Author: Sistren (Organization)
Publisher: University of West Indies Press
ISBN: 9789766401566
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
The re-publication of Lionheart Gal marks an event unique in contemporary literature. It is the distillation of the Jamaican woman's experience in fifteen compelling life stories from the internationally known Sistren Theatre Collective. Since 1977 the women of Sistren have been exploring the lives of Caribbean women, from which they create plays, workshops and screen prints for presentation throughout the Caribbean and elsewhere. This book is based on testimonies from Sistren collected and edited by Honor Ford-Smith into a vivid record of women's lives. The stories retain all the emotional depth of works of the imagination; yet they are at the same time invaluable records of oral history. Scholars of language, culture, politics and literature will need this book; the general reader will revel in it. "These `sistren' dare to present themselves just as they are - the sounds of their days and their souls intact." - Alice Walker
Jamaican Gal
Author: Marlene
Publisher: Author Marlene
ISBN: 0976933578
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 392
Book Description
Publisher: Author Marlene
ISBN: 0976933578
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 392
Book Description
Lionheart Gal
Author: Sistren (Organization)
Publisher: University of West Indies Press
ISBN: 9789766401566
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
The re-publication of Lionheart Gal marks an event unique in contemporary literature. It is the distillation of the Jamaican woman's experience in fifteen compelling life stories from the internationally known Sistren Theatre Collective. Since 1977 the women of Sistren have been exploring the lives of Caribbean women, from which they create plays, workshops and screen prints for presentation throughout the Caribbean and elsewhere. This book is based on testimonies from Sistren collected and edited by Honor Ford-Smith into a vivid record of women's lives. The stories retain all the emotional depth of works of the imagination; yet they are at the same time invaluable records of oral history. Scholars of language, culture, politics and literature will need this book; the general reader will revel in it. "These `sistren' dare to present themselves just as they are - the sounds of their days and their souls intact." - Alice Walker
Publisher: University of West Indies Press
ISBN: 9789766401566
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
The re-publication of Lionheart Gal marks an event unique in contemporary literature. It is the distillation of the Jamaican woman's experience in fifteen compelling life stories from the internationally known Sistren Theatre Collective. Since 1977 the women of Sistren have been exploring the lives of Caribbean women, from which they create plays, workshops and screen prints for presentation throughout the Caribbean and elsewhere. This book is based on testimonies from Sistren collected and edited by Honor Ford-Smith into a vivid record of women's lives. The stories retain all the emotional depth of works of the imagination; yet they are at the same time invaluable records of oral history. Scholars of language, culture, politics and literature will need this book; the general reader will revel in it. "These `sistren' dare to present themselves just as they are - the sounds of their days and their souls intact." - Alice Walker
Jamaican Song and Story
Author: Walter Jekyll
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anansi (Legendary character).
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anansi (Legendary character).
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
Noises in the Blood
Author: Carolyn Cooper
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822315957
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
The language of Jamaican popular culture—its folklore, idioms, music, poetry, song—even when written is based on a tradition of sound, an orality that has often been denigrated as not worthy of serious study. In Noises in the Blood, Carolyn Cooper critically examines the dismissed discourse of Jamaica’s vibrant popular culture and reclaims these cultural forms, both oral and textual, from an undeserved neglect. Cooper’s exploration of Jamaican popular culture covers a wide range of topics, including Bob Marley’s lyrics, the performance poetry of Louise Bennett, Mikey Smith, and Jean Binta Breeze, Michael Thelwell’s novelization of The Harder They Come, the Sistren Theater Collective’s Lionheart Gal, and the vitality of the Jamaican DJ culture. Her analysis of this cultural "noise" conveys the powerful and evocative content of these writers and performers and emphasizes their contribution to an undervalued Caribbean identity. Making the connection between this orality, the feminized Jamaican "mother tongue," and the characterization of this culture as low or coarse or vulgar, she incorporates issues of gender into her postcolonial perspective. Cooper powerfully argues that these contemporary vernacular forms must be recognized as genuine expressions of Jamaican culture and as expressions of resistance to marginalization, racism, and sexism. With its focus on the continuum of oral/textual performance in Jamaican culture, Noises in the Blood, vividly and stylishly written, offers a distinctive approach to Caribbean cultural studies.
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822315957
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
The language of Jamaican popular culture—its folklore, idioms, music, poetry, song—even when written is based on a tradition of sound, an orality that has often been denigrated as not worthy of serious study. In Noises in the Blood, Carolyn Cooper critically examines the dismissed discourse of Jamaica’s vibrant popular culture and reclaims these cultural forms, both oral and textual, from an undeserved neglect. Cooper’s exploration of Jamaican popular culture covers a wide range of topics, including Bob Marley’s lyrics, the performance poetry of Louise Bennett, Mikey Smith, and Jean Binta Breeze, Michael Thelwell’s novelization of The Harder They Come, the Sistren Theater Collective’s Lionheart Gal, and the vitality of the Jamaican DJ culture. Her analysis of this cultural "noise" conveys the powerful and evocative content of these writers and performers and emphasizes their contribution to an undervalued Caribbean identity. Making the connection between this orality, the feminized Jamaican "mother tongue," and the characterization of this culture as low or coarse or vulgar, she incorporates issues of gender into her postcolonial perspective. Cooper powerfully argues that these contemporary vernacular forms must be recognized as genuine expressions of Jamaican culture and as expressions of resistance to marginalization, racism, and sexism. With its focus on the continuum of oral/textual performance in Jamaican culture, Noises in the Blood, vividly and stylishly written, offers a distinctive approach to Caribbean cultural studies.
Jamaica Girl
Author: Jon Michael Miller
Publisher: English in Florida
ISBN: 1413718124
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 437
Book Description
Rosalind Juliet Mitchell could become one of the great heroines of modern fiction. She is a Jamaican Lolita and a Caribbean cross between Huck Finn and Liza Doolittle. Dirt poor, hungry, bright-eyed and determined, she clings to her one distant hope a Glenn Webber, an aging, uncertain American tourist. He is Humbert with a conscience, forced comically to confront one moral dilemma after another in an effort to comprehend a culture very different from his own. In this hilarious, erotic, heart-rending romp, we move from a bloody jungle killing to a Kingston beauty pageant, meeting on the way a supporting cast that includes a voodoo witch, a hip-hop dancer, an ebullient taxi driver, a sly Rasta-man, a ruthless voyeur, a stoned plant lady, a corrupt detective, a quirky pageant coach, some wild Jamaican strippers and an assortment of mountain peasants. Have you been to Jamaica, mon? Climbed the falls? Now immerse yourself in this tropical odyssey of struggle and triumph, and meet one of the most memorable heroines in modern imaginative literature.
Publisher: English in Florida
ISBN: 1413718124
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 437
Book Description
Rosalind Juliet Mitchell could become one of the great heroines of modern fiction. She is a Jamaican Lolita and a Caribbean cross between Huck Finn and Liza Doolittle. Dirt poor, hungry, bright-eyed and determined, she clings to her one distant hope a Glenn Webber, an aging, uncertain American tourist. He is Humbert with a conscience, forced comically to confront one moral dilemma after another in an effort to comprehend a culture very different from his own. In this hilarious, erotic, heart-rending romp, we move from a bloody jungle killing to a Kingston beauty pageant, meeting on the way a supporting cast that includes a voodoo witch, a hip-hop dancer, an ebullient taxi driver, a sly Rasta-man, a ruthless voyeur, a stoned plant lady, a corrupt detective, a quirky pageant coach, some wild Jamaican strippers and an assortment of mountain peasants. Have you been to Jamaica, mon? Climbed the falls? Now immerse yourself in this tropical odyssey of struggle and triumph, and meet one of the most memorable heroines in modern imaginative literature.
We Were Girls Once
Author: Aiwanose Odafen
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1398506184
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 361
Book Description
‘We were three: complete, as we were meant to be…’ Ego, Zina and Eriife were always destined to be best friends, ever since their grandmothers sat next to each other on a dusty bus to Lagos in the late 1940s, forging a bond that would last generations. But over half a century later, Nigeria is a new and modern country. As the three young women navigate the incessant strikes and political turmoil that surrounds them, their connection is shattered by a terrible assault. In the aftermath, nothing will remain the same as life takes them down separate paths. For Ego, now a high-powered London lawyer, success can’t mask her loneliness and feelings of being an outsider. Desperate to feel connected to Nigeria, she escapes into a secret life online. Zina’s ambition is to be anyone but herself; acting proves the ultimate catharsis, but it comes at the cost of her family. And Eriife surprises everyone by morphing from a practising doctor to a ruthless politician’s perfect wife. When Ego returns home, the three women’s lives become entwined once more, as Nigeria’s political landscape fractures. Their shared past will always connect them, but can they – and their country – overcome it?
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1398506184
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 361
Book Description
‘We were three: complete, as we were meant to be…’ Ego, Zina and Eriife were always destined to be best friends, ever since their grandmothers sat next to each other on a dusty bus to Lagos in the late 1940s, forging a bond that would last generations. But over half a century later, Nigeria is a new and modern country. As the three young women navigate the incessant strikes and political turmoil that surrounds them, their connection is shattered by a terrible assault. In the aftermath, nothing will remain the same as life takes them down separate paths. For Ego, now a high-powered London lawyer, success can’t mask her loneliness and feelings of being an outsider. Desperate to feel connected to Nigeria, she escapes into a secret life online. Zina’s ambition is to be anyone but herself; acting proves the ultimate catharsis, but it comes at the cost of her family. And Eriife surprises everyone by morphing from a practising doctor to a ruthless politician’s perfect wife. When Ego returns home, the three women’s lives become entwined once more, as Nigeria’s political landscape fractures. Their shared past will always connect them, but can they – and their country – overcome it?
Frying Plantain
Author: Zalika Reid-Benta
Publisher: House of Anansi
ISBN: 1487005350
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 175
Book Description
Set in the neighbourhood of “Little Jamaica,” Frying Plantain follows a girl from elementary school to high school graduation as she navigates the tensions between mothers and daughters, second-generation immigrants experiencing first-generation cultural expectations, and Black identity in a predominantly white society. Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle — of her North American identity and her desire to be a “true” Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother’s rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too “faas” or too “quiet” or too “bold” or too “soft.” In these twelve interconnected stories, we see Kara on a visit to Jamaica, startled by the sight of a severed pig’s head in her great-aunt’s freezer; in junior high, the victim of a devastating prank by her closest friends; and as a teenager in and out of her grandmother’s house, trying to cope with ongoing battles of unyielding authority. A rich and unforgettable portrait of growing up between worlds, Frying Plantain shows how, in one charged moment, friendship and love can turn to enmity and hate, well-meaning protection can become control, and teasing play can turn to something much darker.
Publisher: House of Anansi
ISBN: 1487005350
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 175
Book Description
Set in the neighbourhood of “Little Jamaica,” Frying Plantain follows a girl from elementary school to high school graduation as she navigates the tensions between mothers and daughters, second-generation immigrants experiencing first-generation cultural expectations, and Black identity in a predominantly white society. Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle — of her North American identity and her desire to be a “true” Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother’s rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too “faas” or too “quiet” or too “bold” or too “soft.” In these twelve interconnected stories, we see Kara on a visit to Jamaica, startled by the sight of a severed pig’s head in her great-aunt’s freezer; in junior high, the victim of a devastating prank by her closest friends; and as a teenager in and out of her grandmother’s house, trying to cope with ongoing battles of unyielding authority. A rich and unforgettable portrait of growing up between worlds, Frying Plantain shows how, in one charged moment, friendship and love can turn to enmity and hate, well-meaning protection can become control, and teasing play can turn to something much darker.
How to Love a Jamaican
Author: Alexia Arthurs
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 1524799211
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 190
Book Description
“In these kaleidoscopic stories of Jamaica and its diaspora we hear many voices at once. All of them convince and sing. All of them shine.”—Zadie Smith An O: The Oprah Magazine “Top 15 Best of the Year” • A Well-Read Black Girl Pick Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret—Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these eleven stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life. In “Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands,” an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In “Mash Up Love,” a twin’s chance sighting of his estranged brother—the prodigal son of the family—stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In “Bad Behavior,” a couple leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In “Mermaid River,” a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In “The Ghost of Jia Yi,” a recently murdered student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in “Shirley from a Small Place,” a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother’s big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital. Alexia Arthurs emerges in this vibrant, lyrical, intimate collection as one of fiction’s most dynamic and essential authors. Praise for How to Love a Jamaican “A sublime short-story collection from newcomer Alexia Arthurs that explores, through various characters, a specific strand of the immigrant experience.”—Entertainment Weekly “With its singular mix of psychological precision and sun-kissed lyricism, this dazzling debut marks the emergence of a knockout new voice.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “Gorgeous, tender, heartbreaking stories . . . Arthurs is a witty, perceptive, and generous writer, and this is a book that will last.”—Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties “Vivid and exciting . . . every story rings beautifully true.”—Marie Claire
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 1524799211
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 190
Book Description
“In these kaleidoscopic stories of Jamaica and its diaspora we hear many voices at once. All of them convince and sing. All of them shine.”—Zadie Smith An O: The Oprah Magazine “Top 15 Best of the Year” • A Well-Read Black Girl Pick Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret—Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these eleven stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life. In “Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands,” an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In “Mash Up Love,” a twin’s chance sighting of his estranged brother—the prodigal son of the family—stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In “Bad Behavior,” a couple leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In “Mermaid River,” a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In “The Ghost of Jia Yi,” a recently murdered student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in “Shirley from a Small Place,” a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother’s big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital. Alexia Arthurs emerges in this vibrant, lyrical, intimate collection as one of fiction’s most dynamic and essential authors. Praise for How to Love a Jamaican “A sublime short-story collection from newcomer Alexia Arthurs that explores, through various characters, a specific strand of the immigrant experience.”—Entertainment Weekly “With its singular mix of psychological precision and sun-kissed lyricism, this dazzling debut marks the emergence of a knockout new voice.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “Gorgeous, tender, heartbreaking stories . . . Arthurs is a witty, perceptive, and generous writer, and this is a book that will last.”—Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties “Vivid and exciting . . . every story rings beautifully true.”—Marie Claire
Suleiman's Bisexual Tales
Author: Teejay LeCapois
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0359514812
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 570
Book Description
Follow the life of Suleiman, a big and tall, openly bisexual Black Muslim man living in the City of Ottawa, Canada. Delve into his days at Carleton University where he develops a fascination with Hijab-wearing ladies and masculine men. Explore his adventures in the Canadian workforce. Rejecting the mainstream LGBT community for their Biphobia and subtle racism towards Black men, Suleiman forges his own path. Meet Laban, the macho Somali hunk whom Suleiman has a crush on, and the tall, athletic, big-bottomed and curvy Lady Jannah of Rwanda, whom he also lusts after. This is one man's quest to find himself while breaking all the rules. Calling out the racism and Biphobia of mainline LGBT society while seeking others like him, Suleiman fights for justice in his own way, and really doesn't care if you hate him.
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0359514812
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 570
Book Description
Follow the life of Suleiman, a big and tall, openly bisexual Black Muslim man living in the City of Ottawa, Canada. Delve into his days at Carleton University where he develops a fascination with Hijab-wearing ladies and masculine men. Explore his adventures in the Canadian workforce. Rejecting the mainstream LGBT community for their Biphobia and subtle racism towards Black men, Suleiman forges his own path. Meet Laban, the macho Somali hunk whom Suleiman has a crush on, and the tall, athletic, big-bottomed and curvy Lady Jannah of Rwanda, whom he also lusts after. This is one man's quest to find himself while breaking all the rules. Calling out the racism and Biphobia of mainline LGBT society while seeking others like him, Suleiman fights for justice in his own way, and really doesn't care if you hate him.
Mayer Matalon
Author: Diana Thorburn
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0761871152
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 154
Book Description
This biography of Mayer Matalon, an influential Jewish Jamaican, traces his path from humble origins to innovator, public servant, political insider, and leader of his family’s conglomerate, from the 1940s to the end of the twentieth century. Mayer Matalon was not born into the Jewish-Jamaican elite who traced their ancestry in Jamaica back hundreds of years and who were successful entrepreneurs, prominent intellectuals, and politicians. Mayer Matalon’s father, Joseph, was one a handful of Jews who came to Jamaica in the wave of turn-of-the-century Levantine emigration, and his mother, Florizel Madge Matalon, was a young, beautiful, poor Jewish-Jamaican girl. A failed businessman, Joseph’s legacy was eleven children who created their own legacy in Jamaican business and politics. The Matalon siblings built a conglomerate, venturing into businesses and experimenting with business models that had never been tried in Jamaica, enjoying success for the first twenty years, struggling to retain viability for the next twenty years, and fighting to keep the family together throughout. Matalon rose to wealth and prominence through his talent for numbers, his innovative ideas, and his extraordinary emotional intelligence. He was one of Prime Minister Michael Manley’s closest confidantes, in and out of power, and he advised every Jamaican premier and prime minister from Norman Manley to Bruce Golding, with only one exception. That one exception resulted in a sidelining that had a blowback that set Jamaica back decades and that sealed his family’s business’s fate. This is a story of race, class, and power in postcolonial Jamaica. Through the lens of Mayer Matalon’s life, the book outlines Jamaica’s political and economic trajectory over the sixty years before and after independence. This biography peels back the surface layers of the many citations and public accolades, and goes beyond the often uninformed speculation on the Matalons’ beginnings, revealing in rich detail the unusual life of an extraordinary Jamaican.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0761871152
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 154
Book Description
This biography of Mayer Matalon, an influential Jewish Jamaican, traces his path from humble origins to innovator, public servant, political insider, and leader of his family’s conglomerate, from the 1940s to the end of the twentieth century. Mayer Matalon was not born into the Jewish-Jamaican elite who traced their ancestry in Jamaica back hundreds of years and who were successful entrepreneurs, prominent intellectuals, and politicians. Mayer Matalon’s father, Joseph, was one a handful of Jews who came to Jamaica in the wave of turn-of-the-century Levantine emigration, and his mother, Florizel Madge Matalon, was a young, beautiful, poor Jewish-Jamaican girl. A failed businessman, Joseph’s legacy was eleven children who created their own legacy in Jamaican business and politics. The Matalon siblings built a conglomerate, venturing into businesses and experimenting with business models that had never been tried in Jamaica, enjoying success for the first twenty years, struggling to retain viability for the next twenty years, and fighting to keep the family together throughout. Matalon rose to wealth and prominence through his talent for numbers, his innovative ideas, and his extraordinary emotional intelligence. He was one of Prime Minister Michael Manley’s closest confidantes, in and out of power, and he advised every Jamaican premier and prime minister from Norman Manley to Bruce Golding, with only one exception. That one exception resulted in a sidelining that had a blowback that set Jamaica back decades and that sealed his family’s business’s fate. This is a story of race, class, and power in postcolonial Jamaica. Through the lens of Mayer Matalon’s life, the book outlines Jamaica’s political and economic trajectory over the sixty years before and after independence. This biography peels back the surface layers of the many citations and public accolades, and goes beyond the often uninformed speculation on the Matalons’ beginnings, revealing in rich detail the unusual life of an extraordinary Jamaican.