Roots, rock revisited

In 1996, Kamau Brathwaite brought a group of students from New York to Barbados for a week to experience first-hand his Mother Poem. ArtsEtc editor Linda M. Deane was at that time an arts and features writer at the Nation newspaper, and was one of two journalists invited to accompany the poet and his students on an island tour. Below is a condensed version of her story that appeared in the Nation’s Sunday Sun of April 28, 1996.

In and Out of Worlds

Pupils of St Margaret's Primary in St John show their best "lightning bolts." We would use Usain Bolt's trademark pose and other fun stretches to prepare for our storybook travels. (Photo: S. A. Devonish)
 

The drive to Glenburnie takes you east to a part of St. John that is so far flung it is practically in the ocean.

I made it my escape every Tuesday for six weeks to read to schoolchildren there.

A WAY HOME: Haibun for Maya Angelou

She bid us welcome,
stay awhile. Showed us ’round
then said, Go on, chile.

Maya Angelou was easily, almost too easily, so much more than your usual triple threat. The singer, dancer, actress was also a rape-incest survivor, a madam at one stage, mother, university professor, Oprah’s good friend and, of course, international best-selling poet, essayist and inspirational writer.

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