Casting out again. This edition's cover is by Kai Miller.
A version of the following speech was presented by ArtsEtc Editor Robert Edison Sandiford at the launch of The ArtsEtc NIFCA Winning Words Anthology 2017/2018 held at the Daphne Joseph-Hackett Theatre November 14, 2019.
GOOD EVENING, ladies and gentlemen, artists and patrons, art sponsors and art angels.
I suspect what I’m about to say will sound a little like a vote of thanks. This is, maybe more so than in past years, inevitable.
While we’re again pleased with the high quality of the latest ArtsEtc NIFCA Winning Words Anthology, covering the competition years 2017 and 2018, we recognize the effort to produce the anthology—and to kick it up a few notches—has many moving parts that must work together to achieve excellence.
So ArtsEtc would like to thank Ayesha Gibson-Gill, the National Cultural Foundation’s literary arts officer, for pulling this launch together, but also for working very hard on other fronts to produce a school study guide of past selections; a Portuguese translation of the 2015/2016 edition of Winning Words; and an e-book of the current edition.
Thanks also to the NCF for its ongoing coordination and support of National Independence Festival of Creative Arts, particularly the literary arts competition. I don’t know of anywhere in the region where an annual or semi-annual national anthology of emerging and established writers is produced with such commitment or enthusiasm.
I want to shout out the cover artist, Kai Miller, who has given us our first colour cover…and an intriguing image. What is the person on the rocks fishing for? Who is the person on the rocks fishing for? Are the surrounding waters as placis or promising as they seem? Or are they indeed perilous?
Another great thank you must go to our contributing writers, of course, who tell our stories in real time. Please continue to surprise us with your words and with your ambition.
To you, readers and well-wishers, thank you as well. Without an audience, one sometimes doubts there is a book. Keep reading. Keep dreaming. Keep believing. Keep asking for more of our stories: in our libraries, in our bookstores, but especially in our schools.
Stories show how
You see, the success of the Winning Words series speaks to the need for the proper financing by our agencies of a general anthology of Barbadian Literature, from Wickham the Elder to, say, Aprille Thomas, including the development of Bajan Lit courses to be taught in our schools. How can we continue to say we know ourselves, who we are and what we are about—truly and fully—if we don’t know our literature, our stories, our poetry and plays; our painting and sculptures and songs: all these vital parts of ourselves?
Ralph Ellison once wrote that if you wanted to learn to fish or hunt, read Hemingway. His stories would show you how. In the same spirit, I’d say: if you want to show the next generations how to do better and be better than previous ones, teach them our stories; remind them of who they are—and of how they might act toward one another.
Our art, or literature, gives us options beyond the obvious or immediate, and a means of articulating. Its first purpose is to build and communicate, not to destroy.
Like guns and knives, metal detectors will not solve our society’s problems. People solve problems. Except unlike guns and knives and metal detectors, art often proves a far more useful tool.
There is a practical application to all of the best of the Winning Words anthologies. They can be used in NIFCA competitions themselves as springboards or inspiration for other artists in other disciplines. We can and should be moved by each other’s work.
Creative tension
But can the telling or writing of stories save lives? That’s the question. We all know the bio of an artist, from whichever side of the tracks, whatever discipline, who has said he or she would be dead without art—without “their” art. Art’s certainly been known to give people something constructive to do. Even destruction and tension and conflict can be expressed constructively in art: because the effort art takes, its impulse, is often more about understanding this world and the people in it with us and the true nature of hope…than it is about giving someone the finger or picking a fight or turning our back on others.
Ours is a world of easily accessed distractions. You all know this. Some of you have those distractions in your pockets or handbags. Many writers and other artists have spoken about the dangers of distractions, the need for attention in life and to life. We are doing more harm and more violence to ourselves—and our young—by not engaging more meaningfully with our arts and culture. Our own things matter, to paraphrase Wickham the Younger: they matter to us, they matter to our society, and they matter to a larger audience beyond our borders. Your presence here this evening should tell you as much.
Thank you all for showing up.
And for more from this edition:
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
Taming Dragons in a Soup Bowl by Gloria Eastmond
Home by Chloe Walker
The Woman Whose Laugh Cracked the Sky by Sharma Taylor
Ode to the Bajan Blackbirds by Jeffrey Walcott
automated reality by Kerry Belgrave
Last Modified: August 29, 2020
