Renowned writer, documentarian Dionne Brand to give final Diana Massiah Lecture

Dionne Brand
Dionne Brand

Celebrated poet, novelist, non-fiction writer and documentarian Dionne Brand will deliver the final Diana Massiah Lecture in Caribbean Studies, to be held on Nov. 19 from 5 to 7pm.

Presented by the Centre for Research on Latin America & the Caribbean (CERLAC), the talk will take place at Founders Assembly Hall, 152 Founders College.

Brand’s talk is entitled “The Language of the Blue Clerk” – a meditation on what poetry offers to “being” in the diaspora; a consideration of poetry’s diacritical possibilities in diaspora.

The event will begin with a reception at 5pm, followed by the Grace & David Taylor Graduate Scholarship Award in Caribbean Studies at 5:45pm. The lecture is scheduled to begin at 6pm.

This year’s recipient of the award is Savitri Persaud, who will receive a $5,000 award for her work on a project called “ “Madness’ and the Caribbean Psycho-Spiritual: Understanding Gender, Psychiatric Disability, and Violence in Guyana.”

The event is co-sponsored by the Department of Humanities, Founders College, the departments of English and Equity Studies, the School of Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies, Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, Harriet Tubman Institute and York Centre for Education & Community.

This lecture is the last in a series that was presented in Diana Massiah’s name.

About Diana Massiah

Diana Massiah, originally from Barbados, settled in Toronto in the mid-1980s. She maintains close ties with the Barbadian community locally and back home, and has been a director of the Barbados Ball, an organization focused on raising funds for postsecondary scholarships and health care. She is also involved with the Harrison-Queens College Alumni Association, Toronto Chapter. The Diana Massiah Lecture Series in Caribbean Studies was a three-year lecture series established in celebration of Massiah’s 65th birthday.