A Chance Encounter

Eight years ago, I was a participant at the inaugural Cropper Foundation Writers' Workshop held in Trinidad. One of the persons I met there was Rawle Gibbons, Director of UWI St. Augustine's Centre for Creative and Festival Arts and one of the region's leading dramatists. We've had an uneven correspondence since then but whenever we meet on my occasional visits to Trinidad it's always with this unaffected camaraderie.

The things I admire in Gibbons are the things I fancy I see in myself...someone comfortable in their accomplishments, willing to work with the establishment but not prone to kissing establishment ass. The last time I met him in Trinidad was in 2006, part of a quirky series of events. After taking part in several meetings at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport on Guyana's participation in CARIFESTA IX, I subsequently found out that there was no place for me on the literary contingent - I am not going to expose here the literary luminaries who did go.

Fortunately I have my resources and ended up visiting CARIFESTA as part of a consultancy with CARICOM. I arranged an apartment with a friend of a friend of a friend (literally) and arrived in Trinidad with basically passage from the airport to Diego Martin, and from there to St. Augustine to collect my per diem from the bursar at UWI. Shit did not go as planned and I spent the night in the 24 hour KFC while the person I was to collect the key from was out at sea. The next morning I arrived sour, unshaven at Gibbons' office, beating even the cleaning lady there. I luckily remembered that the Centre for Creative and Festival Arts (former) main office was housed in what seemed to be previously some sort of colonial style cottage and right next to Gibbons' office is a shower.

Half hour after arriving at St. Augustine sour and tired from too little sleep I was ready to face the day. I waited on till Gibbons came in and we did a bit of catching before an early class he had. After the class and with my money comfortably in my pocket I went back to his office and we had a stroll around campus. I asked him whether he was involved in CARIFESTA since so many of the Trinidad artistic establishment I knew were - Eintou Springer, Dani Lyndersay, Funso Aiyejinna and Earl Lovelace, the Festival's Creative Director.

He was not - from what he told me he didn't have a too favourable opinion of how the whole shebang was being run, an opinion I concurred with. Yesterday, passing by the launch of Guyana's own CARIFIASCO, I saw standing at the back of a section of the throng Rawle Gibbons of all people.

To make a long story short, he that he was convinced by a friend to actually cooperate this year in the capacity of a consultant to Trinidad's contingent. If anything, that guarantees that the Trinis are going to upstage our asses completely when it comes to the theatrical events this CARIFESTA. All in all it was a good experience though and August is going to guarantee my meeting up with some old and much admired Trinidadian friends like Gibbons., only this time for once on my home turf.