At the ribbon cutting to open the 19th Annual St. Martin Book Fair were (from left) Nelly Blaise, Tasheena Maccow, Shujah Reiph, Rose Rumnit and Cindy Peters.
MARIGOT--The nineteenth annual St. Martin Book Fair opened in the Chamber of Commerce, Concordia, Thursday afternoon in a part-live, part-virtual format for the first time. It was also the first time the opening was not held in the evening, due to the curfew restriction on the French side.
The theme of the Book Fair this year is “The Cure.”
“I always say every year that this is the best Book Fair, but let me tell you that COVID-19, hurricanes, falling governments, curfews, cannot stop the Book Fair and, based on the challenges we have faced this year, given what we had to overcome to make this one possible, this really is the best one ever,” declared Book Fair coordinator Shujah Reiph before mentioning some of the highlights of the programme to look forward to.
“We are committed to reading and writing in this country, no matter what.”
Virtual addresses were given by St. Martin University President Dr. Antonio Carmona Baez and by Dutch St. Maarten Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs speaking from the Netherlands who declared the Book Fair open. Dutch-side Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Rodolphe Samuel was one of the invited guests in the audience.
“New generation poet” Rochelle Ward recited three of her poems from her work Tangled before St. Martin author and Associate Professor of Art at New Jersey City University in the USA Deborah Drisana Jack. delivered the keynote address.
Jack talked about her career as a multi-faceted artist.
“Art allows you to imagine, to think outside of the box, art lets you envision possibilities that are not already there in front of you. You have to create them and see beyond,” she said. “As an artist I get to use history, science and get to employ all the ideas, literature, history, medicine, and put them together and create something new. That sort of expansive thinking is what led me to art and I think it keeps the Caribbean as a region thriving. It’s what we do without thinking about it.”
She also discussed precarity, noting that the Caribbean is at the forefront of a state of persistent insecurity and global climate change
“If you don’t believe in it, we have hurricanes every year that remind us of that and they are getting stronger and more destructive. So, when a global pandemic hits like COVID-19, here again we are at the forefront of a precarious moment. One of the things it taught us: that no matter how big a superpower you are, a micro-organism can bring you to your knees. We’ve been brought to our knees over and over again and have risen again and again.”
She said her work since early 2000 has dealt with Atlantic hurricanes and the black Atlantic known more commonly as the Middle Passage.
She encouraged families, especially older members, to write down memories, as that is how one remembers and how history is formed, like a series of stories.
“I think about stories that we have lost because no one took the time to do it, so I encourage you to write, interview someone, document the story, because for me that becomes material for artists. That’s how we preserve memories, how we thrive, and how we remain resilient in the face of precarity.
“Salt was the main industry in St. Maarten for many years. It can corrode and can preserve at the same time. You have to be the salt and choose what role you want to play. Do you want to corrode or preserve?”
The programme for today, Friday, June 4, is billed as “Virtual Friday” on the book fair’s Facebook page with an exciting set of interviews, presentations and new books, scheduled from 10:00am to early afternoon in addition to the literary evening.
The Book Fair programme is available at
facebook.com/stmartin.book fair.
