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Lasana M. Sekou is the pen
name of H. H. Lake who was born in Aruba, in 1959. Sekou was
raised in his paternal homeland, half-French and half-Dutch St.
Martin, and he writes impassioned performance poetry calling for
independence. In that sense, he is in something of a time-warp,
drawing on the great nationalistic voices of George Lamming and
Kemau Brathwaite, and also the fluid, identity-building voice of
Aime Cesaire. Sekou has been knighted by Queen Beatrix of
Holland for his extraordinary contribution to St. Martin culture
and heritage, and he enjoys great popularity in his home
country.
He is the guiding light of
the House of Nehesi Publishers, among many other contributions
to his society. Sekou's poetry is translated into many languages
and he has performed widely throughout the Caribbean, the
U.S.A., South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Sekou's work is
studied in universities, performed by high school students, and
has been published in important journals such as Callaloo
and The Caribbean Writer. He has received many awards and
honours and is the author of ten books of poetry, monologues,
and short stories.
The Salt Reaper, Sekou's most recent offering, is made
up of 18 poems from the decade of the nineties and about 40 new
poems from the current decade. An informative introduction by
Hollis 'Chalkdust' Liverpool and some intriguing photographic
illustration are included in this text. They serve to cushion
the provocative and intense voice that issues from these pages
and lend perspective to the call for nationhood. In 'No Love
Poems', Sekou writes:
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There will be no love poems tonight . . .
becausein we are not permitted
to
plant a new banner of colors
in
the nipples of the future
to
wave at the present for all to see
the many fine features of Our
Oneness. |
Sekou's multi-creole vocals
are subtle, but ever-present ('becausein') and his words insist
on orality—they
sing the nation off the page and into being. He has followed the
example set by Brathwaite and writes with visual text that leaps
off the page:
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A-Buyaka!Buyaka!
Becausin I am a bomb of poison.
Buyaka! Buyaka! Festering a plague for treason.
A-buyaka!
Say dying fish, say mangrove fringe,
Say diving pelican.
Buyaka, and retaliate, Salt
Pond! Re-ta-li-aaaaaaaaaaaaate!
('Great Salt
Pond Speaks') |
The 'Salt Pond' is a
central image, evoking hard slave labour in the St. Martin
heritage 'Through the briny ages'. In it was 'anchored your
sweating ebon brow under a crown of thorns'. Sekou writes with
the agonistic history of the colony at his fingertips and sings
and evokes great sweeping rhythms to dislodge the weight and
torment of that past. His poems are full of allusion to what has
come from the past; therefore he calls on his listeners/readers
to go forward to fetch the future and bring it cleanly to the
present. It is a way of bringing a new nation into being. In
'The Blockade Next Time', he says:
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we
are already standing on the
grounds
where we are bound to perish or
mold this nation
in
our very own image
for freedom not paid for is
forfeit. |
Sekou writes with erotic power about the
stages of development of his political vision. He doesn't pull
punches. For example, in 'Freedom', he calls:
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Freedom is no gray stone drag
queen
she is my bitch to keep
jealous of her like sickness
wuk fo'she like dog
she is the river all men
straddle down valleys to claim |
He writes with equal passion about the
terrible scourge of drug addiction that prevents many a man from
claiming his true heritage:
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If
you don't look out I'm stifling stink the noseholes
of
your home
skinpoppingbubblingbase.
Deny me for shame and
deny me in the haste and chase of the beast . . .
deny me and eat this death to
emptyfulness.
('Doped up
Roughings') |
Instead of the demeaning emptiness of drug
dealings, Sekou calls for proud identity to rise and claim its
heritage. In the Darkman (dm) poems he makes this explicit:
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who fears the dark man
his dark face
his eyes darkened by sun&sorrow&sights
of
his stellar tomorrows
a
darkly cast feast
his own civilisation? |
Source:
Jamaica-Gleaner.com Sunday | November 5, 2006
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The Salt Reaper – Poems from the Flats
By Lasana M. Sekou
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GREAT
BAY, St. Martin (November 2004)—The Salt Reaper – Poems
from the flats, by the St. Martin poet/author Lasana M.
Sekou, was launched here on November 6, 2004. This is the ninth
book of verse from one of the Caribbean’s most dynamic poets.
What is sure to add fire to some
seasoned poetry is an introduction to the book by Dr. Hollis
“Chalkdust” Liverpool, the 2004 Calypso King of Trinidad and
Tobago.
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In
The Salt Reaper ,
writes Chalkdust, Sekou is “still a fresh mind in a
fresh poetic garment, spilling out his vision for the birth of a
new St. Martin, a new Haiti, a new Caribbean, indeed a new
civilization.” The internationally acclaimed kaisonian is
himself an author, music educator, and associate professor of
history at the University of the Virgin Islands.
Sekou’s poems range in topics
from the 1990 heavy equipment owners protest that blockaded the
Caribbean island of St. Martin, to Dutch immigration,
constitutional status searches by the remaining colonies in the
Caribbean, Haitian solidarity, fellowship with Cuba, sons and
fathers, the historical “stain” of St. Martin’s Great Salt
Pond, crisis in Kigali, and war and torture in Iraq.
The signature piece of the book is
“Cradle of the nation,” a poem that is “magisterial”
said Dr. Carolyn Cooper, literature professor at University of
the West Indies, Jamaica. Dr. Cooper flew to St. Martin to
deliver the address at the book launch, attended by over 200
people at the Philipsburg Jubilee Library.
Sekou’s love poems this time
around are fewer than usual. What is completely unusual is the
impression that these sensual love poems are describing women in
their 30s and 40s, as opposed to the ofttimes lusty poems of his
earlier collections that were clearly romancing younger women.
Chalkdust does the unusual here too by linking the love poems to
an element of history and “identity.”
The Salt Reaper introduction
opens with Chalkdust pointing to the “nourishing
intellectualism and stimulating thoughts conveyed by the unique
style and dripping-with-knowledge lines of the poet.”
What might also interest St.
Martiners and the poet’s generation in the Caribbean and
beyond is how the master calypsonian links Sekou to the likes of
his seniors George Lamming, Rene Depestre, Paulo
Freire, Edouard Glissant, CLR James, and Frantz
Fanon, said Jacqueline Sample,
president of House of Nehesi, the book’s publisher.
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Yvette’s cookbook is a 2011 bestseller
GREAT BAY, St. Martin (July 31, 2011)—It’s official. It’s a bestseller! From Yvette’s Kitchen To Your Table – A Treasury of St. Martin’s Traditional & Contemporary Cuisine by Yvette Hyman has sold out, according to House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP). In a record seven weeks after its June 2011 release here, less than 80 copies of the cookbook are left in bookstores and with the author’s family representatives charged with distribution, said Jacqueline Sample, HNP president. The decision on whether to reprint a new batch of From Yvette’s Kitchen … lies with the family of the late award-winning chef, said the publisher.“We are very thankful to the people of St. Martin for embracing Yvette’s cookbook. The visitors to our island also bought many copies of this beautifully designed book of the nation’s cuisine,” said Sample.From Yvette’s Kitchen is made up of 13 chapters, including Appetizers, Soups, Poultry, Fish and Shellfish, Meat, Salads, Dumplings, Rice and Fungi, Breads, and Desserts. |
The 312-page full color book includes recipes for Souse, the ever-popular Johnny cake, and Conch Yvette’s. Lamb stew, coconut tart, guavaberry, and soursop drink are also among the over 200 recipes à la Yvette in this Treasury of St. Martin’s Traditional & Contemporary Cuisine, said Sample.“We hope that this cookbook’s success also adds to the indicator of the performance and importance of books published in the Caribbean,” said Sample.The other HNP book that sold out in such a short time was the 1989 poetry collection Golden Voices of S’maatin. That first title by Ruby Bute had sold out in about three months and has since been reprinted, said Sample.
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Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered
the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It
By H. W. Brands
In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. |
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The Frock & Other Poems
By Laurelle
“Yaya” Richards
The use of the nation’s
mother language, “the way we speak naturally on both parts
of our island, is the sweetness to the ear and the heart of
Miss Yaya’s spoken word, storytelling, and talks about St.
Martin’s folkways,” said Jacqueline Sample, president of
House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP). Richards had completed
working on The Frock with HNP at the time of her death at
age 55, on May 26, 2010 – about four months before the book
was published. The plan to launch the
book on the UNESCO-declared day in 2011 came out of meetings
between the culture department, the publisher, and Yaya’s
family representatives Priscille Figaro, Adrienne Richards,
and Laurellye Benjamin.
“We need to recognize
our artists like Yaya who are working so hard for our people
and our identity,” said Dormoy. “It’s an honor to be
involved with this book as part of Yaya’s legacy that can
live on, and to launch The Frock in connection with the
International Mother Language Day,” said Dormoy.
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National Symbols of St. Martin—A
Primer
By Lasana M. Sekou
The hard cover book, a primer about
St. Martin’s culture, historical
personalities and natural
environment, is listed on the US
government department’s Bureau of
Administration website. “We think
this is a good thing to share with
the St. Martin people,” said Sekou.
“In fact, House of Nehesi is firstly
thankful to the St. Martin people
for continuing to read, enjoy and
study this book. “Having National
Symbols listed as recommended
reading in the IPS section of the US
State Department adds to the venues
where folks abroad can be put in
touch with original material about
St. Martin and the St. Martin
people.” The material from the book
continues to be used for popular
events such as carnival, for
research by scholars, as teaching
material in schools, and for
presentations by government and
tourism departments, churches and
civic groups. |
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The Salt Reaper: Poems from the Flats
By Lasana M. Sekou
The Salt Reaper, Sekou's most recent offering, is made
up of 18 poems from the decade of the nineties and about 40 new
poems from the current decade. An informative introduction by
Hollis 'Chalkdust' Liverpool and some intriguing photographic
illustration are included in this text.
They serve to cushion the provocative
and intense voice that issues from these
pages and lend perspective to the call
for nationhood.
Sekou's multi-creole vocals
are subtle, but ever-present ('becausein') and his words insist
on orality—they
sing the nation off the page and into being. He has followed the
example set by Brathwaite and writes with visual text that leaps
off the page |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
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____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update
2 March 2012
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