Elsewhere: February 2010 issue of Town

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



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

Elsewhere: Sranan Art Xposed

Paramaribo SPAN contributor Marieke Visser and her collaborators Cassandra Gummels-Relyveld and Priscilla Tosari--supported by the Readytex Art Gallery--have launched a new quarterly e-magazine covering Surinamese art: Sranan Art Xposed. The PDF publication is currently distributed via email, with excerpts posted on the editors' blog. Information on joining the SAX mailing list is available here. The first issue includes a survey of recent art events in Suriname, a short interview with artist Jhunry Udenhout, information on artists' websites, and an article on the recent Wakaman Project.

The editors write: "We seek links, we make connections, we look for news, we spread the news, we zoom in, and we zoom out."