“He is in my mind — without a doubt –the great poet of the late 20th century. His is a mellifluous song; a voice of such breadth and longing…perhaps a longing to right old wrongs. In any case, he enshrines an entire people in truth beyond all confabulations so that we may come to know how they came to be who they are now. In, Omeros, Walcott’s sun-dusted rewriting of Homer’s epic, we ride with the crest of a history where Helen of Troy is Helen of the West Indies, personified in the haughty defiance of a stunning black maid. Achilles and Hector? Valiant fishermen in love with the same woman..”
[Special thanks to the Walcott Estate who gave me permission to use the poems read in this podcast.]
Musical Selection for this Podcast
- A cool wind is blowing by Djivan Gasparyan
- Mouneissa by Rokia Traoré
- Cantiga de mi Amigo by Amália Rodrigues
- Fado Português by Amália Rodrigues
- Sombra by Amália Rodrigues
- Strange fruit by Rokia Traoré
- Goree by Nuru Kane
