Caribbean Nomad: The Next Big Thing

By: aromaproductions on 11:29 PM

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I have been tagged by Liberian poet, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, to give this interview for an expanding blog project called The Next Big Thing.  She is the author of several poetry collections, Where the Road Turns, The River is Rising, Becoming Ebony, and Before the Palm Could Bloom. You can read her interview at this site:   http://networkedblogs.com/GSt2P

   

TNBT:    Where did the idea come from for the book? 

 

Althea: My last book published is entitled, If Only the Dust Would Settle. It was inspired by my immigrant experience.  As a child of generations of immigrants, I wanted to share my different homes, my life’s journey from the Caribbean to the USA, to Liberia (West Africa), London, England and finally to Switzerland where I have settled. 

Born in Antigua, I grew up in the US Virgin Islands where I experienced my first of many baptisms into the world of exclusion, worlds that defined me as an “alien”or an “outsider.” 

The collection was also inspired by a series of poetry readings that I participated in. These readings were sponsored by VITA (Verein für Interkuturelle Treffpunkte und Anlaufstellen), an umbrella organization which focuses on the integration of immigrants into Switzerland. VITA sponsored readings and art exhibitions by non-Swiss artists.

TNBT:  What genre does your book fall under?

Althea: Poetry

TNBT: What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

 

Althea: If my book was made into a film, I would have to give the opportunity of portraying my Afro-Caribbean world to actors who come from Africa, the Caribbean and Central America. They are far and few in between. Those who come to mind are America Ferrera, an American actress whose parents immigrated to the USA from Honduras. I believe she would be able to translate the immigrant experience very well. Another actress that would be able to translate the Afro-Caribbean world is Zoe Saldana, an actress from the Dominican Republic. Roles could be offered to Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. Djimon Hounsou, Idris Elba, Morgan Freeman, Danny Glover, Don Cheadle are male actors whom I would consider. I would contact Swiss or German actors for shooting scenes in Switzerland. Tilman „Til“ Valentin Schweiger comes to mind. My homes are spread across three continents.

TNBT:  What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Althea: If Only the Dust Would Settle contemplates the meaning of home, (which is for me, is a flower, the petals of which have been scattered down many paths), and the life of an immigrant.

TNBT: How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Althea: My last collection, Beyond Dreams: The Ritual Dancer, was printed in Liberia in 1989. So any significant poem that was written since then is included in this collection. New would be my reflection on life in Liberia. That includes the effects of the Liberian civil war on my family (1976-1991), being “a kind of refugee” in London, and settling in Switzerland as a non-German speaker. 

Poetry collections before Beyond Dreams:The Ritual Dancer, include Two Faces: Two Phases (Liberia),1984, Palaver (New York, USA), 1978 and Shu-Shu Moko Jumbi: The Silent Dancing Spirit (Kent State Univ., Ohio, USA), 1974.

TNBT: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Althea: The poems in, If Only the Dust Would Settle, written in English and German, are interwoven into a biographical essay, entitled “A Home with Endless Possibilities.”  It begins with the Caribbean, my first home, and explores some Caribbean traditions, then it takes the reader to the USA where I compare my interactions with Black Americans and African students, and my experience with the cold, “Can I borrow your smile to warm my bones,” and Liberia, my second home, the place where I married and bore three children, lived the Caribbean past, discovered the roots of Caribbean culture and learned to live with political confrontation. I didn’t live long enough in England to call it a home.  It was the place where I lived the life of a refugee and finally, my home, Switzerland, where I drowned in the German language for some years, felt like a castaway, watched my children become adults and finally came into my own by “settling into my skin.”

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Althea: If Only the Dust Would Settle was published by Author House, Lightning Source UK Ltd. Milton Keyes, UK, 2009.

 

 

The Writers I will be tagging include:

1. Michael Obi Smith, (the Bahamas), Obediah Michael Smith has published 17 books of poems, a short novel and a cassette recording of his poems. http://bestwordsmith.blogspot.com

2. Rati Saxena (India), poet and editor of KRITYA, Poetry Journal in English and Hindi. http://www.kritya.in

3. Duncan McGibbon (England). His published books are Channel(1998), Divers (2008) and The Consolations (2009). He has recently been a traveller in Australia and lived in Berne and Geneva, Europe where he led many creative writing classes. He was a prize winner in the Wells Literary Festival. He currently lives and works in Bath, commuting between his British and Swiss workshops. He is currently Poetry Convenor for the Bath Literary and Scientific Institute and runs readings and workshops. 
4. Joanne Hillhouse, (Antigua and Barbuda), author of novels  Oh Gad!,  Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, and  The Boy from Willow Bend, http://jhohadli.wordpress.com

A HAPPY NEW YEAR to you.