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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchives14 UVI STUDENT AUTHORS HAVE WORK IN SEA MOSS

14 UVI STUDENT AUTHORS HAVE WORK IN SEA MOSS

The creative contributions of 14 University of the Virgin Islands students are there for all the world to read in the latest issue of Sea Moss, UVI's student literary journal.
Sea Moss Volume 6, off the presses just in time for distribution at the recent commencement exercises at UVI, is the first issue to be published in six years, and the largest ever. Its 84 pages encompass 24 poems, 12 short stories and two one-act plays, along with pen and ink illustrations.
The literary contributors are Icis Benjamin, Jomo Blackman, Catherine Rosana Celaire, Trina E. Charles, Lydia Foy-Brown, Rehalio Henley, Sherese Jackson, Annette Jennings-Raimer, Nisha Khiani, Saaran Saunders, Hector A. Squiabro, Godwin A. Stokes, Melicent Thomas and Koya S. Williams.
Their works were all produced last fall in the Creative Writing course taught on the St. Thomas campus by Dr. Patricia Harkins-Pierre, associate professor of English.
Their works cover a broad gamut of subject matter and emotion within an overall theme of "freedom" chosen in connection with the Virgin Islands' observance in 1998-99 of the 150th anniversary of emancipation.
The book cover, in sand-tone recycled paper, carries on the inside the 1989 rationale for the use of Sea Moss as the journal's title and a recipe for the traditional sea moss drink.
Appearing throughout the book are pen and ink drawings by St. John artist Les Anderson and by St. Thomas architect Kevin Qualls, whose illustrations of a tumbler of sea moss drink were created in 1991 as cover and inside art for Sea Moss Volume 3.
Publication of Volume 6 was made possible by a grant from the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts. All creative and production work except for printing was donated.
Harkins-Pierre and Jean Etsinger, journalism program faculty at UVI, were the co-advisors for the project. Students Icis Benjamin, Trina Charles and Nisha Khiani, and Humanities Division secretary Mary Alexander provided editorial services.
The objectives of Volume 6 of Sea Moss are four-fold, according to Harkins-Pierre:
— To commemorate the 150th anniversary of emancipation in the Virgin Islands via the creation of a contemporary literary document reflecting on and interpreting the meaning of freedom.
— To foster student awareness of how a creative literary work can interpret and enhance appreciation of historical events and their significance in a modern context.
— To foster interdisciplinary collaboration of English and journalism students in authorship, literary editing, style editing and pre-press production.
— To promote positive awareness in the community of the Humanities "product" at UVI.
Copies of the journal are being circulated to public and school libraries as well as within the university community. A limited number will be available at no charge to the general public upon request.
Anyone wishing to obtain a copy may do so by calling the Humanities Division office at 693-1340, faxing to 693-1355, or e-mailing to .

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