Antiguan Author, Freelance Writer, Editor Joanne C. Hillhouse Releases New Book – Oh Gad
Antiguan writer Joanne C. Hillhouse’s new book - Oh Gad! published by Strebor/Atria, a Simon and Schuster imprint - is set to hit the marketplace on April 17th 2012. Of her earlier works, The Boy from Willow Bend is on the schools reading list for Antigua and Barbuda and some other places in the Caribbean. ”For its thoughtful rendering of complex issues such as gender, class, migration and death, for the swiftness of Hillhouse’s prose, and especially for the captivating personality with which she endows the title character, readers will be instantly drawn to this narrative,” the Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books said of the novella which has found favour with adult readers as well.
Hillhouse’s other book, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, is described as “simple and poetic” (Outlet) and “lyrical, sensual and gentle” (The Caribbean Writer Volume 19).
Her volunteer projects include the Wadadli Youth Pen Prize and the Cushion Club. Awards include a UNESCO Honour Award, Breadloaf Fellowship, and the David Hough Literary Prize from the Caribbean Writer.
Hillhouse also writes and edits material on contract. Her clients have included the Commonwealth Youth Programme, ABI Financial Group, Catamaran Hotel, Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation, AIDS Secretariat, Antigua and Barbuda Development Bank, Journeycakes author Monica Matthew, and others. She’s written features for Amèricas, Caribbean Beat, She Caribbean, Zing and other publications. She’s the writer/editor of the Antiguanice.com What’s On newsletter.
HAVANA, Cuba (ACN) — The leader of the Cuban Revolution and former president of Cuba, Fidel Castro, attended the launch on Friday of his memoirs, a two-volume book titled “Fidel Castro Ruz: Guerrillero del Tiempo” (Fidel Castro Ruz: Guerrilla of Time), at Havana’s Convention Palace.
Fidel Castro presenting his memoirs in Havana on Friday
The book is a compilation, in nearly one thousand pages, of conversations between Castro and writer and journalist Katiuska Blanco. It opens with the Cuban leader’s memories of his childhood and closes in December 1958, just before the triumph of the Revolution.
The presentation took place lasted about six hours, during which Castro greeted personally a number of attendees, among whom were old comrades from the Moncada military action and the Granma expedition.
The volumes were presented by Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto and the president of the Association of Cuban Writers and Artists, Miguel Barnet, who recounted some of the anecdotes contained in the book.
The book is a published by the Casa Editora Abril Cuban publishing house and the Federico Engels printers, with photos and drawings by Ernesto Rancaño, who also designed the cover.
Talking with and answering questions from the audience, Castro spoke about a number of things: the battles fought by students in Latin America and the rest of the world over their rights; tremendous scientific discoveries and emerging technologies; the risk of shale gas and the fabulous perspectives of nanotechnology.
Castro told the audience he reads hundreds of press releases every day; devours all the information he gets; follows closely the situation in Venezuela commemorating on February 4 the 20th anniversary of the military uprising led by Hugo Chavez.
He also spoke about the threats hanging over Syria and Iran, while the US and Europe are trying to convince Russia of the “ridiculous” idea that the antimissile shield was established to protect that country from the threats of Iran and North Korea.
Writer Graziella Pogolotti, president of the Alejo Carpentier Foundation, started the round of questions and told Castro that he should continue writing about his experiences as a fighter and his meetings with world personalities.
Castro said he is willing to do everything possible to pass on “whatever he remembers well”, and added: “I’m aware of the importance of writing all of this to pass it on, so that it can be useful.”
In closing the meeting, Castro regretted that time had run out and remarked, “I feel very happy, but I like to collaborate with the doctors. And, just for the record, I don’t do it as an act of courage but as an act of intelligence.”
HBO Documentary films on Monday aired Sing Your Song which tells the inspirational life story of Harry Belafonte that coincides with his new autobiography, My Song: A Memoir, which was released last week.. For those of us that missed it, underneath the interview below, please see dates and times for alternate showings.
Recently Joshua Jelly-Schapiro of New York Magazine sat down with Mr. Belafonte. Below is the interview courtesy of NYMAG.com
In 1956, a Harlem-bred child of Caribbean immigrants released the first million-selling LP in history—Harry Belafonte was bigger than Elvis. But where Elvis built Graceland, Belafonte used the proceeds from Calypso to bankroll his friend Martin Luther King Jr.’s movement for civil rights. In an absorbing new memoir, My Song, as well as an HBO documentary, “Sing Your Song,” Belafonte recounts a life that took him from an impoverished childhood in Harlem and Jamaica to studying theater, as an angry young man in the postwar Village, with his close friend Marlon Brando; to finding pop success, in the fifties, as a smiling folksinger and America’s first black matinee idol; to becoming, in the years surrounding John Kennedy’s assassination and the March on Washington, perhaps the key go-between for King’s movement and the federal government. The only man to speak to both King and Bobby Kennedy on a daily basis through those years, Belafonte also persuaded JFK to approve airlifting a planeload of Kenyan students to America in 1961. That a certain Barack Obama Sr. was on that plane, one feels, isn’t the sole link to draw between his son and a figure whom the future president’s mother grew up adoring as “the handsomest man in the world,” according to one account. West Indian–American, angry charmer, elder radical, critic of a president who would not have been possible without him—Belafonte is a man of many conflicting identities, all of which he’s needed to help change the world.
You were born in Harlem, but your mother who raised you was a Jamaican immigrant. How do you think your Caribbean roots shaped your experience growing up?
Harry Belafonte: People from the Caribbean did not respond to America’s oppressions in the same way that black Americans did. We were constantly in a state of rebellion, constantly in a state of thinking way above that which we were given. My people were gangsters and lived in the underworld. And I don’t mean major American crime; I mean, as an immigrant, if you can’t find work inside the law, you find work outside the law. Running numbers and so on. Which is, of course, a characteristic of the poor, who find ways to break the rules, since the rules are always stacked against them.
You moved back and forth often between Jamaica and Harlem, sailing on the banana boats your father worked on as a cook. How do you think that movement, going between New York and the islands, shaped your understanding of race?
I had no particular crisis with white people. Because I never really saw them as in any way superior. Americans—black Americans—had crises, because not only were they forced to believe that white people were superior, but in many instances they bought it. And they made peace with it; we didn’t.
When you began singing folk songs in the early fifties, you were really coming out of the theater.
That’s right. I had come out of the dramatic theater, where the great writers of the day—Clifford Odets, Sean O’Casey—were concerned with politics, with working people. And those were the concerns I heard in Lead Belly, Seeger, when I was first hearing that music. Being involved in a lot of campaigns, helping people unionize, at rallies, helping them organize, picking up a picket sign, and walking in a picket line. And you sang songs on the picket line. So my engagement with the politics of music, and music as a political force, and using it specifically for that, came very early.
When you hit with Calypso in 1956, you gained fame very quickly. But just as quickly you sought to use that platform for other ends: in your work with Martin Luther King and then in your friendship with Jack and Bobby Kennedy, Bobby especially. In the beginning, though, you and Martin were quite suspicious of them; Bobby had been an ally of McCarthy, the blacklist.
We knew [before the 1960 election] that we must deal with reality. Somewhere down the line, we knew, we’re going to have to make the federal government yield to us. And I suspect that somewhere in this young man lies … good. So let’s put aside all his transgressions—the House Un-American Activities Committee, etc.—our task is to find his moral center and win him to our cause. Up until the day he died, we had a strong bond. But it wasn’t that way in the beginning. We circled one another for a long time; we kept a distance, even if we found reasons to use one another.
According to the directors, Noel Dernesch and Moritz Springer…
“JOURNEY TO JAH has been a 6-year journey so far. During the development of this project, we have been in Europe, followed Gentleman in Jamaica for three weeks and met Alborosie in his house in Kingston. We have talked to reggae artists like Luciano, Tony Rebel, Gregory Isaacs, Lutan Fyah, Rootz Underground, Mikey General and many more. We met the well known Jamaican Professor Carolyn Cooper, we followed the young, ambitious Terry Lynn around in Waterhouse, one of the numerous ghettos in Kingston, and we met Rastas, like Natty, Gentleman’s friend.
What has always impressed us, is the positive way Jamaicans confront their problems and their life in general; this is the power that forms the core of their actions adfn as well the core of our film. We want „Journey to Jah“ to be a positive story, about to youn men, who left their homes to seek spirituality and truth in a different cultural context. The film follows them on their search for authenticity, identity and acknowledgement in the context of Jamaica’s daily struggle for a better society.
Reggae is a big part of Gentlemans and Alborosies lifes, Reggae is Rebel Music, in Reggae lies the power of change. Reggae is much more than just music; it is an expression of their way of life, of their political and spiritual dispositions.
In Jamaica music is politics and the key to transformation, but it also carries discrimination and enemy stereotypes. Reggae encourages freedom and justice, yet at the same time, it turns into commercialism, causes agitation and exclusion, and is, with reference to the system of values of the Old Testament, often in contradiction to a liberal worldview.
Now we are at a tourning point of the film. We know, where we want the film to go, we have all the people togehter to make it and we were able to raise a great part of the money, we need. Now it depends, if we reach our kickstarter goal to finally start with real filming!”
The film is being showcased on Kickstarter which is an online community of creatives that allows the public to follow and fund creative ideas and endeavors.
The film makers would like you to know This Film is not finished jet!!!!!
The material of the trailer is from our research! We need to go to Jamaica at least once more to get the material for a feature documentary, that stands up for cinema!
Now it is in our hands, if we succed! Let us reach the $60.00on Kickstarter and make the film happen!!!.
The Story Of Lovers Rock – Reggae Feature Length Documentary
A few months ago we posted the trailer for The Story Of Lovers Rock by Menelik Shabbaz. Airing for the documentary is set to start in the UK theaters this Friday.
THE STORY OF LOVERS ROCK by MENELIK SHABBAZZ is a feature length documentary tells the story of an era and a music that defined a generation in the late 70s and 80s. Lovers Rock is romantic reggae that was uniquely British. It developed from a small UK scene to become a global brand through the likes of UB40 and Maxi Priest
Lovers Rock was particularly influential to a new generation of black British young women and men who identified with this music that reflected their experiences. Female artists like Louisa Marks, Janet Kay, Brown Sugar, Carroll Thompson led a ‘girl power explosion in it’s early phase.
The music provided a coping mechanism against a backdrop of racial tension and riots across the UK as well as being a counterpoint to the male dominated ‘roots’ scene.
The film combines live performances with some of the Kings and Queens of Lovers Rock with comedy sketches, interviews and archive material.
Interviews include Denis Bovell, UB40, Levi Roots Linton Kwesi Johnson, Angie La Ma, Maxi Priest, Mykaell Riley, The comedy sketches are provided by the likes of Eddie Nestor, Robbie G, Wayne Rollins, Glenda Jaxson. Rudi Lickwood, John Simmit., Annette Fagon.
Below are a few of the “Ten Quintessential British Lovers Rock Tunes” from the folks over at Largeup.okayplayer.com Be sure to visit Largeup.okayplayer.com for their full Toppa Top 10 list.
T. T. Ross – Last Date
Aswad Didn’t Know At The Time
Deborahe Glasgow – Give Me That Touch
June Lodge & Prince Mohammed – Someone Loves You Honey
Be sure to visit http://www.loversrockthefilm.com/ for details on showings.
ST GEORGE’S, Grenada (GIS) — Several new features are being added to this year’s Grenada Ministry of Culture Spice Word Festival. They’ll include the hosting of three workshops: one on publishing; another for writers of children’s work; and a third on creative writing.
“The creative writing workshop will focus on short stories and publishing in short steps,” said Daisy Hazzard, chairperson of the 2011 Spice Word Festival organizing committee.
At a recent meeting of the committee, Minister with responsibility for Culture, Senator Arley Gill, announced that the literary event is being renamed the “Aunty Tek Spice Word Festival.”
“Aunty Tek” is renowned Grenadian and Caribbean folklorist, Thelma Phillip, who was honoured and presented with an award at the inaugural festival last year.
The renaming of the festival is to “immortalize” Phillip’s name, Gill said.
The 2011 festival, from October 19 – 21, will pay tribute to educator Christine Clarkson for more than three decades of service to theatre and the dramatic arts.
Among the writers to be showcased, three have been designated as the “featured authors”.
They are former Governor General, Sir Paul Scoon; England-based university lecturer Jacob Ross; and biographer Verna Wilkins, founder of Tamarind Books.
Wilkins and Ross will also serve as facilitators for the festival workshops.
“We have parents, teachers and children who tell stories and write all the time. We want them to start thinking about putting them together and about publishing them in books, in newspapers, online and on blog sites,” Hazzard said, in emphasizing the importance of the workshops.
Another new component of the festival will be spotlighting Caribbean and international authors now living and working in Grenada.
In the run up to the October event, organizers will be visiting the various parishes with the hope of identifying and discovering storytellers and other spoken word artistes.
In addition, the organizing committee will soon be holding a press launch for the festival, which will include a three-day book fair with live reading by adults and children.
The festival will culminate with what is being described as a “grand concert.” Among the confirmed concert performers is Trinidad Rapso artiste, Brother Resistance.
GHETT’A LIFE – Jamaican Movie – Tanya Stephens – Lead Single From The SoundTrack
GHETT’A LIFE is an “against the odds” action drama set in a politically turbulent inner city community of Kingston. Derrick, a determined inner city teenager realizes his dream of becoming a champion boxer despite a country, community and family conflicted by divisive political system.
The film features Kevoy Burton, Reggae songstress Etana, Lisa Williams, Karen Robinson, Kadeem Wilson, Lenford Salmon, Winston Bell, Carl Davis and Teddy Price. The film is written and directed by Chris Browne.
Dominica Stages Third Travelling Caribbean Film Showcase
ROSEAU, Dominica (GIS) — The Dominica Film Office and the Discover Dominica Authority in collaboration with Alliance Francaise is this week hosting the third Travelling Caribbean Film Showcase in Roseau.
The one week event, which was formally launched on Tuesday evening, affords Dominicans an opportunity to view films produced by filmmakers and audio-visual professionals in the Caribbean.
National Film Commissioner, Anita Bully, told the formal launch that the film showcase offers a true approach to the realities of the Caribbean.
Eight films will be showcased including a Cuban classic called “Broken Gods” and “Haven” from the Cayman Islands.
“The Showcase, which consists of some 43 films from 18 countries, has already been presented in Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Jamaica and St Kitts and Nevis. This selection also includes a section which is devoted to children and adolescents. The section for ages 8-12 was showcased to some 450 children at the end of last month. The selection for adolescents will be shown at the beginning of the new semester in September,” Bully said.
The film showcase is also hoping to bring national film and audio visual productions to the attention of institutions, governments and the private sector with the hope that it will assist in the development of the local film industry.
In the meantime, Tourism Minister Ian Douglas has welcomed the Film Showcase to Dominica, saying that it can contribute to the development of cinema in Dominica. Read the rest of this entry »
The Skin’ a modern story filled with Caribbean folklore set in Antigua & Barbuda is about Michael and Lisa (Brent Simon & Aisha Ralph) who are a young married couple on the verge of losing their home. Their luck changes when Michael, while on a photo-shoot at the historic Betty’s Hope Estate discovers an ancient vase and sells it to an antique dealer (Jeff Stewart).
The couple gets little time to celebrate their good fortune before strange things begin to happen. They are introduced to a Jamaican mystic (Carl Bradshaw) who informs them that the ancient relic was not really a blessing but a curse.
The Skin is written and directed by Howard Allen, produced by Mitzi Allen. Executive Producers HAMAfilms & First Run Entertainment.
Havana (CNN) — More than 50 years after the fact, Cuba has published the diary that Ernesto “Che” Guevara kept during the armed struggle that he waged alongside Fidel Castro from the Sierra Maestra mountains.
“Diary of a Combatant” recounts Guevara’s experiences from coming ashore in Cuba on December 2, 1956, until shortly before the bearded rebels declared victory January 1, 1959.
According to Guevara’s widow, Aleida March, the goal is “to show his work, his thoughts, his life, so that the Cuban people and the entire world get to know him and don’t distort things anymore.”
The book was edited by the Che Guevara Studies Center, which is directed by March, and published by Australia’s Ocean Press/Ocean Sur.
Researchers said that Guevara kept his diary in hand-written notebooks and that part of the reason they put off publishing the diary was because some of the notebooks were missing.
“Where are the notebooks? We don¹t know, and there are a lot of different versions,” Maria del Carmen Ariet, a leading researcher from the Che Guevara Studies Center, said at a press conference to launch the book.
But she also said that much of the material was included in “Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War,” a more polished account of his time in the Sierra Maestra mountains that Guevara published in 1963.
“We’d have to ask if he really wanted the ‘Diary of a Combatant’ published,” she said.
Some of Guevara’s other diaries have been commercially successful, most notably “The Motorcycle Diaries,” the memoir of a 23-year-old medical student on a road trip in Latin America.
Guevara was born in Argentina in 1928 and met Castro in 1955 in Mexico City, where he was plotting his return to Cuba to overthrow Fulgencio Batista.
During the guerrilla fighting in the mountains, Guevara was the first subordinate to be promoted to the rank of “comandante” by Castro.
He went on to become Cuba’s Central Bank chief before heading to Africa and then Bolivia to continue armed struggles. He was killed in 1967.
This Wednesday, May 11, will mark the 30th year since the death of reggae icon Bob Marley. The Bob Marley Foundation and the Bob Marley Museum are making preparations to mark this occasion.
Manager of the Foundation and Museum, Jacqueline Lynch-Stewart, remarks that the Marley family promotes the celebration of Bob Marley’s life and as such emphasis is usually placed on the commemoration of his birth. However, due to the significance of the 30th anniversary special arrangements will be made for the commemoration of the date at the museum located on Hope Road.
Flowers will be available for visitors to the museum on Wednesday, May 11, to place at the feet of the Marley statue on the grounds. Interested persons can donate additional flowers for this activity or simply lay their own at the statue. In an intriguing twist, a mento band will provide live renditions of Marley’s music throughout the day.
Airports Authority and DC Public Schools Team Up for 11th Annual Student Art Exhibition (Painting of Sizzla Featured)
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and District of Columbia Public Schools are proud to announce the 11th Annual DC Public Schools Citywide Student Art Exhibition at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The work of more than 300 students from 50 elementary, junior high and high schools will be displayed until May 30 in the baggage claim level of Reagan National’s Terminal B/C. The theme of this year’s exhibition is “Celebration of Artistic Expressions.”
Above we have a piece by 11th grader Jerrell Elliott from Phelps Ace High School and his piece on Reggae artist Sizzla
Black in Latin America is the third of a trilogy that began in 1999 with the broadcast of Professor Gates first series for public television, Wonders of the African World, an exploration of the relationship between Africa and the New World, a story he continued in 2004 with America Beyond the Color Line, a report on the lives of modern-day African Americans. Black in Latin America, premiering nationally Tuesdays April 19 and 26 and May 3 and 10, 2011 at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings), examines how Africa and Europe came together to create the rich cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Latin America is often associated with music, monuments, and sun, but each of the six countries featured in Black in Latin America including Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru, has a secret history. On his journey, Professor Gates discovers, behind a shared legacy of colonialism and slavery, vivid stories and people marked by African roots.
Video may take a few seconds to load.
Black in Latin America is a production of Inkwell Films, Wall to Wall Productions, and THIRTEEN in association with WNET. Written and presented by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Executive producers are Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Jonathan Hewes, and William R. Grant. Series producer is Ricardo Pollack. Directors are Ricardo Pollack (Haiti & the Dominican Republic: An Island Divided and Brazil: A Racial Paradise?), Diene Petterle (Cuba: The Next Revolution), and Ilana Trachtman (Mexico & Peru: A Hidden Race).
Funding for Black in Latin America is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Public Television Stations, and Viewers Like You. Additional funding is provided by the Ford Foundation, Richard Gilder, and Alphonse Fletcher.
After a turn of unfortunate events in Jamaica, Everton leaves his home to make it big in the music business in America. Everything is not a bed of roses in Hollywood, but with struggles and perseverance he finds love and success, only to have it all threatened when the Don of LA (Paul Campbell) wants his dues. Written by Far I Films, Inc
Out The Gate, is directed by “The Village Brothers’ Stevie Johnson, Qmillion and starring Paul Campbell, Shelli Boone, Everton Dennis, Oliver Samuels.
Far I Films has announced May 13th as the opening date for the grittyJ amaican action/drama motion picture ‘Out the Gate’ in New York City. Showing in National Amusement Multiplex Cinemas and AMC Theatres, the highly anticipated feature has the distinction of being the first Caribbean movie to have a multi-theatre opening since the 90’s.
The film stars two of Jamaica’s most celebrated actors, Paul Campbell (Shottas, Dancehall Queen) Oliver Samuels (Oliver at Large), as well as Shelli Boone (Holla, Southland) and Everton (E-Dee) Dennis, The story follows a dreamer (Dennis), who after a turn of unfortunate events, leaves his home in Jamaica to follow his dream of making it big in the music business in Los Angeles. Life is not a bed of roses in America, but with struggles and perseverance he finds love and success only to have it all threatened when the Don of LA (Campbell) demands his dues.
Reginald Cyntje – Freedom’s Children – Debut Jazz CD
Dominican born, St. Thomas raised trombonist Reginald’s Cyntje is scheduled to record first CD as a bandleader. The CD entitled Freedom’s Children is about Reginald’s concept of spreading love, peace and social justice, fusing jazz and Caribbean traditions. He’s asking for your support viaKickstarter. In order to make this a reality Reginald Cyntje needs to raise $6,500. To support see the links at the end of this post.
The following excerpt is taken from the Reginald’s Cyntje’s site.
Peace,
Thank you for checking out my project. My name is Reginald Cyntje and I’m launching this fundraising campaign on my birthday. Successful funding of this project would be one of the best birthday gifts I’ve ever received. With the help of Kickstarter, I will be recording my first CD this year. The title is “Freedom’s Children – The Celebration.”
In pursuing this project I am asking the community (you) for help. I need to raise at least $6,500 to meet recording expenses. To create art worthy of presenting, I must ensure there are funds for the musicians, rehearsals, expenses, artwork and presentation.
The story takes the listener on a journey from playful child-like melodies to compositions expressing adult awareness. As I reflect on my experiences to this point, I feel compelled to say thank you to the community by offering a collection of songs I’ve composed. There have been previous opportunities to record as a bandleader but I wanted to wait until I arrived at a place where I could clearly articulate culture, heritage and experience as an adult. At the age of 25, I was not mature enough to create a project that would be about uplifting community.
To see more and to support view any of the following links
About Over Time
Over Time is a collection of poetry seen through the eyes of a teenager as he grows into manhood. It’s an eighteen year journey that many men & women can relate to with respect to growth through love, nature, life & death, family, & self preservation.
About The Author
Gavin Skerritt was born on the Caribbean Island of St. Kitts where his passion for writing first developed. As he matured, his writing style mimmiced the changing world around him. And although in the beginning he wrote only for self preservation, he grew to believe that keeping this passion private was only selfish. So by sharing his vision of the world as he saw it is his way of contributing to a positive perspective of this world, if only to promote growth & understanding to those who read his work.
