Today on My Poetic Side we look at the Roald Dahl poetry being brought to life by puppets and this year’s Brooklyn Caribbean Literature Festival.

Roald Dahl Poetry to be Brought to Life

The somewhat twisted poetry of the author and poet Roald Dahl is to be brought to life thanks to the Puppet Theatre in Norwich.

The theatre is to celebrate a milestone anniversary with not one but two of the author’s poetry pieces as part of a series of special performances that will take place online. The venue is one of many that is not yet able to return to any form of opening following the lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic.

The author’s first collection of poetry was Revolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts and it contains some of his most comically dark and wicked offerings to children. The story of a gun-toting Red Riding Hood brings a new twist to the traditional tale and Dirty Beasts contains an aunt-guzzling anteater, inventions which appeal to both children and adults alike.

This year, the Norwich Puppet Theatre is celebrating its 40^th anniversary, an event that has been marred by the pandemic. However, they have decided to recreate this work by Dahl for a series of short performances that will take place online.

Organisers of the event say that it has really helped to lift spirits and they are delighted to be working on this very special project in their 40^th year; especially as it is based on the work of Roald Dahl, their one-time patron.

Special permission for the event has been granted by the Roald Dahl Story Company and it has also received support from the Arts Council England and the Martin Laing Foundation.

The performances will be available on a weekly basis and will be shown on the theatre’s YouTube channel. A new show will be uploaded every week in the run-up to the October half term. They will remain there until early December to offer everyone a chance to view them.

Virtual Brooklyn Caribbean Literature Festival to Celebrate Bajan Writers

This year will mark the second year of the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival (BCLF), and the organisers of the annual event have confirmed that two Barbadian writers will be celebrated this year.

This year, for obvious reasons, the event will take place online, but it promises to be a real party of Caribbean stories. The theme this year is Nation Language: Prose, Poetry, Sound. This year the event is dedicated to the memories of Kamau Braithwaite and Paule Marshall, both of whom are recently deceased. The term Nation Language was coined by Braithwaite and is used to uplift and validate the various language forms used by the people of the Caribbean.

This year the festival will be hosting a new award for writers as well as its existing award for Caribbean-American writers. The winners of both awards are expected to be announced later this month.