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CaribbeanTales |
January 31st, 2005 |
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Meet the Team:
Tony Hall |
Shana L. Calixte, Editor
We
at CaribbeanTales are
overjoyed to tell you that we have been the fortunate recipients of funding from the
Federal Government's
Gateway Fund, an initiative of the Department of Canadian
Heritage. Up until now this newsletter has been self-funded. For the
next few months we will be able to publish monthly, with an extra
special Black History Month issue later in February, which will
feature a new upgraded and improved design. Stay tuned for much more
from CaribbeanTales.
In our Author's section,
In My Own Words, we
bring you
'Nappiness' Is A Gift, You Give Yourself
from Trinidadian writer Onika Nkruma, who uses
storytelling to highlight revolutionary personal changes.
Lastly,
accomplished writer and academic Cyril Dabydeen
invites us to delve deeper into the art of storytelling as he
introduces us to his new Caribbean book,
Play a Song Somebody: New and Selected Stories.
Finally,
please tune in to me, Shana Calixte, on the CHRY radio show
Covered and Bound
(105.5 FM.) on February 7th
from 4 to 5pm - I will be chatting with host Jennilyn
Fiddler about caribbeantales.ca and the world of Caribbean
storytelling. I'll be looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the
interview!
Finding a Place
within Displacement
Born in Trinidad, Alexis lived with his grandmother in Port of Spain until the age of 4. In 1961, he and his younger sister joined their parents, moving to the unforgiving climate of Canada and settling in the nation's 'chance' capital, Ottawa. Like many from the Caribbean, who find themselves between two places to call 'home', Alexis has made his home in more than one place - he finds himself building his own little worlds along his path.
By Shana L. Calixte and Tumelo E. Phali; Photo from Quill and Quire
A Path that Refused to be Ignored:
The first tangent signs of him assuming his current role, as editor, at a higher level in the future were hinted when he became editor of the student-initiated weekly newsletter during his high school days.
When Sisters Speak
Boasting a
stunning line-up of poetry divas from here and the US, the event was a
spell-binding display of vocal passion suffused with words whose aroma
had a sharp bite of women solidarity. It was a marathon affair saturated with
honest, hard-hitting, loving, hating, angry and charming poetic
discourse. The sistas rocked the night away with their captivating
performance which left the 'gender-balanced' audience moaning for
more. We will be reminiscing about this experience for a long time as
Dwayne cleans the stage and prepares for the next round of night of
vocal passion. Can't wait, Dwayne! By Tumelo E. Phali
In My Own Words:
Deciding to wear my hair in all its natural, nappy glory has been a journey that has taken me full circle. Not since I was in nappies have I had the courage to wear my hair nappy! (Creative license taken). In the beginning, hesitation dogged my every move. This transition would have to be made slowly. When I looked in the mirror, would I still be able to appreciate my features? Framed by tight kinks instead of the long, luxurious donkey's mane, I had become accustomed to. What of the opposite sex. Men liked ladies with long hair, did they no. Would my appeal diminish? Read More>> By Onika Nkrumah
Play a Song Somebody:
Mammita's Garden Cove
By Cyril Dabydeen
caribbeantales.ca is a not-for profit company. If you would like to be removed from this newsletter, please email us at info@caribbeantales.ca and we will take you off our list. |
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Finding a Place
within Displacement |
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A Path
that Refused to be Ignored: Meet another member of our team, CaribbeanTales co-editor, Tumelo Eseu Phali Read More >> |
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When Sisters Speak CaribbeanTales brings you video from an evening of hard-hitting poetic discourse where sistahs rocked the night Read More >> |
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In My Own Words: 'Nappiness' Is A Gift, You Give Yourself, from writer, Onika Nkruma Read More >> |
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Play a
Song Somebody: New Caribbean literature from Cyril Dabydeen Read More >> |
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Join us at our Community Message Board!
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In our next issue: Meet more of the people behind caribbeantales.ca! Storytellers of the Caribbean: Meet another amazing Caribbean Storyteller! Your Stories: Contribute your ideas, and have your Caribbean story featured in our next issue! |
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Call for Submissions! Have you got a story on Caribbean culture and community that you would like to share? We are looking for your stories for both CaribbeanTales and Around the Fire. Articles are to be 500-1000 words. See our Call for submissions for more information. |
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Upcoming Caribbean Community Events! February - KUUMBA 2005 - Words and Sounds (Toronto) February 5th - Carnival Dance 2005 (Vancouver) February 7th - Covered and Bound features CaribbeanTales! (Toronto) February 14th - 19th - G.E.T. FEST: "Getting Edmonton Together Youth Festival" (Edmonton) |
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Editor/Designer Shana L. Calixte Editor: Around the Fire Tumelo E. Phali
Contributors/Editors Johnny Vong Supervising Editor Frances-Anne Solomon
caribbeantales.ca Phone: Fax: E-mail: Web: |
In this issue we continue to showcase the power of storytelling and
the rich traditions of Caribbean peoples. Our
Storyteller of the Month
is award winning novelist
André Alexis. We catch
up with him in Toronto and Ottawa, and speak to him about work, and
the ever present themes in his writing of home, place and belonging.
This month our featured Caribbeantales Team member is sub editor
Tumelo E. Phali, who
will be working with us from South Africa, for one year. We welcome
him warmly in our
Meet the Team feature.
We've also got clips from the Fifth Annual When Sistahs Speak
held at the St. Lawrence Centre For Arts Theatre in Toronto.
Since
he left his country of birth, André Alexis has been on a search for
home in foreign places wherever he finds himself. 
"These
little connections that you build up around you, you sort of build
worlds," says Alexis, as he explains to Caribbean Tales about the
places in Toronto and Ottawa that remind him of Trinidad. And Trinidad
has become an important site of memory for Alexis.
When
this young man from Maboloka - a village in the North West Province of
South Africa - was growing up, something in him had for years been
trying in vain, yet ever so persistently, to tell him that he would
end up being in the world of media. 
After finishing school he went to the
Johannesburg Technical College in South Africa where he pursued
Electronic Engineering majoring in Communications. It was while
searching for an apprenticeship for his course that he was stung by
the creative arts bug.
A voice has
no gender, right? .or does it?
Most of the stories in this
volume of Selected Stories are selected from two early collections,
Still Close to the Island (Commoners Press, l980) and To Monkey
Jungle (Third Eye Publications, 1988), both of which received
limited circulation when they first came out in Canada. Thus, it seems
to me that these stories are virtually unknown to readers save for
those which initially appeared in international magazines and
anthologies, like "Mammita's Garden Cove" in the Literary Review
(New Jersey) and in Heinemann's Caribbean New Wave anthology.
