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 E-book Honest, 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 every week of readings, panels, and performances.

On the ultimate day of the honest, Haitian and Jamaican literature took middle stage as writers from each international locations 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 international locations,” she mentioned in an interview with The Haitian Instances. 

Fièvre pointed to the international locations’ 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 we’ve got 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 could 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 when it comes to new books coming from each international locations.”

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

Danticat offered Watch Out for Falling Iguanas, her newest kids’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 girl who joins the Black Panther Social gathering within the late Sixties. 

Dwight Thompson offered his second novel, My Personal Pricey Folks, which explores the theme of poisonous masculinity in Jamaican society by the story of a youngster 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 current passage of Hurricane Melissa, which triggered catastrophic harm 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 international locations. “Why not come right here and actually speak about our commonalities and the way, going ahead, perhaps we will construct a more in-depth bond than what we’ve got proper now,” he mentioned, opening the panel.

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

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

“The extra we will have these conversations, the higher it’s. And literature is a superb ambassador for that,” Edwidge Danticat informed The Haitian Instances.

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

“I believe there may be such a factor as Caribbean-ness, in addition to we’re all very totally different,” McCauley informed The Haitian Instances. 

“The individuals who dwell within the Caribbean have survived. They’ve survived crimes, crimes towards 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 snicker. And that’s Caribbean-ness.”

Haiti’s place throughout the principally English and Spanish-speaking Caribbean can really feel extra difficult, Josaphat informed The Haitian Instances. “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.”