Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Mutabaruka speaks during 'Tongues of Fire' at Calabash 2005, last weekend at Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth. - PHOTO BY CLAUDINE HOUSEN
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE THEME of the fifth staging of the Calabash International Literary Festival, held in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth, from Friday to Sunday, was 'the fire is Lit'.
And whether that means the lighting of a literary spark or that 'Lit' (as in short for 'literature') is the actual blaze, Saturday night's 'Tongues of Fire' programme lived up to theme.
It was an all Caribbean affair, with Roger Bonair-Agard from Trinidad leading off, followed by Jamaicans Stacey-Ann Chin, Joan Andrea Hutchinson and Mutabaruka, as the roster followed the standard alphabetical order format.
Bonair-Agard started out his image-laden, socially relevant delivery with work from 'Masquerade: Poems of Calypso and Home', beginning with a piece that had him "trying to tell a Texan the phenomenon of pan in A Minor'. The long poem wove through personal connections ("like my tattoos are not a scarification ritual") and intense observation. The description transported him across the ocean ("me and Trinidad is whole again/no West Indies losing to England or Australia"), and back to earth.
The applause thundered.
'Bullet Points: Hyacinth Bonair's 1974 Dissertation on Race' began with his mother's affirmation that "you are Black" and contained extensive advice on dancing calypso and there was an explosion of applause for the point "if you would not date a Black waitress, do not bring a white one in here (home)".
There were snatches of Sparrow, a humming of Stalin and a conversation between Harriet Tubman and Condaleeza Rice before Bonair-Agard ended with an intense description of how "I lost my virginity to calypso" - and thunderous applause.
"I am not nervous. People know what they need to know. No startling revelations today," Stacey-Ann Chin said, although she would refer to her lesbianism during her long stint on stage. She started with an exploration of her country for an enquiring American, observing "sex on the beach and time to enjoy it have always been reserved for backra and backra's friends". "How many cultures can one country consume before it explodes/like a tall building - or two?" Chin asked.
'In Tribute To Bernice' was a tribute to her grandmother and "the most inappropriate woman I know."
NARROW ESCAPE
'The Colour of Free' was a searing, detailed, painful reconstruction of the trauma of nearly being gang-raped that was mentioned before, the large crowd silent as she detailed her very narrow escape from the bathroom and running "down the seductive curve of Ringroad/Garden Boulevard, Violet Avenue, Begonia Drive, then I am home/I decide to consider America".
Joan Andrea Hutchinson brought bellows of laughter to stoke the flame of 'Tongues of Fire' to a happy blaze, starting out with a piece about a lady who went out on a hopeful looting hunt during Hurricane Ivan - and came back empty-handed ("de Courts people put up a rahtid storm shutter/yuh tink Ivan coulda tear it dung?), only to find that her home has been looted.
'The Voice Inna De Box' was a side-splitting peep into the mind of a person about to be buried making observations about the people in the church and 'Letter To The Editor' addressed the incongruity of having floods and a water lock-off at the same time ("what a wicked rain/fall in a circle roun' de dam"). 'Love Cyaan Done' went out to Miss Lou and Hutchinson credited Jamaicans as the most creative persons on earth before ending with her response to those who criticised her hair when she first went on television, concluding "me glad fe be bumpy head, Black an' proud".
Mutabaruka started with a nightmare conversation with Christopher Columbus in closing a searing segment. He demanded "gimme me dis/gimme me dat/gimme everyting yu got", honoured Haiti ("yu paying for the Africanness yu keep/yu paying Haiti, Boukman is not asleep") and took a critical look at the 'Eyes of Liberty' ("the eyes of liberty is crying out/what is your liberty all about?) and read 'Someone Has To Speak For the Animals'.
There was a big 'forward' for 'Dis Poem' and Mutabaruka preceded his closing 'I Am The Man You Love To Hate' with his longest between poems talk of the night, in which he addressed crime with "an if dem did kill politician, yu woulda see how fas' dem fix dis".
"The politics of Jamaica buil' pon gunmanship from de beginning, with Henry Morgan. An' is still gunmanship, for de politician involve inna ganja, extortion, coke...," Mutabaruka said, to thunderous applause.
