“How come we reach here?” Those words of enquiry that encourage urgent reflection did not fall from the lips of a vendor in the Chaguanas market, nor from a limer on the Lara Promenade, or during half-sober repartee on the beach down the islands, not even from the man propping up the bar in a rum shop in Tunapuna, Toco, Mayaro, Tamana, Freeport, Scarborough or Speyside.
They could easily have entered any banter about the state of affairs in TT, but they are words you will find on the printed page, written by one of TT’s most influential and revered writers, Earl Lovelace.
The questions he raises in all his writing – novels, essays, poetry, plays – about who is we, what we doing with what we have done, where we going, are pertinent to all of us as citizens of TT. These are not ideas that concern only the poor or disappointed, the philosophical or thoughtful. They are the ordinary thoughts that ordinary people have from time to time.
It is always surprising to hear that literature is elitist. It must be the way reading has been formalised in schools, the choice of books not modernised, and much of the joy therefore sucked out of it. For the lucky ones who enjoy song lyrics, calypsoes, spoken word and ole mas and have been read to by their parents or had a good teacher early on, the experience of school has not destroyed that pleasure. They have lasting insights into the human psyche and society, and they can laugh at our ridiculousness and feel good about our strengths and achievements.
Writers paint word pictures to communicate stories that make us think, broaden our experience of the world and take us into unimagined places. Other forms of artistic endeavour: music, painting, sculpture, drama, performance, carnival, films, do the same and should not be put into silos.
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From a 2016 celebration of the 60th anniversary of Sparrow and his Jean and Dinah calypso, in which Rikki Jai performed in a scene of the eponymous play written by Tony Hall, and the (again) 2016 featuring of a contemporary adaptation of the epic Ramayana – The Jewelled Deer – by Indian poet Vivek Narayanan that included a musical performance by Geeta Ramsingh, to Place as Palimpsest the large scale drawing by Kwynn Johnson, inspired by Derek Walcott’s play The Haitian Earth and shown during the 2017 Bocas Lit Fest at the National Library, it is a message the Bocas Lit Fest has constantly communicated in its programming.
The 2025 festival includes Seeing for True, the unique exhibition of paintings that speak to the questions and provocations that Lovelace raises in his writing. It is on until May 23, at the Central Bank on Independence Square, daytime hours, and entry is free to everyone.
Over 35 visual artists were invited to share works inspired by or related to the literary works of Lovelace, and they include a range of media and techniques responding to the many worlds and lives of the writer. In addition, in this collaboration with the Central Bank, sel
