Lasana M. Sekou (born 12 January 1959) is a poet, short story writer, essayist, journalist, and publisher from the Caribbean island of Saint Martin.
Lasana M. Sekou (born 12 January 1959) is a poet, short story writer, essayist, journalist, and publisher from the Caribbean island of Saint Martin.
Lasana M. Sekou has authored over 20 books and is considered one of the prolific Caribbean poets of his generation. Dr. Armando Lampe writes that "he's considered the 'Walcott' of the Dutch Caribbean" [1] because of his prolific output, the range of subject matter and unique literary styling, which often includes the use of Caribbean Creole languages, Spanish, French, and Dutch — sometimes in one poem.
Sekou's titles, such as the critically reviewed The Salt Reaper – poems from the flats [2] [3] [4] along with 37 Poems, Nativity, Brotherhood of the Spurs, and Hurricane Protocol have been required reading at Caribbean, South and North American, Italian, and United Kingdom universities. [5] [6] [7] The author is himself a graduate of Howard University (MA, Mass Communication, 1984) [8] and Stony Brook University (BA, Political Science/International Relations, 1982). [9]
Awards and honors include an International Writers Workshop Visiting Fellow (Hong Kong), [10] a James Michener Fellow (University of Miami), a knighthood (The Netherlands), [11] Recognition for literary excellence in the service of Caribbean unity (Dominican Republic), [12] Culture Time Literary Artist of the Decade, [13] the Caribbean Tourism Organization Award of Excellence, [14] and the Sage Cultural Award 2022. [15]
Sekou's poetry and reviews of his works have appeared in Callaloo, [16] The Massachusetts Review , [17] De Gids, [18] Das Gedicht, Prometeo, [19] World Literature Today , [20] Caribbean Quarterly, [2] Postcolonial Text, [21] Jamaica Gleaner, [22] [23] Caribbean Review of Books , [24] Boundary 2, [25] Harriet, [26] and Calabash. [27] His poems have been translated into Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Italian, Turkish, and Chinese. [28] Sekou has presented papers and recited his poetry at cultural and literary conferences and festivals in the Caribbean, North and South America, [29] Africa, Europe [30] and Asia. His recitals usually draw large crowds. In St. Martin he is often invited by schools, cultural organizations, and NGOs to recite his poetry and appears regularly on radio and TV discussing cultural, socio-historical, literary, and political issues.
The author's writings are used in high schools and in carnival stage presentations. [31] He is the editor of National Symbols of St. Martin – A Primer [32] and The Independence Papers, Volume 1; [33] and the producer of Fête – The first recording of Traditional St. Martin festive music by Tanny & The Boys. [34] [35] Sekou can be heard reciting his own poetry on The Salt Reaper – Selected poems from the flats (Audio CD, 2009) with music produced by award-winning digital arts designer Angelo Rombley. [36] [37]
Sekou founded House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP) in his dorm room at New York's Stony Brook University in 1980. His second book, For The Mighty Gods... An Offering, with an introduction by Amiri Baraka, was the first book published by HNP in 1982. The indie press has been publishing his work (and others) since that time. He remains active as HNP's projects director since establishing the company in Philipsburg, St. Martin in 1984. At House of Nehesi Publishers Sekou secured the publication of literary luminaries and pioneers such as George Lamming, [38] Kamau Brathwaite, [39] Amiri Baraka, [40] Tishani Doshi, Shake Keane, [41] [42] Chiqui Vicioso, [43] Howard Fergus, [44] Marion Bethel, [45] and the Palestinian author Nidaa Khoury, [46] notable for her concept of post-monotheism. A host of first-time and previously-published authors from St. Martin and other territories and countries such as Ian Valz, Charles Borromeo Hodge, Jennie N. Wheatley, Wendy-Ann Diaz, Jay Haviser, Laurelle Yaya Richards, Patricia G. Turnbull, Sara Florian, Yvonne Weekes, and N.C. Marks have also been published by HNP. [47]
In 2003, Sekou was invited to co-found the St. Martin Book Fair by its founder Shujah Reiph, a leading cultural activist and president of the Conscious Lyrics Foundation. [48] [49]
Sekou is an advocate for the independence of St. Martin, which is a colony of France and the Netherlands. [50] [51] In the 1994 and 2000 consultative constitutional status referendums that were held in the Southern or Dutch part of St. Martin, Sekou was a leading organizer and speaker for the Independence option as a member of the Independence for St. Martin Foundation, of which his brother and political scientist Joseph H. Lake, Jr., was the founding president. [52]
Saint Martin is an island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately 300 km (190 mi) east of Puerto Rico. The 87 square kilometres (34 sq mi) island is divided roughly 60:40 between the French Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but the Dutch part is more populated than the French part. The division dates to 1648. The northern French part comprises the Collectivity of Saint Martin and is an overseas collectivity of the French Republic. The southern Dutch part comprises Sint Maarten and is one of four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands. As an overseas possession of two European Union member states, the island is itself part of the EU.
The Honourable Edward Kamau Brathwaite, CHB, was a Barbadian poet and academic, widely considered one of the major voices in the Caribbean literary canon. Formerly a professor of Comparative Literature at New York University, Brathwaite was the 2006 International Winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize, for his volume of poetry Born to Slow Horses.
Mervyn Eustace Morris OM is a poet and professor emeritus at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. According to educator Ralph Thompson, "In addition to his poetry, which has ranked him among the top West Indian poets, he was one of the first academics to espouse the importance of nation language in helping to define in verse important aspects of Jamaican culture." Morris was Poet Laureate of Jamaica from 2014 to 2017.
Olive Marjorie Senior is a Jamaican poet, novelist, short story and non-fiction writer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was awarded the Musgrave Gold Medal in 2005 by the Institute of Jamaica for her contributions to literature. Senior was appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica in 2021.
Earl Wilbert Lovelace is a Trinidadian novelist, journalist, playwright, and short story writer. He is particularly recognized for his descriptive, dramatic fiction on Trinidadian culture: "Using Trinidadian dialect patterns and standard English, he probes the paradoxes often inherent in social change as well as the clash between rural and urban cultures." As Bernardine Evaristo notes, "Lovelace is unusual among celebrated Caribbean writers in that he has always lived in Trinidad. Most writers leave to find support for their literary endeavours elsewhere and this, arguably, shapes the literature, especially after long periods of exile. But Lovelace's fiction is deeply embedded in Trinidadian society and is written from the perspective of one whose ties to his homeland have never been broken."
Lorna Gaye Goodison CD is a Jamaican poet, essayist and memoirist, a leading West Indian writer, whose career spans four decades. She is now Professor Emerita, English Language and Literature/Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan, previously serving as the Lemuel A. Johnson Professor of English and African and Afroamerican Studies. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica in 2017, serving in the role until 2020.
Caribbean literature is the literature of the various territories of the Caribbean region. Literature in English from the former British West Indies may be referred to as Anglo-Caribbean or, in historical contexts, as West Indian literature. Most of these territories have become independent nations since the 1960s, though some retain colonial ties to the United Kingdom. They share, apart from the English language, a number of political, cultural, and social ties which make it useful to consider their literary output in a single category. The more wide-ranging term "Caribbean literature" generally refers to the literature of all Caribbean territories regardless of language—whether written in English, Spanish, French, Hindustani, or Dutch, or one of numerous creoles.
Ian McDonald is a Caribbean-born poet and writer who describes himself as "Antiguan by ancestry, Trinidadian by birth, Guyanese by adoption, and West Indian by conviction." His ancestry on his father's side is Antiguan and Kittitian, and Trinidadian on his mother’s side. His only novel, The Humming-Bird Tree, first published in 1969, is considered a classic of Caribbean literature.
Tishani Doshi FRSL is an Indian poet, journalist and dancer based in Chennai. In 2006 she won the Forward Prize for her debut poetry book Countries of the Body. Her poetry book A God at the Door has been shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize under best poetry collection category. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023.
George William Lamming OCC was a Barbadian novelist, essayist, and poet. He first won critical acclaim for In the Castle of My Skin, his 1953 debut novel. He also held academic posts, including as a distinguished visiting professor at Duke University and a visiting professor in the Africana Studies Department of Brown University, and lectured extensively worldwide.
Sint Maarten is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean. With a population of 41,486 as of January 2019 on an area of 34 km2 (13 sq mi), it encompasses the southern 44% of the divided island of Saint Martin, while the northern 56% of the island constitutes the French overseas collectivity of Saint Martin. Sint Maarten's capital is Philipsburg. Collectively, Sint Maarten and the other Dutch islands in the Caribbean are often called the Dutch Caribbean.
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Nidaa Khoury is a lecturer at Ben-Gurion University in the Department of Hebrew literature. She is also the first Arab-Israeli poet to be included within the literature Bagrut curriculum in Israel.
Yvonne Weekes is a British-born Montserratian writer, theater director, and educator. She was Montserrat's first director of culture before being forced to move to Barbados during the eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano in the 1990s. Her work deals with issues of displacement and isolation due to environmental and cultural forces beyond our control.
Ruby Bute is a painter, storyteller, and writer of the island of Saint Martin. She became the first woman to publish a book in Saint Martin with her poetry collection Golden Voices of S'maatin in 1989. Bute has been referred to as "the first dame of St. Martin’s cultural arts."
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