Georgetown: In observance of World Poetry Day 2014, the Culture, Youth and Sport Ministry hosted an evening of international, regional and Guyanese poetry.
The event held at the Umana Yana was well received by a sizable gathering. Many of the poems told tales of various life experiences
In his remarks, Culture, Youth and Sport Minister, Dr Frank Anthony noted that even though Guyana is observing the World Poetry Day late, the intention is still the same, and that is to celebrate poets and poetry.
He emphasised that Guyana has a rich literary legacy. “We don’t have enough occasions when we can talk about this rich legacy that we have,” he said. In this regard, at every opportunity possible, people need to be made aware of this legacy and discuss what can be done to celebrate those things.
Minister Anthony also spoke about renowned Guyanese poets such as Martin Carter, who is regarded as a national poet. He also recognised Egbert Martin, another Guyanese poet, who was described as one of the greatest Negro poets in history.
The Minister lauded Martin’s work, noting that one of his books entitled Scriptology was missing for 100 years; however, the only existing copy has been located at Howard University.
“This year through the Caribbean Press, we will be republishing Scriptology and we will be making it available to the Guyanese public,” the Minister said.
It is anticipated that when the book becomes available, more Guyanese would be acquainted with Egbert Martin, who was acclaimed as the first major poet in Guyana and Caribbean.
Enriching
The Minister recognised that over the years, the observance has been enriching because some of the poets recited poems in their original languages.
Several of the poems that were recited were done in Russian, Spanish and Portuguese. However, the latter was done by a student of Queen’s College and translated into English by a representative of the Embassy of the Federation of Brazil.
“We ourselves we have been writing predominantly in English but we have the indigenous languages… perhaps we should encourage people to write poems in these languages,” Minister Anthony highlighted.
He explained that UNESCO started World Poetry Day on the premise of sustaining linguistic diversity.
Minister Anthony noted that he has seen work done in several of the indigenous languages and the stories have also been collected but there are not many poems. The Minister made a call for such a collection to commence.
In 1999, the United Nations made a decision to proclaim March 21 as World Poetry Day. One of the main objectives of the day is to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to offer endangered language the opportunity to be heard within their communities.
You must be logged in to post a comment.