Welcome
Alliouagana Festival of the Word: A Literary Festival for Montserrat
“Discovering New Worlds through Words.”
The Alliouagana Festival of the Word is now into its 2nd year and will take place at the Cultural Centre in Little Bay from Friday November 12 to Sunday November 14, 2010. The festivities will start with a grand opening ceremony and a launch of books by first-time Montserratian authors, David Bradshaw (Growing up BAREFOOT under Montserrat’s Sleeping Volcano) and Victor Semper (Church Affairs). This will be followed by a Music Explosion with the Black Rhythm Band led by Cecil ‘Cepeke’ Lake. On Saturday, patrons of the word will have the chance to take part in open-mic sessions, writing workshops for adults and children, presentations and book signings with authors such as Opal Palmer Adisa, Kwame Dawes, Eric Jerome Dickey, Howard Fergus, Margaret Gill, Mark Greenwood, Frané Lessac, Rachel Manley and Edgar Nkosi White. The dramatic presentations on the weekend are planned around Edgar Nkosi White’s play Count It All Joy and part of the proceeds will be directed to the rehabilitation effort in Haiti. The theme for this year’s Festival is Discovering New Worlds through Words. Persons unfamiliar with pre-1995 Montserrat will be given an opportunity to discover Montserrat of yesteryear through various videos including the Reading Rainbow video developed from Frané Lessac’s children’s book My Little Island and work by Denzil Edgecombe, Randy Greenaway and David Lea. Join us and discover worlds through words including:
- The World of Haiti: A dynamic presentation by Professor Carolyn Cooper
- A weekend of Drama including the production of Edgar White’s Count It All Joy. Part proceeds of this production will be donated towards Haiti Relief efforts.
- Workshops with and presentations by award winning writers and illustrators of children’s books Frané Lessac and Mark Greenwood.
- Storytime for the Kids with Best of Books.
- Rachel Manley who was missed last year, will be at this year’s festival.
- Opal Palmer Adisa bringing a message to parents “Being the Parent You Want to Be” and reading from I Name Me Name (Peepal Tree Press, 2008), the prose piece “Children Must Be Seen & Heard.”
- Speakers’ Corner
- The world of suspense and intrigue with Eric Jerome Dickey.
- Memories of Montserrat through videos including the Reading Rainbow Video My Little Island starring LeVar Burton.