Read My World 2014 English Overview

8/19/2019 Read My World 2014 English Overview

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The second edition of Read my World , the new international literature

festival in Amsterdam, again gave an in depth view of a region that

mainly reaches Dutch media due to disaster. The formula: provide

writers from the region itself with the opportunity to present a

selection of promising literary talent. Report of a three-day literary exploration of the

Caribbean today.

Day 1

On the ferry from Amsterdam Central Station the waterplane of the IJ mirrors an orange and

violet sky. I'm on my way to the Tolhuistuin, at the foot of the former Shell Tower. For the

coming days this hotspot of actual urban culture will be the stage of Read my World ,

Amsterdam's new international festival of literature. Last year, the first edition brought

young writers and poets from over the Middle East

to the Netherlands. The Caribbean is key to this

years edition. Suriname, Jamaica, Guyana, Haiti.

What do we know of these former colonies’literature today?

In the well stocked great room the audience is

young and at least as diverse as the city itself. On

the stage dub poet Sheldon Shepherd - dreadlocks,

sunglasses, irie smile – starts a rhythmic sound

improvisation turning into a rap poem about life in

Kingston, Jamaica. Read my world in the news daily ... The frontman of the No-Madzz

spoken word collective is accompanied by jazz bassist Pablo Nahar, straight from Suriname.

Welcome to the Caribbean!

A New Generation

‘Please show us your world, that question is rarely

put by a literary festival in the West’, the Surinam

based playwright Sharda Ganga submits to

presenter Andrew Makkinga. Ganga is one of the

three festival curators. She and writers Ruel

Johnson (Guyana) and Kettly Mars (Haiti) have

chosen four writers each, representing the fine

fleur of young writers from their regions. Ruel

Johnson, writer and polemicist: ‘I want to showthat technology and globalization have reached us as well, causing new literary

developments and interaction.’

Kettly Mars had to abstain due to illness, but Evelyne Truillot, Jean-Euphèle Milcé and

Emmelie Prophète from Haiti are present. In French Milcé recites the poem Temps mort he

wrote just after the devastating earthquake. Gathered before the crumbling national palace

in Port au Prince, the stupefied people look one another in the eye [...] clinging to the

outstretched hand of cholera and promises of chaos.’

In short presentations Vladimir Lucien and Kendel Hippolyte (St. Lucia), Davlin Thomas

(Trinidad & Tobago), Sara Bharrat (Guyana), Shakirah Bourne and Adrian Green (Barbados)

display a great diversity, but most have exploring the literary capacities of Creole vernacularin common. Shakirah Bourne, 26, reads from ‘In time of Need’, short stories bringing her



international recognition. In 'Getting marry’ a 6-year old boy eats from a wedding cake with

his little girl friend, not aware that upon the tabel that they hide under the father of the boy

is making love to the baker of the cake.

From an armchair on the stage a small black man raises. The petite stature with fedora-hat

and oxford glasses appears no none less than the legendary British Jamaican dub poet Linton

Kwesi Johnson. ‘LKJ’ reached cult status in theeighties by combining political poetry with dub

music. On records like Bass Culture and Inglan is a

Bitch he worded the grievances of West Indians in

London, who rebelled after Newcross massacre (13

killed) against racist treatment by the London

police and the impunity of the arsonists.

Musical poetry

‘There’s always a bass line in the background,’ says

the still active master. ‘One day I realized that I could reach a wide audience by using thismusic.’ LKJ recounts his tours with Allan Ginsberg and William Burroughs. Naming his early

inspirations like Prince Buster and King Tubby, the Jamaican patriarchs of ska and rap music,

the same as Sheldon Shepherd’s, two generations later on.

Who better then Dutch-Surinam Glenn Ramdamie, aka Typhoon, can round the circle this

evening. Storming both pop and literature festivals with half-improvised poems

accompanied by musicians in a variety of styles, Typhoon has just won the 3voor12 Prize and

has a sore throat. Nevertheless he moves like a dolphin through the Dutch language,

intelligently interweaving rap idiom, classical poetry and philosophy. Improvising freely with

Pablo Nahar, a ‘this is the interactive part’ is enough to make the audience take part in

producing the groove.

Day 2

Saturday around noon visitors eat pizza from the stone oven or couscous from one of the

stalls in the park of the Tolhuistuin. In a huge Tuareg tent jazzdiva Denise Jannah reads from

Clark Accord’s The Queen of Paramaribo. In the Garden room the impact of tourism and

'exoticism' on Caribbean culture is discussed.

During What comes from afar pupils from three

Amsterdam high schools read poems they have

writen the weeks before, inspired by Shakirah h

Bourne and Kendel Hippolyte.Of each class three students read a selection,

some proving unexpected talent. Hippolyte and

Bourne come to the table to answer questions.

‘What are your sources of inspiration? At what

time of day do you write? Does music help when

writing?’

Nobel Prize



For Kendel Hippolyte the greatest poets are William Blake

and Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott, the latter from St.

Lucia like Hippolyte himself. The dreadlocked poet writes ‘at

any time of the day, because a beautiful sentence can be

gone the next moment’. As for music as a source of

inspiration: ‘One day I hope to write a poem that sounds likeone of the great jazz solos.’

Especially Hippolyte's poem 'Advice to the young poet’ and

Bourne’s ‘Getting marry' inspire the young poets. Shakirah Bourne is impressed by the

performances. ‘Keep writing and read as many stories as you can’, she advises.

On a red sofa six writers, three Belgian-Flemish and three Dutch, exchange texts and ideas in

the context of the tour 'Know your neighbors'. In another room journalist and writer Linda

Polman explores reality and perception of Haiti with Zarayda Greenheart, Evelyne Truillot

and Jean-Euphèle Milcé. I have to choose and following the festival curators in the main hall

seems the best option. Sharda Ganga explains why she has chosen Kendel Hippolyte, AdrianGreen, Sheldon Sherpherd and Davlin Thomas. ‘To me they illustrate our playful, musical

literary tradition in contrast to the more cerebral, rationalist approach that I know of

Europe.’

Adorned with red plastic devils ears Davlin Thomas

reads from his play 'The Idiot'. A mother superior

confesses to the bishop that she seduces men and

women to murder them during orgasm. A villainous

monologue about evil in the disguise of innocence.

‘Theatre in Trinidad and Tobago is pure entertainment’,

Davlin explains. ‘I entertain my audience until it roarswith laughter, and then suddenly I put a mirror in front

of it. Blaming politicians is easy, but evil is in all of us.’

Adrian Green from Barbados shows himself a strong

performer, reciting his rhythmic poetry to a trance, meanings tumble over one another like

pebbles in a rapids. Sheldon Shepherd presents In the morning yah, his first compilation of

dub poetry especially printed for Read My World, with CD.

Exploring Movement

Curator Ruel Johnson chose ‘simply the brightest young talents’

from the Caribbean literature festival Carifesta. Poet Vladimirlucien from St. Lucia for example, who recently gained

international recognition with Sounding Ground , an impressive

collection of poems about identity, politics and 'home'. These

elements, according to Lucien, have no solid core, but exist by the

grace of movement. ‘For every journey the analysis of ground is

necessary. That analysis is what imbues this journey, which is

essentially yours, with its meaning. That is what makes it a

‘journey’, and not an empty ambling about.’ Lucien recites 'The

true sounds of numbers': In this gatherings of silence, this world of

disease, people who miss organs / I want to hear the sound ofnumbers. Whether they bleat or cry, or sing like birds (...)



Shakirah Bourne reads Crossing Over ,

about a naughty school girl who likes

jumping over open graves at the many

funerals she has to attend with her

mother, but her innocence is lost when afriend falls and dies while playing. 'But

now because of things like them, Lasonta

may be going to hell. If I did know that

little children could dead, I would never

have played these tricks.’ At the funeral

the girl sees a spirit departing from her

friends dead body, challenging her to jump over the grave.

Sara Bharrat became known in Guyana through her blog ‘Break your silence ', encourageing

young people to break the taboo on interethnic relations. She reads a love story about a

Creole man and a Hindu girl. During an awards ceremony for Bharrat the story chased aGuyanese minister from the hall. ‘In my country, love between racial groups is still called

‘blood contamination’’, Bharrat explains.

Gentile silence

Political commitment, especially with issues of color and class, is present in many shades.

Not surprisingly so in a region where the heritage of slavery and colonialism is always

present. In the Tuareg tent Chris Keulemans asks Ruel Johnson if anger can be a fertile

creative source. 'Ethnic politics in Guyana are

an every day cause for anger’, Johnson replies.

‘As our society calms down, the gentile silence grows over the abuses. Writers have a natural

role to continue the debate.’

Reading form her recent novel Christine Otten

illustrates that there are things to discuss in the

Netherlands too. Rafael is based on a true story

of a young Dutch woman’s search for the

Tunesian father of her child. When during the

‘Tunisian Spring’ the Netherlands closes its

border for Tunisians, the husband can only return to Europe by traffickers to the isle of

Lampedusa. Along the way, he gets lost in the dim world of illegality.As a writer and organiser Otten is strongly commited to breaking cultural boundaries. Her

literary show Bijlmer Books draws full houses in ‘Zuidoost’, one of the most ethnically

diverse areas of Amsterdam. Meanwhile Linton

Kwesi Johnson takes a stroll on the festival

grounds, willingly posing for 'selfies with’. In the

tent he speaks on writing in Creole as an

'upright stand', about language and power. LKJ

warns of the recurrence of national rhetorics .

‘We’ve seen where this leads us in former

Yugoslavia.’ My heart sings, my heart sucks hisyounger alter ego Sheldon Shepherd dubs in.



After a quick dinner at one of the stalls a discussion on the role of 'machismo' in Caribbean

literature follows a documentary about Frank Martinus Arion, famous writer of Dutch

Curaçao. In the Garden room the Poets Marathon takes off. In a languid, meditative

atmosphere a choice of poets recite

alternately: Charles Ducal, Hagar Peters,Vladimir Lucien, Anne Vegter, Edwin Fagel,

Maria van Daalen, Tonnus Oosterhoff,

Maarten van der Graaff, Antoine de Kom,

Geert Buelens, Erik Solvanger. Particularly

impressive is the performance of the Syrian-

Palestinian poet Ghayath Almadhoun,

revelation of last year’s Festival. Read my

World endorsed a translated edition of his

epic Away from Damascus, an apocalyptic

view of the ruined city of his youth. After this I catch a glimpse of Christine Ottens BijlmerBooks XL in the great hall, where the Dutch rapper Brainpower challenges the Surinamese

comedian Jörgen Rayman to cross the cultural border once for himself. Rayman sings,

convincingly, the poetic evergreen ‘Along the garden path of my father’ of Wim Sonneveld.

With a Spoken Beat Night singer-writer Jeannine Valeriano brings the official program of Day

2 to a close. Her improvisations are supported by live animators and jazz musicians Maarten

Ornstein, Mark Tuinstra and Ronald Snijders. Snijders impresses with an authentic Indian

raga on a European flute.

For those still not ready for sleep fire pits glow in the nightly park. Quite a crowd has

gathered for storytelling and music by, among others, Kendel Hippolyte and Sahand

Sahebdivani.

Day 3

On Sunday the program starts late in the afternoon. In the great hall ‘converse interviews’:

writers question close readers of their work, resulting in stunning conversations. Anne

Vegter has read Charles Ducal and is too lyrical to let the Flemish poet intervene. Sharda

Ganga has read Els Moors’ Songs of a capsizing horse. Moors: ‘did you hear a voice?’ Ganga:

‘I saw someone struggling for shelter to find that there is none. Very oppressive, especially

the part about a man who wakes up in a body bag, the staff of the morgue not letting him

permission leave. Moors: ‘Did you think this is a writer with a personal problem, or also why

is this written?' Ganga: ‘Caribbean writers describe suffering as a result of European culture.Here I read about suffering within the European culture itself: a futile search for love. ’

During the meeting Brave New World Carl Haarnack, historian and blogger of Buku

Bibliotheca Surinamica, provides a historical overview of racist images in Dutch children’s

books. We see the dubious origins of Zwarte Piet. Whether of not to abolish this black

servant of the Dutch Santa Claus has become subject of a fierce political debate in the

Netherlands.

Haitian author Evelyne Trouillot

doesn’t recognise the imagery from

the French books of her childhood.‘In Jules Verne there are no black



people. You only realise this as an adult. Only since twenty years black children appear in our

children’s literature. Nowadays in Haiti that’s booming business for writers.’

Times do change. Truillot herself is now writing about a black boy returning with his parents

from Blooklyn to Haiti, where he discovers the history of the first republic of former slaves.

Afro-American-Dutch author Mylo Freedman adds that she shared with millions of girls a

frenzy about princesses. ‘One day, I wondered why princesses should always have blond hairand blue eyes.’ Freedman created Princess Arabella, her comic books with a coloured

princess are read now by girls all over the world.

Artistic reflections

In the Garden room poets Geert Buelens and Maria van Daalen provide artistic reflections on

Sounding Ground of Vladimir Lucien. The meeting is one of the finest of the festival, similar

to the encounter between Willem Jan Otten and Ghayat Almadhoun last year. Both are the

work of editor Joost Baars. As a bilingual Fleming Buelens recognizes Luciens theme of

describing ‘home’ in an official language that isn’t yours. This requires permanent

translation, but Lucien shows it is without a chance, says Buelens. Lucien reads 'Pastorale',once more spreading the wings of his lyrical talent.

And love would be a herd of moments grazing/ upon memory when we turn back gazing/

and not one of their may lift a face/ from the pastoral, from that unvaried place/

To give a meagre look, except one in lazy mistrust/ might raise its head masticating

mouthfuls of lust ( … )

Room with a View is a presentation of stories of Karin Amatmoekrim, Auke Hulst, Rachid

Novaire and Gerbrand Bakker inspired by photographs the Caribbean festival guests made of

the views from their working rooms at home. And then

the festival reaches a final climax. In the great hall TextForge has staged a theatrical dialogue of Malou de Roy

van Zuydewijn inspired by Davlin Thomas’ Carnival

Plays. Actors Wijnand Stomp and Sara van Gennip play

a director and his PR assistant, hiding a sexual

relationship and various less attractive motifs behind

their seemingly professional manipulations.

When the Sranan Poku dance party takes off I wander

through the Tolhuistuin. I realize that this was not a festival of recognition, but of discovery. I

have been diving into a world I knew only superficially before. In many different forms of

presentation I've met writers, poets and performers with a different history, a differentworldview and unexpected forms of expression. Through all the differences that one single

theme of literature all over the globe: the universal search for meaning and beauty in the

human condition.

Next year Willemijn Lamp and Matthijs Ponte of Read my World will be presenting

emerging talent from another remote region to which the Netherlands is

historically connected: Indonesia. No better way to read a world than by it’s own

writers. Don’t miss out on it.

[Frank Siddiqui / [email protected]]

Documents

Read My World 2014 English Overview