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 [email protected]

Longlist announced for the 2011 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature

The longlist for the newly initiated OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean literature was announced early this morning.  The books cover three categories and represent six countries.

Poetry
Elegguas, by Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados) — Wesleyan
A Light Song of Light, by Kei Miller (Jamaica) — Carcanet
White Egrets, by Derek Walcott (St. Lucia) — Faber

Continue reading Longlist announced for the 2011 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature

Comments on Caribbean Middlebrow

by Tzarina T. Prater, English, LaGuardia Community College

Belinda Edmondson, “Introduction: Making the Case for Middlebrow Culture” and “Chapter 5: Organic Imports, or Authenticating Global Culture,” Caribbean Middlebrow: Leisure Culture and the Middle Class (New York: Cornell UP, 2009).

In Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, he condemns the middle class as mimics of their colonial administrators. For Fanon, the bourgeoisie and their desires signify an annihilating self-contempt and violence to black consciousness and nationalism. In fact, he blames the failure of an efficacious black nationalism to emerge on the “intellectual laziness of the middle class”:

Continue reading Comments on Caribbean Middlebrow

Response to Belinda Edmondson’s Caribbean Middlebrow

by Ted Sammons, Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center

Belinda Edmondson, “Introduction: Making the Case for Middlebrow Culture” and “Chapter 5: Organic Imports, or Authenticating Global Culture,” Caribbean Middlebrow: Leisure Culture and the Middle Class (New York: Cornell UP, 2009).

Belinda Edmondson’s previous work—a number of articles, her book Making Men (1999), and her edited collection of essays, Caribbean Romances (1999)—together establish her place in conversations about the character and uses of literary representation among African-descended people in the U.S. and the Caribbean. In Caribbean Middlebrow (2009) we find her moving from literary into cultural studies while keeping focused on exploring how aesthetic practices operate and are operated on in English-speaking Caribbean societies. Continue reading Response to Belinda Edmondson’s Caribbean Middlebrow

Report on Haiti’s homeless camps and cholera

From Mark Schuller, seminar participant and York College/CUNY Faculty

 

This study is a fol­low up to the report, “Unsta­ble Foun­da­tions,” results of six weeks of research dur­ing the sum­mer of 2010, which argued that despite the bil­lions in aid pledged to Haiti, most of Haiti’s esti­mated 1.5 mil­lion IDPs lived in sub­stan­dard con­di­tions. For exam­ple, seven months fol­low­ing the earth­quake, 40.5 per­cent of IDP camps did not have access to water, and 30.3 per­cent did not have toi­lets of any kind. This lack of san­i­ta­tion ser­vices became the prime breed­ing grounds for ill­nesses just like cholera, which struck Haiti with great force. As of the end of the year, there were an esti­mated 170,000 cases of the ill­ness and 3600 deaths.

The report can be found here.

Island’s Edge: Readings, Music, Photos, and Dance Celebrating Jamaican Street Culture

From the Housing Works website:

Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby Street, New York, NY 10012 :: 212-334-3324

Map
Directions

Join writer Anicée Gaddis, journalist Knox Robinson and poet Marcel Anthony Logan for an evening of perspectives and creative musings on Jamaican culture today. Photographer Alessandro Simonetti will make a special introduction of his new book Small Kings and
host a slide show of his work. Small Kings documents Passa Passa, a legendary street party in Jamaica, just months before the conflicts in downtown Kingston during May, 2010, shut down the party and made Tivoli Gardens headline news around the world. Entertainment will be provided by the Blackgold dancers with a special guest deejay.