Thursday, May 2, 2013

Young writers emerge with Wadadli Pen winners


Wadadli Pen 2013 Winners Revealed


Pictured from left: Zuri Holder (third overall), Asha Graham
 (overall winner), Daryl George (second overall)

Wadadli Pen once again proves that when it comes to talent, age is nothing but a number. The top three in the 2013 Challenge are writers from each age category. The overall winner is 15-year-old Antigua Girls High School studentAsha Graham with her tale of quiet yearning ‘Revelations Tonight’ which also won the 13 to 17 age category. Graham was, also, third in her age category with her poem ‘Remembrance’. Second overall is 27-year-old Daryl George; also winner in the 18 to 35 age category, with the haunting ‘Ceramic Blues’; he also claimed the runner up spot in his age category with ‘Julie Drops’. Third overall and winner in the 12 and younger category is Antigua Grammar School student 12-year-old Zuri Holder with his sports themed story ‘The Big Event’.

Kris Rampersad presents prize of LiTTscapes
- Landscapes of Fictionfrom Trinidad & Tobago
to Wadadli Pen Prize's Joanne Hilhouse
The Awards ceremony at which these writers and all finalists were recognized was held Sunday afternoon at the St. Mary’s Street store of long time WadadliPen partner The Best of Books.

The other big announcement of the day was the US$500 worth of books each to be gifted by Hands across the Sea to Antigua Girls High School and St John’s Catholic Primary for most submissions.

Wadadli Pen’s organizers are also pleased to recognize and express gratitude for theShoul, and the Cushion Club. Shout outs are also due to Art at the Ridge, Barbuda Express, Jane Seagull, Pamela Arthurton, Bayhouse Restaurant, Keyonna Beach, Heavenly Java 2 Go, Raw Island Products, Silver Lining supermarket, and KorenNorton. Several writers contributed copies of their books: namely Antiguan andBarbudan writers Dorbrene O’Marde, Althea Prince, Claudia Elizabeth Ruth Francis, and Marie Elena John; Jamaican writers Diana McCaulay and Diane Browne; Trinidadian writer Kris Rampersad; Kittitian-Nevisian writer Carol Mitchell; and British writer Elaine Spires. There is one other major patron who wishes to remain anonymous. Gratitude also to Wadadli Pen’s media partners, especially Antiguanice.com and 365Antigua.com both of which maintain WadadliPen pages on their popular online hubs.
support of regular patrons like Conrad Luke, Stephen B.

Wadadli Pen partners and writers in their own right Brenda Lee Browne, Barbara Arrindell, Floree Williams, and Joanne C. Hillhouse, who founded theWadadli Youth Pen Prize back in 2004, have added to the prize pool: two spots in Browne’s Just Write Writers Retreat, and copies of Arrindell’s Legend of Batman’s Cave and Other Stories, Williams’ Pink Teacups and Blue Dresses, andHillhouse’s Oh Gad!

Taking their portion of these prizes are writers Jamila Salankey, Vega Armstrong,Chammaiah Ambrose, and Michaela Harris; and art winners Avecia James,Dennika Bascom, Jamika Nedd, and Gavin Jeffrey Benjamin. Other shortlisted writers were Juliet Browne, Rhea Watkins, Isheba Simon, Danielle M. Benjamin,Latoya Aretha Honoré, Arati Jagdeo, and Latisha Walker-Jacobs.

Hillhouse reminds that Wadadli Pen’s purpose is to nurture and showcaseAntiguan and Barbudan youthful literary talent. As such the top stories are returned to the writers with the editors’ notes for revision. In time, she hopes with funding and support to conduct workshops in schools and community.

For the full breakdown o f2013 winners and prizes, and the project’s history visit http://wadadlipen.wordpress.com To support future activities email wadadlipen@yahoo.com. Links to the winning entries can be found here http://wadadlipen.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/who-won-in-2013/.

http://www.365antigua.com/cms/content/arts-literature-wadadli-pen-2013-winners
http://wadadlipen.wordpress.com/tag/zuri-holder/

WHO WON IN 2013?

THE WADADLI PEN CHALLENGE 2013 FINALISTS ARE…
*re prize split – please note that each shortlisted writer receives a Certificate of Achievement as well as discount cards from the Best of Books; and the overall winner’s name has been emblazoned alongside the name of past winners onto the Challenge plaque – sponsored by the Best of Books.

SCHOOLS WITH THE MOST SUBMISSIONS
Primary School – St. John’s Catholic Primary – US$500 worth of books sponsored by Hands Across the Sea
Secondary School – Antigua Girls High School – US$500 worth of books sponsored by Hands Across the Seatop
ASHA GRAHAM
Author of Revelations Tonight and Remembrance
Overall Winner (Revelations Tonight), Winner in the 13 to 17 age category (Revelations Tonight) and Third placed in the 13 to 17 age category (Remembrance)
Total prizes:
Cash
$500 sponsored by Conrad Luke of R. K. Luke and Sons and the Leonard Tim Hector Memorial Committee
Literary Opportunities
Sponsored spot – Just Write writers retreat courtesy Brenda Lee Browne
Books
LiTTscapes: Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago by Kris Rampersad


https://wadadlipen.wordpress.com/category/wadadli-pen-year-by-year/wadadli-pen-2013/page/2/

NEWS AND SPECIALS
Back to Wadadli Youth Pen Prize


WADADLI YOUTH PEN REWARDS CEREMONY
Thursday 4th April 2013
The Wadadli Youth Pen Prize gives our children and young adults a voice, something not to be taken lightly. They live in a society where the news headlines and the narrative of their lives aren’t all childhood fairytales, anansi, or even jumbie stories. But, as their stories reveal, there is also incest, sexual abuse, family discord, apathy and confusion. So much so that the process of sifting through the entries sometimes has the judges wondering how much of what they’re reading is art imitating life.

The Wadadli Youth Pen Prize has, since 2004, been a platform for the latent literary talent of our young people; a space without judgment or censure where they can grapple in imaginative ways with real life. We’ve seen former winners continue to write, whether in creative or journalistic spaces; and hope that, for those not seeking a literary path, the programme has in some small way helped them to find their voice as well.

We want to continue to be that space where the writing exists for its own sake, its only agenda to encourage the unique yet distinctively Caribbean voice of our young Creatives, especially writers, and to help nurture and showcase their talent.

As Wadadli Pen’s primary activity at this time is a writing challenge, the development of craft is paramount. The selected stories are rarely perfect, there is always room to grow; but they show a spark of possibility that needs to be encouraged. In evaluating the stories and providing constructive criticism to the best of the lot, we hope to encourage our young scribes to embrace the opportunity to grow. We feel there is more outreach yet to be done in this regard and hope to do literary arts workshops in our schools and communities, if we can access the financial and technical support to do so.

The most promising stories and writers to emerge from this year’s Wadadli Youth Pen Prize Challenge will be revealed and recognized this Sunday 7th April, 4 p.m., at the Best of Books. The event will be a joint awards ceremony and book launch (A Certain Paradise which has been receiving positive early notice from readers for its “uncannily accurate” depiction of island life). This year, we can report, that the standout writers hail from all age categories 12 and younger, 13 to 17, 18 to 35, and their themes as usual run the gamut, from fun and fantasy to serious social issues.

As noted, this couldn’t be done without the assistance of individuals, businesses and community groups, and as such I must take the time to thank Barbara Arrindell, Brenda Lee Browne, Floree Williams, Linisa George, Devra Thomas, the Best of Books, Hands Across the Sea, Conrad Luke, Barbuda Express, Stephen B. Shoul, Pamela Arthurton, Art at the Ridge, Diana McCaulay, Diane Browne, Keyonna Beach, Dorbrene O’Marde, Bayhouse Restaurant, Claudia Elizabeth Ruth Francis, Jane Seagull, Marie Elena John, Carol Mitchell, Elaine Spires, the Cushion Club, Koren Norton, Heavenly Java 2 Go, Althea Prince, Kris Rampersad, and one other anonymous donor.

For more, visit http://wadadlipen.wordpress.com Take some time to explore and see what else we’ve been doing and maybe support. You can reach us at wadadlipen@yahoo.com
 http://www.antiguanice.com/v2/client.php?id=973&news=5549



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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2

WHO WILL BE DEMOKRISSY's 25000th READER? The Count Is On....
PLS RESPECT OUR COPYRIGHTS: You can contribute to these efforts by purchasing the books for friends, schools and institutions; or requesting our customised LiTTours or LiTTributes - Email lolleaes@gmail.com for details 

So masmen are enflamed. Again. Over prize money. Again. Are at loggerheads with the powers that be. Again.
It's the continuing saga of bacchanalia.
Unless we weed out the endemic systems of dependency on which the celebrations were founded; and the governance system recast itself as mechanism that has the will to act; to revamp and develop adequate systems and structures and institutions that nurture and support artists and creators in ways that make them self-reliant, and that make the Carnival and other Festival Arts into the viable and sustainable creative industrial sector they can be, the recurring impasse over prizes, prize structure and prize money for pan, mas, calypso, soca, chutney, stickfighting, Hosay, Divali,  Phagwa, Pichakarie, and everything in between would remain the never-ending story.
Somewhere in there is also the recurringly invisible cultural policy in state of perpetual draft over the last 50 odd years of so - yes, 50 years - and each time it resurfaces merely replicates the dependency syndrome!
Is it any wonder that we cannot see our way, despite the rich amalgam of talent and creativity we exhibit in our daily lives. Shortsightedness continues to doggers.
Where are the well-thought-out budgets that look beyond just the annual seven day wonder to an Industry? That takes into full account the contributions and the value - social, economic, political and other value included - of the cultural sector so budgetary focus can match that contribution, not reflect tokenism.
Where is the vision for building proper supportive trade and commercial structures and mechanisms?
Where are the mechaniims and facilities and facilitation for those more meaningful forms of compensation as insurance, pensions, support grants, support training and services that would build and strengthen the sector so ever so regularly we would not have to hear of how another of our artists is close to the breadline?
And where is the will by those in the sector - policy and decision makers, the corporate sector, and practitioners alike, to make it happen?
Are we really serious. Who's fooling whom?
These are some of the endemic systematic changes and modes for institutional reform in a culture of transformation that discussions on constitutional reform should also take into account - how to redress the kind of institutional malaise that are inhibiting progress and meaningful development and effectively restructure public institutions, their relationships with the state and the state's relationships to the civic mechanisms that they ought to sustain.

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Unearthing Trinidad’s Carib Ancestry headlined

IPS – Unearthing Trinidad’s Carib Ancestry | Inter Press Service http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/04/unearthing-trinidads-carib-ancestry/

Headlines, Indigenous Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean, Population

Unearthing Trinidad’s Carib Ancestry

By Peter RichardsReprint |     |  Print | 
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Apr 30 2013 (IPS) - Ricardo Bharath-Hernandez, like most citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, has probably lost count of the millions of dollars being spent to renovate the Greek revival style “Red House” that serves as the parliament building in the oil-rich twin island republic.
In fact, renovation work began more than a decade ago on the building, constructed in 1907 to replace the one destroyed in the 1903 water riots. Recent government estimates put the cost of restoring the original architectural design at 100 million dollars by the time the work is completed in 2015.
"We have for too long paid only lip service to our multiculturalism." -- Dr. Kris Rampersad
But a few weeks ago, Bharath-Hernandez, who is the head of the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community and can trace his ancestry to the first inhabitants of the Caribbean – the Caribs and the Arawaks – took a renewed interest when workers discovered pottery artefacts and bone fragments possibly linked to the Amerindian heritage dating back to AD 0-350.
Bharath-Hernandez, whose community is 600 strong, has already visited the renovation site in the heart of the capital, Port of Spain, and told IPS he is “prepared to perform the necessary ancestral rituals once it is confirmed that the fragments are indeed Amerindian”.
The discovery has come at a time when the Carib community here is moving to construct a modern indigenous Amerindian Village at Santa Rosa, east of the capital, on the 25 acres of land provided by the government.
“We want to keep the village as authentic and traditional as possible but with all modern day amenities,” Bharath-Hernandez said.
“It will comprise a main centre to be used as a meeting and cultural space which will be located in the centre of the village. Spiritual rituals will also be conducted there. There will also be an official residence for the Carib Queen, Jennifer Cassar,” he added.
Arrangements are now being made to send the bones to France for further analysis.
Last week, the Carib chief and representatives from other indigenous groups here met with officials from Parliament and the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UdeCOTT), which is carrying out the renovation work.
“We were told that as soon as the results are in we would be called back for another meeting and they will wait on our proposal on how to proceed,” Barath-Hernandez told IPS following the meeting that was also attended by archaeologist Dr. Peter Harris, who had earlier told a local newspaper that the receptacles found in the pits are similar to those used by the Amerindians.
Heritage consultant Dr. Kris Rampersad said the recent finds of skeletal remains and artefacts point to the need for a comprehensive archaeological survey of Trinidad and Tobago.
She is hoping that universities here take the lead to establish an “all-encompassing programme in heritage studies that incorporate research, scientific, conservation, restoration, curatorial and forensic study among other fields that would advance the knowledge and understanding of Trinidad and Tobago’s prehistory and multicultural h
eritage.
“This also has value to the region and the world. We have for too long paid only lip service to our multiculturalism. The find under the Red House of bones potentially dating to the beginning of this epoch points to the significant need for a proper survey and actions to secure and protect zones that are of significant historical and prehistoric importance,” she told IPS.
Rampersad referred to the neglect by the authorities of another famed Banwari historical site south of here, and hoped that in the case of the discovery at the Red House, history does not repeat itself.
The Banwari Site is said to have been the home of the Banwari man, whose remains date back 7,000 years and which is considered one of the most significant and well-known archaeological treasures of the region.
Discovered some 40 years ago, little has been done to preserve and promote the site.
The Archaeology Centre at the University of the West Indies (UWI) said that in November 1969, the Trinidad and Tobago Historical Society discovered the remains of a human skeleton at Banwari Trace.
“Lying on its left-hand side, in a typical Amerindian ‘crouched’ burial position along a northwest axis Banwari Man was found 20-cm below the surface. Only two items were associated with the burial, a round pebble by the skull and needlepoint by the hip. Banwari Man was apparently interred in a shell midden and subsequently covered by shell refuse.
“Based on its stratigraphic location in the site’s archaeological deposits, the burial can be dated to the period shortly before the end of occupation, approximately 3,400 BC or 5,400 years old,” the UWI noted.
In 1978, Harris hailed the Banwari man as the oldest resident of Trinidad and an important icon of the country’s early antiquity.
“Why, 40 years later, as one of the richest countries in the region, must we be looking to other universities from which to draw expertise when by now we should have full-fledged – not only archaeological, but also conservation, restoration and other related programmes that explore the significance of our heritage beyond the current focus on song and dance mode?” Rampersad asked.
“While scholarly collaborations are important, certainly we could be more advanced, and a leader rather than a follower in these fields in which several other less-resourced Caribbean countries are significantly more advanced,” said Rampersad, who has been conducting trainings across the Caribbean on available mechanisms for safeguarding its heritage.
The discovery at the Red House coincides with recent findings by the U.S.-based National Geographic Genographic Project that the indigenous people may have had strong ancestral links to Africa and to Native American Indians.
Utilising DNA, the U.S.-based organisation tested 25 members of the community in July last year. Bharath-Hernandez says the results will hopefully put to rest questions that have been raised regarding the community’s identity in the past.
The results of the project were released to Bharath-Hernandez late last month by Dr.Jada BennTorres from the University of Pennsylvania.
“We have completed preliminary analysis of the mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome (NRY markers). These analyses will tell us about the maternal and paternal lineages of the community members,” wrote BennTorres in her letter thanking the Santa Rosa Karina community for its participation.
She said the findings of the genetic ancestry of community “indicate a complex ancestry that includes Africans, in addition to a very strong Native American ancestral component” and that all of the 25 individuals tested would receive their information at a later date.
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