Global Journal Showcases Students’ Insights with Literary Greats

English Majors Share Their Perspectives on Iconic Poet Kamau Brathwaite’s Works

MEDIA CONTACT: Damita Chambers, dchambers@bowiestate.edu, 301-832-2628 mobile

(BOWIE, Md.) – Five Bowie State University English majors will have their insights on the works of iconic Barbadian poet Kamau Brathwaite published next month in an international literary journal, along with prominent writers and scholars.

The students – Shayla Herrón, Mohamed Jalloh, Sayeeda Jordan, Nadja Logan and Marqui Williams – developed the article for refereed journal, The Caribbean Writer, as an assignment for Dr. Kim Evelyn’s class. The students participated in a collaborative process to produce an interview-style article for the special issue dedicated to Brathwaite. Dr. Evelyn says the students provided a fresh take on Brathwaite’s poetry, interpreting how his work speaks of Caribbean heritage and resonates with their own experiences.

“Their perspective is a fresh outlook as undergraduate students who are coming to a poet’s work, for perhaps, the first time,” said Dr. Evelyn. “I asked them to think about how Brathwaite was doing something innovative in his work, which would have resisted the colonial values he was raised with. They connected that idea to a larger, global view of resistance and poetic forms as a way to reclaim cultural modes that are suppressed. It gave them an angle to think about contemporary cultures when we participate in educational systems that tell us there is a right way to behave, write or speak.”

Brathwaite, who died in 2020, is widely considered one of the major voices in the Caribbean literature. He was also a founding editorial board member of The Caribbean Writer, which is published annually by the University of the Virgin Islands.

“When I talk with our English majors about what their goals are, a lot of them say that they want to be published authors. Getting published in a journal is a good entry point into advanced scholarship,” said Dr. Evelyn. “It says to our students, ‘You can do this. You can join in these important philosophical and literary conversations. You have a voice here.’”

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