Frank A. Collymore of Barbados, 1893Barbados, -1980, was perhaps best known as the editor of Bim,... more Frank A. Collymore of Barbados, 1893Barbados, -1980, was perhaps best known as the editor of Bim, the regional literary magazine in the English-speaking Caribbean. He was also a poet, short story writer, eminent amateur actor, school-teacher and artist. Between 1944 and 1971 Collymore published five collections of poetry and an often reprinted study of 'Barbadian dialect'. In 1991, a collection of his short stories was published posthumously. In his later years he was often described as a 'literary genius' and as 'The Grand Old Man of West Indian literature'. He won honorary awards and wide recognition in the English-speaking region for his role in the development of Caribbean literature.
In November 1954, after a period of eight years as editor of the BBC radio programme Caribbean Vo... more In November 1954, after a period of eight years as editor of the BBC radio programme Caribbean Voices, Henry Swanzy left London for Accra to take up a further appointment in broadcasting. Those eight years established for him a unique position in Caribbean literature. He had presided over a series of regular weekly programmes, at first lasting 20 minutes and then 29 minutes after 1947. These programmes became, perhaps, the most important focus for the development and promotion of the region's literary output. Swanzy estimated that the programmes' first six years introduced to its audience over 150 d1fferent contributors from the English-speaking Caribbean.
Island Voices: From St Christopher & the Barracudas
Philip Nanton, with art by booops. Island Voices: From St Christopher & the Barracudas. Londo... more Philip Nanton, with art by booops. Island Voices: From St Christopher & the Barracudas. London and Trafalgar, Dominica: Papillote Press, 2014. 66 pp._PHILIP NANTON, WHO WAS BORN in St Vincent, returned to the Caribbean in 2000, after many years in England. In an early manifestation Island Voices was a CD, written, mixed and produced with appropriate sound effects in 2008, using actors to bring the voices to life. The CD cover was designed by another Vincentian, "booops" (Caroline Sardine) who also created art work for each of the fifteen tracks; and in 2009 an art gallery in Bridgetown hosted a joint exhibition of booops's work and Philip Nantons reading. Material from Island Voices has also been presented on the internet and in film. And now we have the book.The book is nicely designed, and enlivened by the collaboration with booops. In a blurb on the back cover, Rex Dixon, an artist and educator, writes: "The illustrations demonstrate a mature style and individual voice combining text colour, line, objects, multimedia and assemblage into a distinctive whole." But Island Voices is still essentially a script - a viable revue script - requiring direction and performance.It is set in "the mythical Caribbean islands of St Christopher & the Barracudas" (iv). The prime minister, "J.G.", has asked "Fish-head", the retired chief of police, "a good man behind the mike" (3), to help promote tourism. Fishhead is in studio directing the editing process.The recordings to be edited include a taxi-driver calling attention to landmarks (cemetery, hospital, dump, and new construction work); a multi-layered response to Hurricane Ivan (including snatches of poetry); rum shop dialogue (in which a former groom is rebuked for colonial nostalgia); admiration of a coconut vendors machete-wielding artistry; a dispute in public transport about what style of music to play; privileged ladies comparing cruises and their inadequate husbands; a rich man worried about health and physical security; an unreliable gardener who cannot repay a loan; a foul-mouthed entertainer complaining that his precious smoked salmon has been eaten as red salt-fish; an incompetent hold-up man remonstrating with a bungling confederate; what reads like celebration of criminal assault in New York (and haunting snatches of Shake Keane poetry); police broadcasts; a class-conscious lady who insists that she must be the one to take the governor around to see the stalls at the fair, and who is cross that the Cuban Embassy has failed to indicate their wishes in good time; a lady who finds her priest "so stubborn with his kindness" (59) that he would weaken the corps of volunteers by accepting the Mrs Maynards of this world who do not mean to work; and finally "Wake Up Call", a snatch of stylishly vacuous morning radio. …
This book argues that the frontier, usually associated with the era of colonial conquest, has gre... more This book argues that the frontier, usually associated with the era of colonial conquest, has great, continuing and under explored relevance to the Caribbean region. Identifying the frontier as a moral, ideational and physical boundary between what is imagined as civilisation and wilderness, the book seeks to extend frontier analysis by focusing on the Eastern Caribbean multi-island state of St Vincent and the Grenadines. The continuing relevance of the concept of frontier, and allied notions of civilisation and wilderness, are illuminated through an analysis of the ways in which SVG is perceived and experienced by both outsiders to the society and its insiders. Using literary sources, biographies and autobiography, the book shows how St Vincent is imagined and made sense of as a modern frontier; a society in the balance between an imposed civilised order and an untameable wild that always encroaches, whether in the form of social dislocation, the urban presence of the ‘Wilderness people’ or illegal marijuana farming in the northern St Vincent hills. The frontier as examined here has historically been and remains very much a global production. Simultaneously, it is argued that contemporary processes of globalisation shape the development of tourism and finance sectors, as well as patterns of migration, they connect to shifting conceptions of the civilised and the wild, and have implications for the role of the state and politics in frontier societies
Frank A. Collymore of Barbados, 1893Barbados, -1980, was perhaps best known as the editor of Bim,... more Frank A. Collymore of Barbados, 1893Barbados, -1980, was perhaps best known as the editor of Bim, the regional literary magazine in the English-speaking Caribbean. He was also a poet, short story writer, eminent amateur actor, school-teacher and artist. Between 1944 and 1971 Collymore published five collections of poetry and an often reprinted study of 'Barbadian dialect'. In 1991, a collection of his short stories was published posthumously. In his later years he was often described as a 'literary genius' and as 'The Grand Old Man of West Indian literature'. He won honorary awards and wide recognition in the English-speaking region for his role in the development of Caribbean literature.
There is an element of tragedy about the life of Shake Keane, fugle-horn player, poet and educato... more There is an element of tragedy about the life of Shake Keane, fugle-horn player, poet and educator, who died in November 1997 at the age of seventy in Bergen, Norway. Keane was born on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent which at his birth was one of the poorer ...
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