Royal Wedding in Toronto upstaged when Fairy Godmother Educator oins our Journeys into the Imagination

Dear Lizzie,
Cover Girls edge Meghan-Prince Harry off front page!
Centuries into the women’s liberation movement, it may still be every girl’s dream to marry, and to a Prince, but who would think that the Royal Wedding mania that has gripped Canada through Toronto could be upstaged by a revolution!

Toronto is gripped with pride as the city that initiated the romance and the upcoming nuptials of Prince Harry and the Hollywood actress Meghan Markle, the latest edition of the Monarchy to which Canada still owes its allegiance , despite becoming independent of British rule more than a century before my birth! 
Just when we thought it may be impossible to turn heads that are glued from the unfolding drama and melodrama of the Royal to-do, enters our fairy godmother-educator to give flight to our Reading Revolution to transform the Cinderella art of reading into headliner for equity, progress and sustainable development.

Fairytale Romance

The intervention turned heads glued to the fairytale romance to the real life fairytale of women in education and development who have set the foundation for women’s education, women as a force in the workplace, in business, in politics, in Hollywood, towards creating a more equitable society. The cindergirl and the fairy godmother educator became Cover Girls of Independence and the headlines of the Independent Newspaper, voted the Best Digital Newspaper in Canada by the Media Council of Canada and the Canadian Ethnic Press.

It promises a happily ever after to those independent-minded who still celebrate the independent spirit of women and are stemming the tide of regression of centuries of suppression of the independent spirit of women.

Food for Thought

As we wish Meghan Markle and Harry Montbatten Windsor  – my Jahaji Bhai – a happily ever after, we look to our own happy endings. Join us after the wedding for the grand nuptial celebration in our continuing LiTTribute to ToronTTo: A Reading and A Roti for this and much more food for thought!

Rethinking Development

For books and bookings and to partner and sponsor with our developmental efforts, email lolleaves@gmail.com or see images and videos this page for details or contact us on social media.

It’s our royal wedding of island and continental culture.
Spicing up appetites with creative conversation our LiTTribute to the Americas Canada Section continue LiTTributes to ToronTTO with our global journeys through the Landscapes of Fiction at @Scarborough Toronto

Bridging Culture – Role the Museum

What is the role of the Royal Ontario Museum? and like arts, film,  music, performance and culture institutions in advancing post colonial societies?
How can the media  in both mainstream and ethnic communities better represent the multicultural spectrum of Canadian diversity?
How can we better utilise the vast numbers of cultural arenas and mechanisms to bridge cultural divides and create the connected world touted by the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau with his multisectrum Cabinet?

How can they better serve the array of cultural communities through the multicultural policy directions of Canada and our connected global diasporas?

Continuing Saga

The continuing saga of our global LiTTributes move to the Scarborough t as we connect East and West silk, spice, slave and indentured immigrant routes in an exploration of multiculturalism through intercultural dialogue.

Drawn from the concept of LiTTributes to recognise heritage institutions along with lifestyles and pasttimes, our LiTTribute to ToronTTo will engage creative conversations on the intertwining of the now global game of cricket with the heritage of food along with other cultural forms and expresions through their representations through the literatures of the Commonwealth and the Caribbean, and the roots and routes of our societies in the Americas.

Inspired by LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction, these interactive engagements bridge generation gaps, promote youth to engage in meaningful considerations of cultural continuity while promoting respect and understanding of the range of cultural traditions beliefs and practices that have become intrinsic to modern living. Enter our discussions through the portal of LiTTscapes which features a number of writers out of Canada as Neil Bissoondath, the nephew of Nobel Laureate Sir Vidia Naipaul who has himself challenged the impact of Canadian multicultural policies, Ramabai Espinet, Shani Mootoo, Ismith Khan, Samuel Selvon and others.

Creative Conversation

Our Creative Conversation – synergies between the literary and performing arts in the spirit of Exploration, Entertainment Education and Empowerment through Novel lenses with music, song, dance, and recitation. Engaging generations. All ages. All interests. Tailor made to your events and special occasions. By Request Only. Learn more. Next stop Toronto. #LiTTributeToToronto
Join our LiTTours or Request Your Own

Dont Forget the Boys

Global education statistics suggest that boys lag behind in reading in a campaign  #Don’tForgetTheBoys.

The experience of our boys are different.
Our efforts look beyond the statistics and engage boys and girls of all ages to appreciate reading in  novel ways through culture-specific forms as we promote inclusive societies.
We are redefining multiculturalism to bridge the gaps between generations, between cultures, between genders and scaling walls that create inequity and discrimination through literacy and literary elderly and intergenerational appreciation.

Customise Your Legacy Initiatives

Our LiTTribute series re-tailor your events to suit your environment, inspired by LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction by Kris Rampersad, in partnership with global diasporas.

Following our LiTTributes To The Americas, the Republic, To LondonTTown, To the Mainland and To the Antilles, in our next chapter we being our LiTTributes to Toronto, in association with Zoomers Association and the Independent Newspaper of Canada on May 13, 2018 at the Erin View Residence Hall in Mississauga Toronto from 1 pm and at Windies Restaurant from 1 pm on May 20 2018 in association with the Independent Newspaper – voted the best digital newspaper by the Media Council of Canada and the National Ethnic Press. See images this page and contact our partners for bookings.
Since our launch many mothers, fathers, guardians and community organisations who have come into contact with our initiative have commended our efforts.
Ours is an all encompassing journey of Exploration, Entertainment, Education and Empowerment.  …. find out more from our LiTTributes, LiTTscapes and LiTTours.
Want to partner or sponsor an event, book a tour or purchase books for your schools or communities?
 Email lolleaves@gmail.com. Find us on social media: Twitte:r @lolleaves; Facebook: LiTTscapes 
Sharing some images of our engagement activities for your better understanding.

Request a LiTTributes LiTTour or Legacy initiative

Follow our Literary journeys:
LiTTribute to the Americas
LiTTribute to LondonTTown
LiTTribute to the AnTTiles
LiTTribute to the Mainland
LiTTribute to the Republic…and more

LiTTscapes is Novel Approach to Literature & Art

Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago by Kris Rampersad is….

LiTTscapes offer Novel Approach to Sustainable Cultural Heritage Development & Education 

LiTTscapes, a full colour compendium of Trinidad and Tobago as represented in its fictional literature against actual photographs of the landscapes, lifestyles and living heritage, has been acclaimed as a groundbreaking initiative to stimulate our nation “to heal our self-schisms”.

“No one book can set out to achieve everything that a text can do for its people and its nation; but whatever you say one book can’t do, this one almost does,” says head of the Guyana Prize for Literature and former Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana of LiTTscapes. It has also been hailed as a ‘labour of love’ in the Commonwealth Journal and ‘like a good fete” by Soca News UK.

LiTTscapes was conceived as a mechanism for expanding appreciation of national heritage and engaging and connecting cultures, restoring self appreciation and esteem to peoples of all ages through creative synergies while focusing on sustainable development of the tourism, heritage and education sectors. LiTTscapes is a pictorial, yet encyclopaedic compendium of the lifestyles, landscapes, architecture, cultures, festivals and institutions of Trinidad and Tobago as represented in more than 100 fictional works by some 60 writers from earliest to modern times, including both award winning Nobel laureates as well as lesser known writers.

It has been ‘translated’ and transmitted through interactive interfaces, exposition and performance as LiTTributes and through tours that offer unique insights into public places called LiTTours – Journeys Through the Landscapes of Fiction.

LiTTributes have already been enacted at launches nationally and in the wider Caribbean and our diasporas, LiTTributes to the Republic in Trinidad and Tobago, LiTTributes to the Mainland in Guyana, LiTTribute to the Antilles staged in March in Antigua; LiTTribute to LondonTTown among others. Upcoming LiTTributes2018 will focus on the Americas.

Publication of LiTTscapes which is also associated with the LiTTours – Journeys Through the Landscapes of Fiction of Trinidad and Tobago, has been widely endorsed as an effective means of engaging the national and international communities in appreciating our built, natural and cultural heritage towards enhancing social and cultural development and diversification and all to promote literacy and heritage appreciation among  youths from ages 3 to 103.

Acclaimed as a groundbreaking encyclopaedic yet coffee-table style compendium of the lifestyles, landscapes, architecture, cultures, festivals and institutions of the Caribbean as represented in more than 100 fictional works by some 60 writers, LiTTscapes is geared to stimulate interest in reading, literacy and connect the Caribbean with other continents through synergies with the creative sectors.

Stating that LiTTscapes, though easy to read, is not easy to describe “given its multi-tasking nature and its wide reach,” Head of the Guyana Prize for Literature Professor Al Creighton has called it “a work of art…a documentary, a travelogue, a critical work with visual and literary power.”

He said, “It is a quite thorough artistic concept…a portrait and biography of the nation of Trinidad and…is attractively, neatly and effectively designed.” He noted that it reflects “a considerable volume of reading ranging from…the dawn of Caribbean literature” in such early writings as of Walter Raleigh, through the 1930s period of literary awakening with the Beacon group, Alfred Mendes, CLR James and others, to present. 

“It takes us on a tour of the country, giving some exposure to almost every aspect of life…no tourist guide can give a better, more comprehensive introduction to Trinidad. It entices and attracts just as the glossy tourist literature.

“Photographs of several sections of Port-of-Spain are accompanied by the descriptions and literary excerpts: this treatment is given to the capital city, other towns, streets, urban communities, villages, historic buildings and places, vegetation, animals, institutions, culture and landscape.  There is considerable visual beauty, what Derek Walcott calls “visual surprise” in his Nobel Lecture; an impressive coverage of social history, geography, and politics, but also a strong literary experience.  It is a survey of Trinidad’s landscape and of its literature.”

 Creighton noted Rampersad “has done the painstaking work analogous to that of a lexicographer, of sorting out their several hundred references to her subjects…. with memorable passages of real literary criticism” capturing the writings of VS Naipaul, Ian McDonald, Michael Anthony and others.

He said, “Rampersad’s Littscapes does achieve an innovative approach to literature in bringing it alive in the description of landscape, life, culture and people. It encourages people to take ownership of it, see themselves, their home or familiar places in it and accept it as a definer of identity.”

LiTTscapes is associated with customized LiTTours – Journeys Through the Landscapes of Fiction.

LiTTours – bring these ‘scapes’ to reality through interactive engagement with the national landscape. LiTTours are available on request and along any subject, theme or location route related to user interest as entrepreneours, investors, industrialists or general cultural enthusiasts and have been held for Carifesta and the jubilee year of Independence through the capital and other cities and across the East, West, North, Central and South Trinidad and Tobago.

LiTTributes are events that blend holistic appreciation for Trinidad and Tobago in the many dimensions of built, natural and cultural heritage with literary and creative talents of its people, as well as to connect the Trinidad and Caribbean diasporas with our international communities.

The first LiTTribute to the Republic took place in Trinidad and Tobago in commemoration of the Jubilee year of Independence, hosted by the First Lady of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Jean Ramjohn Richards and the author of LiTTscapes  at the 19^th century Knowsley Building in Trinidad’s capital and the August 2012 launch of LiTTscapes at White Hall – one of Trinidad and Tobago’s Magnificent Seven buildings.

LiTTribute to the Mainland, Guyana – February 2013: in collaboration with Heritage building, Moray House and Guyana Drama Guild (dances & performances)

LiTTribute to the Antilles/ Antigua March 2013 (young poets, Antigua Museum)

LiTTribute to LondonTTown, 2013 (BBC, Commonwealth Foundation, filmmaker and writers)

LiTTribute to AuTThors, UNESCO, Paris 2015;

LiTTribute to Los Conquistadores, Barcelona Spain 2015

LiTTribute to the Americas, Florida, April 2018

LiTTribute to ToronTTo, Canada, May 2018

About Dr Kris Rampersad

Dr Kris Rampersad is an international sustainable development, UNESCO facilitator, journalist and educator in Caribbean literature, culture and heritage. She is a founding member and director of the International Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, the Arts and Tourism and promotes literacy and literary appreciation through various endeavours as Leaves of Life.

For more than three decades she has been actively involved in interactive futuring, analysing, assessing, critiquing and defining the development agenda for Caribbean societies through its cultural forms, educating communities and leveraging the international community.