Suriname Msiba My Love selected for Belize Film Festival

Msiba, My Love has been selected for Belize International Film Festival 2012 to be held from the 13-17 July.  Msiba, My Love is one of eight films selected in the animation category.  From the huge number of submissions it will be one of the 64 featured films.  It is the first time that a film from Suriname will be represented at the festival.

The Official Selection boasts films from 24 different nations including Belize, Trinidad and Tobago and the USA, who all submitted the most films to be a part of this year’s festival.  Msiba, My Love was Suriname's only entry.  It is a 9 minute movie by Lily Strand Publishing and is directed by Milton Drepaul and Sean Taylor.

Stunning images of the Suriname rain forest tell the story of an ecological crime committed on the Saramakan people in Suriname in 1964 when a hydro electric dam was built and a huge artificial lake submerged their homes.

The DVD features the reading of The Tagore Prize Winning poem - Msiba, My Love by Ivan Khayiat -- read in seven languages -- English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Saran Tongo and Saramakan.

The central message in both the book and DVD is that humanity needs to appreciate that Mother Earth bestows gifts to us and we must have a humble and sacred relationship with her.

The editor for the film was Shafeek Nazir who also won the 1^st prize for art in the 2011 Tagore National Competition.  Shafeek Nazir , AlphaMax Graduate (2011 Class) was editor, graphics and animation director.  The pictures in the DVD were done by Rohit  Badatljawdharie, Rudi Moredjan and Studio TMC. 

A specially composed sound track by Rohit Badatljawdharie with hypnotic and haunting tones is in the background and gives its own signature to the DVD.

Msiba was chosen a state gift by the government of Suriname and a copy of the book and DVD was presented to 15 Caribbean heads of state.

A group in Brazil has invited Lily Strand Publishing to be part of their RIo 20 + participation in June 2012.

The organizers of the Festival expressed the hope that Msiba, My Love will garner more attention and perhaps progress to more success in other festivals, television, or even the big screen!

Learn more about Msiba, My Love

Lily Strand publishing has created a website---http://www.msibamylove.com so that online viewers can learn more about their latest publication -Msiba,My Love and its writer Ivan A. Khayiat.


It is also possible to order the book online.


The site has material from Ivan A. Khayiat's early collection of poems Quest by Day, Vigil by Night.. Msiba was launched last Friday in Suriname and has had an enthusiastic response from the public.


This coffee table photo book with the Tagore  award winning poem is a collector's item and an ideal gift. The book is an excellent example of the creative skill of Surinamese.


The book was printed by Suriprint N.V and Design work was done by Studio TMC and ChadLab.com.


Suriname buyers can come to the AlphaMax Academy to get their copies.

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 9^th 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

Tagore Awards Ceremony

The Suriname Rabindranath Tagore Creative Arts Awards Ceremony was held on Tuesday, November 22^nd at 5:00 p.m. at the University Guesthouse on Leysweg.

This important event celebraedthe work of more than 30 Surinamese student- and adult-artists.

The wife of Ambassador Harvey Naarendorp  (Suriname Ambassador to the EU based in Paris)  handed out awards to over 30 creative artists from Suriname who won school and national competitions in creative art and writing (prose and poetry) competitions.

The competition, which was launched in May 2011 by the Suriname Tagore Celebrations Committee, attracted more than 135 entries from students and adults in Suriname. Judges for the national competitions included members of the Schrijvers Group'77, Art Vibes United, and the University of Suriname. There were more than 75 creative writing and art entries from students attending schools in Paramaribo, Wanica, and Commewijne.

The prestigious Tagore Art Competition was launched to mark the 150^`" Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European and person of color to win a Nobel Prize (1912). Born in 1861, Tagore was a prolific writer, dramatist, poet, artist, philosopher, and international humanist. Across the world, national and international competitions are being held to uphold values in creative excellence in celebration of Tagore.

Ten AlphaMax students were among the 40 prize winners in the first Tagore Creative Arts competition in Suriname.

AMA tutor Sylvana Dankerlui guided the packed audience through an enchanting program that celebrated Rabindranath Tagore’s influence on the world and in this special case on Surinamese young people. Mrs Dankerlui  gave a passionate and delightful account of Tagore and how his ideas influenced others.

This was followed by a song done by the ICC singing teacher. She sang one of Tagore’s compositions. Her performance held the audience’s rapt  and they gave her an enthusiastic round of applause.

The highlight of the evening was the reading presentation   of the winning entries in the writing competition. The audience was thoroughly impressed not only with the ideas and style of writing but with the confidence and poise of all the winners as they delivered their pieces. Many commented later on the kaleidoscope of Surinamese faces of all races and the range of artistic expressions.

Parents and friends commended the organizing committee for an unusually delightful evening which placed the creative work of young Surinamese at the center of national interest. All the winning art entries were placed along the walls of the auditorium and in front of the audience.

 See pictures posted on Facebook  by Indian Embassy

AlphaMax wins twelve awards in Tagore Art Competition

AlphaMax Academy students and staff did extremely well in the national Tagore Art Competition winning twelve awards.

The competition, which was launched in May 2011 by the Suriname Tagore Celebrations Committee, attracted more than 135 entries from students and adults in Suriname. Judges for the national competitions included members of the Schrijvers Group'77, Art Vibes United, and the University of Suriname. There were more than 75 creative writing and art entries from students attending schools in Paramaribo, Wanica, and Commewijne.

The prestigious Tagore Art Competition was launched to mark the 150^`" Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, the first non-European and person of color to win a Nobel Prize (1912). Born in 1861, Tagore was a prolific writer, dramatist, poet, artist, philosopher, and international humanist. Across the world, national and international competitions are being held to uphold values in creative excellence in celebration of Tagore.

Ivan A. Khayiat  (a pseudonym for one of our teachers) won the first prize in the adult section for Poetry. With his poem “Msiba, My Love” Mahnaz Kohinory (Biology Teacher) won the adult first prize for prose with her short story-“Jane Could Dance”

First prize student winners were; Claire Patandin –English Prose Senior –for “my Encounter with Tagore’; Reann Kersenhout—English Prose Junior –for “To Us”; English Poetry Junior—Kristina Taylor –for “Reflections” and Shafeek Nazir –Art 12 +.

Other prizewinners were: Timothy Naarendorp, second prize in the Senior Prose division; Jonathan Lui, third prize in the Senior Prose division; Brienne Renfurm second in the Junior Prose division; Jason Hoppie third prize second in the Junior Prose division; Xiomara Getrouw second prize in the Poetry Division and Jason Jones third prize in the poetry division.