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| John Robert Lee. Photograph by Marion Nelson and Allen Sherman |
by Dr.
Leanne Haynes
John Robert
Lee (b. 1948) is a St. Lucian writer who has published several collections of
poetry. His short stories and poems can be found in many journals and
international anthologies. These include Facing the sea (1986), The
Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse (1986), The Faber Book of Contemporary
Caribbean Short Stories (1990), The Heinemann Book of Caribbean Poetry
(1992) and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse (2005). Lee
published Sighting and other poems of faith in 2013 and elemental:
new and selected poems (Peepal Tree Press) in 2008. In 2007 he
published Canticles, a collection of poems illustrated with his
photographs. Other publications include Artefacts (2000), Saint
Lucian (1988) and Vocation (1975). In 2006, he
co-edited with Saint Lucian poet and playwright Kendel Hippolyte Saint
Lucian Literature and Theatre: an anthology of reviews, which is recognized
as a significant contribution to the documentation of the history of Saint
Lucian writing and drama. He is the compiler of a Bibliography of St. Lucian
creative writing (2013). He writes an occasional blog at www.mahanaimnotes.blogspot.com. He created Mahanaim Publishing, St. Lucia.
Leanne
Haynes: What needs to be done to help the St. Lucian arts scene evolve and get
the recognition it deserves?
John Robert
Lee: Firstly, more creative arts education programmes are needed at all levels
of our education system. The arts will evolve when young people come to a
better, informed understanding of the arts. This education also creates an
audience for the arts, an audience that is informed, understands what is being
presented to them, and so they are better able to appreciate and evaluate
creative arts.
Recognition
that is broad and appreciative begins with the education. Then when groups of
artists, informed patrons and Government arts and culture departments begin to
recognize and award significant achievements in the arts, with prizes, awards,
scholarships and related kinds of recognition, real and substantive evolution
will take place. This involves recognition of the work of those who have gone
before as well as current arts endeavours.
LH: How’s
the momentum of the local arts scene at present?
JRL: The
momentum in St. Lucia is very promising. We have just staged a successful arts
festival, called Artreach, have launched a re-configured Jazz and Arts
festival, created a Creative Industries Ministry in government, so there are
some very exciting things happening. Lots of young talent is emerging and many
senior artists are presenting new work, across all areas of the arts. Film and
fashion are the newest arts that are growing in popularity, and the work of
those artists is gaining recognition, even beyond St. Lucia.
LH: I have
noticed that you are fully embracing new forms of social media (Twitter,
Facebook) as a way of artist promotion. How important is it for artists to make
this transition in the age of new media?
JRL: I have
been involved for many years with traditional media, print and electronic, both
as producer and subject of news and interviews. So I am aware of the great
changes that digital technology has brought to media, promotional publicity,
and information provision. I think artists ought to be aware of what is
happening with new media, both for their own work, and as means to inform the
public of what they are doing. I have never cared too much for the image of the
artist as some special being, off on clouds or in high towers, to whom lowly,
less endowed folk must make their way, most worshipfully. Several years ago, I
interviewed George Lamming, who said that artists, writers, intellectuals were
workers like all other workers. Also, I remember it was Sartre who spoke of the
artist as ‘engaged’ in his society. That has always been my approach. So it is
important that artists be aware and open to all the exciting things happening
in technology and new media, which is also to say that the perennial
requirement of the artist to find and make private and hard working time for
their own work, remains unchanging. And there is always room for artists who
tend to be media and technology-shy.
LH: And on
the subject of technology- why did you decide to publish your new collection as
an e-book as well as in the traditional print form?
JRL: There
was no great planning behind that. I was publishing my latest collection of
poetry with a print on demand company in the USA and they offered those
options. Compared to the cost of producing a book in St. Lucia, it was a good
deal for the price. But alongside that international edition, I have produced a
local edition of the book, Sighting and other Poems of Faith under
my own publishing imprint, Mahanaim Publishing.
LH: You are
the Information Officer at the Folk Research Centre in SLU. How’s it going
there? Any new developments? What role does it play for
researcher/artists/general community on the island?
JRL: The
FRC remains a great resource for anyone researching the arts and culture of St.
Lucia. We have recently created the Harold Simmons Folk Academy to provide more
structured teaching in cultural education. Frankly, response has been very poor
up to now. We have an invaluable repository of print and audio visual
resources, for which we are trying to find money to digitize. Harold Simmons is
regarded as the father of modern St. Lucian arts and culture. He was a mentor
to Derek Walcott, Dunstan St. Omer, Charles Cadet and that generation of great
talents that grew up in the forties.
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| Lee’s new collection of poetry |
LH: Do you
teach creative writing? If so, how does your interaction with creative writers
inform your own creative practices? If not, would you consider it?
JRL: I no
longer teach, though I have taught Literature, Language, Creative Writing,
Drama, Library science. My interaction then with creative writing students was
always rewarding, since I learned much from the preparation and from the
students themselves. I always learn something from interactions with the work
of other creative writers, especially my own contemporaries. Various ways of
seeing, of expressing their ideas, their forms and so on. I learn much too from
other genres of artists – musicians, painters, sculptors, film makers, theatre
people. They all provide images for my own writing, sooner or later.
LH: I am
always keen to know about the creative processes of writers. Where do you
write? Is there a particular space that puts you into that creative frame of
mind?
JRL: My
poems, stories and other articles are triggered by all kinds of experiences and
influences. A thought, a conversation, something seen on the street, something
read, anything and everything. I think a writer is always picking up ideas as
they move through their world. Certainly, my faith and the Bible are major
sources of inspiration, as I see my life and experiences through my faith. My
recent book, Sighting and other poems of Faith, reflect this, as I
use my culture, landscape, people, language etc to mediate my faith
perceptions. My faith is very much incarnated in my life, world and
experiences. Flesh and blood reality. And then, sooner or later, the ideas and
inspiration come together and I write the work. I find I write less now, and
poems (which tend to be long) take longer to write. Often now, I take a long
time meditating on, thinking about, what I want to write. Eventually, however,
the poems come. I try not to worry about writer’s block or dry periods, which
happen often.
As to
spaces for working: I generally use my personal home study. I can’t write on
beaches or in parks. I just enjoy the atmosphere and people and collect images
out there. I find now I write almost totally on the computer, where before I
always wrote first in longhand and then typed up. I can think ok on the
keyboard, and even manage my forms there. I would say I am a formalist in form,
like strict formal structures, even while I also like using freer, more
experimental forms. In a recent 7 part poem on the work of young St. Lucian
artist Gary Butte, I took a kind of intuitive approach to his art, allowing the
very distinctive work to pull, as it were, the poems out of me. Kind of like
jazz improvisation, with musicians playing against each other. Kamau
Brathwaite’s response (I had used some of his lines as epigraphs) was that the
work didn’t seem to be mine!
A lot of my
writing, especially where I am working with images (art or photos), is
something like the creation of icons, where the monks do all kinds of spiritual
preparation to prepare themselves to be channels of spirit. Not that I go into
all that. But where I am working on religious themes (as in ‘Canticles’), my
approach is very much like that. I have a poem in Elementalcalled
‘writing the ikon’ where I describe, in verse, the approach. By the way,
‘writing the ikon’ is the term used by ikon-art makers, a great image for a
poet producing word icons!
LH: Derek
Walcott describes you as ‘a Christian poet’ – what do you think of the term?
JRL: I have
no problem with the description. I tend to avoid labels, but that one I accept.
I am a Christian poet, in the line and tradition of John Donne and the
metaphysicals, T.S. Eliot (my great modern influence), Gerard Manley Hopkins,
and prose writers like C.S. Lewis, Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, and others. My
Christian faith informs my vision, my thinking, my creative work, and pretty
much all else. One of my few remaining ambitions is to be included in an
Anthology of Christian poetry, alongside those all time greats. Not only for my
personal accomplishment, but to see Caribbean Christian poetry take its place
with universal, international, timeless poems of faith.
I am also
aware of myself as a Christian and Christian artist in the pluralistic
democracies of the West, multi-faith, multi-cultural, largely secular, largely
hostile to the evangelical faith I hold. I often think that my artist friends
are not sure about me, that ‘church bwoy’, and my church colleagues are also
suspicious of me as ex-Rasta, friend of irreverent artists and suspect people,
etc. So I am often in a middle ground, left to find my own way, which is fine
with me. However I must say that I believe I have gained mutual and genuine
respect from both sides, and others in my island world, including politicians.
And while
Christianity has been such a great religious influence in the West Indies, I
don’t find many significant Christian writers. So I am aware I am in virgin
territory. Contemporary Poets like Kwame Dawes, Lorna Goodison and older poets
like A J Seymour and John Figueroa have published religious/Christian poems,
but I am not sure they would describe themselves as “Christian poets.” I
had prepared a proposal some years ago for an anthology of Caribbean
religious/or Christian poetry, but it hasn’t gone anywhere.
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| John Robert Lee with fellow writers, Derek Walcott, Jane and Kendel Hippolyte |
LH: Your
new collection, Sighting and Other Poems of Faith, is
interspersed with your own photographs. How long have you been interested in
visually recording your home island of St. Lucia?
JRL: I have
been doing photography since I was in school. I have remained amateur. But
photography, my visual art, like my involvement in drama, all impact on my
writing. My writing is descriptive, visual, dramatic, with movement, which come
from the photo eye and my acting and directing drama experience . Film is also
an influence.
LH: This
fusion of the visual and textual not only firmly anchors your new collection in
the Caribbean but also serves to represent St. Lucia and its mass of writers
and visual artists. You essentially bring together two forms here as you did in
your 2007 collection Canticles. Is this a form you want to continue
with in future collections? Why do you choose to combine the two elements?
JRL: I have
enjoyed bringing the visual and textual together in my work. In my recent
public readings, in St. Lucia and at international festivals, I have been using
visual projections with my readings. At some points, I also use music. I have
no particular reason for the fusion. I don’t remember even when I started.
The
challenge of course is how the poems will stand up when/if the images are
removed. While some of the poems are directly related to the images, I also try
to write so that the poems can stand on their own.
LH:
‘Prodigal’, one of the poems in your new collection, is dedicated to Kendel and
Jane Hippolyte. What influence/impact have these specific writers had on your
own creative outputs?
JRL: The
new collection is dedicated to The Church. The poem ‘Prodigal’ is dedicated to
Jane and Kendel, who with McDonald Dixon, are my closest contemporaries and
writing friends, at home. Derek Walcott is of course a mentor, and has been
kind over the years. Through him, I, and Kendel and others at home, have met
major writers like Seamus Heaney, Arthur Miller and Yusef Komunyakaa. Through
Derek, I have interviewed for television, many of these. Many of my poems are
dedicated to fellow writers and friends and mentors (like Walcott, Brathwaite,
John Figueroa, Lorna Goodison) who have been supports, inspirations. And yes,
over the years, we at home have somehow helped each other to keep going in
these beautiful, but tough and philistine home towns, in which it can be
difficult to keep being creative. But St. Lucia is a unique place for writers.
No one can underestimate or overestimate the influence of the Walcott brothers
and their generation on us who came after. Kendel Hippolyte has often pointed
to the real literary tradition that has evolved in St. Lucia. And somehow, we,
the younger ones who followed, have avoided destructive quarrels and divisions,
and have generally supported each other, even as we move in our own directions,
and remain fiercely independent.
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| An Anthology of Reviews, compiled and edited by John Robert Lee and Kendel Hippolyte |
LH:
Christianity is obviously a major theme in your new collection and the
collection’s title poem ‘Sighting’ is a specific example of this. Here
Bob Marley, for example, is described as ‘Prophet’. How then does faith, for
you, specifically allow for an understanding of the Caribbean experience?
JRL: My
faith, founded on the Bible, shows me the Caribbean as part of the human
experience. A beautiful but fallen world, in need of redemption, like
everywhere else. And if God made oaks, willows and apples, He also made
coconuts, hibiscus, egrets and all that is part of my world. So what is true
for the world, rich or poor, is true for us in the Caribbean, as human beings,
made by God, in need of His Grace and mercy and love, as all humankind. So that
basic, common faith of Christians, informs the poems I write out of and about
my Caribbean experience. And my faith enables me to cope with all the
challenges of my life in this part of the world. As I wrote in one of my poems,
I try to practice ‘the simple faith of a simple man.’ Christ is also incarnate
in my world, and I make Him so in my poetry. I try to avoid the politics of
religion, self-righteous religiosity, fully aware of the mixed history of
religion and my own Christianity. No room, given that background, for
self-righteous posturing. I try to live a Bible-based Christian faith, even
within the context of formal ‘churchianity’. While I wouldn’t describe myself
as liberal, I try to hold a moderate approach in my faith. But the poems speak
of where I live my faith.
LH: I might
then extend this to another prominent theme in the collection: landscape. How
do your beliefs converse, even interact, with the fauna and flora of the
island? (This question springs to mind from reading From ‘Silver Point,
Easter’).
JRL: As
I said earlier, God the Creator made the banana and avocado trees in my garden,
as He made Wordsworth’s daffodils. So my God walks on my beaches, eats my
creole bread, ascends from my mountains, and so on. His people dance my dances,
dress in our creole costumes, play our musical instruments to praise Him. All
this you will find in poems like ‘Canticles’ and ‘Silver Point’. I sing of
Incarnation as in the poem ‘elemental’ and others.
LH:
Actually, I think reading ‘From Silver Point, Easter’ raises a key point about
poetry and its ability to document, even trace the changes that occur on a
small island such as St. Lucia. You talk about the Castries fire of 1948 and
how the streets are now different. As an archivist and documenter of the
cultural and literary progression of your home island, and also further afield
(here I am thinking of your portrayal of the destruction caused by the Haitian
earthquake in the poem ‘Cathedral’) how important is it to map these changes,
natural disasters, and cultural practices?
JRL: The
poet/writer/artist is also a chronicler, an archivist of their times. So I
think the good artist does this anyway. And they map the changes that occur in
their own lives as Kendel Hippolyte does for Castries and St. Lucia. So does
McDonald Dixon, my personal mentor. The committed, engaged artist is involved
at all levels in the life of his society.
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| John Robert Lee with friends and fellow writers, McDonald Dixon and Kendel Hippolyte |
LH:
‘Incarnation’ is dedicated to the St. Lucian writer and academic Vladimir
Lucien. How should established writers like yourself provide guidance to
younger writers earlier on in their careers?
JRL: Certainly,
talents like Vladimir (Lucien) must be helped by veterans like myself to
negotiate the treacherous waters. It is easy to get discouraged, become
judgmental, have misplaced expectations, and give up, if someone who has been
there does not offer a helping hand. Not in a condescending, patronizing way,
but with genuine respect for the new talent, and a concern to, somehow,
protect, where possible, the young, sensitive spirit, till they find their
strength.
LH: What’s
next for you Robert?
JRL: I have
just completed a 200 page Bibliography of St. Lucian Creative writing, which I
had started in the eighties, abandoned for a number of years, and then
recommenced. I hope the Cultural Development Foundation in St. Lucia, who asked
me to complete it, will publish it in time for the ACLALS conference here in
August. I am also working on a new collection of poems for Peepal Tree Press.
So I am keeping busy, even as I continue to work at the Folk Research Centre.
I also keep
busy with my church, though I am not doing much preaching or teaching these
days.
And keeping
my eye on the movements of young artists and writers like those associated with
ARC.
Dr.
Leanne Haynes
Leanne
Haynes has recently finished a PhD at the University of Essex, which was funded
by the Arts and Humanities Research. Her thesis focused on St. Lucian
literature and mapped out the island’s rich literary landscape. She also
completed her MA (Postcolonial Studies) and BA (Literature) at the University
of Essex. Haynes has presented material at conferences in the UK and Europe.
She is a keen creative writer and amateur photographer, with publications in
the UK and US.
[from Art, Recognition, Culture, June 10th, 2013]
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