[Berkley Wendell Semple, Kipling Plass, Peepal Tree Press, Leeds, UK, 2024, 330pp, £12.99] Recently, there have been a few Guyanese novels that shock the audience; that have been sufficiently controversial to invite the disapproval of some groups of readers.
In Guyana there have been attempts to build a culture of theatre – that timeless and universal art that plays a crucial role in the building of a society, the defining of a people, the enlightenment of mankind, and the education and entertainment of all.
The world is universally enriched by storytelling traditions, although the practice and the art of telling stories in communities among the world population are under threat.
Last Thursday, March 27, was World Theatre Day. Interestingly, this came very close to the observation of two other special days in relation to the arts, reading and performance – World Poetry Day on March 20, and World Story-telling Day on March 21.
Edgar Austin Mittelholzer (1909 – 1965) holds a very special place in Guyanese and West Indian literature – renowned as one of the nation’s most important novelists.
There is an experience in the theatre in Guyana scheduled for the weekend at the National Cultural Centre that is worthy of comment.
For a continuous period over the past two years, the play “Anansi” by Alistair Campbell has been aired on radio and available to secondary school students studying English ‘B’ for CXC.
Mashramani is the annual national festival of the Republic of Guyana.
There is a meeting here tonight There is a meeting here tonight Come one and all and gather round There is a meeting here tonight (Traditional) We have previously published accounts of the life and work of Caribbean theatre artist Ken Corsbie in these pages.
We are now in the middle of the annual Chinese Spring Festival, which celebrates the Chinese New Year for 2025.
The year 2024 on the Guyanese stage ended with three contrasting productions – a riveting melodrama at the National Cultural Centre (NCC), a Christmas programme at the Theatre Guild and the annual smash hit featuring uncensored and unmitigated stand-up comedy.
Today, January 26, is the 76th Anniversary of the Republic Day of India.
On January 12, 1853, a British ship, the Glentanner, arrived in British Guiana and 254 men disembarked, having set sail from Amoy in China to be contracted as indentured coolies on the sugar estates of Demerara.
According to tradition, tomorrow, January 6, is the last day of the largest festivity known to the world – the festival of Christmas.
Modern Greek poetry is strange to the Anglicised west, but the Classics, which include ancient Greek poetry, are at the very foundations of modern literatures in English.
[David Dabydeen, Sweet Li Jie, Leeds, UK, Peepal Tree Press, 2024.
“The When Time” is the title of a poem by West Indian poet Martin Wylde Carter (June 7, 1927 – December 13, 1997) from the collection Poems of Succession (New Beacon Books, 1978).
There was a period between the 1960s and early 1970s that was an age of super-heroes in film – specifically in the cinema and television.
On October 10, 2024, it was announced that the distinguished and prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature 2024 was awarded to South Korean fiction writer Han Kang.
At the present time in Guyana, among the most anticipated annual dance productions on stage is Greens & Golds, produced by Kreative Arts and directed by Jonathan and Esther Hamer.
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