Words from Other Worlds: Critical Perspectives on Imoinda

6th International Caribbean Women's Writing Conference: Comparative Critical Conversations - Registration now OPEN

2011-05-11T21:44:00.000+01:00

The 6th International Caribbean Women's Writing Conference: Comparative Critical Conversations will be held at Goldsmiths, University of London on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 June 2011. Registration is now OPEN. Download a registration form at:

http://www.gold.ac.uk/caribbean/comparativecriticalconversations/

or visit the Comparative Critical Conversations blog

2nd CFP: Sixth International Conference of Caribbean Women's Writing - 24-25 June 2011

2011-02-08T17:38:00.003Z

2ND CALL FOR PAPERS

Sixth International Conference of Caribbean Women's Writing
Goldsmiths, University of London
Centre for Caribbean Studies

24 - 25 June 2011
THEME: Comparative Critical Conversations

Caribbean Women's Literature as a body of work has become rooted in the region and across the diaspora. As a result, critics and teachers engaged in discovering, interpreting and disseminating the study of the texts have sought and found various discursive spaces from which to explore its distinctive aesthetics and particular complexities. The resulting transition from silence and absence to differentiated presence has opened a range of questions which this conference wishes to address. Centrally, we ask: how might the readings of Caribbean Women's literature, alongside other 'minority' and 'canonical' texts within given national literatures produce
perspectives that might re-invigorate as well as re-address contemporary critical processes?

'Caribbean Women's Literature: Comparative Critical Conversations' is an international 2-day conference to be held at Goldsmiths, University of London on 24th and 25th June 2011. It aims to reconfigure methodologies through comparative responses to the literature in a bid to further understand the deep and complex relations between texts that derive from a culture variously described as mimetic, hybrid, fragmented, syncretic and so on. To this end, we are currently inviting proposals for 20-minute papers that reflect on these questions and themes. Topics may include but are by no means limited to Caribbean women's literature as:

. reconfigurations of genders
. Creole poetics
. affiliations between 'minority' literatures
. Comparative literature today
. in transatlantic and oceanic studies
. auto-theorising texts
. reconfiguring modernity and / or postmodernity
. Caribbean historicism
. re-thinking national/ post-national texts
. transformations of literary language
. re-presenting Caribbean cosmology
. spoken word
. testimonio
. first/ second/ third wave regional writing
. critical imaginative geographies

Abstracts
We invite proposals through abstracts that offer a clear statement of the area(s) addressed and identify the sources used in approximately 1 page or 250 words for an individual presentation. Each abstract must also include the name of the presenter and the current institutional affiliation. A brief biog (50 words) is to be appended to the abstract.

Panel presentations must include a description of the panel as well as title and abstracts of individual presentations and the brief biographical information (see above) of each presenter.

Proposal/ Submission Deadline EXTENDED: 25 February 2011
Notification of Acceptance: 1 March 2011

Please send abstracts to the Conference Committee: caribbean@gold.ac.uk
or post to:
The Conference Organising Committee
Sixth International Conference on Caribbean Women's Writing
Centre for Caribbean Studies
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross
London, SE14 6NW
UK
http://www.gold.ac.uk/caribbean

Journal - Imoinda: Criticism and Response/Trans-global Conversations

2010-10-29T18:43:00.006+01:00

On Tuesday 26 October we held a small reception to launch the final products of our one year AHRC/Beyond Text project. Opening remarks were given by the Warden of Goldsmiths, Pat Loughrey, to whom we are extremely thankful.

The event was extremely well attended and a fantastic evening was had by all. The journal titled Imoinda: Criticism and Response and the DVD titled Imoinda: Trans-global Conversations will be distributed to libraries and universities world wide.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Joan Anim-Addo, the author of the original text around which this work was based and to the academics in Italy, Greece and New York who made this project possible.

SLI Workshop - Lock Keepers Cottage

2010-07-09T21:20:00.002+01:00

Yesterday myself and Natasha attended the SLI workshop run by the Beyond Text team for the 2010-11 Award Holders. It turned out to be a great event and we were able to talk about the ups and downs of our project.

Today, Fabio delivered the final DVD and it is fantastic. Now I have to arrange to have them pressed. Hopefully we will have the journal and the DVD ready for the end of July and then we will have to complete the end of project report!!

Decisions, decisions, decisions

2010-05-23T18:32:00.001+01:00

We now have most of the content for the special issue of New Mango Season.

Now we are faced with a number of editorial decisions which we are taking on in our stride.

The last few months .....

2010-05-13T23:30:00.002+01:00

Over the past few months the project team have been busy selecting articles for our forthcoming postgraduate journal end editing our DVD.

Our panel presentation at the Afromodernisms Conference in Liverpool in April 2010 was a big success.

Our current project is drawing to a close but we are hoping to be able to take Imoinda worldwide, starting with a conference that we hope to attend in Guyana, so watch this space.

Further details on the journal and the DVD will be posted shortly.

Afromodernisms - April 2010

2010-02-17T22:55:00.003Z

We are extremely pleased to have had our Postgraduate panel accepted at the forthcoming Afromodernisms Conference which will take place at the University of Liverpoolin Liverpool from Thursday 15 April to Saturday 17 April 2010. Further details on the Conference can be found here. Our panel will focus on Imoinda.

Lights! Camera! Action!!!

2010-02-17T22:53:00.001Z

Last Thursday we had a wonderful training session which involved recording the voice over four our 5 min video clips which will be uploaded fairly soon on our web site.

Part two takes place tomorrow and we can't wait.

Project Meetings (January 2010)

2010-02-03T17:32:00.002Z

Two projects meetings were held in January where we were able to take a first glance at the 5 minute video clips which we hope to launch on our web site fairly soon.

We still have space for further submissions for our journal and a final call for papers has been circulated. If you're a design student who is interested in working with us for the journal cover then please drop us a line a wow2009@gold.ac.uk

Hapoy New Year!!!

2010-01-01T23:04:00.000Z

We look f0rward to receiving your submissions for our postgraduate journal.

Closing date: 18 January 2010

Happy New Year

2nd Call for Contributions to a Postgraduate Journal

2009-12-18T16:51:00.000Z

Following on from our initial Imoinda Workshop this is a 2nd Call for contributions to the special edition of New Mango Season.

We welcome contributions from a range of disciplines and they do not solely have to be critical essays. On the basis that you have been inspired by Imoinda we will accept the following submissions:

Literary Criticism
Creative Writing
Poetry
Short Drama Pieces
Short Stories
Designing the journal cover

Film and audio contributions are welcome for the on-line version of the journal.

We look forward to receiving your work in the New Year.

Deadline: Monday 18 January 2010

Email submissions to wow2009@gold.ac.uk

Imoinda Screening - 2 December 2009

2009-12-01T22:24:00.000Z

Tomorrow we will be screening the US production of Imoinda staged by students from SOTA, Rochester, New York.

Time: 6pm-8pm
Location: RHB256, 1st floor, Goldsmiths, University of London
Cost: Free

Ice Cream and Popcorn will be provided.

RSVP: wow2009@gold.ac.uk

Video Editing Masterclass

2009-11-22T21:32:00.000Z

We have been very fortunate to have two masterclasses with Fabio re the making of the Workshop DVD. On Our first session involved the creation of a storyboard. In our second session we were able to see the beginnings of our 5 min video clips and to visualise the process involved for the final DVD.

Fantastic Day!!!!

2009-11-08T14:35:00.000Z

Yesterday was fantastic. Everything went extremely well. Technology was on our side and we were able to Skype with Italy and connect to New York via Video link.

We had divided the workshop into the following themes:

Beyond Text: Oral
Beyond Text: Physical
Beyond Text: Visual
Beyond Text: Digital
Beyond Text: Aural
Beyond Text: Virtual

Working with a fairly flexible brief our distinguished academic speakers were able to make the workshop a truly exciting and innovative day. See the slide show of photos to the right.

Repro saves the day ....

2009-11-06T21:48:00.000Z

Today our Reprographics Department here at Goldsmiths worked wonders with our Workshop Handbook.

Special thanks to Terry, Chris, Val and Kevin.

Last Minute Plans - Jerk Chicken??

2009-11-05T05:34:00.000Z

We had our final project meeting today before our event on Saturday. I think we have it all in hand. As usual there are a lot of small things that need to be done and they could so easily turn into big things!!

We've finalised our lunch menu and are expecting 26+ postgraduate students.

Tendai has created a wiki page on Imoinda - it's going to be a great interactive tool.

With the last minute touches all in place - Let the fun begin.......

What's in a Handbook?

2009-11-03T19:21:00.000Z

Today I created a mock up of our workshop handbook- A6 size can you believe it!

Will be showing it to the rest of the team tomorrow.

It's quite a handy size and should double up as a pocket-sized notebook which will make it a useful tool for the workshop participants.

Pinch! Punch! First of the month ....

2009-11-01T13:09:00.000Z

Let the countdown begin.

Since my last blog entry the project team have attended Video Conference training which went extremely well and we were able to run a test with SUNY Geneseo in New York.

We still have to run a Skype test with the University of Trento in Italy and will be doing that this week.

We are also hoping to be able to tweet up dates on the day for those of you who are not able to be with us on Saturday.

Only 5 more days to go before the event.

Revising the Poster

2009-10-20T09:42:00.000+01:00

Great News. We have also been able to invite the Musical Director and Conductor of the SOTA performance of Imoinda which was staged in New York last May.

Our wonderful designer has amended our poster and the updated list of speakers can be seen below:

Dr Joan Anim-Addo (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Dr Giovanna Covi, (University of Trento, Italy)

Dr Raimi Gbadomsi (Artist and Curator, London)

Dr Mina Karavanta (University of Athens, Greece)

Professor Maria Helena Lima (SUNY Geneseo, USA)

Glenn L. McClure (Composer, SUNY Geneseo, USA)

Alan Tirre (Musical Director and Conductor, SOTA, USA)

SLI Award Holders - July 2009

2009-10-19T11:22:00.000+01:00

JISCMAIL

2009-10-19T09:36:00.000+01:00

Good morning all.

Today I have subscribed to a number of Jismail lists in order to circulate information about our one day workshop. Lists joined today are as follows:

C18-Studies: which provides information and research network for any aspect of eighteenth century culture, literature, history, philosophy;

Comparative-literature: provides a forum for all who are interested in the study of literature without confinement to national or linguistic boundaries, and in relation to other disciplines;

Cultural-Memory: which explores the construction, manipulation and transmission of memories, also the role played by memory in identity formation. CM explores minority communities, especially work in postcolonial studies. Material studied includes film, literature, art, oral history,anthropology;

Lit-Lang-Culture-Events: This list carries announcements of UK calls for conference papers, conferences and other events (meetings, conferences, seminars etc) in English literature, language, linguistics and cultural studies;

Music-19thC-Lit: This list aims to encourage discussion and the exchange of ideas about ways in which literature written in English during the period c. 1800 -1918 can be used to enrich understanding of musical meaning and/or music as cultural and social activity.

Collecting Speaker Biogs

2009-10-16T14:29:00.000+01:00

Dr Joan Anim-Addo is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the Centre for Caribbean Studies. She has written, co-authored and edited books about history, poetry and literary criticism. Her most recent publications include Interculturality and Gender (co-edited 2009), Caribbean-Scottish Relations: Colonial & Contemporary Inscriptions in History, Language and Literature (co-authored 2007), Touching the Body: History, Language and African-Caribbean Women’s Writing (2007), I Am Black White Yellow: An Introduction to the Black Body in Europe (co-edited 2007), and the poetry collections: Haunted by History and Janie Cricketing Lady (2006). Her libretto, Imoinda: Or She Who Will Lose Her Name – A Play for Twelve Voices in Three Acts was first published bilingually (English/Italian) and translated by Giovanna Covi, and Carla Pedrotti, 2003.

Dr Giovanna Covi teaches American Literature and Gender Studies at the University of Trento; she is a founding member of the Societa Italiana delle Letterate. She has co-ordinated national and international research projects focused on gender and Caribbean literature. She has published on American and Caribbean literature, translation studies and gender theory among which as editor and contributor: Critical Studies on Feminist Subjects (Universita di Trento, 1998), Vocifemminili caraibache e interculturita (Universita di Trento, 2003), Modernist Women Race Nation (Mango Publising, 2005), Caribbean-Scottish Relations (Mango Publishing, 2007), Interculturality and Gender (Mango Publishing, 2009); and as author, Jamaica Kincaid's Prismatic Subjects: Making Sense of Being in the World (Mango Publishing, 2003).

Dr Raimi Gbadamosi is an artist, writer and curator. He received his Doctorate in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art. He is a member of the Interdisciplinary Research Group 'Afroeuropeans', University of Leon,

Spain

, and the 'Black Body' group, Goldsmiths College, London. He is on the Editorial board of Third Text.

Recent national and international shows and events include: ARCO Madrid 2009; Tentativa De Agotar Un Lugar Africano, CASM, Barcelona 2008; Human Cargo, Plymouth Museum & Art Gallery, Plymouth 2007; Port City, Arnolfini, Bristol 2007. ARCO 2009, Madrid/. Work media including multiples, music, websites, writing and audience participation. Works creates debate, instead of representing preconceived concerns defined by specific social, cultural and political cant.

Books include: incredulous; ordinary people; extraordinary people; contents; Drink Horizontal; Drink Vertical; The Dreamers' Perambulator; and four word.

The Republic negotiates the meeting of language and social constructions.

Recent essays include: The Not-So New Europeans, Wasafiri UK (current issue), and The Delight of Giant-Slayers: Or Can Artists Commit Their Lives to Paper? ArtMonitor , Sweden.

Dr Mina Karavanta is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of English Studies at the University of Athens. Some of her recent essays have appeared in Journal of Caribbean Studies, Journal of Contemporary Theory, Women in French Studies, mosaic, The Journal of Contemporary Thought, and European Journal of English Studies, and various collections of essays. She has co-edited Edward Said and Jacques Derrida: Reconstellating Humanism and the Global Hybrid (with Nina Morgan) and Gender And Interculturality (with Joan Anim-Addo and Giovanna Covi).

Professor Maria Helena Lima is a Brazilian who is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at SUNY-Geneseo, specializing on the African Diaspora, Contemporary Black British Literature and Culture, and Women’s Studies. She translated and co-edited with Miriam Alves a bilingual anthology of short fiction by Afro-Brazilian Women, Women Righting/ Mulheres Escre-vendo [London: Mango Publishing, 2005]. More recently she published entries on Andrea Levy, Dorothea Smartt, and Meera Syal [Dictionary of Literary Biography special issue on Black British Literature, 2008]. She plans to finish her book of collected interviews, Black Britons Writing, on her sabbatical this spring.

ALAN TIRRE, saxophone, is a frequent performer in a variety of ensembles in the greater Rochester area. He is a core member of Fama Sin Gafas, one of upstate New York’s premier salsa groups. He has collaborated as both musician and educator with artists such as Joe Locke and Chuck Mangione. He is a strong advocate for new music and has premiered numerous works as a performer and conductor. In 2007, he conducted the premiere of Imoinda at School of the Arts in Rochester, NY. He is a member of several professional organizations, serves on the board of ‘Friends of School of the Arts’ and has been the educational chair on The Commission Project, Rochester International Jazz Festival and the Wilson Commencement Park Jazz for the Park committees. Alan is currently the Assistant Principle for Arts Instruction at the Rochester City School of the Arts.

Skype, I hear you say!!

2009-10-16T14:26:00.000+01:00

This week has been filled with difficulties. Trying to arrange video conferencing for some of our speakers and at the moment it's looking like we may have to use Skype ....

I'm beginning to worry about quality issues in relation to visual/sound!!

Just hope that the technology will work out for us. At least we will be undertaking a dummy run.

Video Conferencing - What's that?

2009-10-09T11:21:00.000+01:00

Our Video Conference training session has now been confirmed. I'm so excited!!!!

It's Been a Long time .....

2009-10-08T09:26:00.000+01:00

Well, the last few months have been really hectic for me. Trying to balance my PhD work and organise this event proved to be much harder than I thought.

My fellow project Team members have been extremely quiet over the summer period but now that the Autumn Term has started we are back on track. It is surprising how quickly things can be done when they have to be .....

Our web site is now up and running and can be found at www.gold.ac.uk/wow

We have a wonderful artist/designer who has been kind enough to design the posters and postcards for our event and for this we are extremely grateful. We have managed to secure speakers from Greece, Italy and New York. and are extremely excited at the way in which our event is shaping up.

Confirmed speakers:

Dr Joan Anim-Addo (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Dr Giovanna Covi, (University of Trento, Italy)
Dr Raimi Gbadomsi (Artist and Curator, London)
Dr Mina Karavanta (University of Athens, Greece)
Professor Maria Helena Lima (SUNY Geneseo, USA)
Professor Glenn L. McClure (Composer, SUNY Geneseo, USA)

Our one-day workshop will truly be an interactive and exciting event.

Beyond Text Welcome Event

2009-07-08T22:32:00.000+01:00

Natasha and I will be attending the Beyond Text Welcome event for the winners of the AHRC student-led initiative. It will be a chance for us to network and see what stage everyone is at with their project .......

It's Official now!!

2009-06-08T21:29:00.000+01:00

Received an email last week from the Beyond Text organiser inviting the award holders to a welcome workshop that has been scheduled for 10 July from 12-4.

Our new web site is almost live, just aiting for images and bios from the rest of the project team. will need to send the logos to be uploaded onto the wow template. Our official web address is www.gold.ac.uk/wow

Project Meeting No 1

2009-05-19T22:18:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we had our first project meeting. We were very sensible and had an agreed Agenda to work to. We scheduled 2 hours for this meeting and realised quite early on as we thrashed out various ideas that future project meetings may need a slightly longer time slot.

However, the day proved to be very productive and we have a number of items that need to be acted on by the end of next week.

We have also scheduled a second meeting for Friday 28 May where we are hoping that a number of things will be in place ready for our official award date - 1 June 2009.

Start of the week

2009-05-11T20:34:00.001+01:00

I decided not to write my blog this past weekend. However that does not mean that I did not spend the weekend thinking about the WoW project (not to be confused with World of Warcraft - which incidentally is a game that my son plays online).

We will need to have a meeting pretty soon to start looking at the administrative side of things, such as: a date for the workshop, how we are going to advertise it, where we are going to advertise it, approaching our key academics etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!!! Do we need to create a logo?? There are lots of 'wow logo' images on go0ogle.

We are hoping to have our initial meeting at the end of this week, so the discussions will begin then. The actual start date of our project is 1 June 2009 with an end date of 31 October 2010.

Images of Imoinda

2009-05-07T21:14:00.000+01:00

Our project has been inspired by the writings of our PhD supervisor, Dr Joan Anim-Addo.

We owe her so much: past, present and future.

Last year (May 2008) Imoinda was performed as an opera by the Schoo l of the Arts, Rochester City School District in New York. The music was composed by Glenn McClure and students from SOTA.

Today, I tried to find images of Imoinda that we might be able to use on our web site. The images found in no shape or form resemble the image of the strong black female that I have pictured in my mind.

Featured below is just one of the images that I found on a virtual gaming site, beleve it or not. I believe they call these characters Avatars, although in this instance this character is a Mesmer (described as 'one of the many spellcaster type professions in Guildwars. It is one of the core professions and is known to be the most unique professions made in any game. Mesmers are casters who devoted their life to the study of the arts that enables them to manipulate a foe's perceptions, as well as destroy their abilities through their control over their minds' - http://guildwars.incgamers.com/showthread.php?t=425256). Interesting!!

I continue to search and will update this blog as and when I find suitable pictures.

Excitement is kicking in!!

2009-05-06T21:50:00.001+01:00

Spoke to the Project Team today and we have all come to the conclusion that realisation about the award is only now just kicking in. Thoughts that cross our mind range from how the hell are we going to deliver the project outcomes and at the same time upgrade/complete our PhDs.

Not only are we mothers, sisters, daughters and postgraduate students who are having to juggle family life and study, but we all work as well.

Our first challenge is to set up an email account and web site for the project which is titled: Words from Other Worlds: Critical Perspectives on Imoinda.

We are fortunate to have good contacts within our University and have already been able to have an email account set up for the project: wow2009@gold.ac.uk

We came up with this abbreviation for the project based on its usability. We figure that this will be an easy address to remember.

We have also requested a similar web address : www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/wow

A Letter

2009-05-05T22:35:00.000+01:00

Saturday 2 May 2009, notification is received that we have been successful in our bid for funding for a student-led initiative from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

When I talk about we, i am referring to the Project Team:

Natasha Bonelamme, Tendai Marima and myself.

We, three, are PhD students in the Centre for Caribbean Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Our project 'Words from Other Worlds: Critical Perspectives on Imoinda' will begin in August 2009. Although in reality the preparation starts now.

Let the fun (and hard work) begin