Old Testaments
“‘Strike Amnon down,’ then kill him. Don’t be afraid. Haven’t I given you this order? Be strong and brave.” — 2 Samuel 13: 28
Visions of Kalinago and Garifuna in Peggy Carr’s “Shape of a Warrior”
…the lives, practices, language, and beliefs of the Kalinago as well as the Garifuna cannot be relegated to relics of history.
Salt
The water rolled up another time in quiet apology…
Babel and Babylon
Confronting Systems of Silence and Violence represented in novels by Cherie Jones and Kei Miller.
Get to Know Our New Artist-in-Residence
Her creative work includes her recently published poetry collection The Mother Island which won 2nd place in the 2021 FCLE competition.
Fe A-we
after by Kamau Brathwaite
So what if we queers die?
Ritual
And I am here
in commune with the seas
my curios stem from cashee,
breadfruit and jackfish, a feast
Interview with a Chichiman
I am the sea unending, rhythmic, fearless…
The Arrival of Birds
Amazona guildingii shrieks for you,
and your half-written sinuous chapters,
they are to remain unfinished.
This is one tragedy of the Caribbean queer.
Blackout
When the lights go off, and on, off- again-on-again, and finally out, tea light candles glow in every bedroom, two in every washroom.
Two haikus about the darkened sky and after
darkness at midday
the volcano next door flew
Connected to the Earth
You come to Sell
Your craft everyday
Tourist come to buy
Glass, plastic, shell.
Fire And Brimstone
“She know how the story go already. No sympathy for ‘mad’ woman in this land.”
Milk in Bush Tea
By sunup, Soufrière have the country inside out. Bryna cyar recognize he farm; the North Pole like it move to Orange Hill, bringing heat instead ah cold.
Seasons
Marcel opened her eyes slowly. She blinked rapidly, inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. She was alive. She was honestly surprised to be awake, yet again.
Heavy
It was then that I really saw the exodus…
Strayed Child of Hairouna
You used to tell people about the volcano in your island with a kind of pride, the life source of the island— a natural phenomenon that humbles even the most arrogant.
The Clean Up
The new tenants at the school next door
Hung their faces down as we
Entered the grey snow capped yard.
Snow on Banana Leaves
Petra had lived long enough to witness this once before. The monstrous anger of Soufriere in 1979. The pelted stones and the wrathful skies of obsidian.
Memory Games
Yuh wake up screaming, parched lips bitter from the tail-end of another nightmare…