LiTTscapes pays tribute to Antilles in Antigua

The creativity of the islands of the Antilles will come into focus with LiTTribute to the AnTTiles to be staged at the Museum of Antigua and Barbuda on March 23, 2013.

This is the third in a series of tributes to the creative heritage of the Caribbean to be staged by author of LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago Kris Rampersad.

Rampersad will team up with Antiguan writers and performers, the Historical and Archaeological Society of Antigua and Barbuda which operates the museum, and Best of Books, Antigua for the event which will feature readings and performances inspired by LiTTscapes with input from artists in the oral and literary heritage of Antigua.

It follows the recent successful staging of LiTTribute II – LiTTurgy to the Mainland hosted by the Guyana Prize for Literature and Moray House Trust in Georgetown, Guyana and the LiTTribute to the Republic on Trinidad and Tobago’s 36^th anniversary as a Republic. LiTTscapes was launched as part of Trinidad and Tobago’s golden jubilee of Independence festivities in August 2012 along with LiTTours and LiTTevents.

“LiTTscapes is a celebration of ourselves – small islands whose creative energies have generated enormous waves across the globe, as this LiTTribute to the Antilles will endorse. Antigua has given us writers like Jamaica Kincaid and Joanne Hillhouse.  Derek Walcott titled his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize, The Antilles – Fragments of Epic Memory. This event is a celebration of that epic Antilles, not as fragments, but for the wholeness of our aesthetics,” said Rampersad.    

Acclaimed as a groundbreaking encyclopaedic yet coffee-table style compendium of the lifestyles, landscapes, architecture, cultures, festivals and institutions of the Caribbean as represented in more than 100 fictional works by some 60 writers, LiTTscapes, she explained, is geared to stimulate interest in reading, literacy and connect the Caribbean through synergies with the creative industries and sectors of the Caribbean.

Rampersad said along similar lines of the LiTTscapes celebrations, the Antigua/Barbuda event will feature the Caribbean architectural alongside literary, visual and performance heritage. Its staging at the museum building will recognise Antigua’s oldest heritage building which is the former site of an indigeneous marketplace. Previous events were staged at the historic Moray House in Guyana, Knowsley Building in Port of Spain and White Hall, one of Port of Spain’s Magnificent Seven edifices.

For details and information email lolleaves@gmail.com 

In Brief:

LiTTscapes: Key Features

Ø  Full colour, easy reading, coffee table-style

Ø  More than 500 photographs of Trinidad and Tobago

Ø  Represents some 100 works by more than 60 writers

Ø  Captures intimate real life and fictional details of island life

Ø  Details exciting literary moments, literary heritage walks & tours

Ø  Essential companion on T&T for tourists, students, policy makers, academics, lay readers

Ø  Totally local effort to stimulate local creative industries

Ø  Encourage literacy and creative activity

See: LiTTscapes album on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kris.rampersad1