Calabash: So Much Things To Say

Much like the dasheen, there is just so much to be said for the calabash.

It is just the kind of sta­ple that man­ages to mul­ti­task and be mul­ti­lin­gual in one fell swoop.

The cal­abash or bot­tle gourd or opo squash (not to be con­fused with the cal­abaza) is a vine grown for its fruit, which can either be har­vested young and used as a veg­etable or har­vested mature, dried, and used as a bot­tle, uten­sil, or pipe. The cal­abash was one of the first cul­ti­vated plants in the world, grown not for food but as a container.

Cal­abash is also the name of this acclaimed jour­nal of Caribbean Art and Let­ters.

And then there’s the Cal­abash Inter­na­tional Lit­er­ary Fes­ti­val, with­out which this post would be unintentional.

The Cal­abash Inter­na­tional Lit­er­ary Fes­ti­val was founded in 2001 by nov­el­ist Colin Chan­ner with the sup­port of friends, the poet Kwame Dawes and the pro­ducer Jus­tine Hen­zell.

Their aim was simple—to cre­ate a world-class lit­er­ary fes­ti­val with roots in Jamaica and branches reach­ing out into the wider world.  And to read the reviews from press and cre­atives alike, the Fes­ti­val had more than lived up to its heart and mis­sion: ” … Cal­abash is a high-grade inter­na­tional event in which writ­ing from the Amer­i­cas, Europe, Africa and Asia forms a thought-provoking mosaic of story, his­tory and mythol­ogy.”  The Inde­pen­dent on Sunday

The three-day fes­ti­val of read­ings and music with other forms of sto­ry­telling folded in the mix, makes its home yearly in Jamaica, West Indies. True to its Cal­abash is “earthy, inspi­ra­tional, dar­ing and diverse.” It’s the only annual inter­na­tional lit­er­ary fes­ti­val in the English-speaking Caribbean.

All fes­ti­val events are free and open to the pub­lic. Accord­ingly, PASSION is the only price of entry.

For all this and more, I mean to take my place at Cal­abash 2011.

So, what do you know about a Cal­abash? How and where has it shown up in your life? Will you be in attendance?

So much things to say. I’m listening…

ABOUT THE WRITER

Hi there, I’m Tynisha Leon, writer, West Indian, mango-lover, founder and Editor-in-Chief of DASHEEN mag­a­zine — the online des­ti­na­tion where Cul­ture. Feeds. Imag­i­na­tion! If you seek to inno­vate, pro­mote and/or con­tribute to posi­tioning a Caribbean peo­ple and gen­er­a­tion most pos­i­tively then link me! Bless!