Epic Voices: The Caribbean (Un)Epic with M. NourbeSe Philip

Poet M. NourbeSe Philip writes: “That ‘micropelago’ of tiny islands that arc in one long ache from Cuba to Guyana to enclose the Caribbean Sea (the Cari Basin) from the encroaching Atlantic Ocean; place and space of massive ‘interruckshuns,’ where tectonic plates of history grind against each other and shards of memory pierce and transfix green islands seeded with the spores of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Indigenous: if places could be said to represent poetic forms or genres, the (un)epic would seem to be the Caribbean’s most natural form.” Drawing on poets of Caribbean/Cari Basin heritage, she discusses her book Zong!, as well as her manuscript Island Liturgies, in the context of the (un)epic.

Following the event, join Rosamond S. King, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Sean Henry-Smith, and Erica Hunt for a free collective reading/performance of Zong!.

Co-presented with Belladonna and the Consulate General of Canada.