Caribbean Writers

Celebrating Caribbean writers. Share your favourite excerpts, poems, photos and videos that inspire you or submit your own work here or to [email protected]

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryzopmNZKgg)

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Follow this amazing artist 

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Video: The Two Cents Movement 

Poet: Micko Poet  

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1990 Coup Special on Gayelle TV (Clip 3) Abu Bakr being arrested.

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1990 Coup Special on Gayelle TV (Clip 1) Abu Bakr addresses the nation.

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Stayceyann Chin "Feminist or a Womanist"

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Can I just go ahead and submit my poems here?

Hi yes of course :)

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Mas

#TBT MINSHALL MAS The BLACK MADONNA From the band TAPESTRY 1997 costume design executed by my team at 6 Carlos street #whenmas had integrity#collaboration #Trinidad carnival

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Mr Monday- Drew Gonsalves- Kobo Town- Directed by Shaun Escayg

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Trinidad...

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Nestled in the heart of downtown Port of Spain, Greyfriar's 

Church marks the introduction of Presbyterianism to 

Trinidad. In 1837, this church was established to serve the 

British settlers, most of whom were Presbyterian Scots. The 

Trinidad Presbyterian Association, formed in 1834 petitioned 

the Governor, Sir Ralph Woodford for a ministry dedicated to them. Woodford was a major contributor to the development of Port of Spain in the 19th century: the Cathedral of the  Holy Trinity and the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception were also built under his governorship.

THE Greyfriars Church of Scotland on Frede­rick Street, Port of Spain, has reportedly been sold to a private developer, and there is growing concern the building, which dates back to the 1800s, will be torn down. There is also anger the National Trust did not move to list the church, which would have given it legal protection against such a fate. And the family of one of the first reverends to minister at the church wants to know what will become of the graves of their ancestors, and of the church contents, which holds a part of Trinidad’s colonial history.

"It is like a bad dream. What will replace the church hall and the church itself? I pray not another glass-fronted monstrosity, centrally air-conditioned to match so much of what has been allowed to spoil the flavour of Port of Spain. If that were to be the case, it would be the proof that we are continuing our descent into a soulless, heartless, materialistic madhouse. My father and his brother, great grandsons of Reverend Brodie and elders in the church for much of their adult life, must be turning in their graves." - Jennifer De Verteuil

[from the Trinidad Express] Photo by John Whitaker.

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It's All About the Return

with thanks to Seamus Heaney

The blush of hibiscus bushes lightens road’s edge, spreads over the isle’s south shore.

The sea’s sucked out today— the reefs exposed as altar stones.

I came home to inhale the roots of altar stones I store in my heart, to know again the spawning truth the sea murmurs.

I came home to witness the land awaken from a sudden downpour, to watch how oleanders shrug, buttery alamandas

cup each raindrop, frangipani stiffen then reopen in stillness as brief and full as an evening shadow.

These rhythms, familiar as the deep soil they grow in, reassure, call something untouched in me to free itself below the sun.

Wendy Fulton Steginsky is a Bermudian poet whose work has been published in two Bermuda Anthologies, And The Questions Are Enough, online, including The Wild River Review and Making Magic: Beauty in Word and Image, an exhibition and book celebrating photography and poetry at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

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Under the Carpet
 (2002)

Around here things use to give man fit The way they does sweep bad deeds under the carpet You and I know what I saying is true How them does cover up what certain people do Once you up there with rank and file You get away clean—a tap on the wrist and a smile Though you get catch red-handed in corruption Like a reward you get transferred with promotion

Chor: And everything get swept—under the carpet ………..Ask Outlet ‘bout Christian Children funds—if it’s under the carpet ………..And if the forensic report tried to put anything—under the carpet ………..Like the hurricane lumber business went—under the carpet ………..Etc. etc.. etc etc ————-

Around here man use to get real vex But had no means to take out their text You could only grumble and take your blows You were exclusively held in check by the likes of Mr. Rose No matter how you frustrate stress out yourself and tug They will sweep whatever they want to, under the rug It’s the order of the day once you in the club Your punishment for misdeed is transfer to a bigger job

But ’round here like things changing over Since the advent of Radio Observer School Children say they watching with the eyes of the Eagle And nothing go pass—everything go get the needle They say all the under-hand boo-bul, they go make disable And is only clean cards they can play on top the table From captain to cook, nobody getting no break That’s why they investigating the video tape

Chor: Cause no longer will things be swept—under the carpet ………..No corruption cesspool can be swept under the carpet ………..Etc. etc. etc etc - Marcus Christopher 

“He was a successful businessman in the ‘import/export’ sector who doubled as a band leader (trumpeter and saxophonist) and singer. He had sung calypso as early as 1953. He remembers debuting at the Happy Acre Nightclub singing in praise of the colonial government. He initiated his writing career, seriously in 1960.

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He shaped the lyrical content of the Antigua calypso during the decade of the sixties and continued to have impact during the seventies. He is due tremendous praise for his contribution to the maturation of Short Shirt as the most successful Antiguan calypsonian. Together they guided the modernization of Benna music [its Caribbean folk song genre] into calypso that found regional and international acceptance. ” – Dorbrene O’Marde  writing in his book King Short Shirt: Nobody Go Run Me: The Life and Times of Sir Maclean Emanuel, 2014

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3Canal - "Corruption"

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"Good Swimma" by Q Major and Freetown Written by Muhammad Muwakil and Lou Lyons of Freetown, Produced, mixed and mastered by : Q Major, Executive Producer : Alexa Bailey. contact: [email protected]. Director: Damian Marcano, Assistant Director: Princess Donelan. GRIP: Christopher Watson Check http://www.facebook.com/godlovesthefi… follow Freetown http://www.twitter.com/@wearefreetown follow Q-Major http://www.twitter.com/@qmajor868 follow God Loves The Fighter http://www.twitter.com/@GLTFthemovie

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Beauty

They say, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

Behold, single mother three children living with her parents to survive.

A girl working two jobs, seven days a week, saving to go to school.

Heart-spurned lover, abuse victim, a decade later; trying to prove to her mother, it’s not her fault.

Voluptuous goddess whose partner is concerned about blood pressure, diet, shortness of breath.

Child in a grown body, with a woman’s years, trying too grab the attention of men who look like the picture of her father.

Bag lady, your eyes tell stories of glory, despair, success, failure deceit, withdrawn ineptness.

Grandmother falls from her bed in the home.

Daughter does not sue— tired of the long drives every month.

Life does not make you less beautiful.

Bermuda born Dane Swan was shortlisted for Scarborough Arts’ Monica Ladell Award in 2013. In 2011, his collection of poems Bending the Continuum (Guernica Editions) was a recommended midsummer read by Open Book Toronto. In February 2014 Dane shall be the monthly Writer-In-Residence for Open Book Toronto.