Miami Book Fair spotlights Haiti-Jamaica literary dialogue

By Béatrice Vallières

Downtown Miami changed into a stretch of colourful tents this weekend, drawing e book lovers from throughout the town for the annual avenue honest that closes the Miami Ebook Truthful, one of many largest literary gatherings within the nation. The forty second version of the occasion, organized and hosted by Miami Dade School, wrapped up Sunday after per week of readings, panels, and performances.

On the ultimate day of the honest, Haitian and Jamaican literature took heart stage as writers from each nations shared a platform to current their newest books and mirror on the dialogue between their literary traditions. The occasion, titled “Cross-Currents: Haiti, Jamaica, and the Caribbean Imagination – Fiction and Non-Fiction”, introduced collectively Haitian-American authors Edwidge Danticat and Fabienne Josaphat, and Jamaican writers Dwight Thompson and Diana McCauley. 

Moderated by journalist Fabian Lyon, the dialogue was a part of the honest’s ReadCaribbean programming, which all through the week featured panels on Haitian well being, Vodou, and revolutionary figures in literature, in addition to dwell dance and music occasions. 

M.J. Fièvre, coordinator of the ReadCarribean program, mentioned Sunday’s panel grew out of a mirrored image on the deeper ties between Haiti and Jamaica. “There’s all the time been this sense of brotherhood between the 2 nations,” she mentioned in an interview with The Haitian Occasions. 

Fièvre pointed to the nations’ historic ties, starting with the Taínos, the Indigenous individuals who inhabited the Caribbean earlier than European colonization, and persevering with by their histories of colonization, enslavement, and revolutionary actions.

“Simply as now we have loads in frequent, there’s additionally loads that’s so totally different that generally the debates about tradition and historical past are very, very vivid. So I all the time thought it will be fascinating to have a dialog about what makes us the identical and what makes us totally different,” she defined. 

And, she added, “this yr was significantly fruitful by way of new books coming from each nations.”

Sunday’s panel gave every creator the possibility to introduce and skim from their newest books, in addition to reply viewers questions. 

Danticat introduced Watch Out for Falling Iguanas, her newest youngsters’s image e book set in Miami and illustrated by Jamaican illustrator Rachel Moss. Josaphat mentioned her historic fiction, Kingdom of No Tomorrow, which tells the story of a younger Haitian-American lady who joins the Black Panther Social gathering within the late Nineteen Sixties. 

Dwight Thompson introduced his second novel, My Personal Expensive Folks, which explores the theme of poisonous masculinity in Jamaican society by the story of a teen haunted by his silence after witnessing an assault. McCauley mentioned A Home for Miss Pauline, her novel set in rural Jamaica, that includes a 99-year-old protagonist reflecting upon her previous and her secrets and techniques.

The latest passage of Hurricane Melissa, which triggered catastrophic injury in Jamaica and led to a number of deaths in Haiti final month, hovered over the dialogue as moderator Fabian Lyon started by acknowledging the storm’s toll in each nations. “Why not come right here and actually speak about our commonalities and the way, going ahead, perhaps we are able to construct a more in-depth bond than what now we have proper now,” he mentioned, opening the panel.

Talking with The Haitian Occasions, authors emphasised the necessity for solidarity between nations within the wake of environmental disasters and tightening immigration insurance policies that proceed to have an effect on Caribbean immigrants in america. 

“There isn’t that solidarity that’s vital for us as Caribbean folks to actually current ourselves or set up ourselves on the worldwide stage as a united pressure,” mentioned Thompson in an interview with the Haitian Occasions, pointing to efforts within the Nineteen Sixties to construct regional unity after Jamaica’s independence. 

“The extra we are able to have these conversations, the higher it’s. And literature is a good ambassador for that,” Edwidge Danticat instructed The Haitian Occasions.

Panelists additionally mirrored on the cultural ties and distinctions that form Caribbean id.

“I feel there’s such a factor as Caribbean-ness, in addition to we’re all very totally different,” McCauley instructed The Haitian Occasions. 

“The individuals who dwell within the Caribbean have survived. They’ve survived crimes, crimes in opposition to humanity. They’ve survived governments which have allow them to down. They’ve survived hurricanes and earthquakes. A lot of tragedy and trauma,” she mentioned. “And on the finish of it, they nonetheless snort. And that’s Caribbean-ness.”

Haiti’s place throughout the largely English and Spanish-speaking Caribbean can really feel extra difficult, Josaphat instructed The Haitian Occasions. “And I really like that we are actually coming collectively and actually having a dialogue round what our authors are producing and the way our narratives come collectively, the place we converge, the place our similarities are.”