Donna Weir-Soley, associate professor of English at FIU, was a featured speaker at the second annual Caribbean Literary Festival (CALIFEST), held on June 7th and 8th in Los Angeles. Sponsored by the Jamaican Cultural Alliance, CALIFEST “aims to create an environment that celebrates the spirit and cultural heritage of the Caribbean and its people, and raise awareness about the literary contributions of the Caribbean community in Southern California and in the USA.”
It was
important to Weir-Soley that she attend the festival, which is one of just a
few Caribbean-focused literary festivals in the USA. As vice-president of the
Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars (ACWWS), part of her job is
to promote the work of Caribbean people of all genders and Caribbean women
writers, in particular.
And more broadly, the festival “brings visibility to the Caribbean community
and helps to establish that community as a literary force in the US and
globally. Literature is a way of raising awareness and validating the presence
of a community, and there is a vibrant and established Caribbean community in both
Northern and Southern California.” Weir-Soley’s engagement with CALIFEST 2019
has fostered a partnership with the organizers that will facilitate
collaborations with both established and aspiring Caribbean writers in South
Florida (and at FIU) for Califest 2020 and onwards.
Over a hundred people attended the festival, which also included several writers’ panels and a publishing and marketing panel for aspiring writers. Weir-Soley moderated a panel entitled “Caribbean writers: our journeys and intersecting identities.” Dr. Horace Alexander of San Bernadino Valley College, writer and actress Dionne Audaine, writer Rachel Manley (who is also the daughter of former Jamaican prime minister, Michael Manley, and who was interviewed via the internet as she was unable to attend in person due to an accident), and screenwriter and poet Mikhail Marks, spoke on a wide variety of issues relating to the impact of migration on Caribbean cultures and identities.
When asked to discuss the dominant themes addressed in their works, “the Caribbean writers at Califest demonstrated in their responses that they are by no means a monolithic group. Their writings display complex narratologies and multivalent representations of home, family, identity, worldview, religious beliefs, mythologies, sexual and gender politics, cultural retentions and historiographies.”
Besides serving FIU for over twenty years in the Department of English, Weir-Soley is also an affiliate faculty member in the African & African Diaspora Studies Program, the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, and the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center. Her focus is on post-colonial and feminist theories, African-American and Caribbean literatures, and multi-cultural women’s literatures. She uses literature to teach FIU students about history, culture, human psychology, and spirituality.
The following quote from Weir-Soley highlights the ways she understands her role in the mission of FIU. “We’re “Worlds Ahead” at FIU – literature lets us engage with and imaginatively enter other worlds. By comparing different ways of being, living and understanding at different periods and across cultures, we can transcend the limitations of our own perspectives to become the true citizens of the world we aspire to be, creating a space not just for the haves and the powerful, but for the marginalized and uncounted, a true democracy, where everyone can flourish regardless of political affiliation, race, color, sex, sexuality, gender identity, clout or status.”
