We Outside
September 9 – 11th, 2022
4th Annual Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival, We Outside! Gathers major Caribbean storytellers in Little Caribbean, Brooklyn NY from Sept 9-11, 2022
The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival is pleased to have legendary literary talent the likes of Adrian Augier, Urayoan Noel, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa and Cheryl Boyce-Taylor on its cast this year.
As a showcase for Caribbean literature in the diaspora, the organization which is itself made up of Caribbean-born expatriates, welcomes the opportunity to create a platform upon which lovers of Caribbean literature may revel in the language, culture, rhythm of the rich and diverse tradition of Caribbean stories. Fittingly, the ‘We Outside!’ theme captures the joyous feeling of reunion experienced by the entire world after a protracted and challenging lockdown. As a declaration, invitation and direction, ‘We Outside!’ is a characteristically Caribbean expression, and invites reading enthusiasts to come together over the course of three days at various iconic venues in Brooklyn to celebrate Caribbean writers whose work continue to point the way forward during the most uncertain of times.
One of this year’s festival’s main attractions is the launch of King of Soca – a somewhat biography of Machel Montano, penned by his mother Elizabeth ’Lady’ Montano on September 9th, the festival’s launch date. Machel is indisputably, the best and most prolific artiste in soca – a genre of music birthed in his native Trinidad & Tobago – this book’s release is part of the celebration of his remarkable 40-year tenure in the music industry in 2022.
Caribbean-owned businesses like The Rogers Garden have also been added to the organization’s list of programming partners which includes Brooklyn heavyweights like The Center for Fiction and the Downtown Brooklyn Merchants Association. These partnerships provide attractive, comfortable and accessible spaces for its events, further made possible by the generous contributions of other sponsors including Akashic Press and Poets and Writers Org.
The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival will also announce the winners of its annual short story contest in the Caribbean-American and Writers in the Caribbean categories on September 2nd. This year’s contest was adjudicated by Jamaican editor/publisher Tanya Batson-Savage, Ayesha Gibson-Gill of Barbados-based Storyshyft (regional prize), and NYU professor/writer Ifeona Fulani of Jamaica and Katia D. Ulysee, award-winning Haitian-American writer (diaspora). The contest awards two prizes in the name of the Trinidadian-American writing giant and scholar, Dr. Elizabeth Nunez.
Other invited guests include Katia D. Ulysse, Sherese Francis and Amanda Choo Quan. For finalized festival details and event schedule, please visit the BCLF website at www.bklyncbeanlitfest.com.
About the BCLF
The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival (BCLF) celebrates Caribbean literature and the region’s history of storytelling. It is a showcase of culture as expressed through the pen of the storyteller and the voice of the poet. The BCLF is keen on exploring the rich depth of Caribbean culture and its centuries’ long tradition of storytelling, with the hopes of empowering and motivating the hidden storyteller of Caribbean descent to find the courage to tell his/her own story and write from the unique lens of that heritage. Our vision is to create a platform for community ownership of the oral and written stories of Caribbean people. Thus, the BCLF is a tool for cross-cultural understanding (which can only strengthen a diverse society like NYC). We celebrate our differences, and work to bring Caribbean people out from the shadows of exclusion to show the power of a collective platform to lift up our stories.
The BCLF’s capstone is an annual showcase of emergent & existing writers of Caribbean heritage for this purpose.
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