s2e21 Jamaican Barrel Children, a Mermaid & the Slave Trade | Listen & Be Heard Podcast
Featuring Opal Palmer Adisa, Lesley Ann Brown, Glenis Redmond.
SHOW NOTES
s2e21
June 20, 2024
Martha speaks with Jamaican children’s author Opal Palmer Adisa about her book Pretty Like Jamaica, that tells the story of a “barrel child” growing up in Jamaica with her grandmother, and Lesley Ann Brown tells a counter story of the Little Mermaid that reckons with the slave trade in Denmark. Our featured poet is Glenis Redmond, poet laureate of Greenville, SC.
HOST: Martha Cinader. Featured Poet: Glenis Redmond. Featured Guest, Opal Palmer Adisa. Featured Storyteller: Lesley Ann Brown. Sound Design for the Little Mermaid Story and our ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: DJ Jeannie Hopper. EDITING: Jeremiah Cothren. MUSIC: Jay Rodriguez Sierra. Banned Book Theme by DJ Jeannie Hopper with the voice and words of Yvette Murray.
GUESTS
Opal Palmer Adisa
Author, PhD
Diverse and multi-genre, Opal Palmer Adisa, is an exceptional talent, nurtured on cane-sap and the oceanic breeze of Jamaica. Currently the Director of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of West Indies.
Lesley Ann Brown
Author
Publisher, Bandit Queen Press
Lesley-Ann Brown is a Caribbean American writer who is originally from Brooklyn, NY. She is the author of Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black Woman to her European Son and Blackgirl on Mars. She currently resides in her own body.
FEATURED SPOKEN WORD
Glenis Redmond
The First Poet Laureate of Greenville, South Carolina
Glenis Redmond is grounded in many worlds as a Poet, Teaching Artist, and Imagination Activist. As a Poet, her feet are firmly planted on both the page and the stage. As a Teaching Artist, her educational reach extends into the classroom, where she teaches both students and teachers to open to their own poetry within. As an Imagination Activist she uses the bright bloom of her heart and soul to unlock the doors of creativity in others in the community-at-large. She is a gentle pen pusher.
FEATURED BOOKS
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Opal Palmer Adisa – Pretty Like Jamaica
Precious loves all of the joys of her life with her grandmother in Jamaica but she misses her mother who lives in the United States. When her mother finally sends for her, Precious finds herself torn between the home she has always known and her longing to be with her mother.
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Lesley-Ann Brown – Blackgirl on Mars
Blackgirl on Mars is a radical memoir that chronicles author, educator and activist Lesley-Ann Brown’s two years’ worth of travel searching for “home”. “Lesley-Ann Brown has a brave voice and a keen eye, offering an unflinching view of what it means to be a Caribbean American woman living in Europe.”— Gary Younge, author of Another…
VIDEOS
CUNY interviews author Lesley-Ann Brown
SUBMISSIONS
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EVENTS
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BANNED BOOKS
We invite you to share your voice
on the banning of books
in schools and libraries in the USA.
PEN America reported ‘While the movement to ban books is driven by a vocal minority demanding censorship, a 2022 poll conducted by The American Library Association found that over 70% of parents oppose book banning leaving many public school districts in a bind. We invite you to share your voice on the banning of books in schools and libraries in the USA.
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Ongoing discussion
Climate Resilience with Laura Lengnick & Meredith Leigh
Climate change is the concern of every writer because it is the concern of every person. Every season, we meet with Laura Lengnick, Meredith Leigh and friends to discuss everything related to agricultural and climate resilience.
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