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Professor Mervyn Morris is new Poet Laureate of Jamaica

Mervyn Morris OM, Poet and Professor Emeritus at the University of the West Indies, Mona, was on Tuesday named Jamaica’s Poet Laureate, the first person thus designated in more than half a century.

The announcement was made by Dr. Wykeham McNeil, Minister of Tourism & Entertainment, during a press conference at the National Library of Jamaica (NLJ) in Kingston.

The Minister, in making the announcement, noted that Professor “remains one of the most resourceful and technically brilliant of Caribbean poets.”

Mervyn Morris, a past student of Munro College, an all-boys boarding school in Potsdam, St. Elizabeth, attended the University College of the West Indies (now the University of the West Indies), Mona Campus and then won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where he began his academic career.  He contributed decades of academic brilliance at the UWI as Professor of Creative Writing & West Indian Literature.

"Giant" and "Icon"

On the website of the University Library, UWI, Mona, he is described as “Writer/Poet who is a literary giant and a cultural icon.”

Professor Morris has produced four collections of poems, The Pond, On Holy Week, Shadowboxing and Examination Centre.

His work is widely published in Caribbean, Commonwealth and British publications he is widely respected as a literary critic.

He received Jamaica’s third highest honour, the Order of Merit, in 2009. 

Revival

The revival of Jamaica’s Poet Laureate programme arose from the collaborative effort of the NLJ, the Entertainment Advisory Board of the Ministry of Tourism & Entertainment, and the Ministry of Youth & Culture. 

Dr. McNeil announced that the NLJ will host the Secretariat and be the “focal point” for the Poet Laureate programme.  He also disclosed that the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), contributed $3.4 million to the programme.

Three years

The appointment of Professor Morris as Poet Laureate will last three years, after which another selection will be made.

The Poet Laureate “will play a pro-active role in promoting poetry as an art and medium for entertainment which captures and disseminates cultural heritage,” Dr. McNeil disclosed.

 

See below the full text of Dr. McNeil’s statement announcing the selection of the Poet Laureate

 

SALUTATIONS

It is wonderful to be here today to announce Jamaica’s first Poet Laureate in 60 years, who has been selected from an esteemed group of highly acclaimed poets, whose literary works have enriched our cultural landscape.

We are here today because of a collaborative process between the National Library of Jamaica, the Entertainment Advisory Board of the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment and the Ministry of Youth and Culture.  At this point I wish to apologise for the Hon. Minister Lisa Hanna who would have wanted to be here but is unavoidably absent.   Let me personally thank Mrs. Winsome Hudson, National Librarian;  Justine Henzell, Chair of the Sub-Committee on Literary Arts on the Entertainment Advisory Board, who has been a warrior and champion for the investiture of a Poet Laureate; special thanks also to the entire Entertainment Advisory Board, and the members of the nine-person Selection Committee who had a difficult task of choosing Jamaica’s Poet Laureate from an esteemed pool of persons.   

As in the majority of countries that have a Poet Laureate, the National Library will be the Secretariat and focal point for the Poet Laureate programme.   The Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), contributed $3.4 million to this literary programme and I anticipate that after these first three years which is the term of office for the Poet Laureate, other entities will also believe in the importance of this  literary renaissance and support the programme.

It is a truism that a country that does not embrace its culture will never be economically prosperous.  Our Ministry is mindful of this and we are continuously working to strengthen the linkages between tourism, entertainment and culture.  Brand Jamaica is so much more than sun, sea, and sand and we want to give visitors more of what Jamaica has to offer.   Cultural experiences, including craft, food, literary and music festivals, help to make Jamaica an even more attractive place to live, work, raise families, do business and visit.  Recognising and enhancing Jamaica’s cultural offerings form part of our ongoing initiative to diversify the tourism product, which will give us a competitive edge in the face of global competition.

Jamaica’s Poet Laureate Programme will help to positively position the island as a key cultural tourism destination by helping to revitalize the arts and preserve our rich literary history. The project dovetails perfectly with our efforts to use programmes such as Arts in the Park, 90 Days of Summer and Reggae Month, its Kingston in February to increase support for and give greater exposure to our local art forms, while using Jamaica’s cultural strength as a tourism attractor.

For a small country, Jamaica is believed by many to be poetry in motion: there is poetry in our music, our dance, our running.   It is a country that has produced many great poets who have explored the essence of our culture and given voice to the aspirations of our people.  Poets such as J.E. Clare McFarlane, Claude McKay, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jean Binta Breeze, Louise Bennett-Coverly, Lorna Goodison and Edward Baugh, just  to name a few.  The Poet Laureate of Jamaica will work with the National Library to stimulate the writing and reading of poetry by the public and develop a greater appreciation for language, the written word and hopefully inspire a new generation of writers. 

Equally important is the fact that the Poet Laureate will play a pro-active role in promoting poetry as an art and medium for entertainment which captures and disseminates cultural heritage.

The person who was chosen by the Selection Committee remains one of the most resourceful and technically brilliant of Caribbean poets.  He attended the University College of the West Indies, Mona Campus and then won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where he began his academic career.  He received the Order of Merit in 2009.  Alongside his own collections, he has written extensively on West Indian literature, and edited various anthologies, as well as the selected poems of Louise Bennett, the iconic Jamaican poet Miss `Lou.’His poetry eschews obvious historical causes, rather taking up the abiding concerns of all men: spiritual love and desire; mutability and mortality; friendship and betrayal; joy and grief.  He is a supreme poet of the everyday  and many of his poems are shards of personal memory, fragments of autobiography.  He moves from social observation to fleeting introspection with ironic detachment, his craft and intellect joined in refining language and feeling to tellingly spare effect. Although a serious poet, he is also a performer, a wisecracking cynical versifier with a sharp wit and a sparkling gift for ingenious rhymes.   

Complex simplicity is a hallmark of this man’s poetry and he often tells painful truths, but without rancour.

It therefore gives me great pleasure to announce that the Poet Laureate of Jamaica is distinguished poet and academic Professor Mervyn Morris.

Congratulations on being selected to assume this distinguishedand exciting role. We look forward to you taking on the prestigious mantle of Poet Laureate and continuing your outstanding contribution to local and Caribbean literature.

Thank You.

 

 



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