The absence of the two featured female writers could not dampen the spirit of the mutli-ttle book launch hosted by Trailblazer Ink atthe Terra Nova on tuesday (March 24).
The two gentlemen, Dudley Earlington (author of The Fallacy of the Democratic System of the United States) and poet Victor Robertson, whose collection, This Bridge, was being launched, ably received a small but eager crowd of literati, alongside publisher-entrepreneur Joanne Simpson. Zoe Asher (I Woman: The Sacred Trust) and Melda Evans (Sweet & Sour Love) round out the four authors presented.
Simpson pointed out that while the publishing business in Jmaaica was not for the faint-hearted, books were still relevant to the Jamaican situation, and there was some evcidence that Jamaicans at home and in the Disapora would gladly accept books that spoke to our own indigenous experiences and values.
This was echoed by guest speaker (and Director of Culture in the Ministry of Information Youth,Culture and Sports)Sydney Barltey, deputizing for Minister Olivia 'Babsy' Grange. I na typically wide ranging address, he said that if more Jamaicans hada sense of our own heroes, the way that persons in Western civilization do, then this would be a very different (the clear implication is "improved") society.
He pledged the Ministry's support for Simpson's proposed jamaica Writers' Club, a writng-publishing co-operative, for which funding is presently being sought, and also urged the audience to support Jamaican and regional writers as frequently as they could.
A robust discussion session ensued, halted temporarily as emcee Rosemarie Chung brought the proceedings back to formal order, and resumed - in pockets - as soon as the formalities had ended.
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