Bocas hits the streets today

Poets will pop up in selected public spaces to encourage busy pedestrians to stand a while, listen, participate and interact with them.
Poets will pop up in selected public spaces to encourage busy pedestrians to stand a while, listen, participate and interact with them.

THE NGC Bocas Lit Fest may be a literary festival, but it is not a bookish event. It’s a celebration of words and ideas in whatever form they appear, including calypso, extempo, spoken word, drama, midnight robber talk, even, which may explain why thousands of people enjoy it year after year.

Evening festival events take place all over the capital and most daytime events happen in the Old Fire Station and adjoining National Library in downtown Port of Spain, but the programme includes a series of events for city folk who cannot get to the main venue.

The lit fest runs from April 25-29 and troubadour performance poets plan to pop up in selected public spaces to encourage busy pedestrians to stand a while, listen, participate and interact with the poets who amaze and delight with their lyrical but acute observations of our life and times, said a media release. And there are the Lunchtime Jam sessions with Open Mic at the Breakfast Shed on Wrightson Road on April 27 and 28 from 12.30-1.30 pm, courtesy the 2Cents Movement.

An interesting addition to the eighth annual festival is the Port of Spain Chocolate Tour. This country was once the third highest producer of cacao in the world and has always been known for having the finest-flavoured beans. This amazing product was almost entirely sold and shipped overseas until quite recently. In fact, only in this past decade has the local chocolate scene exploded.

The Alliance of Rural Communities of TT (ARCTT) will host a dynamic tour to visit several spots to explore cacao in literature (at the National Library), taste multiple different chocolates in a guided tasting, learn cacao history (at the National Archives and Museum) and enjoy some great local cocoa and chocolate treats at a chocolate cafe.

“The evolution of cacao and chocolate in Trinidad is one of our most important national stories, and where best to tell it but at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest?” says ARCTT founder and co-director Gillian Goddard.

For more info: info@bocaslitfest.com and www.bocslitfest for details of all festival events.

Pavement poets

April 20, 4-5 pm, City Gate

Apri 21, 11 am-12 pm, Long Circular Mall

April 26, 2-3 pm, Woodford Square

April 27, 3-4 pm, Lower Charlotte Street

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"Bocas hits the streets today"

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