In Kingston, a Literary Voyage in the Caribbean’s Cultural Capital

Above: Cherry Natural (All photos by CJ – SGG)

By Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon
CJ Travel Editor

IT DIDN’T take place “pon di river,” but the third installation of the Kingston, Jamaica literary festival seemed no less successful for it.

Held for the first time at bucolic Hope Botanical Gardens, the one-day celebration of the spoken word drew an appreciative audience of more than 1,000, according to journalist Janet Silvera, who, with friends Dollis Campbell and Millicent Lynch, is part of the trio of festival organizers.

“We were all big fans of Calabash [a long-running local literary festival held in the south coast hamlet of Treasure Beach], and after it ended we had serious withdrawal symptoms. So we decided to get together and put on our own literary festival,” Silvera said.

But the trio bypassed Jamaica’s tourist hubs of Montego Bay, Negril and Ocho Rios in favour of the island’s capital.

Above: Mutabaruka

“Kingston often gets a bad rap but it really is the cultural capital of the Caribbean,” Silvera noted. “We want to show the world that Kingston is more than just a sidebar to the traditional Jamaican tourism story. And it will always be Pon Di River’s home.”

Growing from an audience of 700 in 2011, this year’s festival boasted a diverse lineup of amateurs as well as local literary luminaries such as Mutabaruka and Cherry Natural, who performed in the bandshell for fans sprawled on blankets on the garden’s lawn and seated under a cloud-white canopy.

Above: Tribe Sankofa

Written in patois, dub poet and “international bad gal” Cherry Natural’s pieces – including the popular “Poets A Write” ¬– showed her strength, power and honesty while allowing her softness and vulnerability to shine.

Above: I’deyah Ricketts and Janet Silvera

The repertoire of sextet Tribe Sankofa, led by Fabian Thomas, was a stirring combination of poetry, song, and drumming that covered a gamut of social issues, from suicide to economic and gender inequality.

The youngest performer was I’deyah Ricketts.

The 10-year-old, whose parents are Jamaican, wrote her first book when she was four, and flew in from her home in Chicago to read from her third and latest effort, Lyla Lyte and the Loot Tree.

Above: the barefoot poet

“I asked my parents why only adults write children’s books,” she said. “I thought I could write one.”

Barefoot poet Mutabaruka – looking every inch the stylish revolutionary with a necklace of oversized amber beads and matching ring – delighted the audience with his hard-hitting poetry interspersed with humorous anecdotes about traveling internationally while shoeless.

Find out more about Kingston Pon Di River on their Facebook page.

Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon, Caribbean Journal’s Travel Editor, is also the founder of JetSetSarah, “where travel and shopping meet.”