Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

St Lucian Derek Walcott, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1992, will appear at Calabash this year. - File photos

At noon on Saturday, May 24, the 2008 Calabash International Literary Festival will have a 'Nobel' moment.

It will come in St Lucian Derek Walcott, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1992.

He is one of several authors who will appear on the festival, which is free and open to the public and will be held at Jake's in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth, from Friday, May 23, to Sunday, May 25.

Details of the festival were announced at Redbones the Blues Café, Braemar Avenue, New Kingston, last Wednesday by Calabash's founder, author Colin Channer.

In a release, Walcott said, "I am very happy to be coming to Calabash as I have heard good things about the festival and I have many Jamaican friends. In fact, I consider myself an honorary Jamaican.".

Walcott will appear in a midday 'Chatterbox' feature where he will speak with Calabash's programmer, author Kwame Dawes, as well as read from his work. In a release, Dawes said "any opportunity to speak to one of the most important poets in the 20th century is a gift that only a fool would allow to pass. Derek Walcott is always interesting and inevitably brilliant when he talks about art, the Caribbean and what it means to be alive".

Enhancing

Calabash founder Colin Channer said, "Derek Walcott's appearance at the festival will further enhance an international reputation for bold programming and precise organisation that began with the first Calabash in 2001. Walcott's reading and his onstage conversation with Kwame Dawes will be one of those experiences that people will talk about for the rest of their lives.

Kwame is the only person capable of engaging Walcott in the kind of free-ranging, down-to-earth reasoning that true Calabashers love. Kwame admires Walcott, but he is not star struck. If you put a star-struck person onstage with Derek and you'll get, well, the kinds of conversations that we've all gotten bored of."

While Calabash 2008 gathers authors from Ireland, Belarus, Scotland, Nigeria, Cuba, USA, Bolivia and Canada, Dawes reminds that "we must never forget that Calabash is an international literary festival that takes place in Jamaica".

As such, there is a strong contingent from Jamaica, Thomas Glave actually being first up in 'Selector's Choice', with which the festival begins at 7:30 p.m.

And Jamaicans are also last, as singer and songwriter Bob Andy will be onstage for an acoustic delivery of his 'Songbook', for which Wayne Armond, Ibo Cooper, Stephen Golding and Seretse Small will provide the music.

Channer said "we chose Bob Andy because he is one of the greatest lyricists to ever come out of Jamaica. He is perhaps the songwriter who is most admired by other reggae singers and songwriters".

Jamaicans Erna Brodber, Beverley East and Rosie Stone are in 'Ladies First', starting at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. Lorna Goodison and Beverley Manley will read from memoirs during 'Life Sentence' in the afternoon, while Margaret Cezair-Thompson reads in 'Aspects of the Novel' at 8:00 p.m.

All-Jamaican cast

Sunday begins, as it ends, with an all-Jamaican cast, as Edward Baugh, Barbara Gloudon, Denise Hunt and Lloyd Reckord will read from Claude McKay's Banana Bottom, in a 75th anniversary commemoration. Kei Miller features in 'Speaking in Tongues' in the afternoon.

On the opening night DJ Squeeze will play in the 'Midnight Ravers' Beach Party, slated for midnight to 3:00 a.m. And on Saturday night it is the meeting of the bands, as Rootz Underground and Chalice will play in 'Calabashment'.

And film will not be left out as the late Perry Henzell's No Place Like Home will be screened on the opening night, the title and place appropriate for a former Calabash regular.

Free

However, voluntary contributions continue to be sparse and Channer said, "We're proud to say that Calabash '08 will be free and open to the public, that passion will be the only price of entry for the eighth year in a row. Imagine, three days and nights of readings, live music and dancing and a film screening at no cost. At the same time, we are also disappointed at the level of voluntary contributions over the years. If this year is anything like previous years, then less than two per cent of the people who attend the festival will make a voluntary contribution. Small contributions matter. Look at Obama's campaign. Most of his money has come from small donations. Our message to festival goers this year is a simple one: 'Imagine your life without Calabash'."

Calabash's programmer and author Kwame Dawes will appear in a midday 'Chatterbox' feature where he will speak with Walcott.