forwarding this urgent message from Tisa Bryant:

Dear All,

Kamau Brathwaite is a treasure of a human being, a brilliant scholar and
magnificent poet. He has long been battling the Barbados government to
keep
his land, Cow Pastor, in Christ Church parish, and now, in his 70s, it
looks
like he may lose it, which puts his livelihood, his home, and his
archive of
Caribbean literature and literary history at risk.

His tone is bleak, and frightened. He's talking about burning himself
upon the
land, and is clearly asking for community support. Please write to him
at
[log in to unmask], urge other poets and artists who care to write to him, and
simply
tell him you support him, and ask him what he needs to save his land,
not what
he's doing to save his land. He is asking for academics, poets,
artists, to
come to Cow Pastor, see what's happening there, and help him mobilize
to save
it. If you know artists and writers in Barbados, please contact them
and urge
them to help.

If you can do this, do this.

Thanks!

Tisa

***
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the
silence of
our friends. -
Martin Luther King Jr., "The Trumpet of Conscience", 1967
>

>
>>>>> INFO: kamau brathwaite and cowpastor
> ======================================
>>>>>
>
> Please circulate as wade as possible - let it wide in the water Kamau
> Brathwaite [log in to unmask]
+
> CowPastor, Wilcox Lands, Christ Church, Barbados see also Hambone 17
(2004),
> 126-173
>
> 15 Mar 05/(!!) The Ides of March (!!)/CP 2:43am
>
> The lass days of KB and CowPastor Vandal: My Emmerton 2005
>
> Dear Andrea Nation and all Caribbean artists intellectuals cultural
workers &
> environmentalists w/in the sound of Marina
>
> I sharing a letter i juss write to a wo at OUP who
> deals w/permissions payments to authors who want to quote yr work etc.
This
> wo and me - we don't kno each other - share a wonderful sense of
> weather
and
> the environment and at the end of my business w/her this midnight, I
describe
> and refer to (un)developments in my life i thot you shd kno
>
> w/the dust choking me from the destruction so that I can hardly eat -
> the
> water that we drink returning to like its limestone white residual -
> and
have
> these DS(3s) and Beverley has already had to go the doc w/a dreadful
cough of
> corridor -
>
> I've tried - in vain - to get an appointment w/the PS of the Housing &
Lands
> - a man i long respec & kno. . . and a letter of premonition &
desperation I
> senn in to yr NATION tho promise publication. . . has nvr in fact
appeared. .
> . I try contact Liz Thompson who when she was in NYC sometime ago at an
> X/hibition of BaJam Wo artists, at which we share both spoke, said yes
> i
shd
> send her the details of my evident concern. Nuffen of course followed
> >>>
from
> that. . . I tried lifelines to Dame Billie and Mia - nuffen there
> neetha.
And
> I note that whenever you respond to me on this, you ask a whole series
> of
Qs
> about 'what am I doing' - as if I doin nothin!!
>
> All I can in the end do - w/out community support - is set afire to
myself,
> as I've said before, on this very namsetoura pasture become the
> criminal.
and
> I don't really want to do dat, because my spirit flies so high - so
> many
> dreamstories and ideas seem to flow & flow - altho of course who's to
> kno
if
> they gods not punishing mwe But I don't think so, or lets say I
> arrogant
> enuff to think that I don't think so - which of course is whe the
> danger
> lies. . .
>
> I write to you now as I write earlier to that stranger. but w/the
difference
> that I have faith that as a wo of soul, there is something I sure you
> can
do,
> if is nothing more than persuade one of yr colleagues who's still free
and
> fearless - is there any such? - to come out to CP and see whats
happening. .
> . is there no voices in BaJam that can raise can rise? It will be a
> shame
if
> i hear people saying AFTER I GONE - that Kamau use to talk about these
things
> and no one lissen not a soul do a ting. trapped - SURELY NOT FOR EVER -
in
> our Mental Slavery
>
> The plight of one person. the flight of one sparrow . is worth more
> than
all
> the kingdooms of this world. But very frew people can live this
>
> What I saying is that my micro case here, is the macro case of us all.
The
> little done unto mwe, is the burden down upon us all upon us all
>
> All night long, the trucks trundle & boom. Two mornings ago, to destroy
more
> duncks trees, so they cd swathe more space for the tractors, they set
fire to
> the slope under Thyme Bottom. if the Fire Beegrade didn't come, that
> fire
> might have swept down into our yard and run all the way down west to
Parish
> Lands. It was a clear day and a high wind
>
> The destruction of CowPasture to put in an unnecessary and unethical
> road
-
> when there are two perfectly good xisting road in this quadrant - for
> >>>
some
> new unxplained access to the airport, involves -
>
> (1) the death of the three dozen cows and flocks of blackbelly sheep
> that
> use to ruminate CowPasture
>
> (2) the loss of rumination marks the end of peace & serengetti beauty
> >>>
here
> and marks the arrival of vandalism. Abandoned houses further pillage,
> and
> w/the blood up, even the duncks trees on the pasture under pressure -
their
> limbs & branches torn down this harmattan for their plunder, not picked
> picked picked between the thorns, as happily traditional
>
> (3) the loss of pasture - here and all over Barbados and all over the
> CARICOM Caribbean = also the closing down of the last sugar production
> in
St
> Kitts, and the verge of ditto in Barabados
>
> (4) the loss of pasture - here and all over the island and all over the
> CARICOM Caribbean = the decline of cricket. Sir Viv and Gary S come
> from
> BayLands not from roundabouts, hotels and clogged up death-mark
> highways
>
> (5) the road here is unethical because of this and because it is an
offence
> not only to the people who choose to live here, who are/were so
> fortunate
to
> live here to love here - and dispossessed of pristine coral; thru no
fault of
> their own, but via a willful remote control decision by Authorities too
> arrogant & high & mighty to discuss plans that involve all our futures
> fortunes w/us 'out here', who are still seen - MENTAL PLANTATION MENTAL
> SLAVERY - as chattel anti-heroes have no voice - cannot afford to be
admitted
> to out voice
>
> (6) even as I write this, therefore, destruction going on - this old
> plantation well, the little Lake (or Pond) of Thorns - the natural
> water
> catchment for this area - filled in and flattened - hence future
> floods.
And
> near the well, a fledgling BEARDED FIG-TREE (shrine of ancient African
> &
> Amerindian spirits) its cinnamon beards just showing. a dear endangered
> species. cruelly unethically soon to gone . i cd go on an gone . like
> all
> the people of Thyme Bottom already gone gone gone. . .
>
> (7) at 3 pm today, tractors break thru the last line of bush & duncks
> between them and our house my yard. A noise as of bombing and a great
cloud
> of dust - FALOUJA - and now there's nothing left between ourselves and
them -
> the slave well nxt, the bearded fig- tree nxt - today if not tomorrow.
> My
> eyes are full of grit and helpless scars, as if I am the last person in
the
> world the lost poet, really, in the world. Rosina say this morning I
> shd
> write it down. But write it down for who for what. . .
>
> I walked out there towards the cloud of dust - the grit - my tears -
> and
my
> heart as if rebelled inside me, fit to burst w/grief & loss &
helplessness &
> pain
>
> (8) I had also hoped, when we found this place, to found my nation
> here -
> my maroon town, resistance palenque. Bring in my archives from their
> shattered world - shattered in Jamaica since the Gilbert Hurricane of
1988 -
> an archive stretching back now almost 100 years and covering from Bay
> Street/Browns Beach/Harrson College days, thru Cambridge, Ghana, SL, 30
years
> at Mona, the Caribbean Artists Movement (London), Bim, BBC Caribbean
Voices,
> Savacou, Carifestas, paintings, sculpture (inc early postcolonial W Af,
early
> Rastafari), Colly, Timmy Callender, Broodhagen, jazz records, tape
recordings
> from almost ancient Ghana, from nearly every Caribbean voice of say or
song
>
> and all this a lament - the loss & dislocation of so much of this in
Gilbert
> (see SHAR. see Carolivia Herron's 'SAVING THE WORD' hear ARK - these
> are
our
> documents for our last our lost millennium - and still more loss from
> >>>
worm
> and Ivan (2004) and a terrible break-in (5 March 05) - VANDALL INVASION
of
> our hopes and consciousness
>
> (9) The dream the vision was to in-gather the scatta archives (Ja &
> NYC)
> here, try heal them and from this wound of miracle, set up a BUSSA
> CENTRE
for
> us all - enough peace & space & beauty surpassing any other in the
> world
- in
> a small sacred bless - to build a place to live to love, a place for
> the
> LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA, a conference room, performance outdoor places,
chalets
> for writers, artists - that kind of possible dream - because we had the
dream
> we had the space we had the means - destroyed by my own Govt - w/out
> DISCUSSION - and digging us down and STRANGLING the holy past &
constellation
> flute & future of this place - the egrets gone because the cattle gone.
the
> woo doves mourn. I itch from deconstruction cement dust
>
> I cannot even die here now. no strength to even burn myself upon this
pasture
> as I want to do. As I still may. Because my love, whe else is there to
go, to
> try to build again at 75? tho I not beggin for your sympathy - tho that
good
> too - I askin you to LISSEN . one mo Emmerton. xcep unlike the Mighty
Gabby
> song which sing & say far more than any prose I prose can say, me na
> give
up.
> me nvva will accept unrighteousness, If this was SandlyLane wd we be
treated
> so? again today the tractors wheel an thump. I can't accept to so
unfairly go
>
>
> p/s I'm being told that all this is too late - that time & the tide has
pass
> me by - not enuff effort too late! if that be so, let me then at least
hope
> that you will allow at least my faint words - faintly heard now on the
> pasture - be at least a verbal memorial to mark the graveyard of this
place


>

=================================================
"Lyric poetry has to be exorbitant or not at all."  -- Gottfried Benn
=================================================
For updates on readings, etc. check my  current events page:
             http://albany.edu/~joris/CurrentEvents.html
=================================================
Pierre Joris
244 Elm Street
Albany NY 12202
h: 518 426 0433
c: 518 225 7123
o: 518 442 40 85
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.albany.edu/~joris/
=================================================