The Calabash experience

“Calabash – the only place were you would find a lesbian poet, a former Prime Minister who owns a football team, and the slackest man in Jamaica.” One of the Calabash founders, referring to Staceyann Chin, Edward Seaga, and Anthony Winkler.
What was it about this year’s Calabash that still causes its many images and tones [...]

Philosophy in a poem

Facilitator, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and fellow blogger, Marguerite Orane, whom I had met late last year, and whose book, Free and Laughing, has made a tremendous impact on my approach to life, shared a poem yesterday, which I found quite thought-provoking, and also felt compelled to share. In her reflections on the insightful piece, penned [...]

Writers’ Block: Geoffrey Philp & Marlon James

Geoffrey Philp
Jamaican poet, novelist, and fellow blogger, Geoffrey Philp, will be reading from his latest collection, Who’s Your Daddy?: And Other Stories, at this year’s annual Calabash International Literary Festival.
“To be invited to read with this the select group of writers at the Calabash International Literary Festival is an honor that I will always cherish,” [...]

Writers’ Block: Staceyann Chin & Millicent Graham

Staceyann Chin
Jamaican-born. Spoken word poet. Activist. Writer. Performer. New Yorker. Sassy.
Expect to hear the latter quality infusing Ms. Chin’s performance at this year’s Calabash Literary Festival, where she will read from her memoir, The Other Side of Paradise.
In his review, Walter Mosley describes Ms. Chin’s memoir as
“…a heartbreaking feat of unflinching memory and language. Set [...]

Tory Dent, on Life with AIDS

Tory Dent won several awards for her work about living with AIDS, most famously in her collection, HIV, Mon Amour. She had been HIV-positive for 17 years up to the time of her death on December 30, 2005.
Black Milk
in memory of “HIV, Mon Amour”
I.
Black trees, blue trees, white trees, bare trees -
Whatever was my life [...]