Audience members at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College were captivated by the words of poets, essayists, novelists, filmmakers and other speakers last week during the Second Annual BVI Literary Arts Festival.
The three-day event – themed “Unwritten, Unspoken, Unknown” – featured internationally renowned writers from across the region participating in panel discussions, workshops and other sessions celebrating the literary arts in the Caribbean from Thursday to past until Saturday. Featured artists and performers included Kei Miller from Jamaica, Tiphanie Yanique and Celeste Rita Baker from St. Thomas, Tobias born in Grenada
Buckell, Desiree Bailey from Trinidad and Tobago, Ana Portnoy Brimmer from Puerto Rico, Sharma Taylor from Jamaica and more.
“Dear love, when you fall in love, you will be sure that it is something special for the other person. Don’t the songs on the radio make you think so?” Ms. Yanique read from her novel The Monster in the Middle during a Friday panel discussion on Future Time: The Caribbean Imagination. “Or maybe you’ll be smart enough to know that it’s something special about you, too, because that’s what therapists on TV get paid to help you figure out.”
Different themes
During the panel, Mrs. Yanique, Mr. Buckell, Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Taylor also spoke about climate change, writing in dialect and the contribution of Caribbean literature to world literature, among other topics.
“The natural environment and where you are in relation to the sea – there are these things that happen that are very visible in our work: the fact that we are very vulnerable,” Mr Buckell said.
Mrs. Taylor agreed.
“This vulnerability is very important,” she said. “That’s why it’s so important to get our voices out so future generations know what we’re all about. The importance of Caribbean literature is that we are in conversation with other societies here and in the future. They were here; we deserve to be heard. We are just as viable as anyone else who is writing.”
Mr Buckell added that if Caribbean writers “don’t imagine our future, someone else will”.
“If someone else is not us, then someone else is taking control of our future,” he said.
The panelists also fielded several questions from students in the audience.
Other panels
The fiction writers’ panel was among several sessions held from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday at the college.
Other discussions centered around topics such as parentage, ancestry, political development in overseas territories, economic development, climate change and crisis journalism. Among those present were about 100 high school students from Tortola and the sister islands.
On Friday night, a showcase at Sushi Bar featured emerging local writers as well as acclaimed Trinidadian performance poet Derron Sandy.
On Saturday, workshops in publishing, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, children’s literature and other literary arts were held at Maria’s by the Sea. The Department of Culture also organized a book fair.
Heavy rains that evening postponed the final public event of the festival: a poetry slam with a grand prize of $1,000 for the first-place winner and $250 for the runner-up.
The second year
The literary festival started last year as part of the government’s Culture and Tourism Month activities in collaboration with HLSCC.
The goal of the event is to create a space where lovers of the literary arts can “engage in discussions focused on cultural identity while promoting the works of local authors,” according to the festival’s website.
