Elsewhere: February 2010 issue of Town

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

town 3 span dsb 2

Broadsides from the third issue of Town posted in the DSB Bank garden, the main Paramaribo SPAN exhibition venue, 26 February, 2010


Town is a magazine of literature and art based in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and launched in October 2009. Co-edited by SPAN blog editor Nicholas Laughlin with writers Vahni Capildeo and Anu Lakhan, Town publishes poems, very short prose, and artists' images in two formats: on paper, in broadside editions posted in public locations; and online.

The third issue of Town, dated February 2010, engages with the Paramaribo SPAN project. The editors write:

“This issue of Town is also a sort of bridge, or the fragments of a possible bridge of imagination and understanding. It connects poems by a writer from Guyana, Suriname’s neighbour to the west; images by a Dutch artist of Surinamese ancestry, which reflect on the ironies of colonial history; a self-portrait by a young Surinamese artist, a work of both self-representation and self-assertion; and a deliberately mysterious photograph of the monument memorialising one of the most tragic events in Suriname’s recent history. The three Afaka characters atop the Moiwana Monument spell out ‘Kibii Wi’: Sranan for ‘Protect Us’: a hope, a wish, a lamentation, a charm, a song.”


town 3 announcement image

Town issue 3, February 2010


The magazine was officially published on 26 February, the day of the Paramaribo SPAN opening, when Town broadsides quietly appeared at the exhibition venue, the DSB Bank garden, and also on walls and fences around Paramaribo. Broadsides will also be posted around Port of Spain, making another bridge between the two cities.

See the contents of this issue of Town online here. Readers can also download PDFs of the broadsides to make their own physical copies and post them anywhere in the world.


town 3 span kleine waterstraat

Town issue three, posted alongside party posters in Paramaribo...

town 3 span van rooseveltkade

... and next to a street painting by Dutch artist Jeroen Jongeleen

2 comments:

clarabella said...

Congrats on TOWN, Anu, Nicholas, and Vahni! Plus, you have achieved something quite remarkable, guys! Really gotten ahead of yourselves with issue one, what with an October 2010 launch! viz: "Town is a magazine of literature and art based in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and launched in October 2010. Co-edited by SPAN blog editor Nicholas Laughlin with writers Vahni Capildeo and Anu Lakhan...." I'll enjoy reading TOWN. Best of luck with it! pam

Nicholas Laughlin said...

Thanks, Pam, for both the congratulations and for spotting our apparent episode of time-travel. I've corrected the slip.