Culture: "Jamerican Marshals Miami Carnival

A Jamaican-born actress who is currently on the HBO hit series “Ballers,” is set to help lead off this year’s Miami Broward Caribbean Carnival – that is if Hurricane Matthew does not force the event to the canned.

Stacy-Ann Rose(left), who plays Dr. Robbins, a neurologist turned therapist and close friend of lead star of ‘Ballers’ Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, is set to join thousands of masqueraders at the Miami Broward Carnival on October 9, 2016 at the Miami-Dade County Fairgrounds as this year’s Celebrity Grand Marshall.

“Although I’ve never been to a Caribbean carnival, just knowing how exciting and inviting the Caribbean culture is, I know it will be a life-changing experience,” Rose recently commented.

Rose was born in Kingston, Jamaica and moved to South Florida at age of 15 to join her parents who had gone ahead years prior to pave the way for her and her younger brother Andrew to have every chance at realizing the American Dream. She went on to attend Miami Dade Community College and Florida State University where she obtained a Bachelor’s and a Master’s in International Business and Marketing and began pursuing acting immediately after.

Rose has previously appeared in TV and film roles in “Dolphin Tale,” “Hoot” and “Burn Notice.” The actress has also taken her talents behind the camera as a producer on her second full length feature film, “Break The Stage,” which profiles a young girl coming to terms with personal challenges in life while leading her step team to a national championship. This film will hit screens in 2017.

The Miami-Broward Carnival, now in its 32^nd year, is set to go on despite Hurricane Matthew. It will wrap up on Sunday with a Grand Parade and Concert. The Kings/Queens and Individual panorama competition is set for Saturday, October 8, 2016 from 3 -11 p.m. at Central Broward Regional Park (3700 NW 11th Pl, Lauderhill, FL 33311) while the MBC J’ouvert is set for October 8, 2016 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Performers this year include Kes the Band, Edwin Yearwood and Alison Hinds.

Culture: Jamaican Poet Claudia Rankine is a MacArthur "genius" Fellow

Meet the 2016 MacArthur Fellows

“While our communities, our nation, and our world face both historic and emerging challenges, these 23 extraordinary individuals give us ample reason for hope. They are breaking new ground in areas of public concern, in the arts, and in the sciences, often in unexpected ways. Their creativity, dedication, and impact inspire us all.”

—MacArthur President Julia Stasch

• 

  Ahilan Arulanantham

  American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California

  Los Angeles, California
  Human Rights Lawyer 

  leading advocacy and legal efforts to secure the right to due process for immigrants facing deportation and working to set new precedents for the constitutional rights of noncitizens.

   More 
• 

  Daryl Baldwin

  Miami University of Ohio

  Oxford, Ohio
  Linguist and Cultural Preservationist 

  restoring the linguistic, cultural, and intellectual heritage of the Myaamia (Miami) nation to its present-day descendants through a multipronged approach of research, education, and academic partnerships.

  More 
• 

  Anne Basting

  University of Wisconsin / Milwaukee

  Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  Theater Artist and Educator 

  revealing the power of storytelling and creative expression to engender sustained emotional connections among elders experiencing cognitive impairment.

   More 
• 

  Vincent Fecteau

  San Francisco, California
  Sculptor 

  whose deceptively intricate, abstract pieces provoke thoughtful reflection and bring viewers to the threshold between visual perception and objective knowledge of three-dimensional space.

   More 
• 

  Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

  New York, New York
  Playwright 

  using a range of theatrical genres in subversive, often unsettling works that engage frankly with the ways in which race, class, and history are negotiated in both private and public.

  More 
• 

  Kellie Jones

  Columbia University

  New York, New York
  Art Historian and Curator 

  whose research and curatorial practice have been instrumental in introducing the work of critically important, but under-recognized, black artists to the canons of modern and contemporary art.

   More 
• 

  Subhash Khot

  New York University

  New York, New York
  Theoretical Computer Scientist 

  tackling unresolved questions in optimization and approximation and contributing to significant advances in the field of computational complexity.

  More 
• 

  Josh Kun

  University of Southern California

  Los Angeles, California
  Cultural Historian 

  exploring the ways in which the arts and popular culture are conduits to cross-cultural exchange and bringing diverse communities in Los Angeles together around heretofore unnoticed cultural commonalities.

  More 
• 

  Maggie Nelson

  California Institute of the Arts

  Valencia, California
  Writer 

  rendering pressing issues of our time into portraits of day-to-day experience in works of nonfiction marked by dynamic interplay between personal experience and critical theory.

   More 
• 

  Dianne Newman

  California Institute of Technology

  Pasadena, California
  Microbiologist 

  merging methods and approaches from disparate fields to investigate the co-evolution of bacteria and their environments, from the ancient Earth to the human body.

   More 
• 

  Victoria Orphan

  California Institute of Technology

  Pasadena, California
  Geobiologist 

  whose studies of microbial communities in extreme environments are shedding new light on the biogeochemical processes underlying the cycling of nutrients and energy that shape the Earth’s climate.

   More 
• 

  Manu Prakash

  Stanford University

  Stanford, California
  Physical Biologist and Inventor 

  applying principles of soft-condensed matter physics to unravel microscale mysteries of living and nonliving matter and inventing affordable technologies for global education, health, and science explorations.

   More 
• 

  José A. Quiñonez

  Mission Asset Fund

  San Francisco, California
  Financial Services Innovator 

  whose model for establishing the creditworthiness of underbanked populations is affording them a pathway to mainstream financial services and improving their financial stability.

   More 
• 

  Claudia Rankine

  Yale University

  New Haven, Connecticut
  Poet 

  crafting critical texts for understanding American culture at the beginning of the twenty-first century in inventive, ever-evolving forms of poetic expression.

   More 
• 

  Lauren Redniss

  The New School's Parsons School of Design

  New York, New York
  Artist and Writer 

  fusing artwork, written text, and design in a unique approach to visual nonfiction that enriches the ways in which stories can be conveyed, experienced, and understood.

   More 
• 

  Mary Reid Kelley

  Olivebridge, New York
  Video Artist 

  whose unique vision spans a variety of media and culminates in arresting, playful, and erudite videos that explore the condition of women throughout history.

   More 
• 

  Rebecca Richards-Kortum

  Rice University

  Houston, Texas
  Bioengineer 

  developing point-of-care diagnostic technologies for use in low-resource settings and inspiring the next generation of engineers to translate lessons from the classroom into solutions for global health disparities.

   More 
• 

  Joyce J. Scott

  Baltimore, Maryland
  Jewelry Maker and Sculptor 

  repositioning beadwork into a potent platform for commentary on social and political injustices.

   More 
• 

  Sarah Stillman

  The New Yorker

  New York, New York
  Long-Form Journalist 

  bringing to light the stories of people usually invisible to mainstream reporting and providing new and compelling perspectives on even well-covered social justice issues.

   More 
• 

  Bill Thies

  Microsoft Research India

  Bangalore, India
  Computer Scientist 

  advancing the socioeconomic well-being of low-income communities in the developing world through innovative communication and digital technologies that respond to real-world constraints.

   More 
• 

  Julia Wolfe

  New York University

  New York, New York
  Composer 

  synthesizing various musical styles in highly physical, large-scale narrative compositions that reimagine folk traditions and lore and address issues of the American worker.

   More 
• 

  Gene Luen Yang

  San Jose, California
  Graphic Novelist 

  bringing diverse people and cultures to children’s and young adult literature and confirming comics’ place as an important creative and imaginative force within literature, art, and education.

   More 
• 

  Jin-Quan Yu

  Scripps Research Institute

  La Jolla, California
  Synthetic Chemist 

  pioneering new methods for the catalysis and functionalization of carbon-hydrogen bonds and enabling the development of versatile, novel, and beneficial chemical compounds.

   More 

Some Olympic themed motivation

In the wake of Jamaican Alia Atkinson's disappointing swim in the 100m Breaststroke finals in Rio (still great that she made a second finals), we offerthis perspective from Alvin Day

The Olympics certainly can be a symbol of success, personal power, persistence, commitment and a host of other virtues. However, beware the seduction of stadium competitions contrived to entertain us and create heroes.  They tell a false story of life, based on scarcity, where one wins and all the others lose. Believe the gold medal story and you may think that only one person in each event is truly great. Nature is abundant; it is not organized for one winner in each field, but for as many as will prepare, implement, fail and go again until they outperform themselves.

For every one gold medal recipient, there are scores who failed to qualify for the event, often by a fraction of a second, or a fraction of an inch. Yet, for many who pay the price of preparation and do not get to compete at the Olympics, life offers an abundant array of options that can bring spectacular success—success that is often more sustainable than a one-off medal might be. In the meantime, after the gold and the glory, many “Retired Olympians struggle with return to daily life,” according to an NCB TV article.

Sport: Trying to cast a large shadow over the Chinese

Jamaican diver Yona Knight-Wisdom hopes his uncharacteristically large frame will not only help him stand out among his competitors at his first Olympics but also enable him to win by making as small a splash as possible.

Standing at 1.89m tall and weighing close to 90kg, the first male diver from the Caribbean island to qualify for the Olympics is at least 20cm taller than the slight Chinese divers who dominated the London 2012 Olympics.

While Knight-Wisdom sees his height as a disadvantage that prevents him from spinning as fast as other divers, his weight allows him to propel himself higher from the springboard and execute the harder dives, he said.

“My advantage is that I’m able to get a really clean entry into the water, so I make very little splash,” said Knight-Wisdom, who competes in the individual 3m springboard event. “I’m just aiming to keep it really, really simple and just try to get the most consistent performance, because I feel like people will make mistakes.”

The British-born 21-year-old, whose father is Jamaican and mother is from Barbados, now counts himself as a professional athlete after competing his Sports and Exercise Science degree at Leeds Beckett University, in May.

Sponsored by British-Jamaican musician and sauce maker Levi Roots, he chose to represent Jamaica after struggling to get into the British diving team.

Jamaica has only had one other Olympic diver, Betsy Sullivan, who participated in the 1972 Games in Munich.

In the run-up to the Games, Knight-Wisdom said he is training at least 25 hours a week with only Sundays off.

While he is keeping his eye on the final and clinching a spot in the Fina/NVC Diving World Series next year, his main goal is to enjoy the occasion, he said. Still, he admits his presence holds greater significance in breaking down stereotypes about divers.

“To see an African-American diver kind of at the top level in this sport, there’s very few of us,” he said. “Some people do still get shocked when I say I’m a diver.”

Meanwhile, China’s Wu Minxia will be making her bid to become the most decorated female Olympic diver during the Rio Games, fronting an attempt by her country to sweep all eight titles next month at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre.

The 30-year-old, who equalled her former diving partner Guo Jingjing’s record of four gold medals at the 2012 Olympics, will lead China’s 13-member team who are expected to dominate after winning six out of eight golds at test events in February.

They also won six of the eight titles at the London Games.

Among China’s other headline gold medal hopes are Qiu Bo, who won silver in the men’s 10m platform event in 2012, and 15-year-old Ren Qian, who scored a perfect 10 at the February test event in the women’s category.

China’s diving team leader, Zhou Jihong, has remained cautious over the country’s chances, saying that China “had no advantage in the men’s events” and warned that “dark horses” lurked in the women’s platform events.

“It is very hard. Our rivals are at high-level, very experienced and at the same time very young,” she was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying about the men’s events in May.

The major competition for the Chinese men are the United States’ David Boudia, who will defend his 10m platform gold at his third Olympics, and Britain’s Tom Daley, who took the bronze in London.

Wu, however, will not be defending her individual 3m springboard gold and will instead compete in the synchronised event with team-mate Shi Tingmao.

North Korea will also be pinning their medal hopes on teenager Kim Kuk-hyang in the women’s 10m event after she won her country’s first gold at last year’s world championships.

While China dominated the test event, there are concerns that weather changes at the outdoor venue, especially during Brazil’s winter, could affect divers’ performances. The venue also suffered temporary power cuts during recent competitions.

Books: Talent only Gives You One Good Book, A chat with writer Garfield Ellis

- FROM susumba.com; Tanya Batson-Savage

Garfield Ellis is possibly one of Jamaica’s best-kept secrets. So, at his reading at Bookophilia, on Hope Road in Kingston, from his latest novel The Angel’s Share (Akashic Books), it wasn’t that surprising when members of the audience queried whether he had any other books. 

Ellis is a reasonably prolific writer (not Kwame Dawes prolific - but then which writer is?) with four novels and a collection of short stories as well as several anthologized short stories to his credit. So while he hasn’t been hidden away, he has not been one of those writers buzzed about, though he should be.

His reading from The Angel’s Share which was shortlisted for the 2015 Una Marson Award is a novel about a father and son reconnecting as they travel across Jamaica, showed that Ellis continues to be a keen discerner of the hearts of boys and men, again presenting the beautifully flawed and textured characters found in For Nothing at All and Such as I Have both published by Macmillan Caribbean.

Like many of our other writers, Ellis left Jamaica’s shores to seek succour in the albeit cooler, but certainly greener pastures of Canada. This was the first time he was coming home in a few years, and his last major reading on the island was at the Calabash International Literary Festival in 2012.

“It’s good to be in Kingston. I haven’t been here in 3-4 years,” Ellis said to the small yet eager audience who had been quietly sating their literary appetites on his words. As soon as he finishes reading one passage he is urged to read another. But good things also come between the readings as Ellis talks about writing and his relationship with Jamaica.

“My friends tell me that after two weeks in Jamaica, you want to come back [to Canada] but obviously they haven’t been here during mango season,” Ellis said as listed mango among the things he has been happily gorging, on along with copious amounts of Red Stripe beer and jerk pork.

He explains, however, that his relationship with the island is deeper than these culinary delights.

“It’s Jamaica that feeds me, so I have to keep coming back,” Ellis says. revealing that most of his writing has taken place here. His next book, titled Land We Love, will be the first one that was largely written in Canada, although his eyes remain firmly trained on Jamaica.

He explains that Land We Love will be his first real look at violence in Jamaica has he has generally tried to steer clear of it.

“When you love the country, and you have a sensitivity, it’s very difficult to face,” Ellis said. Indeed when bursts of violence has appeared in his writing it has been sensitively treated. It’s often visceral while being deeply moving as the emotional carnage is usually a part of the package. 

Garfield Ellis

Ellis revealed that although he has found himself working in numerous nine-to-five jobs, his writing has been a consistent part of his life.

“It is the only thing that does not bore me, that I do every day and it does not bore me,” Ellis said. “Everything else, after 3-4 years it bores me, but writing feeds me.”

Of course, a major part of writing is learning to deal with rejection, especially, if like Ellis, you choose not to go the route of self-publishing.

He notes that even though he has written a lot, he doesn’t send his work to many publishers and the earlier version of The Angel’s Share had earned a 2-page rejection letter from the publisher. On reading that, he put the book aside for a long time then finally he realized what needed to be fixed and that’s when he understood what the publisher had been saying about the work. 

“The truth is that, a lot of times, the rejection makes sense if you can see what the publisher is saying,” Ellis said.

He clearly has no delusions about writing as he says Talent will only take you so far. 

“90% of what makes a novel is hard work,” Ellis said. “Talent only gives you one good book. You have to learn the rest.”

Arts: Jamaican painter Stuns China crowd

Jamaican Artist, Peter Wayne Lewis stunned art enthusiasts during his recent exhibition in Beijing, South Florida Caribbean News reports.

Drawing inspiration from his Jamaican parents and grandparents, the vibrant colours of the Caribbean, jazz, quantum physics, and the spiritual teachings of Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism.

Jamaican artist extraordinaire, Peter Wayne Lewis, was on hand at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) to give Caribbean dignitaries an exclusive tour of his latest works on display in the heart of Beijing’s art district.

“Her Excellency Mrs. Fay Pickersgill lauded Lewis’ work and commended his commitment to promoting Jamaica and the Caribbean. H.E. Chandradath Singh from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago; H. E. Paul Gomez of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas; H.E. Denis Antoine of Grenada and H. E. Dr. the Hon. Chelston Brathwaite of Barbados were also in attendance.”

Lewis’ multimillion dollar pieces were shown alongside the works of the late Frederick J. Brown, the first American artist who was granted permission to exhibit at the National Museum of China in 1988. Brown was a friend of Lewis for some 20 years and Lewis felt it his duty to remind Beijing of the historic nature of Brown’s work and his relationship to the city.

Lewis’ effervescent pieces incorporate elements of avant-garde jazz as well as Caribbean, European, African, Chinese and Japanese music. Indicative in his work is a rhythmic element stemming from his passion for music, and his respect for dissonance, space and even silence. Lewis credits Jamaica and the Caribbean as being significant contributors to his work.

“The biggest influence  about living in the Caribbean are the colours, the texture, the light, the people and the conversations you have, all ripple through my body and come out in my work which really reflect my beginnings,” notes Lewis.

This renowned Jamaican artist has exhibited in several of the world’s greatest cities including London, Beijing, Berlin, New York and Tokyo. Lewis remarked that his ability to exhibit in Beijing is by far one of his most important and greatest accomplishments, one than took approximately ten years to achieve.

“As you know, thousands of Hakka people from China migrated to Jamaica in 1854. These people are a part of what makes Jamaica what it is and is a part of who I am … Coming to China is like coming back home … I have been to West Africa, Germany, France and other places, as a human being it is important to travel and experience our collective humanity,” said an enthusiastic Lewis.

The exhibition consists of 15 paintings; however, this is the first time that “Monk Time Suite” and “Buddha Plays Monk” have been on display publicly. Lewis further notes the role each individual plays in his work:

“This is my humble attempt to try and understand what the world is … this is my way of documenting the journey …. This is reality, it is not abstract. The completion [of each piece] starts with you, it is a conversation, it is what we do as human beings, it’s a dialogue.”

Born in Jamaica in 1953, Lewis migrated to the United States as a child in 1962. He spent 30 years in California before taking up his current position as a Professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Lit: Jamaican among 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Shortlist

Confluence, Nova Gordon-Bell (Jamaica)

Confluence.
C—o—n—f—l—u—e—n—c—e
Noun.
Union; flowing together; rivers merging; the coming together of ideas. the coming together of factors.
Confluence.
Miss Evelyn doctor give her a prescription for blood sugar and it make her forget who she is and where she was. She walk out of her house into the street in her night gown and start talk to people who nobody can see. My employer, Miss Kaylie, go for Miss Evelyn, pack her and her grip in the back of the car and bring her back from country to the house in Kingston.

Miss Evelyn is Miss Kaylie grand-mother youngest sister and Miss Kaylie say she owe everything she have to Miss Evelyn. Miss Evelyn living with us now so Miss Kaylie can take care of her. 

Nova Gordon-Bell is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, Mona, where she studied English Literature, Media and Communication. She has won several awards for her short-stories and poetry. Having pursued a career in public information and advertising, Nova currently teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in media, communication and creative writing.  A lecturer at the University of Technology, Jamaica, Nova lives in Jamaica with her sons, Benjamin and Joshua.

Lit: LA Times snags Booker winner Marlon James as Critic-at-Large

The Los Angeles Times welcomes the new critics-at-large and one of them is Jamaican

novelist Marlon James (top left in photo strip), author of A Brief History of Seven Killings, and whose debut novel "John Crow's Devil" wasa finalist in the LA Times Book Award . Congratulation! [The other critics are Laila Lalami, Susan Straight, Viet Thanh Nguyen, David Kipen of Libros Schmibros: Lending Library, Alexander Chee, John Scalzi, Rigoberto González, Rebecca Carroll, and Adriana E. Ramirez.] Here is an excerpt from the article:

Meet the new Critics-at-Large for our books pages. These 10 writers have beautiful voices, brilliant minds, critical insights and strong opinions. We are delighted that they will share them with us.

We see books as being more than something that sits on a shelf (although they are that, enduringly). Books are the keystone in how we define and understand our contemporary moment, our world.

With these 10 writers, we will investigate our culture through the conversations that books anchor, in deep dives and in real time. We will explore the mysteries of reading and writing; consider the achievements, acknowledged and under-acknowledged, of the writers who have come before; question the roles of race, heritage, class and gender in what we read; take on the vagaries of the publishing industry, and more.

These writers have won dozens of prizes, from a lifetime achievement award to a prize for an unpublished first book. They hail from four different nations and have lived all over the world. [. . .]

Marlon James: James won the 2015 Man Booker Prize for his novel “A Brief History of Seven Killings,” a fictionalized account of the 1976 assassination attempt on Bob Marley. He received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for his prior novel, “The Book of Night Women,” a story of 19th century Jamaican slaves. Born in Jamaica in 1970, James now teaches at Macalester College and lives in Minneapolis

Auto: Heil, Sensei!, A German-Japanese mashup, Jamaican Style

In Jamaican motorsports - as in motorsport everywhere - lighter weight equals better performance, and better performance often requires some creative intervention.

Like taking a '96 BMW M3 chassis and cutting, welding and re-fabricating it around a Mitsubishi Evo VIII power plant. Yeah, you read right. Champion race driver (2009 series) Chris Campbell, who actually dethroned the legendary "King" David Summerbell on his way to the top of the podium had the challenge of retaining a certain cc-rating at a particular weight, a feat which wold have been impossible on the BMW engines currently available - not to mention the cost.
The answer?: the sleeker, more efficient and more affordable Evo engine.

So, after some six months of brutal hard work and tender loving care, Campbell emerged with this sporting hybrid, this Teutonic-Japanese mashup done as only Jamaicans truly can.

And who should be Campbell's corporate patron in this endeavour? Jamaica Beverages which, through its Frutabrand (as well as Busta sodas and Turbo energy drink) will be seeing the motoring ace through the balance of the 2011 season (Campbell took 2010 off), the next outing being the "Caribbean Invasion" at Dover raceway over the Jamaican Labour Day weekend (as of this Friday).

A public launch session at the Michi Super Centre retail outlet on the outskirts of Kingston, media, racing enthusiasts and Jon Q public had their opportunities to gawk at the " fusion car" and get info on the process and the prognosis.

So, will this hybrid racer lead Campbell back to the winner's podium? Time will tell, but his experiement  is sure to arouse interest among manufacturers and enthusiasts around the world.

Heil - Sensei!

Media/Live Music: 52 Tuesdays Live.... with Michael "Mikey T" Thompson

Michael "Mikey T" Thompson

Think of him as a "radio postman" for lie music.

Since inaugurating his 'Live Tuesdays on-air performance slot On KOOL 97 FM some 52 weeks ago, veteran Michael "Mikey T" Thompson has not missed a single outing.

That amounts, in Thompson's humbly imprecise calculations, to "over 140 acts - solo and group, through the period." It also means well over a hundred hours of live music programming for the year at a time when radio offerings are sorely lacking in diversity and  - coincidentally? - live music is enjoying something of an underground resurgence, with several Kingston venues, new and old, offering a variety of live acts almost every night of the week.

But beyond the sheer numbers, Thompson, who was part of KOOL97 since the stations inception some 14 years ago (KOOLFM Anniversary celebrations are now close at hand), points out that the series offers musicians of various stripes "to  be heard solely on the basis of quality". That measure is, of course Thompson's to determine, but he makes it clear that he accepts no fees or other considerations from artistes in exchange for their appearance, only their time and energy.

And the roster that have responded is loaded with substance: Freddie McGregor, George Nooks, No-maddz, Coco T, Carlene Davis, Althea Hewitt, Pam Hall, Duane Stephenson and many more heavyweights. Alongsid ethese are up-and-comers like all-girl outfit Azadeh, Don Giovanni and Exile Di Brave and Lady Genius.

 Even more than the names, 'Live Tuesdays" has lanced the notion that Jamaican music is one-dimensional. The above-named acts and others (including Robert Dubwise, Pon Fyah band and Earth Kry) have laid down everyconceivable stage and sub-genre of Jamaican music, from mento to dancehall and beyond, incoporating, ska, lover's rock, rock, jazz, dub, EDM and other progressive offshoots.

To mark the occasion, Thompson will welcome another veteran outfit, Jamaica's undisputed champion showband, Fab 5 Incorporated, who will a special "....and Friends" edition of Live Tuesdays. Future episodes going into Year 2 will feature the likes of Mr Vegas, Uprising Roots and more.

And far from basking in the success, Thompson is hard at work, conceptualizing and planning some "special additions" to the format that he says he will elaborate on in short order.

So to those under the impression that the "house of Jamaican sound" is condemned and out of date, her comes Mikey T with a special delivery.  

http://www.amway.com/EMXGroup

Poetry: Rankine's "Lyric" gets a UK Forward

 Claudia Rankine. Photograph: John Lucas/Graywolf Press

A book described by one critic as eavesdropping “on America and a racism that has never gone away” has won the top award at the 2015 Forward prizes for poetry.

Claudia Rankine has already won the National Book Critics Circle award in the US for Citizen: An American Lyric. On Monday night at a ceremony in London she was named winner of the Forward prize for best collection.

Citizen was described by the jury as a “powerful book for our time”. The chair of judges, AL Kennedy, added: “This is writing we can recommend with real urgency and joy. It’s a stylistically daring poetic project about the dehumanisation of those deemed outsiders ‐ we found it exhilarating and genuinely transformative.”

Kennedy said she and other judges had individually “pressed this book on others with real fervour. It will, we know, raise questions about the nature, purpose and importance of poetry.” Citizen is published as poetry but some have described as more of a lyric essay.

Kate Kellaway, reviewing in the Observer, wrote: “[Rankine’s] achievement is to have created a bold work that occupies its own space powerfully, an unsettled hybrid – her writing on the hard shoulder of prose. She eavesdrops on America and a racism that has never gone away.”

Citizen includes extracts from documentary film scripts, screengrabs of Zinedine Zidane headbutting Marco Materazzi at the 2006 World Cup, JMW Turner’s painting The Slave Ship and an essay on Venus Williams.

Rankine, who was born in Jamaica and now lives in California, teaching at the University of Southern California, wins £10,000.

Two other winners at the awards, now in their 24th year, were Mona Arshi, who won the £5,000 Felix Dennis prize for best first collection, and Clare Harman, who won the £1,000 prize for best single poem.

Arshi drew on her 10 years as a human rights lawyer – including her representation of the right-to-die campaigner Diane Pretty – for her debut collection Small Hands. The jury praised the collection for its “imagination, sensuality and beguiling playfulness”.

Harman won for a poem first published in the TLS, The Mighty Hudson, a biographical sketch of a strongman who overreaches himself.