More on Lasana Sekou

Lasana Sekou's author page on the House of Nehesi website gives more details on his writing style, books, etc.

House of Nehesi is the publishing company which Sekou co-founded. If you are interested in Dutch Caribbean literature, it is an excellent site.

I would love your feedback on Dutch-Caribbean poetry or any specific works of Lasana Sekou.

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a note of thanks to you my readers for regularly checking in to Poets of the Caribbean over this year. Your comments have been appreciated.

I am grateful for the growth I have experienced from reading and researching the lives and works of so many talented Caribbean poets, and I am thrilled to see so many readers from all over the world who have found the blog, and are interested in Caribbean poetry. I am happy that Poets of the Caribbean is playing its part in promoting Caribbean poets and poetry. I am thankful also for family, friends, and the freedom to read great literature.

What are you grateful for?

5 Interesting Things About Lasana Sekou

Here are 5 interesting things I learned about our poet of the month, Lasana Sekou:

1. He has authored over 13 books

2. Because of his prolific writing, Lasana Sekou has been described by Dr. Armando Lampo as the 'Walcott of the Dutch Caribbean'

3. Sekou is a multilingual poet, and has written in Spanish, French, Dutch and Creole

4. In 1982, he founded the House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP)

5. He co-founded the St. Martin Book Fair in 2003 with Shujah Reiph.

So, the Caribbean is truly fortunate to have such a talented, forward-thinking and prolific writer!

10 Ways to Support Caribbean Poets

In my post earlier this month, I shared that November is "Support Caribbean Poets" month (I am not sure if it has been declared by anyone, anywhere and since the focus of this blog is to promote Caribbean poetry and poets, I decided to declare it :)

So, if you like Caribbean poetry, here are 10 ways that you can support Caribbean poets:

• Attend their readings if they are taking place in your city, or a city near you
• Follow their blogs, and offer up a comment or two. Believe me, we really love your feedback!
• Follow them on Facebook or Twitter
• Send them a shout out via their Facebook page or Twitter. I am sure they would love to hear from you. I reached out to poets Ishion Hutchinson and Cherry Nature via Facebook and loved the interaction
• Blog about them and their works
• Reach out to them for interviews on your blog. I was fortunate that poets Easton Lee and Kwame Dawes graciously granted me interviews which I posted on this blog.
• Review their works as objectively as you can on Amazon, Goodreads, Smashwords or Library Thing. I was really pleased to receive three favorable reviews of my first collection, From Cane Field to the Sea, via Amazon and Goodreads. Poets can only grow and write better when readers offer both critique and praise.
• Purchase their works
• Read their works
• Recommend their books to family, friends and colleagues

So, hopefully you will be able to do many or all of these suggestions so that Caribbean poetry can continue to flourish. The Caribbean region is a diverse region in culture, language and literature and there are so many talented poets with acclaimed work.

I would love to hear from you about ways in which you are promoting Caribbean poetry, so please send me your comments.

Dutch-Caribbean Websites

Thanks to Caribbean Literary Salon, we have this great listing of Dutch Caribbean Websites. Check them out during this month as we focus on Dutch-Caribbean poetry, and in particular, the poet, Lasana Sekou.

Lasana Sekou

Lasana Sekou was born in Aruba, but grew up on the island of St. Martin. He began writing poetry at a young age and published poems in high school. Lasana attended the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he received a BA in Political Science, and Howard University, where he completed the MA program in Communications.

Sekou has published eleven books of poetry and short stories, and his work has appeared in many publications, including Callaloo, The Caribbean Writer, and The Massachusetts Review.

Lasana Sekou has received numerous awards, including a James Michener Fellowship from the University of Miama, the Culture Time Literary Artist of the Decade, and a knighthood from the Government of the Netherlands.

Below is a selection of his writings:

Moods for Isis - Picture Poems of Love and Struggle (1978)
Mothernation - Poems From 1984-1987 (1991)
The Salt Reaper - Poems from the Flats (2004)
37 Poems (2005)

Dutch Caribbean Poetry

The islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao (popularly known as the ABC islands), together with St. Martin, make up the Dutch Caribbean. There are many talented writers from the Dutch Caribbean, and this month, I am pleased to feature the poet, Lasana M. Sekou, from the island of St. Martin. For more Dutch-Caribbean poets, check out the List of Caribbean Poets.

Lasana Sekou

Stay tuned during the month of November for more on Lasana Sekou. I am also declaring November as Support a Caribbean Poet month. Throughout my posts in November, I will be sharing many ways in which you can support the work of Caribbean poets, so be sure to check in regularly.

Happy November!