ST. MARTIN (August 20, 2000) – Words Need Love Too, the long-awaited book of poems by Kamau Brathwaite, the distinguished Caribbean poet, historian and literary critic, was just released here by House of Nehesi Publishers.
In Words Need Love Too, Brathwaite makes us participants in, and co-celebrants of the liturgy of the word like no other poet, living or dead, points out writer Fabian Badejo. In the book’s introduction Badejo calls Brathwaite a word geneticist re-discovering the word genome.
With his fresh study of the DNA of Caribbean aesthetics, the poet continues forging a New World reality out of a daring complexity of “dreamstories” that may indeed be just beyond the imagination of some. But Brathwaite is the maroon shepherd in search of each and every lamb–individual, family, territory, or country–lost in the middle passages of history and the related current psychic reality.
Words Need Love Too is scheduled for a high profile launch at CARIFESTA VII in St. Kitts-Nevis on August 23, 2000. Brathwaite will share the spotlight in Basseterre with another luminary, George Lamming, whose monographsRegreso, regreso al hogar: Conversaciones II, the Spanish edition of Coming, Coming Home — Conversations II, will also be launched as part of the regional festival’s Literary Arts and Book Fair opening day activities. The English edition of the critically acclaimed Conversations II (1995) includes the French translation of the essays and will be re-issued at the launch.
“We have what can be called a literary event: Two new titles, in three languages, by two world renowned figures of Caribbean letters, at a festival which is still the most impressive pan-Caribbean gathering of artists, cultural workers and officials, and intellectuals,” says Lasana M. Sekou of House of Nehesi, publisher of the three books. Brathwaite will recite selections of his “words” and will be on hand to sign autographs at the book launch.
On Thursday, August 24, Brathwaite will participate in the CARIFESTA symposium on the “transnational artist,” looking especially at the resilience of Caribbean culture beyond the region’s geographic boundaries. Noted authors Tony Hall and Earl Lovelace are slated as co-panelists.
Brathwaite is a native of Barbados. He currently lectures at New York University and has taught at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. Brathwaite’s well known books include The Arrivants (1973), Sun Poem (1982), X/Self (1987),Middle Passages (1992), and a commanding study called The Development of Creole Society in Jamaica 1770-1820(1971). He has been awarded the prestigious Casa de las Americas Prize for Literary Criticism, the Bussa Award, a Fulbright fellow, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
The author travels and lectures regularly at universities, conferences, and literary events in the Caribbean, USA, and Europe. Words Need Love Too by Kamau Brathwaite is available from House of Nehesi Publishers, P.O. Box 460, Philipsburg, St. Martin, Caribbean or www.houseofnehesipublish.com