There is a secret titbit behind the poem in the billboard of One Night To Bloom which introduced the MultiMedia MicroEpic, now widely accepted as the newest creative genre, I developed to contain my reflections on the Anthropocene.
It contains my musing in verse:
One night to bloom
Only on the full moon
It flowers in the dark of night
Then only can it restore sight
In multilingual renderings as it attracts attention of the multicultural Latin America and Caribbean communities and our diasporas across North America and Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa, the Spanish translation reads:
Una noche para florecer
Solo en la luna llena
Florece en la oscuridad de la noche
Entonces solo puede restaurar la vista
French Translation
Une nuit pour fleurir
Seulement à la pleine lune
Il fleurit dans l’obscurité de la nuit
Alors seulement peut-il restaurer la vue
The Storyteller Extraordinaire
I penned the verse in remembrance of of Pa – the storyteller extraordinaire – and the DNA of the creative imagination and impulse that is driving the development of the various dimensions of the novel MultiMedia MicroEpic genre – as biopic that encompasses the sum of the anthropocene in the multifarious storytelling modes of our time – memes, blog, graphics, sound as well as the conventional rendering in poetry, rhyme, prose, biography and various other documentary modes.
Epic Nights
Pa’s creative imagination overflowed from his hard work in the fields and the market place where he sold his produce into a world of boundless creativity that set us dreaming of fantastical possibilities into the night, after hearing a segment of his seemingly endless epic tales that could rival the creators of The Arabian Nights and Grimm Fairy Tales any day, or night.
In fact, Pa’s stories drew from the same source as the authors of those classic works, which I would consume copiously from the time I could read, and would recently discover from my own research. No, they were not original classical British tales but part of the looting of native knowledge with expansion of the colonial empires.
Pre-Arabian Nights Ancestral Repertoire
They were from his own ancestral repertoire, passed on through this Ma and Pa and their parents and from him to us impressionable children, and grandchildren who crowded his bedside, forcing our eyelids to stay open lest we miss a bit of a savoury tale.
Epic Blending Classical and New Media
In evolving his traditional storytelling style, merged with the classical long form epic for new short form multimedia short form while retaining the epic depths and breath, scale and resonance to reflect the potential and scope of using new media for cultural retention, rather than cultural deletion and erasure, to uplift rather than dumb down our knowledge tradition as educators are now doing in ignorance of uses of media.
I created the verse as part of a poem that reflect more the impact of the stories he told, and one in particular – of a magical flower with the properties to restore sight, that his hero must retrieve after undergoing numerous fantastical challenges, trysts with strange creatures, confront humanity’s inhumanities and defects, and restore the sight of his beloved and faith in the triumph of good over evil.
Power of Creative Imagination
Moreso, his stories celebrated the power of the imagination to triumph over any circumstances.
The story was made into an Indian movie, when motion pictures did not yet contain dialogue, but it was later remade with dialogue.
Pa, whose life was absorbed by his own activities, was not a move-goer and would not have seen these films, even if they reached the talkie tent shows of early cinema in Trinidad and Tobago, an he was telling his stories long before they were interpreted by Indian cinema.
While Pa’s imagination hovers over the creations, the MultiMedia MicroEpic is equally a tribute to Ma, with its main components on the Anthropocene and the host of human impact on native cultures, the environment, climate and our social and cultural existence is encompassed in the segments of MotherContinent – which unearths the umbilical and embryonic linkages between the ancient Americas and the rest of the world, through close explorations of various indigenous cultures of Eastern and Western worlds weaved into the mDNA and emerging in matriarchal storytelling as in Ma’s musical renditions.
Generally, when we talk of DNA we do not focus on these intangible elements of inheritance and knowledge transmission, which I am now engaging with the tech communities to identify and secure as we navigate the choppy waters of AI and ChatGPT and other emerging technologies. But more about that las I share how the story makes its way into the world of AI!
In Remembrance
I share this titbit in remembrance of Pa this Father’s day and to thank you all for taking the time to wish me a happy birthday! Stay tuned for the release and showings and for new developments in this arena.
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About Dr Kris Rampersad
Dr Rampersad is a certified UNESCO Heritage and National Geographic Educator, Global Woman Tech Makers’ Ambassador, Google and Worldpulse Digital Skills Ambassador, and Island Innovators’ Ambassador.
She was awarded the Trinidad and Tobago National Medal Gold for contributions to the development of women and journalism and is recognised as a pioneer in development policy blogging for new media by the UNESCO/BBC & Partners’ Communication’s Initiative, among other accolades.
First PhD
She was the first sitting journalist/editor in the Caribbean and first in her family to complete a PhD. She holds PhD in Humanities, encompassing developmental studies of post-colonial societies with a diploma in Mass Communications from the Jawaharlal University/Indian Institute of Mass Communications. She is a Fellow of Foreign Press Centre of Japan, University of Cambridge and a Commonwealth Professional Fellow.
Tracking Migration, Displacement
Her dissertation tracks the migration, settlement, adaptation and processes of society-formation. It has since published as Finding a Place which is considered groundbreaking in international contexts of tracing identity-retrieval from distorted colonial knowledge systems. It is now being redeveloped for multimedia as are other elements of the educational research and she is inviting investments for this initiative. Contact her to discuss how you can get involved.
Interactive Multistakeholder Community Enegagements
Heritage and Literary Tours Explorations through Global Caribbean Local Landscapes
She authored Through the Political Glass Ceiling that captures the ascension to office of the First Woman Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and I the Sky & Me the Sea – The Adventures of Munnie Butterfly and Danny Dragonfly, the first of a Caribbean EcoCultural Adventure Fable Series.
Reengineering Education in the Digital Age
Now focusing in reshaping education for the digital age, she pioneered the newest creative genre, the MultiMedia MicroEpic during the Pandemic lockdown. It adapts the long form classical epic for short form new media.
Dr Rampersad has long experience in multilateral relations and served as President of the UNESCO Education Commission, as an Independent Member of the UNESCO InterGovernmental Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage. She was the first UNESCO ICH educator/facilitator for the English speaking Caribbean and was actively involved in local to international stakeholder engagement processes that significantly augmented the Caribbean presence on UNESCO Lists – World Heritage sites for Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Reggae on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Registry, and enlisting of Port of Spain, Nassau, Kingston as UNESCO Creative Cities.
She has trained, guided, mentored and worked with many of the diverse cultural communities of the Caribbean from indigeneous peoples to the more recent migrant communities, devising innovative user-responsive mechanisms for communicating culture-centred development for Latin America and the Caribbean, Small Islands, the Global South and the Developing World.
Find out more at Website www.krisrampersad.com. LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @kisramp
Dr Rampersad is also the author of the highly acclaimed LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction, a springboard for engaging all ages – she says from ages 3 to 103 in literature and cultural appreciation beyond the textbooks through live events and tours aimed at cultivating heritage appreciation and to develop Caribbean Literary & Heritage Tourism.
- Dr Kris Rampersad speak on value of migrants & Migration: Engaging the Diaspora at LiTTribute to Toronto
- Dancers at i1LiTTribute to the Americas in Florida pay tribute to Arrivals with LiTTscapes author Dr Kris Rampersad global intercultural engagements
- Signature Heritage LiTTours and Learning Journeys customised for any age district industry or sector
- Cricket Lovely Cricket Sprts heritage in games we play resonate with various cultural influences and practices explored in LiTTscapes – Landscapes of fiction from Trinidad and Tobago
- Sir Vidia Naipaul Lion House Hanuman House in A House for Mr Biswas from LiTTscapes Landscapes of Fiction
- LiTTribute to LondonTTown inspired by LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction by Dr Kris Rampersad
- Dr Kris Rampersad debuts on the steelpan at LiTTribute tot he Americas Florida A Celebration of Arrivals pays tribute to migrants contribution to musical culinary and Americas heritage
- Heritage and Literary Tours Explorations through Global Caribbean Local Landscapes
- Dancers at i1LiTTribute to the Americas in Florida pay tribute to Arrivals with LiTTscapes author Dr Kris Rampersad global intercultural engagements
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