Literary arts light up Carifesta XIV

For the second time this year, TT-based word lovers will have the chance to be regaled by some of the region’s literary luminaries, set to converge in Port of Spain for Carifesta XIV, August 16-24.

Among the various art forms taking centre stage at Carifesta, the biggest celebration of Caribbean arts and culture, will be a free, diverse literary programme curated and executed by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, the Caribbean’s premiere annual literary festival.

Carifesta’s literary component will be anchored by a book fair in the Grand Market at the Queen’s Park Savannah. Here, booksellers will offer a wide range of Caribbean titles every day alongside daily readings by star writers and open mic sessions that include emerging writers and spoken word performers. To take part in the open mic, writers are asked to register their interest via the Bocas Lit Fest website before August 5, when registration closes.

It is free to participate and on a first come, first serve basis. Patrons wishing to catch the after-work action are in for daily evening sessions featuring a number of class acts such as TT’s foremost living literary star Earl Lovelace; St Lucian poet and 2015 OCM Bocas prizewinner Vladimir Lucien with fellow prize-winning St-Lucian writers; consummate Caribbean storyteller Paul Keens-Douglas and novelist Michael Anthony. The lineup comprises other acclaimed writers, including Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné, Kevin Jared Hosein, Lisa Allen-Agostini, Shivanee Ramlochan, Debbie Jacob, Andre Bagoo and many more.

Oral tradition adherents will get their fix with midnight robber renditions, pieces inspired by the classic bookman folk character, an extempo debate between Black Sage and current Extempo Monarch Brian London, and sizzling performances by consecutive winners of the annual First Citizens National Poetry Slam.

Festival-goers can look out for thematic readings by writers integrated into events taking place around Port of Spain. One stand-alone headline literary event will be the musical presentation They Called Him Kitch, by UK-based TT poet Anthony Joseph, author of Kitch: A Fictional Biography of a Calypso Icon, to be held at the Big Black Box in Woodbrook on August 20. Musicians Douglas Redon, Krisson Joseph and Modupe Folasade Onilu will help set Lord Kitchener in his musical context.

True to the core of its literary development mandate, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest will host ten interactive workshops in collaboration with Nalis and the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts. These include master classes with OCM Bocas prizewinners Kevin Adonis Browne and Vladimir Lucien and 2018 Slam champion Deneka Thomas, as well as a workshop for absolute beginners with UWI lecturer Muli Amaye and Identifying (with) the Erotic, with Barbados’ Robert Edison Sandiford. Register at www.bocaslitfest.com/workshops

For more details on the activities and events organized by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest for Carifesta XIV, see bocaslitfest.com or call 222-7099.