Black Mozart from Guadeloupe celebrates comeback as film star

A legend awakes: at the time of Mozart and Haydn, Joseph Boulogne was a musical super-star in Paris – the first great black composer, an exceptionally gifted foilsman and a feared army commander. Now the ˜Chevalier de Saint Georges', as was his title, is celebrating a comeback: in a film about his life - a life full of secrets.

By Bernhard Grdseloff (C) 2005

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"His mother was a black slave, and his father was her master – a white great land owner from Basse Terre," reports Jean-Claude Halley, chairman to the Black Mozart's fan club in Guadeloupe. "In 1758 the 13-year-old went to Paris to study classical music. But not much is really known about what happened before."

In Paris the gifted mulatto embarks on a rapid career: Boulogne composes sonatas, concertos and symphonies. Queen Marie Antoinette appoints him as her music director, King Louis XVI makes him director of the Paris Opera. At the same time the virtuoso violinist acquires a legendary reputation as a fencing master. Halley: "He's regarded as the founder of modern foil technique which served as a model for the three musketeers."

The incredible speed of a foil sword combined with a hint of Creole melancholy also characterises the Chevalier's music. "There are hardly any soloists capable of playing like that," says musician Halley.

During the French Revolution the composer leads an army of black soldiers. Yet he falls out of favour with Napoleon, and many of his works are lost. "There˜s no trace of his 10 operas," regrets Halley. "Perhaps his revived popularity will make something turn up."



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By Guyanese Author Rosalind KilKenny McLymont's "Middle Ground " - A New Classic which won Best New Book for it's writer.

Beyond Revenge - by Godfrey Wray

Godfrey Wray is the Editor-in-Chief of the Caribbean Impact, a fortnightly newspaper that has taken the New York market by storm. Before migrating from his native Guyana, he enjoyed a satisfying period as a senior journalist on the country's two main publications, Daily Chronicle and Guyana Graphic, later to become the Guyana Chronicle. He was sports reporter, Sports Editor, Editor of The Citizen, Sunday Editor of the Chronicle. Godfrey also published a monthly sports magazine called Sports Xpress.

Godfrey lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he is working on his second novel, Edge of Existence.

Elizabeth Nunez emigrated from Trinidad to the US after completing high school. She is a CUNY Distinguished Professor of English at Medgar Evers College. She received her Ph.D. in English from New York University. She is the award-winning author of six novels: Prospero's Daughter (New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice and 2006 Florida Center for the Literary Arts One Book, One Community selection at the Miami Book Fair); Grace; Discretion (short-listed for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award); Bruised Hibiscus (American Book Award); Beyond the Limbo Silence (Independent Publishers Book Award); and When Rocks Dance. Called "a master of pacing and plotting," in the New York Times review of Prospero's Daughter, Nunez has a writing style that has reminded critics, among them Booklist, of Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. Black Issues Book Review describes Bruised Hibiscus as "moving, powerful and haunting." Publisher's Weekly says that the prose in Grace is "exquisitely tuned" and the narrative unfolds with "understated elegance," and The Seattle Times comments that "Discretion delivers two memorable characters whose personal culture clashes, both shared and internalized, are as telling as those of the world they inhabit."

Nunez is co-editor with Jennifer Sparrow of the anthology Stories from Blue Latitudes: Caribbean Women Writers at Home and Abroad, co-editor with Brenda Greene of the collection of essays, Black Writers in the 90's, and author of several monographs of literary criticism. She is a former fellow of Yaddo and MacDowell artist colonies. A cofounder of the National Black Writers Conference, and director from 1986-2000, Nunez received grant awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as grants from The Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Reed Foundation for these conferences. She continues her work in support of writers of color with her radio program on WBAI 99.5FM and as chair of the PEN American Open Book committee. She is executive producer of the 2004 NY Emmy-nominated CUNY TV series Black Writers in America. Her audiobooks include Grace and Prospero's Daughter (BBC/America) and Discretion (Recorded Books).

Did you know that the third, Governor of South Carolina, was actually a Bristol, England-born, Barbados based, sugar plantation owner? Sir John Yeamans established the Proprietorship colony in Charles Town, Carolina, where he imported 200 slaves and introduced slavery to North America. He imported the slaves to grab the largest plantation qualifying for an additional 100 acres for each slave. He became the 3rd Governor only because he did not arrive with the original settlers. He arrived several months later, and the 80 yr old governor he appointed had died. He had to remove his replacement and he then took over. He established a plantation there but died of disease there in 1674. - THIS CAHM MOMENT BROUGHT TO YOU BY Hardbeatnews

Author of One Note Symphonies and Still Life in Motion





Guyana-born Sean Brijbasi sends critics in search of superlatives with the release of his second novel, Still Life in Motion, published by Pretend Genius Press. The follow-up to his equally acclaimed One Note Symphonies, Still Life is an assemblage of vignettes as capricious as a dream, and is earning Brijbasi comparisons to James Joyce and Woody Allen (what a combination!). Readers who prefer their literature as predictable as afternoon tea may disapprove of Brijbasi's literary machinations. But for the adventurous, Still Life will prove a compelling work of art.