Antiquity

Writing from Barbados, which used to see itself as an English county (Bimshire), Adisa Andwele’s collection sets out to uncover and celebrate a past whose links with Africa survive in the folkways of country people, in a history of resistance and cultural creation, and in its own heroes such as Bussa, Nannie Grigg, and Clement Payne. But it is a past in danger of obliteration by the new forces of global/Americanized culture, and Adisa’s poems have an urgency in their rhythms and striking images. This is a Barbadian collection to the core, a celebration of Barbadian nation and language, the rhythms of its music, and its distinctive African-derived culture.

Adisa Andwele, born in 1957 as Michael Richards, is one of the leading performance poets in the Caribbean. An outstanding jazz trombonist with his hot band Fuzion, he is stirring up a storm with his conscious poetry and pioneering musical styles of “Saf” and “Ringbang” He lives in Bridgetown, Barbados.