My New Literary Genre To Premiere at Commonwealth Day International Women’s Day

I will premiere and pioneer a new literary genre on Commonwealth Day and International Women’s Day, Monday March 8, 2021. It snapshots my story and journey aligned to small island and global developmental issues culminating in the Pandemic.

One Night To Bloom

The genre, the ‘multimedia micro epic’ is represented in my independent short film, One Night To Bloom. It will be being screened at my session ‘Globalisation in Reverse’ at Interchange21, an online forum of Commonwealth scholars hosted by the British Council for the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. The film features the music of Oliver Chapman and Steelpan by the Trini Panman, Randolph Karamath.

Chapman’s, Footloose and Free, was the soundtrack of Cross Country, the first television series I researched and wrote, delving into microcosmic dimensions of small island, towns and village life.

It followed my award winning newspaper series, ‘Discover Trinidad and Tobago’, both of which have fed into and influenced LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction, the official commemorative publication of the 50^th anniversary of Independences and its aligned LiTTours – Journeys through Landscapes of Fiction and global LiTTributes and LiTTours.  ‘Footloose and Free’ is the veritable soundtrack of my life!

One Night To Bloom integrates new multimedia short forms with traditional epic long form

This multimedia micro epic biopic genre integrates new multimedia forms, tools and techniques into the classical epic genre, which has been attributed in western discourse as originating in Greece, but which appears in classical literatures of much older civilisations.

Ma as Muse

With Ma as my muse, the film within its short time frame  champions other invisible, marginalised women, peoples, cultures and heritage of our times which scientists have branded as the Anthropocene, the epoch of human dominance, culminating in the current Pandemic.

Autobiopic MultiMedia MicroEpic

As an autobiopic. It spotlights my personal and professional life and engagement as a multimedia journalist, educator and gender and civic empowerment advocate with pernicious problems of girls’ education, terrorism, violence, censorship, global travel, media freedoms, diversity, health, environment, governance, intercultural and international relations and small island states within the context of several millennia of evolution.

Post Pandemic Planet futures

The Pandemic might have sent the world into panic, but in breaking down old and archaic structures and mechanisms, many of which have outgrown their usefulness to contemporary challenges, it is also testing us to innovate, invent and adapt.

Blended education for online learning through film

Online educational interchange does not have to be boring. I hope my short film – not just in its content, but also in its form, structure, composition and other elements – will challenge scholars, educators and others be more conscious of the potential use, abuse, misuse of multimedia in representations and transmission of knowledge and open-up new pathways of discovery for filmmakers, writers, and artists to greater innovation.

This opens-up a world of opportunity for novelty that I am exploring through new publications and productions and this web portal. “The ‘One Night to Bloom’ biopic represents one of the many forms in which I will lay out the new multimedia micro epic genre – through integrating fiction and non-fiction, lyrical prose and rhymes, fables, storifying, documentary and musicals.

Integrated Models Modules and Materials

Over the next few months, I will also outlay associated integrated models, modules and materials for teaching and interpreting the world that interconnects science and the humanities, education, respect for diversity, freedoms and civic action as means of redressing some of the pernicious development gaps. For this, I hope to engage sponsors, collaborators and supporters as we help the current and next generations find new ways to dream!

My session, Globalisation in Reverse, follows the formal opening of Interchange 21 by Chair, Commonwealth Scholarships Commission (CSC) Richard Middleton, at 10.30 GMT and Ms Alicia Herbert, OBE introduction to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Gender and Girl’s Education strategy.

Commonwealth scholars attending Interchange 21 will have opportunity to view, peer review and critique the presentation at the Interchange 21 gallery, following the premiere presentation, and may engage with me one-on-one pre-arranged by request, at network events, and at my booth at the end of each day.

A more public global release will be scheduled subsequently.