean literary imaginary is slated for publication in 2016. Discussion articles are typically 2000-2500 words and offer targeted exploration of the topic. sx salon, launched in 2010 as part of the Small Axe Project, is an electronic publication dedicated to literary discussions, interviews with Caribbean literary figures, reviews of new publications (creative and scholarly) related to the Caribbean, and short fiction and poetry by emerging and established Caribbean writers. Visit www.smallaxe.net/sxsalon to view past issues and for submissions guidelines.

Proposals for this special section are due by 15 January 2016 and full discussion articles will be due by 1 April 2016. Please send proposals to Vanessa K Váldes at [email protected].

 

photo credit: The British Library on Flickr, “Image taken from page 52 of ‘British Possessions and Colonies [with maps].”

A Haunting Refrain: Time, Aesthetics, and the Afterlives of Black Radicalism

Nijah Noel Cunningham
Assistant Professor, Hunter College
presents work at the CUNY Africana Forum

November 5, 2015, 4:15 PM
Room C205
Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016

Livestream: http://videostreaming.gc.cuny.edu/videos/

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A Haunting Refrain: Time, Aesthetics, and the Afterlives of Black Radicalism

What happened to the future possibilities that once animated the longings for black and anticolonial revolution? How do we think about futurity in the context of freedom’s nonarrival? What form do utopian aspirations take when political possibilities appear exhausted? Living in the aftermath of revolutionary times, how might we remember what could have been? Working at the convergence of literature, performance theory, and visual culture, this paper considers the “afterlives” of black radical politics by way of an engagement with For Malcolm: Poems on the Life and Death of Malcolm, a collection of poems compiled and edited by Dudley Randall and Margaret Burroughs following the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, and a photograph of Betty Shabazz and two of her daughters at the 1967 Black Arts Convention in Detroit. This paper interrogates the normative logic of reproductive futurity that frames the legacy of Malcolm X and structures the redemptive accounts of a black nation to-come narrated in the wake of his death. Rather than reproduce masculinist imaginaries of black revolution or recuperate promises of political redemption, this paper mobilizes the work of elegy and photography to open up nascent worldings that linger in the present like a “haunting refrain.”

Presented by IRADAC, the CUNY Africana Forum invites CUNY faculty to freely engage with scholars and laypersons on issues concerning the African Diaspora worldwide.

Refreshments will be served.

The Caribbean Digital II: Histories, Cartographies, Narratives

Save the date
(full site with more information to come)

4 December 2015
Barnard College/Columbia University

Preliminary Program

1-2:30PM       Panel I – Histories
Vincent Brown, Harvard University – Two Plantations: Enslaved Families in Virginia & Jamaica
Laurent Dubois & Mary Caton Lingold, Duke University – Musical Passage: A Voyage to 1688 Jamaica
Jennifer Morgan, New York University – Discussant

2:30-2:45PM BREAK

2:45-3:45PM  Panel II – Cartographies
Kaiama L. Glover, Barnard College & Alex Gil, Columbia University –
In the Same Boats: Toward an Afro-Atlantic Intellectual Cartography
Ian Baucom, University of Virginia – Discussant

3:45-4PM       BREAK

4-5:30PM       Panel III – Narratives
Robert Antoni  – As Flies to Whatless Boys
Oonya Kempadoo – Naniki
Kelly Baker Josephs, York College, CUNY – Discussant

5:30-6:30PM RECEPTION

 SX_newLOGO

A Small Axe Project event

Co-sponsored by: The Africana Studies Department, Barnard College; The Columbia University Center for the Study of Social Difference; The Maison Française, Columbia University; The Columbia University Greater Caribbean Center; The Barnard Forum on Migration, Institute for Research in African-American Studies, Columbia University.

Policing the Crises: Stuart Hall and the Practice of Critique

Stuart Hall policing the crises

Thursday, 24 September  – Saturday, 25 September 2015

Diana Center Event Oval, Barnard College & SUNY Stony Brook, Manhattan Campus

Described by Henry Louis Gates as ‘Black Britain’s leading theorist of Black Britain,’ Stuart Hall was the preeminent post-colonial intellectual of Great Britain from the 1960s until his death in 2014. One of the founders of ‘cultural studies,’ Hall’s influence extended across the intellectual spectrum of the Left, rocking political and academic worlds with his theorizations of race, ethnicity, feminism, nationality, and politics, shaping their discourse for the rest of the twentieth century into the twenty-first. Using Hall’s key essays and books as touchstones, the conference will examine how his ideas can help us to think through some of the most urgent problems of the contemporary moment. With ongoing crises of authority caused by police violence, mass and racialized incarceration across the United States, as well as concerns around economic, environmental, social and religious justice across the world, Hall’s bold and prescient theorizations of neoliberalism and its operations remain intensely relevant.

Conference Program

Thursday, 24 September
Diana Center, Barnard College, 3009 Broadway

5:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Roundtable: Reconstructing the Popular
Chair, E. Ann Kaplan (Stony Brook University)
Susan Willis (Duke University)
Rob King (Columbia University)
Bruce Robbins (Columbia University)
Jane Gaines (Columbia University)

6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Reception

***

Friday, 25 September
The Humanities Institute at Stony Brook (HISB)
Stony Brook University Manhattan Campus, 387 Park Ave South

8:30 AM – 9:00 AM
Coffee

9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Introduction and Keynote
Keynote by David Scott (Columbia University)
Introduced by Tina Campt (Barnard College)

10:30 AM – 10:45 AM
Break

10:45 AM – 12:30 PM
History of the Present: Race, Nation, Empire
Chair, Kathleen Wilson (Stony Brook University)
Antoinette Burton (University of Illinois)
Bill Schwarz (Queen Mary University of London)
Geoff Eley (University of Michigan)

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM
Lunch

2:00 PM – 3:45 PM
Where is the Black?: Revisiting the Black Popular Culture Conference (1991)
Chair, Jane Gaines (Columbia University)
Kellie Jones (Columbia University)
Racquel Gates (CUNY, Staten Island)
Gina Dent (University of California Santa Cruz)

3:45 – 4:00 PM
Coffee Break

4:00 PM – 5:45 PM
Practice of Critique: Race, Gender, Sexuality
Chair, Tina Campt (Barnard College)
Terri Francis (Indiana University)
Rinaldo Walcott ( University of Toronto)
Jacqueline N. Brown (CUNY, Hunter College)

***

Saturday, 26 September 
Event Oval, Diana Center, Barnard College, 3009 Broadway

9:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Coffee

9:30 AM – 11:15 AM
New Media: Encoding, Decoding, Coding
Chair, Rob King (Columbia University)
Henry Jenkins (University of Southern California)
David Morley (Goldsmith’s College, University of London)
Nicholas Mirzoeff (Culture, and Communications, NYU)

11:15 AM – 11:30 AM
Coffee Break

11:30 AM – 1:30 PM
Policing the Crises: Thinking It Forward
Chair, Tina Campt (Barnard College)
Barnor Hesse (Northwestern University)
Ben Carrington (University of Texas, Austin)
Karla Holloway (Duke University)

Venues are accessible to people with mobility disabilities.

This event is free and open to the public. Preregistration is strongly encouraged.
Register here.

Above adapted from emailed announcement.

Caribbean authors at the Brooklyn Book Festival

Below are a list of events with Caribbean-identified authors before and during the Brooklyn Book Festival. The list may be incomplete. All events free unless otherwise noted.

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BOOKEND EVENTS

 

The Word Is Fresh: Bocas presents new Caribbean poets
Thurs, 17 September, 7:00pm
Old Stone House 336 3rd St., Brooklyn, NY 11215

An inspiring line up of new (and newish) Caribbean poets, including:

  • Vladimir Lucien, winner of the coveted 2015 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for his debut poetry collection Sounding Ground
  • Tiphanie Yanique, prize-winning author who will read from her first poetry collection, Wife
  • Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné, winner of the 2015 Hollick Arvon Prize for poetry, and Sassy Ross both featured in Coming Up Hot, a new poetry anthology to be launched at this event

Hosted by Nicholas Laughlin, poet and NGC Bocas Lit Fest programme director.

More info here.

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Picture This: Visual and Verbal (Re)Imagining of the Contemporary Caribbean
Fri, 18 September. 7:00pm
South Oxford Space, 138 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NY 11217
$10

An evening of reading and conversations on imagining the contemporary Caribbean in fiction, poetry and photography. The evening features a medley of writers bringing the literary heart and art of Antigua & Barbuda, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago: fiction writers Tanya Batson Savage (Pumpkin Belly and Other Stories), Kellie Magnus (Little Lion), and Nandi Keyi-Ogunlade (True Nanny Diaries); urban poets Owen Blakka Ellis (Riddim & Riddles) and Iyaba Ibo Mandingo (41 Times, Amerikkkan Exile, and 40 days n 40 nights of write). Latoya West-Blackwood will journey through the visual imaginings with the book My Jamaica. A book bashment follows.

More info here.

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Haiti Cultural Exchange presents:
Café Conversations with Gina Athena Ulysse, author of Why Haiti Needs New Narratives: A Post-Quake Chronicle
Saturday, 19 September, 1:00pm
Dweck Center, Brooklyn Public Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY, 11238
Free (Suggestion Donation $10)

Mainstream news coverage of the catastrophic earthquake of 2010 reproduced longstanding narratives and stereotypes of Haiti. Cognizant that this Haiti, as it exists in the public sphere, is a rhetorically and graphically incarcerated one, the feminist anthropology professor at Wesleyan and performance artist Gina Athena Ulysse embarked on a writing spree that lasted over two years. As an ethnographer and a member of the diaspora, Ulysse delivers critical cultural analysis of geopolitics and daily life in a series of dispatches, op-eds and articles on post-quake Haiti.

More info here.

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Women’s Voices and Caribbean Literature
Saturday, 19 September, 2:00pm
MoCADA 80 Hanson Place, Brooklyn, NY, 11217
General Donation: $10.00. Students: $5.00.

The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College presents a literary salon with Naomi Jackson (The Star Side of Bird Hill) in conversation with Rosalind Kilkenny McLymont (The Guyana Contract).  Presented in collaboration with Penguin Press and The Network Journal.

This event is a fundraiser for the Center for Black Literature.

More info here.

 

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FESTIVAL EVENTS – Sunday, 20 September

 

​Finalists of the St. Francis College Literary Prize
St. Francis College Auditorium, 180 Remsen St
10:00am

St. Francis College Presents Finalists of the St. Francis College Literary Prize.  Maud Casey (The Man Who Walked Away), David Gilbert (& Sons), Rene Steinke (Friendswood), Marlon James (A Brief History of Seven Killings)and Paul Beatty (The Sellout) and more. Moderated by Daniel Torday.

More info here.

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​Why Fiction Matters
Brooklyn Historical Society Library, 128 Pierrepont St
12:00pm

This discussion of the importance of fiction in contemporary life kicks off a series of essays commissioned by The Center for Fiction to celebrate its upcoming move to the BAM Cultural District. With Alexander Chee, Mitchell Jackson, Roxana Robinson, and Tiphanie Yanique. Moderated by Noreen Tomassi, Center for Fiction.

More info here.

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Today’s Yesterday
Borough Hall Courtroom, 209 Joralemon St
12:00pm

Master storytellers Michael Datcher (Americus) and Esmeralda Santiago (Conquistadora) discuss their compelling and tragic historical fictions. Set in the turbulent eras of the U.S. and Puerto Rico, their stories ring familiar with passions that change lives and cultural brutalities that define racism and classism running as rampant in the past as today. With twin brothers in both stories, there is twice as much havoc in families caught up in their lives and loves.  Moderated by Theo Gangi, St. Francis College.

More info here.

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​Confronting Tomorrow
Brooklyn Historical Society Library, 128 Pierrepont St
1:00pm

At the intersection of youth and adulthood, three young protagonists and their friends and families confront realities that change their lives. Joanne Hillhouse (Musical Youth) Tanwi Nandini Islam (Bright Lines), and Matthew McGevna (Little Beasts) deal with actions that change one and cannot be changed. Short readings and discussion. Moderated by Ian Maloney, St. Francis College.

More info here.

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The Search for the Discussible Book
St. Francis College Workshop Room, 180 Remsen St
1:00pm

Reading Group Choices (RGC) will provide tips on how to start and maintain a reading group, and how to choose discussible books. Attendees will receive copies of RGC¹s 2016 edition. Following the discussion, authors featured with Reading Group Choices will tell you abouttheir books through a few fun rounds of author-speed-dating! The participating authors are: Naomi Jackson (The Other Side of Bird Hill), Akhil Sharma (Family Life), Maggie Thrash (Honor Girl), and Rebecca Dinerstein (The Sunlit Night).

More info here.

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Time Traveling
Borough Hall Courtroom, 209 Joralemon St
2:00pm

Three writers discuss what riveted them to the time and location of their most recent novels and how the past speaks to the present. Jami Attenberg’s Saint Mazie is set in early-20th-century New York; Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings takes place in Jamaica in the 1970s, and Stewart O’Nan’s West of Sunset follows F. Scott Fitzgerald to Hollywood in the 1930s. Moderated by Nicholas Laughlin, Bocas Lit Fest.

More info here.

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​Triple Crown
St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church, 157 Montague St
2:00pm

Join three prolific literary powerhouses as they read from their recent work: Esmeralda Santiago (Conquistadora), National Book Award Winner and New York Times bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates (The Lost Landscape), and Pulitzer Prize finalist Russell Banks (A Permanent Member of the Family). Q & A moderated by New York Times Book Review editor Greg Cowles.

More info here.

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Between Two Worlds
Borough Hall Media Room, 209 Joralemon St
3:00pm

Naomi Jackson (The Star Side of Bird Hill), Yitzhak Gormezano Goren (Alexandrian Summer), and Juan Villoro (The Guilty: Stories) present the push and pull of navigating between worlds – sisters sent from Brooklyn to live in Barbados; the Egyptian upper middle class fleeing Alexandria for Israel; and contemporary Mexicans and Americans overlapping cultures and preconceptions. Geography, history and a search for authenticity create an interplay of desire and rejection and sometimes humor about a place and time.  Moderated by Malaika Adero.

More info here.

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Best of Brooklyn
St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church, 157 Montague St
3:30pm

The Brooklyn Book Festival pays homage to the Festival’s literary heritage each year by presenting the BoBi Award to an author who exemplifies the spirit and character of Brooklyn. Join 2015 BoBi Honoree Jonathan Lethem (Lucky Alan: And Other Stories), in conversation with past BoBi honorees Edwidge Danticat (Claire of the Sea Light) and Pete Hamill (Snow in August) as they talk about a writer’s life and being part of, and influenced by, Brooklyn’s literary lineage. Moderated by Johnny Temple, Brooklyn Literary Council Chair.

More info here.

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Scams and Swindles: Hustling to Survive
Borough Hall Media Room, 209 Joralemon St
5:00pm

Fiston Mwanza Mujila (Tram 83), Pierre Lemaître (The Great Swindle) and Kettly Mars (Savage Seasons) variously explore the modern African gold rush, veterans in a post-WW 1 Europe, and Haiti’s dictatorship in the 1960s; what they have in common is a searing examination of the human costs of political upheaval. Join them for a conversation about the surprising skills their characters must develop in order to survive.  Moderated by Tom Roberge, Albertine.

More info here.

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Lost and Found
Brooklyn Law School Student Lounge, 250 Joralemon St
5:00pm

Family, culture, violence and loss infuse a collection of poems by Colin Channer (Providential), Jennifer Pashley’s novel The Scamp, and a short-story collection by Russell Banks (A Permanent Member of the Family). Hitched to their past, characters struggle to find optimistic possibilities, or follow a trail of blood and self-destruction. Short readings and discussion. Moderated by Christopher John Farley (Game World, Wall Street Journal).

More info here.

 

 

Claude McKay @ 126

Harlem Shadows – The Legacy of Claude McKay and Caribbean Verse
Tues, Sept 15 @ 6:00pm
Brooklyn Public Library Flatbush Branch
22 Linden Blvd (corner Flatbush Ave), Brooklyn, NY 11226

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To celebrate poet Claude McKay’s 126th birthday, scholars Jacqueline Bishop (New York University) and Louis Parascandola, Ph.D. (Long Island University) and poet David Mills will lead a literary conversation on the Caribbean cultural presence during the early 20th Century.

Presented in association with the Caribbean Literary & Cultural Center

 

Above adapted from Caribbean Cultural Theater email announcement.

Colin Channer book launch

Thursday, 10 September
7:30 PM
Greenlight Bookstore
686 Fulton street
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Book Launch: Colin Channer’s first book of poems, Providential

channer

Colin Channer will read from Providential and talk with Paul Holdengraber of the New York Public Library. Book signing and beer reception to follow, courtesy of Akashic Books.

About Providential (from Greenlight Bookstore website):

Hailed by Junot Diaz as “one of the Caribbean Diaspora’s finest writers,” Colin Channer is one of the most compelling voices of our time: a bestselling novelist, co-founder of the Calabash Literary Festival in Jamaica, and a widely published poet. Channer’s debut poetry collection, Providential, is an intimate, moving portrait of violence, family, love, and loss, and a meditation on the figure of the Jamaican policeman.

 

 

18th Annual Eastern Caribbean Island Cultures (“Islands In Between”) Conference

18th Annual Eastern Caribbean Island Cultures (“Islands In Between”) Conference on the Languages, Literatures and Cultures of the Eastern Caribbean

The UWI Open Campus
St. Kitts and Nevis
The Gardens
Basseterre

Thursday, 5 November – Saturday, 7 November 2015

Abstracts due: 15 September 2015

 

Suggested topics for presentation include:

  • Language, Literature, Culture, History, and Education in St. Kitts and Nevis
  • Eastern Caribbean Drama, Poetry, Fiction, Cinema, Essays, Biographies, etc.
  • Language and Culture, Identity, and/or Gender in the Eastern Caribbean
  • Creole Linguistics and the Creolization of Languages and Cultures in the Eastern Caribbean
  • Art, Music, Dance, Cuisine, and Popular Culture of the Eastern Caribbean
  • Eastern Caribbean Carnival, Religions, Other Performance Traditions
  • The Environment, Tourism, and Development in the Eastern Caribbean
  • Culture and Politics, Society, History, Law, and Economics in the Eastern Caribbean

Abstracts/panel proposals may be submitted in English, Spanish, or any other Caribbean language and should reach the conference organizing committee no later than 15 September 2015.

  • Papers may be in English, Spanish or any other Caribbean language and should conform to the allotted fifteen minutes of presentation time and five minutes of question time.  Please submit your proposal within the text of an e-mail and NOT as an attachment. Proposals should include: a one-page abstract (maximum 250 words), the author’s name, postal and e-mail addresses, home institution (if applicable), and a brief biography (50 words or less).
  • Please send submissions or enquiries to the Puerto Rico Conference Organizing Committee (Robert Dupey and Reinhard Sander):  [email protected]

Information regarding the conference will be available on the Islands In Between Web Page: http://humanidades.uprrp.edu/ingles/?page_id=2438

Co-organized by the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, The University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, and The UWI Open Campus St. Kitts and Nevis

Above adapted from emailed announcement.

 

The Caribbean at the Harlem Book Fair

A selection of author talks at the Harlem Book Fair (Saturday, 18 July 2015) related to Caribbean literature.

HBF

12:30pm – 1:30pm – BEING WOMAN IN CONTEMPORARY CARIBBEAN LITERATURE
Countee Cullen Library Auditorium
104 West 136th Street, New York, NY 10030

Panelists: Denecia Green, Sex, Lies and Betrayal (Jamaica); Leslie Saint Julien, More Than Me – Lives in New York (Haiti); Tiphanie Yanique, Land of Love and Drowning, (U.S. Virgin Islands)

‘Being woman’ is a universal idea but what is it to be woman, black and Caribbean? How does this ‘trifecta’ of culture affect and inform the work of these popular writers? What ‘woman’ archetypes and ideas do they project in their work? Are they beneficial or stereotypical? Are they to be embraced or avoided? How does Caribbean writing impact our idea of blackness?

***

1:40 p.m. – 2:40 p.m. – WRITING THE CARIBBEAN
Countee Cullen Library Auditorium
104 West 136th Street, New York, NY 10030

Moderator: Yashika Lopez, Bazba Theatrical Players
Panelists: Basil ‘Ku-Soonogo’ Lopez (Jamaica) Only as the Wind Blows; Dr. Michael Barnett, (Jamaica) Rastafari in the New Millennium; Russell Brooks, (Barbados) The Demeter Code

From expatriate writers to those who found inspiration on the island, the Caribbean has a storied literary past and a promising future. The Jamaican writer, poet Claude McKay, is credited with having inspired the Negritude (“Blackness”) movement in France and was a part of the Harlem Renaissance in the United States. Join these new and established word weavers in a discussion of their work and views on representative writing.

***

2:45pm – 4:00pm – LITERATURE AND DIASPORA
Harlem Hospital’s Mural Pavilion
506 Lenox Avenue (Malcolm X Boulevard) at 136th Street

Moderator: Cheryl Sterling, Professor at CUNY
Panelists: Ifeona Fulani, Ten Days in Jamaica; Gillian Royes, The Rhythm of the August Rain; Tiphanie Yanique, Land of Love and Drowning; Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, Daughters of the Stone

Diasporic literature is not simply about exile and return or dislocation and rupture. However, space, as lived reality, remains a recurring theme in the novels, poems, and short stories that form this growing body of work. This literature almost always highlights a specific relationship to a place or culture, but is universal in approach and appeal. But like the Martinican poet and political figure, Aimé Césaire, these writers “have a different idea of the universal. It is of a universal rich with all that is particular, rich with all the particulars there are, the deepening of each particular, the coexistence of them all.”

***

4:00pm – 6:00pm – RACE AND POLITICS IN A TIME OF CRISIS
Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture
Langston Hughes Auditorium
515 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, NY 10037

Moderator: Imani Perry, More Beautiful, And More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Equality in the
United States
Panelists: Deborah Thomas, Exceptional Violence: Embodied Citizenship in Transnational Jamaica; Samuel Roberts, Infectious Fear: Politics, Disease, and the Health Effects of Segregation; Christopher Lebron, The Color of Our Shame: Race and Justice in our Time, Nell I. Painter, The History of White People

This roundtable discussion will range widely across the issues that have brought tens of thousands to the streets in response to the crisis and spectacle of highly publicized black deaths. Panelists will explore questions concerning the rule of law, the state of black politics, the philosophy of race and attempt to chart pathways to fulfilling the promise of democratic American citizenship.

***

Above represents only a selection from talks listed on the Harlem Book Fair 2015 author talks page.

CARIBBEAN RASANBLAJ

CARIBBEAN RASANBLAJ
A special double issue of e-misférica, a journal produced by Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics journal. This special issue is curated by Gina Athena Ulysse

Still from "Black Bullets" by Jeannette Ehlers
Still from “Black Bullets” by Jeannette Ehlers

VOLUME 12 | ISSUE 1 | 2015

From the introduction by guest editor, Gina Athena Ulysse:

Resist the impulse to translate, pronounce it first. Think consciously of the sound. Let the arch of the r roll over the ah that automatically depresses the tongue; allow the hiss in the s that will culminate at the front of the teeth to entice the jaw to drop for the an sound while un-smacking the lips will propel the bl surrounding the depressed ah again ending with j. Play with its contours. Know what this word feels like in your mouth. In Haitian Kreyòl. 3 syllables. Ra-San-Blaj.

The issue forms a multimedia project that includes a cross-section of scholars and artists from the Caribbean and its diaspora. The TOC, with links to the included pieces, can be found here. A French version of the introduction can be found here.