Time 7.30 p.m till 1.00 a.m.
Haiti earthquake was in January 2010, but the people of Haiti still need our help and our fundraising mission continues.  On Saturday 16 April there will be a fundraising party in aid of the Lambi Fund of Haiti.  Our Haiti  appeal will be celebrating A Lime Jewel, with readings from A Lime Jewel, collection of poetry and short stories in aid of Haiti.  There will be performance by 5 of the contributing writers: Alexander Thanni, Yolanda Deane, Kwame  MacPherson, Rene Thomas and Margaret Danquah.  There will also be music, open mic session and plenty of Caribbean Food.  What better way to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake and to raise funds to assist the work of the Lambi Fund of Haiti.

Haiti is still on our minds!

Come and join us and tune in to SLR radio for a record of the event.

Haiti Fundraising Party Flyer

African Writers’ Evening presents two short readings from emerging writers selected by editor and writer Nii Ayikwei Parkes, followed by a featured reading from Nadifa Mohamed.

Nadifa Mohamed is a Somaliland writer whose debut novel Black Mamba Boy won the 2010 Betty Trask Award and has so far been longlisted for the Orange Prize and shortlisted for The Guardian First Book Prize, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the 2010 Dylan Thomas Prize.

Nii Parkes’ debut novel is Tail of the Blue Bird, and his most recent collection of poems is The Makings of You.

The event will be held at the Blue Room, Spirit Level of the Royal Festival Hall at 7:45 PM

Tickets are £8 available in person or on-line from the Southbank boxoffice

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/literature-spoken-word/tickets/nadifa-mohamed-56068

Come one, come all to the free African Market on Saturday 19th March 2011 from 12 noon to 6:00 PM.   A special this month is that you will be able to buy copies of the book and meet some of the editorial team.

The African market is at Open the Gate in Dalston.  The address –  33-35 Stoke Newington Road, London N16 8BJ

We are pleased to announce that ‘Catching the Tap-Tap to Cayes de Jacmel’ by Lane Ashfeldt  from A Lime Jewel has won the Global Short Story prize. To find out more  about the prize and competition, follow this link http://www.globalshortstories.net/

A Lime Jewel Editorial Team are very grateful to the WW Caribbean Cuisine Restaurant, who will be hosting a bigger party than we initially planned. As a result, the book tour launch date has been moved to mid-April.

It will be worth waiting for!  Check out the blog in the coming days for further news about confirmed authors and entertainers.

A Lime Jewel book tour kicks off on Friday 11th March 2011 at 7:00pm at WW Caribbean Cuisine Restaurant & Bar, 126 West  Green Road, Tottenhsm, London N15 5AA.  Nearest tube is Seven Sisters.  More details to come!

We are delighted to announce the second event which will showcase spoken word and poetry from contributers of “A Lime Jewel”. There will also be live music for your entertainment. Please join us for a another wonderful evening building on the success of the launch.

Our fundraising event is the first evening of the New African Market festival which will run from 11th Dec until 28th Dec. There will be books and t-shirts for sale!

This is an open mic session, any one interested in performing is cordially welcome.  Please pass the word around.  If you want to perform, please text me or email:

yetunde@blacklondonerappeal.com or cajobonyo@yahoo.com

Venue:Moyo Songhai Bazaar, 365 Brixton Road, London SW9 7DA
Time: 8:00 – 11:00 pm

The community centre is a few minutes walk from Brixton Station, close to the police station. The centre will provide some snacks and soft drinks for sale.  Their website is www.solidaritycentre.org.

Ade Daramy, Colourful Radio

Join in online at www.colourfulradio.com

Ade Daramy and Yetunde Ruban (editor) will be discussing  the publication of A Lime Jewel, update on Haitian news,  on Colourful Radion on Sunday 24 October from 9.00 p.m. onwards.

Please join in the discussion which will be accompanied with world music.

Appearances

Appearances

We are 5 days away from the Launch event and we are putting together a very exciting programme for the event.  There will be appearances by many of the writers, spoken word fest and live music from some of London’s young  talented  artists.

The work contained here[A Lime Jewel]  represents the entire gamut of human reaction to tragedy; half-formed to fully-formed, brash to quiet, resigned to frustrated. But it also contains work given simply as gifts . . . work given as a contribution to the long-term work of rebuilding Haiti in image and in fact. A Lime Jewel is a love song of prickles and polish, that bristles with the urgency of a towncrier, swells with the patience of a mother and hums with the wisdom of a village elder: while 15-year-old Acquaye McCalman announces in the poem, ‘Haiti Lost,’ “I see a flow of tragedy”, and Stephanie L. Kemp in ‘Breaking News’ speaks of “Corrugated roofs/ Rippling like waves at high tide”; there are those, like Nadine Pinede who are already looking beyond the news, the made-for-primetime footage that shapes our imagination of tragedy – her poem, ‘The Nameless,’ mindful of our short memories, cautions us “For every face the cameras do not capture/ there is a name and memories/ of murmured songs half-remembered…/ Remember this, when the show is over/ and you/ turn away.”

Nii Ayikwei Parkes, writer, performance poet, social commentator

This collection, to my mind, is buttressed by important reminders that Haiti did not come into existence the moment the world became aware of its plight. As Nadifa Mohamed indicates in the title poem, ‘A Lime Jewel,’ there is a rich history: “asleep beneath the tarmac/ black Jacobins.” . . .It is not right for Haiti to have to beg for aid; let us not forget that. A Lime Jewel is a much more dignified way to contribute to the rehabilitation of Haiti than some meaningless, guilt-erasing handouts, something that will live longer than the interest of the media, the studied pity of strangers.

As Sophia Wilson declares in ‘Come See’ “Though now a part of our great history/ this earthquake does not define Haiti/ Hey cousin come see”