Politics are liable to fuse into aesthetics in Walcott’s conversation. His literary theory could be boiled down to a single principle: that the artist must make maximum use of the resources of tradition. “If you asked a young Caribbean painter, ‘Why are you painting like Turner? He was an Englishman,’ he would tell you fuck [...]

Paramin blue devils in Port of Spain, Carnival Friday traditional parade, 1999, by Jeffrey Chock Jeffrey Chock is one of Trinidad and Tobago’s leading contemporary photographers. He is particularly well known for his work documenting Trinidad Carnival, theatre, and dance over the past three decades. Jeffrey’s images are a crucial part of the Caribbean’s cultural [...]

Much to report, dear readers, on the last two days of Carifesta–highlights include a public sparring-match between Derek Walcott and Guyanese President Bharath Jagdeo–but first I want to share some disturbing news. The Living Guyana blog is reporting that journalist Neil Marks of the Guyana Times has been fired after writing a report critical of [...]

Dear readers: are there any of you left? I didn’t exactly plan for Antilles to go into hibernation for so long. But what with offline deadlines and travel commitments and the general press of life, it’s been, I fear, two and a half months of silence. Shall we agree to call it a vacation of [...]

What happened, dear readers? There I was, two weeks ago, promising coverage of Calabash–then silence, and meanwhile the festival has come and gone. It’s not that the Calabash weekend was too uneventful to write about–far from. The opposite, perhaps: there was so much going on that I never found the free minutes to sit down [...]