The National Cultural Centre was the setting on Monday morning November 24th when the CDF launched its latest publication, “Sent Lisi: Poems and Art of Saint Lucia.”
The publication is dedicated to veteran St. Lucian writer McDonald Dixon, in celebration of his 70th birthday on October 1st.
It was described at the book launch as “an iconic collection”, which features the work of Nobel laureate Derek Walcott (his poems and art), Sir Dunstan St. Omer, the late Roderick Walcott and deceased icon Harry Simmons alongside the poems and art of younger St. Lucian writers and artists. Eighteen writers and seventeen artists are featured.
The anthology is selected and edited by Kendel Hippolyte, Jane King, John Robert Lee and Vladimir Lucien, St. Lucian authors with several publications between them. Their own work is recognised internationally and regionally.
In her foreword Jane King writes that the compilation “is an astoundingly flavourful book, a sensual collection that evokes not just the stories and landscapes of yesteryear, but somehow the sounds and smells of it as well.”
The Bank of St. Lucia, Lucelec and the Jubilee Trust Fund were sponsoring partners on this publication. The cover art is “The Blue Madonna” by Sir Dunstan St. Omer and the back cover art is by Raphael ‘Rinvelle’ Philip, who is also the book designer. The book was printed by The Document Centre.
John Robert Lee, one of the co-editors, and who conceived the idea of the anthology, said in his remarks, that Sent Lisi was “A total, local, St. Lucian production, from start to finish…. Not only as a gift to McDonald Dixon, who deserves it, after a lifetime of dedication to the arts and literary craft; but to our own Sent Lisi, to pèp Sent Lisyens, to older and younger St. Lucians, all who have nurtured their artists, writers, musicians, dancers and actors; to those for whom we write, paint and sing. Indeed, in the words of our Nobel Laureate, “moi c’est gens Ste. Lucie. C’est la moi sorti; is there that I born.” You will find those famous lines in this anthology of poems and art of Saint Lucia.”
Copies are on sale at the CDF and the Folk Research Centre. Price: $50.00 EC.