Ken Ramchand

Ken Ramchand is quite a mover and shaker in Trinidadian arts and culture. He was the first person to earn a Ph.D. in West Indian literature and most likely the first lecturer from a Caribbean background to teach in the U.K. He taught in Britain and the U.S. before returning to the University of the West Indies in Trinidad where he taught until his retirement just a few years ago. He is active now in promoting a new Academy of Art and Public Culture through the auspices of the University of Trinidad and Tobago, a brand-new institution that promises great potential for the area. Ken is also a senator in the T&T government, sitting as an independent, so he is a veritable fount of knowledge around contemporary literature, art, and politics. Together with K.D. Srivastava (a former VP at UBC before retiring and taking on the VP/Provost position at UTT), Ken has provided David Chariandy and I a number of opportunities to share our research and make local contacts here in Trinidad, so for that, we are quite indebted. This photo-montage from our dinner together last night in an odd little Chinese restaurant named House of Chan – a warehouse feel, the only illumination apparently emanating from the bright red linens on the oversized tables. I took a few photos with flash, but that quite lit up the place, so I relied thereafter on available light, playing with slow shutter speeds of nearly a second and allowing for the movement of the subject to translate itself somehow into a representation of the mood.

Transnational Shopping: Virtual Purchases, Body and Nation

I did my performance paper (as per the title of this entry) at the Uni of West Indies today. It was arranged through Ken Ramchand, who is heading up the new Academy for Art and Public Culture at the also-new University of Trinidad and Tobago, and K.D. Srivastava, VP and provost of UTT. So a joint venture, the first for UWI and UTT and it was a good turnout and resulted in good discussions indeed. The piece is one I first composed for a conference last year at the University of Siegen in Germany, focussing in on notions of nationalist discourses. My presentation is a blend of critical analysis, performance, hiphop, and storytelling, essentially getting at the huge problmatics we are currently facing in a globalized space where notions of "terror" and "security" are becoming ever-more legitimizing factors in surveillance and violence. At least, in a nutshell, dat's what dat's about. It is, I hope, also a playful jab at current power brokers and suggests a space for interventionist entry, although that may be my ultimate optimist speaking. One of the elements of the piece (which perhaps i should put up as a vlog someday soon) is a count-up from one to seven, eventually taking folks through the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian national who was shot seven times in the head last year by British police as he boarded the underground. So the photo here is one of my several renditions of that one-to-seven count.

going west, young men

Another late start -- my travelling compadre, David Chariandy, and i are getting used to this, rising at whatever time and heading out with our coffees onto this wonderful balcony overlooking the water. Looking across, we can see the southern arm of Trinidad, beyond that, the mountains of venezuala, or so we're told. Still, an inevitable isolation in this expat apartment block, lockdown building, even cabbies have to indicate us as legitimate passengers before gaining egress. (Frustrated by a lack of internet access, though, how quickly we adjust to technology, or lack thereof. Of course, there are tenants here in the bldg with full on adsl, just not in this apartment.) But did find to my delight that i get a strong and unprotected signal just by the elevators, so though it's a hard slog sitting on stone steps (yes i could bring out a cushion but just don't bother), it gets me online and out there. And there are necessities here, not just play, like letters of reference and other workly things with reasearch assistants, TRU admin folk, and the like. Sometimes a holiday is just not a holiday, or sometimes there are some of us who never really have down-time, just inbetween-time. Got to talk to Jeff Derksen 'bout that.

So David and i sit on the balcony and work on our various projects, he editing a novel that is just about there, me contemplating opening up my novel file, which is about halfdone, and then usually relenting to the pressures of daily work instead. That's okay for now, since i'll be at the banff centre residency, babble-babel-rabble, in the summer and will be able to punch out what i need to finish this project then. (Now anticipate, figure, wonder, that this novel will grow to about 450 ms pages, not sure why that figure sticks, and it's not so much a goal than an assumptionn. Could be shorter, hopefully not longer!)


Tonight a dinner and conversation with Kenneth Ramchand, a well-known and respected postcolonial crit academic and Trinadian senator. Interesting times, engaging. Ken and Avril have several dogs, one of whom, Tiger, i attempted to bond with over the course of the evening, though he was having none of it. Occasional fearbarking backwards, sometimes just avoiding me. A face like a pitbull, but very short and squat body, elongated, made me query what he actually had for parentage. Flummoxed to hear his other half was dacshound. No, seriously. What a quircky beast, but quite adorable...

David and i went to Carenage up the coast a few minutes so he could research a part of his novel. The village was a site for shipwork and a cantonment and many other things over the past century and more, so i enjoyed wandering the streets a bit. Certainly not the expat hirise here.

Trinidad travels

Landed in Trinidad late Friday afternoon, spent the evening in, just sorting out what it is to be in an expat compound and all the distinctions that sets upon us. Today went off to a beach, exploring some incredibly treacherous mountain roads, all thanks to the driver provided by the University of Trinidad and Tobago, where I give a talk on Monday. Some photos here, of the corner view looking out to Port of Spain from the expat building, and me frolicking in the waves...

"Uncomfortable" in Toronto

As part of this CRC, I'm looking at art production in various postcolonial 'states' (and here i use both senses of the word). That is taking me to Trinidad in about 36 hours where I will be meeting academics and administrators affiliated with thr relatively new University of Trinidad and Tobago. And an excellent entry into that is the fil premiere tonight in Toronto. Titled "Uncomfortable" this film by Trinidadian-Canadian artist/educator/intellectual Richard Fung showcases the work of Trinidadian artist Chris Cozier, who will be in attendance tonight. I will also meet with Chris tomorrow as well as interview Richard for the multiculturalism grant i have described elsewhere. So, this is an attempt to pick off several birds with a single stone! More later after the fil and beyond.
___
Ashok Mathur
CRC in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry
Thompson Rivers University

back in the saddle

Criminy, almost a month since the banff visitations, so much happening since then. Left the B-Centre fairly sated, got through what I thought was to be a relatively short first of three sections for the novel, though it ended up being quite substantial. Into the second section, though that portions were partially written some time ago, so there's that curious back and forth notion of temporal writing. Spent a few days in Vancouver setting up a writing studio and producing work for that second section early in the new year, now back in the loops setting up a new office in the newly-constructed International Building. Lots of "news" in that last sentence and in the happenings with my CRC. Also heard that the research office has stamped approval on the Canada Foundation for Innovation grant, meaning we can go ahead with the renovations and building the Centre for Innovation in Culture and the Arts in Canada. Meanwhile, am planning a trip to Trinidad to visit the University of the West Indies at the end of this month, so that will keep things going in positive ways. And that's a nutshell of the past four weeks, professionally speaking.