sx salon, issue 5 (June 2011)

Introduction and Table of Contents

This issue of sx salon is dedicated to celebrating Peepal Tree Press for its twenty-five years of publishing. Although neither located in the Caribbean nor dedicated exclusively to publishing Caribbean titles, Peepal Tree, as its name is meant to indicate, has strong roots in the region; the idea of the press grew out of founder Jeremy Poynting’s work in Guyana, and Backdam People, a collection of stories by Guyanese writer Rooplall Monar, was the press’s first publication. In the past quarter century, Peepal Tree has become one of the most trusted presses for Caribbean texts, introducing readers to fresh new voices and now also providing access to previously out-of-print texts in their recently launched Caribbean Modern Classics series, which has, in the past two years, returned to circulation such treasures as Edgar Mittleholzer’s A Morning at the Office, Andrew Salkey’s Escape to Autumn Pavement, and Earl Lovelace’s first novel, While Gods are Falling. These classics reside easily alongside new works in the Peepal Tree catalog, opening space for what Christian Campbell, in the sx salon interview with three young Peepal Tree poets (see the discussion section of this issue), calls an “exciting generational quarrel.” In addition to this interview, the discussion section includes thoughtful essays by Jeremy Poynting and Kwame Dawes (Peepal Tree poetry editor) on the past, present, and future of the press.

Continuing the theme, the reviews in this issue of sx salon feature five recent Peepal Tree publications: collected stories by Anton Nimblett and Geoffrey Philp, new novels by Jan Lowe Shinebourne and Brenda Flanagan, and Christian Campbell’s first collection of poetry. A mix of new and established voices, these few examples indicate the strength of the press’s current offerings.

Rounding out our June issue are poems from Angelique Nixon, Thomas Reiter, and Joanne Hillhouse, as well as short fiction from Lisa Allen-Agostini and from Fabienne Sylvia Josaphat, whose story, “Like Fish, Drowning,” will be continued in our August issue.

We hope you enjoy the June issue of sx salon (table of contents below).

Kelly Baker Josephs

Table of Contents

sx salon, issue 5 (June 2011)—Kelly Baker Josephs

Reviews

Running the Dusk, by Christian Campbell—Stephen Narain
Chinese Women, by Jan Lowe Shinebourne—Anantha Sudhakar
Sections of an Orange, by Anton Nimblett—Natasha Gordon-Chipembere
Allah in the Islands, by Brenda Flanagan—Caryl McFarlane
Dub Wise, by Geoffrey Philp—Jennifer Marshall

Discussion Peepal Tree Press, 25 Years

Publishing in the Cracks—Jeremy Poynting
Finding a Home: Peepal Tree and Caribbean Literature—Kwame Dawes
Peepal Tree Poets Speak: sx salon interviews Tanya Shirley, Ishion Hutchinson and Christian Campbell

Prose

“The Gun”—Lisa Allen-Agostini
“Like Fish, Drowning (Part I)”—Fabienne Sylvia Josaphat

Poetry

Angelique Nixon
Thomas Reiter
Joanne Hillhouse

 

Special Issue on Dionne Brand (CFP)

MACOMÈRE (THE JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION OF CARIBBEAN WOMEN WRITERS & SCHOLARS)
SPECIAL ISSUE: 2012
DIONNE BRAND

This special issue of MaComère is focused on Caribbean Canadian writer Dionne Brand. For over thirty years, Dionne Brand has been testing the capacity of poetic language to address ethical questions of global consequence. She has published in a wide range of genres, including poetry, novels, short stories, essays and non fiction, and documentary film, and is Poet Laureate of the City of Toronto (2009-2012). Brand has won many awards for her writing, including most recently the prestigious 2011 Griffin Poetry Prize for her narrative poem Ossuaries.

Continue reading Special Issue on Dionne Brand (CFP)

Preserving Our Stories – Caribbean LGBT Histories and Activism

The Digital Archive Collection of the Jamaica Gay Freedom Movement
Launch & Discussion
21 June 2011 at 6PM
Brooklyn College
Woody Tanger Auditorium in the Library
2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11210

Panelists include:

* Larry Chang (co-founder of the Jamaica Gay Freedom Movement and Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals & Gays – JFLAG)
* Thomas Glave (award-winning author and co-founder of JFLAG)
* Angelique V. Nixon (scholar, writer, community worker, co-chair of the Caribbean IRN Board)
* Rosamond S. King (writer, scholar, artist, co-chairs of the Caribbean IRN Board)

Continue reading Preserving Our Stories – Caribbean LGBT Histories and Activism

Be Black Baby!

Be Black Baby: a House Party
presents:

Edouard Glissant, Inhabit his Name

Curated by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich & Simone Leigh

Featuring work by: Becca Albee, Vanessa Agard-Jones, Firelei Báez, Kelly Baker Josephs, Jayson Keeling, Kaiama Glover, Hanna Herbertson and Blackgold Dancers, Devin KKenny, Legacy Russell, and Yasmin Spiro.

Friday June 17, 2011
Recess Activities
41 Grand Street, New York, NY
7-9pm performances; 9pm– 12am dance party with DJ Khary Polk

Continue reading Be Black Baby!

ARC Magazine, issue 2

The second issue of ARC Magazine, a Caribbean Art and Culture Magazine, is now available.  Issue 1 of ARC was on sale at our Caribbean Epistemologies Symposium, and issue 2 is similarly gorgeous and well-produced. A preview of the issue is available here.

A description if the contents of ARC 2 from the “Letter from Founders” included in the issue:

Continue reading ARC Magazine, issue 2

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)