ON THE ARRIVANTS BY EDWARD KAMAU BRATHWAITE AT THE PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL

Edward Kamau Brathwaite is a Barbados-born poet and scholar. Among his most notable works is The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy which is comprised of three books: Rights of Passage, Islands, and Masks. 

Writers Teju Cole, Binyavanga Wainaina, and Nathalie Handal read from and discussed The Arrivants at an event at this year’s PEN America World Voices Festival. 

Here’s Cole reading part of “Caliban,” a poem by Braithwaite. 

And Wainaina reading “Prelude.” 

And, short of a full post on the event, here are the notes I took while listening to the panel discussion.