I read the following articles this morning with great sadness. As a major fan of the festival and all it represented to Treasure Beach, Jamaica, the Caribbean, and the literary world and as a business owner in TB I am so sorry to see it end.

Here's hoping for a revival somehow, somewhere, sometime . . .

www.calabashfestival.org

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110118/ent/ent5.html

We came from near and far, with our dog-eared books, in heightened-hungry anticipation, listening to great literature spoken in polychromed words of reason, passion, wonder, magic, earthiness, self-reflective humour...on the beaches and in the JAKES Gardens and around convivial tables and craft and food stalls, night-time bonfires, under our destiny-stars, our story-telling and catch-ups continued to unfold.

It was a incredible ten year run. The energy and organization skills of the Calabash team and participants will assuredly be thanked, here, individually. The opportunity afforded Open Mike rhap-sodizers to offer their talents and share glimmers of our communal humanity in song and poetics will be sorely missed. Other outlets for peaceful expression will be sought.

What a Bashment it has been...what a Revelation...what a pilgrimage...what a privilege...what holy days, rain & shine looking for signs and anointments... of Colin-Kwame-Justine and cohorts in a dervish dance of creative production, granny dances to honoured musicians, Miss June Gay's prayer-full-ness...more, more, ever-never more...

Long Live the Great Spirit of the Calabash...May you endure in all the Stories which you stirred and sprinkled!
Back to the Garden...

Gleaner: No More Calabash
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110118/ent/ent5.html

Sad to hear that the CalaBash has been cancelled for good.Been there and liked it.also good for business around TB.guess all good things must come to an end.

Could this be a dream? I see Colin Channer sleeping in a coach in the Gleaner link.

Very,very disappointing!Overall economy is starting to improve and this is a big blow to Treasure Beach.Being the eternal optimist I believe there has to be a way to pull this off or come up with another festival for the same weekend. - Peace

Myself, along with many others am sad and disappointed that Calabash will not be on this year May.
But instead of holding on to the sadness and dissapointment (and the question of "what about the TB economy that weekend now its not on"?) let us thank those who have worked so hard to produce such an amazing festival annualy, and
let us also celebrate how WONDERFUL it was for the past ten years.

THANK YOU JUSTINE, COLIN AND KWAME.
What an achievement!

Quoted from the Observer:

It means that St Elizabeth won't benefit from the economic and social multiplier effects that arise from the over 1,000 festival patrons gathered to hear local and international prize-winning authors including Nobel laureates.

"It's a combination of factors and I don't think that funding has been a small part of that decision... First, there is a feeling of closure that we have completed a festival that was successful, but second, the financial part has been a strain. Never being certain of the budget." (Kwame Dawes)

"We had a fantastic run and the festival effectively accomplished what it set out to do ten years ago, which is to produce a world-class, professionally run literary festival in Jamaica. Calabash has garnered a great deal of attention for Jamaica and the legacy of this exciting event will never be diminished..." (Colin Channer)

Read more:
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/No-funding-blamed-for-Calabash-canc ellation_8301803#ixzz1BVc1g0Z5

Calabash has out grown the Literary Arts Organizers and has now become a community thing Visitors come also for the sense of wellbeing the community has to offer, they feel welcome it is peaceful, friendly and festive .You can not take that away from us
All we need is a new location
I say take it to Calabash bay, make a stage, some musicians, people who would like to read some of their works can write in so we can make schedule's
The Show must go on
Calabash forever!!

Recalling the Vibe of 2010 Calabash Feat

Wordsmiths Mingle Work and Play At A World Away
by Patricia Borns (Boston Globe-Dec 5, 2010)

TREASURE BEACH, Jamaica — Imagine being lifted in a bubble and gently set on a headland by the sea. Famous people casually introduce themselves: “Hi, my name is Cristina [‘Dreaming in Cuban’ novelist Cristina García], and this is Russell [‘Affliction’ author Russell Banks].’’

Far from Negril and Montego Bay, I was in the Jamaican breadbasket of St. Elizabeth parish, among tawny beaches and funky guest houses with names like Irie Rest. Crumpled in my backpack was the paper that brought me here. Once a year in May, sleepy Treasure Beach gathers a world of authors to the Calabash International Literary Festival. I had come to be immersed in their company — and maybe read my work at the famous Calabash open mic.

David Carpenter, an aspiring writer from Boston, had brought his work, too. “Rain a fall, breeze a blow, chicken batty out da door,’’ he quoted a Jamaican proverb as, scrunched under umbrellas, we strolled. It was not his first visit, but it was mine. “I love walking here, the way people greet you. There’s so much love,’’ he said. When he added, “There’s nothing to do in Treasure Beach,’’ he meant it in a good way.

The main streets go by in an eye blink of shops and simple hangouts. They range from a domino players’ shade tree to Fisherman’s Nightclub, with a pool table, the area’s liveliest spot. Overlooking Frenchman’s Bay, the Treasure Beach Hotel for which the town was named served early-20th-century colonial types from the near mountain town of Mandeville. It still functions, a laid-back version of its former self with a great mahogany bar. Footpaths lead to more small bays notched into the coast: Billy’s, Calabash, and Great Pedro Bay, where Shirley Genus prepares an herbal steam bath in her sweat studio that Peter Martin, who visited from the Berkshires, remembers longingly three years later.

As words run through the festival, food runs through the countryside. Fishermen rule, their bright boats feeding the community and whisking visitors to Floyd’s Pelican Bar located a mile offshore, where the best seats are in the water. In the northern distance, the Pedro Plains rise to the Santa Cruz Mountains, Jamaica’s driest yet most fertile earth.

A longtime Jamaican family, the Henzells, run Jake’s, a resort small in size but large in community outreach, its gate open to neighbors and passers-through as well as guests. The writers hang out here; Calabash is held on the grounds. As Carpenter and I sat at an outdoor table whittling our stories for the two-minute open mic, their conversations hummed.

Poet Kwame Dawes, novelist Colin Channer (Newhouse visiting professor at Wellesley College), and Justine Henzell founded the literary festival in 2001, branding it with the vibe of a reggae-inspired salon. In an open field, a billowing tent is pitched. Farmers truck in enough food for three days of readings, live concerts, and late-night happenings. When writers come together with the mostly Jamaican audience, anything can happen. It’s all good, and free.

Throughout the day, 3,000 people trickled in to Treasure Beach, many from a Kingston under siege. Troops had chosen Calabash’s 10th anniversary to seize drug lord Dudus Coke. Finally the sky eked out a sunset, a beauty. The sea calmed, a pale blue-green. Dawes stepped to the mic, the event’s MC, a man who towers in every sense. So it began.

“You know, the theme of all poetry is death,’’ said Billy Collins, a former US poet laureate, who read “On Turning Ten.’’

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka described writing poems on pieces of toilet paper in prison during Nigeria’s civil war. When he raised a bottle of Jamaican Red Stripe beer, the crowd roared.

With the waves rustling like a soundtrack, Bernice McFadden delivered a passage from her novel “Glorious’’ about a woman coming of age in the Harlem Renaissance. It described a trip to the Bronx Zoo where a Mbuti pygmy from the Congo region of Africa was displayed along with the monkeys in their cages.

By night, the lectern became a movie theater for Trevor Rhone’s riff on Jamaican tourism, “Smile Orange,’’ then a concert stage for Etana, a young reggae star who touches Bob Marley’s themes in a surprising, woman’s way. Between the acts, people relaxed into states of dreaminess.

A prodigious amount of eating was going on.

“When Jamaicans return to Jamaica, they cut back on American food beforehand to make room to eat more,’’ Channer explained over a plate of greens. After signing my copy of his novel “The Girl With the Golden Shoes,’’ he opened it to Page 91, and read aloud of “stalls where old negritas sold small fritters made from black-eyed peas’’; “the iron pots that had been used by their grandmothers’’; and “happy voices crackling like a splash of water dripping in hot oil.’’ “When I was trying to re-create the food of 1940s Jamaica, my mind went to Treasure Beach,’’ he said.

Everyone has a favorite place for certain meals: Pardy’s for ackee, curried goat at Diner’s Delite, Jack Sprat for conch stew and fish tea, Oliver’s Dutch Pot for steamed fish.

Thirty-five minutes away, the Black River descends to a low-lying landscape called the morass, with cultural and physical affinities to Lagos and Nigeria. Pontoon boats bear tourists upstream to see the rookeries and crocodiles. At the river’s mouth, the town with its aging Georgian buildings is a shadow of the wealthy trade center that it was, but the market stalls overflow with fresh produce on Sundays. Locals swarm the decks of the big fishing boats as snapper, grouper, and jack are hauled from the holds. Channer’s Page 91 leaps to life here.

Opposite the NCD Bank, a cook ladles turtle, oxtail, octopus, and conch soup from simmering pots. Sometimes he has goat head — “must smell right,’’ a local advised — and cow cod, made from a bull’s penis. “The best soup in the whole world,’’ Channer had promised, giggling only a little. Ask around for the peanut man, scooping roasted nuts into cone-shaped paper bags as it’s done in Ghana.

As the ribbon road enters Middle Quarters, hagglers wave packets of spicy pepper crayfish and shrimp from their outdoor stands. Look for Sharon in the village center cooking them fresh over a Pimento wood fire. Her recipe could not be simpler or more delicious: boil water, add salt, flavor with two big handfuls of crushed Scotch bonnet peppers, and add fresh Black River shellfish. The street food even came with a bar of soap and water to wash our hands.

Many Jamaicans remember a parish where they visited their grandparents, picked mangoes, and skinned their knees. The fruits are memory food, their sweetness one part juice and nine parts longing-love. Carpenter knows this from Angela, his Jamaican-born wife. Stepping to the open mic, he belted out a lusty love poem for her that brought cheers from the crowd.

When Dool McClean, an organic grower who supplies Jake’s farm-to-table menu, clambered up a sweetsop tree, plucked the last fruit and handed it to me, I understood that I had not come to read, after all.

After days of ripening, I took the sweetsop to the beach, where a fisherman was carving lignum vitae and a Rasta sat in a fabulously whorled acacia tree. Carefully removing the fruit’s outer layer and black eyelet seeds, I tasted the flesh, creamy and sweet, like vanilla custard.

“Where are you from? Every time I see you, you’re smiling,’’ a woman in a flowered wrap, one of the festival attendees, addressed me.

Like many of the people at Calabash, I was hungry for simple things. Treasure Beach gave us food.

I understand the Literary arts show will be moving to st Mary the first one was held last September as a trial will they name it Calabash ? This is a quote
" The Calabash International Literary Trust will continue its commitment to the support of the literary arts in Jamaica through its workshop and seminar series and other literary events."

Absolutely, keep the energy going. Calabash has set the pattern. We have spaces, talent and resources.

This is also an opportunity for the community to unite in putting on Calabash 11 with a guaranteed audience and media.

Start the planning today!

This development has hit us like a brick thrown in our faces. We already have reservations to come to TB during Calabash this year. We have been there for three of the Festivals and enjoyed each and every moment, even when it rained. We wanted to hear poets and writers and musicians. I pray we do not hear airplanes instead.

WE CAN DO THIS; Calling on the women's group to do the planning and use that weekend to exhibit and sell their works The fisher men can provide fresh fish and Lobsters for grilling, invite the farmers with their fruit and vegetables,Live music should not be hard to organize... put more things in the calabash nice it up
We want to make the calabash full

not a broken calabash.

Well these is a BIG opportunity for others, do your part, como out with an event, with a good publicity people will come, TBWG, do your thing...calabash art, paints, all hand made goods, what do you think?.

To Paul

I find it a bit presumptuos you consider that it is so easy to
1) organize such a festival and have it run so well year after year
2) presume it can be relocated just by wishing it so
and
3) state it has outgrown the people who created it

Are you going to be responsible for making it happen? (its a lot of work year round - some of it thankless too)
or is this just another post filled with words that really go nowhere?

Can't you and others just appreciate that Calabash for 10 years was incredible?

all these comments are energizing... with all the people power in the commmunity i believe what is needed is the WILL to do. have a community festival celebrating Treasure Beach and all its beauty, from music, arts, food, community groups , history and natural beauty.. get organizing .. beautiful treasure beach.. like u always are doing.. just keep one that weekend..
j

Do not be sad. They will return in 2012 bigger and better than ever.

I grew up in treasure beach I was at the first calabash Held at Jakes under a tent, not more than 50 people was there, after the readings and reciting of poems the visitors would go into the community and interact with the locals they enjoyed their stay and promise to return
the next year to the event, they also invite friends calabash grew each year and was embrace by the community, now that it is establish certain people want to use the event as a "cash cow "and hold the community to ransom wanting 100.000US to put on calabash!
I say move the venue to a public location
Calabash bay beach is perfect location...lest than half mile from where it is now held and has accommodation for more people
Talk to the organizers of hook&line ask for their help, calabash will only get better as a community event....community spirit can make calabash happen for one tenth the cost of what has been purported

Let's make it happen.

"The Calabash International Literary Trust"
Nice name but selfish

I am as saddened as everyone else by the end of Calabash in Treasure Beach (though it's been implied it will be back in 2012).

The pleas and suggestions for having other people organize and run it to make it still happen in Treasure Beach are well-intentioned; however, I don't think those making the suggestions understand what an all-consuming task that it. In addition to the funding and sponsorships--which are exceedingly difficult to procure--there are so many other facets that went into making Calabash the success it became. Jake's kindly offered free accommodations to the presenters. The logistics including (but not limited to) the tent, sound system, book and music store, bathroom facilities, food, and drinks were done to first-world standards. The public relations were top-rate.

Calabash grew to such a stature that it went from inviting (or perhaps begging) good presenters to a competition of sorts in which the organizers had their pick from hundreds of willing and very talented presenters. All this--and more--is what made it such a success--and is why it became a "must attend" event for so many.

I respectfully suggest that it would take others (on the ground in Jamaica--not from abroad) with the same dedication, professionalism, and connections to be able to stage such an event in Treasure Beach.

Meanwhile, I thank those who have worked so hard for a decade to make this Festival happen. Their work and contributions have been outstanding.

Button Bay Beach Getaway what are you talking about 2012 that is not how this works
You may not have a booking but the most of treasure beach guest houses and local home owners are already booked out for calabash
It would have been better if an announcement was made on the last night of calabash 2010 that there will be no 2011/ until 2012
Now just months before the event this crippling news

It is important to keep calabash going each year
also time to involve community groups in the planning stage
To have three people decide calabash will not happen because they are tired is not good, too much power

Paul are you prepared to move to Jamaica with a team of professionals and make this happen? What Mrs. Kennedy said is 100% accurate.

Let's bring much needed income and jobs into Treasure Beach. The Calabash Festival may come to an end but look at it as an opportunity for something new. Expand a weekend into a week. Let's take advantage of the Sports Park and make a week of it. Literary (local or international), soccer, cricket, basketball, baseball, volley ball, netball, tennis, etc. Everyday of the week is a different event. Fun all week. I make my financial contributions to the Treasure Beach Foundation consistently and will continue to do so all in the betterment of Treasure Beach. I am sure a week of events could help the Foundation greatly. Needs lots of planning, but tickets must be pre-sold and purchased at the gates.

sounds from the suggestion by "toronto" that treasure beach might well turn into a south disneyland.
can already imagine the crowds ... yippeeeeeee.

NOT

I just left Treasure beach two weeks ago and every one was preparing for calabash
I understand what Mrs Kennedy is saying and I agree that the organizers of the calabash literary arts festival did a good job over the years I thank them
on behalf of my community
but after ten years of success and popular demand
you do not make a show of that magnitude uncertain
that is not good for feature event

1) people will no longer book their accommodation in advance, they cannot plan their trip until they are certain the event will be held

Let us make a calabash festival this year where the people of treasure beach can display the best of their talents of arts, farming ,fishing hospitality ,friendliness

Music, foods and arts festival for 2011
we have the momentum
Calabash can be successful this year if we try

Toronto are you talking about BREDS or the Treasure Beach Foundation that gives the scholarships. They are two different groups.

The suggestions being made are all saying Calabash is good but then asking someone else to step up to the plate to make it happen. It would be good to see these people volunteering to do it themselves. Get real.

I do appreciate that Calabash for 10 years was incredible...they did good..is time to rest, and move to something different now

2 Toronto, Not sure if you are saying that BREDS and Treasure Foundation are two different groups OR BREDS-Treasure Beach Foundation is different from Calabash Fesitval group, the latter which I already know. I always thought BREDS and TB Foundation is the same group. When I make my contributions, I send them to BREDS-Treasure Beach Foundation. May be someone can explain. Not to get off topic, something else has to replace Calabash Festival if it really ends, in order to create employment for the people of Treasure Beach.

I agree. Different location and name.

Location ideas? Name? Times? Focus?

Who invited to participate, display or perform?

In TB? Other communities involved?

Remember that many do not have internet access

and cannot communicate their 2 cents as we can here.

I am ready to make a donation
as soon as I hear from TB. Net
That something is going to happen on that weekend

Treasure Beach Foundation and BREDS-The Treasure Beach Foundation are two totally different groups even though the names confuse people. Treasure Beach Foundation is the group that gives the scholarships and is run by Miss Kennedy. There is information about them on www.TreasureBeachFoundation.org. From looking at their website it does not seem like taking care of a festival in Treasure Beach is something they could do. I would like to hear from them and also BREDS which is run by Mr. Henzel to learn if either group is willing to handle Calabash.

I regret the Calabash organizers decided to stop after 10 years. They said they are tired. That sounds like the truth to me. Runing it for one year would be too much for most people. All these years they have been working very hard to make it a success and no one hardly thanked them. Now people are saying they are selfish. I think it is rude to say that about them. I think they should have made their decision sooner and announced it sooner. Other than that I cannot blame them.

NOSTALGIA: Looking at the Calabash Fest through the rear view mirror

Gleaner Article:
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110123/ent/ent1.html

Even though 100% of what we do benefits the people of Treasure Beach, especially the students, we are definitely unable to run or assist in running the Calabash Festival. We would very much like to see Calabash continue in Treasure Beach, but this is not an undertaking we are equipped to handle.

We must continue to devote all our time and effort toward educational purposes. These include the scholarship program and other things we do for the children such as the GoGSAT learning programs. In addition, we have plans to install an online computer learning lab at Sandy Bank Primary School.

Thanks for being so forthright, Miss Kennedy.

I have been to half of the Festivals and cannot imagine not going to another one in Treasure Beach. I can also understand what a monumental task it must be to run Calabash Festival and am appreciative Treasure Beach Foundation will be continuing to concentrate on their educational programs. Better to do one thing very well than to spread themselves so thin they end up doing nothing well and getting all kinds of complaints.

It appears no person or group is yet willing to resurrect Calabash in Treasure Beach. We have not yet heard from a representative from BREDS or from Paul.

Isn't it interesting that most of the groups asked or mentioned have chosen not to bother to respond. Everyone thinks it would be wonderful to have Calabash continue in TB but people are not even responding. Certainly, there are no volunteers. Volunteering someone else does not count except as a way to pass the responsibility. I say either volunteer and be prepared for a lot of work and expense or hold your tongue.

No use flogging a dead horse Calabash is over.
Ten years of know how was not shared with any group within the community , so it would not be possible for new people to resurrect calabash in such a short time unless you know what to do,
Start a new festival make it in a public place people will support it

The Treasure beach festival of arts?!!

Morris and I started the Black river tours, we were the first to use the black river as a tourist attraction ,that is a success

Oral Christmas tree lighting is a success

Jake's New-years celebration is a success

Off road Triathlon that is also a success

We can do it again
I am not living in Treasure beach at the moment but I will give financial support

1. Many people hope that the block of time in summer when Calabash was held will offer other treats in TB.

2. Calabash is history, the creators have given this community a chance to fill some time in summer with art, craft, literature, poetry, music and fine food with an audience waiting at the gates.

3. A few fishermen can organise guiding a fiberglass boat safely to the Pedro Keys, deal with runnings and gwindings, set pot, secure catch, watch for bad man, pirates and sea devils, cook and clean, guide the whole shebang back to TB, unload and come back to earth, sell, clean and secure boat and engine etc, how much does it take to guide a few willing people here, feed and house them and offer arts, craft, music, poetry etc?

I've seen non professional friends organise parties and outings for over a hundred with a few hours notice. Before computors and cellies.

Then again it may be a flop, why badda? Hold your tongues as Interesting suggests. We are too disorganised and in conflict to pull of even a simple party.

Yes?

What I find curious are those that have the big ideas and suggestions that this group or that person should take over Calabash Festival or hold something else in its place .. yet they themselves take a giant step back after the suggestions!

Without discussions here and elsewhere, there is nothing to step up to. Brainstorming and sharing ideas are good ways to see if a project is doable and to understand the roles that are needed. The very act of discussion is a first step.

For sure there would have to be a chief and a sub chief. The buck has to stop somewhere.

Forget about Calabash, something new can manifest. Be inspired by Calabash and hope that team is willing to share some basics.

Calabash Riddims...So Many Things Said and to Say!

VIDEOS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmiOWj_UV6k

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4q6wKPW7KQ&feature=related

Mutabaruka
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwghhKNW2dQ&feature=related

Turey's words make sense. Is anyone interested in being the chief or sub chief.

There is to be a meeting of the JHTA on Friday 28 at which the Calabash issue is to be discussed. Although this meeting is for members only, those of us who are not members hope to hear the outcome of the discussions, after which I for one will make decisions on alternative activities for the last weekend in May 2011.

I suspect there is much support outside of the community for a Calabash version and more. We should not be shy to ask. It would not be begging. I feel some helpers are only waiting to be invited to participate.

$'s are the first support, they can do most things. Goodwill and encouragement are intangible and often drive the flow of $. Discouragement tests determination and can be a great reality check.

Importantly, anxiety and stress are not worth paying for organising anything. If we are to be part of 'laid-back' etc, we are the ones that need to maintain that state.

We are in the same boat going same place. Tourist business is in the hands of a few. Let us hear what they are spending our money on and planning for us without our participation.

Dudus hearing is public.

Funny, I did not know that Calabash festibal was up for a discussion¨. Not just anyone can handle that type of work,,,,...I THINK THEY HAVE SAID WHAT THEIRE WERE DOING....need a brake..people..also they were not appreciated

Why did you say this will return in 2012 bigger and better than ever. Is this something you KNOW FOR SURE or something you are GUESSING or something you are HOPING?