Caribbean IRN Blog

Michelle Cliff (1946-2016) was a remarkable writer who claimed many identities she was taught to despise: Lesbian, Black, Woman, Jamaican. She wrote powerful novels, essays, stories, and poems that make us rethink what it means to love, to hope, and to have community. She also carved space for same-sex loving and diverse sexualities in the Caribbean by representing our desires fiercely and by being deeply rooted in place. She continues to inspire us to write our stories, our sense of self, in fire. “ A theory in the flesh means one where the physical realities of our lives – our skin color, the land or concrete we grew up on, our sexual longings ― all fuse to create a politic born out of necessity. ― Michelle Cliff, “Claiming An Identity They Taught Me To Despise” “ Who can say how many lives have been saved by books?” ― Michelle Cliff, Everything Is Now: New and Collected Stories “ It was Zoe, and Zoe alone, I thought of. She snapped into my mind, and I remem

Image from Jamaica Gleaner "Love, Hope, Community: Sexualities & Social Justice" is the title of the latest issue of  Sargasso: Journal of Caribbean Literature , Language and Culture This volume is  co-edited by Rosamond S. King, Lawrence La Fountain Stokes, Katherine Miranda and Angelique V. Nixon. The volume is available for purchase ($10 for individuals, $25 for institutions) For more information write to: sargassojournal (at) gmail.com The Table of Contents is shown here (courtesy of Lawrence La Fountain Stokes) JFLAG  host  Pride Ja  'The Pride of People: Celebrating a community of love'  with a week of activities. The Jamaica Gleaner which once refused ads from Larry Chang's Gay Freedom Movement also reports on the Face of Pride  . The mix of Intolerance & Love i s reported by Bryan Washington on his visit home to Jamaica. UWI Mona has issued a conference  Call For Papers :  Beyond Homophobia: Centering LBGT Experiences in the C