Thursday, December 1, 2011

Ivan A. Khayiat's "Msiba-My Love" will be launched on Dec 9th



Lily Strand Publishing in Suriname is launching a unique coffee table book Msiba-My Love on December 9th at 7.00 pm at the Tower Auditorium in downtown Paramaribo. ‘Msiba- my Love’ is the winner of the 2011 National Tagore Award for poetry. The book has a stunning collection of photographic images of Suriname together with the texts of three poems. During the launch there will be a fifteen minute high definition video presentation of images of Suriname’s Brokopondo interior with audio of the main poem in English and Dutch. A specially composed musical soundtrack complements the male and female voices reading the poem.

Masba, My Love is not only a unique collection of poems but also a deeply moving plea for respect for mother earth, Suriname and its people. 

The centre piece of this collection is “Msiba My Love”. It is a symphonic poem in three movements which profoundly explores the many layers of an economic and ecological crime that was committed in Suriname in the 1960s.  In the name of progress a multi- national company together with the Dutch colonial government forcibly removed   thriving Maroon communities from their ancestral homes to create the Afobaka hydro electric dam. These communities had been living there for over 200 years and held a sacred spiritual connection with their mother communities in Africa. Msiba communicates the excruciating pain caused by the severing of the spinal cord of not only the Maroon nation but the nation of Suriname. The emotional intensity aroused by the words, images, rhythms, and cadences of this fascinating poem is so great that one young Surinamer was moved to tears just reading the poem.

Msiba however is more than the poem. It is an artistic effort to use both the force of the poem and the powerful impact of photographic images to create a multimedia presentation.  Each image in the book has been carefully selected to act either as a companion or a counter point to the lines in the poem.   “Reading” this poem is a multi sensory experience which resonates at all three important levels physical, emotional, and spiritual.

 “Forest Tears”, the second poem, poses the questions that we all need ask about our relationship with the planet today. The collection ends with the exquisitely beautiful “I love you” which celebrates simultaneously the love of a woman and the country she comes from. The stunningly beautiful images of Suriname and the poem evoke the joy of fresh new love.

Ivan Khayiat is a gifted writer with the ability to touch the reader at the very core of his being. Everyone who reads these poems will do so over and over. Each time the reader will come away with even greater insights into our need to be attuned to mother earth. Each reader will also feel the pain of the vicious crime that was committed to this peaceful nation nearly 50 years ago.                                                                                                                                                                 

Milton M.Drepaul