The newest “literary lyme” by the Caribbean Cultural Theatre (CCT), Poets & Passion–Bronx: “Haiti, an Evening of Reflection and Solidarity,” will take place on Thursday, March 17, 2011, from 7:30 to 9:30pm. Haitian writers Marie Lily Cerat and Josaphat-Robert Large (author of Les terres entourées de larmes and contributor to Haiti Noir) will be featured at the event, which will include readings and an “open mike” session. There is a $5 donation fee suggested.

Images Newsletter reports: Not withstanding the recent diplomatic spat between Caribbean neighbors Haiti and Jamaica, one major New York metro area cultural organization is going ahead with its planned program of support and solidarity. The Brooklyn based Caribbean Cultural Theatre (CCT) will present its highly acclaimed Poets & Passion Literary series as part of its fifth anniversary celebrations. The full support of the New York City’s Haitian and Jamaican communities is anticipated as the literary series makes scheduled stops in Brooklyn and the Bronx in March and April.

On Friday, March 11, three Haitians and one Jamaican will share the stage at St. Francis College, 182 Remsen Street (Between Clinton & Court Streets), downtown Brooklyn, in the first of the first of the Winter/Spring Break 2011 session appropriately dubbed, In Solidarity with Haiti. Jamaican Poet/Author Keisha-Gaye Anderson will read from her 2010 chapbook, For the Crowns of your Heads, dedicated to the rebuilding of a library in the former French colony, destroyed by the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Writer Ibi Aanu Zoboi (Dark Matter: Reading the Bones); Award winning poet/novelist-Josaphat-Robert Large (Shore Surrounded with Tears), and writer-Marie Lily Cerat (Vodou: Visions and Voices of Haiti), will bring their many years of creativity to the stage and will no doubt, represent well.

On March 17, Large and Cerat will hold center stage at the Karl & Faye Rodney Resource Center, 2230 Light Street (Corner – Dyer Avenue), in the North Bronx in a session hosted by the Jamaica Progressive League. Both events start at 7:30 pm sharp.

While bringing to the fore and saluting the purveyors of our culture and customs, the literary series aims to position the featured presenters/participants as part of a larger conversation on identity, aspiration, heritage and without mistake, the immigrant experience. According to E. Wayne McDonald, Artistic Director, “This sharing of creativity and insight has featured renowned Caribbean literary luminaries and rising stars at monthly community fora throughout the City.”

The Winter/Spring Break series will be repeated in April and May, in both boroughs and is in need of corporate support from the community. Conceptualized and designed back in 2006, Poets & Passion initiative, in the words of McDonald, “caters to lovers of the magic of the written and spoken word,” and provides the Caribbean Cultural Theatre with a foundation on which to present and expose the work of Caribbean based and/or influenced writers, performers and other practitioners that both entertain and enlighten on the traditions of the region.

For more information and to RSVP, you may call (718) 994-5496 or (718) 783-8345.

For article, see http://www.imagesnewsletter.com/?p=21801