Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer

WITH THE coming of the final weekend of May 'Calabashites' once again flocked to the black sands of Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth, for the 2006 installment of the Calabash International Literary Festival.

Their aim was to get their literary fix, get their verby groove on and revel in the word for an entire weekend.

The winding road leading down to the seaside village has been left to languish in disrepair, still bearing the signs of damage done by heavy rains. But it will take more than ambitious potholes to keep away dedicated Calabashites.

Jamaica has never been short on talent, but for too long it seemed to be a literary desert. So it is probably fitting that this oasis for the lit lover takes place in the hot, craggy, beautiful part of St. Elizabeth, as book stores proffered a very limited range of material convincing readers that they did not like to read, they were aberrations.

Calabash provides them with succor with hours of reading by celebrated and sometimes emerging writers from across the globe. Then, to top it off, Novelty Trading provides a well-stocked book shop which offers the titles read as well as others from the their regular stock. So, after their tastes have been whetted by the readings many flock to the book shop for the full course.

Craft, jewellery, furniture, clothing, and art are also on sale in the small pavilion that leads to the entrance of the festival, while on the inside Jack Sprat, sellers from Little Ochi and others provide a fare that range from fruits to peppered shrimp to full meals.

This year's theme was 'Mix but don't Blend In' and the festival continued to provide a mixture of the local and the international, poetry and fiction, music and literature and the various intersections between as the various forms of literature rubbed up against each other and propagated in the minds of the festival attendees.

BEST LITTLE FESTIVAL

In many ways the festival continued to live up to the description as the best little festival in the best little village in the best little country. Of course, Calabash is not as little as it used to be. The audience remains friendly, appreciative and dedicated. Often cool tufts of breeze help to offset the heat and the sea as a backdrop to the readers presents its own inspiring poetry.

This year the line-up was slimmer around the middle than previous years with over 20 performers where last year the list of authors and performers had been over 30, and in 2005 neared 40.

Of course, there were some changes to the schedule. The first performance was this year shifted to 9:00 p.m. and with that went the segment which often featured younger voices, first through the Jamaica Poetry Society and later through the Calabash Writers Workshop.

Additionally, since 2004 ,the festival no longer stretched to 7:00. Sunday evening, now ending at approximately 5:00 p.m. in time for most of the attendees to tackle the winding path out of the village before nightfall.

WONDERFUL MOMENTS

So the festival was slimmer but still in very good health, providing wonderful moments in the insightful self-deprecating wit of Geoff Dyer, Martin Espada's blazing, witty poetry, Sonia Sanchez polyphonic verse, the irreverent hilarity of Ishle Park and Delroy Lindo's reading of 'How to Beat a Child the Right and Proper Way' from the collection Iron Balloons.

Issues ranged from a spiritual battle between good and evil to the spirituality of U2's Bono. Life in a Cadillac factory converged on a poetically misbehaving vagina. Christopher John Farley shed more light on Bob Marley while Suheir Hammad explored the complexities of life as an Arab-American post-9/11.

By Saturday evening, the wave of attendees reached its crest and the venue seemed to have as many people as sand. Some seemed there just for a very good lyme (especially the young men who never veered from their posts at the gate) but most came for the Saturday night special in the form of Girls Behaving Badly and later Calabashment.

In 2004 festival began removing the dust gathering on some classic Caribbean literature with its anniversary reprinting of Roger Mais' Brother Man.

In 2005, John Hearne's Voices Under the Window got it 50th anniversary reprinting.

This year, attention turned to Jean Rhys' After Leaving Mr. MacKenzie, in celebration of the book's 75th anniversary with readings by Emily Crooks, Anita Bully, and Sally Henzell from Rhys' text.

"At the heart of Calabash is the book and reading the book," said Kwame Dawes, programming director of the festival, in his introduction to the segment.

Dawes noted that it was necessary to re-engage with Caribbean literature on a personal level.

"Many of our important writers have become memories of what we did in school rather than memories of books we loved to read," he said. Of course, as one of the authors peopling school syllabi, Rhys is constantly at risk for being seen only in academic terms.In the constant ebb and flow, while some patrons left early on Sunday morning, others had just arrived hoping to soak their fill of words before returning to the real world.

The reason is simple: Calabash continues to embody what's great about this region: a generosity of spirit, great creativity and the love of a damn good time. It's a celebration of the word, whether you want it mix-up, blend-up or straight up!