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Join Robert and Linda, the editors of ArtsEtc, as they offer personal takes and twists on culture in Barbados and beyond... Stage Right, Stage Left continues a journey started seven years ago in ArtsEtc: The Premier Cultural Guide to Barbados, their groundbreaking print newsletter. Follow the rest of the adventure online at www.artsetcbarbados.com.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Yvonne Weekes - Green Reader, bridging worlds





Yvonne's poem doubles as her Green Statement, doubles as a prayer...



Untitled


If the life-giving gullies of Barbados were to run blood

And Broad Street sank under the weight of sanguine waters

And there was no Bop or Baygon to blow up

either the mosquito or fill our lungs

- Fool: everyone knows a mosquito has no lungs

Would we then regret the casual discard

of plastic lipstick butts into empty cane fields?

Would we finally regard the butterflied lizards

children targeted in a game of Cowboys and Indians?

Would we remember the soft petals of the flamboyant trees

picked naked for vain pleasures?

Would we recount the flying fish fleeing our acid waters

recycle the soda pop bottles full of deadly dyes

raise our eyes to skies dropping in on us

and remember to pray for a world

of clean-running waters

pure coral reefs and fish

that look like our grandmother’s memories?


Copyright © 2011 by Yvonne Weekes



About the Author

Yvonne Weekes is an actress, writer/director, teacher, and currently the Theatre Arts Coordinator at Barbados Community College. Winner of the Frank Collymore Literary Award in 2004 for her memoir, Volcano, her first play, Blue Soap, was published in 2010. Her most recent work, Broken Dolls, aired on CBC in 2011. Yvonne is currently involved in writing and directing community drama pieces for the AIDS Foundation of Barbados, the Ministry of Health and the Barbados Government Information Service that deal with AIDS awareness, stigmatization and discrimination as well as other chronic non-communicable diseases.

Yvonne's appearance at GR11 on Saturday, June 18, bridges the literary and theatrical when she takes to the Folkestone stage with the Barbados Community College theatre group. (Green Readings is a trademark of ArtsEtc.)

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