CROSS CURRENTS: HAITI, JAMAICA & THE CARIBBEAN IMAGINATION – FICTION & NONFICTION

Join us for a special panel highlighting the literary dialogue between Haiti and Jamaica. Edwidge Danticat’s Watch Out for Falling Iguanas begins with young Leila setting off for school on a rare chilly day in Miami. As her day is filled with curious encounters – roaming peacocks, chickens crossing the road – Leila can’t stop thinking about her grandmother’s warning to watch out for falling iguanas, and begins an unexpected adventure to discover why these tropical creatures fall from trees during cold fronts. Fabienne Josaphat’s Kingdom of No Tomorrow: A Novel follows Nettie, who joins the Black Panther Party’s Free Health Clinics in 1968 Oakland. She’s soon drawn into a dangerous movement and passionate love affair with a prominent figure in the organization. And as covert FBI campaigns close in and internal tensions rise, Nettie must confront what justice – and survival – truly mean for a Black woman within the revolution. In Diana McCaulay‘s A House for Miss Pauline: A Novel, 99-year-old Pauline Sinclair’s home, located in a rural Jamaican village, begins to rattle and call out mysterious messages in the middle of the night. Pauline has buried many secrets during her long life, and what the whispering stones are telling her is to make peace with the past before she dies – but that’s no easy task. Dwight Thompson’s My Own Dear People follows Nyjah Messado, who, as a teenager in Montego Bay, Jamaica, witnesses a brutal assault by some of the boys in his circle of friends but does nothing to stop it. As he comes of age and tries to come to terms with his own place in multiple worlds, he remains haunted by the guilt of his inaction. Moderated by journalist Fabian Lyon.

PRESENTED BY

WITH THE SUPPORT OF MEDIA PARTNERS

Buy Watch Out for Falling Iguanas – Danticat

Buy Kingdom of No Tomorrow – Josaphat

Buy A House for Miss Pauline – McCauley

Buy My Own Dear People – Thompson