1966, June: our first meeting, at a Longman authors’ party. You were there, and Doris/Mex alongside, as Series Editor of The People Who Came; I as editor of forthcoming anthology of West Indian writing for young readers, later titled The Sun’s Eye. Your astonishment when I hailed you as author of poem “The Pawpaw,” from a back issue of Bim.
1966, December: your phone call to tell me about the newly formed Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM). Your assumption that I would want to be fully involved in its activities; your encouragement to document it.
1968 onward: my visits to you and Doris in Kingston every time I was there as Longman’s Caribbean Publisher. On one, a journey across to the North Coast with Wilson Harris and Margaret, his wife, after his lectures at Mona. A sea bath, and a call on Gloria Escoffery, artist, at her Rio Bueno studio home.
Kamau Circa 1983. Photo credited to the Cambridge photographer Mark Lumley, and was used by New Beacon Books on the back cover of History of the Voice (1984).
Unable to find exact date, and Kamau has no recollection of visiting Cambridge at that time.
This photo is credited to the photographer George Hallett, based in France. It shows Kamau reading at the Poetry Society in London, then at its home in Earl’s Court Square. Again, Kamau has no memory of ever reading there, but Sarah White of NBB and I remember the event. Poetry Society unable to help. My 1989 diary records: “Wednesday 13 September, 7.30, EKB and Malik, Poetry Society.” So suggest date is given as 1989. (Kamau helpfully states that he did not begin to wear a tam until after 1986.)
Kamau with John La Rose on the shores of Barbados, was taken by Sarah White on their visit in 1999.
1969, 1972, 1994: your readings at the Royal Festival Hall in Poetry International’s high-calibre programs; another at the Royal Albert Hall; one of you alone at the Poetry Society’s home in Earl’s Court. The most recent, 2007, of Rights of Passage, at the Purcell Room, South Bank, in a day-long tribute to John La Rose, repeating your first public reading in 1967.
1985, Your generous preface to Facing the Sea, my Caribbean-wide, CAM-based anthology: “al-yu have given us a glimpse of Amerindia: gateway to the next millennium; the new voices of our women, gem & gemini & genesis; the prisms, no longer prison, of our tones & tongues.”
1986, my return to Jamaica for CAM research: news of Doris’ life-threatening illness when you met me at the airport. Although unable to stay with you both, as planned, a night at least up in your Irish Town home, and a wonderful party there of CAM brothers and sisters.
1988, September, your phone call from Kingston: Hurricane Gilbert heading straight for Jamaica. Your apprehension of damage to the Irish Town house and, especially, your precious archive there.
1991: my visit to your Kingston flat, scene of recent intrusion, violent attack. My first meeting with Beverley/Dream Chad. Our journey up to Irish Town so that I might lay flowers on Doris’ grave. And view Gilbert’s damage to your archive.
2001: the dedication of your poem “Duke Playing Piano at 70” on my own 70th birthday.
2002: your Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Sussex at Brighton Pavilion, and the citation by Denise DeCaires Narain.
2012: your welcome and Beverley’s at CowPastor in Barbados, after my time at Bocas in Trinidad. You talked of the new-turning chapter in your life: the “cultural lynching” in New York, with “encripplement” its consequence. Your tribute to Bev.
2015, March 3: news of the Frost Medal. Your phone call in response to my congratulations: “So happy with it.” Sight of Liviticus, your latest sequence of poems, completed March 5.
