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For the Reckord | Keeping Calabash alive

Published:Wednesday | June 13, 2018 | 12:00 AM
Calabash 2018 novelists (from left) Rivers Solomon and Tayari Jones of the United States and Kenyan Peter Kimani.
Kwame Dawes, artistic director of the Calabash International Literary Festival.
Tony is one of the hundreds of residents of Treasure Beach who benefit from Calabash.
Jamaican poet Safiya Sinclair reading her poetry.
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If the views of novelist Colin Channer, one of the co-founders of the Calabash International Literary Festival, had prevailed, the 2018 would not have taken place. Channer had wanted it to end after its 10th annual staging in 2011. That's what he had originally planned with the other co-founders, Kwame Dawes and Justine Henzell.

"Colin felt we should stop at a high point," Dawes revealed to me on day two of the recently concluded festival in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth. We were in the bookshop stocked with event-related books, beside the big tent which protects the festival's audience from the day's sun and night's dew.

Dawes explained that one of Channer's concerns was the absence of "steady funding," for the now biennial festival. They all shared the same concern, but "Justine and I were acutely aware that it would've been devastating to the audience if we'd stopped the festival," he added.

That audience, which tends to be about 3,000-strong, "always shows up," he said. "We don't have to worry. They guard the festival as something precious."

Judging from their list of sponsors for the 2018 staging, their money worries seem considerably lessened. Heavyweight contributors include the United States Embassy; the British Council; the Canadian High Commission and the Jamaica Tourist Board. Nevertheless, he admitted that they are still looking for the "big foundation" which would say, "Here's the money. Run with it."

Dawes said the festival has also continued because of its importance to Jake's - the Henzell-family owned villa and cottage complex which was designed and built by Justine's mother, Sally, and around which the festival swirls - and to Treasure Beach community as a whole.

Certainly, thousands in the area benefit - guest house and hotel owners, restaurateurs, local food, fruit, clothes and craft vendors who sell on the road near the venue. People like 'Prof', whose guest house is at the end of a steep, rocky path in Sandy Hill; and 'Tony', who peddles colourful clothes and craft items on the street in front of a bar.

Of the festival's international reputation, Dawes said, "The reviews in all the major newspapers in the Western English-speaking world have been excellent. It's been rated as one of the best in the world." He added that the foreign writers who have come to read are "some of the best writers in the world" (including Nobel laureates Derek Walcott and Wole Soyinka), and the Calabash audience "are some of the best audiences they've ever had".

Asked what was special about this year's staging, which took place from June 1-3, he says, "Last time, we concluded that we needed a greater youth presence for the longevity of the festival, and we programmed for it. We had more young writers, strong music by young musicians."

He continued, "Secondly, this festival is a celebration of women. One of the great insights of Colin Channer was that if we targeted the female demographic between the ages of 30 to 50, the rest would follow. This year, we say thank you. You can see the great number of women reading, including the women Poet Laureates and the DJs at the sound clash."

Dawes' tone got solemn when asked what Calabash meant to him. "Calabash is an opportunity for me to continue to be a part of the literary and cultural life of Jamaica - a way to give back to Jamaican society." Born in Ghana and raised in Jamaica, Dawes is a Distinguished Poet in Residence at the University of South Carolina.

"It's a continuation of a tradition I learnt from my father (Jamaican novelist Neville Dawes), and it's about friendship with Justine Henzell, and when we began with Colin Channer."