The 2016 NGC Bocas Lit Fest starts on April 23 with the first-ever Latin American, Caribbean, and Spanish Literary Film Festival: CineLit—five days packed with films never seen before in T&T, based on classic books and writers from the rich heritage of Latin American film and literature.
From Oscar-winning Black Orpheus (1959) to Love and Other Demons (2010) based on the 1994 story by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the film screenings invite us to expand our cultural awareness, dipping into the passions and even some of the madnesses of different literary cultures. All films in Spanish are subtitled in English. Screenings, free to the public, will be shown in the Audio Visual Room on the lower ground floor of the National Library in Port-of-Spain.
Every year the Bocas Lit Fest expands its menu, and the cinematic addition this year adds a new dimension to offerings which are already diverse. Readings, performances, films, workshops, and discussions all provide a little something for everyone. There are storytelling events for children every weekend this month, as well as events commemorating many anniversaries: 200 years of the Merikins; 125 years of cricket at the Queen’s Park Cricket Club; 95 years of Wilson Harris; and 40 years of the “ole talk” of Paul Keens-Douglas. Bocas events (except for the writers’ workshops and the Poetry Slam event) are all free; and everyone is welcome.
Among tribute events this year is one to the Mighty Sparrow, whose classic song Jean and Dinah 60 years ago won him his first Calypso Monarch and Road March Titles.
The Bocas Lit Fest celebrates the anniversary of this milestone through readings, drama and music on April 28 at 9-10 am at the Old Fire Station (National Library) in Port-of-Spain. Speakers and performers will include the “Last Bardjohn of Calypso” Kurt Allen, Penelope Spencer, Rhoma Spencer, Rikki Jai and Nikki Crosby.
For those who love live “ole talk,” The Bocas Lit Fest will include lunchtime performances including spoken word poets (12-1 pm, on April 27, 28 and 29 at the Breakfast Shed on Wrightson Road).
And celebrating our oral traditions, you can also hear the Bookman, Black Indians, and Midnight Robbers talk their talk.
There will also be a Poetry Slam event (tickets required), in which 12 people, chosen from more than 140 spoken word artists, will compete in a final showdown on Sunday, May 1, the Festival’s final day.
For bibliophiles, parts of the ground floor of the National Library in Port-of-Spain will be transformed into a paradise for book lovers, with hundreds of titles on sale at booksellers’ stalls, and spaces to eat, drink, and relax all around.
Celebrating two innovators: Cervantes and Shakespeare
This year, the festival celebrates the influences of two of the world’s great writers, Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) from Spain and William Shakespeare (1564-1616) from England, who both created masterpieces of entertaining, thoughtful and inspiring literature. Although both men died 400 years ago, the power of their words has proved to be timeless.
They each strongly influenced the creative writing genres of Europe for many generations.
Cervantes is best known for his tale of Don Quixote, the delusional nobleman who tilts at windmills, in a story which is at once satirical, comic, tragic and a prototype of the modern novel. And Shakespeare is celebrated for his portrayal of complex, compelling characters, for his simple yet eloquent verse, for his exploration of the sheer range of human emotion, and for his masterful storytelling talent: whether comedy, tragedy, history, melodrama, adventure, love stories, or fairytales, he knew how to engage his audiences.
Marlon James to participate
Among the literary jewels sparkling at this year’s Bocas will be Jamaican writer Marlon James, whose most recent novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, won several major awards last year, including the 2015 Man Booker Prize and the American Book Award. The novel’s been called the “Quentin Tarantino” of literature for its unflinching evocation of violence. It explores the attempted assassination of reggae icon Bob Marley in Kingston in 1976, and its aftermath through the crack wars in New York City in the 1980s and a changed Jamaica in the 1990s. Decades of Jamaican history are recreated through the gripping, often violent perspectives of many shifting narrators (there are some 75 characters here, in what Kei Miller has called a “novel of cacophony.”).
James has written two previous fiction books: John Crow’s Devil (2005) and The Book of Night Women (2009). James will run a writer’s workshop and host readings at this year’s festival.
Honouring Jeremy Poynting
of Peepal Tree Press
Every year, the Bocas Lit Fest gives a special award to editors, publishers, critics, broadcasters, and others who have done extraordinary service for Caribbean literature. Called the Bocas Henry Swanzy Award, this year’s service award goes to Jeremy Poynting, the founder, publisher, and chief editor of UK-based Peepal Tree Press, which over the past 30 years has grown into the leading publishing house focused on contemporary Caribbean writing.
With more than 300 books on its list, ranging from works by debut authors to resurrected classics, Peepal Tree has arguably done more to nourish contemporary Caribbean literature than any other publisher, say Bocas organisers.
Poynting will receive the Swanzy award in a ceremony on April 30 at 7.15 pm at the Old Fire Station (invitations required).
Three women writers up
for OCM Bocas Prize
One of the high points of the festival every year is always the announcement of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. For the first time in the six-year history of the festival, books by women authors have been named as winners of all three genre categories of the Caribbean’s top writers’ award this year.
This year’s finalists are: poetry—Wife, by US Virgin Islands writer Tiphanie Yanique; fiction—The Pain Tree, by Jamaican Olive Senior; and non-fiction—The Gymnast and Other Positions, by Jamaican Jacqueline Bishop.
The three books will vie for the overall award of US$10,000 to be presented on April 30.
Past Bocas Prize winners have been poet Derek Walcott (2011, White Egrets), novelist Earl Lovelace (2012, Is Just a Movie), novelist Monique Roffey (2013, Archipelago), novelist Robert Antoni (2014, As Flies to Whatless Boys), and poet Vladimir Lucien (2015, Sounding Ground).
CELEBRATING CERVANTES
Film, book talks, and theatre
Tomorrow the Embassy of Spain hosts a reception to celebrate the literature writer Miguel de Cervantes, and also launch the first edition of Cinelit, the Latin American and Caribbean Literary Film Festival which is a new part of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest. Cinelit will be held at the National Library in Port-of-Spain from April 23 to May 1.
Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and businesswoman, writer and former Miss Universe, Wendy Fitzwilliam will read excerpts of the classic book Don Quixote, by Cervantes, in English and Spanish, at the reception.
The Embassy of Spain is hosting several events to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes. At the Cinelit festival, the film El Caballero Don Quixote will be shown on Saturday at 2 pm and Sunday at 4 pm. It is among 26 other films being screened from 13 countries of Spanish-speaking Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain.
Other events include the session Lunatics, Lovers and Poets, named after the book by the same name, part of the Bocas Lit Fest. Twelve fresh, exciting stories by some leading contemporary writers have been gathered in the book Lunatics, Lovers and Poets.
The book, co-produced by the Spanish Cultural Action and the British Council, celebrates the timelessness of Shakespeare and Cervantes, and one of its writers, Nell Leyshorn will be participating in readings and discussions at this session on May 1 at 11 am at the Old Fire Station.
In another event, on May, 4, Ambassador Turiso will participate in the Tribute to Cervantes being organised by the Association of Caribbean States.
Theatre will also be part of the Cervantes tributes when Spanish language students of UWI and UTT dramatise parts of Don Quixote as part of the 17th UWI Intercampus Foreign Language Theatre Festival, organised by UWI’s Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics from May 16-18.
School presentations on Cervantes will also take place, planned by the Embassy of Spain in collaboration with the Secretariat for the Implementation of Spanish (SIS).
The Embassy has created a hashtag #CervanTTes, under which all new developments of the events related to the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the death of Cervantes in T&T will be published in its social network sites: @EmbEspTT and Facebook.com/embajadatrinidadytobago
MORE INFO
The NGC Bocas Lit Fest takes place at the National Library and the adjoining Old Fire Station in downtown Port-of-Spain. Founded in 2011, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest in April is T&T’s premier annual literary festival: a lively celebration of books, writers, writing, and ideas, with a Caribbean focus and international scope. For a downloadable schedule of all events, see the Bocas website at: http://www.bocaslitfest.com/
For the Cinelit movie schedule, see: http://www.bocaslitfest.com/categories/cinelit/