#MyCaribbeanLibrary: pickings of February
I need to start this piece by saying that I broke one of my New Year’s resolutions: buying more and more digital books thanks to the e-reader I invested in, and less printed books. You’ll definitely come to the conclusion that not how it has turned out.
Instead, I keep complaining about how tighter my bookshelf is becoming and how finally the books keep dropping themselves on front of me (oops!) Lol, let’s start this piece and then I invite you to let your comment: I’d love reading your book recommendations, I always look out for new references.
I call an almost one-shot on writing and publishing this article as I am on the plane while I put my thoughts on my Notes app (God saves the female or male genius who invented this!)
“Why not me?”, a personal call-to-action
I’ve just closed the book who pushed me to write today. Corinne Skinner Carter is a Caribbean woman, an eclectic professional who worked both as a dancer, actress, comedian and teacher, a cousin, sister, mother, wife from Trinidad. Skinner Carter’s career evolved when she left her birth and home country for England, in the UK.
I remember buying this book during a stay in London in 2021 (no, I didn’t have made yet the call to stop buying less printed books 😌). And I loved the cover.
And then, while reading it, the words reinforced in me the belief that books definitely find you (not always the other way around). This is touching because this memoir has been written by another woman, Z. Nia Reynolds. I couldn’t stop thinking how fascinating and challenging it must be to write a truthful and faithful-to-the-reality memoir. How oral archives are important and to which extent it is crucial to transcribe them and keep them as precious sources of history. I have been working with a client on this kind of project and I must say I did connect with the way of doing it.
Which parts or lines had to be removed? Which parts of what she told had been selected and kept, or added after many proofreading sessions?
How did Corinne Skinner Carter feel when she was being interviewed? These are all the questions I’d love to ask both of them if I met them in-person.
English is not my mother tongue, and I must say that I had a great and fluid reading experience.
Homecoming, a dig-deeper into British Caribbean history
Although I didn’t finish this picking yet, I need to say a bit about it. I was talking above about the necessity of having oral archives in transcribed words and so on. Homecoming, Voices of the Windrush generation is a sound proof.
In simple, powerful and sometimes painful words, some people and exceptional living archives from this generation tell their stories. The excerpts are well-organised and echo between each other.
I would lie if I told you that it was easy to read: I found it heavy because these bits of personal stories mixed with collective historical facts are sensitive in many ways.
The beauty of it: having access to the power of nuance that any part of History requires, to understand better the past and learn from it. What I loved about this book is that the testimonies are from “ordinary” people, which you can easily identify to.
I will make an edit here to give my last impressions as soon as I finish this collection of voices which need to be heard… and read.
A podcast episode about Deja John, a Caribbean writer.
Deja John is a writer from St-Lucia and lives in Hungary. I must admit that it’s probably not the first country I would think of as an expatriation land for a Caribbean. (Pardon my ignorance dear fellow Caribbean readers: I think there are a lot of us in many countries all around the world and it needs to be known, for the inspo and broaden the field of possibilities as widely as it can be.)
In The Caribbean Lifestyle Podcast, Anais hosts during the first episode in English, this writer. They discuss a lot of interesting topics, amongst the living abroad and the challenge of integrating and adapting to a new culture one. No spoil here: I want you to check it out here. It lasts about 30 minutes. You could be busy washing your dishes while listening to their interesting conversation.
Long story short: Anais and I attended the same classes in high school. And I admire the fact she overcome the language barrier and overstep her comfort zone. So this is a way to support her.*
However: I listened to it objectively and I think you can get bits of food for thought and inspiration that will go a long way.
One in French for the go: an original work about people of French Guiana
Well, a quick cheat here: I just bought this book. Again: the printed book got me and the best of my ability to keep my so-called New Year resolution. 😆
Anyway: this one is a must bought and must whatever you need to know about it.
This a graphic book about testimonies from French Guyanese people who left their native land in hope of striving and working for a better life. This is originally a podcast that I found beautifully named: “Exils poétiques”. (You could literally translate by “Poetic escapes”)
I never heard before about this podcast but I find the idea to translate those voices and life stories into comics, very brilliant.
In terms of representation, as far as I’m concerned, I know so few of our French Guyanese fellows, who yet belong to the Greater Caribbean area.
So, this is my next reading and I can’t wait to share a feedback with all of you in this space.
*Any recommendation is affiliated or asked by someone.
Let’s connect on Twitter: @frcaribreader
