GREAT BAY/MARIGOT, St. Martin (May 15, 2012)—The 10th annual St. Martin Book Fair, with “Forward …” as its theme, will run from May 31 to June 2, 2012, at Belair Community Center, USM, Marigot Public Library, schools and other venues throughout the island, said Shujah Reiph, coordinator of the book fair.

Some 14 visiting authors and artists will participate in the “book fair for the entire family,” said Reiph.

Among the famous and fast-rising writers coming to St. Martin will be the illustrious Caribbean novelist/thinker George Lamming, from Barbados. He will head up the book fair’s Presidents’ Forum at USM on June 2.

Lamming’s unique presentation and conversation with the audience will focus on the late Dr. Walter Rodney, the legendary historian and political activist who was assassinated in Guyana in 1980. Copies of Rodney’s classic How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, will be available at the book fair, said Reiph.

Also confirmed for the St. Martin Book Fair is novelist, playwright, performer, poet, attorney Wena Poon from Singapore. Her books include Lions in Winter, The Biophilia Omnibus, and Alex y Robert, which has been serialized in London by BBC Radio 4.

Poon has won literary awards in the UK, France, and Singapore for her writings. The subjects of her books range from the Chinese diaspora, modern tales about “a serious English banker, a sexy Taiwanese ingenue, and a dapper Hong Kong leading man,” to bull fighting in Spain by an American woman, and a science fiction series, described as “an absorbing video game with a love story embedded in it.” (Quest Quest Magazine)

“But we see the St. Martin Book Fair as a way of introducing Wena Poon to the Caribbean,” said Reiph.

The fact that the Harvard-trained lawyer speaks English, French and numerous Chinese languages, and that French and Chinese are sometimes used in her English-language fiction, puts her right up the St. Martin multilingual neighborhood, said Reiph.

Poon’s workshop at the St. Martin Book Fair is called, “Books Are Boring! Rethinking the Art of Consuming & Creating Fictional Narrative.” The workshop is scheduled for June 2, at USM.

On Saturday, June 2, the university campus is the home of the main exhibition of books, multimedia tools, children’s games and storytelling, workshops, and symposia.

The all-day Saturday fare also includes a St. Martin film screening and discussion with the director and actors; and a cooking and homemade ice cream-making demonstration by new Caribbean vegan cookbook author Taymer Mason.

However, before the rush on Saturday, there is Friday. On June 1, the Yacht Club Restaurant, at Fort Louis Marina on the Marigot Waterfront, will host the annual literary evening of the St. Martin Book Fair.

About 11 authors from countries and territories such as Haiti, Antigua, Barbados, USA, Italy, Singapore, and Martinique, will treat the audience to “some really great selections” from their original poetry and fiction, said Reiph.

As a 10th anniversary feature, two promising young St. Martin writers that are working on their first manuscripts will read at the evening concert of words. “Usually only writers of published books read at the poetry and fiction recital,” said Reiph.

The Book Fair Committee (BFC) and organizers have been meeting over the last few months to put an exciting anniversary program together. “We are busy ironing out the tough wrinkles. We are working hard to give the St. Martin people and our visitors a world-class St. Martin Book Fair,” said Reiph.

The BFC will coordinate over 20 book fair and pre-book fair activities for the festival, said Reiph. All book fair activities are free for the general public to attend.

Conscious Lyrics Foundation and House of Nehesi Publishers, both NGOs, organize the St. Martin Book Fair, in collaboration with St. Maarten Tourist Bureau and the University of St. Martin.

Wena Poon, award-winning novelist, poet, playwright from Singapore. (Courtesy WP)

George Lamming (L), novelist, poet, essayist, short story writer, orator.

Taymer Mason, author of the new Caribbean vegan cookbook.

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GREAT BAY/MARIGOT, St. Martin (May 14, 2012)—The 10th annual St. Martin Book Fair, will take place on May 31 – June 2, 2012, said book fair coordinator Shujah Reiph.

Some 14 guest authors and artists, from Asia to the Americas, will be on hand to celebrate the opening of the book fair’s 10th anniversary edition at the Belair Community Center on Thursday, May 31, at 8 pm, said Reiph.

Dr. Girvan, leading economist, author, and professor emeritus at UWI-Trinidad, will deliver the keynote address, “The Cost of Moving Forward with Caribbean Unity,” at the opening ceremony of the literary festival, said Reiph.

Dr. Girvan is an essential ‘go to man’ for presidents and prime ministers and was only recently the United Nations Secretary General’s Personal Representative on the Guyana-Venezuela Border Controversy (2010), said Reiph.

Books by Dr. Girvan and all of the visiting authors, and titles by the growing number of St. Martin writers, will be available at the book fair.

There are over 20 book fair and pre-book fair activities planned for the festival by the Book Fair Committee (BFC), said Reiph. All book fair activities are free and “the general public is invited to this ‘book fair for the entire family,’” said Reiph.

The St. Maarten Tourist Bureau returns in 2012 as the main sponsor of the St. Martin Book Fair. “The Tourist Bureau as the main committed sponsor and the University of St. Martin as the home sponsor of the main book fair day, have been collaborating with the St. Martin Book Fair from the very beginning,” said Jacqueline Sample, president of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP), one of the book fair organizers.

“The Ministry of Education and Culture, headed by the outgoing minister Dr. Rhoda Arrindell, made a contribution this year to the St. Martin Book Fair’s 10th anniversary,” said Reiph, who is also president of Conscious Lyrics Foundation (CLF).

CLF and HNP have been organizing the St. Martin Book Fair since 2003, in collaboration with the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau and the University of St. Martin.

The opening ceremony of the festival is alternated each year between both parts of the island. Various activities, the main book launch, and the school visits by international and St. Martin writers are conducted island-wide “in keeping with the island’s traditional unity,” said Reiph.

Dr. Norman Girvan, economist, author, professor emeritus UWI-Trinidad. (Courtesy NG)

Shujah Reiph, book fair coordinator (L) with BFC member Cindy Peters. (Courtesy file photo)

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GREAT BAY, St. Martin (May 29, 2011) — The just-released program of the St. Martin Book Fair, June 2 – 4, is a mix of workshops, discussions, book launches, book sales, book signing by new and famous authors, and original literary readings, said book fair coordinator Shujah Reiph.

The festival’s main book launch will go so far as to cater refreshments from the new Yvette’s cookbook and prepared by Yvette’s Restaurant, said Jacqueline Sample, editor of the title for House of Nehesi (HNP).

On Thursday, June 2, the ribbon cutting ceremony, which will honor the nation’s fishermen and declare the book fair open, will be preceded chiefly by an evening with Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, making worldly comments and reading from his newest works, said Reiph.

This opening ceremony takes place at the Chamber of Commerce Bldg., Spring Concordia, Marigot, at 8 PM. Admission is free and new books will be available.

The first highlight on Friday is the Presidents Forum at the University of St. Martin (USM), starting at 4 PM.

The forum focuses on freedom of speech and expression in St. Martin relative to the work of the four speakers. The panelists include author and political scientist Joseph H. Lake, Jr. and Kaiso Brat, St. Martin Calypso King 2011. The new USM president, Annelies van den Assem, LL.M., will introduce the panel, said Reiph.

Books galore, authors around to sign them, “I’m just excited about all of this,” said Reiph, “but don’t miss the workshops for the entire family.”

Among the Book Fair workshops on Saturday are: ‘The Great Salt Pond: Untangling the History of Salt in St. Martin’ by Dr. Jay Haviser; A literacy workshop by Dr. Rene Baly for at-risk youth and their parents. The ‘Language in literature’ workshop by Dr. Rhoda Arrindell. Participants can bring their own poems and fictions to be critiqued in this creative writing workshop.

“Don’t miss the spiritually-based motivational workshop,” said Sample. It is entitled, ‘365 Secrets for a Healthy Mind, Body, and Spirit’ by author and former Essence editor Stephanie Stokes Oliver. The photography workshop will be conducted by by Drisana Deborah Jack. At the end of the day Mix Master Pauly will give a live DJ Workshop: ‘Mixing sound, A freedom of expression.’

Then comes the evening party to “step out” to. The book party for From Yvette’s Kitchen To Your Table – A Treasury of St. Martin’s Traditional & Contemporary Cuisine by Yvette Hyman will take place at Belair Community Center, Cay Hill, at 8 PM

Tourism director Regina LaBega is the guest speaker at the Closing Ceremony and Main Book Launch. Award-winning musician and kaisonian Mighty Dow, will perform on pan, and the Presidents Award will be presented at the end of the Saturday evening program, said Sample. For more about the St. Maarten Book Fair program, visit www.houseofnehesipublish.com or http://www.houseofnehesipublish.com/book_fair2040.html.

St. Maarten Tourist Bureau (STB) head Regina LaBega (R) receiving copy of From Yvette’s Kitchen To Your Table by Yvette Hyman, from HNP president Jacqueline Sample. STB made a heritage tourism contribution toward the new cookbook published by HNP in 2011. The cookbook will be available at the St. Martin Book Fair, June 2 – 4. (Saltwater Collection)

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St. Martin Book Fair Program  •  June 2 – 4, 2011

Thursday, June 2

8 pm – 10 pm

Opening Ceremony
Chamber of Commerce Building (Maison des Entreprises) Spring Concordia, Marigot

Welcome
Mistress of Ceremony

Words of Welcome
Mr. Shujah Reiph
President, Conscious Lyrics Foundation

Hon. Frantz Gumbs
President, Collectivity of St. Martin (North)

Hon. Sarah Wescott-Williams
Prime Minister of St. Martin (South)

Keynote Address
Hon. Derek Walcott, Nobel Laureate, St. Lucia

Opening ceremony’s featured book
St. Martin Talk
by Robert Romney, educator, St. Martin/Guadeloupe

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Honoring the fishermen of St. Martin

The 9th annual St. Martin Book Fair 2011 is declared open

• Book fair exhibitions
• Authors present for book signings

Friday, June 3

4 pm – 5:30 pm

Presidents Forum
Roundtable discussion on Freedom of Expression
Panelists will give an overview of their work experiences with regards to Freedom of Expression in St. Martin; comment on concrete activities or comparisons in the Caribbean and around the world regarding the current state of Freedom of Expression; and address what they see as the future of Freedom of Expression in St. Martin.
Venue: University of St. Martin, Rm 202

Introduction
Annelies van den Assem, LL. M., president, University of St. Martin

Panelists
Joseph Lake, Jr., author, political scientist, former newspaper publisher
Drisana Jack, poet, author, artist
Clement “Kaiso Brat” Richards, kaisonian, St. Martin Calypso King 2011

Rapporteur/moderator
Lenny Mussington, educator

8 pm – 10 pm

Cultural Performance

Poetry and Prose Recital
A literary evening with new and distinguished poets and writers reading from their work.
Venue: Le Charolais Restaurant, Maho Plaza

Admission free

Poets/Authors
Stephanie Stokes Oliver, USA/Anguilla
Drisana Jack, St. Martin
Derek Walcott, St. Lucia

Saturday, June 4

8 am – 4:30 pm

Book fair exhibition, book sales, book signings, workshops open to the public
Free admission to book fair, workshops and general sessions
University of St. Martin, Philipsburg (8 am – 4:30 pm)

9 am – 10:30 am

I – The Great Salt Pond: Untangling the History of Salt in St. Martin
by Dr. Dr. Jay Haviser, archaeologist, professor, author, St. Martin
Venue: University of the St. Martin, Rm 102

II – Literacy workshop
by Dr. Rene Baly, educator, USA/St. Martin
A workshop about the very down-to-earth relationship between reading, writing, and success in life and career choices and achievements, for at-risk youth and their parents. The participants of the youth program “Get off the block, Get on the bus, Get busy” (GB3) will be participating in this workshop
University of the St. Martin, Rm 202

General session I
University of the St. Martin, Rm 101

Language in literature
by Dr. Rhoda Arrindell, educator
A creative writing session. Bring your poems and other writings to be critiqued on the spot

10:35 am – 10:50 am

Coffee, tea, and pastries break

11 am – 12:30 noon

General session II
University of the St. Martin, Rm 101

A spiritually-based motivational session: “365 Secrets for a Healthy Mind, Body, and Spirit,” based on the author’s Essence-reviewed book Daily Cornbread
by Stephanie Stokes Oliver, author

2 pm – 3:30 pm

III – Photography workshop
How to take more creative photos; looking at how images are framed, subject matter and some narrative concepts of contemporary fine art photography from artists will be discussed and illustrated digitally.
by Drisana Jack, poet, author, artist, lecturer
University of the St. Martin, Rm 102

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

IV – DJ Workshop: Mixing sound, A freedom of expression
by DJ Mix Master Pauly
Gazebo, USM campus garden

8 pm – 10 pm

Main Book Launch & Book Fair Closing Ceremony
Venue: Belair Community Center, Cay Hill

NEW BOOK LAUNCHED:
From Yvette’s Kitchen To Your Table A Treasury of St. Martin’s Traditional & Contemporary Cuisine
by Yvette Hyman

Pan performance
Mighty Dow
Kaisonian, pannist

Guest speaker
Regina LaBega
Director of Tourism, St. Martin (South)

Presentation
The Presidents Award

Word of Thanks
Shujah Reiph
Coordinator
St. Martin Book Fair

Thank you for participating in the 9^th Annual St. Martin Book Fair 2011

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The Frock & Other Poems
Nature is not innocent in the St. Martin yard of Yaya Richards

by Alex Richards

The Frock & Other Poems by Laurelle “Yaya” Richards celebrates her memory, her words, her thoughts, the sentiments and feelings that drove her actions in favor of a more vibrant cultural expression, and a recognition of what it means to be from and for St. Martin.

When the book was launched in Marigot in February 2011, as the highlight of the UNESCO International Mother Language Day, it served as the best way to honor the late Yaya, a contemporary St. Martin woman of significance and an activist in her own right.

Over the last few days, re-reading The Frock & Other Poems and attempting to refresh a brief critique of the book, stirred aspects of my whole being, my past, my present, my future, my foundation as well as the identity I am still busy building, my internal construction, my nature.

I refer to Laurelle Richards as an activist because I believe that activism is needed in fields other than politics. Culture, the promotion of culture, the rightful definition of culture and its proper positioning and/or repositioning within our reality calls for activism. I called Yaya an activist because I remember her as the kind of person to: 1. SPEAK UP and address the issues regarding our culture; 2. EDUCATE herself before she took on the world; 3. STAND UP for what she believed in; 4. BUILD a solid network, a coalition, a movement; 5. PUBLICIZE her message to reach a broader audience (And her book is a concrete example of her message that lives on even after she passed away on May 27, 2010).

Consider her words in the opening poem of the collection:

Wake up this morning
Praising God and stretching to the new day
Under the green shadow of Paradise hill
The cool breeze of Kawtah…

In her words, there’s a close connection between geography and cultural production. Immediately, right from the start of the book, voice is given to the volatile geography of St. Martin. Whatever the writer is involved in does not prevent her mind from wandering across her land. As she does this, she uses models of her own to express the realities of St. Martin as if to say that European literary models could not have allowed her to express herself.

Poetry and nature, expressed in most of her poems in the mother tongue, are implicitly linked in the idea of a kind of garden of Eden, a safe place, a place of hope. For her, this fusion, this blend with the land is also inseparable from a natural association with the “home” and the sense that the domestic space provides an obvious and uncomplicated site of belonging – a place which should, and can, be protected from outsiders, from colonial intrusion. Yaya’s unobtrusive subtlety in this regard may appear surprising or even subversive to some.

It can be said that Laurelle Richards writes exclusively in “S’Maatin English,” the everyday or domestic language of most St. Martiners, what Brathwaite has termed “nation language” (others have termed it mother tongue, mother language, or nation tongue, all implying that language and identity are linked).

The folkloric work of Yaya, for at least 10 years, has been highly influential in establishing S’Maatin English language and culture as an alternative, as an alter/native, indigenous, cultural resource instead of the appealing exclusively for acceptance and sole legitimization from European or “Yanking” cultural forms. Yaya, folklorist, spoken word artist (to use a current term), presents in The Frock & Other Poems the choice of employing S’Maatin English as a deliberate and self-conscious rejection of inherited poetic models. She creates her own, she draws from her own!

Though it is just one slim volume, I feel strongly that Richards’s work signals a shift away from purely innocent or passive landscape and nature, a shift from a constant focus on outside and the outsider to a consistent focus on St. Martin people and the privileging of St. Martin language as a powerful source of agency and national identity.

What I am foregrounding here is the importance of literary history manifesting itself before our eyes; what it excludes and includes at specific cultural moments and how this might be gendered; and what kind of writing it might, in turn, engender.

Yaya’s archive also encapsulates the strong, Black Caribbean woman. In “Precious Black Woman in Patchwork,” which is actually a modern set of fragments for the poet from Freetown, this monumental woman is perceived as rooted in the soil and having a robust physicality. Her vibrant speech provides amplitude with which to challenge European cultural norms that are elemental to the crude language that denies this Caribbean woman her womanhood; such definitive norms that even causes her own men and women folk to “dis” her very own femininity (hair, skin, facial features).

When reading this posthumous work, it is essential to “listen” to the author’s tone of voice at times. The diverse range of representations suggests that Richards’ is able to negotiate a variety of poetic paths through the somewhat contested terrain of Sweet St. Martin Land. In doing so, she perhaps negotiates different poetic models but for sure, she challenges and transgresses them deliberately.

For example, I love how Yaya presents tilling soil, picking salt, or ponging pan as a way of reading or interpreting history. As she puts herself in the place of the one she describes and carries on her activity she shares with the reader what she finds buried in the village soil, in the salt pond, in the steel pan. Here nature is not presented as innocent or outside of history, nature becomes always already imbricated in history; earth, our land, becomes an archive, which, with patience and humility, can be read.

To endorse Richards’ work and the St. Martin language, is to recognize her description of the home or the yard, our home, our yard, as separate and distinct from public spaces and institutions in which politics, mediated through “standard” languages, take place. She dares to present these private spaces as representative of areas uncontaminated by an unmediated outside influence, by colonial culture. In this way, Yaya’s work is essentially representative of mother tongue and mother culture at work, and not in any simple way, it is representative of St. Martin, the whole island, as an industrious and creative motherland or “mothernation” (as Sekou termed it in the early 1990s).

In closing, the poems of Laurelle “Yaya” Richards serve us now, to assess: Our language is an archives collection, a library and a wealth of knowledge; Anyone who denies us access to information in our mother tongue actually denies us a fundamental right.

It is a serious error to think that a nation, a territory or a country, can reach its full productive potential if the people of that nation are forced to work, in their own land, in a language that is foreign to them. Multilingualism is a political obligation essential when

attempting to democratize the society; it gives each one an opportunity to lend his/her contribution. Language is a source of creativity, spontaneity and self-esteem; it is an element of our identity.

Someone said: “To have English as mother tongue, is to dominate the world.” In the title poem “The Frock,” Laurelle Richards puts it this way: “St. Martin culture opens us to the world and opens the world in us.”

We language, therefore, provides us with a fair chance of playing a more significant role. Let’s embrace our reality and prove to Yaya and to all those who went before that we will preserve and generate dynamically what’s ours and thereby make our contribution to the redefinition of our villages, our nation, our island, and our region, the Caribbean!

The Frock & Other Poems was published by House of Nehesi Publishers and is available at Arnia’s, Van Dorp, and Roland Richardson Gallery.

Editor’s Note: Alex Richards is a senior librarian and literary critic.

Laurelle “Yaya” Richards in her iconic storytelling frock. (Saltwater Collection)

The Frock & Other Poems by Yaya Richards.

Young women at book party with copies of The Frock & Other Poems. (Saltwater Collection)

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GREAT BAY, St. Martin (May 22, 2011) — Nobel Prize laureate Derek Walcott is the confirmed keynote speaker for the 9th annual St. Martin Book Fair, June 2 – 4, 2011, said book fair coordinator Shujah Reiph.

“Freedom of Expression” is the theme of the three-day fair that opens with Walcott’s address at the Chamber of Commerce Building in Spring Concordia, Marigot, June 2, at 8 PM.

St. Martin lovers of reading, writing, good books, Caribbean culture, and just plain culture chic – along with visitors to the island – will get a front-row seat to see, hear and meet the world-acclaimed St. Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992.

In 2011, the much-in-demand Walcott won the T.S. Eliot Prize in the UK and Trinidad’s BOCAS literary prize for White Egrets, his new and 14th book of poems.

Literary critic Kate Kellaway in The Observer said that the book that earned Walcott his reputation was Omeros, “an outstanding homage to Homer written with buoyant originality.”

But to folks in the Caribbean, the Obie-winning play “Dream on Monkey Mountain” and other titles and individual poems had already given Walcott an almost legendary status by the time he won the coveted Nobel Prize, said literary critic Fabian Badejo.

The English novelist Robert Graves once wrote that Walcott “handles English with a closer understanding of its inner magic than most, if not any, of his contemporaries” (Wikipedia). Now St. Martin’s bookfair-goers will get two chances to see and hear Walcott for themselves and get their copies of his books autographed, said Reiph.

The second book fair appearance for Walcott will be his recital at the literary evening at Le Charolais Restaurant, Maho Plaza, on June 3. The literary evening features St. Martin and visiting poets and writers reading from their poetry, fiction, and nonfiction prose, said Reiph.

Derek Walcott, author, Nobel Prize laureate. In photo at an honorary dinner in Amsterdam (2008). (Wikipedia.com)

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GREAT BAY, St. Martin (May 19, 2011) — St. Martin Talk by Robert Romney has just been published here, in time for the 9th annual St. Martin Book Fair, June 2-4, said Jacqueline Sample, president of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP).

St. Martin Talk is a handbook of “words, phrases, sayings and general communication terms that are normal or traditional to the St. Martin way of speaking,” said Sample.

A Guadeloupe-based educator, Romney worked in Marigot from 2007 to 2010 as representative of the Rector of the Academy of Guadeloupe for the collectivities of St. Martin and St. Barth’s. He compiled and wrote the book during his 2007-2010 tenure.

St. Martin Talk will also be presented at the book fair’s opening ceremony at the Chamber of Commerce Building in Marigot, said book fair coordinator Shujah Reiph. Each year the opening program of the book fair alternates between both capitals of the “Friendly Island.”

“The St. Martin Book Fair opens with St. Martin Talk on June 2, and closes with Yvette’s cook book on June 4,” said Reiph.

“Introducing two such books to our nation in one festival is a St. Martin celebration, a real cultural gift to inspire and nourish the mind, body, and soul,” said Reiph. Both books were released this week by HNP.

With the 2011 book fair theme of “Freedom of Expression” there may be a general match in the newest book’s chapters. The chapters are entitled “Words & Phrases,” “Proverbs & Aphorisms,” and “Verbs & the notion of Aspect in St. Martin English.” The first two parts are the compiled data, said Sample.

Chapter 3 of St. Martin Talk was written by Romney in French and English, as a preliminary guide to especially French-language teachers, to better understand and teach children who speak “St. Martin English” in and out of the classroom, said Sample.

The humorous cartoons by Gina Rombley in Chapter 1 “make a light and welcome compliment to the complexities of the language situation in both parts of our island, where English is the historical and traditional language identity of the St. Martin people,” said Sample.

The author of St. Martin Talk was born in Great Bay (Philipsburg) and reared in Marigot. Romney is also an alumnus of University of the Antilles and Guyane and the University of Bordeaux.

The 9th annual St. Martin Book Fair is organized by Conscious Lyrics Foundation and House of Nehesi Publishers in collaboration with the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau, the Collectivity of St. Martin, and the University of St. Martin.

 St. Martin Talk by Robert Romney.

Robert Romney, author.

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New cookbook from Caribbean “culinary capital”   

Yvette’s cookbook: St. Martin’s traditional and modern cuisine published  

St. Martin, Caribbean (May 16, 2011) — Author Yvette Hyman, with husband Felix, also founded the popular Yvette’s Restaurant in her native district of French Quarter, St. Martin.  

The new hardcover book is made up of 13 chapters, including Appetizers, Soups, Poultry, Fish and Shellfish, Meat, Salads, Dumplings, Rice and Fungi, Breads, and Desserts, said Jacqueline Sample, the book’s editor.  

Among the book’s 312 colorful pages, classic favorites such as souse, Johnny cake, Conch Yvette’s, lamb stew, coconut tart, guavaberry and soursop drink are just a few of the over 200 recipes à la Yvette to be found in this Treasury of St. Martin’s Traditional & Contemporary Cuisine, said Sample.  

“This cookbook is an important and outstanding acknowledgement of Chef Yvette Hyman’s committed service to the culinary development of St. Martin,” said Gloria Ferris-Bell, a leading nutritionist.  

The publication of From Yvette’s Kitchen is a “national and Caribbean happening for St. Martin” as well, said HNP publisher Lasana M. Sekou.  

The 37-sq. mi. island of St. Martin, with over 350 restaurants from around the world, is known as the “culinary capital of the Caribbean,” according to award-winning Canadian travel writer Melanie Reffes.  

The posthumous title has been in the making since 1989. As HNP’s projects director Sekou had approached Hyman over 20 years ago about publishing her recipes as a unique book of St. Martin’s cuisine and an aspect of cultural heritage, said Sample.  

Sample served as HNP’s main editor on the manuscript since 1992 when Yvette gave the publisher her collection of recipes. Sample met with Yvette several times to discuss and test recipes before the popular chef passed away in 1999.  

Between 2007 and 2009, Sample met with Yvette’s widower Chef Felix Hyman and daughter and cooking instructor Jewel Daal to discuss and detail recipes.  

The book’s beautiful design by Angelo and Gina Rombley include photographs of actual dishes and drinks, both traditional and those developed by Yvette, said Sample.  

 From Yvette’s Kitchen To Your Table, new cookbook by Yvette Hyman. , which will be launched as the “main book” of the 9^th annual St. Martin Book Fair, June 4, 2011, is available at amazon.com and houseofnehesipublish.com, and at Arnia’s, Shipwreck and Van Dorp bookstores, said Sekou. 

  

From Yvettes Kitchen To Your Table, new cookbook by Yvette Hyman.

Yvette Hyman with a bounty from land and sea. (Saltwater Collection file photo)

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GREAT BAY, St. Martin (May 11, 2011) — The 7th edition of the Boardwalk Mas has been rescheduled from May to December, said Regina LaBega, head of the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau (STB).

“The processing of funds and additional paperwork for the Boardwalk Mas have not been completed in time for us to stage the festival at the usual mid-May date,” said LaBega.

“It’s sad that we have to reschedule the Boardwalk Mas because of bureaucratic changes that came with the territory’s adjustment; bureaucratic changes that the department was not clearly made aware of ahead of time, and in a sufficient way,” said LaBega.

The annual family-oriented festival celebrates St. Martin’s festive and traditional culture with a colorful afternoon parade on the Great Bay Beach promenade. Marching bands, masqueraders, groups in traditional dress, individual artists, and carnival royals are featured prominently.

The mas’ is capped off with an evening concert of music, song, comedy, theater, and dance at the Wathey Square on Frontstreet. The historic Court House serves as the stage backdrop.

STB sponsors the Boardwalk Mas as a heritage event originating from the Tourism Master Plan (TourMap). “We have seen the Boardwalk Mas attendance grow beyond our expectations, from the hundreds of spectators in 2005, when it started, to some 3,000 people last year,” said LaBega.

STB also promotes the festival as a genuine St. Martin tourism experience for the financially low-performing off-season. “The Boardwalk Mas is a people’s festival that our visitors have started to look forward to in very promising numbers. For all of this I apologize especially to the St. Martin people,” said LaBega.

There is a 2007 precedence for moving the mas’ to December, when in fact the spectator audience first climbed over 2,000 people, said LaBega. “We should not lose the beautiful momentum of this event by skipping a year, and that is why we are looking to December,” said the tourism director.

STB is still looking into the details to avoid a future postponement for the same bureaucratic reasons “that prevent funding from being released in a more timely manner,” said LaBega. This week she received a rush of media calls about the festival.

Parade manager Urmain Dormoy has also received an unprecedented number of inquiries about the Boardwalk Mas. “This is the first year that I received so many calls from people who wanted to travel to St. Martin or bring in small tours in time to see the Boardwalk Mas for their vacation. People were calling since January,” said Dormoy.

“By the end of February more groups and schools from the island called me to participate than in previous years. By the end of March I was hoping that all of the paper work would be done to have the Boardwalk Mas on May 14,” said Dormoy.

The parade manager has been meeting with HNP since January, planning the festival. The Boardwalk Mas is coordinated for STB by Offshore Editing Services, a division of HNP.

Last year over 40 registered groups and individual artists participated in the festival, “and restaurants did brisk business” on the promenade, said LaBega. She reiterated that, “more importantly, St. Martin people came out to make it a memorable family outing with their children.”

“The public will be informed about the plans for the Boardwalk Mas in December 2011, as soon as this final stage of paper work is cleared up,” said LaBega.

Regina LaBega, head of St. Maarten Tourist Bureau. (STB photo)

Concert audience at Boardwalk Mas 2010. (Saltwater Collection)

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GREAT BAY, St. Martin (May 9, 2011) — In less than one month in 2011, it appears that an unprecedented number of literary prizes were awarded to major Caribbean writers in their own region.

On May 6, the distinguished author George Lamming was awarded the Caribbean Hibiscus Prize in Cuba, said his HNP publisher here on Monday, May 9.

The Association of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC) awarded Lamming the prize, which “acknowledges the lifetime’s work of Caribbean writers, artists and groups,” said HNP publisher Lasana M. Sekou.

The Barbadian writer “expressed his appreciation for the honors received in Cuba, because the concept of culture on the island is not decorative like in most countries of the region, since Cubans believe that culture is a weapon to defend the Revolution,” reported ACN news service.

In addition to its regional significance, UNEAC president Miguel Barnet said the prize aims at spreading more awareness about Cuban culture and the institution’s work. 
 During the award ceremony, Cuban poet Nancy Morejon pointed out that the Hibiscus Prize is named after a flower common to Caribbean nations, and that “Lamming was selected to receive this first edition of the prize because when you read his works you can understand Nature and the regional spirit better,” reported RCA radio (FM 105.3). Culture Minister Abel Prieto attended the ceremony, held at the UNEAC.

Long hailed as one of the “adamic fathers” of Caribbean Literature, Lamming’s newest book of essays, Sovereignty of the Imagination, was published in St. Martin by HNP, said Sekou. Sovereignty and Lamming’s Western Education & The Caribbean Intellectual, also from HNP, are available at Van Dorp and other bookstores and libraries in the region, www.amazon.com and other online stores.

On April 29, it was the Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott who was honored. The acclaimed St. Lucian author, whose mother’s family hails from St. Martin, received the first edition of the OCM Bocas Prize in Trinidad for White Egrets, his latest poetry collection. The volume has already won the prestigious TS Eliot Prize.

The Bocas Prize to Walcott included an award of US$10,000. Tiphanie Yanique won the Bocas Fiction category for her debut novel, How To Escape From a Leper Colony. The much-celebrated Edwidge Danticat won the Non-Fiction category.

In a year with what appears to be an unprecedented appearance of literary prizes with regional projection, Guadeloupe took center stage from April 6 – 9, with its 2nd International Congress of Caribbean Writers.

The first edition of the congress’s Grand Prize of Caribbean Literature went to the Trinidadian Earl Lovelace for his new novel, Is Just a Movie. The prize included a financial award of Euros 10,000, probably the highest monetary prize for literature in the region to date.

The oldest and most prestigious award for literature in the region remains the Casa de Las Americas prize.

In this rare photo two legendary Caribbean authors (L-R) George Lamming and Derek Walcott. (© George Lamming/For use only with OES article. Saltwater Collection)

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