David Rodigan In His Own Words

The reggae selector releases a CD for London's hip Fabric Nightclub

David Rodigan

David Rodigan turns 60 this year. He’s spent the majority of it utterly in the grip of reggaemylitis.  Read more... (4751 words + 2 images)

Roger Mais’ Brother Man: Knotty Dread Steps Forward Again

‘Love is everything,’ he said, simply. ‘It is what created the world. It is what made you an’ me, child, brought us into this world.’

And somehow the words didn’t sound banal, coming from him. He spoke with such simple directness that it seemed to give a new import to everything he said. It was as though the common words of everyday usage meant something more, coming from his lips, than they did in the casual giving and taking of change in conversation, the way it was with other folks.  Read more... (1119 words + 1 image)

Literary Fest Flourishes on Jamaica’s South Coast

Calabash Literary Festival 2004
Friday, May 28 – Sunday, May 30
Treasure Beach, Jamaica

Caribbean literature is very much an international literature, but distill it to the Calabash Festival and there is no longer an international feel, it’s a large village feeling. First of all is the location, a shimmering edge of St. Elizabeth parish, which is, for many consumers of this literature, a faraway place. The classy and eclectic fest, now in its fourth year, is held annually at Jake’s, a world reknown eco-getaway, in Treasure Beach.  Read more... (2097 words + 4 images)

The New Bone to Pick from Ellis Cose

If, as the adage holds, the personal is political, the Calabash 2004 writer whose work most fully illustrates this combination is Ellis Cose, a Newsweek editor who has studied truth and reconciliation commissions and the vicissitudes of the traumatized self in the public arena. On Saturday afternoon of Calabash 2004, he summarized the findings of his most recent book, Bone to Pick (Atria, 2004), which is organized around themes of reconciliation, revenge and forgiveness.  Read more... (1534 words + 2 images)