One of the subjects of study developed by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) that has been slowly gaining ground is Drama, which is offered at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level as Theatre Arts and at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) level as a part of the Performing Arts.
St Lucian poet, editor and librarian John Robert Lee uses a continuing email thread to disseminate information about the arts in the Caribbean and, very importantly, sustain a dialogue among the range of West Indian writers, dramatists, artists, and critics.
Cane
· You were born of cane
Not as the planters hoped –
Barefooted, beggardly of mind –
But hugely wise, a soul blown high
By the incensed breath
Of a cankered slave:
Cane made you a vision of mankind.
There was a very rare event in western theatre and an important advancement for Caribbean literature when a new opera, “The Knife of Dawn” (2016), opened at the Royal Opera House in London on October 24, 2020.
Sita and Jatayu
It was Jatayu who tried to pursue
Rawan to save Sita, his treasured King’s
wife, as she prayed to her Rama to free
her from Rawan’s clutch, squeezing tight her spleen.
Among School Children
I
I walk through the long schoolroom questioning;
A kind old nun in a white hood replies;
The children learn to cipher and to sing,
To study reading-books and history,
To cut and sew, be neat in everything
In the best modern way—the children’s eyes
In momentary wonder stare upon
A sixty-year-old smiling public man.
Bass Culture (for Big Yout)
1
muzik of blood
black reared
pain rooted
heart geared
all tensed up
in di bubbe an di bounce
an di leap an di weight drop
it is di beat of di heart
this pulsing of blood
that is a bubblin bass
a bad bad beat
pushin against di wall
whey bar black blood
an is a whole heappa
passion a gather
like a frightful form
like a righteous harm
giving off wild like is madness
[.
Riddym Ravings
(the mad woman’s poem)
De fus time dem kar me go a Bellevue
was fi di dactar an de lanlord aperate
an tek de radio outa mi head
troo dem sieze the bed
weh did a gi mi cancer
an mek mi talk to nobady
ah di same night wen dem trow mi out fi no pay de rent
mi haffi sleep outa door wid de Channel One riddym box
an de DJ fly up eena mi head
mi hear im a play seh
Eh, Eh,
No feel no way
Town is a place dat ah really kean stay
Dem kudda – ribbit mi han
Eh – ribbit mi toe
Mi waan go a country go look mango
fah wen hungry mek King St pavement
bubble an dally in front a mi yeye
an mi foot start wanda falla fly
to de garbage pan eena de chinaman backlat
dem nearly chap aff mi hand eena de butcha shap
fi de piece a ratten poke
ah de same time de mawga gal in front a mi
drap de laas piece a ripe banana
an mi – ben dung – pick i up – an nyam i
a dat time dem grab mi an kar mi back a Bellevue
dis time de dactar an de landlord aperate
an tek de radio plug outa mi head
den sen mi out, seeh mi alright
but – as ah ketch back outa street
ah push een back de plug
an ah hear mi DJ still a play, seh
Eh, Eh,
no feel no way
town is a place dat ah really kean stay
dem kudda – ribbit me han
eh – ribbit me toe
mi waan go a country go look mango
[.
The Woman Speaks to the Man who has Employed her Son
Her son was first made known to her
as a sense of unease, a need to cry
for little reasons and a metallic tide
rising in her mouth each morning.
Caribbean nationhood has been, through a history marked by colonial imperialism, plunder, triumph and glory, intricately associated with and profoundly defined by its literature.