Big Ideas

Climate change, the world economy, migration —tricky issues like these raise questions about the sustainability of small island societies. With a special focus on island perspectives running through the 2018 festival, we open with a high-level debate on hopes and possibilities for islands like ours. With a wake-up performance by Deneka Thomas.

Master calypsonians Black Sage and Myron B debate the positives and negatives of life in a small island country, and what the future may hold.

Books and chocolate. Rum and chocolate. Dreams and chocolate. A specially conceived tour for NGC Bocas Lit Fest patrons starts with viewing documents in the Heritage Library collection to comprehend... Read More

Scholars Alison Donnell and Evelyn O’Callaghan and writers Kei Miller, Lorna Goodison and Sharon Millar discuss the value of Caribbean literary archives and the challenges of identifying and preserving a writer’s “papers” in the digital age.

Tracey Baptiste, author of the Jumbies series for young readers, on traditional folklore as subject matter for fiction writers.

The UK journalist, author of Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, talks to Marina Salandy-Brown about nationalism and ethnic tensions in contemporary Britain, 70 years after the arrival of the... Read More

A documentary on the life and career of the greatest exponent of calypso from Costa Rica, Walter Ferguson, “Calypso King” of Cahuita, followed by a talk on the international reach... Read More

Books and chocolate. Rum and chocolate. Dreams and chocolate. A specially conceived tour for NGC Bocas Lit Fest patrons starts with viewing documents in the Heritage Library collection to comprehend... Read More

The state of our national instrument, and its possible futures, discussed by pan arranger Jeannine Remy, musician Johann Chuckaree, Nestor Sullivan of Pamberi, and journalist Mark Lyndersay, chaired by Sunity... Read More

Presenting new pieces inspired by T&T’s literary archives, by Andre Bagoo, Anu Lakhan, and Breanne McIvor, joined in conversation with Kei Miller. In partnership with Caribbean Literary Heritage, supported by... Read More

Barbadian writer and editor Robert Edison Sandiford on balancing creative and editorial roles, and the literary scene in Bim.

Scholar Stephen Stuempfle discusses his new book Port of Spain: The Construction of a Caribbean City, 1888–1962 and what the hidden archives reveal about the development of T&T’s capital, with... Read More

Words meet costumes and performance in T&T’s traditional protest masquerade. In partnership with the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts.

In North America and Europe, home to substantial Caribbean diaspora populations, recent politics have put questions of ethnicity and migration on the front burner. UK writer Afua Hirsch, author of... Read More

Writers and translators Adalber Salas Hernández of Venezuela, Loretta Collins Klobah of Puerto Rico, Haitian-American Danielle Legros Georges, and Vahni Capildeo of TT/UK on how and why writing crosses borders... Read More

What does “Commonwealth literature” mean in the 21st century, and how do writers from the very different nations of the Commonwealth question the history that connects them? Writers Romesh Gunesekera... Read More