On February 18, I attended an Adult Book Club held by Toronto Public Library in Victoria Village in Toronto (address: 184 Sloane Avenue, Toronto, M4A 2C4, ON). The club was about Red Jacket, a novel written by a Jamaican Canadian writer- Pamela Mordecai. It is one of the Black History Month events that aim to “honour the legacy of black Canadians, past and present” (Black History Month, 2016). The reason why I went to this event because it was a great opportunity to obtain better understanding about black Canadian’s culture and achievements. And also, it was a great view about cross-culture writing’s advantages and challenges.
During the event, the author was talked about her writing experience on Red Jacket and why she tittle it like that. Furthermore, she talked about the Jamaica local situation and local languages’ features, and how she benefited from bilingual writing. And also, she shared her experience about becoming an author and how she thinks about author rewards.
As a Jamaican Canadian writer, Palema published several books about poetry, stories, children's books and essay. The event had four sections. First, it started from a short interview about her, and then followed by a paragraph reading section. The third part is Q & A part, and finally it finished with a signing part.
The event itself is quite simple and normal, and almost 20 readers attended it. They are from local community and loyal readers of her, so the questions they asked were deep-thinking about Jamaican culture and black people’s identity, so that the atmosphere was very enthusiastic, casual and the discussion was closely surrounding to the topic. Even though Palema was late for over twenty minutes, before she came, readers talked about chapters they read by themselves. And I felt the experience they have, the topic they focus and the chapters they read made them familiar with each other even they had never met before.
The sparkling part is that Palema is an experienced writer and interesting person. When she talked, she had some kind of rhythm. It may relate to her experience about poetry and Children’s English textbook writing. She said she taught young teachers about how to teach students and write text book for them, she needed to write in rhythm and formed structure, so that it can be repeat and easily to memorize and children can learn from it. And she also talked about a poem deeply influenced her future writing. It is a poem written by Douglas Florian, "What's big?""a pig is big. / A pig is fat. / A pig is bigger than my hat." (A Pig Is Big) The poem made her to realize the repeat and variety about words for writing. Actually, Through the whole event, when she talked, she is very funny and like to use metaphor and talked in rhythm. Even though, I have not read her book, but from her talk, I can feel her style.
Palema talked about the reasons she wrote this novel in the event. She said she wanted more and more people to know how Caribbean people fight with AIDS and HIV, and fight with their identity, even though her children told her, the world is integrated like a small village, but in her eyes, the things happened in Jamaica is not well known like the things happened in a small village. And at that moment, there was a research just about black people with red hair inspirited by her, she deeply read it and then decided to take it as a story.
And as a Jamaican born writer she has the advantages to write them in juicy way, like she can write the character’s dialogues in Jamaican English, which will make readers obtain vivid local details. The challenges and benefits she talked about bilingual writers changed my mind. Before I thought, it was very hard for a foreign born writer to write English novels. But, Palema’s experience told us, it is also an advantages for the writer who can have two culture and combined them together, which will help let her to be a great bridge for both of the culture.
Even though she is only in the short list of 2015 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, she said she did not care about it. And she gave a metaphor about it, people can not compare apples with pears, because they were different, even though they all fruits. It was a very smart explain. And I felt that no matter in the verbal communication or in the writing situation, using metaphor can make people easy to understand and make the conversation more vivid. This tip can be use in my future writing. And what she talked made me to remember Oscar Wild, a witty writer, I think next month I will read and reflect his quotes for my assignments, because his words are so witty and full of technics. And I will try to use alliteration, metaphor and other figurative expressions in my writing.
The last question she answered is her disciplines about writing. She said she was not that kind of writer who have to force herself to write several hours everyday, except there is a deadline for it. Usually, she also has family, friends and she needs to balance them with work. So when she has ideas or feelings about writing she will write more. If not, she will do some interesting things to let the ideas breeding.
All in all, before I went to the event, I have some fear about it, like whether I can understand because my English is not good enough for this literary event. But after I came to place, I can feel the similar atmosphere which is similar to Chinese author clubs. I have the similar gene with them and I will keep writing and attending events. Furthermore, I will read more cross culture books like Amy Tan’s book. And I can break the fear in my heart and get more involved into the local culture. It is not about success; it is about self-exploration.
Be the “apple”.
