Cleveland Premiere of Poetry is an Island at Karamu House

Please join us for the Cleveland premiere of Poetry is an Island,

a new feature documentary about the life and work of St. Lucian

Nobel Laureate poet, playwright and painter Derek Walcott at

Karamu House on Sunday, August 17th, from 2 to 5 pm. It's

a celebration of the importance of the arts in everyone's life.

The program will include live St. Lucian Steelpan music, a reading

from the Derek Walcott play Dream on Monkey Island, images

of Derek Walcott's and his son Peter Walcott's paintings and an

80 minute feature documentary about Derek Walcott's life

followed by a live Skype Q&A interview with the director of the film,

Ms. Ida Does, from The Netherlands.

Tickets at the door ($12).

We hope to see you there.

Sponsored by the the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards,  
presented by the

Cleveland Foundation

Karamu House
2355 East 89th Street
Cleveland, Ohio
216-795-7070 
 

Sponsored by the the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, presented by the

Cleveland Foundation

  

More about the film:

  

"Derek Walcott, Poetry is an island, is a feature documentary film about

Nobel laureate, poet, playwright, and visual artist, Derek Alton Walcott

(1930). The film depicts an intimate portrait of Walcott, as we visit his art

studio, his childhood home, and his current residence in St. Lucia. It also 

includes exclusive archive material from the Nobel Prize Festivities in 1992. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this film is about Walcott’s poetry.

Derek Walcott grew up in St. Lucia–Castries–in a small family. His father

died when he was very young, and so, Derek, his twin brother Roderick,

and their sister Pamela, were raised by their single mother. Walcott is of

African, English and Dutch descent. He grew up in an artistic ambiance,

his father being a painter and writer, and his mother–a teacher–encouraging

him from early on to write poetry.

In Poetry is an island  we share Caribbean moments with Walcott as we

visit some of his favorite places, his studio, and St. Lucia home. We travel

through St. Lucia and encounter childhood friends whose ‘lives became

poetry’ through Walcott’s work. We discover the anger and frustration that

the poet holds against the downtime of the arts as he talks to us about the

meaning of poetry to him personally, and about the significance of art for

humanity. Family members reveal some of the poet’s life challenges, and

people who have worked with him speak frankly about their experiences

with Walcott. Poetry is an island is an intimate portrait of the man, the poet,

and son of the Caribbean: Derek Walcott."

Karamu: 100 Years in the House