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Books by Lasana M. Sekou
37 Poems /
Brotherhood of the Spurs /
Big Up St. Martin /
Born Here /
Love Songs Make You Cry
Mothernation: Poems from 1984 to 1987 /
National Symbols of St. Martin /
Quimbé: Poetics of Sound
The Salt Reaper: Poems from the Flats
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Eterno tiempo de
siembra (Lasana Sekou, Saint Martin)
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Bio- Sketch
Lasana M. Sekou is a publisher, poet, and
the author of ten books of poetry, monologues and short stories.
He is the editor of National
Symbols of St. Martin -- A Primer (1996), about the
culture, historical personalities, and natural environment of
St. Martin and The
Independence Papers – Readings on a New Political Status for
St. Maarten/St. Martin (1990).
In 1991, Sekou produced Fête
– The First Recording of Traditional St. Martin’s Festive
Music by Tanny & The Boys. During the mid-1980s, he co-directed and
wrote for Traditions,
the island’s annual drama extravaganzas. Sekou’s books Nativity
& Dramatic Monologues for Today (1988), Love Songs Make You Cry (1989), and Brotherhood of the Spurs
(1997) have been classroom text at York University, Kenyon
College, and the University of St. Martin respectively.
The poetry and short stories of this James
Michener Fellow (University of Miami) have been taught in
various Caribbean high schools. He has guest-lectured on
history, culture, politics and literature at conferences and
recited poetry at high schools, universities and
literary/cultural festivals in the Caribbean, USA, Africa,
Europe and Asia. Sekou’s works have appeared in and has been
reviewed in literary journals and magazines such as Callaloo
(USA), The Caribbean Writer
(Virgin Islands),
Del Caribe (Cuba), The Massachusetts Review (USA),
De Gids (The Netherlands),
Revue Noir (France), Das Gedicht (Germany), Calabash
(New York University, USA). A graduate of the State University
of New York at Stony Brook (BA) and Howard University (MA),
Sekou is the projects director at House of Nehesi Publishers, a
small press based in St. Martin that publishes books by new
writers and senior authors such as George Lamming, Kamau
Brathwaite and Amiri Baraka. Lasana M. Sekou /
P.O. Box 460 / Philipsburg, St. Martin / Caribbean
Nehesi@sintmaarten.net
/ Website: www.houseofnehesipublish.com
http://www.houseofnehesipublish.com/sekou.html
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Poetry and technology, a “flat world” to
reach people, says Angelo Rombley
GREAT
BAY, St. Martin (November 1, 2008)—The
Salt Reaper poetry/music CD by
Lasana M. Sekou, will be pre-released this
November, even though the launch date has
been postponed, said Jacqueline Sample,
president of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP).
Furthermore, “We want to make sure that the
CD recording comes with access to all these
platforms—PSP, iPhone, iPod, MP3s, and
eventually ringtones,” said Angelo Rombley,
the music producer
“The
world right now is flat because of the
digital platform. Reading has to compete
with a ‘click’ society –TV, email,
downloadable music.” |
“For example,
playstation and Wii are some of the different platforms
that we can put the spoken word, with music in the
background for a truly digital experience,” said Rombley.
On the CD,
The Salt Reaper – Selected poems from the flats,
Sekou is heard reading his poetry.
“Angelo steps up in
a bold way … . He digitally mixes instruments like the
steelpan, kalimba, and the violin, and music genres such
as European classical, Jazz, club, and Salsa,” said
Sample.
The CD was
scheduled for a November 8 launch. But the electrical
outage in the wake of Hurricane Omar, pushed back the
turnaround time for the CD art work – making a November
7 delivery of the CDs from the manufacturer “too close
for comfort,” said Sample.
Neither Sample or
Rombley would hint at the new launch and concert date,
saying only that the 2009 HNP recording would still be
pre-released this month in stores, on the air, and
iTunes and other online music and bookstores.
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The CD
is Rombley’s first exercise as a music
producer but he is no stranger to the
digital world.
“In
this ‘click’ society the people want
something entertaining but yet with some
substance to it. That was a motivation for
the type of music mixed for The Salt Reaper
poems,” said Rombley, an award-winning
graphic designer and digital artist.
“The
idea is for this Spoken Word or WordMusic
recording to step up, to be competitive.
That’s why we are also working on its
digital compatibility with media,
communication and game platforms, while
staying true to the message in the poems.”
“What
we are seeing is the evolution of poetry on
the island of St. Martin alongside the new
technology to reach the people,” said
Rombley. |
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“The audacity of the
adventure of House of Nehesi Publishers”—Throughout
our Caribbean Region economic activity is to a large extent
externally propelled. Investment initiates from outside and
the collective investors are elsewhere: tourism, insurance,
banking are some of the major pinnacles of authority which
determine what choices we make in exercising control over
our daily lives. The Governments may govern; but they do not
rule. It is against this background of an imagined
sovereignty and an enforced dependence that we must measure
the audacity — and there is no other word for what I mean —
the audacity of those who initiated from within the
adventure of House of Nehesi Publishers. Such boldness of
enterprise in the area of publishing can easily collapse in
five months; so the 25th anniversary of Nehesi
can arguably be celebrated as though it were the 50th.
And the evidence of the distinguished volumes it has
produced is so abundant that the founders and their
supporters are entitled to invent their own calendar for
this purpose. Year 25 should be accorded the applause due a
50th anniversary in recognition of Nehesi’s
capacity for digging deep in their indigenous human
resource, and surviving the perils of waiting for some
external force to determine your own agenda. We celebrate
House of Nehesi as a symbol of what it could mean to achieve
a genuine sovereignty of the imagination.—George Lamming.
Editor’s
Note:
World-renown Barbadian novelist/scholar George Lamming
recently congratulated House of Nehesi Publishers on its 25th
anniversary in 2007. By May, the small press outfit had
already released nine anniversary-year publications. The St.
Martin publisher with a Caribbean-wide outreach has also
managed to publish a list of literati from within and beyond
the region, including Dr. Lamming, that belies its size and
admitted limited resources.
www.houseofnehesipublish.com /
Offshoreediting@hotmail.com |
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update 3 August
2008 |
