Staff WriterOn the second Tuesday of January this year, the earth trembled and the devastation that befell the nation of Haiti was slowly coming to light. On March 9, 2010, the second Tuesday of the month, the Caribbean Cultural Theatre’s literary series, Poets & Passion: Writers on Writing, looks at using writing as a catharsis to not only grieve, but also heal with Haitian American poets Yolaine M. St.Fort and Josaphat-Robert Large.
Designed for lovers of the written word, Poets & Passion provides a forum for celebrated poets and novelist, emerging New York area writers, spoken work artists and the general public to share their creativity, experiences and insights. This monthly after-work literary lime held at the Downtown Brooklyn Campus of St Francis College features writers who are not only celebrated, critically acclaimed artists in their own right but are also actively involved in teaching, mentoring and critiquing other writers. The 2010 Winter/Spring series ‘Writers on Writing’ is curated Brooklyn, NY based Trinidadian writer, Anton Nimblett.
Beginning at 7pm on Tuesday, March 9, 2010, the program takes place at St Francis College – Callahan Center, 182 Remsen Street (between Clinton and Court Streets), Downtown Brooklyn, NY. In addition to the work of Ms. St. Fort and Mr. Large, the programme will also showcase the talents of New York area writers in its open mic segment.
Yolaine M. St.Fort is currently a high school teacher and an adjunct professor of English Composition at Long Island University where she earned a M.A. in Creative Writing. She is the author of a novel, My Shadows in the Mirror, and her prose and poetry have been published in Downtown Brooklyn, Szirine, Prose Ax, Poetry in Performance Anthology, and Calabash: A Journal of Caribbean Arts & Letters. She is an editorial advisor to the literary magazine The Magnet. Her poetry weaves in between images of tragedy and scenes of hope as captured in General Authority: Haiti Earthquake 1-12-2010, edited by Lahiny Pierre with photographs and paintings by some of Haiti’s most talented artists.
Josaphat-Robert Large is a poet, novelist and art critic. His novel Les terres entourées de larmes (Shore surrounded with tears) won the prestigious Grand Prix littéraire des Caraïbes (Grand Caribbean literary Prize) in 2003. He writes in both French and Haitian Creole. He is a member of La Société des Gens de Lettres de France (Society of French intellectuals), of the Association des Écrivains de langue française (Association of writers of French origin) and the Pen Club America. He is the author of five novels, four compilations of poems and one book of photography. Two of his books have been translated in English: Pését (Keep On Keeping On) and Les Terres Entourées de Larmes (Land Surrounded With Tears).
The series schedule continues on: April 13 – Geoffrey Philp (Jamaica), Who’s Your Daddy ; May 11 – Elizabeth Nunez(Trinidad & Tobago), Anna In-Between; Tiphanie Yanique (US Virgin Islands), How To Escape From A Leper Colony; June 8 – Thomas Galve (US/Jamaica), The Torturer’s Wife.
Now in it’s fourth season, this celebration of Caribbean literary expression has held presentations in venues as varied as New York City Hall and the Harlem Book Fair, and has featured such diverse writers as historian Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados), the wife of the former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Beverly Anderson Manley, novelist Merle Collins (Grenada), and Grammy Award ® Nominee Linton Kwesie Johnson.
The Caribbean Cultural Theatre is an eclectic and ever-evolving blend of artists and cultures through active collaboration with both Caribbean and non-Caribbean artists of all disciplines, honours a balanced rendering of Caribbean culture and the Caribbean-American experience. The Poets & Passion Series is presented with the assistance of Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York and St Francis College – Office of Special Events.
jamarch
