‘Faces of the Caribbean’ features ‘vibrant celebration of Caribbean culture, literature’

Marsha Massiah, the Trinidadian-born founder and executive director of the Brooklyn Caribbean Literature Festival (BCLF), says that this year’s festival, themed “Faces of the Caribbean,” promises to be a “vibrant celebration of Caribbean culture and literature”, featuring a remarkable lineup of authors, scholars and cultural figures.

Massiah told Caribbean Life on Tuesday that BCLF is set to “illuminate Brooklyn” with its sixth edition, scheduled for September 5-8, 2024.

“Faces of the Caribbean is a true testament to my team’s aggregate effort of the last six years to build a sustainable and robust platform for Caribbean writers in the Diaspora,” she said. “BCLF is a conduit for channeling Caribbean culture and its very rich literary heritage through storytelling. 

“Our approach is simultaneously modern and deeply rustic,” she added. “We tell the stories that are buried in the bosom of our classical writing tradition and oral storytelling with as much passion as we do the fresher stories of the Diaspora, which are often intersections of theatre, music and post-memory.” 

Massiah said BCLF’s goal is “to reveal the less commonly acknowledged nature of Caribbean excellence, which is the wealth of our intellectualism, fiction and indigenous stories.

“We are well-known for music and food, but our literature doesn’t seem to enjoy the same prominence in the popular imagination,” she said. “The Caribbean story, being universal in scope, is the great equalizer for the human experience. The Caribbean story has the power to unite and settle the great debate questions of difference. The Caribbean story absorbs the highs and lows of the human experience and refracts its light back onto the hearts of its reader.” 

This year, Massiah said BCLF has “assembled some of the brightest and best minds in global academic thought, music, poetry and journalism to celebrate with us and cement the rightful place of the Caribbean writer in the global literary canon.” 

She said the festival will highlight Prof. Hilary Beckles, chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission, alongside an illustrious roster of literary talent. 

Massiah said the event will welcome Haitian-American luminaries Edwidge Danticat and Roxane Gay, who will launch Danticat’s highly anticipated collection of essays, “We’re Alone” (Graywolf Press, 2024). 

Trinidadian journalist and author Dr. Dominic Kalipersad will share the stage with Dr. Kevin Browne, while P. Djèlí Clark, a recipient of the Locus Award, will make a celebrated return, Massiah said. 

She said US Virgin Islands-born Tiphanie Yanique joins the festival for the first time, and Richard Georges, the British Virgin Islands’ inaugural poet laureate, will conduct a poetry workshop. 

Other notable authors include: Angie Cruz, Kellie Magnus, Jasmine Sealy, Alscess Brown, Heather Archibald, Christina Cooke, Lisa Allen-Agostini, Jive Poetic, Rico Frederick, Michael Cooper, Mervyn Taylor, Yesha Townsend, Yesenia Montilla, Lauren Alleyne, Mercy Tullis Bukhari, Derron Sandy, Roberto Carlos Garcia, Cleyvis Natera, Merle Collins, Bill Howell, Roland Watson-Grant, Christina Olivares, Deborah C. Mortimer, Janet Morrison, Esmeralda Santiago, Lorna Goodison, Barbara Jenkins and Anesia Alfred. 

“The festival will showcase their diverse and dynamic contributions to Caribbean literature, enriching the cultural landscape of Brooklyn,” said Massiah, adding that “in an exciting development, this year’s festival will extend its reach beyond the official dates with a series of pre- and post-event collaborations.”

On August 8, she said BCLF will team up with Akashic Books for a conversation at Greenlight Bookstore, featuring Bill “Blade” Howell and Roland Watson-Grant discussing Howell’s new book, Pinnacle: The Lost Paradise of Rasta. 

The festival will also participate in the Brooklyn Book Festival, in partnership with the Center for Fiction, on September 29, where Esmeralda Santiago, Barbara Jenkins and Lorna Goodison will engage in a conversation moderated by Lauren Francis-Sharma. 

Massiah said the BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest will unveil its 2024 winners and finalists, showcasing the outstanding work of Caribbean-descended writers from both the region and the Diaspora. 

“The contest, now among the most prestigious for Caribbean writers, celebrates the voices that contribute to the rich tapestry of Caribbean literature,” she said. “The theme ‘Faces of the Caribbean’ highlights the diverse identities, traditions and experiences that define Caribbean culture. 

“The festival aims to explore and celebrate this diversity, bringing together a spectrum of voices and perspectives to enrich the dialogue around Caribbean literature and its global significance,” Massiah added. 

She said the festival is supported by a range of sponsors, including The Hawthornden Foundation, Center for Fiction, NYU, Ten to One Rum, The Security Zone (Trinidad & Tobago), and Akashic Books. 

Massiah said Trinidad and Tobago-based Patrick Rasoanaivo & Chasing the Caribbean have conceptualized the festival’s branding and graphic image.

About some of the illustrious authors, scholars and cultural giants 

Angie Cruz

Cruz is a novelist and editor. She is the author of How Not To Drown in A Glass of Water and Dominicana, which was the inaugural GMA Book Club Pick and the 2019-20 Wordup Uptown Reads selection. It was shortlisted for The Women’s Prize, longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the Aspen Words Literary Prize, it was a RUSA Notable Book, and winner of the ALA/YALSA Alex Award. Cruz divides her time between Pittsburgh, New York, and Turin. Angélica and la güira is her first picture book.

Edwidge Danticat

Danticat is the author of the essay collection We’re Alone and numerous other books, most recently the story collection Everything Inside, winner of the Bocas Fiction Prize, the Story Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Prize, and The Art of Death, a National Book Critics Circle finalist in Criticism. Her novels include Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection, Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist, and The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner. Her memoir, Brother, I’m Dying, was the winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award and a finalist for the National Book Award. Among other awards, she has received a MacArthur Fellowship, the Neustadt Prize, and the Vilcek Prize. She teaches at Columbia University.

Lorna Goodison

Goodison is a major figure in world literature, she was the Poet Laureate of Jamaica (2017-2020), and in 2019 she was awarded the 2019 Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. Goodison has won many other awards for her work, including the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for Poetry from Yale University, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Musgrave Gold Medal from Jamaica, the Henry Russel Award and the Shirley Verett award for Exceptional Creative Work from the University of Michigan, and one of Canada’s largest literary prizes, the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People  (2007). Her Collected Poems was published in 2017 by Carcanet (UK). She is the author of twelve books of poetry, three collections of short stories, an award winning memoir and a recent collection of essays. Goodison is Professor Emerita at University of Michigan, where she was the Lemuel A. Johnson Professor of English and African and Afroamerican Studies.

Professor Sir Hilary Beckles

Professor Sir Hilary is vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies. He is a distinguished university administrator, economic historian, and specialist in higher education and development thinking and practice; and an internationally reputed historian. Sir Hilary is vice president of the International Task Force for the UNESCO Slave Route Project; a consultant for the UNESCO Cities for Peace Global Program; an advisor to the UN World Culture Report; and member of Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, Science Advisory Board on sustainable development. 

He has received numerous awards, including Honorary Doctor of Letters from Brock University, the University of Glasgow, University of Hull, and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, in recognition of his major contribution to academic research into transatlantic slavery, popular culture, and sport. 

Sir Hilary has lectured extensively in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas and has published more than 10 academic books. He is Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Commission on Reparation and Social Justice. Sir Hilary is also founder and Director of the CLR James Centre for Cricket Research at Cave Hill Campus, and a former member of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). He is founder and inaugural Chairman of the High Performance Cricket Academy of the WICB. He is also Vice President of the Commonwealth Sports Ministers advisory body on Sport and Development. 

Sir Hilary is an editor of the UNESCO General History of Africa series. Sir Hilary has lectured extensively in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas and has published over 100 peer-reviewed essays in scholarly journals and more than 20 academic books.

About the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival:

The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival (BCLF) is a not-for-profit organization based in New York City dedicated to celebrating Caribbean literature and storytelling. The annual festival, held in various Brooklyn venues, features readings, panel discussions, workshops, and performances that spotlight the dynamic and diverse voices of Caribbean writers.

For more information, contact Massiah at bklyncbeanlitfest.org.