The man next to me on the ten-hour flight has insomnia. His white clothing is in layers, and neat. He repacks his hand luggage, which is full of gifts. He was an athlete who represented his nation. Injury and necessity sent him to the factory near Croydon to make plastic cups. He is too big to ignore, even if he had not confided to me his fear of the losses that night shifts make in his mind. The art of memory becomes a topic of discussion. Will his family remember him? His trip is a secret....
Vahni Capildeo is a Trinidadian writer who has lived in Britain since 1991. Her poetry includes No Traveller Returns (2003), Person Animal Figure (2005), and Undraining Sea (2009). On Tuesday 4 January, 2011, at 7 pm, Capildeo will read from her recent work at Alice Yard. The programme will include excerpts from her prose work All Your Houses, accompanied by a series of images by Andre Bagoo, part of an “intertextual dialogue” ongoing over the past two years.
All are invited.
