Three titles for launch at Studio 66

Monday, April 26 2010

http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,119705.html

STUDIO 66 Art Support Community and the Philosophical Society of Trinidad and Tobago will be host to a combined book launch on May 1 beginning at 5 pm.

The three authors and the titles of their publications Gemma Afiyah Ledgerwood — Seven Emotive Passages (A Collection of Poetry); Wayne “Rafiki” Morris — The Call of the Drum (A Philosophy of Conscience & African Worldview); and Darryl Naranjit — Truth & Power (Ghandi’s Political Philosophy)

Gemma Afiyah Ledgerword likes to think of herself as a healer who writes and feels that some day she will become a writer who heals with her poetic words.

This retired public servant and mother of two has always enjoyed creative writing. This is her second collection of poetry, the first collection titled The Blue Notebook spoke of her healing journey of self-discovery and personal fulfilment, this collection celebrates the role emotion plays in life and the way she has used it to inform her choices at the seven critical growth phases. Seven Emotive Passages takes the reader on a journey through the author’s childhood and on to her imagined old age with interesting observations of the intuitive voice, the state of man and woman relationship, and the social context of these relationships.

She hopes that as her words resonate with readers in their own life choices and they come away with a more enlightened view of themselves and humanity as a whole. Then she would be nearer her goal of becoming the writer who heals.

Wayne Rafiki Morris is a multidimensional artist who presents himself as a philosopher with his book entitled, The Call of the Drum. His 36 years of service to Pan-Africa provides him a rare insight to the living spirit of resistance among African People worldwide. The Call of the Drum is his philosophical expression of that insight, that spirit and that resistance.

The Call of the Drum is a combination of expressive forms: metaphorical prose, philosophical essays, speeches, and poetry brought together to express a whole view for African people of the world. This is a contemporary take on the philosophy of Pan-Africanism. It is how the author sees the philosophy of Garvey, Malcolm, Lamumba, Mbalia Camera, Sekou Toure, Asata, Marley, and Kwame Ture in the context of the 21st Century

In The Call of the Drum Rafiki presents anew the Philosophy of Conscience, first introduced by Kwame Nkrumah in his book Consciencism in 1964. Nkrumah’s Philosophical Consciencism is Rafiki’s Philosophy of Conscience.

In his introduction local philosopher Burton Sankeralli states:

“The drum is praxis! This praxis is the Love born in the cradle Africa that resolves the contradiction. It is the creative engagement and contestation that yields radical new possibilities. This is the love that overcomes the matrix of oppression and makes possible a world of freedom.”

Darryl Naranjit was born in Couva, lived in England and Canada and is a founding member of the Trinidad and Tobago Philosophical Society. He studied mathematics and philosophy at McMaster University and did post-graduate work in philosophy at Brock University and York University.