D uring the launch, the poet had a conversation with the Literatures in English Programme Coordinator, Dr. Nicola Hunte , in which she explained the style of writing she opted to use in her most recent published work. “A trained poet might notice … you won’t see sonnets and you won’t see blank verses. It’s not that I don’t value form and metre; there is evidence of that in some of the poems, but the free verse was deliberate in that there is imperfection and there is chaos, especially when you become a parent. I think the biggest lesson you learn as a parent is that planning is not as straightforward as it used to be. Things become very impractical very easily, and it gives a kind of grace which I wanted to convey in my poems.” Dr. Howard said there were challenges involved in the creative process: moments of inspiration, encountering mental blocks, and demands that could affect the quality of output. “For this entire collection, I was thinking about the tensions that exist in being a creative and creating work that’s palatable but also being true to my own objectives as a creative. At one point, I just had to [acknowledge] that while I wanted to meet certain standards, I was more concerned with the authenticity of my work and less concerned about what consumers will think.” The poet said over past decades, female creatives have had to overcome numerous challenges, and she wanted that to be highlighted throughout her collection. During the event, Howard read excerpts from her poems including “Undermining Eden”, “Limerick” , “Performances” , “Minding Cattle” , “Watercolour” , and “Obsidian: An Ode to Soufriere” . She also highlighted the poem “Quick Stitch” . “I purposefully placed this poem “Quick Stitch” and a number of them in a domicile position because I wanted to talk about the experiences that specifically female creatives have to tackle.” Head of the Cave Hill’s Department of Language, Linguistics and Literature Dr. Korah Belgrave said Dr. Howard’s work could be studied within the context of modern writing, poetry, gender studies and for emerging themes like social media. u
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Pastor John Yarde performs song Dream Alive
Dr. Nicola Hunte Coordinator, Literatures in English Programme The UWI, Cave Hill Campus
CHILL NEWS 73
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