With over a hundred people in attendance, the Vieux Fort launch of My Father Is NoLonger There that took place on Saturday 19 October at the international American University (IAU) was deemed a great success. The audience was treated to a thought-provoking presentation by Vieux Fort community leader and activist, Mr. Julius James, on the value and future of reading and writing such works as Dr. Reynolds’, poetic renditions by A-Level students of the Vieux Fort Comprehensive Secondary School and students of the Benefield Comprehensive Secondary School, and musical performances by pannistMcAllister Hunt and the Wayne Benoit and Dave Maximim folk and Kwéyòl duo.
But perhaps the highlight of the performances was the poetry presentations of the first and third place winners of the 2019 Vieux Fort North poetry competition hosted and sponsored earlier in the year by the honorable Moses “Musa” Jn. Baptiste.
Many in the audience opinioned that there were no boring moments in the proceedings and that they enjoyed every minute of the two-hour-long program. Moreover, the audience was so taken aback during Dr. Reynolds’s reading, that the silence of emotional attentiveness was palpable.
Perhaps another sign of the audience’s enjoyment and appreciation of the event was the lively question and answer session that followed Dr. Reynolds’ reading, in which the school children participated just as much as the adults.
Besides the launch activities, the students and teachers of some of the schools in theSouth had another reason to be joyous. Because in keeping with Dr. Reynolds’ interest in the education of the nation’s children and that education was one of the areas he had earmarked to make a contribution upon returning to St. Lucia after his twenty-year North Americasojourn, it was announced that Jako Productions would unofficially adopt five schools in the South, namely Belle Vue Combined, Beanefield Comprehensive, Augier Combined, VieuxFort Primary, and his alma mater, Vieux Fort Comprehensive.
This meant that these schools can expect regular book reading visits from Dr. Reynolds, they can count on him to incorporate them into Jako Productions’ literary events, he will encourage them to use him and his fellow writers as resources, and anytime he publishes a new book the schools can expect gifted copies. As if showing that he meant business, at thelaunch Dr. Reynolds donated signed copies of My Father No Longer There to each of the schools.
My Father Is No Longer, a memoir inspired by the accidental death of Dr. Reynolds’ father, is the author’s fourth book. His previous three books included the novel, Death by Fire (2001), winner of the M&C main prize for literature; the creative nonfiction, The Struggle for Survival: an historical, political,and socioeconomic perspective of St. Lucia (2003), winner of an M&Cprize for prose; and the novel, The Stall Keeper (2017), winner of the CDF nationals arts award for prose.
Published by Jako Books, My Father Is No Longer There is all of 215 pages and has a list price of US$24.95, but is being sold in St. Lucia at EC$60.00, and at the launches it will be sold at the discounted price of EC$50.00. The book is available online at amazon.com both in print and as eBook. In St. Lucia it is available at T&M Toy Stationery (JQ Plaza, VieuxFort), GloMart (Gablewoods South) Best of St. Lucia & Noah Arcade(Hewanorra International Airport), and AF Valmont (Laborie Street, Castries).
The Vieux Fort launch was the first leg of Dr. Reynolds’ national tour. The Castries launch, taking place at AllianceFrancais, The Pyramid, Pointe Seraphine, on Thursday 7 November 2019starting at 6:30PM, will be the second leg of the tour.
In continuation of the tour, Dr. Reynolds will be conducting a launch in Soufriere towards the ending of November, and soon he will start conducting book signings at venues around the island, readings at the island’s secondary schools, and readings at primary schools in the south of the island. And next year he will embark on a regional and international tour.
A Review of My Father Is No Longer There by Multiple Award-Winning poet, Modeste Downes.
The Castries Launch of My Father Is No Longer There
