Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category

Yasus Afari

The very highly anticipated POETRY IN MOTION will have its 7th annual staging on Sunday February 28th, at Villa Gardens, 9 Villa Road Mandeville, Jamaica starting with an all-inclusive dinner at 4pm and showtime will be at 6pm sharp.

Poetry in Motion will serve up Clean Intelligent Fun For the entire Family, showcasing MUSIC , DANCE, COMEDY, STORY TELLING, FASHION & POETRY in a very Family Friendly atmosphere.The show will feature: YASUS AFARI, KEN BOOTHE, JOAN ANDREA HUTCHINSON, SIMON CROSSKILL,OWEN BLAKKA ELLIS, VIV MORRIS-BROWN, MEL COOKE, AMINA MEEKS, Kerryan Brown, Prof. Barry Chevannes, Tanhoi, Ashley Little, Kimberley Wint, Reggie’s African Fashions & a surprise guest.

As is Customary with POETRY IN MOTION part proceeds of the event will go towards a needy charity and this year’s recepient is EBENEZER HOME as this is in keeping with POETRY IN MOTION’S community focus & the concept of social responsibility. Read the rest of this entry »

I look at man in grim dismay;
He tried my virtue all to steal:
My heart is full of joy today,
No sin is on my soul I feel.

The guiling tongue of Adam’s son,
Has left me free to see the light
The Master saw o’er Satan won,
In battles they did often fight.

The white man forced my head to bow,
My chastity to treat with scorn;
But I am queen of self, and now
I feel as pure as I was born.

With firm respect I love my race:
No one shall lead me thus astray,
Of kin to lose the ancient trace
That makes me what I am today.

Source

By Margaret Bailey

Did you ever see a pretty Jamaican housewife
who eats everything with a fork and knife?
Her hair perfectly done and coiffed,
firmly kept with hairspray and a colorful
silk scarf,
A trip to the market is a lesson in decorating displays,
Even the children have to sit in the cart a certain way,
Her groceries are daintily stacked,
They could never be knocked down
by a heavy weight or quarter back,
She has perfected laundry to an Art,
Arranging closepins as if making an aim with
darts,
Acquiring help to complete the mundane tasks,
While she suntans on the lounge chair in the grass,
Spoiled like a child,
Her wishes are her husband’s commands,
The children automatically know to adhere to
her reprimands,
Though shall not make the Jamaican Housewife unhappy, or else she’ll go shrieking to her adoring Pappy.

Louise Bennett was born on September 7, 1919. She was a Jamaican poet and activist. From Kingston, Jamaica Louise Bennett remains a household name in Jamaica, a “Living Legend” and a cultural icon. She received her education from Ebenezer and Calabar Elementary Schools, St. Simon’s College, Excelsior College, Friends College (Highgate).

Although she lived in Toronto, Canada for the last decade she still receives the homage of the expatriate West Indian community in the north as well as a large Canadian following.

She was described as Jamaica’s leading comedienne, as the “only poet who has really hit the truth about her society through its own language”, and as an important contributor to her country of “valid social documents reflecting the way Jamaicans think and feel and live” Through her poems in Jamaican patois, she raised the dialect of the Jamaican folk to an art level which is acceptable to and appreciated by all in Jamaica.

In her poems she was able to capture all the spontaneity of the expression of Jamaicans’ joys and sorrows, their ready, poignant and even wicked wit, their religion and their philosophy of life. Her first dialect poem was written when she was fourteen years old. A British Council Scholarship took her to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where she studied in the late 1940’s. Read the rest of this entry »