Tuesday 18 January 2022
7:30 p.m. Finance Administrative Centre
Point Seraphine, Castries
Social distancing protocols will apply.
Title of Presentation: The Demand of Beauty
Born in St. Lucia in 1952, retired lecturer in literature and drama, Kendel Hippolyte studied and lived in Jamaica in the 1970s, where he explored his talents as a poet, playwright and director. His writing explores the spectrum of Standard and Caribbean English, working with traditional forms, free verse and forms influenced by popular culture, as well as poems written in Kweyol, his nation language.
He has published seven books of poetry, the latest being Wordplanting (Peepal Tree Press, 2019), and his poems have appeared internationally in various journals such as The Greenfield Review, The Massachusetts Review and The Review, and in anthologies like Caribbean Poetry Now, Voiceprint, West Indian Poetry and others.
In 2007, he won the Bridget Jones Travel Award to travel to England to present his one-man dramatized poetry production, Kinky Blues, at the annual conference of the Society for Caribbean Studies. He has twice won the Literature prize in the Minvielle & Chastanet Fine Arts Awards, for many years the premier arts award scheme in St. Lucia, and is the winner of the 2013 Bocas Festival Poetry Prize. He has performed his work in the Caribbean, Europe and America at literary festivals and events.
Mr. Hippolyte has also established himself as an innovative playwright and director, authoring eight plays, and directing scores of others, including his own: The Drum-Maker (1976); The Song of One (1995); and Triptych (2000), all of which have been published in drama anthologies. His plays have been performed locally and regionally and three of them have been published in drama anthologies. In 1984, he co-founded the Lighthouse Theatre Company in St. Lucia, and has long been involved in all aspects of the dramatic arts on the island. He has toured with theatre productions in the Caribbean and the UK. At different times he has been involved as actor, director and administrator in Saint Lucia’s contingents travelling to CARIFESTA.
Mr. Hippolyte is an original and continuing member of the syllabus panel for the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Theatre Arts Programme and serves as an external examiner. In 2000, he was awarded the St Lucia Medal of Merit (Gold) for his Contribution to the Arts. Recently retired from the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, his present focus is to use his skills as a writer and dramatist to raise public awareness and contribute to active solutions of critical social issues.
Prepared by:
Delia Dolor Media Relations Coordinators for Nobel Laureate Festival Saint Lucia. ( 1 – 7 5 8 ) 7 1 7 – 7 9 7 9 | d e l i a @ d d m e d i a r e l a t i o n s . c o m
Previous Two Derek Walcott Memorial Nobel Lectures
Dr. Adrian Augier (2021): A Whole People
McDonald Dixon (2020): After Derek Walcott-The Saint Lucian Poetic Tradition
Recent Blogs on St. Lucian Art and Culture
The 2022 Nobel Laureate Festival Calendar
Poems for Kendal at 70
John Robert Lee on Revitalizing and Upgrading St. Lucia’s Cultural Institutions and Programs
January 6th – Epiphany
from Office Hours (for Charles Cadet 1924-2021)
by John Robert Lee
2021 St. Lucia Bookshelf and other Gems
The Motherland in Despair
by Anderson Reynolds
