PHILIPSBURG:--- “A soulful evening of haunting poems about our island’s traumas and beauties,” is what Faizah Tabasamu (Rochelle Ward) promises the public at SoIL café on Saturday, August 6, 2022.
The literary reading from Faizah’s new book Tangle, begins at 7:30 pm at SoIL, St. Johns Estate #5, just off LB Scott Road. Admission is free.
What to expect? Firstly, it’s the reviewers that are calling her poetry “haunting.” The work of the St. Martin poet has also been called “sensual” by Jane Collins, a literary professor at New York’s Pace University.
Faizah, a new generation writer and St. Maarten Academy teacher, may be more interested in asking, “Who will speak for Soualiga?”
“The entanglement of culture, crime, female heirlooms, fatherhood, hair, nature, travel, fear, love, and other subject areas in her poems explores that question with an unassuming finesse,” said Lasana M. Sekou, Tangle’s publisher at HNP.
Sometimes there’s a matter-of-fact style about her reading that could unexpectedly enthrall the audience on Saturday evening, said Sekou.
To Belizean poet Sean Taegar, the poems of Faizah’s book also have a traveling appeal beyond the shores of St. Martin, as they “vibrate and explode in the eye and heart.”
Following the SoIL café reading Faizah will autograph copies of her book. Tangle is available at Van Dorp and Amazon/SPDbooks https://bit.ly/3HwS4jW.