Documentaire ademhalen , de documentaire, de godin Kali

De documentaire over het Theaterstuk Ademhalen

Telkens weer zou je er nog meer over kunnen vertellen, details die je on the way vergeten bent maar die het stuk gemaakt hebben tot hoe het uiteindelijk in deze eerste reeks is uitgevoerd.
Regisseur Alida Neslo die met zo een mooie toevoeging van de Godin Kali precies die wrange ondertoon  eruit heeft gehaald, die drang om gehoord te worden en begrepen, die drang om je stem te laten klinken. Kali was er, altijd.

Ademhalen publication of the play, the launch in pictures

Amsterdam 3 september, Podium Mozaiek, In de Knipscheer book launch Waiting....

Yes there it is , the publication! Poetry. Theatre.... 

Always supporting. Daughters with my dear friend Hanneke . Blessed. 

By in de Knipscheer!

My daughters representig me. Great inspiration always!

Franc Knipscheer, the publisher, presenting

Part of the documentary made about the play . 

Franc Knipscheer about my work.

Ademhalen 3 September 2017 ' The launch of the publication'.

Informatie: The TWAIN SHALL MEET Boeken presentatie IN DE KNIPSCHEER

Ademhalen, de theaterpublicatie, over vrouwen, over moed , de ruimte om keuzes te mogen en kunnen maken

Na de voorstellingen onder regie van Alida Neslo in maart 2017 in Nickerie en Paramaribo verschijnt de publicatie van het theaterstuk op 3 september 2017 bij Uitgeverij In de  Knipscheer. De presentatie vindt plaats te Amsterdam,  tezamen met de andere uitgaven van de uitgeverij in het programma THE TWAIN SHALL MEET.

Morgen is het zover. Vastgelegd in boekvorm, de theatertekst. Namens mij zullen mijn dochters, D'tasha en Shelby aanwezig zijn en het eerste exemplaar in ontvangst nemen.   'Hum log ke himmat dekh".

ADEMHALEN MARCH 8th THE PREMIERE NICKERIE

March 8th, Nieuw Nickerie. The day of the premiere, international women's day.


The Nickerie performance had a great impact. It was more than I could possibly have foreseen.


Alida Neslo with her cast brought  the script alive,  making the lives and thoughts of women visible. Artistic and culturally enriched it shows women's resilience and the impact is has on women and the society they live in- voices of women who reflect on inequality, domestic violence, suicide, about choices and the courage it takes to live, to breathe.


Watching the play with the public is opening new layers again and again. In the hometown of the birth of this play it fills the air. With my dear friends, my posse, and my family I felt loved and supported for the stories I want to tell, for the work that I do, and the things I want to create for and on earth.


Feeling grateful for the women of Nickerie who trusted me with their stories, and had the courage to live their lives. Quote from the public ' I feel very emotional, it was about time we show the truth of our lives'.

Performing, Radha, Nanda and Nishtha, and the Goddess Kali

With the cast and the initiators ' The Dutch Embassy Paramaribo" 

The Director Alida Neslo with the cast and youth Nickerie (VWO/HAVO)

school performance Nickerie march 9th

Nickerie March 8th, full house!

School performance Nickerie, Discussion about the play, about women rights.

ADEMHALEN PREMIERE MARCH 8TH, 1 DAY TO GO

Note 4, 1 day to go

Road trip to Nickerie!

My posse, Rebi, Iraida, Marieke.

I have some great women who will come with me to Nickerie. Without realizing this , they all represent a part of my life. 
Although everyone knows everyone and each of them  is my close friend, family, this is the first time we cme together with the four of us and it feels surprisingly connected. 

Being with them reminds me of how I created the interaction in the play. It is how women come together, talk together..eat together :).

Jenny  for the lights

Ricardo for the sound

I walk into the theater.
It is a big round grey building from the outside, and the chairs are not the ones you are maybe used to in a theater but I like this place, it has a spirit and  it is beautiful located.
People are walking up and down, light installation, sound , cables, a team is at work. 
Mr Donk, who owns the place, prepared a table with coffee and some water, so thoughtful.
I only want to see the beginning of the rehearsal. And then wait for tomorrow.

With the production leader Ann 

We visited my good friend Tara , the pandita. The production called, asked us if we wanted to eat something special.. the answer to that....(is obvious!) When we drove by she stood in front of the restaurant waiting for us with a big smile and a lot of packages! Enjoy girls.. ........ it is Roti with dahl! Yes, I am ready for the premiere!

ADEMHALEN PREMIERE MARCH 8TH, 5 DAYS TO GO

landscape  Nickerie

NOTE 3, 5 days to go  

All these 16 years I visit Nickerie I keep on taking pictures of the landscape, the cattle, the rice fields. I love the space, the skyline, the fields. So much space, yet so difficult for so many lives to find space.  

Was Invited for the ABC program. Was early , stayed in the car , listening to the music of Raj Mohan. Five minutes before time I walked into the radio station. They already began.  It was okay I guess. 'Don't make it like a theme of Nickerie, that is a too big word for it' I said on a question of  what are the typical Nickerie themes. I think it just looks big because of the scale, but in fact, suicide, domestic violence, women rights, human rights, equality all sound to me universal issues.  A journalist called me, 'I liked that sentence you said', he told me. 

Rehearsals in the afternoon. I think for the whole time I was holding my breath. It is always such a strange experience to hear what you have written.. and see people play it.  I connected so much with what I saw and what I knew was the feeling I wanted to express. I felt still. Alida said. 'girl, relax, it is just work'.  And it really is. Hard work. Her input and the value of her directing this piece is what any playwright would wish for. It is like the rice on the field, first a small seed under water, finally rising... and rising.  

CCS with Kavita, Afiba, Ilhaam and Evita , giving my feedback 

Engagement. Alida  asked me to also give my feedback to the players which I did. And they related to what I told them. 

Spirit. Like the spirit.How great to hear and see them play what is written and not written, and with such dedication.

Cooling down. After these rehearsals a cooling down was what we needed. We went together for coffee/tea and talked. At home I  Made myself another tea, some sweet Chai and called my daughter on the other side of the ocean. Alida first went for a walk before heading home. It is a strong energy, this energy. Women energy. 

ADEMHALEN PREMIERE MARCH 8TH, 8 DAYS TO GO

NOTE 2, 7 days to go

ltr: repr Dutch embassy pr and mrs M Baak , me, repr of moederhart, repr of st Saari Nickerie

Press meeting yesterday Nickerie, the press was so  much engaged and asked such good questions. Ha, Paramaribo, you have to compete with them! Being in Nickerie felt again like coming home. 

Man in taxi bus had his laptop on, watching a movie. Could hear the sound, suppose it was a thriller he was watching.  A woman visited family in Nickerie. Another girl is a student in town. Wow, she wears beautiful high heels.  Back in Paramaribo the taxi bus dropped her of at the Mandir in Paramaribo. Interesting. 

Had my notes, didn't read them. Why do I make notes!  Making notes again for tomorrow. Interview with Radio ABC tomorrow at 8.45.   Seems to give guidance to all the thoughts and layers of this theater play.

Meditation yesterday evening: Intention for Alida and cast,  working very hard and dedicated. 

People in Suriname find it always very important to ask 'what is the message'.  Isn't that a preacher thing?  This is about show something, and  leave it to people to think about it. The purpose of any art is I think to see, read , listen and it will always leaves you with something to think about, reflect upon, take action maybe, whether it is a song or in this case a play. It reflects and influences lives.

There is always one saying or one question that makes me keep on thinking.  So today, thinking again. (how many days left, have to set a max for promo!)

One journalist asked about the storyline.  Good question but so hard to find the right thing to tell, trying to find the balance what to tell or not. I like it for people just read or see for themselves instead of me talking about it but  also realize the importance of giving  information and sometimes the need to explain and discuss to understand what you see, read hear and experience. 

When working on the script of Ademhalen there were three things that were important. One was of course the reason why the whole idea started, the stories of the women I talked with.  Their own stories. Second very important were their  discussions, thoughts and worries about women who are victims of domestic violence. And third, very important theme was Nickerie itself. Talking about Nickerie, going deeper into these lives makes it impossible to leave out the theme of the very high percentage of suicide (-attempts)in this district. On my first trip I discussed this with Chandra, one of the writers of the Nickerie book. How to move with this line, this theme. I decided  not to make it a main topic but to create a script set against a suicide attempt of  a woman friend. This setting made it possible for me to develop the stories of the lives of three women visiting, show the struggle to survive, to overcome obstacles, to find the courage to breathe.

The theatre has seats for 400 persons. It is a beautiful theatre. The insight and the setting reminds me of a theater in London where I went with my parents when I was something like 11 or 12 years old. It made a big impression on me. Don't remember the name of the play, only the stage  and how a story came alive. Thanks mom and dad.   

Ademhalen, 10 days to go, awaiting the premiere

NOTE 1 - 10 days to go.
Have to go to Nickerie,  3,5 hours drive, for a press meeting and come back. What to expect. Thinking. Story, process, content. Making notes of thoughts. Searching for my notes. Write again in notebook. 

Have not been to the rehearsels yet. Since the start of actually going in production the space between writing and directing has been held very strict, and is quiet. We discussed in front the story, my thoughts, the visuals, the inspiration, the characters, the background, the writing. Then Alida started to work. 

It is new. A press meeting to talk about something you wrote, created. It is also new not to have some interaction with a team. As writer and communication professional you sometimes find yourself in an awkward position.

All processes are different with regards how communication with the director takes place. Sometimes you receive feedback or changes are discussed , as I experienced with the Helstone monolog in 2013, my debut play. Sometimes you are in very close communication as when I wrote a Surinamese version of Romeo and Julia.  Another time with the cabaret 'Spokendans' I went to the readings with the cast. There is not a set of guidelines for these processes. It depends on who you work with, the kind of play and you just know as long as you have equity, respect and space, it is good. 

Thinking about this space, something writer both director are dealing with. With "Ademhalen" it really is about space. And Alida Neslo is a director who very much feels space, not only physically. I like how she works with  a strong feeling for the use of different spaces in mind , body and physical. It is something also seen in experimental theater, like  poor theater, (Polish theater maker Grotowski).  'Poor theatre’ is a  performance style that rid itself of the excesses of theatre. 'Poor Theatre pieces' centre very much on the skill of the actor and are often performed with only a handful of props. I have seen Alida teaching some of these methods in her drama classes.  I also followed her classes during my study of creative writing about the art of writing for theatre, about Asian and African theatre, about Japanese styles, about the body and its movement in horizontal or vertical spaces, small and large. We practiced with it in our texts. It was such an out of the box experience. 

Although I would rather skip the promotion part it feels very good to first speak about Ademhalen in the place where the story is rooted, Nickerie. It is also good for Nickerie to know it is an universal story about women. Called my Nickerie contacts, told them about the press meeting, they are waiting for this.   

I will be picked up at five in the morning ! Practical things cross my mind. Clothes, hair, bag, shoes, notebook, battery, Internet, mails. Need to cook. Made myself a Pom today, Mom's  dish and of course her receipt is the best.  It is a mom thing! She is up there in heaven but the pom is here! 

Taxi called. I will be the first to pick up. I make a joke about it. They don't think its funny. I rather drive on my own, but up and down in one day on my own would be a bit too much, have to bare with the shedules.  

The production made the reservations for the taxi bus to Nickerie, as the other car with people for the meeting did not have any space left. Maybe not that strange to just go into a taxi bus with strangers for 3,5 hours and overcome a distance to connect. So while I find myself in  this 'in between' space I will connect with mom and have my "broodje pom" (bread with pom). Food speaks.

Theatervoorstelling ADEMHALEN

On March 8th Ademhalen (Breathe)  will be performed.

I was handed a transcript of a group interview with women of Nickerie  about their lives in Nickerie. 

I was moved, instantly, and kept on reading while images passed my mind. I said yes to the question if I would like to write  a play inspired by these ingredients. From then on characters start developing, text and context start buzzing in my head and visuals came into  mind together with  music and movement of what was to be told. 

I went into a process of research, talked with the women, stayed in the district of Nickerie, a place very familiar because of my many visits and holidays with my children. I inhaled, observed, talked, walked, experienced. Stories that  resonated also with myself as a woman, how much courage it takes to feel the freedom to breathe.. to speak out , have space. Cramped spaces with vague rules are hard to move in and so many times , especially women, find themselves in these cramped spaces, punished for thinking, speaking, questioning;  hardly able to breathe. These himmat  (sarnami, meaning courage) women of Ademhalen experience(d) how this affect people's lives. 

I am very grateful for the freedom I felt with some special people who in this process shared their space with me. They have made it possible to write the story, create the play. They all  inspired my creativity  and gave their support to make it happen. The Dutch embassy Sandra Ammersingh, the writers and researchers of the Nickerie Book Chandra van Binnendijk and Fineke van der Veen,  The Himmat women of Nickerie, the co- readers and advisors Gert Fokken, Sophia Jonker and Raj Mohan,  my beloved (himmat) daughters D'tasha, Shelby and Jyoti and especially during this writing process I felt the spirit  and love of my dear 'Himmat' Mom, my fearless and funny grandmother 'Oma' and  my wise grandmother 'Adjie'. 
I must thank my big Sisa Jane who was the one I shared a first selection of poems with years ago .. who  told me, 'please  sis, please go on and write!' 

I handed the script to Alida Neslo, who read it and immediately decided, without hesitation, to direct this play. I suppose, as happened with me, from that moment on her  thoughts on how and what began to flow. With her cast of beautiful women she works since the last ten to twelve weeks , bringing characters and text alive to take the stage. I have not seen it yet and so yes, of course I am nervous and excited to see and experience Ademhalen on the stage!   It is a process in which I move as a playwright,  for which there is no script, except this, my day to day diary starting on the 26th.. 10 days to go until march 8th.  

  

Ademhalen, a play by Karin Lachmising, directed by Alida Neslo.
Cast: Kavita Ramphal, Ihaam Ahmadali, Afiba Becker,  Evita Issa,  Razia Barsatie. 
Premiere  March 8th Nickerie, school performances March 9th Nickerie 
Paramaribo Performances March 16,17,18.

Liefdevol opgepoetst

Het blijft bijzonder om te zien hoe men bij de carwash het wassen en poetsen gadeslaat. Als een wat afstandelijk publiek, kijkend naar een eentonige toneelvoorstelling. Er zijn dagen dat de voorstelling druk bezocht wordt. Dit keer zaten er vier wachtenden aan een tafeltje. Zoals het ook bij de kapper gaat, ontstond er een gesprek. ‘Ik ben blij dat ik in Suriname woon hoor, wij hebben die dingen niet.’ De man die sprak, maakte met zijn hand een gebaar naar de grond. ‘Al die ondergrondse dingen, dat wat met die aarde gebeurt.’...... LEES VERDER CLICK HIER-> 

LIEFDEVOL OPGEPOETST! Parbode januari 2016

'So while I may have a very good review of my novel or a poem or a drama in Holland, the Suriname readers say it is difficult to understand, it seems so far from them. And that is a dilemma here in Holland. What should we do, go on with what’s happening there or try to be part of the immigrants here? 'read more :Astrid Roemer , winner PC Hooft Dutch Literature award  2016: Interview 1988

MI GRON, Poem by Karin Lachmising

MI GRON, Poem by Karin Lachmising  Click this link

to read the poem that was published in arts etcetera, in celebration of Kamau Brathwait 85th birthday.

Mi gron’ van Karin Lachmising in ArtsEtc, een internetperiodiek uit Barbados, mei 2015:
In het meinummer, een special gewijd aan de dichter Edward Kamau Brathwaite ter gelegenheid van diens 85ste verjaardag, is het gedicht ‘Mi gron’ van Karin Lachmising uit haar debuutbundel Nergens groeit een boom die haar aarde niet vindt geplaatst in een Engelse vertaling van Scott Rollins. Zij bevindt zich daarmee in het gezelschap van o.a. Derek Walcott, die het gedicht ‘Names: for Edward Brathwaite’ bijdroeg.

OUR LAND, Poem by Karin Lachmising

Our Land

I transform,

hidden traditions, with a map of my own.

Contemplate my place

of nourishment, a mirror

in which you recognize,

acknowledge me.

Now, before the heart

is chopped down,

that also bestows

a  life upon you. 

Karin Lachmising  English translation Scott Rollins from the poetry collection 'Nergens groeit een boom die haar aarde niet vindt (There is nowhere a tree can grow that doesn't find her soil) Published by Uitgeverij In de Knipscheer, the Netherlands, 2013.

Thinking about poetry, written by my Caribbean writers friend John R. Lee (Saint Lucia)

Master Note #2 -
Thinking about poetry,
by John R. Lee

JOHN R. LEE·DINSDAG 8 DECEMBER 2015

I thought that a follow-up to the readings from Gregory Wolfe’s “Beauty will save the
world,” could be an article I wrote in 2014, in which I propose Truth, Beauty and Harmony as the pillars of poetry. So often I read poetry or listen to readers, and I ask myself, “where is the poetry?” Poetry is a distinctive and measurable (in terms of critical review) form. So
often I miss the shaping of the music of line, the images that hold your attention, the substance of content and theme. Even if a poet is using a plain-statement style, these elements of diction, imagery, techniques that create rhythm and music, are essential if
the product is to be truly labeled, “poetry.” Anyway, for whatever it is worth, have a
read at your leisure:

An Approach to poetry: “one person talking to another”.

“What every poet starts from is his own emotions.” – T S Eliot.

“…the credibility of this honoured but hard to define category of human achievement
called poetry.” – Seamus Heaney

Introduction

Full disclosure: I have not been, consciously anyway, overly obsessed with the question “What is poetry?” I have tended to avoid a certain wrestling angst, contemplation of my poet-navel, a raising of Romantic anxiety, where this is concerned. While I suspect I can find certain subconscious reflections in myself on “the poetic”, “Poetry” and related queries, I have just gone about the business of writing poems. The proof that I have not been as complacent as I might sound, is that often, at poetry readings, I have remarked to
friends nearby, “Where is the poetry?” Behind that complaint lies some formulation of
what poetry ought to be.

I have also tended to use “poetry”, “the poetic”, to describe other kinds of art. For
example, when I have been moved by a really fine dance performance, the best way I
can describe it, is as “poetry.” In my poem ‘elemental’, I have written of “those sexy dancers/barrelling through space,/arching, escalating over breath,” my attempt to
capture a certain breath-stopping moment of the poetry of dance.

But, what is poetry? Well, most fundamentally it is a literary form, distinct from prose
or drama (though obviously there are similarities, overlaps, continuities between and
within those.) The form of the poem (leaving room for experimentation etc) is distinct. It is a literary structure marked uniquely by its diction and particular use of language, usually heightened (even in plain statement); its metric and rhythmic patterns, including that created by use of the breath to shape the line; the use of image, symbol and metaphor. Its concentration of content and form, its distillation of message and meaning, not only underline the uniqueness of poetry, but makes it one of the most challenging both to
write and unravel. If writing is discovered by the serious writer to be hard work,
demanding thought, technical skill and an awareness of the literary tradition in which and out of which one is writing, then the creative writing of good poetry is even more
daunting.

So far I have not said anything that writers and teachers of literature do not know. I
have turned to T S Eliot to provide texts that can serve as a useful platform for further discussion. I have looked again at his Selected Prose and reread his essays (themselves selected) on poetry.

TRUTH

If I have any kind of philosophy that guides my approach to understanding and writing of poetry, it can be summed up as “Truth, Beauty and Harmony.” From the ancient
Greeks to Rabindranath Tagore, Eastern philosophers to more recent critics these have been discussed and debated and discarded in their various permutations. My adoption of these have more to do with a certain technical achievement than a philosophical view.
Usually included are “Order” and “Moral goodness,” but these are absorbed, I think, in Harmony and Truth.

Anyway, for me, poetry should speak ‘Truth.” The reader should put down the poem
with the response, “yes, this is true. It is a true recording, reflection of an emotion or experience or insight that I recognise.” Or that I sense, (even if the full meaning
escapes the reader,) as carrying the “ring of truth.” If the poet is posturing, if they have not fully explored the reality of the experience, emotion or insight, the poem will come over as false, will be sentimental sham. Eliot says, “What every poet starts from is his own
emotions.” But those emotions ought to be searched most deeply, and via the right
words, images, rhythms, as the poet seeks to capture the truth of his feelings, linked
closely to experience and insight. And capturing this truth is very much a technical
matter, of speech ultimately, since it is word and image and sound that will hold in a delicate vase, the truth the poet desires to share. Eliot brings it right down to basic funda-
mentals: after all the hype, “poetry remains…one person talking to another.” Here,
echoes of Wordsworth and Coleridge. Related to this he says: “the poem comes before
the form, in the sense that a form grows out of the attempt of somebody to say some-
thing.” How we say, how we speak, is the craft and crafting of poetry.

The poet should struggle to this point of a kind of revelatory truth. Even when he does
not want to go there! To write truth will involve a self-exposure that can be uncomfortable and many writers stop short before the deep implications of truth dug for, found in all
its nakedness, and brought up like a blood-soaked, squealing baby, from the womb of
the suffering entailed in such searching of one’s innards. If one has been honest, and
has desired to write true, and to present it as unambiguously as possible, one has
begun to write poems that will last beyond the first flush of creative endeavour.

But to be complete, the poem must proceed.

BEAUTY

Secondly, Beauty. One can find beautifully written prose and beautiful drama. Beauty
shows forth in those forms. But poetry, even more, should carry a beauty about it. And
that beauty is bottled, as it were, distilled, sharp edged. It is the beauty of the line, its rhythm, its image, that will hold the attention. That will stay in the mind long after
- even when one is writing about grim matters, death, depression, brutality, infidelities, heartbreak, etc. The poet must speak of these with a beauty that carries the emotion powerfully to the heart and mind of the reader or hearer. The emotion of sadness or
horror at some evil written of, or the heart-lifting joy evoked by love, or nostalgia or whatever, must be written in beauty, or it will not fully succeed. I don’t see a contra-
diction here. Is this not the secret of the catharsis of Shakespearean and other great
dramatic tragedy?

Poets more than prose writers speak of “the line.” It is “the line” that must hold the
beauty of the expression of emotion, experience, insight. It is the beauty of expression
that packages the truth and makes it hold our attention. As with holding, containing
truth, beauty is of course captured in the line and stanza by the very practical and
mundane matters of technical skill. Again, it comes down to speech, i.e. diction: the use of language, the variety of vocabulary; image, symbol, metaphor which carry the weight of beauty in poetry – one remembers the image the writer has used, and one is moved to memorise a beautiful phrasing.

But the beauty is also held by rhythmic devices. And here we come to the music of
poetry, where the beauty of the line is not only in the eye, but in the ear. The master
Eliot again puts it well: “The music of poetry is not something which exists apart from
the meaning.” It is well known that music and poetry have ancient common ancestors,
and our more recent forays into performance poetry have tried to return poetry to its
musical roots.

I like hearing poetry read aloud. Because it is there, in the spoken word, the sung word
(again the heightened voice in poetry reading) that one often hears the beauty of the
verse, which returns one to the written line on the page. I first began to enjoy Eliot and Larkin and Lowell and Kamau Brathwaite by hearing them read their work on old vinyl discs. Kamau, I was fortunate to hear read live in the seventies.(He can be heard and seen
today on YouTube.) The poet is essentially, as with the old minstrels and griots and
Homers, a singer, a kaisonian, a reggae and blues artisan. And no song works without the beauty, the catchiness of the line’s rhythms, the chorus, which bring you, willing,
dancing captive, to the truth discovered and revealed in some adulterous escapade,
some pleasure, some political betrayal, some grief, some prophecy, some metaphysical conceit etc.

As a gloss on this, here is Eliot again. Speaking of Shakespeare, he says: “Shakespeare
too was occupied with the struggle – which alone constitutes life for a poet – to transmute his personal and private agonies into something rich and strange, something universal
and impersonal.” If the “something universal and impersonal” can be taken as a
reference to the truth captured, I take the “something rich and strange” to refer to what I am describing as “beauty.” And no one doubts that Shakespeare, poet and dramatist, was
the great writer of human truth-reality which continues to resound today and he did so in great beauty of lines, ‘rich and strange,’ that fill our memories still.

Beauty and its definitions can prove problematic and contentious. Does it reside only in the eye and ear of the beholder and listener? Are definitions of beauty too culture-bound
and so an absolute value of beauty is impossible? Or do the Truth and Harmony of art-shaping, well-placed together, create the Beauty of the art object – dance, painting,
sculpture, song, poem?

And so to the third platform to accompany Truth and Beauty, that of Harmony.

HARMONY

Harmony is the requisite of all art. Harmony of composition, of structure. Whether art, sculpture, dance, drama and certainly writing, we look for a harmonising of the
elements of content and form. If there is no harmony of composition, the truth will not be clear and the narrative will come over as false, posturing, self indulgent emoting; and
the beauty is lost if the composition is skewed. How has it all been brought together?
Or not? Where is the poetry?

And that is where the writing gets tough. Most poetry, no matter how well intentioned, will not survive, or will be interesting failures. (I remember Walcott agonising as he worked on his Collected Poems, wondering what of his poetry would survive. He hoped a few poems would.) Hear Eliot again: “The mystic of verse is not a line by line matter, but a
question of the whole poem.” After the attempt to capture the Truth of the emotion, experience or insight; after the effort to speak in Beauty by image and rhythm, has the
poet brought all into a Harmony of Content and Form, with a fine balance?

Because it is the final Harmony of Content and Form, of Truth and Beauty, that will
lead the Reader into the higher regions of Meaning. What does the poem all mean?
Truth, Beauty and Harmony are the guides that lead us from the Inferno through the Purgatorio to the Paradiso of Revelation. To the “Aha” moment, to the “I see!” The achievement of Harmony, the finish of a well-composed work, will lead to more correct interpretations of the work, and avoid, hopefully, spurious speculation.
A well-harmonised work will lend itself to close, accurate, critical reading, with all the
needed markers in place, well fitted together.

Eliot has a relevant statement: “It is ultimately the function of art, in imposing a
credible order upon ordinary reality, and thereby eliciting some perception of an
order in reality, to bring us to a condition of serenity, stillness, and reconciliation…”.
My Harmony would parallel Eliot’s “credible order.” With a similar hoped-for, end
result: “Serenity, stillness and reconciliation.” A possible calm before a storm of fresh questions.

As to this matter of interpretation and finding of meaning, hear how Eliot opens this
up even further, and takes us beyond the basics I have dealt with to the ultimate
achievement and purpose, of the poem: “A poem may appear to mean very different
things to different readers, and all of these meanings may be different from what the
author thought he meant….the reader’s interpretation may differ from the author’s and be equally valid – it may even be better. There may be much more in a poem than the author was aware of. The different interpretations may all be partial formulations of one thing; the ambiguities may be due to the fact that the poem means more, not less, than ordinary
speech can communicate.” (Welcome to Pandora’s box of the thriving industry of post-modern literary criticism!)

As an expert master, after we have looked at fundamentals, at basics of poem com-
position, which I have summarised as Truth, Beauty and Harmony, after we have done that and hope we have succeeded to some extent, Eliot then points us to the further regions
of Meaning and Interpretation, with all their complexities, and to the role of the Reader to whom we were always heading. Which Reader will then make application to themselves, and raise all the questions of the ultimate purpose of poetry. What is it for?

Poetry finds its completion, and further new life, in the Reader and the Reading of it.

Conclusion:

Eliot, in his time, was an innovator and led the modernist literatures of the 20th
century which turned from the 19th century and earlier forms which had become worn. On this matter of experimentation, he said the following: “the true experimenter is not
impelled by restless curiosity, or by desire for novelty, or the wish to surprise and astonish, but by the compulsion to find, in every new poem as in his earliest, the right form for
feelings over the development of which he has, as a poet, no control.”

And for me, whether traditional forms or experimental forms are used, whether the
language be the so-called established or nation language, whether book-read or
platform-spoken, the fundamentals of Truth, Beauty and Harmony remain a necessary framework within which the poem finds life. And if successful, long life.

I do not know if I have answered the question, “what is poetry?” It seems to me that I
have been speaking more about the firming and shaping of poetry. The well- springs of poetry remain, in the words of master Eliot, and the earlier Romantic Wordsworth, in
the emotions of the poet. Which proves the words of Seamus Heaney, who spoke of
“this honoured but hard to define category of human achievement called poetry.”

Het script geschreven

een ruimte
een licht
het script wacht afwachtend
minder of meer
en dan besluit je
uiteindelijk
om niet eindeloos te zijn

theaterstuk!

je toetsenbord,
versleten
je rug vermoeid
het glas leeggedronken
water dit keer

de inkt op
ergens had je nog was
om op te hangen
en een pan op het fornuis
wachtend op een spons,
met de lichte spuit van
bubbels en schuim

bubbels en schuim
in je hoofd,
je rug
je schouders
45 srd ligt klaar
voor de nieuwe cartridge
en nog eens 45 srd
omdat je zelfs de kleuren
hebt gebruikt.

wachten mag nog even wachten
de spanning van de tijd
uitgesteld
van uitgesproken zinnen
beweging en een klank
het spel van de dirigent
zonder stok
dat je toetsenbord vervangt
de woorden vangt
en speelt.
en speelt.

een ruimte
een licht
en de kleuren van
het  gezicht
dat theater heet.

Woord

Ik heb een woord gezegd
in de brasa die ik gaf
in de handen die
je hield.
Ik heb een woord gezegd
toen je even voorbij kwam
en ook even weg ging.
Ik heb een woord gezegd
terwijl ik stond
een slok nam
en jij ook.
Ik heb een woord gezegd
Ik heb een woord gezegd
ongehoord.

Parbode

Het draait in het leven vooral om Faya (vuur)

 en Lobi (liefde)


Verbond met de tandarts

De waanzin

haar hoofd, opnieuw

en nog een keer

en nog een keer

gevoelloos

bonkt 

slaat
stompt

de waanzin door zijn vuisten

de roep van zijn naam verstomd

gekromd

haar geliefkoosd lichaam
verfrommeld op de vloer
van hun 

dansende stappen

bloedende 

tanden
wankelen
in de verslagen mond
die het geheim niet mocht ontwaren

langs komt de tijd
vervult met wrange troost van pijn vastgeklemd

aan de spalk
voor een toekomstige
stralende 

lach.

Karin Lachmising

Vaco bookstore Paramaribo,

Together with our Poets Shrini and Slory, 

TED SPEECH BIJ KID DYNAMITE VOORSTELLING 9 Februari 2014

TED SPEEECH KARIN LACHMISING

At theater performance KID DYNAMITE, Urban Myth, (director Jorgen Tjon A  Fong, music fra fra sound)

February 9th 2014, Theater Thalia, Paramaribo.

Oh gosh.. kid dynamite.. Hij stond ergens voor, voor zichzelf, zijn muziek...

En weet je ..

Toch verwacht je het misschien een beetje.. toen en nu...

In een  andere maatschappij,

Dat die tijd nodig heeft

Voor die 'andere"mensen,  uit Suriname,

Met hun 'andere'  muziek..

En zou je het DUS niet verwachten hier in Suriname.. waar we zoveel verschillende mensen bij elkaar hebben

Maar wij mensen zijn alsmaar bezig te leren  alles te definiëren,

wat is dit en wat is dat

En het eigenlijke doel daarvan zou niet moeten zijn...

om een beetje controle te krijgen op het vreemde,

maar te begrijpen , dat wat je niet begrijpt.

Dat wat je niet kent.,

Over een groep die anders is dan jij

Over een persoon die anders praat dan jij

Maar helaas , als  het om de praktijk van het leven gaat

Is het anders dan met school.. waar je , 

althans dat is de bedoeling..

leergierig stort op stof die je niet kent...

Maar gaat het om mensen, een volk, een groep, .. 

dan is het anders

Dan vragen we niet 

'wie is je vader en je moeder' omdat we je willen leren kennen,

maar veel te vaak, om je te kunnen labelen.

Om soms misschien zelfs een beetje, 

de controle over het bekende niet te verliezen...

En als we dus in onze veilige hokjes zitten, 

waar alles begrijpbaar en verstaanbaar is..

Wat doen we.?

Wat doen we als we wat anders zien, wat anders horen?

Poetry uit mijn gedichtenbundel Nergens groeit een boom die haar aarde niet vindt

BLZ36

'Er loopt een vreemde hond in de straat/Zijn blaffen herken ik niet/dus label ik hem met een geschiedenis/die mij de hoofdrol geeft/ ........

Ai boy, Het ergste zou zijn

als we, om erbij te mogen horen

Het onszelf ook gemakkelijk maken

Uit angst om buiten de boot te vallen, buiten de maatschappij,

Geen geld meer te kunnen verdienen, geen baan te kunnen krijgen

Niet die ene job...

Niet durfen om trots met wie we zijn en wat we kunnen naar buiten te treden

EN IK?

Zo moest ik tijdens mijn opleiding lezen.

We hadden Trefossa, Sranan geschreven..

Maar . dat moest ik maar niet lezen..

Want ik kende dat echte ding niet, dat Sranan ding

En hoe Surinaams ben jij? 

Was ik 'gro kon'  hier?

Was  ik wel echt een dja dja srananman, 

Jij? Jij met je Nederlandse accent.., je Nederlandse manier van praten.

En was ik niet eerder, als ik toch al Surinaams mocht zijn,

dan maar Hindoestaans

- Wat dus blijkbaar ook niet echt staat voor de 'dja dja Sranaman'-

Moest ik niet liever een gedicht van Shrinivasi lezen, in het hindoestaans, 

ook al verstond ik die taal niet.

En nee, dat vind ik niet erg, nee,  

Maar het wordt wel eng als je de kans ontnomen wordt

om te laten zien wat je wel bent. 

Het wordt eng als ik een label opgeplakt krijg, 

waardoor wat ik zeg ingekleurd wordt

Het wordt vooral eng als ik zelf maar denk.. 

okay... 

dan hou ik  me maar een beetje stil,

En spreek ik maar liever geen Sranan

En misschien is het wel ook zo makkelijk,, 

als ik een beetje Hindoestaans doe.. 

dan hoor ik ergens bij..

Kan ik er misschien zelfs nog winst uit halen.. 

kan ik het als marketing tool gebruiken...

....

Maar als ik dat zou doen,  

niet meer zou spreken vanuit de mix van gedachten die mij bewegen..,  

zou ik mezelf geen brasa kunnen geven,

plaats ik mijzelf in dezelfde houdgreep van de ander

die mij niet hoort, niet ziet. 

En hoe kan ik verwachten dat jij me een brasa geeft 

omdat je me erkent?

Wat hebben we eraan om te schrijven,  muziek te maken, politiek te bedrijven, of relaties aan te gaan.. waarin we datgene doen.. DAT NIET ONS EIGEN IS..of  wat we eigenlijk niet menen ......., niet willen, waar geen vezel van ons ZIJN achter staat.. dat slechts geleid wordt door economische drijfveren, macht, controle, angst of gemakzucht?

Dat  mag ons niet begrenzen, en daarmee kunnen wij onmogelijk anderen begrenzen want

' zijn wij niet allen hier op ons grondgebied 'kinderen van de rivier?'

Poetry uit mijn gedichtenbundel Nergens groeit een boom die haar aarde niet vindt

BLZ49

Laat een accent jou niet misleiden/Want het huis van het hart/waarvan jij denkt eigenaar te zijn/ spreekt haar woorden uit/......