In honor of Saint Lucia Emancipation Day 2016, the Consulate General of Saint Lucia in partnership with the Brooklyn-based Caribbean Cultural Theatre and the Caribbean Research Center – Medgar Evers College, will be hosting an event entitled Emancipation Voices – New Generation of Caribbean Poets, and will feature a reading by acclaimed Saint Lucian poet Vladimir Lucien.

The event will be held on Wednesday, August 3, 2016, 7 PM, at the Central Brooklyn Campus of Medgar Evers College, located at 1650 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. A discussion with Mr. Lucien will immediately follow. Admission is free.

A native of Gros-Islet, Mr. Lucien’s poems are based on family, the stories of ancestors, the history that makes its way into his voice as a writer of Saint Lucian descent, and his personal heroes, including Walter Rodney, C. L. R. James, Kamau Brathwaite, and a local steel bandsman with whom he is acquainted.

Hailed as an exciting new voice in Caribbean poetry, Mr. Lucien’s work has appeared in The Caribbean Review of Books, Small Axe, Wasafiri, PN Review, Caribbean Beat and BIM magazine. His debut collection,Sounding Ground, was the winner of the 2015 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, and was recently shortlisted for the Guyana Caribbean Prize for poetry. Copies of Sounding Groundwill be on sale.

Mr. Lucien has been featured at the Miami Book fair and the Read My World Festival in Amsterdam. Most recently, he became the first non-Jamaican to hold the post of Writer in Residence at the University of the West Indies (Mona Campus).  He is a Lecturer in Literature and Caribbean Studies at the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College.

Other writers to be featured during Emancipation Voices – New Generation of Caribbean Poets include poets Samantha Thornhill of Trinidad & Tobago and Tiphanie Yanique of the US Virgin Islands.

All Saint Lucian nationals, as well as the general public, are invited to attend. For further information about Emancipation Voices – New Generation of Caribbean Poets, please contact the Consulate General, via email, at sluconsulateny@govt.lc, or by phone, at 212.697.9360, ext. 203. You may also contact the Caribbean Research Center at718.783.8345.