Bocas Pavement Poets eye change in 2022

The NGC Bocas Lit Fest has brought together five of Trinidad and Tobago’s most talented spoken-word poets — Derron Sandy, Dominique Friday, Kyle Hernandez, Gabrielle Murray, and Kleon McPherson — for a special edition of the ongoing Pavement Poets series.

In the new video, the poets share their hopes, concerns, and inspirations for 2022, from the miracle of a newborn daughter to going “back to basics.” Directed by Elechi Todd, Pavement Poets: 2022, a Year of Change premiered on January 9 on the Bocas YouTube (youtube.com/bocaslitfest) and Facebook (facebook.com/bocaslitfest) platforms, and is now available for viewing on demand, said a media release.

Filmed in locations in both Tobago and Trinidad, the five poets’ performances bring together diverse voices and viewpoints, ranging from the pleading to the playful. They share a focus on making 2022 “a year of change,” a theme that will run through NGC Bocas Lit Fest programming in the coming months, the release said.

Pavement Poets is a longtime fixture of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest programme, where it began as a series of live, in-person performances at venues across Port of Spain during the annual festival. In 2020, Pavement Poets was reinvented as a recorded video event as part of the Lit Fest’s pandemic shift to virtual programming, and this new edition is the third to premiere in this format.