Latest news with #Rastafarian
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Obituary: Alex Wheatle, writer
Alex Wheatle, author, playwright and screenwriter, at the Hay Festival 2024 on May 25, 2024 in Hay-on-Wye, Wales. Dubbed the Bard of Brixton, British writer Alex Wheatle was an award-winning novelist, playwright, and youth mentor. Born in London to Jamaican parents and raised in care, Wheatle turned his life into thinly disguised fiction, documenting the realities of black British life with unparalleled depth and authenticity. Imprisoned after the 1981 Brixton riots, Wheatle's Rastafarian cellmate encouraged him to read and changed his life. Wheatle's books, including Brixton Rock, East of Acre Lane, Crongton Knights and Cane Warriors, gave voice to the struggles and triumphs of young black people navigating a complex world. In 2008, he was awarded an MBE for services to literature. Alex Wheatle died on March 16 aged 62. — APL/agencies
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Infused with the fire born of resistance': the magic of the Calabash literary festival
'Do I look like a rebel?' Booker prize winner Marlon James jokingly asks the crowd moments after walking on stage, head-banging his dreads to the sound of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit. If your only experience of literary festivals are polite, well-mannered affairs inside tents in the British countryside, the Calabash literary festival, held on Jamaica's Treasure Beach, hits differently. It's not just the setting but the rare joy of seeing a majority-Black audience and roster at a literary event. It's a festival infused with the magic and fire born of resistance. James was one of many authors who shared that, were it not for the festival, he wouldn't be the literary giant he is today. It was after one of Calabash's now-legendary open mic sessions that he secured his first publishing deal. No surprise, then, that people waited in snaking lines, some for well over an hour, to get their three minutes on the mic. For festival-goers, one of the most anticipated readings of the weekend was from Safiya Sinclair's National Book Critics Circle award-winning How to Say Babylon – on home soil for the first time. Her book chronicles growing up in 80s and 90s Jamaica as a Rastafarian girl, and she read a haunting passage about deliberately stepping on a rusty nail after being ostracised at school. This was at a time when the legacy of Jamaica's first prime minister Alexander Bustamante, and his infamous 1963 command to 'Bring in all Rastas, dead or alive' still loomed. The Calabash literary festival was founded in 2001 by poet Kwame Dawes, novelist Colin Channer, and producer Justine Henzell (whose family own and run Jakes, the beachfront hotel where the festival is hosted). What began as a small event in Jakes' lobby with only 150 guests now attracts thousands, a quarter of a century later. And, unlike most literary festivals, Calabash is completely free to attend. 'Passion is the only price of entry,' its website states – though adds that 'voluntary contributions are welcomed'. The festival's allure is undeniably amplified by its ludicrously picturesque setting: piercing blue skies, crashing waves and endless rays of sunshine frame the stage from which authors speak. If you thought Treasure Beach a sleepy town full of beach bums, fishers, locals and ex-corporate types who have traded in their careers for psychedelic retreats, you wouldn't be entirely wrong. But as the festival begins, a rebellious spirit is ushered in. The weekend's format is simple: readings arranged around specific themes, punctuated by a handful of headline talks. The crowd at Calabash is a world unto itself, made up of authors and book lovers from across the Caribbean, as well as from the UK, US, Canada and South Africa. A new wave of influencers were also in attendance, including prominent bookstagrammers like Trinidad-based @bookofcinz and South Africa's @prettybookish, who now play an increasingly important role in elevating Caribbean and diasporic literature. Standout sessions from the weekend included Caleb Femi, a former young people's poet laureate and the author of Poor. He brought south-east London to Calabash with four poems from his sophomore collection The Wickedest – a portrait of one party night told through the eyes of flirtatious guests, unwanted intruders and their fearless leader. Laughter echoed throughout. Danez Smith, author of Homie and Don't Call Us Dead, read work that could melt even the coldest of hearts – opening with a tribute to the gully queens (Jamaica's trans community), thanking their lesbian friends for teaching them how to love, and sharing poetry in the form of a love letter to their formidable grandmother. Mary-Alice Daniel gave perhaps the most brilliantly absurd reading of the weekend, sharing surreal poems and a hilarious piece of prose about the loss of her toe. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion Other literary heavyweights on the roster included Ian McEwan and Abbott Elementary's Emmy-winning Sheryl Lee Ralph, who closed the festival with a celebration of her memoir Diva 2.0, which traverses her journey from growing up in Jamaica to entering Hollywood. And of course, this is Jamaica – so while the days were filled with conversations about craft and storytelling, the nights belonged to music. On Friday and Saturday, the festival turned into a party, with live performances and DJs that didn't start until midnight. And Sunday afternoon closed with a moving celebration of the 50th anniversary of Burning Spear's album Marcus Garvey, a tribute to the power of roots reggae as a form of cultural memory and resistance. Over dinner that final night, there were discussions about how such a small island has managed to have a gargantuan, global cultural footprint, especially within the world of literature. Dawes, one of the organisers, pointed to Jamaica's history of rebellion, including the largest of slave uprisings, as the root of its spiritual and creative fire. 'Jamaica was the site of the most virulent practices of the transatlantic chattel slavery,' Dawes says. 'While we can speak of the negative legacy of this truth we can also speak of the restorative and inventive power of resistance and rebellion [that has] allowed this small population of 2.5 million people to have an absurdly outside global impact as a culture.' 'Despite the hardships of history,' he adds, 'there is a necessary confidence that is part of the Jamaican spirit.' The next Calabash literary festival will take place in 2027
Irish Examiner
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Book review: A different shade to the world's end
There are any number of reasons for the boom in post-apocalyptic novels: The covid pandemic, the chilling potential of AI, the upending of the post-war order and the rise of far-right politics, climate catastrophe, and the threat of global, nuclear conflict. In Gethan Dick's brilliant and daring debut novel, Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night, the source of civilisational collapse is an unspecified global plague that leaves London 'a giant morgue'. However, this is a novel of planetary catastrophe like no other, eschewing the hackneyed clichés of the genre ('death is drama enough, what more do you need?' we are asked). There is typical desperation, hunger, and violence, but there are also dollops of surprise, humour, and happiness. The story charts the year-long journey of a band of survivors who decide to cycle from decimated London to Digne-les-Bains in the south of France, which represents 'an epicenter of practical possibilities for the new world of disorder'. It is narrated in the first person by Audaz, a self-deprecating 30-year-old on the fringes of the music industry. She is joined by a speechifying, working-class, weed-smoking Rastafarian from Dublin named Pressure Drop, and Sarah, the true hero of the novel, a mixed-race older midwife whose nurturing, ingenuity, and expediency ensures the safety of the group. The novel is charmingly hilarious. Audaz is nagged by a millennial's anxiety of underachievement ('I am basically a dickhead,' she says of herself). There are amusing, sharp observations on hairiness in a world without razors; there are reflections on the ubiquity of decathlon sportswear and the impracticality of leggings after the apocalypse. Even in the midst of catastrophe, there is the potential for joy. Audaz falls in love at first sight with charismatic and resourceful fisherman Martin, and the two begin a gloriously fulfilling sexual relationship, related in uproariously erotic and earthy language. It is a deeply serious and philosophically capacious book also, particularly in relation to womanhood. Pregnancy, childbirth, care, and motherhood are major themes. The novel explores migration, language and identity: Audaz spent her childhood in Cuba and is the daughter of an East German mother and a communist English father; Pressure Drop is an Irishman in London; Sarah's father was a southern Baptist. In a post-Brexit riposte, the characters become migrants in their own right, crossing the English Channel on a boat piloted by Martin. Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night compels the reader to consider if the possibility of apocalypse offers a chance to imagine alternatives that are already available to us — for instance, less technology, less consumerism, self-sufficiency, and a closer relationship with nature. This is not lofty idealism, but practicality. Similarly, Audaz's feminism is pragmatic and contextual. 'You have to be realistic,' Audaz remarks. 'Some notions are only as useful as the situation that gives rise to them.' We are not offered utopia. In a disturbing passage, women in a French château are treated as the imprisoned sexual toys of brutal, exploitative men. Like cockroaches, the patriarchy may survive the apocalypse. 'Every second, every millisecond, the world is ending,' remarks Audaz. What will be left afterward the apocalypse? There will be dead bodies. There will be hunger. There will be no communications, public transport, or power. There will be mountains of Decathlon stock. Tinned goods will be highly prized. But there will be survivors, finding ways to live, falling in love, having children, and there will still be a world, ending again and again.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Asking a black person ‘what are you smoking' is racist, tribunal rules
Asking a black person 'what are you smoking' is racist, an employment tribunal has ruled. Employment Judge Rachel Wedderspoon said any 'reasonable person' would be offended by the remark due to the 'stereotypical view' of 'a black person with dreadlocks smoking drugs'. Her ruling came in the case of Gemma Spencer, a black administrator who sued her employers for race discrimination and harassment after she was dismissed. The admin worker told a panel that she had her hair in braids when director Mark Kelly asked her line manager if she had been 'smoking something' after they perceived she had made an error at work. After she accused him of racism, Mr Kelly said he in 'no way meant to make some remark about her being a Rastafarian'. Bosses argued Ms Spencer was 'hypersensitive' and had 'warped' the impact the phrase had on her. But this assertion was rejected by Judge Wedderspoon, who said the comment was 'unwanted conduct' which 'violated the dignity' of Ms Spencer, who was awarded £35,109 in compensation. The tribunal, held in Birmingham, heard that Ms Spencer joined Schneider Electric UK as a contracts administrator in September 2017. In March 2020, she was asked by her bosses to carry out a quarterly report, but it was heard that the figures she inputted were deemed to be incorrect. She told the tribunal her line manager, Carl Melia, spoke to her and said that Mr Kelly had telephoned him and asked 'what she was smoking'. The panel heard that it then transpired the data Ms Spencer used in the report was correct and had been for some time, but she said she received no apology. In July 2020, Ms Spencer submitted a formal grievance against the company, alleging that she was 'treated differently' because she was black and brought up the 'what are you smoking' comment in her complaint. The following year, she raised another grievance against her bosses, detailing 59 complaints of pregnancy and maternity discrimination, direct race discrimination and harassment related to race, the majority of which were dismissed by bosses. In June 2022, she was invited to a disciplinary hearing investigating a serious allegation of misconduct relating to her failure to complete timesheets and was handed a written warning. Later that year, she was invited to a further disciplinary hearing after she sent an 'inappropriate and offensive' message to Mr Melia, who complained he could 'no longer tolerate' the 'seriousness of the entirely unfounded allegations this member of my team has made towards me' and her behaviour was 'disruptive and antagonistic'. The complaint was upheld and in light of the two grievances raised against her, she was dismissed in July of that year. She took them to an employment tribunal, alleging unfair dismissal, race discrimination, harassment related to race, victimisation and maternity discrimination. During proceedings, the tribunal heard that at the time the 'smoking' comment was made, Ms Spencer had dreadlocks. Upholding her claims of harassment relating to race, Judge Wedderspoon said: 'It was a comment based on a stereotypical view of a black person with dreadlocks smoking drugs. 'It was unwanted conduct which violated the dignity of [Ms Spencer] and it was related on race.' Ms Spencer also won other claims of discrimination, harassment related to race, victimisation and pregnancy and maternity discrimination. Other claims made by the mother were dismissed. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
17-04-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Asking a black person ‘what are you smoking' is racist, tribunal rules
Asking a black person 'what are you smoking' is racist, an employment tribunal has ruled. Employment Judge Rachel Wedderspoon said any 'reasonable person' would be offended by the remark due to the 'stereotypical view' of 'a black person with dreadlocks smoking drugs'. Her ruling came in the case of Gemma Spencer, a black administrator who sued her employers for race discrimination and harassment after she was dismissed. The admin worker told a panel that she had her hair in braids when director Mark Kelly asked her line manager if she had been 'smoking something' after they perceived she had made an error at work. After she accused him of racism, Mr Kelly said he in 'no way meant to make some remark about her being a Rastafarian'. Bosses argued Ms Spencer was 'hypersensitive' and had 'warped' the impact the phrase had on her. But this assertion was rejected by Judge Wedderspoon, who said the comment was 'unwanted conduct' which 'violated the dignity' of Ms Spencer, who was awarded £35,109 in compensation. 'Treated differently' The tribunal, held in Birmingham, heard that Ms Spencer joined Schneider Electric UK as a contracts administrator in September 2017. In March 2020, she was asked by her bosses to carry out a quarterly report, but it was heard that the figures she inputted were deemed to be incorrect. She told the tribunal her line manager, Carl Melia, spoke to her and said that Mr Kelly had telephoned him and asked 'what she was smoking'. The panel heard that it then transpired the data Ms Spencer used in the report was correct and had been for some time, but she said she received no apology. In July 2020, Ms Spencer submitted a formal grievance against the company, alleging that she was 'treated differently' because she was black and brought up the 'what are you smoking' comment in her complaint. The following year, she raised another grievance against her bosses, detailing 59 complaints of pregnancy and maternity discrimination, direct race discrimination and harassment related to race, the majority of which were dismissed by bosses. In June 2022, she was invited to a disciplinary hearing investigating a serious allegation of misconduct relating to her failure to complete timesheets and was handed a written warning. 'Disruptive and antagonistic' Later that year, she was invited to a further disciplinary hearing after she sent an 'inappropriate and offensive' message to Mr Melia, who complained he could 'no longer tolerate' the 'seriousness of the entirely unfounded allegations this member of my team has made towards me' and her behaviour was 'disruptive and antagonistic'. The complaint was upheld and in light of the two grievances raised against her, she was dismissed in July of that year. She took them to an employment tribunal, alleging unfair dismissal, race discrimination, harassment related to race, victimisation and maternity discrimination. During proceedings, the tribunal heard that at the time the 'smoking' comment was made, Ms Spencer had dreadlocks. Upholding her claims of harassment relating to race, Judge Wedderspoon said: 'It was a comment based on a stereotypical view of a black person with dreadlocks smoking drugs. 'It was unwanted conduct which violated the dignity of [Ms Spencer] and it was related on race.' Ms Spencer also won other claims of discrimination, harassment related to race, victimisation and pregnancy and maternity discrimination. Other claims made by the mother were dismissed.
