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. 

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.

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.

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.
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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.

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.