Beyond a Boundary – #CCF

July 11, 2014May 21, 2015Leave a comment

…This heartfelt public interest in cricket led the sport into a political battle, of which James was the spearhead. The regime which supported class and race distinctions, which had prevented the West Indies from ever having a black captain, came under constant attack from James’ paper and a volatile open letter which seemed to threaten war. I found it stirring that this came from a man like James, a man so immersed in the game that he held the code of ‘keeping a stiff upper lip’ (James 24) to the highest standard, that he was willing to put the decency and decorum behind him. Cricket was changing, so it was apt that a man so passionate about the game was changing as well. I spoke of my nostalgia earlier, for that is what it was. While James’ love for the game drove him to momentarily disregard his values—for the good of the game—my own feelings have dissolved to indifference…

The above excerpt is from Ronald Williams’ review of C.L.R. James’ Beyond a Boundary, this week’s addition to the Fresh Milk Books Tumblr – the online space inviting interaction with our collection in the Colleen Lewis Reading Room.

For new Critical. Creative. Fresh reviews every week, look out for our #CCF Weekly posts and see the good reads we have available at Fresh Milk!

Validity and Visibility – See Me Here #CCF

June 26, 2014May 21, 2015Leave a comment

There is an undeniable relationship between validity and visibility. As quietly confident, assured or competent as one can be, there is something about gaining recognition that feeds the feeling of being appreciated and understood – of being seen. I already feel slightly uneasy and egotistical trying to articulate this in a way that doesn’t trigger little accusatory voices in the back of my mind hissing ‘vain!’ or ‘insecure!’…concepts that by all logic should be mutually exclusive, but the idea of needing validation from external sources manages to connote both. Maybe a less self-destructive approach is to delve into something relevant to, yet larger than myself, through the honest and brave work of the artists featured in See Me Here: A Survey of Contemporary Self-Portraits from the Caribbean.

The above excerpt is from Katherine Kennedy’s review of See Me Here: A Survey of Contemporary Self-Portraits from the Caribbean, this week’s addition to the Fresh Milk Books Tumblr – the online space inviting interaction with our collection in the Colleen Lewis Reading Room.

For new Critical. Creative. Fresh reviews every week, look out for our #CCF Weekly posts and see the good reads we have available at Fresh Milk!

A Lyrical Response to She Who Tells a Story – #CCF Guest Review

June 18, 2014May 20, 2015Leave a comment

Newsha Tavakolian, Don’t Forget This Is Not You (for Sahar Lotfi), Chromogenic print mounted on aluminum, 2010.

Like mornings when dew drops hang on the tips of tree leaves, the stories of women hang in the air. They are the precipitation of the spirit; the evidence of its metamorphosis through the pressures of love and hate, peace and war and joy and sorrow. They are the condensation of spirit smashing against spirit under the power of patriarchy.

The above excerpt is from Ria Scott’s lyrical guest review of Kristen Gresh’s She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World, this week’s addition to the Fresh Milk Books Tumblr – the online space inviting interaction with our collection in the Colleen Lewis Reading Room.

For new Critical. Creative. Fresh reviews every week, look out for our #CCF Weekly and see the good reads we have available at Fresh Milk!

About Ria:

Ria Scott is a former student of the University of the West Indies and the University of Leeds. An avid reader, her writing experience has spanned creative, journalistic and academic spheres. She is passionate about travelling the world and experiencing different cultures. To find out more about Ria, check out her blog riathereal.tumblr.com

Inspired by Debret (A Poem in Progress) – #CCF Guest Response

June 10, 2014May 20, 2015Leave a comment

Out of the belly of time the old becomes the new…
Through the leaves the shadowy susurrus moo’s
of cows long gone on a cooling breeze
a congregation of laptops in ordered pews
ready for Wi-Fi communion to send receive
images and words far beyond this once milking parlour
Though I saw one stabled cow on the way in met by those
lowering eyes, Annalee’s outstretched hands, rows of books
ordered by Dewey ready to reap secrets from me

The above is the first stanza from Dorothea Smartt’s guest response to Vasco Araujo’s Debret collection, which took the form of a poem for this week’s addition to the Fresh Milk Books Tumblr – the online space inviting interaction with our collection in the Colleen Lewis Reading Room.

For new Critical. Creative. Fresh reviews every week, look out for our #CCF Weekly and see the good reads we have available at Fresh Milk!

About Dorothea:

Dorothea Smartt is a poet, live artist and literary activist. Her work may be viewed in Out of Bonds, RED: Contemporary Black British Poetry and Ship Shape, a collection Carole Boyce Davies describes as “blues-y, well crafted poems…reveal a poetic intelligence…maturity of form and content […] the best of her generation…”

A Kind of Right to be Idle – #CCF Guest Review

June 3, 2014May 20, 2015Leave a comment

…A part of me wanted to write a poem in reponse to Karl Watson’s A Kind of Right to be Idle: OLD DOLL Matriarch of Newton Plantation – so I did. The overall journey varied: from feeling as though the horizons of my perspectives on Plantation Slavery in Barbados had become more nuanced; through amusement at the tribulations and industrial action the female enslaved put the managers through; to suspicion of the real motives behind the apparent forbearance of the absentee owners and managers toward the troublesome family; to a final cynical fulfilment as my suspicions were proven… Why on earth did the author write the book the way he wrote it?

The above excerpt is from Ayesha Gibson-Gill’s guest review of of Karl Watson’s A Kind of Right to be Idle: OLD DOLL Matriarch of Newton Plantation, which took the form of a poem for this week’s addition to the Fresh Milk Books Tumblr – the online space inviting interaction with our collection in the Colleen Lewis Reading Room.

For new Critical. Creative. Fresh reviews every week, look out for our #CCF Weekly and see the good reads we have available at Fresh Milk!

About Ayesha:

Ayesha Gibson-Gill is the Cultural Officer of Literary Arts at Barbados’ National Cultural Foundation (NCF), West Terrace, St. James. You may contact Ms. Gibson-Gill at (246) 417-6625.