Caribbean Poetry Workshop to Impact Poetry Teaching

(EMU) – St. Kitts, April 24, 2013: With just a few days before hosting the Caribbean Poetry Project Workshop, local event coordinator Mrs. Lisa Pistana said that plans are in high gear for the event.

The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, the University of the West Indies, the Caribbean Examinations Council and the Commonwealth Education Trust, will host this timely event. This partnership aims to bring together leading poets, teachers, educators, scholars, publishers and arts administrators in what promises to be a stimulating encounter with a view to continuing research on the impact of Caribbean poetry on Caribbean classrooms.

The poetry project, which was launched in 2010, seeks to develop and extend knowledge, understanding and creative engagement with Caribbean poetry among secondary school students and teachers. It should also help teachers to build their confidence in teaching poetry creatively.

“Here’s an opportunity for teachers of many different backgrounds and settings to interact with Caribbean poetry; not just to know the poetry but to feel free to make judgments about the poetry. We also want to show that Caribbean poetry can be enjoyable and fun,” says Beverley Bryan, Professor of Language Education, UWI, Mona.

The first publication coming out of past Caribbean Poetry Workshops, “Teaching Caribbean Poetry” is expected to be published by Routledge later this year. It is based on the course jointly devised between the universities of Cambridge and the West Indies and will be edited by Professor Beverley Bryan and Professor Morag Styles.

A report from the regional organizing committee also revealed that future publications will include collaboration with Peepal Free Press on an exciting new anthology of Caribbean poetry for young adults, and an anthology of Caribbean poetry for 11-15 year olds to be published by the Commonwealth.

Secondary school teachers from St Kitts and lecturers from the Clarence Fitzroy College along with colleagues from Anguilla, Montserrat and Nevis will participate in the event slated for Monday, 29 and Tuesday, 30 April at the Ocean Terrace Inn Conference Room.