Jacinth Browne-Howard 9/10/24 Jacinth Browne-Howard 9/10/24

Babel and Babylon: Confronting Systems of Silence and Violence represented in novels by Cherie Jones and Kei Miller

There is so much more to say about how these women demonstrate feminist consciousness by fighting for themselves in the worst and most dire situations. There are so many more credits to attribute to the authors of these texts whose use of narratology, both in fiction and nonfiction, activates knowledge and clarifies absences about women which remained hidden historically

Intersect 9/9/24 Intersect 9/9/24

Get to Know Our New Artist-in-Residence

Her creative work includes her recently published poetry collection The Mother Island which won 2nd place in the 2021 FCLE competition. The collection deals with matters of identity, motherhood and womanhood in the Caribbean.

Joanne C. Hillhouse 8/22/24 Joanne C. Hillhouse 8/22/24

Frig It! Screenplay for a not-yet-produced short film by Joanne C. Hillhouse

Irma swings the flashlight toward the gap where the door and window used to be.

Water gushes through both openings. A TEARING metallic sound. Irma swings the flashlight toward the roof. Another part of the GALVANIZE roof rips away. Cresilla’s scream cuts off when she looks up and glimpses a red-chested figure with black cape.

CRESILLA, in wonder, voice carrying in excitement: Frig it!

Joanne C. Hillhouse 7/30/24 Joanne C. Hillhouse 7/30/24

Caribbean Celluloid: Telling Our Stories on Film

“One Love. That’s right, this session is about film – not just that film though, but Caribbean film more broadly and specifically ones I’ve seen this half year. Twice in the case of Bob Marley: One Love.”

Intersect 7/11/24 Intersect 7/11/24

Reconnecting to Caribbean Folklore with ‘When We Were Birds’

This is one such narrative that, for me at least, had lain dormant for too long. It blends the stories from our ancestors — recollections from the enslaved, the indentured, and the colonial masters, as well as remnants of indigenous memory. From the very opening of When We Were Birds, we are reminded of this supernatural heritage that is present in our culture.

Joanne C. Hillhouse 7/3/24 Joanne C. Hillhouse 7/3/24

Don’t sleep on Caribbean Fantasy and Science Fiction: Caribbean Futurism (A Reflection on 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑚, 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝘵𝘰𝑟𝑒, 𝑅𝑒𝘵𝑢𝑟𝑛)

My current reading is not by design but it’s a good jumping off point for reflection on how spec fic, or Caribbean futurism, is in many ways the type of fiction we need when the world is at its most volatile or uncertain.

Intersect 6/27/24 Intersect 6/27/24

Among Flowers: A Journey with Jamaica Kincaid

Have you ever looked at a book, read its synopsis, and just knew it would be a book that would change your life?

From the moment I began reading Among Flowers, I mourned finishing it.

Joanne C. Hillhouse 5/23/24 Joanne C. Hillhouse 5/23/24

Object Permanence

On the page, as in life, people (characters) have things that mean something to them; that come to symbolize things in the greater context of the story. For me, the key is not to force it (what a character’s thing is) but to discover it over the course of revisions.

D Providence 5/14/24 D Providence 5/14/24

A Psalm for the Living

To whom shall I lift up my prayers

for the children of the living,

whose laughter descends from the clouds?

D Providence 5/9/24 D Providence 5/9/24

Empire Studies

Empire is efficient

at greed, at weaponizing belief,

systematic.

It can make you less than human to justify

its brutality towards you.

It can make you less than human to accept its brutality

towards others.

Joanne C. Hillhouse 5/3/24 Joanne C. Hillhouse 5/3/24

What Can Story Do?

I’m not a scientist nor a politician, but, climate change is real and writing is how I process life. The creative process compels me to grapple with whatever anxiety, and frankly fear, I may be feeling about our current and near future reality.

Joanne C. Hillhouse 4/18/24 Joanne C. Hillhouse 4/18/24

The Imprecise Science of Character Naming

A recurring thought, so far, has been names/identity/labels as I navigate who these characters are, what they call themselves and, because we live in a social reality, what they are called by others.

Intersect 4/18/24 Intersect 4/18/24

Get to Know Our Artist-in-Residence

Joanne, or Jhohadli, is one of Antigua and Barbuda’s most prominent contemporary writers. Having contributed to the growth of the literary scene on a local, regional, and international scale, she has published eight books of fiction…

Intersect 4/4/24 Intersect 4/4/24

A Place for Theory: Finding Ceremony at the Black Feminisms Forum

On the opening night of the 2024 “Global Black Feminisms Forum: Building Black Feminist Worlds,” the first of its kind in Barbados, Amina Doherty offered a politics of gathering punctuated by rituals of speaking and movement.

Leslieann Hobayan 3/27/24 Leslieann Hobayan 3/27/24

I Can’t Stop

image after image of ash, of smoke

of babies broken and split

of mothers wailing and wailing

and I refuse to look away,

refuse to give away

my humanity

Zoë Mercedes 3/21/24 Zoë Mercedes 3/21/24

a reconciliation of realities

The oppression of the Palestinian people is wrapped up in the oppression of marginalized communities all throughout the world and squarely all the communities I am apart of. black, woman, queer, from a small Caribbean island.

This is the danger of white supremacy and colonialism, it oppresses many of us in many forms, all insidious. Be not deluded.