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It was a full circle moment for award-winning poet and author, Safiya Sinclair, as she took to the stage at the Calabash International Literary Festival to read a section of her bestselling memoir – How to Say Babylon – her coming of age recollection of growing up Rastafarian in Montego Bay.
“The last chapter of the memoir actually takes place at Calabash. And so, if I hadn’t read seven years ago at Calabash, I wouldn’t have had that ending to my memoir, [and] this wonderful, touching moment between me and my father as he came to hear me read for the first time,” Sinclair told The Gleaner following the reading.
The professor of creative writing at Arizona State University, who was born and raised in St James, is well known for her works, which speak to the Jamaican experience, including Cannibal, her debut collection of poetry. “All of my work is about Jamaica. It’s written for Jamaican girls, Jamaican women, and the Jamaican experience,” she said.
Family also plays a big role in her life and writing, Sinclair explained.
“Family means everything to me. I am the oldest daughter of four, and so I feel like each of my siblings were a blessing to my life, and so everything I write, and everything I do is to honour them,” the author added.
For her eager audience, Sinclair announced that an anthology is on the way.
“I am really thinking about how Rastafari linguistics and vernacular is really deeply rooted in this anti-colonial poetics…For me, as a poet, it’s very intriguing. So, I am thinking about the things that language can do and I am calling it 'Rasta Poetics',” she told The Gleaner.
Sinclair took the stage on the opening night of Calabash for 'Truth and Dare: Memoir... (re)claim your story', with memoirist Alexandra Fuller. The three-day festival ends today with a musical tribute by the Calabash Acoustic Ensemble marking the 50th anniversary of Burning Spear's Marcus Garvey.
English (US) ·