Activity: Poetry (and prose) recital
Topic: Martin Carter
Date: Tuesday 23rd January 2024
Time: 11.00 AM Guyana
YouTube: https://youtu.be/IM5kXsJZQ90
Our first virtual event in 2024 was a recital of some of Martin Carter’s poems. This recital mirrored the live event hosted at Moray House Trust in December 2023.
EVENT: Poetry recital
TITLE: Conversations
DATE: Tuesday 23rd January 2024
TIME: 11.00 AM Guyana
YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/IM5kXsJZQ90
Martin Carter (7 June 1927 – 13 December 1997) was a Guyanese poet and writer. Every year the Trust pays tribute to his memory and to his work. Last month we hosted a live recital of Conversations at Moray House Trust. Where there is a compelling case to be made (and/or in response to multiple requests from our diaspora audience), we occasionally organise a second online version of a live event.
This is a pre-recorded recital of poems and readings. It is based on the live December event. We selected a collection titled Conversations which consists of seven short poems. We have added a few extracts of Martin’s public and private writing at the time, partly to give an insight into his frame of mind and partly to draw attention to the depth of his thinking. There is also an introduction and commentary by Dr. Gemma Robinson.
These poems were written while Guyana was still a colony, British Guiana.
It may help to give a flavour of the historical moment:
In 1953 the colony had held its first election with universal adult suffrage leading to the victory of the People’s Progressive Party at the polls: they won 18 of the 24 seats in the National Assembly. The party’s policies and programmes unnerved the colonial apparatus and troops were summoned from Britain to remove it from power. After four months, the constitution was suspended, the ministers were removed from office and a state of emergency was declared.
A transitional government of civil servants, conservative politicians and businessmen was appointed.
A few years later, the party split and Forbes Burnham formed the People’s National Congress.
This was a period of maximal constitutional flux, designed to allow the colonial authorities to create the semblance of a democracy while retaining control of affairs.
In August 1961 elections were held to elect 36 members of a Legislative Assembly. There was also to be a Senate consisting of 13 appointees.
Ordinary folk try to understand something of life.
Artists, writers, poets seek to illustrate some of what they understand of life.
In order to illustrate life, you have to study it very closely…
To do this, one requires an entirely different order of understanding, deeper insights, sharper intuitions. These often come at a cost. In another poem, Martin ponders ‘which one of my many selves’ will appear. This suite of poems affords us a glimpse of several of the poet’s many selves.
YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/IM5kXsJZQ90