Vladimir Lucien

Vladimir Lucien (born 1988)[1] is a writer, critic and actor from St. Lucia.[2] His first collection of poetry, Sounding Ground,[3] won the Caribbean region's major literary prize for anglophone literature, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, making Lucien the youngest ever winner of the prize.

Career

Lucien began his artistic career at St Mary's College as an actor, where he starred in a number of productions. He was inspired to begin writing poetry by Kamau Brathwaite. He stated that he appreciated that Brathwaite was "a culturally engaged poet."[4] Lucien did not begin seriously writing poetry until 2008: "I started writing poetry seriously when I started UWI in 2008. What I was writing before was coming from a very empty place and it was not much anyway."[5]

Lucien has had a great deal of success in the short time that he has taken the profession seriously. His works have been published by journals, editorials and books including The Small Axe Journal, Wasafiri, IM magazine, The Caribbean Review of Books, and The Caribbean Beat. He has also received awards for his work, including first prize in the poetry category of the Small Axe Prize 2013, and the overall OCM Bocas Prize for Literature 2015.

Central themes

When Vladimir Lucien was questioned about the overall message behind his first published book, Sounding Ground, he was wary of ascribing too much to "essentialism thinking".[6] He said, "I am less sure about making a statement, or trying to say something, as opposed to doing something... I had to find my way out of seeing 'essences.'"[6]

Despite this, some common themes can be seen throughout Sounding Ground. In one of the book's poems, "To Celebrate St. Lucian Culture They Put On Display," Lucien criticizes the lack of education given to St. Lucia's children. He stated, "The history of the country is still unknown to the average child... Not a single monument to tell us that we stand on the same ground as enslaved people stood on years ago. I suppose the poem is looking at a certain way of talking about loss. But if we never knew what we had, it follows that we will not really know what exactly we are losing."[5] This theme of St. Lucian people not having a deep enough understanding and awareness of the history of their people can again be seen in the poem, "The Nobodies of Never." Lucien writes,

"Soon it must come, useless as the lament of wind,
that grief for those people you never were, for the gone
and unborn nobodies of never.

We are drowning here in the depth of our air
(or the air of our depth), within ourselves, and the sea
is eternally leaping to rescue us
from the death of which we were unconscious;
the death of the self-unspoken for, the nobodies
we never cared to know."

Here, Lucien highlights the lack of attention being paid to the past of the St. Lucian people. In saying, "the death of the self-unspoken for, the nobodies we never cared to know," Lucien is saying that in a way the St. Lucian people are allowing the history of their ancestors that should play a role in their "selves" to die, because they do not care to learn about them.

Another common theme throughout Lucien's work is family. In various poems he speaks about his own family members and their experiences, while relating these stories to bigger points regarding the St. Lucian people. One such poem is "Stone," which discusses the life of his great-great-grandfather, a very skilled cement layer who built many prominent buildings in St. Lucia. Lucien makes a bigger point through this poem about the poor people of St. Lucia being the labor who builds these structures, but the poor never gain the benefit of infrastructure themselves. Lucien writes,

"Nothing swayed in the breeze where he had been,
just cities stiff like straightened negro hair;
nothing but his shovel making its own wind
flinging grey waves over his shoulder as if it was
some distant horizon. None of the cities,
the buildings, would ever be his, but he
never looked back long enough to know."

Lucien also uses a story about his grandmother being a great cook to illustrate how St. Lucia's history is so violent and at times horrible that the people feel the need to leave it in the past in order to move forward. Although based on his other works, Lucien may not agree with this concept he illustrates in the poem "My Grandmother’s Mind for Manman", writing,

"My grandmother, "Ms. Yoolee," carries
that thought like a basket of unsold produce on her head
from the market in Bridgetown, leaving behind the hot
memories of violence, the damp salad of her worries; things
that—were she to carry it all in her basket—would weigh her down,"

Publications

  • Sounding Ground, published July 1, 2014

Personal life

Lucien currently resides and works in his native St. Lucia with his wife and two children.

References

  1. ↑ Shivanee Ramlochan, "The questioner: Vladimir Lucien", Caribbean Beat, Issue 117 (September/October 2012).
  2. ↑ "Peepal Tree Press". Peepal Tree Press.
  3. ↑ Tanya Batson-Savage (2 May 2015). "Vladimir Lucien Wins 2015 Bocas Prize with Sounding Ground". Susumba.
  4. ↑ http://caribbean-beat.com/issue-117/questioner-vladimir-lucien#axzz4eAmvkuUy
  5. 1 2 http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2014/06/the-rhythm-of-how-we-see-an-interview-with-vladimir-lucien/
  6. 1 2 http://stephaniemaymckenzie.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2-3.pdf
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.