Lasana Sekou

Lasana Mwanza Sekou was born in 1959 in Aruba and named Harold Hermano Lake. He grew up in St. Maarten and studied in the USA. He holds a BA in political science (1982) and a Master's degree in mass communication (1984). While studying in New York, Lake changed his name to Lasana Mwanza Sekou, all African names. The word Lasana means poet and Sekou means warrior. He moved back to St. Maarten in 1984. He is a poet, publisher and former editor of Newsday. He started writing at age 14 and published his first book of poetry when he was 19 years old. Sekou is the most prolific and well known of St. Maarten's authors. His poems, stories and articles have appeared and been reviewed in numerous magazines and anthologies and are used in secondary schools and universities in the Caribbean, the USA and Canada.
His message is one of unity, freedom and self-determination and he is a strong advocate of a united St. Martin and a united Caribbean. Although he writes in English, he borrows sounds, words, phrases and expressions from other languages spoken in the Caribbean in order to get his message across to his readers.
His poetry recitals usually draw large crowds and Sekou holds his audience captive as he reads, recites and dramatizes his poems with gestures, movements and facial expressions.

Sekou has been a source of inspiration to many young poets and he has helped them to get their works published through House of Nehesi Publishers, which he founded in 1982.

Bibliography (poetry, short stories, essays, historical profiles)

• Big up St. Martin : essay and poem. - St. Martin : House of Nehesi, 1999
• Born here. - St. Martin : House of Nehesi, cop. 1986
• Brotherhood of the Spurs. - St. Martin : House of Nehesi, 1997
• For the mighty Gods... : an Offering. - New York : House of Nehesi, 1982
• Images in the Yard. - New York : House of Nehesi, 1983
• Love Songs Make You Cry. - St. Martin : House of Nehesi, 1989
• Maroon Lives : For Grenadian Freedom Fighters. - New York : House of Nehesi, 1983
• Mothernation : Poems from 1984 to 1987. - Philipsburg : House of Nehesi, 1991
• National Symbols of St. Martin : A Primer. - St. Martin : House of Nehesi, 1996
• Nativity & Dramatic Monologues for Today. - St. Martin : House of Nehesi, 1988
• Quimbe : poetics of sound. - Philipsburg : House of Nehesi, 1991

Ruby Bute

Ruby Bute, renowned St. Maarten’s national treasure, is a mentor tutor to many emerging artists. Bute’s painting career spans over thirty years of dedication to visual arts and as an author of two volumes of poetry. She has produced paintings that document historical aspects of St. Martin’s life and culture. Her strong images capture the joyousness of carnival, the serenity of old homes and ancestral landscapes. Bute’s “Tanny and the Boys” with its bright colors and warm expressive faces of these beloved musicians, her portrayal of children playing, hair braiding and “Dem Ole Days” are testimony to her love and understanding of the heart and soul of St. Martin. Unforgettable are Ruby Bute’s poems, two published volumes “Golden Voices of S’ Maatin” and “Floral Bouquets to the Daughters of Eve”. We listen to Ruby’s poems and readings often presented spontaneously and in special recitals and we know they are truly gifts from Ruby Bute to St. Maarten/St. Martin.

Exhibitions of Bute’s paintings are regularly held in St. Maarten, in Amsterdam and other Cities in Holland, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao and Saba. Her works are owned by collectors in St. Maarten/St. Martin, and the United States. Yearly solo exhibitions are held at the Nanette Bearden Fine Arts Gallery, Philipsburg St. Maarten, and at Bute’s studio in Ebenezer Estates in South Reward, St. Maarten.

Roland Richardson

According to Richardson, “The School of Caribbean Art now touches points all over the world, bright beacons of inspired imagery communicating a world, a culture, unknown to most just a half century ago. How many have learned the existence of the coralita, the soursop, the mangos and madras, the brilliant flamboyant bejeweling our islands having seen them first in paintings from our Caribbean world?” Richardson has been honored for his lifelong commitment to this important world of communication through art, St. Martin’s native son and one of the leaders, patriarch of Caribbean Art. Through the years, Richardson has yielded one of the largest bodies of Caribbean works by a single artist, in original oil, watercolors, pastel, charcoal drawings; fine printmaking in etching, engraving, acquatint, mezzotint, drypoint as well as a precious body of woodcuts, collographs, embossings, batiks and stained glass, all focused on the Caribbean World, his world.

Richardson received his degree in Fine Art at the University of Hartford, CT. He later traveled on a cargo ship around the world on an inspirational voyage prior to returning to St. Martin.

Cenric Griffith

It is said about Griffith that his canvases speak “the language of the spirit.” The elder statesman of St. Maarten/St. Martin artists, Cynric Griffith crates works that are quite compelling, and awesome as his portraits reflect the inner person. One of his icons “Mother in Trouble” clearly shows his love for people and for a way of life that is no longer. Fabian Badejo stated that there has been no other contemporary artist on the island who can capture the soul of a person on canvas like Griffith. In his landscapes and paintings of old houses, his panoramic view of Philipsburg, the trees at Friars Bay are all testimonies to the highest quality of fine art to be found anywhere.

Griffith’s career began with his first entry in the 1955 competition by Alcoa Steamship Company. Other group exhibitions in which he participated were St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, the New York Botanical Gardens, at the Cultural Center in Curaçao. His works were included in a major exhibition, “Between the Lines” which started in Santo Domingo and traveled throughout the Caribbean and Europe. Griffith has shown works in Santiago de Cuba, Holland and the United States. He was educated at the Art Student League and the National Academy of Fine Arts, both in New York.

Mosera

A bold contemporary expressionist, abstract in tendency, Mosera nevertheless brings a strong sense of structure to his canvases. An artist of great color captured at a certain moment and reincarnates it on his canvases, by arranging and surrounding and mixing it to a surprising and incoherent fragment of the African Caribbean world. In his watercolor, Mosera reveals the wide range of his artistic knowledge, from gentle color effects such as bleeding to the brush strength on his paper. A single exhibition provides the opportunity for only a glimpse of its scope. Over all, no single period of Mosera’s work is paramount but each period, color, serenity and composition included plays a single role.

Maximilaan Phelipa

A St. Maarten artist whose passion for life and are vividly seen in his colorful canvases. Although painting sensitive family scenes and portraits in pastel has been his forte, the welcome addition of colorful tropical flowers and birds in oil and acrylic enables him to capture the true effects of color in sunlight and shade. He intensifies the mood and subject in his work and challenges viewers to look closer at colors seen versus what is perceived.

Between 1988 and 2002 he had six very successful solo exhibitions and two group exhibitions. It was no surprise that in 1992 Phelipa was chosen to present on behalf of the artists on St. Maarten, one of his watercolors entitled “Chattering Parrots” to the Queen of the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix. His works can be found in St. Maarten in both private collections and in public areas such as Arrivals Hall at the St. Maarten International Airport, the Post Office, The Courthouse and the Nanette Bearded Fine Arts Gallery.

Joe Dominique

The “Joe Dominique 3" exhibition in St. Maarten in October 2000 opened to much critical acclaim and captured the attention of the French and Dutch communities of St. Martin, and more importantly, the attention of savvy art collectors from the USA. According to local St. Martin art critic Fabian Badejo, “Joe Dominique is one of the most talented artists working in our midst today. His prolific production has engendered numerous exhibitions on both halves of St. Martin, Anguilla, Santo Domingo, Cuba and other Caribbean islands, as well as Belgium.

In his 2002 solo exhibition at the Nanette Bearden Fine Arts Gallery in St. Maarten, Dominique depicted St. Martin’s national tree, the Flamboyant tree in a unique manner. Almost like a bouquet arranged in a vase, the red blossoms fill the canvas like a fiery sunset. Collage is about cutting and pasting, and as a true disciple of Romare Bearden, the master of collage himself, Dominique makes the material disappear so that all we see is the whole picture in all its colorful splendor.

Esther Bradshaw-Gumbs

Esther Bradshaw-Gumbs was born in St. Maarten and is a Sundial high school graduate. Her poems have appeared in various local publications. Her first volume of poetry was published in 1996.

Bibliography

• Tales from the Great Salt Pond. - St. Martin : House of Nehesi, cop. 1996

Gloria Lynn

Born in New York city, Lynn is a graduate of the Pratt Institute School of Art. She has also studied at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and the National Academy of Design and was a painter and interior designer in New York. She has been living and painting in French St. Martin since 1976 and on the island of Saba since 1984. Her works are renowned for the ir images of St. Martin Marketplaces, and are exhibited at the Lynn Studio in Grand Case, St. Martin and Saba. Lynn’s paintings are extensively exhibited in the Caribbean, France, Holland and the United States.

Sheila C. Williams

Sheila Williams was born in Aruba in 1955 and came to Sint-Maarten when she was 8 years old. Her parents are originally from Grand Case. Sheila attended St. Joseph school. She currently works at the Sint-Maarten Medical Center.
She writes for children and wants to pass on the stories from the past.

Bibliography

• Clouds in my sky : St. Martin 1928. - Harlow [etc.] : Longman, 1955
• Safety at home. – 1998

Charles Borromeo Hodge

Charles Borromeo Hodge was born in November 1939 in Aruba to St. Maarten parents. He was raised in St. Maarten and Curaçao. His first poem "The Rock" appeared in a 1959 issue of "Windward Island Opinion". Charles Borromeo Hodge emigrated to the USA in 1970, and returned to St. Maarten in 1991. Many of his poems, short stories, essays and commentaries have appeared in the local papers, mainly in the St. Maarten Guardian.
His first volume of poetry was published in 1997.
Charles Borromeo Hodge died in November 1998.

Bibliography

• Songs and images of St. Martin. - Philipsburg : House of Nehesi, cop. 1997

N. Erna Mae Francis

N. Erna Mae Francis was born in Antigua. She holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of Tampa and minors in mass communication and French. She works as a freelance writer and published her first volume of poetry in 1996.

Bibliography

• It's time for change. - St. Martin : Francis Global Enterprise, 1997

Ian Valz

Ian Valz was born in Guyana, and came to St. Maarten in 1984. He is a playwright and actor and has also adapted plays by other playwrights to a local setting. He has directed numerous plays, which usually draw a large audience.

Bibliography

• Masquerade : a play. - St. Martin : House of Nehesi, 19

Ras Changa

Ras Changa was born on Aruba in 1957. He has lived in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and The Netherlands, and is now residing in St. Maarten where he owns and drives a passenger bus. He is also a drummer and a budding actor, and recites his poems regularly at various cultural manifestations. His first volume of poetry was published in 1991.

Bibliography

• Illegal truth. - Philipsburg : House of Nehesi, cop. 1991

Debbie Jack

Drisana Deborah Jack holds a BA in communications with a main focus on TV and film production, which she obtained in 1993. She is not only a writer, but also a painter and photographer. Her first volume of poetry was published in 1997.

Bibliography

• The rainy season. - Philipsburg : House of Nehesi, cop. 1997

Wycliffe Smith

Wycliffe Smith was born on Saba. After obtaining his Mulo diploma in St. Maarten, he studied in Holland and graduated in 1971 as a fully qualified teacher. In 1977 he acquired a Master's Degree in Education, with curriculum development and supervision as specialties. He also researched the development of literature in the Dutch Windward Islands, which until that time was hardly mentioned in surveys on Antillean literature. His findings were published in a book and in various articles and he lectured extensively on this subject to a wide variety of audiences, from schoolchildren to scholars. His lectures are very lively and he not only recites, but also sings and accompanies himself on a guitar to draw his audience into active participation. He now lives in Curaçao.

Bibliography

• Mind adrift. - [St. Maarten : Mike's printing service, cop. 1983]
• The reverse of Dutch Antillean verse. - [Philipsburg] : [s.n.], 1982
• A voice from Windward. - Curaçao : Montero, 1976
• Winds above the hills : a collection of poems from St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles. -
  St. Maarten : St. Maarten Council on the Arts, cop. 1982
• Windward island verse : a survey of poetry in the Dutch Windward Islands. -
  [Curaçao] : Montero, [1982]

Lucy Baker

Lucy Baker was born in California in 1928. She went to school in Germany and the United States. She is also a painter of mainly watercolors. She moved to St. Maarten in 1982, where she owns a guesthouse. She published her first novel in 1996.

Bibliography

• In six months you get bananas. - St. Maarten : No Ho, 1996

To be published soon, 2 fully illustrated books:

• Treating human ailments with plants and herbs
• Birds of the Caribbean