Best Village introduces poetry and storytelling

Members of the executive of the Prime Minister’s Village Chat committee have been given the task of searching for poets and storytellers in the many villages of TT as part of the Best Village competition for 2004. The committee, headed by Dr Reginald Griffith, has been meeting on a regular basis to discuss methods and rules for the competitions.   Other members include Van Stewart, Nikita Doyle, Raymond Small, Seeta Persad, Michael Legerton, Trevor Jadoolal, Arjoon Singh, Stephen Kangal, Vincent Scott, Mervyn Alleyne, and Ian Ali. Dr Griffith told Newsday this exercise would give poets from the various villages an opportunity to come forth and present their work for competition. 

“In this process we will be searching the island for the poets who have excellent work that will be showcased to the general public of this country,” he said. He noted also that the committee would be publishing the works of the winning poets at the end of the competition. He is therefore urging the many writers in the villages to start work on poetry and short stories. The committee will visit the various regions for workshops and to meet with the groups. The mission statement for this year’s Best Village is “To provide cultural opportunities for the development of the individual, the community and by extension the nation.”