IRIE BOOK & ART FAIR

This year’s Irie Music Festival features a larger and expanded IRIE Book and Art Fair with some of Canada’s and the Caribbean’s most renowned authors and artists.

In addition to a variety of authors, IRIE Book & Art Fair will also present a special one hour dance presentation by dance Immersion — a dance umbrella organization that forms, encourages and presents dancers and dances of the African Diaspora; a gospel concert, visual artists, poets and more.

Among the writers confirmed is Guyanese-born, Canadian bred, Tessa McWatt, a critically acclaimed young writer who has produced two excellent novels, Out of My Skin and Dragons Cry . The later was shortlisted for Canada's Governor General Award. She will also be launching her newest novel, This Body, which deals with the search for truth, love and identity.

Afua Cooper, one of Canada's most versatile poets, is of Afro-Caribbean origin. She comes in the tradition of the shamaness, the warner, the four-eye woman chanting flaming words. This poet incorporates African riddims and the musical vibes of the Black Diaspora in her poetry which has a strong sense of history and place, underscored by a feminist sensibility. She has published four books of poems including Memories Have Tongue, one of the finalists in the 1992 Casa de las Americas literary award. She is the co-author of We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women's History which won the prestigious Joseph Brant award for history.

U.S. writer/entrepreneur, Farrah Gray, who has written a best-selling book titled Reallionaire, will also make his first Canadian visit at the IRIE Book & Art Fair. Written with the help of writer Fran Harris, Gray's book shares insights of his journey from the projects in Chicago to his digs in Las Vegas where he now runs INNERCity magazine, among other entrepreneural ventures.

Jamaican-born Bernadette Dyer, who’ll present her latest book, Waltzes I have not forgotton. A resident of Toronto, Dyer’s fiction has been published in literary magazines in Canada, England and France, and her short story collection Villa Fair, was published by Beach Holme Publishers, a collection of multicultural stories.

Also present will be Horane Smith, another Jamaican-born Canadian, who’ll read from books Reggae Silver and Port Royal, an epic featuring the pirates and slave traders of the city once described as "the richest and wickedest on earth," is the third novel of historical fiction.

Jamaican poet, performance artist and author Honor Ford-Smith will present her first book of poetry. My Mother's Last Dance is set in Jamaica and Canada and examines the bonds and stresses in the lives of a great-grandmother, a grandmother, a mother and a daughter over the span of 100 years.

Jamaican writer Pam Mordecai, who lives in Canada, recently completed Pink Icing, a collection of short stories, and Cypher, a novel. A prolific anthologist with a special interest in the writing of Caribbean women, she has edited/co-edited several anthologies of poetry, and, with her sister Elizabeth Wilson, Her True-True Name, a groundbreaking anthology of women's fiction.

Kalmunity, a poetic group from Montreal, will also be featured at the IRIE Music Festival and at Harbourfront throughout the weekend while
Ingrid Walter is an award-winning journalist and communications specialist whose work experience spans politics, television, radio and print. Walter will be reading from Sea of Wisdom, which focuses on Caribbean proverbs. Originally from Jamaica, Ingrid is also known for her feature articles on Canadian and American icons as well as her thought-provoking opinion columns.

Born in Trinidad, Ramabai Espinet has, since the 1970's, divided her time between Canada and the Caribbean. Active on both the stage and page, Ramabai's extensive body of work includes her book of poetry, Nuclear Seasons, poems published within a variety of Indo-Caribbean and Caribbean anthologies, her plays Indian Robber Talk and Beyond the Kalapani, a wide range of critical writings, short fiction and essays and two children's books. While teaching at both York University and Seneca College and active in the women's movement of both Canada and the Caribbean, poet, essayist, activist, author and social commentator, Espinet evades simple description. At the festival she’ll be reading from Princess of Spadina and The Swinging Bridge.

Other authors include Sophia Shaw will read from her latest romance novel, Shades and Shadows, as well as Mel White, Wayne Jones and Yvonne Blackwood.

The IRIE Book & Art Fair will also showcase a special exhibit of The International African Inventors Museum. Promoting positive images and self-esteem in children and adults, the exhibit teaches people of all nationalities about the contributions that Africans throughout the world have given to society.

The International African Inventors Museum is a mobile museum, which travels nationally and internationally to inform in a visual display. The display features a range of inventions including everyday items such as the window cleaner, the eggbeater, lawn mower, space shuttle retrieval and more.

Irie Book & Art Fair takes place July 29th to July 31st, at Nathan Phillips Square. Admission is free.

For more information about the Irie Book and Art Fair, email us with your questions or call 905-799-1630 x 28.

(Schedule TBA. Check this page for regular updates.)

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