ROCHELLE WARD - Events & Recent News

Storytelling Workshop

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 23:45:42 GMT

As much as writing can be a pretty lonely craft, creating worlds in one's head or chewing on ideas, there is equal beauty and urgency in pouring fuel onto the smoldering hearts of the next generation of creatives. Someone poured into the younger me, several someones.

So, when an invitation to speak to high schoolers in the performing arts crash-landed in one of my Whatsapp chats, I accepted, despite a conflicting appointment, despite the horrors of needle-in-a-hay-stack parking in town and despite the sour breath of a long workweek breathing down my neck.

I entered Philipsburg Culture Center, backstage with a few late comers, crossed the stage and slinked down into a bright red theatre chair in the first row. The flat-chested black walls stood overhead like silent African guards, protecting the memory and shadows of past performances. This was sacred ground. The cool air brushed aside my elevated body heat and in minutes it felt as if my brisk walk from the University didn't even happen.

I sat next to my host. The Head of the Culture Department, one of my someones, was talking to the savvy group of uniformed youths, who found strength in numbers and comfort in earbuds. The main stage had appropriately become the backdrop and the ascending staircase between the audience had become the stage. The gap was enough to talk across from one generation to the next.

What is there to say about story telling? It hadn't dawn on my yet. I listened to the Head of the Culture Department stressed that shyness has no place in show business and one should be bold in telling our stories. I listened intently still to the stories in my mental library and thumbed through Tangle to select the Genesis story of me , Spitfire, a story of teens, It is Written and a story of us, Airborne. In the activities, they became books, and movies and songs and heart and we celebrated those creative embryos with laughter, questions and collective attentiveness. In that moment in the heart of a busy Caribbean capital, we, what we felt, what we've experienced mattered more than Netflix, Youtube, and video games. In that moment we set aside the shyness and believed in our uniqueness. After attempting to spell my stage name, two tenacious young women walked away with a copy of Tangle.

In the end, walking back to the university in the company of one of my someones, I wondered if we were able to set a few creative hearts ablaze.

Tangle Book Party, Features All New Generation Artists at Dutch Quarter Community Center

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 08:00:00 GMT

PHILIPSBURG:--- The book party for Tangle by Rochelle Ward has a star-studded set of artists belonging to the author’s generation, said Jacqueline Sample of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP).

The book launch for Tangle is a free admission happening at Dutch Quarter Community Center, on Friday, December 10, at 8 PM.

The evening’s highlight is the recital by Ward from her debut poetry book. The excitement continues with the dance performance by Jonathan van Arneman of Atlantis Rebirth.
Then there’s the exhibition of photo art by Cameron Hyman, an essential part of welcoming guests into the community center, which will be transformed by décor artist Lucinda Larich Audain of Funtopia, said Ward.

Bestselling author Tamara Groeneveldt will make an appearance too, not as a poet but as the MC for the program—which features as guest speaker Dr. Rhoda Arrindell, an educator and the nation’s leading linguist, said Sample.

“Working with these gentlemen and ladies represents my opportunity to collaborate as an artist and to create something new,” said Ward, who also writes under the name Faizah Tabasamu.
Tangle books will be available for guests and Rochelle Ward will be on hand for autographs following the culture-rich program. Refreshments will be served.

The 132-page collection includes seven sections: Spitfire, Birthstrings, Hills, Kings, Heirloom, Faces, and IG Snapshots. Ward’s poetry encompasses womanhood, St. Martin childhood and neighborhood memories, Caribbean nostalgia and culture, and the urgency to preserve and engage in nature, said Sample.

Tangle is available for early birds at Arnia’s bookstore, from the poet in person, and from everywhere at Amazon and SPDbooks https://bit.ly/3HwS4jW, said Sample.

News that Tangle was on its way earned Ward the opening guest writer’s place at New York’s Pace University literary fest last October. The author holds an MSc in Management Studies from The University of the West Indies.

Ward is also an English and Literature teacher at St. Maarten Academy. She has recited her poetry at demonstrations, slams, concerts, and literary festivals in Anguilla, Dominica, St. Martin, Nevis, Montserrat, and the USA.

Tangle by Rochelle Ward, a “haunting” new book published in St. Martin .

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 03:23:49 GMT

PHILIPSBURG:--- Tangle by Rochelle Ward (Faizah Tabasamu), a “haunting,” “sensual” poetry book, is now in St. Martin bookstores and online for everywhere, said Jacqueline Sample of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP).
“Tangle is a living organism” with “Haunting poems that vibrate and explode in the eye and heart,” said Belizean author Sean Taegar.

“Ward draws together things that might not want to be drawn together; she tangles history, place, memory and a deeply sensual vision of human experience,” wrote Pace University professor Jane Collins in the book’s introduction.

Ward, who hails from Middle Region, writes about murder in her village with the same layering of calm and turbulence as she writes about her experience in New York City when the Twin Towers exploded.

In her poems, Ward’s joy about her father’s breakfast ritual is captured with the same ease as the strange familiarity of young people’s response in Trinidad to the threat of disaster in the poem “Earthquake.”

The visit to her grandmother’s house in Nevis is not disentangled from her defense of the Great Salt Pond as a daughter of “Soualigua.” Then there’s Ward’s society of hair grooming among women and the telling of the kingship stride of ordinary men, all take on mint meaning in Tangle.

The 132-page debut collection includes seven sections, entitled Spitfire, Birthstrings, Hills, Kings, Heirloom, Faces, and IG Snapshots. Ward’s poetry generally encompasses womanhood, Caribbean nostalgia and culture, and the urgency to preserve and engage in nature.

Tangle is available at Arnia’s bookstore, from the poet in person, and at Amazon, and SPDbooks https://bit.ly/3HwS4jW, said Sample.

Ward holds an MSc in Management Studies from The University of the West Indies. The English and Literature teacher at St. Maarten Academy high school has recited her poetry at demonstrations, slams, concerts, and literary festivals in Anguilla, Dominica, St. Martin, Nevis, Montserrat, and the USA.

Rochelle Ward (Faizah Tabasamu) is the curator at the saltfish & Lace blog. She is a recipient of the Catapult Lockdown Virtual Salon grant. Ward’s poetry also appears in the anthology Where I See the Sun – Contemporary Poetry in St. Martin (2013).

St. Martin poet Faizah opens New York’s Pace University literary fest.

Sun, 03 Oct 2021 07:00:00 GMT

PHILIPSBURG:--- “Have book will travel!” is a Facebook saying by House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP). And news of Faizah’s new book has already landed her a lit fest invitation, said HNP’s Lasana M. Sekou.
Faizah Tabasamu (Rochelle Ward) is a guest poet at New York’s Pace University Butterfly Clips Festival on October 11, 2021.

The St. Maarten Academy teacher and the island’s newest published writer will open the literary festival at 7 pm, reading poems from Tangle, her debut book. The lit fest runs until October 15, in virtual and venue formats.

Faizah will also be interviewed, and she will engage with the writing exercise hosted by Dr. Jane Collins, Tinuade McClish, and Shea Teague, said the Butterfly Clips Festival organization.

Collins wrote the introduction for Tangle. The Pace University literature professor said that in the collection Faizah “tangles history, place, memory and a deeply sensual vision of human experience.”

Not only is Collins acquainted with the quality of Faizah’s work but the poet opened September with the launch of the Tangle e-book, published here by HNP and making her travel-ready for recitals and book tours at home and abroad, said Sekou.

While eager beaver-poetry lovers have been downloading the Tangle e-book, the print edition of Tangle will be in bookstores by the end of October, said Sekou.

At the Pace University Butterfly Clips Festival, Faizah will join a list of 13 guest writers, award-winning poets, and editors that includes Alysa Hantgan, Charles North, Khadijah Queen, and Jake Bauer. Faizah’s Tangle e-book will be available for download.

Unmask to go virtual! Tangle author Rochelle Ward Faizah Tabasamu is the featured poet at the opening program of Pace University Butterfly Clips Festival 2021. (© RW courtesy photo.)

Folks looking to check out Faizah Tabasamu (Rochelle Ward) and the exciting list of guest writers and programs offered at Pace are encouraged to register online.

“We’ve already seen a lot of traction on Instagram and butterflyclips.pace.edu and creativewriting.pace.edu with registrations for workshops, readings, interviews, and our static content,” said Dana Jaye of the lit fest

CATAPULT LVS 17 - Rochelle Ward & Kendel Hippolyte!

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 14:49:15 GMT

The Soualigan | a One SXM Interview

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 07:00:00 GMT

The second meditation before the read is a jostling of the mind, a search, trying to find which room the creation resides.

Special thanks to
ONE SXM
for having me on their program. It was a fruitful conversation of how creativity, entrepreneurship and education comes together in my life as a Soualigan.

ROCHELLE WARD - Events & Recent News

Storytelling Workshop

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Tangle Book Party, Features All New Generation Artists at Dutch Quarter Community Center

Keep Up! Join the Tangle Mailing List

Tangle by Rochelle Ward, a “haunting” new book published in St. Martin .

Keep Up! Join the Tangle Mailing List

St. Martin poet Faizah opens New York’s Pace University literary fest.

Keep Up! Join the Tangle Mailing List

CATAPULT LVS 17 - Rochelle Ward & Kendel Hippolyte!

Keep Up! Join the Tangle Mailing List

The Soualigan | a One SXM Interview

Keep Up! Join the Tangle Mailing List