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April 2013 |
Each year UWI celebrates Caribbean literature with its Campus Literature Week, hosted by the Faculty of Humanities and Education (FHE), through its Department of Literary, Cultural and Communication Studies. All writers in Trinidad, whether new to the game or old hands, are invited to share their work with anyone who’d like to listen. For four days during the week, the Alma Jordan Library opens its doors to members of the bookish public who flock in for these lunchtime readings. This year, from March 18th-21st, the Campus was host to popular names in Caribbean literature, like Monique Roffey, Gerard Besson and Lisa Allen Agostini. We also heard from new writers, many of them members of UWI’s MFA Creative Writing programme, as well as budding poets. The week ended, on Friday March 22nd, with a Gala Reading featuring UWI’s Writer-in-Residence, award-winning author of several novels and short story collections – Rabindranath Maharaj.
Fourteen years later, the celebration continues. This year’s gala showed that literature isn’t just about books. Maharaj stepped up to the stage to deliver his reading, the audience was treated to an entertaining monologue from a film he is currently writing. Still to be titled, it is set in Trinidad and tells the story of a man who opens his home and heart to a little Canadian boy he found stranded at the seaside. The monologue was performed by world-famous Trinidadian actor, Errol Sitahal, who had the audience captivated throughout the entire performance. It was then time for Robin’s reading and the mark of a truly loved book was clear when a few audience members cracked open their own copies of The Amazing Absorbing Boy so that they could follow along with him. For the next half-hour or so, the audience found itself following 17-year-old Sam through Canada as he struggled to find a life for himself there. By the time Sam knew the ropes, the audience was in fits of laughter as he tried to explain the Canadian customs to his Uncle Boysie, who was visiting from Mayaro – although the woman behind the counter at the coffee shop called him “hon” as she handed him their drinks, it’s not something that you’d call another man, for example. The question and answer session was just as lively, with audience members trying to soak up as much of Maharaj’s knowledge and experience as possible. He told of how he ended up in Canada and became the world-renowned writer he is today, his inspiration for The Amazing Absorbing Boy and his writing routine, with many techniques and tips thrown in for anyone who wished to grab them up. Though there seemed to be more questions than there was time for, no one was left in the cold as the conversation continued at the cocktail reception which followed. |
The evening began with opening addresses, which included remarks by the FHE’s Dean, Professor Funso Aiyejina, who emphasised the need to recognise and appreciate Caribbean literature, particularly the talents of its creators, and, more so, “the need to nurture creators of literature” lest our stock run out. One day after the death of Chinua Achebe, one of most important figures in African literature, this message was even more powerful – who will tell the world of the Caribbean, of our history, our present, our future, when the Naipauls, Lovelaces, Seniors and Lammings are no longer of this earth? Who will write of the Caribbean experience then? Thus began Campus Literature Week in 1999, said Prof Aiyejina.