Come to ONCA Gallery to hear Esther Phillips, Poet Laureate of Barbados, read from her forthcoming poetry collection, Plantation.

Esther Phillips, Poet Laureate of Barbados, reads from her poetry collection, Plantation, on which she is now working. These poems focus on the experiences, particularly the sufferings, of African women brought to the Caribbean during the Atlantic Slave Trade. Esther’s is a leading voice in the call for Drax Hall Plantation to be given over to the people of Barbados, the descendants of the enslaved people whose labour built it. Esther sees her work as a memorial to her ancestors whose lives must not be forgotten.

About the artist

Esther Phillips gained an MFA in Creative Writing in 1999 from the University of Miami, and won the Alfred Boas Poetry Prize of the Academy of American Poets for her poetry collection/thesis. Her published works include Chapbook, La Montee, When Ground Doves Fly, The Stone Gatherer, Leaving Atlantis and Witness in Stone. Her poetry is published in several anthologies, regionally and internationally and her work has been recorded by the Poetry Archive, U.K. She is founder and director of Writers Ink Inc. as well as the Bim Literary Festival & Book Fair. Esther Phillips is editor of the iconic BIM: Arts for the 21 st Century and was producer of the CBC radio programme, What’s That You’re Reading? She initiated the Bridgetown Literary Tour and was Chair of the Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Committee from 2019-2021. In March, 2018, Esther Phillips was appointed first Poet Laureate of Barbados and was recently re- appointed to the post. She is currently on a Visiting Fellowship at SOAS and University of Sussex.

This event is supported by University of Sussex and hosted in association with Writing Our Legacy.