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<a href="http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080608/arts/arts2.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">published: Sunday | June 8, 2008
Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
</a>
<span style="font-size: 8pt"><span style="font-style: italic">Montego Bay resident, rasta-farian 'Iion Kanaka', chants a poem entitled 'Bleach' at the Calabash International Literary Festival, held at Jake's Hotel and Cottages in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth recently. Kanaka had the audience in stitches, as he chastised people who bleach their skin, as well as finding 'Mr Chin' guilty for selling the 'whitening product', yet not selling any 'blackening' products for persons who wish to become blacker. - Photo by Noel Thompson </span></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">Treasure Beach - During the recently concluded Calabash International Literary Festival, held at Jake's in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth, the programmes that were sold for $50 served an alternate purpose other than knowing just what was happening over three days of readings, music and film.
They made excellent fans to keep the worst of the heat at bay.
However, Kwame Dawes, Calabash's programming director, and who hosted most of the sessions, found another positioning for the colourful, sturdy programmes, after the opening poetry session featuring Nigerian Chris Abani, and Yusef Komunyakaa from the USA.
"Wave yu programme," he urged. If yu don't have one yu cheap an wutless. Buy a programme. An jus give the $100. Mek de change gwaan," Dawes said.
Hearty laughter
There was hearty laughter, but the point was made. In its eighth and biggest year (certainly in terms of attendance, Calabash's founder and artistic director Colin Channer told The Sunday Gleaner "we had the biggest Friday night ever. The festival continues to grow. More people are coming every year. The repeated, generally unheeded appeals for voluntary contributions would no longer do.
According to Channer "the programmes were distributed free of cost for the first seven years of the festival. Distributing the programmes free of cost was one of the many ways in which we showed our gratitude to the thousands of people who consistently showed us love year after year. This year, we created a bigger and better programme and added a nominal fee to cover the costs of printing.
"Calabash is a cooperative venture, a great adventure if you will. We're nothing less than a band of merry guerrillas who believe that pencils and pens are better suited to our cause than guns. So by charging a smalls for the programme we've created a way for all the people who support us to chip in".
And on the final day, Sunday, May 25, at the suggestion of a 'Calabasher', bags were passed along the rows to facilitate donations, church style (again humour was put into the process; Dawes the preacher and Channer the supplicant, tap in the forehead and falling over Benny Hinn style). And, after all, contributions were appropriate at the altar of the word.
Successful drive
And Channer said "the collection drive was very successful. Yes, we're going to keep it. In fact, we're putting it on speed dial".
Over the Labour Day weekend, Calabash presented poetry (from Kei Miller, Abani, Komunyakaa and Jackie Kay, among others); memoirs (from Beverly Anderson-Manley, Lorna Goodison and Rosemarie Stone), a 75th anniversary reading of Claude McKay's 'Banana Bottom' by Lloyd Reckord, Edward Baugh, Barbara Gloudon and Denise Hunt, an onstage interview and reading with Derek Walcott, and 'novel' matters with authors such as Beverly East, Margaret Cesaire-Thompson and Lawrence Hill.
And it closed with the text of the song, in an extended acoustic set from Bob Andy.
Four-year guideline
With Abani and Goodison, Calabash's long-standing four-year no-repeat rule was bent (Dawes remarked that there were simply some authors who keep putting out impressive work that presses at the boundaries). Channer said about relaxing the regulation, "I don't think the rule is such a big deal. It was put in place as a guidepost for us. When we started out we put in some guidelines that would enable us to be true to our goal diversity. Having the four-year guideline forced us to look for interesting authors and performers every year, which has enabled us to keep the festival fresh. We don't have rules for rules sake. We don't have commandments. We have goals and guidelines".
What is pretty much etched in stone, though, is the festival's place in Treasure Beach. As Channer puts it, "we get the question about the venue every year, the question of moving. Calabash is a festival put on by the people of Treasure Beach with guidance from Justine Henzell, Kwame and me. It is their festival, and they have been doing a tremendous job of making sure that there are more available rooms every year. People are adding on rooms to their homes. New guesthouses are opening up".
(Bob Andy did mention the water shortages in Treasure Beach during his closing stint.)
As for the people who come to make up the ever-growing Calabash audience, Channer said "there were lots of new faces this year - lots of young people, lots of people from overseas, especially from the wider Caribbean, lots of men, lots of people from the working class".
The 10th anniversary is not far off, are there any plans in the making for a special celebration? Channer responded with the optimism that has seen Calabash grow from a small area at the front of Jake's to overflowing from huge tents beside the sea. "Of course! We began the planning for Calabash 2010 at the end of the first Calabash in 2001," he said.</span>
Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
</a>
<span style="font-size: 8pt"><span style="font-style: italic">Montego Bay resident, rasta-farian 'Iion Kanaka', chants a poem entitled 'Bleach' at the Calabash International Literary Festival, held at Jake's Hotel and Cottages in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth recently. Kanaka had the audience in stitches, as he chastised people who bleach their skin, as well as finding 'Mr Chin' guilty for selling the 'whitening product', yet not selling any 'blackening' products for persons who wish to become blacker. - Photo by Noel Thompson </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">Treasure Beach - During the recently concluded Calabash International Literary Festival, held at Jake's in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth, the programmes that were sold for $50 served an alternate purpose other than knowing just what was happening over three days of readings, music and film.
They made excellent fans to keep the worst of the heat at bay.
However, Kwame Dawes, Calabash's programming director, and who hosted most of the sessions, found another positioning for the colourful, sturdy programmes, after the opening poetry session featuring Nigerian Chris Abani, and Yusef Komunyakaa from the USA.
"Wave yu programme," he urged. If yu don't have one yu cheap an wutless. Buy a programme. An jus give the $100. Mek de change gwaan," Dawes said.
Hearty laughter
There was hearty laughter, but the point was made. In its eighth and biggest year (certainly in terms of attendance, Calabash's founder and artistic director Colin Channer told The Sunday Gleaner "we had the biggest Friday night ever. The festival continues to grow. More people are coming every year. The repeated, generally unheeded appeals for voluntary contributions would no longer do.
According to Channer "the programmes were distributed free of cost for the first seven years of the festival. Distributing the programmes free of cost was one of the many ways in which we showed our gratitude to the thousands of people who consistently showed us love year after year. This year, we created a bigger and better programme and added a nominal fee to cover the costs of printing.
"Calabash is a cooperative venture, a great adventure if you will. We're nothing less than a band of merry guerrillas who believe that pencils and pens are better suited to our cause than guns. So by charging a smalls for the programme we've created a way for all the people who support us to chip in".
And on the final day, Sunday, May 25, at the suggestion of a 'Calabasher', bags were passed along the rows to facilitate donations, church style (again humour was put into the process; Dawes the preacher and Channer the supplicant, tap in the forehead and falling over Benny Hinn style). And, after all, contributions were appropriate at the altar of the word.
Successful drive
And Channer said "the collection drive was very successful. Yes, we're going to keep it. In fact, we're putting it on speed dial".
Over the Labour Day weekend, Calabash presented poetry (from Kei Miller, Abani, Komunyakaa and Jackie Kay, among others); memoirs (from Beverly Anderson-Manley, Lorna Goodison and Rosemarie Stone), a 75th anniversary reading of Claude McKay's 'Banana Bottom' by Lloyd Reckord, Edward Baugh, Barbara Gloudon and Denise Hunt, an onstage interview and reading with Derek Walcott, and 'novel' matters with authors such as Beverly East, Margaret Cesaire-Thompson and Lawrence Hill.
And it closed with the text of the song, in an extended acoustic set from Bob Andy.
Four-year guideline
With Abani and Goodison, Calabash's long-standing four-year no-repeat rule was bent (Dawes remarked that there were simply some authors who keep putting out impressive work that presses at the boundaries). Channer said about relaxing the regulation, "I don't think the rule is such a big deal. It was put in place as a guidepost for us. When we started out we put in some guidelines that would enable us to be true to our goal diversity. Having the four-year guideline forced us to look for interesting authors and performers every year, which has enabled us to keep the festival fresh. We don't have rules for rules sake. We don't have commandments. We have goals and guidelines".
What is pretty much etched in stone, though, is the festival's place in Treasure Beach. As Channer puts it, "we get the question about the venue every year, the question of moving. Calabash is a festival put on by the people of Treasure Beach with guidance from Justine Henzell, Kwame and me. It is their festival, and they have been doing a tremendous job of making sure that there are more available rooms every year. People are adding on rooms to their homes. New guesthouses are opening up".
(Bob Andy did mention the water shortages in Treasure Beach during his closing stint.)
As for the people who come to make up the ever-growing Calabash audience, Channer said "there were lots of new faces this year - lots of young people, lots of people from overseas, especially from the wider Caribbean, lots of men, lots of people from the working class".
The 10th anniversary is not far off, are there any plans in the making for a special celebration? Channer responded with the optimism that has seen Calabash grow from a small area at the front of Jake's to overflowing from huge tents beside the sea. "Of course! We began the planning for Calabash 2010 at the end of the first Calabash in 2001," he said.</span>