4 LOVE OF BARBADOS: AN UPDATE

Highlights from ArtsEtc's 4 Love of Barbados event at Spice of Life, November 2024.
 

Have you ever had an idea that started as a small thing, a seed, barely an imagining and then watched it as it grew legs, wings—a mind, even, of its own?

That’s what ArtsEtc has experienced over the last few months with its storytelling and publishing project 4 Love of Barbados.

Step back, step forward: A 4LB prose poem

ArtsEtc editor Linda M. Deane test-drives the 4 Love of Barbados prose poem template - to get an idea of what's possible and to encourage others to take up the challenge. The questionnaire is also below as are links to other responses gathered so far. We invite you to submit your most creative, original and thoughtful words. Who knows, they may end up in the 4LB anthology!

 

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I am Linda.

Sonnets for Anthony Joseph

 

In Gaza or My Li'l House

By Linda M. Deane and Brian Franklin

In Memoriam: Hubert Lawrence (1960-2024)

 

ARTSETC NOTES with sadness the passing of Jamaican journalist, sportscaster and author Hubert Lawrence.

A popular and respected figure in the sporting world in Jamaica and regionally, Hubert died suddenly on Friday, February 23, aged 63. His passing sparked much outpouring of shock, disbelief and sorrow on social media among those who knew or worked with him.

In Memoriam: Sonia Suzette Williams

“Everything that happens in the universe has an impact on who I am, how I live, and what I write: thought, word, deed. Everything I think, I write, I speak has an impact on the world; like the tide of the sea beats upon the shore, shaping the space.” — Sonia Suzette Williams, literary and theatre artist and educator (January 17, 1967-January 6, 2024); Green Readings, Barbados, June 2013

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KAREN AUSTIN: IN MEMORIAM

ArtsEtc notes with sadness the passing of Karen Elaine Austin, former managing director of Days Books. 

Karen, who was born in Manchester, England to Barbadian parents, died in June, aged 60, after a prolonged battle with cancer. 

20 in 20 (plus one to grow on)

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2001 • I leave the newspaper I was working at with a baby in my belly, a plan in my head and a rough blueprint in my hand. I call my co-conspirator, Robert Edison Sandiford (who had already left the newspaper), and a few weeks later we convene a session of like-minded souls to see how a newsletter called ArtsEtc might get off the ground. We meet at my home (chowing down on a mean chow mein and some fried flying fish to fuel the flood of ideas) and again, later, in a back room at Queen’s Park Gallery.

In Golden Square: A Photo Essay

Barbadian poet and performer Winston Farrell has been hosting poetry pop-ups in Golden Square, Bridgetown, throughout 2022. Linda M. Deane, who took part in February, offers this alternate take on the popular literary event. Photos by S. Devonish. (Click the photos and scroll using the arrows.)

Voting for Real: The Weight and Measure of an X

What's the worth of an X?  A woman's vote?  A man's life?  Our better world?  Illustration Copyright © 2022 by Linda M. Deane.

 

I HAVE BEEN mulling over this blog since the morning of January 19. I am still mulling over it, and most likely still will be even as you read it.

I physically started writing as tanks and troops amassed along Russia’s border with Ukraine.

By my second draft, Russia had invaded. Vladimir vs Volodymyr; clown vs comedian; one set of people vs another, very similar-looking set of people. With a weary, wary world looking on.

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