Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

[ColeS]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Magix_de_PM</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Yuh seet though. Was actually hoping to get some new books there.
</div></div>
Yuh need a coof in a di back a yuh head! How did you miss the bookstore? How COULD you?! It was to the left of the stage, in that building that looked like someone's house. It had a big ole dutty sign.

[Magician]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

Coof mi nuh.

[trelawnysmall]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Magix_de_PM</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Coof mi nuh. </div></div>

Magix I LOVE that YOU took over the trip report.

Too perfect.

So that's an idea. Start a trip report, pick 5 people in order to finish it.

BTW, I'll read to you next time you're in Negril, just when your belly's too full from dinner to concentrate.

Seen

[Magician]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009



Well mi name get tag in the Subject so mi make myself feel at home inna de thread!

Looking forward to a snappa an a book next time mi deh by you.

[QK13]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Coless</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I am booked. Ready to go.

I have already been on the Island for some time, but was mainly looking forward to the last part of the trip.

I am loving the Calabash 2009 Logo.



I am heading to Calabash from Ochie by way of ... Well, I am thinking we should go Mobay then go through Whitehouse etc etc. No, my brother is driving me and he goes through Browns Town, through aahhmm...aahhhmmm .... some other places. I think he may have gone through Clarendon/Santa Cruz/Junction ... I dont know. I just know we ended up in Treasure beach and had roast yam and saltfish on the way. I didnt care that the ride took us 4 hours. Now we gotta find Billys Bay, which is where Villa Hikaru is. We found it. Heaven. Didnt know that what we were looking for, but I am glad thats what we found.


</div></div>

Hikaru is a very nice property. The veranda is a likkle piece of heaven fi real.
Love the neighborhood as well.

[ColeS]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: TSmall</div><div class="ubbcode-body">......
So that's an idea. Start a trip report, pick 5 people in order to finish it. ..... </div></div>

Genius idea if I may say so myself!!!
I take my bow now

[ColeS]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

Still on Friday night.

The place was lively and serene at the same time. Hard to explain. There was a big tent setup by the water, but there were others who had pitched there own spots on the beach. Nice!

Sorry for the little specs.



Sitting under the tent by the water with a bookstore to our left, we turn our heads to the stage (you all see Magix's picture of teh stage. It was VERY nicely done and designed. I have some not so nice shots of it but will post anyway. We made it there just in time. They had just started with the poets – <span style="font-weight: bold">Millicent Graham, Esther Phillips</span> (whose collection The Stone Gatherer I bought that weekend). Very nicely done. They each had some great pieces. I am not a big lover of poems, but for me there are sometimes some pieces that really make you pay attention. These ladies had a couple of their own.

I cant recall now who took the stage next. I know Kwane Dawes introduced both Edwidge Danticat and Junot Diaz, but I cant recall who read first. I think it may have been Edwidge. So I will start with her.

A little about <span style="font-weight: bold">Edwidge Danticat</span> – She was born in Haiti and move to NY at the age of 12. Her books include Breath Eyes Memory, Krik Krak, The Farming of Bones, and most recently Brother I’m Dying. This is her first time reading at Calabash.

Edwidge is such a soft (but effective) speaker. She gave us some insight into herself and her new memoir (which I highly reccommend by the way). I enjoyed listening to her and remember thinking to myself that I would love to hear her speak again and that I just have to read The Dew Breaker (which is now on my bn.com wish list )

[ColeS]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

<span style="font-weight: bold"> Junot Diaz</span> is a funny cat
He was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and is the author of Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which won the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize


Thats Junot in the white shirt.

Also a good reader, he had the audience eating out of the palms of his hands. He was as captivating as he was funny.

I have not yet read his book, but bought it (at the invisible bookstore that magix didnt see ). Have not read it yet, but will soon.

Watch out for the very talented Junot Diaz.

[ColeS]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

I had dinner at some point after that, chicken at jack spratts Delicious!

So after all the past days of looking foward to the Tarrus Riley show I didnt get to see it. The aches and pains started kicking in again.

Sitting in my chair after Edwidge and Junot's reading and watching the (i dont remember any of it I just know it was the most silliest thing I have ever seen) movie by Melvin Van Peebles, I toyed with the decision - I know I am getting very sick. Do I stay for the show and sleep in tomorrow and miss most of the lineup or do I go now and salvage the rest of the weekend? Salvage is good. I couldnt stay awake. So I called Jefton, went back to the villa, changed, took some Panadol Multisymptom, opened the windows, let the night air come thru and thats all I remember. Next thing I know it was 7am and I felt like I had slept for 12 days. Did a total 180. Sad that I missed Tarrus and still battled with myself as to whether I made the right decision or not. Either way, I was just happy that I felt better.

I got up and headed down to the beach, book in hand. Sat and read on the beach for a bit. View from my reading spot:


Walked and took some pics of little things here and there.

[Seveen]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

i almost missed this

thanks for the report

calabash is on my list of things to do!

[ColeS]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

Seveen, it is a must do. I already have 2010 plans.

____

Took some more pics:

[ColeS]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

Hikaru has a beautiful garden!!! I am sorry I did not get any pictures of it but believe me when I say that it s beautiful! Complete with huge trees, mangos, etc. and benches spread thoughout tucked under trees and other large plants. Thats where I headed to after a little time on the beach. Sat down on one of the reading benches for a half hour or so and read Edwidge Danticat's Brother I am dying. After hearing her read the night before I had an even more excited interest in the book. I finished it on that trip and was very much happy with it.

Then came the call for breakfast! Left the garden and headed inside.
What is that makes you remember to take pictures of food AFTER you have eaten it?

Ms. Vanessa is the cook, housekepeer, and organizer at Villa Hikaru. She whipped up a gorgeous looking and excellent tasting meal that morning!

After breakfast we got ready for our 9:30 ride. We were all excited because this was the first full day of Calabash 2009 and we were starting with Stacyann Chin.

Dressed? Check! Comfy shoes? Check! Camera? Check! Any books you want signed? Check! Lets go!
Jefton's van back again. This was the life Man I tell yah! Rode thru town, passed people walking to Jakes. People hanging out on the side of the road. Laughter, excitement, Serenity. Just another day at calabash.

[ColeS]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

We were on time, but not on time enough to get 5 chairs together closer to the stage, so we took our seat further back:



Within minutes of us sitting down it was standing room only.



The Line up for the next 1.5hrs include:
Stacyann Chin
The Most Hon Edward Seaga
Anthony Winkler

<span style="font-weight: bold">Stacyann Chin</span> is introduced. Stacyann is a Jamaican born poet, activist and now Autobiographer. She recently realeased her new book &quot;The Other Side Of Paradise&quot;. It came out in April and I got it soon after and I had read it before Calabash. She was on Oprah a few years ago where she discussed the issues that are faced by gay Jamaicans in Jamaica. She is also a political activist and very outspoken.

To be honest, I was intrigued by the book, which is an autobiography of growing up in the town of Paradise, Montego Bay, and always wishing she lived on the other side of paradise where the rich people lived. Her mother abandoned her when she was little. Raised by her grandmother and various aunts, she had an interesting life before she even came out as a lesbian, which brought additional challenges to her story.

I went to hear her speak in my State back in April and knew she was a good speaker, and funny too. It was reflected in the book. It started out with me sometimes thinking &quot;I dont know if I believe some of this stuff she says&quot;, but eventually warmed up to it and then couldnt put it down!!!!!

She read from her memoir and had the audience's attention as she used her charm to draw them into the story of the day she first got her period, had to ask her grand aunt what to do, eventually putting on the sanitary napkin upside down... funny stuff. She ended by saying how great it would be for gays to feel free and safe in Jamaica and that there are too many who has to flee their homeland because of challenges faced at home. She got heavy applause.

[ColeS]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

A pic I found of the 3 at Calabash - seaga, stacyann, and winkler

pic source


&quot;If you want to hide something from a Jamaican, put it in a book&quot; so said <span style="font-weight: bold">Edward Seaga </span> who took the stage next.
He is to read from the first volumes of his yet to be published memoir, which I hear is a couple thousand pages long. I hear it will focus a lot on the active political days and will reveal a lot of things about Jamaican politics and things that happened during his &quot;prime ministership&quot; (sorry, didnt know what else to call it)

He mentioned that he was pushing 80 and his birthday was within a few weeks I think. Anyway, the audience sang him Happy Birthday and he beamed.

A politician really reads like a politician. With the deep and low and then suddenly uplifting voice. And man dat man can read long!

I was over it after the first 15 mins.



I got up and walked to the bookstore, bought some books, got a malibu and pineapple, came back, and he was still reading.

Finally, he was done. And <span style="font-weight: bold">Anthony Winkler</span> was next.

Now, he was a breath of fresh air.
Winkler has books under his belt like The Duppy, Going Home to Teach (my favorite), Dog War, etc.

He read stories of a young boy growing up in an all boy school and how some of the boys were fooled by a woman who decided to sell her vaseline-lined tightly closed legs as (cant say it here) in the bushes. And the boys thought it was the real thing. That was funny as all heck.

[ColeS]

Re: Coless Come Buk Magic @ Calabash 2009

After resounding applause for Anthony Winkler we headed for a walk and for lunch. <span style="font-weight: bold">Pico Iyer and Paul Holdengraber </span>were up next, but we missed that as we got caught up in lunch and conversation.

Thats the beauty of Calabash, great conversation can be started anywhere. Had lunch at a restaurant right outside of Jack Spratt on the main street (forget the name of it now). Had steamed fish, lovely! Had conversation, delightful! Then headed over to Jakes for a little chat and pictures: