Here is a call for papers for a Special issue of
The Journal of West Indian Literature, “Engaging Kamau Brathwaite.” The deadline for abstracts is April 1, 2021.
Engaging Kamau Brathwaite: This special issue of the
Journal of West Indian Literature seeks papers and reflections on the work of Kamau Brathwaite, situating the writer/poet/scholar and his work within the canons of Caribbean, American, African-American, and/or postcolonial literature. In particular, we are interested in contributions that consider how, and why, we can/should/do engage Brathwaite’s work in our writing, research, and teaching today, a half-century after his first major publication.
As the global pandemic continues more acute, and more egregiously mishandled, in some locations than others I can only say that I am experiencing a profound exhaustion, and I imagine many of
sx salon’s readers are as well. It is beyond me to behave in a business-as-usual manner even for the duration of this introduction, and I am not going to try. Instead I will invite you, our readers, to consider whether all the forces political cynicism, a profit-over-people orientation, scientific illiteracy and denialism, individualism run amok, and white supremacy that underpin catastrophically failed pandemic responses in some places are also responsible for creating the climate crisis to which the Caribbean is particularly vulnerable; the record-breaking 2020 hurricane season is yet another data point indicating the acceleration of that crisis. If COVID-19 is a harbinger of our climate resilience or lack thereof, the challenges that lie before us are daunting, to say the very least.